Grigore N. Filipescu

Biography

Early life and career

The future politician native was born in Bucharest on October 1, 1886 (some sources have January 30, 1884). Grigore was the first of five children born to Nicolae Filipescu and his wife Maria Blaremberg; he had a brother, Constantin, and three sisters, as well as an adoptive brother, Vlad Stolojan-Filipescu. He came from an old boyar family on his father's side: the Filipescus had founded the eponymous town Filipeștii de Târg, ca. 1600. His great-grandparents were Hatman Nicolae Filipescu and Safta Hrisoscoleu, who were also the maternal grandparents of Ion G. Duca, Grigore's later rival in politics. His great-granduncle, Alecu Filipescu-Vulpea, had served as Logothete and Ban to the court of Wallachia. On his mother's side, Grigore descended from the Franco–Russian Blarembergs and, collaterally, from the Ghica family. His great-grandfather, Colonel Vladimir de Blaremberg, claimed Huguenot lineage, but was more likely an illegitimate Bourbon. Vladimir had married a sister of Prince Alexandru II Ghica. Their union produced three sons, of whom politician Nicolae Moret Blaremberg was the eldest, and Constantin, Filipescu's grandfather, was the second born. Married to Maria Băleanu, he inherited most of the Ghica estate in Moara Vlăsiei, which later went to the Filipescus. Grigore's cousins on the Ghica side included philanthropist Vladimir Ghika and diplomat Dimitrie I. Ghika, who was briefly Minister of Foreign Affairs.

During Grigore Filipescu's youth, his father was increasing his wealth as an industrialist, establishing an oil mill in his other estate, at Filipești-Surdila. This investment greatly contributed to the spread of sunflower cultivation in eastern Romania. Filipescu Jr grew up conscious of his boyar privilege, arguing that his paternal family "has always known how to love the peasants with all its heart, how to defend and guide them. He pointed out that the first peasant obște in [modern] Romania was formed on his grandfather's estate". He was also quoted as saying that, in the aftermath of a peasants' revolt in early 1907, "the Filipescu estate granted the most well-arranged deals—allowing peasants to keep two thirds [of what they produced]".

After attending primary school in Bucharest, Grigore prepared for middle-school with his father's employee, the writer Alexandru Antemireanu, and was eventually sent to Lycée Louis-le-Grand. In 1902, he enrolled in the Zürich Polytechnic, graduating in 1907. Upon becoming an engineer, he studied at the law faculty of the University of Paris, earning a qualification as a lawyer. During that interval, he had left-wing sympathies, attending events organized by Barbu Lăzăreanu and Christian Rakovsky. He witnessed Rakovsky's disputes with Romanian nationalists, which, as he wrote in 1912, gave him the certainty that socialism would eventually win. In 1909, Filipescu married Ioana (born 1890), daughter of Matei B. Cantacuzino and a representative of the Cantacuzene aristocrats. The couple lived on Nicolae Filipescu Street, in Bucharest, in a house designed by Ion D. Berindey; they had no children. By 1910, the younger Filipescu was also a promoter of sports. This passion ran in the family: Constantin Blaremberg had enjoyed horse racing, and pioneered sports journalism with the newspaper Sportul. Filipescu himself was a great lover of fencing, both as spectator and as participant. In November 1911 he organized the largest athletic event in Romania up to that date, himself taking part in matches. The following year, alongside Crown Prince Carol, Ottokar Czernin, and Alexandru Davila, he took part in the wax bullet dueling competition of Sinaia, designed as marksmanship practice. He was also passionate about horse racing, operating the Filipescu Stables, which won him the Peril Jaune Award at Băneasa Racecourse (October 1915).

People's League and Epoca

Also in 1916, upon Grigore's intercession, Nicolae merged his faction with Ionescu's Conservative-Democratic Party to form the Conservative-Nationalist Party. Alongside Constantin Argetoianu, Filipescu Jr attended the Ententist gatherings in Sinaia, where, in July 1916, they greeted Charles de Saint-Aulaire as the new French Ambassador. As recounted by Argetoianu, Filipescu sponsored a French actress, Marie-Thérèse Berka, who was also his lover; according to Argetoianu, she was "ugly and a bit past her prime, but intelligent and a good actress." Filipescu also penned a revue that she performed in at Sinaia Casino, on August 5. The elder Filipescu died in October, just as Romania had entered World War I an Entente ally; Grigore received telegrams of condolences from Eleftherios Venizelos and Nikolaos Politis of the Greek government in Thessaloniki, who noted his father's role in ensuring the future "greatness and glory of Romania."

Shortly after, an invasion by the Central Powers prompted the Ententist administration to withdraw into Western Moldavia. Accompanied by Berka, Grigore followed the Romanian administration and saw action on the front, advancing to the rank of Sub-lieutenant, while also joining the Labor Party, formed in 1917 by George Diamandy and other left-wing defectors from the PNL. As later recounted by Ion Anestin, who was his employee, Filipescu presented himself for action with the Chasseurs outside Oituz, at some point after the battle of November 1916. According to Anestin, the local commander ignored Filipescu's request for active duty, and had him dispatched to a behind-the-trenches position, in a makeshift bordei; Filipescu simply got bored, asking (and obtaining) that he be dispatched to Bacău, which was a center of command and of politics.

Around that time, Filipescu identified General Alexandru Averescu, his direct superior, as an ideal leader for a new anti-establishment, anti-PNL, political movement: popular and easily manipulated. According to the hostile recollections of PNL man Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, it was Filipescu who organized the torchlight parade of January 1918, in which Averescu was hailed as "tomorrow's government leader". Various Labor Party figures soon drifted toward Averescu's People's League (LP, later "People's Party", or PP), of which Filipescu was a founding member that April. An LP tactician, Filipescu allegedly founded the main party organ, Îndreptarea. He was also credited with having drawn his father-in-law into the League, and to have ensured a state of equilibrium between the Laborites and the far-right circles led by A. C. Cuza.

PNR return

By early 1920, Filipescu had also renewed his contact with Ionescu, affiliating with the reestablished Conservative-Democratic Party (known then just as the "Democratic Party"), and being included on its executive committee in April 1920. Before the election of May 1920, Filipescu and Ionescu entered the Romanian National Party (PNR), a rising conservative group from Transylvania, as two of its very few affiliates from the "Old Kingdom". Epoca served as Ionescu's mouthpiece; within a few months, as Ionescu took to supporting the PP, Filipescu's paper drew attention with its attacks on the PNR leadership, whom it accused of disloyalty toward Greater Romania. Filipescu then ran as an Averescu favorite in the by-election for the Assembly of Deputies in Maramureș County, which was held in September 1920. He initially lost by over 300 votes to a socialist, Ioan Flueraș, finding himself ridiculed over this in the PNR's own organ, Patria. He was given a chance to take the supplementary seat after ballotage, which he won. According to Patria, he used illegal methods, such as distributing tobacco, which was in short supply, to the inhabitants of Sighetu Marmației, or using government terror against his adversaries.

In December 1921, after Averescu's departure as Prime Minister, Ionescu was charged with forming a new government, and Filipescu, who assured him of having a parliamentary majority, persuaded him to accept. His hope was to form a new party comprising elements of the two conservative parties plus dissidents from the People's Party (PP, as the LP was then known) and the PNR. While Ionescu only lasted a month as premier, he became close to Nicolae Iorga, who won multiple seats in the Assembly. He ceded one of them to Ionescu, who in turn handed it to Filipescu. Following Ionescu's death later in 1922, Filipescu approached Iorga in an attempt to merge with his Democratic Nationalist Party (PND), but negotiations ultimately collapsed. He and Constantin Xeni also tried to convince both Argetoianu and Iorga to re-establish the defunct PC, but personal acrimony between the latter two precluded the plan from fruition.

The inauguration in January of a new PNL cabinet, again headed by Brătianu, consecrated a defeat for the conservative groups in the March elections. During that campaign, Filipescu announced that he was traveling with a revolver; an epigram by Ion Ionescu-Quintus mocked him for having "taken aim at anything but votes". This episode prompted the scattered opposition to begin attempts at fusion. In November 1922, the PNR absorbed the remnants of Ionescu's formation, thus extending its reach into the Old Kingdom. Filipescu was persuaded to do the same, helping with negotiations between the two sides in Dolj County and in Bucharest, where he also sponsored a reconciliation banquet. An anti-Filipescu wing of the Ionescu Conservatives, under Iulian Vrăbiescu, survived and joined the PND, hampering negotiations over a merger between the latter and the PNR. Initially, Filipescu was visibly involved in PNR caucus, having managed to impose on the new party his and Ionescu's pro-Entente, anti-German foreign policy. He spent the period circulating leaks from Mârzescu and other PNL whistle-blowers, who informed him about Brătianu's sale of Romanian passports, and, in the Assembly, initiated a motion of no confidence. In February 1923, he was active in the by-election of Ighiu, denouncing fraud and being chased away at gunpoint by the Gendarmerie.

LVȚ and Carlism

The merger with the Peasantists did take place in October 1926, giving rise to the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ). Filipescu and other takiști found themselves increasingly isolated, and, in January 1927, dissented from the PNȚ on the issue of collaboration with government forces, to engage in direct talks with Averescu. In April, they defected to the PP. Once reunited with Averescu, Filipescu "was assigned to collect data for a new electoral law. Filipescu is traveling to Paris in the next few days. His instructions are that [...] universal, equal, secret suffrage should be introduced, along with mandatory voting. [This] would make it completely impossible for [the PNL] to get into government though parliamentary methods." Appearing as a defense witness for Boris Stefanov, jailed leader of the Romanian Communist Party, Filipescu decried political repression, and argued that "in today's difficult economic situation, [communists] should be asked to provide their input."

Speaking at a PP rally in Focșani before the campaign of 1928, Filipescu declared himself an enemy of "demagoguery", but also acknowledged that Romania was ripe for democracy; he also denounced the PNL's "dictatorship", and claimed to expose the government's incompetence. He himself ran for Assembly seats, on a shared PP–PND ticket. He was assigned first places on the list for Dâmbovița, and less eligible positions in Caliacra and Ilfov. The bloc won five seats in all, none of which went to Filipescu—in Dâmbovița, all seats were taken by the PNȚ, with Cezar Spineanu as leader. Throughout this period, Filipescu was still focused on attacking Știrbey and the Brătianus. However, he soon found himself at odds with Averescu, who had asked him to be lenient on Știrbey. Instead, together with his followers, Filipescu left the PP for a second and final time, in March 1929.

Filipescu founded the Vlad Țepeș League (LVȚ) in June 1929, amidst a campaign he supported to place Prince Carol, Știrbey's enemy, on the throne. As noted by one of its members, the industrialist Alfred Cerchez, the League had the Carlist agenda for a primary objective. Carol returned triumphantly in June 1930, after a campaign in which Epoca represented the moderate side. Filipescu debated with the more radical Carlist Nae Ionescu, who had been harshly critical of the Romanian Regency regime. In May 1930, Filipescu aired a "controversial matter regarding Prince Carol", which resulted in his newspaper being temporarily banned by Maniu; there followed a scuffle, during which Filipescu had to be restrained by the Romanian Police. Adding to the ambiguities was that Știrbey also supported the returning king, as did Filipescu's German enemies. In late 1930, Filipescu intercepted and published a letter from the German Ambassador Gerhard von Mutius, in which the latter excoriated Epoca and defended Știrbey. Filipescu, who demanded a duel, accused von Mutius of being the agent of German revisionism. Beyond its monarchist agenda, the LVȚ was eclectic and factionalized, including in its ranks national conservatives or fascist sympathizers such as Cantacuzino-Grănicerul and Amos Frâncu. Filipescu's own support for Carlism was read by Western observers as a form of right-wing extremism. Around 1930, he was referred to in the English-speaking media as a "Baby Fascist" or a Romanian replica of Adolf Hitler. However, a keen observer of foreign politics, Filipescu was a frequent critic of Benito Mussolini's Italy, which caused him to decline the post of Foreign Minister.

Antifascist mainstream

At a League congress in November 1931, Filipescu announced that the LVȚ was primarily a replica of Britain's Conservative and Unionist Party, and a direct successor to his father's own Conservative Party. On March 10, 1932, the League became the Conservative Party (PC), with Epoca as its political organ. The group thus withdrew its support for the Iorga cabinet, explicitly rejecting its plan to tackle the Great Depression with debt relief, and defending the core tenets of economic liberalism. Argetoianu, the Minister of Finance, recalled that "ever since the Relief, Epoca has been addressing me Gypsy swearwords." That year, the most famous of Filipescu's duels, covered by newspapers in the United States, Spain and France, involved Gheorghe I. Brătianu, who had insulted Filipescu in print. Mihail R. Sturdza was also challenged, and the plan was to use pistols followed by swords. A bullet hit the latter's pants, while Brătianu and Filipescu made peace. His relations with other politicians were inconsistent: Argetoianu, Titulescu, Maniu and many others veered between being his friends and his enemies.

Filipescu's adamant views on contentious topics contributed to his political alienation. Reportedly, in late 1931, he escaped unharmed after shots were fired at his automobile. By 1932, the PC was losing its support base on the right, with Cantacuzino-Grănicerul and other cadres migrating toward the Iron Guard, an openly fascist movement, or trying to persuade General Ion Antonescu into reviving the Vlad Țepeș League. Filipescu had already taken a stand against far-right violence when, in July 1930, he asked that Gheorghe Beza, a former Epoca reporter who had tried to kill the PNL's Constantin Angelescu, be put to death. That "extreme" approach was criticized at the time by the left-wing paper Adevărul, which also noted that Filipescu had little in the way of practical solutions against fascist agitation.

On October 23, 1932, supported by Maniu and the PNȚ as "government's only candidate", Filipescu won a Senate seat for Vlașca County, taking 147 mayoral votes; his main rival, D. Noica of the Agrarian Union Party, only had 69. He gave a speech on "common sense in politics", presenting his group as Romania's only truthful party, and the only one which addressed the worldwide perils engulfing Romania. Filipescu also continued to exercise an intellectual influence over the political class with his stance on debt and, in 1933, sparked a national debate over the need to restore the country risk to more manageable levels—in practice, a push toward austerity. Throughout 1933, he opposed the new PNȚ government, chaired by Vaida-Voevod, arguing that the PNȚ itself was in reality two parties: a Carlist one, formed around Vaida-Voevod, and a more populist one, under Maniu's guidance (which Filipescu now identified as preferable). He viewed government credit policies as "economic Bolshevism"; with Aurel Vlad, he established an "Anti-Bolshevik Front", which toured Romanian cities to explain why relief was disastrous. On August 7, members of the Front for Urban Debt-clearance stormed into Ramuri hall, Craiova, seeking to prevent Filipescu from stating his case against debt relief.

Final projects

According to the French journalist Georges Oudard, the PC was a strong defender "of economic and financial orthodoxy against the temptations of a coming world", "head-turning censorship" with Filipescu's "cruel wit". On February 18, 1936, Filipescu reiterated his opposition to Nazism with a public conference in Bucharest's Sala Dalles. This was interrupted by a small group of youths who taunted him with chants of: "Long live Germany! Long live Hitler!" Also in 1936, he joined Lord Cecil's International Peace Campaign, serving as vice president of its chapter, alongside Petru Groza and Constantin Rădulescu-Motru; Titulescu was its president. In that context, Groza underscored that pacifism was also a patriotic duty against Hungarian irredentism; as he put it: "This is all the more true as the pacifist action has enlisted even a conservative such as Grigore Filipescu, whose familial past constitutes a most impressive lesson in patriotism".

One of Filipescu's keynote speeches was held in Paris in May of that year, and published in brochure form, proposing a Europe-wide bloc composed of France, Italy, the Little Entente, the Balkan Entente and the Soviet Union, which would help secure borders threatened by revisionism and keep the peace. The same speech proposed a mutual assistance pact between the Soviets and Romania (nevertheless, Filipescu also militated for better Bulgaria–Romania relations). The Filipescu plan was inoperable after the Italian violations in East Africa; Filipescu himself supported the beleaguered Ethiopian Empire, and became known in Italy as "the white Abyssinian". By November 1936, when Italy openly expressed support for a revision of borders in Central Europe, he was prompted to present evidence of Mussolini's collusion with Regency Hungary, leading back to 1928. At the time, he had established a society named after French Premier Louis Barthou, recently assassinated by political extremist Vlado Chernozemski—an act that Filipescu saw as predictive for destruction wrought by hatred. He became critical of Barthou's successor Pierre Laval over his rapprochement with Italy, and called this line "detrimental to Romania's interest." He was similarly outraged that Averescu was still taking pride in having befriended Mussolini, who, Averescu argued, could still be persuaded to change his mind about Hungary.

While valued by the Western media, Filipescu had a fairly negative image in his own country, where, he noted, the major current of thought was pro-Laval and pro-Mussolini. In that context, Filipescu also began challenging the Romanian far-right's claim to an intellectual monopoly on anti-communism, arguing that war and fascism carried the added risk of making the world ripe for a communist takeover. He later also argued that agitation by fascist groups would only strengthen the left, citing the French riots of 1934 being followed by the consolidated Popular Front. He noted that Romanian far-right groups were farcical, in that they had no respect for property rights, proposing instead a nationalism that was both "civilized" and "generous". Filipescu insisted that the best defense against communism was not fascism, but rather a "strengthened coalition of the moderate parties." He supported the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War, which he identified as "less of a fight between two doctrines, and more of a fight between Germany and Great Britain."

Downfall, disease, and death

In mid-1936, Italy's Il Piccolo was reporting that Filipescu's views on international affairs no longer sat well with his own followers, some of whom made their schism known with a public protest. In December, Maniu and Filipescu welcomed back to the country the self-exiled Titulescu, and tightened cooperation against Carol. Allegedly, they masterminded Yvon Delbos' official visit to Romania, which occurred, embarrassingly, just as Carol was preparing to have his favorite Tătărescu stand for reelection. Filipescu also reunited with Averescu and Cantacuzino-Grănicerul during secret talks organized by Carol in November. These negotiations also involved the PNC, the Radical Peasants' Party, and Georgists, seeking to coalesce a right-wing monarchist "national union", that would form government. On November 13, 1937, ahead of parliamentary elections in December, the Iron Guard daily Buna Vestire resumed its attacks on Filipescu, noting: "the national-peasantist party is the only Romanian political party—other than Titulescu's ridiculous pawn, Griguță Filipescu—to call for an alliance with the Soviets." On November 26, Maniu sent Filipescu a letter, informing him "that, since national-peasantist and conservative parties have had a similar attitude toward current topics, he has reserved a number of candidacies for him, in both Chamber and Senate". Vaida-Voevod, who had split with the PNȚ, and, as leader of the Romanian Front, allied himself with the PNL, commented at the time that only Maniu "can preserve a balance between Dr Lupu and Gr[igore] Filipescu, between extreme socialism and half-witted conservatism".

Despite their anti-fascism, Filipescu's Conservatives closely followed the Maniu party line, which brought them into a "non-aggression pact" with the Iron Guard—and against Carol's PNL favorites. After various disputes, Filipescu was assigned an eligible position on the PNȚ Ilfov list for the Assembly, third behind Maniu and Lupu. He was elected, beginning his last term in parliament. In January 1938, Patria newspaper, engaging in a polemic with the Conservative Costin G. Sturdza, published allegations according to which Filipescu was acting on behalf of industrialist Oskar Kaufmann, and that he had practiced blackmail throughout his career. The piece also alleged that Filipescu was no longer welcomed in his family's original demesne, Filipeștii de Târg, after having sold it to the local peasants at an exorbitant sum. The latter claim was contradicted by Dreptatea, which stated: "Grigore Filipescu was truly affectionate toward the countryside folk. As much agricultural land as he owned, he refused to sell it for a large price to speculator agriculturalists. He opted instead for selling it to the peasants at a much reduced price."

Legacy

Filipescu's death was mourned in central newspapers such as Dreptatea and Timpul as the demise of a "cavalier", "the last authentic boyar". Writing in September 1943, Ion Anestin added that, though he had only taken up writing as one of his many hobbies, his deceased boss had emerged as "one of the best journalists." Neither the PC nor Epoca were ever revived after their patron's death, with Maria and Ioana Filipescu preserving copyright of the newspaper title. As Romania entered World War II alongside Germany, SART continued to be under American management. In 1941, ITT resold its shares to the Romanian state. This allowed the ITT to repatriate its assets just as Romania and the US declared war on each other. The Filipescu family estate in Postăvari was sold at public auction in June 1939; the one at Moara Vlăsiei hosted the diplomatic corps of Vichy France, then was requisitioned for storage space. By 1948, with the onset of Romanian communism, the estate and its collection were nationalized—despite pleas from the surviving Filipescus and Blarembergs. Filipescu was survived by his mother until 1954, and by his widow until 1971. Though the Filipescu male line was widely seen as extinguished with his death, an adoptive nephew, Nicolae Vlad Filipescu, carried on the legacy from his new home in Paris.

Epoca's Alexandru Vișan, a Conservative Party member who had once been Filipescu's secretary, escaped Romania and settled in the West, where he emerged as a critic of the regime. In 1951, the communist press retaliated by alleging that Vișan was a plagiarist and spy. Repression directly touched the Filipescu family when a Catholic cousin, Vladimir Ghika, died in prison as punishment for his missionary work. Filipescu's own politics were revisited by later communist historiographers. They posthumously granted him recognition as one of the anti-fascist intellectuals who had formed a "broad front" with the Communist Party. As later noted by historian Lucian Boia, this was a spurious list "of those who contributed, evidently without so wishing, to the legitimizing of the communist regime". In a 1986 piece, party historian Vasile Bobocescu lauded Filipescu for his "realistic position" on the issue of fascism, which implied "correcting some of his own political ideas". Discussion of Filipescu's other political contributions followed the Romanian Revolution of 1989. In 2005, philologist Elvira Sorohan rediscovered Filipescu's speech on common sense as a "lesson in rhetorical elegance" and Europeanism. Three years later, political scientist Ioan Stanomir described the "bizarre political figure" Filipescu and his Epoca as afterthoughts of Romanian conservatism—by then, the "statist, autarkist, nationalist" PNL had won its "victory".