Mihail Manoilescu

1.1 Early life

Born to a political family in Tecuci, he was the nephew
of Alexandru Bdru, twice a minister in Conservative
cabinets during the early 1900s, and a descendant of the
Moldavian boyar known as Logoftul Tutu; his granfather was strong unionist, a supporter of the Union of
Moldova with Wallachia, while his father was a member of the Socialist Party.[1] The Manoilescus moved to
Iai when Mihail was a child. Having been the recipient
of the Gazeta Matematic prize in 1910, he went on to
study at the coala de Poduri i osele (the School of
Bridges and Roads) in Bucharest, completing his training as a valedictorian in 1915.[2] Manoilescu was subsequently assigned to the Ministry of Public Works, and
later moved to an artillery regiment in Roman.[3]
Upon Romanias entry into World War I, he was assigned
to the Directorate of Ammunitions (led by Tancred Constantinescu), and designed an original type of 210 mm
howitzer, which, after southern Romania was invaded by
the Central Powers (see Romanian Campaign), was produced in Nicolina.[4] After the conict, in 1919, he had
a minor role in the National Liberal Party (PNL) governments, assisting General Constantinescu as Head of the
Industrial Recovery Directorate and later as General Director of Industry.[4]

Mihail Manoilescu

1.2 With Averescu

Soon, Manoilescu joined the Peoples Party, a populist
force led by General Alexandru Averescu, becoming undersecretary of state in the latters rst cabinet.[5] He was
responsible for measures such as organizing the Industrial
Exhibition, carrying out industrial statistics, and unifying
legislation related to the industry.[4] In 1921, he resigned
his ministerial position, justifying it as an attempt to further his expertise and investigative range.[4]

Mihail Manoilescu, right, Vienna, August 30, 1940

Mihail Manoilescu (Romanian pronunciation: [mihail

mano.ilesku]; December 9, 1891 December 30, 1950)
was a Romanian journalist, engineer, economist, politician and memoirist, who served as Foreign Minister of
Romania during the summer of 1940. His corporatist
ideas on economics were very popular and applied in
South America.

During the period when the PNL returned to government,

Manoilescu focused on his research, and contributed
18 individual works.[4] He also became inuential as
an orator, and was a frequent presence in conferences
hosted by the sociologist Dimitrie Gusti.[4] Manoilescu
returned to high oce with the second Averescu executive, and drafted innovative legislation concerning taris
and salary amortization.[4]

In 1926, while on a mission to Italy, where he was to negotiate a loan and pave the way for the friendship treaty
signed between the two countries,[6] he met the fascist

Biography
1

1 BIOGRAPHY

dictator Benito Mussolini and became his admirer (calling the Fascist regime a truly constructive political revolution, one that can only compare itself with the great
French revolution in scale and novelty).[7] Subsequently,
he was active in collaboration with the Comitati d'azione
per l'universalit di Roma and other Italian-led projects of
international cooperation.[8]

1.3

1927 trial

He was then an advocate of the crowning of Carol

Caraiman as King of Romania (in the place of his underage son Mihai).[9] In the autumn of 1927, while distributing Carols appeals to the leaders of various political parties and carrying his letter to Queen Marie,
he was arrested (martial law was proclaimed by the Ion
I. C. Brtianu government in the incidents wake).[10]
Manoilescu, who beneted from Averescus vocal support, was acquitted when tried by a court subordinated
to the Council of War in late November.[11]

Gheorghe Mironescu (while he was a member of that

party),[16] as well as under Nicolae Iorga (1930-1931).[17]
He was elected to the Assembly of Deputies for the PN
in 1930, representing Cara County.[4] His political adversaries speculated that he had forged documents and
played a hand in bringing Carols mistress, Magda Lupescu, back into the country.[18]
In his memoirs, Manoilescu claimed that, at the time, he
had played a hand in the release of Mihai Gheorghiu Bujor (imprisoned since 1918, due to his Bolshevik activism
and designs for a communist revolution);[19] Manoilescu
authored a series of articles in his support, and allegedly
intervened alongside King Carol[19] (it is generally accepted that the most decisive action in this respect was
taken by Maniu, who spoke against imprisonment for
political crimes such as Bujors).[19]

At the time, he became a staunch rival of his fellow

PN member Virgil Madgearu. According to Petre Pandrea's hostile account, Manoilescu purchased from the
writers Sergiu Dan and Ion Vinea an allegedly stolen
His own testimony was indicated by Time as arguing that text which appeared to be entirely written by Madgearu,
Carol was alarmed by an alleged growth in republicanism but had been heavily forged by the two to include critiand only wished to be part of the Regency.[12] He also cism of the king; Manoilescu attempted to use the document against its supposed author, but was exposed by
stated:
Carol himself (who, according to Pandrea, was amused
by the events).[20] The incident contributed to PN innerThe Prince is too loyal and decent to think
conict that caused Manoilescu to leave the grouping.[20]
of dethroning his own son.[13]
In 1931, Manoilescu was governor of the National Bank
[4]
While accusing the executive of having previously at- of Romania and began teaching Political economy at
the
Polytechnic
Institute. As governor, he refused to saltempted to purchase his silence, Manoilescu stressed his
vage
the
Marmorosch
Blank Bank with state funds, and
belief that King Ferdinand had, just before his death,
[12]
clashed
with
Carol
over
the issue, being ultimately reasked Brtianu for Carol to be allowed to return.
He
moved
from
oce
in
November
of the same year.[4]
also speculated that Ferdinand had endorsed a regency
only for as long as Carol continued to behave irrespon- He began editing a magazine, Lumea Nou, which was to
sibly, and had not wanted to exclude his son from the become the main platform for his ideas, and, in 1932,
throne.[12] Averescu, who unsuccessfully called on both created his own party Liga Naional-Corporatist
Carol and Brtianu to take the stand,[12] backed this ver- (National-Corporatist League).[21] Between 1932 and
sion by mentioning his own experience as a mediator be- 1937, he was assigned a seat in the Senate, representing
tween Ferdinand and Carol, during which the latter had the Romanian Chamber of Commerce.[4]
allegedly agreed to comply, while the former had eventually become more open to Carols return.[14]
The acquittal came as a shock, given rumors that Premier Brtianu had instructed the court to nd Manoilescu
guilty.[15] In an unusual incident during the rst day of
trial, news correspondents from abroad were told that international phone connections had been severed they
resorted to crossing the Danube into Bulgaria at Giurgiu,
using phones there to contact their employers, and repeated the trip several times over the following days.[15]

1.4

Camarilla

After Carol returned to rule as Carol II in mid-1930,

Manoilescu was a very inuential person in the kings
camarilla, being the Minister of Economy in the National
Peasants Party (PN) cabinets of Iuliu Maniu and

1.5 Political and economic theories

In Paris in 1929, he published the rst version of his
fundamental work, The theory of protectionism and international exchanges at the Giard publishing house (as
part of the Bibliothque conomique Internationale
collection).[4] His intense advocacy of industrialization
formed the main theme of the book The role and destiny of Romanias bourgeoisie (1942), which was one of
the main works dealing with the development of a local
middle class, alongside those written by tefan Zeletin
and Eugen Lovinescu (while sharing some perspectives
with the essays of Emil Cioran);[22] the topic blended with
his support for authoritarianism and the single-party system, as Manoilescu rejected democracy (which, in his
view, encouraged the majority-forming peasantry to de-

1.7

Foreign Minister

cide on matters that did not concern it).[23] The role and into a corporatist movement an instrument to validestiny... criticized the course of Romanian social devel- date the goals of the [Guards] national revolution),[36]
opment:
and donated part of his land to one of the latters
enterprises.[37] His new discourse was ridiculed by his former colleagues in the National Peasants Party, as des"[...] an oversized bourgeoisie which mimperate attempts to exit from the [old generation of politiicks the boyars of yesteryear and has an overcians] and sit among the new men.[38] In February 1937,
bourgeois way of living, oversized in comparihe began discreetly nancing the Guards newly created
son with its means, creates a certain social inpaper, Buna Vestire (he was exposed as the man behind
stability and features a high percentage of indiit by virtually all political commentators of the time).[39]
vidual failures.
That is why the Romanian bourgeoisie is not
in fact a bourgeoisie in one of its most essential features; whereas the Occident focuses on
accumulation, security and the future, our bourgeoisie will focus on spending, satisfaction and
the present. Whereas the Western bourgeois
work for their children, the Romanian bourgeois will often only work for themselves.[24]
Among others, Manoilescu adopted some of the
Poporanist ideas on capital and its international circulation, as present in the works of Constantin Stere[25] (in
turn inuenced by the Marxist Werner Sombart).[26] He
argued that a national economy could develop only if it
minimized its contacts with the world market and relied instead on cultivating internal demand for a local
industry.[27]
At the same time, his magazine supported a nationalist
and racist approach, viewing corporatism as the guarantee of Romanianization",[28] and proclaiming that
the racial basis of Romania is the same as that of
Aryan Europe.[29] Manoilescu himself welcomed the
anti-Semitic policies of the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
government.[30]

In the election of 1937, he ran for the Senate on the Everything for the Fatherland Party list (which served as a front
for the Iron Guard).[18] According to his political adversary Constantin Argetoianu, the partys unocial leader
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu made similar proposals to
philosopher Nae Ionescu and General Gheorghe Moruzi:
Ionescu denied the request because, as a self-proclaimed
pillar of the Guard, he could not accept such a lowly
position, while Moruzi called Manoilescu a con artist
and alluded to his reported connection with Magda Lupescu.[18] Argetoianu sarcastically remarked, the party
of moral regeneration was left with one guest, with
Manoilescu!"[18] During the period, Manoilescu also applied changes to his earlier vision on industry and selfsuciency, calling for Romania to develop itself by supplying raw materials to the rising force that was Nazi Germany.[40]

1.7 Foreign Minister

In July 1940, at the moment of crisis when Bessarabia
and Northern Bukovina were ceded to the Soviet Union,
Manoilescu was named foreign minister in the pro-fascist
government headed by Ion Gigurtu. The new executive was faced with eventually successful attempts by
Hungary, backed by Italy and Nazi Germany, to revise its border with Romania and the Treaty of Trianon.
Manoilescu, who was a supporter of the Axis alliance,[41]
attempted in vain to make use of his inuence with Italian
authorities.[4] In order to ensure less international adversity toward Romania, he also oered to cede Southern
Dobruja to Bulgaria (although Germany had not included
this revision in its demands toward the Romanian executive), an approach eventually leading to the Treaty of
Craiova.

Manoilescus corporatist and protectionist ideas began to

be applied in Brazil, as the basis of that countrys industrial development during its Estado Novo regime.[31] His
opinion that the engagement of productive forces in industry, seen as always more productive than agriculture
and other raw materials, is a welcomed process constituted an inuence on both Celso Furtado and Ral Prebisch[32] (arguably, it also indirectly inuenced the United
Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and
the Caribbean).[31] On the other hand, Manoilescus advocacy of autarkic measures has been compared to the
measures enforced by later Stalinist regimes, including
As an ocial representative of the country convoked
that of Nicolae Ceauescu in Romania,[33] who on at least
by the Axis, on August 30, he signed the Second Vione occasion described his works as a major contribution
enna Award, which divided Transylvania between Hun[34]
to the theory of underdevelopment.
gary and Romania (see Northern Transylvania).[42] While
German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop communicated the nal decision in the Gold Room of the
1.6 Iron Guard
Belvedere Palace, Manoilescu fainted.[43]
Despite the increasingly tense relations between Carol
and the fascist Iron Guard, Manoilescu was viewed with
interest by the latter.[35] By the late 1930s, he was himself
a supporter of the Guard (which he hoped to see turning

In September, he was involved in negotiations with Soviet

envoys regarding a dtente between the two countries;
at the time, examining the situation created by warm
relations between the Axis and the Soviet Union (see

2 NOTES

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), the fall of France and the

United Kingdom's isolation (which had deprived Romania of diplomatic alternatives), Manoilescu argued that
Romania looked with respect towards Moscow, Berlin,
and Rome.[44] Asked by the Soviet delegation to account
for alleged new border incidents, he stiy denied that
these had ever occurred.[45]

2 Notes
[1] Valeriu Dinu, Prefa. Schi de portret: Mihail
Manoilescu, n Mihail Manoilescu, Memorii, 2 volume,
ediie ngrijit, prefa, note i indice Valeriu Dinu, cuvnt nainte Mugur Isrescu (Bucureti: Editura Enciclopedic, 1993), p. 7.
[2] Dinu, Prefa, p. 7.

1.8

1940s, imprisonment and death

The responsibility for the Transylvanian compromise

weighed heavily on him later in the following year, when
the Iron Guard, revived by the leadership of Horia Sima,
came to government and proclaimed the National Legionary State; it refused to appoint Manoilescu to any
leadership position.[46] After the Iron Guards 1941 Rebellion, he remained present on the political stage as a
supporter of Ion Antonescu's dictatorship (see Romania
during World War II).[47] In autumn 1940, he represented
his country to Rome, where he attempted to persuade Italian ocials to look into information about Hungarian violence in Northern Transylvania, and, in July 1942, traveled to the Independent State of Croatia to meet with Otto
Franges, his collaborator on an overview of Southeast European economy.[4]
On October 12, 1944, after the Soviet occupation began, Manoilescu was jailed without trial for 14 months,
during which time he was expelled from his position at
the Polytechnic Institute.[4] Because of the bad sanitary
conditions in prison, he became sick with endemic typhus, and sent to the hospital for contagious diseases in
Colentina.[48] Set free in December 1945, he resumed
work on his unnished writings, and became an advocate of harvesting geothermal power in Romania (his
innovations in the eld were patented on the name of
his son, Alexandru Manoilescu).[4] He was once again
jailed without trial and without a sentence by Communist
Romanian authorities on December 19, 1948, and was
brought rst to Jilava prison,[48] and then to the notorious prison of Ocnele Mari. While being held there,
Manoilescu became, together with the philosopher Petre
uea, one of the most esteemed members of the Underground Academy (organized by inmates as a form of
cultural resistance and survival).[49]
Manoilescu was ultimately brought to Sighet prison,
where he died at the end of 1950.[50] Typhus had left
him with heart problems, which were aggravated in detention; with no medical attention, this led to his death;[48]
his body was buried in a common grave. For years, his
family asked about him, but there was no ocial answer.
In 1951, although deceased, he was brought to trial by
a civil court for his journalistic activities. On April 12,
1952 he was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison,
10 years deprivation of civil rights, and conscation of
all property, a measure which is thought to be unprecedented in a civilised state.[51] His family was told of his
death only in May 1958.[52]

[3] Mihi.
[4] Mihi
[5] Hncu, p.69; Ornea, p.265
[6] Hncu, p.69; Mihi
[7] Manoilescu, 1926, in Hncu, p.69
[8] Ornea, p.266; Veiga, p.253
[9] Ciachir; Mihi; Ornea, p.265
[10] More Carol-ings"; Manoilescu Trial
[11] Ciachir; Manoilescu Acquitted
[12] Manoilescu Trial
[13] Manoilescu, in Manoilescu Trial
[14] Manoilescu Acquitted
[15] Ciachir
[16] Ornea, p.273; Pandrea
[17] Ornea, p.265; Veiga, p.127, 129, 213-214
[18] Argetoianu, p.87
[19] Cioroianu, p.28
[20] Pandrea
[21] Boatc, p.23; Veiga, p.214
[22] Ornea, p.48, 138, 266
[23] Ornea, p.46, 268-269; Stahl
[24] Manoilescu, in Scurtu et al. (Manoilescus italics)
[25] Boatc,p.23; Love
[26] Boatc, p.17; Love
[27] Chirot, p.250; Gallagher, p.33
[28] Victor Munteanu, 1936, in Ornea, p.273
[29] Al. Randa, 1941, in Ornea, p.108
[30] Ornea, p.273-274
[31] Love
[32] Boatc, p.23; Love
[33] Chirot, p.251; Gallagher, p.33
[34] Gallagher, p.33

[35] Argetoianu, p.87; Ornea, p.270

[36] Manoilescu, 1937, in Ornea, p.277
[37] Ornea, p.270
[38] Dreptatea, 1937, in Ornea, p.275
[39] Ornea, p.275-276
[40] Gallagher, p.33; Stahl
[41] Ornea, p.270-272; andru
[42] Fire in the Carpathians"; Mihi; Ornea, p.265
[43] Fire in the Carpathians
[44] Manoilescu, in andru
[45] andru
[46] Ornea, p.280
[47] Mihi; Ornea, p.284-285
[48] Harre
[49] Popescu, p.80
[50] Dinu, p. 14; Chirot, p.250; Gallagher, p.33
[51] Dinu, Prefa, p. 14.
[52] Dinu, p. 14.

References
Constantin Argetoianu, Memorii, in Magazin Istoric, December 1967, p. 78-87
Manuela Boatc, Peripheral Solutions to Peripheral
Development: The Case of Early 20th Century Romania (PDF le), in Journal of World Systems Research, XI, 1, July 2005, p. 3-26
Daniel Chirot, Modern Tyrants: The Power and
Prevalence of Evil in Our Age, Princeton University
Press, Princeton, 1996
Dan Ciachir, Ziariti cu greutate, in Ziua, March
17, 2007
Adrian Cioroianu, Lumina vine de la Rsrit.
Noua imagine a Uniunii Sovietice n Romnia postbelic, 1944-1947, in Lucian Boia, ed.,
Miturile comunismului romnesc, Editura Nemira,
Bucharest, 1998, p. 21-68
Tom Gallagher, Theft of a Nation: Romania since
Communism, C. Hurst & Co., London, 2005. ISBN
1-85065-716-5
Angela Harre, Mihail Manoilescu a political biography of a national economist

Dumitru Hncu, O aciune politic contestat. Descoperiri n arhivele Ministerului de externe din
Viena, in Magazin Istoric, November 1995
Mihai Mihi, Mihail Manoilescu. Personalitate
marcant din AGIR, in Univers Ingineresc, at the
General Association of Romanian Engineers site
Joseph L. Love, Theorizing underdevelopment:
Latin America and Romania, 1860-1950
(Romanian) Mihail Manoilescu, Rostul i destinul
burgheziei romneti, studiu critic Dan Pavel, ediie
ngrijit de Leonard Oprea (Bucureti; Editura
ATHENA, 1997), n Colecia Cri fundamentale
ale culturii romne, Colecie iniiat i nanat de
Fundaia Soros pentru o Societate Deschis Romnia. ISBN 973-98191-8-4.
(Romanian) Mihail Manoilescu, Memorii, 2 volume,
ediie ngrijit, prefa, note i indice Valeriu Dinu,
cuvnt nainte Mugur Isrescu (Bucureti: Editura
Enciclopedic, 1993), Colecia Biblioteca Bncii
Naionale, coordonat de Mugur Isrescu. ISBN
973-45-0042-2.
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci.
Extrema dreapt
romneasc, Ed. Fundaiei Culturale Romne,
Bucharest, 1995
(Romanian) Petre Pandrea, Carol II-MadgearuManoilescu, in Magazin Istoric, July 2001
Alexandru D. Popescu, Petre uea: Between Sacrice and Suicide, Ashgate Publishing, London, 2004
(Romanian)* Constantin Schirne,
Mihail
Manoilescu:
o viziune monograc despre
burghezia romn, in Sociologie romneasc modern, Bucureti: Criterion Publishing, 2009, pp.
125166
(Romanian) Ioan Scurtu, Theodora StnescuStanciu, Georgiana Margareta Scurtu, Istoria
romnilor ntre anii 1918-1940: 3.3. Mihail
Manoilescu despre modul de via al romnilor
(Romanian) Vasile andru, Septembrie 1940.
Relaiile Romnia-U.R.S.S. l preocup pe Antonescu, in Magazin Istoric
(Romanian) Henri H. Stahl, Gnditori i curente de
istorie social romneasc Cap. X: Gnditori dintre
cele dou rzboaie mondiale
Time:
More Carol-ings, November 7, 1927
Manoilescu Trial, November 21, 1927
Manoilescu Acquitted, November 28, 1927
Fire in the Carpathians, September 9, 1940

3
Francisco Veiga, Istoria Grzii de Fier, 1919-1941:
Mistica ultranaionalismului, Humanitas, Bucharest,
1993

REFERENCES

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