TWO INTRIGUING MOMENTS IN IULIU MANIU’S BIOGRAPHY (1919, 1987)

Abstract

From the letters exchanged between Hortensia and Octavian Goga in the period from the autumn of 1918 until the autumn of 1919, while Hortensia was a refugee in Genova/Italy and Octavian Goga was in Paris in his position as member of the Council of Romanian National Unity, we find out information about the convalescence and death of Iuliu Maniu’s most beloved nephew, Matei Pop, a soldier with the Romanian Legion in Italy which comprised Romanian prisoners from the Austrian-Hungarian army (February 1919). From the memoirs of Ion Traian Șefănescu, the leader of the Council of Student Associations in Romania (1969), minister of Youth and first-secretary of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Youth Union (CYU) (1969-1974), an activist of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) in Prahova county (1975-1982), first-vicepresident of the Committee for Socialist Culture and Education (1982-1984), and first-secretary of the Sălaj County PCR Committee (1984-1987), we find out about Nicolae Ceaușescu’s opinion on the restauration of furniture items belonging to Iuliu Maniu’s parents’ house in Bădăcin, as well as on the opportunity to open a Iuliu Maniu memorial house. The information delivered and the diplomatic suggestion that I.T. Ștefănescu made to N. Ceaușescu, then on a working visit in Sălaj county (1987), highlight the political vision of a genuine intellectual (I.T. Ștefănescu), as well as a moment of contemplation for N. Ceaușescu - then already ill and overwhelmed by political pressures from both the East and the West, as well as from inside the country – on the fate of political figures in general, including that of Iuliu Maniu, in the last days of his life.