Alexandru Averescu
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Alexandru Averescu (November 14, 1859— October 2, 1938) was a Romanian army general and populist politician. He was the Romanian Army Commander during World War I, and served as Prime Minister in three separate cabinets.
Army leadership
Averescu was born in Ozyornoye (previously known as Babele, and subsequently renamed Alexandru Averescu), a village near Izmail, now part of Ukraine. After a military education in Italy, he saw action with the Romanian troops engaged in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. Between 1895 and 1898, he was Romania's military attaché in the German Empire.Before the World War, he was Minister of War in Gheorghe Cantacuzino's cabinet (1907-1909), leading the troops in crushing the 1907 peasants' revolt, and commander of the II Corps in Craiova.
During the war he led the Second Army in the unsuccessful defense of the Carpathians. He commanded Army Group South in the unsuccessful Flămânda operation, and again led the Second Army in the minor victory at the Battle of Mărăşeşti, in August 1917. Several United States military historians rate Averescu and his fellow Romanian generals very poorly. Their direction of the war "could not have been worse" (Esposito, Atlas of American Wars, text for map 40). Despite controlling an army of 500,000 plus 100,000 Russian reinforcements, they were soundly defeated by a much smaller German-Austrian-Bulgarian army in less than four months of combat.
Averescu nonetheless was widely seen as the person behind a relatively successful resistance to further offensives on Moldavia (the single piece of territory still held by the Romanian state), and he was considered by many of his contemporaries to have stood in contrast to the what was seen as endemic corruption and incompetence (a state of affairs which, together with the October Revolution in Russia, was to be blamed for the eventual Romanian surrender to the Central Powers). During the actual war, Averescu developed a deep animosity towards the Chief of the General Staff, general Constantin Prezan and his aide lieutenant-colonel Ion Antonescu (future Romanian dictator in 1940-44).
Political career
People's Party
Averescu quit the army in the spring of 1918, aiming for a career in politics. He presided over the People's Party (initially named People's League), and he was immensely popular especially among peasants after the end of the war. His force had an appealing populist message, translated into vague promises and relying on the image of the General: peasants had been promised land at the beginning of the war (and they were being rewarded with it at the very moment, through an agrarian reform that reached its full scope in 1923); they had formed the larger part of the Army, and had come to see Averescu as the one to fulfill their expectations, as well as a figure who was still commanding their allegiance. Nonetheless, as the movement initially tended to describe itself as a social movement rather than a political party, it also attracted former members of the Conservative Party (such as Constantin Argetoianu), military men such as Constantin Coandă, and the Democratic Nationalist Party leader A. C. Cuza. Aiming to answer most of Romania's social and political issues, the League's founding document called for:- "A land reform, with the passage of the land which is at the moment expropriated only on principle [i.e.: a reference to the 1917 promise for a land reform] into the effective and immediate ownership of villagers through the means of communes; an electoral reform, through universal suffrage, direct election, secret ballot, and compulsory voting, with representation given to ethnic minorities, since the latter would not incomodate the free manifestation of political individualities; administrative decentralization."
- "in the autumn of 1919, [Averescu's] popularity had reached its peak. In the villages, people would dream of him, some swore that they had seen him descending from an airplane into their midst, others, who had fought in the war, told that they had lived by his side in the trenches, it was through him that hopes were solidified, and he was expected of to provide a miracle for people to live a carefree and fulfiling life. His popularity was something mystical, something supernatural, and all sorts of legends had begun to surround this Messiah of the Romanian people."
Second cabinet
Initially, Brătianu approached Averescu using their shared dissatifaction with the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod Romanian National Party cabinet; the National Liberals managed to obtain the general's renounciation of his goal to prosecute their party for alleged mis-management of Romania before and during the war, as well as his promise to respect the 1866 Constitution of Romania when carrying out the planned land reform. At the same time, Brătianu kept a tight relationship with King Ferdinand I.
His first time in office is marked by the signing of the Treaty of Trianon with Hungary, and initial steps leading to the creation of the Little Entente - formed by Romania with Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Brătianu convened with Ferdinand his return to power, and the king called on Foreign Minister Take Ionescu to resign, thus causing a political crisis that profited the PNL and put an end to the Averescu cabinet. Shows of popular support in Bucharest were called of by Averescu himself, after he had negotiatied with Brătianu for a People's Party cabinet to be formed "at a proper time".
Third cabinet
As new elections were called in 1926, the general approached the Romanian National Party and its close ally, the Peasants' Party, proposing a merger around his leadership. This met with a stiff refusal, as it seemed that the two were about to win the elections with additional support, but the king used his Royal Prerogative and nominated Averescu as premier (with PNL support).Although not fascist itself, the new government he formed again displayed gestures of friendship towards Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy, a state which advertised itself as a rising force - The Nation called Averescu "Romania's Mussolini", as "an epithet which the new premier of Rumania bestowed upon himself".
The cabinet clashed with Brătianu when it was discovered that it had been negotiating in secret with the disinherited Prince Carol (a traditional adversary of the PNL) as Ferdinand's health was taking a turn for the worse; Averescu later claimed that he had been asked by Brătianu: "So, after I have brought you to power, you wish to rise and dominate?". The PNL retreated its support, and Averescu's was replaced by the broad coalition government of Barbu Ştirbey.
Final years
The People's Party involved itself in solving the dynastic crisis after Ferdinand's death in July 1927, again approaching Carol to replace the child-king Michael and the regency overseeing his rule. The group scored under 2% in the 1927 elections.He was promoted to Marshal of Romania in 1930, during the time when Carol returned to rule as King. He showed himself hostile to Carol's inner circle, and especially to the king's lover Magda Lupescu; consequently, Octavian Goga was instigated by Carol to take over as leader of the People's Party, and the latter attacked Averescu for "subverting (...) the traditional respect enjoyed by the Crown". The clash led to Goga's creation of the splinter National Agrarian Party, which, although never an important force, obtained more of the vote in the 1932 elections (cca. 3% compared to Averescu's 2%).
In 1937, despite his ongoing feud with Carol, Averescu was appointed a member of the Crown Council. The following year, he was briefly Minister without portfolio in the cabinet of Premier Miron Cristea, created by Carol to combat the ascention of the fascist Iron Guard, and opposed the monarch's option to renounce the 1923 Constitution and proclaim his dictatorship. He died soon after in Bucharest, and was buried in the World War I heroes' crypt in Mărăşti.
References
- Vincent J. Esposito, The West Point Atlas of American Wars: 1900-1918, United States Military Academy Dept. of Military Art and Engineering
- James Fuchs, "Averescu: Rumania's Mussolini", in The Nation, Vol. 122, no. 3175, May 12, 1926
- Vasile Niculae, Ion Ilincioiu, Stelian Neagoe, Doctrina ţărănistă în România. Antologie de texte ("Peasant Doctrine in Romania. Collected Texts"), Editura Noua Alternativă, Social Theory Institute of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, 1994
- [Ioan Scurtu, "Mit şi realitate. Alexandru Averescu"] ("Alexandru Averescu. Myth and Reality"), in Magazin Istoric
- [The founding document of Averescu's People's League] (in Romanian)
External links
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