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Corneliu Coposu

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Corneliu Coposu
Founding Leader of theChristian Democratic National Peasants' Party
In office
6 January 1990 – 11 November 1995
Succeeded byIon Diaconescu
Member of theSenate of Romania
In office
16 October 1992 – 11 November 1995
ConstituencyBucharest
Leader of theRomanian Democratic Convention
In office
26 November 1991 – November 1992
Succeeded byEmil Constantinescu
Personal details
Born(1914-05-20)20 May 1914
Bobota,Szilágy County,Austria-Hungary
Died11 November 1995(1995-11-11)(aged 81)
Bucharest,Romania
Resting placeBellu Cemetery,Bucharest
44°24′06″N26°06′07″E/ 44.401613°N 26.101934°E/44.401613; 26.101934
Political partyNational Peasants' Party(1932–1947)
Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party(1989–1995)
Christian Democratic International Party
Spouse
Arlette Marcovici
​
​
(m.1942; died 1966)​
Parents
  • Valentin Coposu (father)
  • Aurelia Anceanu (mother)
Alma materUniversity of Cluj
ProfessionLawyer, Politician
AwardsLegion of Honour

Corneliu (Cornel) Coposu(Romanian:[korˈneljukoˈposu]) (20 May 1914 – 11 November 1995)[1]was aChristian Democraticandliberal conservativeRomanianpolitician, the founder of theChristian Democratic National Peasants' Party(Romanian:Partidul Național Țărănesc Creștin Democrat), the founder of theRomanian Democratic Convention(Romanian:Convenția Democratică), and apolitical detaineeduring thecommunist regime.His political mentor wasIuliu Maniu(1873–1953), the founder of the National Peasant Party (PNȚ), the most important political organization from the interwar period. He studied law and worked as a journalist.

Biography

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Early life

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Corneliu Coposu was born inBobota,Sălaj County,at that time inAustria-Hungary(now inRomania), to theRomanian Greek-Catholicarchpriest Valentin Coposu (17 November 1886 – 28 July 1941) and his wife Aurelia Coposu (néeAnceanu, herself the daughter of Romanian Greek-Catholic archpriest Iuliu Anceanu). Corneliu had four sisters: Cornelia (1911–1988), Doina (1922–1990), Flavia Bălescu (b. 1924), and Rodica (b. 1932).

He too was a devout member of the church and joined theRomanian National Party(PNR), a group dominated by Greek-Catholic politicians –Gheorghe Pop de Băseștiwas an acquaintance of the Coposu family, andAlexandru Vaida-Voevodwas a relative on Corneliu Coposu's mother's side.

After studying Law and Economy at theUniversity of Cluj(1930–1934), he engaged in local politics with the PNR's direct successor, theNational Peasants' Party(PNȚ), and worked as a journalist; he wrote forRomânia Nouă,edited by Zaharia Boilă,Mesajul(Zalău),Unirea(Blaj).[2]He became the private secretary ofIuliu Maniu,the leader of the PNR and PNŢ, who had been a leading actor factor inTransylvania'sunion with Romania(1918), and as head of the Transylvania Directory Council. Coposu wrote in detail about this experience in his "secret diary", discovered after thecollapse of communismand published in 2014.[3]

World War II

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Accused of propaganda against the National Rebirth Front (Frontul Renașterii Naționale), Coposu was sent into forced domicile in Bobota. After theSecond Vienna Awardof August 1940, when Romania was forced to cedeNorthern TransylvaniatoHungary,Coposu moved toBucharest.He became the political secretary of Maniu, the leader of the clandestine opposition toMarshalIon Antonescu,and the leader of the anti-Nazi resistance in Romania.[4]Maniu was contacted by representatives of the British authorities, and Coposu was one of his trusted assistants; the group maintained contacts between the Romanian politicians who were negotiating the country's exit from the alliance with theAxis Powers,in order to join theAllies(USA, UK, USSR) (an alternative kept by the Antonescu government). In his "secret diary", Coposu explained the role of Iuliu Maniu as the main organizer of the coup d'état against Antonescu.[5]

In 1945, after theroyal coupagainst the Antonescu regime, Coposu became deputy secretary of the PNȚ and, after the reintegration of Northern Transylvania, the party's delegate to the leadership of provisional administrative bodies. He was also active in organizing the party as the main opposition to theCommunist Partyand thePetru Grozacabinet before the1946 general election.[6]

Communist persecution

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Thecommunist regimeestablished andcontrolled by the Soviets,arrested him on 14 July 1947, together with all the leadership of the National Peasants' Party, after some of the party leadership had allegedly tried to flee the country in a plane landed atTămădău(seeTămădău Affair). His mentor, Iuliu Maniu, the leader NPP, the most important political organization in Romania, received a life sentence in a show trial. Maniu died in 1953, in the infamousSighet Prison,but his death certificate was released only eight years later. Coposu was imprisoned without trial for nine years, as all charges brought against him were dismissed due to lack of evidence. Coposu later attested that his imprisonment, imposed by Soviet officials overseeing theSecuritate,was among those causing a stir in the higher echelons of the Communist Party.Belu Zilber,a Communist who was purged together withLucrețiu Pătrășcanu,later told him that prominent party politicianAna Paukerhad unsuccessfully opposed the move in front ofGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.[7]

In 1956, Coposu was sentenced tolife imprisonmentfor "betrayal of theworking class"and" crime against social reforms ". In April 1964, he was freed after 15 years of detention and 2 years of forced residence inRubla(Brăila County), having spent, in all, 17 years ofincarcerationin 17 notorious detention andhard laborfacilities associated with the communist regime,[8]includingSighet Prison,Gherla Prison,Jilava Prison,Râmnicu Sărat Prison,Pitești Prison,and theDanube–Black Sea Canal(where he was imprisoned with his friend and collaboratorȘerban Ghica).[9]

Coposu later testified having been impressed by the deep scarscollectivizationhad left in the country,[10]as well as by the resilience of the Rubla deportees (seeBărăgan deportations) — "They traded in vegetables they had grown themselves while locals could not be convinced that these could actually grow on theBărăgan".[11]In the 1990s, during debates over the overall number of victims of the Communist regime between 1947 and 1964, Coposu spoke of 282,000 arrests and 190,000 deaths in custody.[12]

After his release, Coposu started work as an unskilled worker on various construction sites (given his status as a former prisoner, he was denied employment in any other field), and was subject toSecuritatesurveillance and regular interrogation.[13]After the collapse of communism, Tudor Călin Zarojanu published large excerpts from the huge Securitate file on Corneliu Coposu, kept for decades by the secret communist political police[14]

His wifeArlettewas also prosecuted in 1950 during a riggedespionagetrial, and died in 1966, soon after her release, from an illness contracted in prison.

TheArt Decoblock in which Corneliu Coposu has lived between 1975 and 1995, Strada Mămulari no. 19 (Bucharest,not far of theUnification Square)

Coposu managed to keep contact with PNȚ sympathisers, and re-established the party as a clandestine group during the 1980s, while imposing its affiliation toChristian Democracyand theChristian Democrat International.[15]

Post-communism

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On 22 December 1989, (during theRomanian Revolution), he and prominent members of the party issued amanifestothat confirmed the PNȚ's entry into legality, under the nameChristian Democratic National Peasants' Party(PNȚ-CD).

For the rest of his life, Coposu was the main voice of the opposition to theNational Salvation Front(from 1992, theDemocratic National Salvation Front).[16]Present at his party's headquarters, he was targeted by during theJanuary 1990 Mineriad(the first of theMineriads) on 28 January 1990. ThePrime MinisterPetre Romanaddressed the angry mob who wanted to lynch Coposu and the other leaders of the democratic opposition, pretending to mediate the conflict. In an attempt to create a resemblance between how the dictator Ceaușescu exited the armored vehicle before his trial and Coposu's flight, under the pretext of protecting Coposu from the angry crowd, Roman commissioned anarmored vehicleto drive him to the headquarters of the Romanian National Television, where Roman promised Coposu that he could make a statement which would be aired later that day.[17]The statement was recorded but it did not air. No copy of the recording was ever found in the archives.

Coposu successfully grouped various organizations into theRomanian Democratic Convention(CDR), of which he was the leader between 1991 and 1993.[18]He was elected to theSenate of Romaniain the1992 general election.In 1995, the government of France granted him theGrand Officier de la Légion d'Honneurduring a ceremony in Bucharest.

RegardingEmil Constantinescu's election as the CDR's candidate for thepresidential officein 1992, Coposu stated: "The candidate was elected in an absolutely democratic manner. The appointment of the candidate of the Democratic Convention for the position of president of the country was made according to the most authentic democratic rules. All five candidates had the moral stature and prestige to honor the highest magistracy of the country. We, the Democratic Convention, wish the only candidate, elected by the vote of the 67 major presidential electors, to succeed in the elections and to achieve his first goal, which is the eradication of communism in Romania."[19]

Death

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His grave atBellu Catholic Cemetery

He died in Bucharest while undergoing treatment forlung cancer.Some 100,000 people attended his funeral three days later.[20]He was buried in the Catholic section ofBellu Cemetery.

One of the main thoroughfares in the capital now bears his name. Abustof Coposu stands next toKretzulescu Church,inRevolution Square.

In a 2006pollconducted byRomanian Televisionto identify the "greatest Romanians of all time", Coposu came in 39th.

Notes

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  1. ^Traynor, Ian (16 November 1995). "Corneliu Coposu: A peasant in revolt".The Guardian.p. 20A.
  2. ^Tudor Călin Zarojanu,Viața lui Corneliu Coposu(1996: Editura Mașina de Scris, București); ediția a III-a, revăzută și completată publicată în Cristian Fulger, Tudor Călin Zarojanu (editori),Seniorul Corneliu Coposu(București:Humanitas,2014), Partea a III-a, p. 181;
  3. ^Corneliu Coposu,File dintr-un jurnal interzis. 1936-1947, 1953, 1967-1983,ediție îngrijită de Doina Alexandru (București: Editura Vremea, 2014).
  4. ^Zarojanu, 184.
  5. ^Coposu,File dintr-un jurnal interzis,163-424.
  6. ^Roman jr.
  7. ^Levy, p.284
  8. ^"Distrugerea ţărănimii"
  9. ^"Distrugerea țărănimii"; Roman jr.
  10. ^"Distrugerea țărănimii"
  11. ^Coposu, in "Distrugerea țărănimii"
  12. ^Cioroianu, p.313
  13. ^Deletant,Preface,p.xxvii-xxix
  14. ^Zarojanu,Viața.
  15. ^Prelipceanu, p.31-32
  16. ^Tismăneanu, p.270, 279, 281
  17. ^Gheorghe & Huminic
  18. ^Tismăneanu, p.270
  19. ^Tismăneanu, p.270
  20. ^OMRI Daily DigestArchived26 September 2007 at theWayback Machine,No. 223, 15 November 1995

References

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