Nicolae Penescu

Nicolae Penescu (28 February 1897 – 28 February 1981) was a Romanian lawyer and politician. A member of the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), he was the interior minister from 4 November to 6 December 1944. After spending years in prison and internal exile, he emigrated to France, where he was active in denouncing the Communist regime.

Biography Early career and Interior Minister Born in Pitești, he attended primary and secondary school in his native city, followed by the Law faculty of the University of Bucharest. Admitted to the bar in 1921, he received his legal doctorate from the University of Paris in 1923. As a practising lawyer, he mainly represented business interests. He began his political career by joining the National Peasants' Party. Active in the Argeș County area, he took advantage of a PNȚ legislator from the county leaving the party, and was himself elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1937. He held positions at the Bucharest Chamber of Commerce (which backed his election as an independent senator in 1933) and Banca Commerciale Italiana (from 1942), and headed Creditul Românesc.

Named interior minister in the second Constantin Sănătescu cabinet, he fought against the imposition of communism and the transformation of Romania into a Soviet satellite, earning him sharp attacks from the Romanian Communist Party. His subordinates at the ministry included Teohari Georgescu, undersecretary for administration, and General Virgil Stănescu who, with Dimitrie Nistor, was in charge of the Siguranța secret police. The day after the cabinet took office, dissent began to surface among the participating parties, against a backdrop of Soviet occupation and the Romanian Army fighting in World War II to the west. The parties disagreed on what the government should do, and particularly on how to solve domestic political problems. Thus, although the cabinet meeting of 20 November had agreed "in full solidarity" to replace incumbent prefects and had decided to let the county-level chapters of the respective parties select replacements, Penescu did not adhere to the agreement. The party also began a virulent press campaign directed against him. The government's repressive measures in response to popular demands hampered its ability to act, so that prefects and mayors were soon installed without ministry authorization in Arad, Brăila, Brașov, Târgoviște, Hunedoara, Ploiești, Timișoara and Lugoj, with nearly all office holders replaced by the end of November. An attempt to use force backfired, leading to the cabinet's fall on 2 December and its resignation four days later. Nicolae Rădescu was the next prime minister as well as interim interior minister.

During Penescu's time at the ministry, the first groups of exiled Iron Guard members were being parachuted in from Nazi Germany, with several hundred landings by the following February. Domestically, the security situation was uncertain, with agents working for the ministry informing on those being watched when they joined political parties, as well as on the disorder caused by the Soviet occupiers. The first stirrings of the Romanian anti-communist resistance movement began to appear. In December 1944, Penescu was elected secretary general of the PNȚ,

Persecution and emigration Penescu, shielding his face, at trial. Maniu is in the foreground, in dark suit. With difficulty, Iuliu Maniu persuaded him to leave the country and continue the PNȚ's political struggle from abroad. Under pressure, he made statements partly disassociating himself from Maniu, calling him a "gloved dictator", and this collaboration allowed his wife, Fulvia, to be freed sooner, He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment and two years' deprivation of civic rights. He was brought back to Bucharest during the investigation of Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu and used as a prosecution witness against him. During the investigation, he and Nicolae Carandino were re-sentenced, with Penescu receiving an 8-year term. Released from prison in 1955 but forced to reside in the Bărăgan, he was provided for by his son. In 1959, following an order calling for detainees who were freed or sent into forced residence to be rearrested, he was given a show trial and a 15-year sentence. This time he was sent to Jilava Prison where, in 1962, he received news of his wife's death. In 1963, his "re-education" began when he was taken to Bucharest and Ploiești to witness the regime's "achievements". The following year he began, under orders, to write a self-critical memoir but was convinced by fellow inmates to drop the effort. He was freed in late July 1964.

In 1968, when the French president, Charles de Gaulle, visited Romania, one of the delegation members was the country's prime minister, Maurice Couve de Murville, whose doctoral colleague Penescu had been in Paris. The prime minister intervened on his behalf and Penescu received approval to visit France for six months. During his stay, he asked for asylum and did not return to Romania. He also worked to rebuild the PNȚ in exile.

On 3 February 1981, he opened a package labeled as containing the memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev. The explosive inside seriously wounded him when he opened it, and he died of complications from his injuries in a Paris hospital at the end of that month. Penescu was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery.