George Macovescu

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = George Macovescu

|image = George Macovescu.jpg

|caption = Macovescu at Helsinki during the CSCE conference in 1975

|order =

|title = Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania

|term_start = 18 October 1972

|term_end = 8 March 1978

|predecessor = Corneliu Mănescu

|successor = Ștefan Andrei

|president = Nicolae Ceaușescu

|office2 = General Secretary of Ministry of Information of Romania

|president2 =

|term_start2 = 1945

|term_end2 = 1947

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1913|5|28|df=y}}

|birth_place = Joseni, Buzău County, Kingdom of Romania

|death_date = {{Death date and age|2002|3|20|1913|5|28|df=y}}

|death_place = Valencia, Spain

|spouse = Teri Macovescu
Emilia Macovescu

|alma_mater = University of Bucharest

|branch =

|serviceyears =

|rank =

|battles =

}}

George Macovescu ({{IPA|ro|ˈdʒe̯ordʒe makoˈvesku}}; 28 May 1913 – 20 March 2002) was a Romanian writer and communist politician who served as the General Secretary of Ministry of Information of Romania and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania.

Life and political career

He was born in Joseni, Buzău County. In the 1930s, George Macovescu wrote articles for several left-wing newspapers, such as Adevărul and Dimineața.{{cite book |title=Will to freedom: a perilous journey through fascism and communism |last1=Balas|first1=Egon |year=1987 |publisher= Cambridge University Press |location= Great Britain |isbn= 0-8156-0603-6 |page= 188|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BnYAhqgCkOQC&q=George+Macovescu&pg=PA188|access-date= 2010-08-17}}{{cite journal |last=Simuț |first=Ion |editor-last=Manolescu |editor-first=Nicolae |date=2007-09-21 |title=Un comunist onest |trans-title=An honest Communist |journal=România Literară |volume=XXXIX |issue=37 |publisher=Writers' Union of Romania |issn=1220-6318 |url=http://www.romlit.ro/un_comunist_onest |language=ro |access-date=2010-08-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109170623/http://www.romlit.ro/un_comunist_onest |archive-date=2011-11-09 |url-status=dead }} In 1939, he graduated from the University of Bucharest's Law School. In 1936, he joined the then illegal Communist Party of Romania,{{cite book |title=World population and the United Nations: challenge and response |last1=Johnson |first1=Stanley |year=1987 |publisher= Cambridge University Press |location= Great Britain |isbn= 0-521-32207-3 |page= 96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f3A3AAAAIAAJ&q=George+Macovescu&pg=PA95 |access-date= 2010-08-17}} and after World War II started, he supported the anti-Nazi forces in German-aligned Romania. Around this time he also married a Jewish wife, Teri Ungar (Tereza).

After the war, Macovescu was the General Secretary of the Ministry of Information of Romania in 1945–1947. He was then appointed Ambassador of Romania to the United Kingdom and served there from 1947 until 1949. After he came back to Bucharest, Macovescu became the magistrate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania from 1949 to 1952. He then worked as the Chief Magistrate of the Romanian cinematography from 1955 until 1959. In 1959–1961, he was the Ambassador of Romania to the United States and a member of the Romanian delegation to the United Nations.{{cite news|url=http://www.osaarchivum.org/files/holdings/300/8/3/text/95-4-54.shtml |title=New Rumanian Permanent Representative to UN |date=1961-09-19 |access-date=2010-08-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226110614/http://www.osaarchivum.org/files/holdings/300/8/3/text/95-4-54.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-26 }} In 1961, upon his return to Romania, he was appointed the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and in 1967 he became the First Deputy Minister subsequently becoming the Minister of Foreign Affairs on 18 October 1972. As the deputy minister and later minister, he took part in establishing better relations with Israel and tried to increase mediating role of Romania in Israeli–Egyptian conflict.{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign+Relations/Israels+Foreign+Relations+since+1947/1974-1977/86+Joint+communique+Romania-Israel-+1+June+1975.htm?DisplayMode=print|title= Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 86 Joint communique Romania-Israel- 1 June 1975 |access-date= 2010-08-17}}{{cite book |title=1967: Israel, the War, and the Year that Transformed the Middle East |last1=Segev |first1=Tom |year=2005 |publisher= Metropolitan Books|location= Hungary |isbn= 963-9116-09-2 |page= 565 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WlqcITwEktEC&q=George+Macovescu&pg=PA565|access-date= 2010-08-17}} Macovescu served as Minister until 1978.{{cite book |title=Censorship in Romania |last1=Vianu |first1=Lidia |year=1998 |publisher= Central European University Press |location= Hungary |isbn= 963-9116-09-2 |page= 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9eDddelzL0oC&q=George+Macovescu&pg=PA1 |access-date= 2010-08-17}} At the time, he was married to his second wife, Emilia Marinela Macovescu.{{cite web|url=https://adevarul.ro/news/eveniment/cearta-sotii-ceausescu-nicule-ia-vezi-schimb-foaia-trezesti-tu-1_50ad41ac7c42d5a66391aeee/index.html|title=Ceartă între soții Ceaușescu: "Nicule, ia vezi, că acum schimb foaia, unde te trezești tu?"|lang=ro|newspaper=Adevărul|date=January 19, 2011|access-date=January 8, 2022}}

Macovescu also headed the Writers' Union of Romania from 1978 until 1982. It was in this role in 1979, as a delegate to the XII Romanian Communist Party Congress representing the Writers' Union, that Macovescu rose to discredit a dissident speech by Constantin Pîrvulescu which denounced Nicolae Ceaușescu's leadership as party leader; Macovescu defended Ceaușescu and called on the delegates to "pretend that we didn't even hear what Comrade Pîrvulescu said."{{cite web|url=http://www.educatt.it/libri/all/ALLPDF/200802FrumuseluC.pdf|title= Pârvulescu: Argument and pseudo-argument in a unique event in a Communist dictatorship |access-date= 2012-08-06}} From 1949 until 1981, he also taught at Department of Romanian Language and Literature of the University of Bucharest.

He died in Valencia, Spain in 2002.

Writings

Contradicții în Imperiul Britanic, București, 1950 (written under the pen name Victor Duran)
Viața și opera lui Al. Sahia, București, 1950
Gheorghe Lazăr, București, 1954
Unele probleme ale reportajului literar, București, 1956
Oameni și fapte, București, 1957
Introducere în știința literaturii, București, 1962
Vârstele timpului, București, 1971
Catargele înalte, București, 1972
Farmecul pământului, București, 1977
Parfumul amar al pelinului verde. Jurnal la marginea dintre vis și viață, București, 1982
Semnul dintre ochi, București, 1983
Undeva, cândva, București, 1985
Trecânde anotimpuri, București, 1988
Jurnal, Vol. I, Domino, București, 2006{{Cite web|url=http://www.evz.ro/detalii/stiri/senatul-evz-pcr-si-fascismul-stalinist-453963/pagina-comentarii//toate-comentariile.html|title=Stiri calde|newspaper=Evenimentul Zilei}}