Costin Ion Murgescu (, birth name Constantin Ion Murgescu;Vasile (2018), p. 586 October 27, 1919 – August 30, 1989) was a Romanian economist, jurist, journalist and diplomat. A supporter of fascism during his youth, he switched to communism by the end of World War II, and became an editor of the Communist Party daily organ, România Liberă. He taught at the University of Bucharest and worked for the Institute of Economic Conjecture. Having campaigned for multilateralism in world affairs as early as 1944, he helped to distance Romania from the Soviet Union after 1964, and later represented his country at the United Nations. He wrote extensively, publishing works on the effects of land reform and industrialization, on the history of economic thought, and on Romania's relations with the Comecon and the First World.
An innovator among the Romanian communist intellectual and professional elite, Murgescu spent his final decades questioning the assumptions of Marxian economics. At the Institute for World Economy, which later became a branch of the Romanian Academy, he trained a new generation of like-minded economists. Shortly before his death, he was involved in dissidence against the Nicolae Ceaușescu regime. Although he did not live long enough to witness the 1989 Revolution, he played an indirect part in shaping the economic policies to which the country turned in post-communism. The estranged son of Lieutenant Colonel Murgescu, a convicted war criminal, Costin Murgescu was married to Ecaterina Oproiu, a Romanian writer and social commentator. He was survived by his nephew and disciple, historian Bogdan Murgescu.
Biography
Early life and fascist militancy Born in Râmnicu Sărat,Laurențiu Guțescu, Ion Bold, Marius Băcescu, Oameni de seamă: economiști. Editura Mica Valahie, 2013, , pp. 365–366 Costin Murgescu at the Bank Deposit Guarantee Fund site the future economist was the son of a Romanian Land Forces officer, Ion C. Murgescu, who was later in command if Vapniarka concentration camp.Balas, p. 336; Vasile (2018), p. 587 Young Murgescu was originally interested in jurisprudence, and entered the law faculty of the University of Bucharest. His beginnings were as a literary critic, with an essay on the literary and artistic life of Balcic. It was picked up by the magazine Familia, and deemed "interesting, but insufficient" by chroniclers at Revista Fundațiilor Regale."Revista revistelor", in Revista Fundațiilor Regale, Issue 12/1938, p. 714 Aged nineteen, Murgescu wrote a historical work, about the trial of the Transylvanian Memorandum signatories.Isărescu, p. 32 Around that time, he was also a staff writer for the Oradea literary newspaper, Noua Gazetă de Vest, where he conducted a questionnaire survey on the state of cultural life in the provinces of Greater Romania.Anca Filipovici, "O incursiune în presa culturală interbelică din provincie: localismul creator ca simptom al periferiei în nordul Moldovei", in Raduț Bîlbîie, Mihaela Teodor (eds.), Elita culturală și presa (Congresul Național de istorie a presei, ediția a VI-a), Editura Militară, Bucharest, 2013, , pp. 267–268
During the first years of World War II, Murgescu was a supporter of the fascist Iron Guard and, in his own definition, a theoretician of "totalitarian" politics. He began a collaboration with the newspaper Universul, where, as later recounted by his colleague Ștefan Baciu, he was one of the three staff writers who showed up for work wearing the Guard's green-colored shirts."Centenar Radu Gyr", in Biblioteca Bucureștilor, Issue 3/2005, p. 13 He was also allegedly involved in brawls at the university. These pitted him against students such as Dan Amedeo Lăzărescu, who had defaced portraits of the Guard's founding father, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu."Până la ora 12. Note și comentarii. Evoluție", in Dreptatea, June 12, 1946, p. 4 Starting in August 1940, a full month before the Guard proclaimed its National Legionary regime, Murgescu published a series of political musings in Universul, as well as in periodicals such as Buna Vestire. These were soon after collected as a brochure, Note pentru Statul Totalitar ("Notes on the Totalitarian State").Constantin Fântâneru, "Cronica literară. Costin I. Murgescu, Note pentru Statul Totalitar", in Universul Literar, Issue 45/1940, p. 2Boia, pp. 164–165
The general conclusion of the work, partly based on direct quotations from Mein Kampf, was that totalitarianism, moving beyond authoritarian regimes and their "everyday ephemera", was centered on the promise of a "new man"—whose creation would both rehabilitate humanity and change history "for eternity".Nicolae Ciuceanu, "Țara culturală. Note pentru Statul Totalitar", in Țara, December 16, 1941, p. 2 As a literary chronicler at Universul, Constantin Fântâneru saw in Murgescu "that model of an author who will win people over to a doctrine simply by outlining clearly its ideas." In the official newspaper Țara, Nicolae Ciuceanu noted: "With this work, Mr Costin Murgescu has won himself a leading position in Romanian journalism, and this accomplishment is all the more important, given that the writer is presently just 24 years of age." The brochure quoted at length from the speeches of Benito Mussolini and Iron Guard leader Horia Sima."Note", in Preocupări Literare. Revista Societății Prietenii Istoriei Literare, Issue 11/1940, pp. 697–698 Envisaging the "new man" as "strong, lively, and immaculate", it called for a non-violent "moral revolution" to bring Romania into the "New European Order". It sought to rebuild culture around the Guard's "Legionary spirit", and promised artistic freedom "only to ethnic Romanians." In his Universul chronicles, Murgescu offered his praise to both Codreanu and the military Conducător, Ion Antonescu.Boia, pp. 164–165, 234, 291 Moreover, he penned warnings against the Guard's enemies: "those who have martyred this People—no mercy for them. They should expect a terrible punishment."Boia, p. 165 He still had contributions as a literary critic, such as a short introduction to Japanese poetry.Costin I. Murgescu, "O prezentare lirică a Japoniei", in Revista Fundațiilor Regale, Issue 12/1940, pp. 690–696
Murgescu remained active in the press after the Guard fell from power in the violent purge of early 1941. With Antonescu as the uncontested dictator, Romania became involved in the anti-Soviet war as an ally of Nazi Germany. Murgescu was drafted into the Romanian Land Forces, but continued to write (including an unpublished novel and war diary) and was allowed to pass his examinations at the university. With his journalistic work, he moved to the more mainstream review, Vremea, where he contributed analytical essays about the war effort. In one such piece, on October 25, 1942, just before the crushing of Romanian forces, he predicted that the Red Army was too exhausted and famished to mount an offensive.Boia, p. 231 By 1943, his articles in Vremea and Revista Fundațiilor Regale were turning toward economics and economic history, citing Victor Slăvescu as a model and inspiration.Costin I. Murgescu, "Victor Slăvescu și posibilitatea unei istorii a gândirii noastre economice", in Revista Fundațiilor Regale, Issue 11/1943, pp. 463–467 Murgescu's father, Ion, had "strong pro-Nazi sympathies"Balas, p. 336 and was a willing participant in Antonescu's war crimes. By September 1942, the elder Murgescu was the commandant of Vapniarka, a concentration camp for Jewish deportees, ordering them to be fed on grass pea, which caused an outbreak of lathyrism and resulted in several deaths and many more crippling infirmities."Maiorul Murgescu confruntat cu victimele din lagărul Vapniarca. 'Ați intrat sănătoși și veți ieși in cârje de aci' le spune maiorul Murgescu victimelor", in Timpul, April 5, 1945, p. 1"Dr. Arthur Kessler (1903–2000)", in Lathyrus Lathyrism Newsletter, Vol. 3, pp. 3–4; Dennis Deletant, Hitler's Forgotten Ally: Ion Antonescu and His Regime, Romania, 1940-1944. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2006, , p. 197; Kornis, pp. 228–229
Communist turn and România Liberă In a 1987 article, L. Eșanu argues that Murgescu's participation in the left-wing resistance to Antonescu was already visible in January 1943, the alleged date at which the underground newspaper România Liberă had been set up. Eșanu includes Murgescu on a list of its founders.L. Eșanu, "Sublinieri. 15 August - Ziua presei române. Tradiții revoluționare", in Ateneu, Issue 8/1987, p. 2 As noted by historian Lucian Boia, he had fully renounced his "juvenile totalitarian illusions"Boia, p. 234 by January 1944, with Romania facing the possibility of a Soviet invasion. Finding himself in open conflict with his own father, Murgescu became a contributor to Ecoul, the semi-legal newspaper. It published his essays against Antonescu's economic policies and the New Order, which argued, with a noted "dialectical" tinge, in favor of multilateralism and an "international division of labor".Angela Banciu, "Din propaganda rezistenței antifasciste românești. Ziarul Ecoul și rolul său între anii 1943—1944", in Revista de Istorie, Issue 7/1989, pp. 697–698 His Vremea articles, arranged for print by the antifascist editor George Ivașcu, looked forward to a new era of peace, shaped by international cooperation. According to Boia, he may have been encouraged to explore the subject by the Propaganda Ministry, which was sending out signals that some dignitaries were willing to sue for peace.Boia, pp. 234–235
During or immediately after the August 23 Coup which toppled Antonescu, Murgescu involved himself with left-wing political circles, including the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) and the Union of Patriots. The latter's newspaper, Tribuna Poporului, had him as an economic columnist from its first issue, on October 16.Valentin Silvestru, "1944–1983", in Teatrul, Issue 3/1983, p. 84 As a display of his loyalty to the new regime, he volunteered for war against the Nazis, fought in Northern Transylvania, and was badly wounded. Virgil Lazăr, "RL, 135 de ani. Prima femeie la cârma României Libere", in România Liberă, March 6, 2012 He was a personal witness to the recapture of Târgu Mureș in October 1944, writing a România Liberă reportage on this subject.Vasile Budrigă, "Luptele purtate pentru eliberarea României de sub dominația fascistă reflectate în presa centrală românească a timpului (23 august – 25 octombrie 1944)", in Revista Muzeelor și Monumentelor, Issue 5/1985, pp. 54, 56 His piece on the taking on Cluj appeared in 1945, as part of a reportage collection curated by architect George Matei Cantacuzino.M. N. R., "G. M. Cantacuzino și Galeria Eroilor", in Săptămîna, Issue 36/1988, p. 3