Annals: Series on History and Archaeology (Academy of Romanian Scientists) (Nov 2019)
DOCTOR CONSTANTIN ANGELESCU, PRESIDENT OF THE ROMANIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Abstract
On 29 March 1935, Professor Doctor Constantin Angelescu, distinguished surgeon, minister in several governments ruled by the National Liberal Party, the first ambassador of Romania in Washington (1918), and, for a brief period of time, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (30 December 1933 - 3 January 1934) established the Romanian Academy of Sciences, together with other members of the Romanian Academy – Dragomir Hurmuzescu, Dimitrie Călugăreanu, Ion Borcea, and Ștefan Minovici. Disputed by the Romanian Academy itself, the establishment of the Romanian Academy of Sciences was dismissed by a court of law as „unfounded” and subsequently annulled by King Carol II, on 8 July 1938. Nevertheless, the institution continued to operate under the designation the Romanian Institute of Sciences until 6 November 1940, when, following the adoption of a decree signed by Ion Antonescu and Mihai Antonescu - the then Minister of Justice – the Romanian Institute of Sciences reverts to its previous designation and continues to operate as the Romanian Academy of Sciences. The Journal, the scientific review published by the Romanian Academy of Sciences included a number of valuable scientific articles, with abstracts in French, English, German, and Italian. For 12 years, until 16 November 1947, the Romanian Academy of Sciences, presided over by Dr. C. Angelescu, had published various Comptes Rendus, and in April 1944, a large part of its members signed a Memorandum requesting Ion Antonescu to find a way out from the war against Russia, England, and the United States. After the establishment of the communist regime, Dr. C. Angelescu, a Liberal Party minister and leader, now deemed „a bourgeois and a reactionary” became the target of the Stalinist regime. His death on 14 September 1948 spared him the nightmare of the Romanian Stalinist prisons, where the military and scientific elite of interwar Romania met its demise. On 9 June 1948, the Romanian Academy of Sciences was taken over by the Romanian Academy, by decree. In 2007, the Academy of Romanian Scientists was established by law, as the rightful successor of the institution founded by Dr. Constantin Angelescu, who was thus honored for his scientific and political merits.
