Armand Calinescu
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Armand Călinescu (June 4 (May 22 (O.S.)), 1893 - September 21, 1939) was a Romanian economist and politician.
Biography
Călinescu was born in Piteşti in the family of an army doctor. Between 1912 and 1918, he studied the Law and Philosophy at University of Bucharest, then he took a Ph.D. in Economical and Political Sciences at the University of Paris.After his entry into politics as a member of the National Peasants' Party, he was elected as member of Romanian Chamber of Deputies, and served between 1926 and 1937. His firm opposition to the fast rise of the fascist Iron Guard (the Legionaries) led to the fall of the 1933 Alexandru Vaida-Voevod's government (of which he was a member).
He was a staunch ally of France and the United Kingdom and a steadfast adversary of the pro-Nazi Germany movements in Romania. Becoming Interior Minister in March 1938, during the authoritarian regime of King Carol II (Călinescu was also a founding member of the National Renewal Front created by the King as the sole legal party in December 1938), he prepared himself for the confrontation with the Iron Guard. In November, Călinescu decapitated that organization by ordering arrests of their leaders, including Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, and consequently their killing in prison.
In 1939, after brief stints as Minister of Health and Minister of Education, on March 7 he became Prime Minister of Romania, being considered the man of steel able to prevent Iron Guard's political violence and to keep Romania out of the pro-German war camp.
In September 1939, after the invasion of Poland, the pro-Nazi members of Iron Guard alleged that he and the King Carol planned with the British Intelligence services to blow up the Prahova oil fields, preventing Germany to take control and use them. He was assassinated in Bucharest by Iron Guard members under the direct leadership of Horia Sima: his automobile was blocked by the assassins, who shot Călinescu, his bodyguard, and his driver; and over twenty bullets were recovered from the Prime Minister's body. It seems that the assassination was commissioned by Germany.
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