page_title: National Peasants' Party
section_title: Resisting Antonescu
hierarchical_section_title: National Peasants' Party / History / Resisting Antonescu
caption_attribution_description: English: Transcript of a memorandum sent by Romanian politicians Iuliu Maniu and Dinu Brătianu to the country's World War II dictator Ion Antonescu, in which they express concerns over wartime policies.
context_page_description: The National Peasants' Party was an agrarian political party in the Kingdom of Romania. It was formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party, a conservative-regionalist group centered on Transylvania, and the Peasants' Party, which had coalesced the left-leaning agrarian movement in the Old Kingdom and Bessarabia. The definitive PNR–PȚ merger came after a decade-long rapprochement, producing a credible contender to the dominant National Liberal Party. National Peasantists agreed on the concept of a "peasant state", which defended smallholding against state capitalism or state socialism, proposing voluntary cooperative farming as the basis for economic policy. Peasants were seen as the first defense of Romanian nationalism and of the country's monarchic system, sometimes within a system of social corporatism. Regionally, the party expressed sympathy for Balkan federalism and rallied with the International Agrarian Bureau; internally, it championed administrative decentralization and respect for minority rights, as well as, briefly, republicanism. It remained factionalized on mainly ideological grounds, leading to a series of defections.
context_section_description: The PNȚ continued to exist semi-clandestinely, obtaining repeated assurances from Antonescu that the various territorial chapters would not be harassed by the Iron Guard, and complaining whenever he failed to keep them. According to Siguranța reports, it was always more active than the PNL. Its quarters were informally acknowledged as being Ciulei House, an apartment complex located at Sfinților Street 10, Bucharest. From late 1940, Maniu channeled anti-Nazi discontent by forming an association called Pro Transilvania and a newspaper Ardealul, both of which reminded Romanians that Antonescu was not interested in a reversal of the Vienna Award. The Guardist takeover also pushed some National Peasantists into exile: facing a death sentence at home, Beza made his way to Cairo, where he formed a Free Romania Movement under British supervision. Viorel Tilea and Ion Rațiu opted not to return from England, serving as liaisons between the PNȚ and the British war ministry.
  Towards the end of 1940, Antonescu became dissatisfied with the Guard partnership. The Guard organized the Jilava Massacre and various other murders of old-regime politicians, including Madgearu. This caused alarm for other figures of the PNȚ, in particular Mihalache and Lupu; Ghiță Pop took Madgearu's position at the party secretariat. In the aftermath, Maniu pleaded with the Conducător that he should reinastate order and individual security. After a brief civil war in January 1941, the Guard was removed from power and again repressed. German reports identified PNȚ-ist generals as most active in destroying the National Legionary regime; armed PNȚ civilians, including Lupu, assisted the Army at various locations in Bucharest.
  Following the events, Antonescu had renewed hopes that he could co-opt the PNȚ and then PNL on his cabinet. Both parties refused the offer. During February, Maniu openly criticized Antonescu for abandoning Northern Transylvania and for previously condoning Guardist abuse. He also argued that a legalized PNȚ would have been a more efficient and legitimate actor in purging the Guard. In April, he attempted to organize a rally against the invasion of Yugoslavia, but called it off when Antonescu warned him that demonstrators would be fired upon. Later that year, Maniu and Coposu engaged in encrypted correspondence with the Western Allies, preparing for an anti-Nazi takeover in Romania; they aligned themselves closely with Britain, seeking to obtain direct advice from Winston Churchill.
  The PNȚ and the PNL welcomed Romania's participation in the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, since it returned Bessarabian lands to Romania. However, both parties protested when Antonescu gave the order to advance beyond interwar borders and annex Transnistria. This period also signaled Romania's participation in the Holocaust, heralded by the Iași pogrom. These crimes were also vocally condemned by the PNȚ and the PNL in letters to Antonescu. Maniu still refused to believe that Antonescu had a genocidal agenda and, when interviewed by American diplomats, played down the pogrom's importance. By 1942, having been informed that Britain and the US intended to assess and punish all antisemitic crimes, he told Romanian ministers that the deportation of Bessarabian Jews risked destroying Romania; Mihalache also added his input, describing deportations as "alien to the humanitarian traditions of our people." Antonescu largely tolerated such insubordination, but also curbed it at regular intervals. In August 1942, he threatened to "castigate in due course" Maniu and others who opposed "cleansing this nation totally of the [Jewish] blight."
  In November 1941, Maniu also publicized his complete opposition to war in the East, prompting Antonescu to order a clampdown against Anglophile resistance centers. Communist sources noted a discrepancy in repression statistics: while the elites were allowed to carry out a "paper war" with the regime, regular PNȚ militants risked imprisonment for expressing anti-fascist beliefs. From 1942, the camp in Târgu Jiu accommodated various PNȚ
caption: Protest letter sent to Ion Antonescu by Maniu and Dinu Brătianu, January 1942
exif: {}