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Dumitru Coroamă

January 01, 1970

Dumitru Coroamă (July 19, 1885 – 1956) was a Romanian soldier and fascist activist, who held the rank of major general of the Romanian Army during World War II. He was especially known for his contribution to the 1940 establishment of the National Legionary State by the far-right Iron Guard, with which he had been secretly involved for a decade. After beginnings as a schoolteacher in his native Neamț County, Coroamă had become an officer of the 15th Dorobanți Regiment, first earning distinction during World War I. Coroamă helped organize the defense of Western Moldavia, then participated in the Hungarian–Romanian War, establishing Romanian control in Bistrița and Baia Mare. He received the Order of the Star of Romania and the Order of Michael the Brave.

Dumitru Coroamă
Born(1885-07-19)19 July 1885
Hangu, Neamț County, Kingdom of Romania
Died1956(1956-00-00) (aged 70–71)
Bucharest, People's Republic of Romania
Buried
Eternitatea Cemetery, Piatra Neamț
Allegiance Romania
Anti-communist resistance
Service/branchRomanian Army
Years of service1907–1941
1944–1948
RankMajor general
Commands held1st Guard Division
Bucharest Military Command
4th Army Corps
Battles/wars
AwardsOrder of the Star of Romania
Order of Michael the Brave
Alma materHigher War School

While stationed in Piatra Neamț during the interwar, Coroamă took up various political and cultural activities, overseeing the Romanian Scouts and setting up a Military Club. He was also involved in establishing a local branch of the Iron Guard. He was moved around to the garrison in Satu Mare, also becoming a General in 1934. Despite his commitment to the revolutionary ideology of the Guard, he was well-liked by King Carol II, and in 1937 became commander of the Royal Palace garrison. This allowed him to sabotage Carol's attempt to use Palace troops against the Guard, and helped in toppling Carol. In the aftermath of the coup, Coroamă was mistrusted and marginalized by Conducător Ion Antonescu. Given command of the 4th Army Corps in Iași, he witnessed the clashes between Antonescu and his Guard colleagues, peaking during the Legionary Rebellion of 1941. Coroamă took a moderate stance, and his mediation helped Antonescu to restore order in Iași without bloodshed. However, Coroamă remained isolated by government, and had to resign. Later in 1941, as Nazi Germany and Romania opened an Eastern Front against the Soviet Union, Coroamă advised against continuing the offensive beyond Bessarabia. When this was ignored, he left military life altogether.

Coroamă returned to public life after the Royal Coup of 1944, participating in conspiracies against Soviet occupation. Reportedly, he was one of the Romanian generals prepared to support Germany during Operation Spring Awakening; he later switched his allegiance toward the Romanian National Committee and worked to consolidate a national network of anti-communist resistance groups, including Guardist ones. Arrested by the communist regime in May 1948, he spent six years doing penal labor, and was reportedly tortured. He died within two years of his release.

Biography edit

Early decades and rise edit

Coroamă was born on July 19, 1885, in Răpciune, a village in Hangu commune, Neamț County, nowadays covered by Lake Bicaz.[1] He was the eighth of ten children born to Toma and Ecaterina Coroamă. His father, a likely immigrant from the neighboring Duchy of Bukovina, was mayor of Hangu in 1876–1881; as such, he represented his constituents in litigation against landowner Grigore Sturdza.[2] Dumitru was the eighth of ten children born to the couple;[1] his more distant relatives included Eustochia Ciucanu, who was Staritsa at Agapia Monastery from 1960 to her death in 1992.[3] After graduating primary school in Schitu, the future general studied at the Petru Rareș High School, and worked as a substitute schoolteacher in Suceava County, at Broșteni, and then in Neamț, at Farcașa.[4][5] Opting for a career in the Romanian Land Forces, he graduated from the Infantry Officers' School (1907), emerging as a Sub-lieutenant, and then took a graduate diploma from the Higher War School.[6]

Assigned to the 15th Dorobanți Regiment in Piatra Neamț, Coroamă first saw action during the Second Balkan War of 1913.[7] He was again called to action during the campaign of World War I, overseeing defensive maneuvers on the fortified lines of the Trotuș, Oituz, and Uz river valleys.[4] By 1916, Coroamă was a captain,[8] and in full command the 3rd Infantry Battalion.[4] He earned distinction following the Battle of Mărășești: he was cited on October 11, 1916, for his "initiative and energy in holding on to a difficult position", and, on December 27, was made a Knight of the Order of the Star of Romania.[8] He continued to receive other distinctions, including the Order of Michael the Brave 3rd Class[7] (presented by Eremia Grigorescu) and various medals of the Allied countries.[4][5] He was later an Officer of the Order of the Star of Romania.[7]

On December 6, 1918, Coroamă, by then a Major, led his troops into Transylvania, arriving by train at Bistrița (see Union of Transylvania with Romania). Upon entering that city, he met with the Hungarian Republican administration, which he did not immediately depose. When the incumbent mayor, Gábor Ajtai Nagy, asked him to "spare the city", Coroamă replied that this his only mandate was to reestablish order "together with city leaders".[9] He was subsequently in charge of the Romanian garrison for the entire County of Bistrița.[10] Following the outbreak of a Hungarian–Romanian War, Coroamă led the assault battalion that secured Baia Mare on January 6, 1919.[11] An accidental ecrasite explosion[12] wounded Coroamă in the train station of Dej.[7] He was badly hurt, and had to be sent to Cluj for recovery.[12]

Coroamă's interwar career saw him returning to Piatra Neamț, where he was made Garrison Commander.[4][5] In October 1927, he was promoted to Colonel[13] and in 1929 was officially made Commander of the 15th Regiment.[7] The interval also witnessed Coroamă's involvement in far-right politics. In 1930, together with his wife, he established a Piatra Neamț chapter of the Iron Guard and sponsored its network of "Cross Brotherhoods". The family home featured a portrait of the Guardist leader, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, whom Coroamă had met during the previous war.[14] The building was flooded and suffered damages during the heavy rains of May 1930,[15] but was swiftly restored.[16]

King Carol II appointed Coroamă Brigadier General in late 1934,[16][17] after he had taken the final exams with top honors.[18] During the early 1930s, he had involved himself with the Romanian Scouting Movement, presiding upon its meetings in Neamț County and directing its propaganda efforts.[19] He also founded a Military Club and provided lectures detailing his own front-line experience.[16] In 1935, he was reassigned to lead the 16th Infantry Brigade of Satu Mare.[7][5] In June of that year, he was included on a panel which proposed to transform Gorunzel meadow into the Satu Mare Airfield; the project was finally completed in September 1937.[20] In November 1936, Coroamă presented military honors to Carol and Crown Prince Michael, who passed through Satu Mare on their way back from a state visit in Czechoslovakia.[21] Alongside Greek Catholic Bishop Alexandru Rusu, he presided over the Satu Mare chapter of the Anti-Revisionist League, which campaigned against Hungarian irredentism.[22]

1940 coup and 1941 rebellion edit

In November 1937,[17][13] Coroamă became General Officer Commanding 1st Guard Division at the Royal Palace in Bucharest, in service to Carol II. However, he secretly supported the Iron Guard's leader Horia Sima, who was in conflict with Carol's National Renaissance Front.[23][24] Sima's rise had been made possible by Carol's decision to arrest, and then assassinate, Codreanu. Coroamă's contacts with Sima were at the core of an enduring controversy between Guard factions: Codreanu's loyalist cells, which distrusted Sima, also viewed Coroamă as an agent of the Front and an appeaser. They noted in particular Coroamă's acknowledgement that he had mediated a September 1938 encounter between Sima and Carol's spymaster, Mihail Moruzov.[25] During these contacts, Coroamă was expected to present Carol with a memorandum on behalf of Codreanu, who had been detained and would later be killed in custody. Coroamă himself claimed that the initiative was curbed by Sima, who did not want Codreanu alive.[26]

As acknowledged by Sima, by May 1940 there were other encounters involving himself, Coroamă and Moruzov. During these parlays, they agreed that the Iron Guard should merge into the Front, which, on Coroamă's suggestion, was to be renamed "Front of the Nation".[27] On June 6, 1940, he was promoted to the rank of major general.[17] Coroamă rose to prominence after the events of autumn 1940, when the Second Vienna Award, which lost Romania rule over Northern Transylvania, engendered a political crisis. The Iron Guard began preparing for violent takeover, with Nicolae Petrașcu tasked with arming the would-be revolutionaries. As historian Ilarion Țiu notes, these "terrorist cells" were formed "from the second half of August, but on 3 September each member barely managed to have a revolver and the available hand grenades were very few".[28] In this context, Coroamă cooperated with Sima; he also came into contact with another authoritarian figure, General Ion Antonescu, who was reluctantly appointed Premier by Carol. In early September, as a sign of his cooperation with Sima, Antonescu appointed Coroamă to the post of General Officer in charge of Bucharest's Military Command, replacing the loyalist Gheorghe Argeșanu.[23][24][29]

On September 4, Carol received Antonescu, who informed him that the Iron Guard wanted a new king; on the occasion Antonescu also commented that the Front's government "cannot count on the commanders, and especially not on General Coroamă, who has switched completely toward the Iron Guard."[30] Soon afterward, Antonescu was told that two other loyalist generals, Gheorghe Mihail and Paul Teodorescu, were planning to have him killed.[23][24] He consequently demanded Carol's abdication. In tandem, General Coroamă refused to comply with the royal order of shooting down Guardists who marched in front of the Palace.[4][23][24][31] According to several period witnesses, his resistance persuaded Antonescu to follow suit, and allowed for a bloodless transition.[4][32] An account originating with the Guardist Ilie-Vlad Sturdza has it that "the two generals said they could not order to shoot at the population as long as no bullets [had been] fired for the lost territories."[33]

Coroamă himself confessed that he was an active participant in the coup, bringing up reserve troops to support the Guard. For this reason, Carol arrested him; Antonescu ordered his release, thus signaling to the king that he was no longer in control of the country.[29] An anecdote relayed by the old-regime politician Constantin Argetoianu presents another version of events, claiming that Antonescu had asked Coroamă to storm the area outside the Palace, though "without firing a shot." Also according to Argetoianu, Coroamă never showed up for duty, and claimed that he was "besieged in my own house" by the Guardists, who had mistaken him for the detested Argeșanu, also a mustachioed general. Coroamă's "inane" request was to have dispatches aired by Radio Bucharest, informing his assailants that "General Coroamă and General Argeșanu both wear mustaches"; an amused Antonescu urged him to "shave it off".[34]

Like other Guardists, Coroamă was dissatisfied with Antonescu's regime, or "National Legionary State". Already on September 9, 1940,[13] he was sent over as General Officer of the 4th Army Corps, stationed at Iași, which equated with a demotion.[4][34][35] Coroamă survived Antonescu's violent split with the Guard and the Legionary Rebellion of January 1941. As reported by diarist Mihail Sebastian, rumor spread that Coroamă and Corneliu Dragalina were marching on Bucharest to assist Sima against Antonescu.[36] This scenario was upheld by the Guardist poet Radu Gyr: on January 22, he addressed "several hundreds" of his comrades, informing them that the Coroamă–Dragalina march was both welcomed and imminent.[37]

However, Coroamă had again resumed his mitigating position and, alongside other Iași Guardists, including Ilie-Vlad Sturdza, he fought to pacify the city and minimize bloodshed. According to Nazi German diplomatic cables, he did so because he feared that the Soviet Union would profit from the unrest and invade Romania.[38] Coroamă also sought an understanding with the Guardist leader, Gheorghe Grijincu, asking him to return control over government buildings, and also to pledge resistance in case of a Soviet attack.[39] Another army leader, Constantin Sănătescu, noted that despite his standing as a "Guard sympathizer" Coroamă "behaved well, managing to peacefully quell the rebellion".[40] Coroamă resigned his commission as commander of the 4th Army Corps in January 1941.[17][35]

Repression and imprisonment edit

In February, following the resumption of government control over Iași, Coroamă was sent to the reserves.[13][8][34][40] Sănătescu, who took over as commander of the 4th Army Corps in January 1941, claimed that his predecessor had been sacked following a quarrel with Antonescu.[40] He continued to be marginalized as Romania opened an Eastern Front: Coroamă supported the retaking of Bessarabia, but argued that Romania should only send an expeditionary corps to assist Germany beyond that stage. Antonescu ignored this advice, pushing Coroamă to resign from the army and return to civilian life in Piatra Neamț.[4] Coroamă found himself under constant surveillance by Antonescu's Siguranța.[35] By 1944, a Soviet offensive had pierced into Romania, prompting the Royal Coup which toppled Antonescu. When Romania formally joined the Allied Powers, Coroamă was an alleged double-dealer, resuming his contacts with Sima, who now headed a pro-Nazi government in exile. During Operation Spring Awakening in March 1945, generals Coroamă, Dragalina, Sănătescu, Petre Dumitrescu, and Radu Korne were reportedly involved in a Nazi-organized plot to overthrow the Soviet occupation forces.[41]

Such initiatives failed and, over the following three years, the country underwent steady communization, ultimately reemerging as a communist state. As reported by the Guardist Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu in a 1999 interview, "in 1946–1947" Coroamă integrated with the anti-communist resistance, though as an army representative rather than as a Guard member. Ogoranu identifies Coroamă and Dragalina as members of the resistance coordinating committee, answering to the National Peasants' Party and the Romanian National Committee; Guardist cells were represented therein by Nicolae Petrașcu.[42] Gavrilă Ogoranu also recalled that in autumn 1947 Coroamă, who was based in Sibiu, traveled to Sâmbăta de Sus Monastery and met Arsenie Boca, with whom he planned various anti-communist activities.[43]

On May 15, 1948,[13] as the new regime inaugurated its hunt for Guardists, Coroamă was detained at Jilava Prison.[4] He was being subjected to repeated interrogations at Suceava penitentiary, where he was confronted with hostile witnesses Nicolae Popa and Lucian Pascaru; however, the Securitate only formally registered him as a prisoner on January 23, 1951, when the accusation was formulated as: "has supported the Iron Guard."[44] Coroamă had by then been sentenced to eight years in "labor colonies".[13] In 1949, Coroamă was sent by train westward, to Ocnele Mari; he shared the cattle car with junior members of the Guard, including those who had sent him the 1938 memorandum. He used this occasion to explain to them the circumstances in which the memorandum had been lost.[26] Coroamă shared confinement with other former Guardsmen—including Petre Țuțea and Ioan Victor Vojen; they joined a selection of former political rivals, including Mihail Manoilescu, Aurel Leucuția, and Petre Pandrea.[4] In his samizdat memoirs, Pandrea would include an account of "Carol II's odyssey, with its exact details", claiming that it was partly sourced from "things confessed to me by Mihail Manoilescu and General Coroamă".[45]

Another survivor of Ocnele Mari, Ioan Dumitrescu-Borșa, recalls: "[Coroamă was] a short, gentle, congenial, wise little old man. He was incapable of ever offending anyone. He always urged us to be self-contained and peaceful. He never spoke of himself."[46] Reports also suggest that he was fed broths made of beechnut and hay, a starvation treatment which pushed him to gnaw on his straw mat, or on wild dandelions.[47] Allegedly, the general was slated for persecution by a Romani man of the Securitate, who made him perform pointless physical exercise and beat him repeatedly.[4] Such mistreatment left him paralyzed and mute, his injuries unattended to for an entire year.[46] He was later relocated to Aiud, Gherla, and Văcărești prisons,[4] being ultimately released on June 19, 1954.[17][46] By then, he had been deemed too ill to survive detention, and was dropped off by Securitate officials at the home of a Bucharest relative; this was to be his last domicile.[4][46] Coroamă died in 1956.[8][17] Eight years later, his body was reburied at Eternitatea Cemetery in Piatra Neamț. This final ceremony was attended by fellow generals Nicolae Dăscălescu and Ilie Crețulescu, but also by Securitate agents monitoring dissent.[4][47]

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b Dieaconu et al., p. 107
  2. ^ Dieaconu et al., pp. 107–108
  3. ^ Valeriu Anania, "Primim: 'Salvați Agapia!'", in România Literară, Issue 13/1992, p. 2
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o (in Romanian) N. Sava, , in Ceahlăul, July 19, 2014
  5. ^ a b c d Dieaconu et al., p. 108
  6. ^ Trașcă, p. 230. See also Dieaconu et al., p. 108
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Extrase din memoriile originale ale foștilor comandanți", in În Slujba Patriei, January 2007, p. 8
  8. ^ a b c d Traian D. Lazăr, "Azi căpitan, mâine...", in Magazin Istoric, June 2018, pp. 60–61
  9. ^ Ioana Dragotă, "Școala civilă de stat pentru fete Baia Mare (1893–1948).—Radiografie istorică.—Partea a III-a. Trecerea în administrația românească", in Bibliotheca Septentrionalis, Vol. XVI, Issue 2, 2008, p. 81
  10. ^ Victor Moldovan, Memoriile unui politician din perioada interbelică. Vol. I, pp. 81, 423. Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2016. ISBN 978-973-595-971-5
  11. ^ Liviu Tătaru, "Actul Marii Uniri de la 1 decembrie 1918. Desfășurări în Lăpuș, Chioar, Codru și zona Baia Mare", in Bibliotheca Septentrionalis, Vol. XXV, Issue 2, December 2017, p. 58
  12. ^ a b Cornel Țucă, "Activitatea Senatului Național Român (Cluj) oglindită în notițele Sidoniei Docan", in Document, Issue 1/2009, p. 30
  13. ^ a b c d e f Trașcă, p. 230
  14. ^ Silvian-Emanuel Man, "Alegerile parlamentare din județul Neamț în anul 1931 în documente de arhivă", in Zilele Cercetării Științifice Studențești din Universitatea Constantin Brâncuși, Issue IV, 2012, p. 153
  15. ^ Neptun, "Inundațiile catastrofale din orașul Piatra-Neamț", in Avântul, Issue 56/1930, p. 2
  16. ^ a b c A. A. Rotundu, "Colonelul Coroamă", in Avântul, Issue 150/1934, p. 1
  17. ^ a b c d e f , at Generals.dk
  18. ^ "D-l colonel Coroamă a reușit întâiul pe țară la examenul de general", in Avântul, Issue 143/1934, p. 1
  19. ^ I. Fuioagă, "În sprijinul cercetășiei", in Avântul, Issue 122/1934, p. 1
  20. ^ Porumbăcean & Câmpean, pp. 95–99
  21. ^ Porumbăcean & Câmpean, pp. 105–106
  22. ^ Porumbăcean & Câmpean, p. 70
  23. ^ a b c d Dennis Deletant, Hitler's Forgotten Ally: Ion Antonescu and His Regime, Romania, 1940-1944, pp. 49–50. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. ISBN 978-1-4039-9341-0
  24. ^ a b c d Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, p. 327. Bucharest: Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Române, 1995. ISBN 978-973-9155-43-4
  25. ^ Mihai Demetriade, "Victor Biriș, cel mai important agent de influență din penitenciarul Aiud (1957–1963)", in Caietele CNSAS, Issues 1–2/2012, p. 87. See also Dieaconu et al., pp. 109–110
  26. ^ a b Dieaconu et al., pp. 109–110
  27. ^ Miskolczy, p. 926
  28. ^ Țiu, p. 37
  29. ^ a b Miskolczy, p. 937
  30. ^ Carol II of Romania, Însemnări zilnice. 1937–1951. Volumul III: 15 decembrie 1939–7 septembrie 1940 (Caietele 11–11A), pp. 299–300. Bucharest: Editura Scripta, 1998
  31. ^ Miskolczy, p. 936; Țiu, p. 38
  32. ^ Dieaconu et al., pp. 108–109
  33. ^ Țiu, p. 38
  34. ^ a b c Constantin Argetoianu, Însemnări zilnice. Volumul IX: 21 aprilie—31 decembrie 1941, p. 31. Bucharest: Editura Machiavelli, 2008
  35. ^ a b c Dieaconu et al., p. 109
  36. ^ Mihail Sebastian, Journal, 1935–1944, p. 312. London: Random House, 2003. ISBN 978-0-7126-8388-3
  37. ^ Dan Tudorache "Radu Gyr, de la 'cântăreț oficial' al Mișcării Legionare la poetul rezistenței din închisorile comuniste", in Altarul Reîntregirii, Issue 1/2020, p. 139
  38. ^ Trașcă, pp. 226–234
  39. ^ Trașcă, pp. 232–233
  40. ^ a b c Constantin Sănătescu, Jurnal, p. 25. Bucharest: Humanitas, 1993. ISBN 978-973-28-0381-3
  41. ^ Mircea Tănase, "1945 — ripostă sovietică la operațiunile 'Parașutiștii' și 'Deșteptarea Primăverii'", in Cetatea Bihariei. Revistă de Cultură și Istorie Militară, Issue 1/2007, pp. 62–63
  42. ^ Teodor Gheorghe Păiușan, "Forme organizate și spontane ale rezistenței anticomuniste și la colectivizare din Valea Crișului Alb", in Doru Sinaci, Emil Arbonie (eds.), Administrație românească arădeană. Studii și comunicări. Volumul III, pp. 272–273. Arad: Vasile Goldiș University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-973-664-521-1
  43. ^ Eugen Șahan, "Aspecte din rezistența românească împotriva sovietizării în perioada martie 1944—1962", in Romulus Rusan (ed.), Instaurarea comunismului. Între rezistență și represiune (Analele Sighet 2). Comunicări prezentate la simpozionul de la Sighetu Marmației (9—11 iunie 1995), p. 175. Bucharest: Fundația Academia Civică, 2016
  44. ^ Dieaconu et al., pp. 109–110, 111
  45. ^ Petre Pandrea, Memoriile mandarinului valah. Jurnal I: 1954–1956, p. 92. Bucharest: Editura Vremea, 2011. ISBN 978-973-645-440-0
  46. ^ a b c d Dieaconu et al., p. 110
  47. ^ a b Dieaconu et al., p. 111

References edit

  • Daniel Dieaconu, Mirela Topoliceanu, Cristian Vatamanu, "Rezistență și represiune pe valea Muntelui în timpul regimului comunist", in Karina Ingrid Cojocariu, Emanuel Bălan, Ioan Romeo Roman, Marius-Emanuel Sandu (eds.), , pp. 96–120. Iași: Editura PIM, 2020. ISBN 978-606-775-490-2
  • Ambrus Miskolczy, "A Vasgárda útja a hatalomhoz", in Hadtörténelmi Közlemények, Vol. 129, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 909–940.
  • Claudiu Porumbăcean, Viorel Câmpean, Caietele liberale sătmărene, II. Ștefan Benea (1889–1961). Cluj-Napoca: Editura Argonaut, 2014. ISBN 978-973-109-466-3
  • Ilarion Țiu, "Romanian Fascism during World War II. The National-Legionary Government (September 1940 – January 1941)", in Cogito. Multidisciplinary Research Journal, Vol. VIII, Issue 1, March 2016, pp. 34–49.
  • Ottmar Trașcă, "Rebeliunea legionară în viziunea Consulatului german din Iași, 19–25 ianuarie 1941", in Archiva Moldaviae, Vol. II, 2010, pp. 235.

January 01, 1970
dumitru, coroamă, july, 1885, 1956, romanian, soldier, fascist, activist, held, rank, major, general, romanian, army, during, world, especially, known, contribution, 1940, establishment, national, legionary, state, right, iron, guard, with, which, been, secret. Dumitru Coroamă July 19 1885 1956 was a Romanian soldier and fascist activist who held the rank of major general of the Romanian Army during World War II He was especially known for his contribution to the 1940 establishment of the National Legionary State by the far right Iron Guard with which he had been secretly involved for a decade After beginnings as a schoolteacher in his native Neamț County Coroamă had become an officer of the 15th Dorobanți Regiment first earning distinction during World War I Coroamă helped organize the defense of Western Moldavia then participated in the Hungarian Romanian War establishing Romanian control in Bistrița and Baia Mare He received the Order of the Star of Romania and the Order of Michael the Brave Dumitru CoroamăBorn 1885 07 19 19 July 1885Hangu Neamț County Kingdom of RomaniaDied1956 1956 00 00 aged 70 71 Bucharest People s Republic of RomaniaBuriedEternitatea Cemetery Piatra NeamțAllegiance RomaniaAnti communist resistanceService wbr branchRomanian ArmyYears of service1907 19411944 1948RankMajor generalCommands held1st Guard DivisionBucharest Military Command4th Army CorpsBattles warsSecond Balkan War World War I Romanian Campaign Battle of Mărășești Hungarian Romanian War World War II Romanian Campaign Legionary Rebellion Operation Spring AwakeningAwardsOrder of the Star of Romania Order of Michael the BraveAlma materHigher War School While stationed in Piatra Neamț during the interwar Coroamă took up various political and cultural activities overseeing the Romanian Scouts and setting up a Military Club He was also involved in establishing a local branch of the Iron Guard He was moved around to the garrison in Satu Mare also becoming a General in 1934 Despite his commitment to the revolutionary ideology of the Guard he was well liked by King Carol II and in 1937 became commander of the Royal Palace garrison This allowed him to sabotage Carol s attempt to use Palace troops against the Guard and helped in toppling Carol In the aftermath of the coup Coroamă was mistrusted and marginalized by Conducător Ion Antonescu Given command of the 4th Army Corps in Iași he witnessed the clashes between Antonescu and his Guard colleagues peaking during the Legionary Rebellion of 1941 Coroamă took a moderate stance and his mediation helped Antonescu to restore order in Iași without bloodshed However Coroamă remained isolated by government and had to resign Later in 1941 as Nazi Germany and Romania opened an Eastern Front against the Soviet Union Coroamă advised against continuing the offensive beyond Bessarabia When this was ignored he left military life altogether Coroamă returned to public life after the Royal Coup of 1944 participating in conspiracies against Soviet occupation Reportedly he was one of the Romanian generals prepared to support Germany during Operation Spring Awakening he later switched his allegiance toward the Romanian National Committee and worked to consolidate a national network of anti communist resistance groups including Guardist ones Arrested by the communist regime in May 1948 he spent six years doing penal labor and was reportedly tortured He died within two years of his release Contents 1 Biography 1 1 Early decades and rise 1 2 1940 coup and 1941 rebellion 1 3 Repression and imprisonment 2 Notes 3 ReferencesBiography editEarly decades and rise edit Coroamă was born on July 19 1885 in Răpciune a village in Hangu commune Neamț County nowadays covered by Lake Bicaz 1 He was the eighth of ten children born to Toma and Ecaterina Coroamă His father a likely immigrant from the neighboring Duchy of Bukovina was mayor of Hangu in 1876 1881 as such he represented his constituents in litigation against landowner Grigore Sturdza 2 Dumitru was the eighth of ten children born to the couple 1 his more distant relatives included Eustochia Ciucanu who was Staritsa at Agapia Monastery from 1960 to her death in 1992 3 After graduating primary school in Schitu the future general studied at the Petru Rareș High School and worked as a substitute schoolteacher in Suceava County at Broșteni and then in Neamț at Farcașa 4 5 Opting for a career in the Romanian Land Forces he graduated from the Infantry Officers School 1907 emerging as a Sub lieutenant and then took a graduate diploma from the Higher War School 6 Assigned to the 15th Dorobanți Regiment in Piatra Neamț Coroamă first saw action during the Second Balkan War of 1913 7 He was again called to action during the campaign of World War I overseeing defensive maneuvers on the fortified lines of the Trotuș Oituz and Uz river valleys 4 By 1916 Coroamă was a captain 8 and in full command the 3rd Infantry Battalion 4 He earned distinction following the Battle of Mărășești he was cited on October 11 1916 for his initiative and energy in holding on to a difficult position and on December 27 was made a Knight of the Order of the Star of Romania 8 He continued to receive other distinctions including the Order of Michael the Brave 3rd Class 7 presented by Eremia Grigorescu and various medals of the Allied countries 4 5 He was later an Officer of the Order of the Star of Romania 7 On December 6 1918 Coroamă by then a Major led his troops into Transylvania arriving by train at Bistrița see Union of Transylvania with Romania Upon entering that city he met with the Hungarian Republican administration which he did not immediately depose When the incumbent mayor Gabor Ajtai Nagy asked him to spare the city Coroamă replied that this his only mandate was to reestablish order together with city leaders 9 He was subsequently in charge of the Romanian garrison for the entire County of Bistrița 10 Following the outbreak of a Hungarian Romanian War Coroamă led the assault battalion that secured Baia Mare on January 6 1919 11 An accidental ecrasite explosion 12 wounded Coroamă in the train station of Dej 7 He was badly hurt and had to be sent to Cluj for recovery 12 Coroamă s interwar career saw him returning to Piatra Neamț where he was made Garrison Commander 4 5 In October 1927 he was promoted to Colonel 13 and in 1929 was officially made Commander of the 15th Regiment 7 The interval also witnessed Coroamă s involvement in far right politics In 1930 together with his wife he established a Piatra Neamț chapter of the Iron Guard and sponsored its network of Cross Brotherhoods The family home featured a portrait of the Guardist leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu whom Coroamă had met during the previous war 14 The building was flooded and suffered damages during the heavy rains of May 1930 15 but was swiftly restored 16 King Carol II appointed Coroamă Brigadier General in late 1934 16 17 after he had taken the final exams with top honors 18 During the early 1930s he had involved himself with the Romanian Scouting Movement presiding upon its meetings in Neamț County and directing its propaganda efforts 19 He also founded a Military Club and provided lectures detailing his own front line experience 16 In 1935 he was reassigned to lead the 16th Infantry Brigade of Satu Mare 7 5 In June of that year he was included on a panel which proposed to transform Gorunzel meadow into the Satu Mare Airfield the project was finally completed in September 1937 20 In November 1936 Coroamă presented military honors to Carol and Crown Prince Michael who passed through Satu Mare on their way back from a state visit in Czechoslovakia 21 Alongside Greek Catholic Bishop Alexandru Rusu he presided over the Satu Mare chapter of the Anti Revisionist League which campaigned against Hungarian irredentism 22 1940 coup and 1941 rebellion edit In November 1937 17 13 Coroamă became General Officer Commanding 1st Guard Division at the Royal Palace in Bucharest in service to Carol II However he secretly supported the Iron Guard s leader Horia Sima who was in conflict with Carol s National Renaissance Front 23 24 Sima s rise had been made possible by Carol s decision to arrest and then assassinate Codreanu Coroamă s contacts with Sima were at the core of an enduring controversy between Guard factions Codreanu s loyalist cells which distrusted Sima also viewed Coroamă as an agent of the Front and an appeaser They noted in particular Coroamă s acknowledgement that he had mediated a September 1938 encounter between Sima and Carol s spymaster Mihail Moruzov 25 During these contacts Coroamă was expected to present Carol with a memorandum on behalf of Codreanu who had been detained and would later be killed in custody Coroamă himself claimed that the initiative was curbed by Sima who did not want Codreanu alive 26 As acknowledged by Sima by May 1940 there were other encounters involving himself Coroamă and Moruzov During these parlays they agreed that the Iron Guard should merge into the Front which on Coroamă s suggestion was to be renamed Front of the Nation 27 On June 6 1940 he was promoted to the rank of major general 17 Coroamă rose to prominence after the events of autumn 1940 when the Second Vienna Award which lost Romania rule over Northern Transylvania engendered a political crisis The Iron Guard began preparing for violent takeover with Nicolae Petrașcu tasked with arming the would be revolutionaries As historian Ilarion Țiu notes these terrorist cells were formed from the second half of August but on 3 September each member barely managed to have a revolver and the available hand grenades were very few 28 In this context Coroamă cooperated with Sima he also came into contact with another authoritarian figure General Ion Antonescu who was reluctantly appointed Premier by Carol In early September as a sign of his cooperation with Sima Antonescu appointed Coroamă to the post of General Officer in charge of Bucharest s Military Command replacing the loyalist Gheorghe Argeșanu 23 24 29 On September 4 Carol received Antonescu who informed him that the Iron Guard wanted a new king on the occasion Antonescu also commented that the Front s government cannot count on the commanders and especially not on General Coroamă who has switched completely toward the Iron Guard 30 Soon afterward Antonescu was told that two other loyalist generals Gheorghe Mihail and Paul Teodorescu were planning to have him killed 23 24 He consequently demanded Carol s abdication In tandem General Coroamă refused to comply with the royal order of shooting down Guardists who marched in front of the Palace 4 23 24 31 According to several period witnesses his resistance persuaded Antonescu to follow suit and allowed for a bloodless transition 4 32 An account originating with the Guardist Ilie Vlad Sturdza has it that the two generals said they could not order to shoot at the population as long as no bullets had been fired for the lost territories 33 Coroamă himself confessed that he was an active participant in the coup bringing up reserve troops to support the Guard For this reason Carol arrested him Antonescu ordered his release thus signaling to the king that he was no longer in control of the country 29 An anecdote relayed by the old regime politician Constantin Argetoianu presents another version of events claiming that Antonescu had asked Coroamă to storm the area outside the Palace though without firing a shot Also according to Argetoianu Coroamă never showed up for duty and claimed that he was besieged in my own house by the Guardists who had mistaken him for the detested Argeșanu also a mustachioed general Coroamă s inane request was to have dispatches aired by Radio Bucharest informing his assailants that General Coroamă and General Argeșanu both wear mustaches an amused Antonescu urged him to shave it off 34 Like other Guardists Coroamă was dissatisfied with Antonescu s regime or National Legionary State Already on September 9 1940 13 he was sent over as General Officer of the 4th Army Corps stationed at Iași which equated with a demotion 4 34 35 Coroamă survived Antonescu s violent split with the Guard and the Legionary Rebellion of January 1941 As reported by diarist Mihail Sebastian rumor spread that Coroamă and Corneliu Dragalina were marching on Bucharest to assist Sima against Antonescu 36 This scenario was upheld by the Guardist poet Radu Gyr on January 22 he addressed several hundreds of his comrades informing them that the Coroamă Dragalina march was both welcomed and imminent 37 However Coroamă had again resumed his mitigating position and alongside other Iași Guardists including Ilie Vlad Sturdza he fought to pacify the city and minimize bloodshed According to Nazi German diplomatic cables he did so because he feared that the Soviet Union would profit from the unrest and invade Romania 38 Coroamă also sought an understanding with the Guardist leader Gheorghe Grijincu asking him to return control over government buildings and also to pledge resistance in case of a Soviet attack 39 Another army leader Constantin Sănătescu noted that despite his standing as a Guard sympathizer Coroamă behaved well managing to peacefully quell the rebellion 40 Coroamă resigned his commission as commander of the 4th Army Corps in January 1941 17 35 Repression and imprisonment edit In February following the resumption of government control over Iași Coroamă was sent to the reserves 13 8 34 40 Sănătescu who took over as commander of the 4th Army Corps in January 1941 claimed that his predecessor had been sacked following a quarrel with Antonescu 40 He continued to be marginalized as Romania opened an Eastern Front Coroamă supported the retaking of Bessarabia but argued that Romania should only send an expeditionary corps to assist Germany beyond that stage Antonescu ignored this advice pushing Coroamă to resign from the army and return to civilian life in Piatra Neamț 4 Coroamă found himself under constant surveillance by Antonescu s Siguranța 35 By 1944 a Soviet offensive had pierced into Romania prompting the Royal Coup which toppled Antonescu When Romania formally joined the Allied Powers Coroamă was an alleged double dealer resuming his contacts with Sima who now headed a pro Nazi government in exile During Operation Spring Awakening in March 1945 generals Coroamă Dragalina Sănătescu Petre Dumitrescu and Radu Korne were reportedly involved in a Nazi organized plot to overthrow the Soviet occupation forces 41 Such initiatives failed and over the following three years the country underwent steady communization ultimately reemerging as a communist state As reported by the Guardist Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu in a 1999 interview in 1946 1947 Coroamă integrated with the anti communist resistance though as an army representative rather than as a Guard member Ogoranu identifies Coroamă and Dragalina as members of the resistance coordinating committee answering to the National Peasants Party and the Romanian National Committee Guardist cells were represented therein by Nicolae Petrașcu 42 Gavrilă Ogoranu also recalled that in autumn 1947 Coroamă who was based in Sibiu traveled to Sambăta de Sus Monastery and met Arsenie Boca with whom he planned various anti communist activities 43 On May 15 1948 13 as the new regime inaugurated its hunt for Guardists Coroamă was detained at Jilava Prison 4 He was being subjected to repeated interrogations at Suceava penitentiary where he was confronted with hostile witnesses Nicolae Popa and Lucian Pascaru however the Securitate only formally registered him as a prisoner on January 23 1951 when the accusation was formulated as has supported the Iron Guard 44 Coroamă had by then been sentenced to eight years in labor colonies 13 In 1949 Coroamă was sent by train westward to Ocnele Mari he shared the cattle car with junior members of the Guard including those who had sent him the 1938 memorandum He used this occasion to explain to them the circumstances in which the memorandum had been lost 26 Coroamă shared confinement with other former Guardsmen including Petre Țuțea and Ioan Victor Vojen they joined a selection of former political rivals including Mihail Manoilescu Aurel Leucuția and Petre Pandrea 4 In his samizdat memoirs Pandrea would include an account of Carol II s odyssey with its exact details claiming that it was partly sourced from things confessed to me by Mihail Manoilescu and General Coroamă 45 Another survivor of Ocnele Mari Ioan Dumitrescu Borșa recalls Coroamă was a short gentle congenial wise little old man He was incapable of ever offending anyone He always urged us to be self contained and peaceful He never spoke of himself 46 Reports also suggest that he was fed broths made of beechnut and hay a starvation treatment which pushed him to gnaw on his straw mat or on wild dandelions 47 Allegedly the general was slated for persecution by a Romani man of the Securitate who made him perform pointless physical exercise and beat him repeatedly 4 Such mistreatment left him paralyzed and mute his injuries unattended to for an entire year 46 He was later relocated to Aiud Gherla and Văcărești prisons 4 being ultimately released on June 19 1954 17 46 By then he had been deemed too ill to survive detention and was dropped off by Securitate officials at the home of a Bucharest relative this was to be his last domicile 4 46 Coroamă died in 1956 8 17 Eight years later his body was reburied at Eternitatea Cemetery in Piatra Neamț This final ceremony was attended by fellow generals Nicolae Dăscălescu and Ilie Crețulescu but also by Securitate agents monitoring dissent 4 47 Notes edit a b Dieaconu et al p 107 Dieaconu et al pp 107 108 Valeriu Anania Primim Salvați Agapia in Romania Literară Issue 13 1992 p 2 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o in Romanian N Sava Generalul Dumitru Coroamă Majestate nu pot să execut ordinul de a trage in tineretul țării in Ceahlăul July 19 2014 a b c d Dieaconu et al p 108 Trașcă p 230 See also Dieaconu et al p 108 a b c d e f Extrase din memoriile originale ale foștilor comandanți in In Slujba Patriei January 2007 p 8 a b c d Traian D Lazăr Azi căpitan maine in Magazin Istoric June 2018 pp 60 61 Ioana Dragotă Școala civilă de stat pentru fete Baia Mare 1893 1948 Radiografie istorică Partea a III a Trecerea in administrația romanească in Bibliotheca Septentrionalis Vol XVI Issue 2 2008 p 81 Victor Moldovan Memoriile unui politician din perioada interbelică Vol I pp 81 423 Cluj Napoca Presa Universitară Clujeană 2016 ISBN 978 973 595 971 5 Liviu Tătaru Actul Marii Uniri de la 1 decembrie 1918 Desfășurări in Lăpuș Chioar Codru și zona Baia Mare in Bibliotheca Septentrionalis Vol XXV Issue 2 December 2017 p 58 a b Cornel Țucă Activitatea Senatului Național Roman Cluj oglindită in notițele Sidoniei Docan in Document Issue 1 2009 p 30 a b c d e f Trașcă p 230 Silvian Emanuel Man Alegerile parlamentare din județul Neamț in anul 1931 in documente de arhivă in Zilele Cercetării Științifice Studențești din Universitatea Constantin Brancuși Issue IV 2012 p 153 Neptun Inundațiile catastrofale din orașul Piatra Neamț in Avantul Issue 56 1930 p 2 a b c A A Rotundu Colonelul Coroamă in Avantul Issue 150 1934 p 1 a b c d e f Generals from Romania at Generals dk D l colonel Coroamă a reușit intaiul pe țară la examenul de general in Avantul Issue 143 1934 p 1 I Fuioagă In sprijinul cercetășiei in Avantul Issue 122 1934 p 1 Porumbăcean amp Campean pp 95 99 Porumbăcean amp Campean pp 105 106 Porumbăcean amp Campean p 70 a b c d Dennis Deletant Hitler s Forgotten Ally Ion Antonescu and His Regime Romania 1940 1944 pp 49 50 London Palgrave Macmillan 2006 ISBN 978 1 4039 9341 0 a b c d Z Ornea Anii treizeci Extrema dreaptă romanească p 327 Bucharest Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Romane 1995 ISBN 978 973 9155 43 4 Mihai Demetriade Victor Biriș cel mai important agent de influență din penitenciarul Aiud 1957 1963 in Caietele CNSAS Issues 1 2 2012 p 87 See also Dieaconu et al pp 109 110 a b Dieaconu et al pp 109 110 Miskolczy p 926 Țiu p 37 a b Miskolczy p 937 Carol II of Romania Insemnări zilnice 1937 1951 Volumul III 15 decembrie 1939 7 septembrie 1940 Caietele 11 11A pp 299 300 Bucharest Editura Scripta 1998 Miskolczy p 936 Țiu p 38 Dieaconu et al pp 108 109 Țiu p 38 a b c Constantin Argetoianu Insemnări zilnice Volumul IX 21 aprilie 31 decembrie 1941 p 31 Bucharest Editura Machiavelli 2008 a b c Dieaconu et al p 109 Mihail Sebastian Journal 1935 1944 p 312 London Random House 2003 ISBN 978 0 7126 8388 3 Dan Tudorache Radu Gyr de la cantăreț oficial al Mișcării Legionare la poetul rezistenței din inchisorile comuniste in Altarul Reintregirii Issue 1 2020 p 139 Trașcă pp 226 234 Trașcă pp 232 233 a b c Constantin Sănătescu Jurnal p 25 Bucharest Humanitas 1993 ISBN 978 973 28 0381 3 Mircea Tănase 1945 ripostă sovietică la operațiunile Parașutiștii și Deșteptarea Primăverii in Cetatea Bihariei Revistă de Cultură și Istorie Militară Issue 1 2007 pp 62 63 Teodor Gheorghe Păiușan Forme organizate și spontane ale rezistenței anticomuniste și la colectivizare din Valea Crișului Alb in Doru Sinaci Emil Arbonie eds Administrație romanească arădeană Studii și comunicări Volumul III pp 272 273 Arad Vasile Goldiș University Press 2011 ISBN 978 973 664 521 1 Eugen Șahan Aspecte din rezistența romanească impotriva sovietizării in perioada martie 1944 1962 in Romulus Rusan ed Instaurarea comunismului Intre rezistență și represiune Analele Sighet 2 Comunicări prezentate la simpozionul de la Sighetu Marmației 9 11 iunie 1995 p 175 Bucharest Fundația Academia Civică 2016 Dieaconu et al pp 109 110 111 Petre Pandrea Memoriile mandarinului valah Jurnal I 1954 1956 p 92 Bucharest Editura Vremea 2011 ISBN 978 973 645 440 0 a b c d Dieaconu et al p 110 a b Dieaconu et al p 111References editDaniel Dieaconu Mirela Topoliceanu Cristian Vatamanu Rezistență și represiune pe valea Muntelui in timpul regimului comunist in Karina Ingrid Cojocariu Emanuel Bălan Ioan Romeo Roman Marius Emanuel Sandu eds Anticomunism și represiune comunistă 1945 1989 Simpozion regional cu participare internațională Ediția a V a Targu Neamț 30 octombrie 2020 pp 96 120 Iași Editura PIM 2020 ISBN 978 606 775 490 2 Ambrus Miskolczy A Vasgarda utja a hatalomhoz in Hadtortenelmi Kozlemenyek Vol 129 Issue 4 2014 pp 909 940 Claudiu Porumbăcean Viorel Campean Caietele liberale sătmărene II Ștefan Benea 1889 1961 Cluj Napoca Editura Argonaut 2014 ISBN 978 973 109 466 3 Ilarion Țiu Romanian Fascism during World War II The National Legionary Government September 1940 January 1941 in Cogito Multidisciplinary Research Journal Vol VIII Issue 1 March 2016 pp 34 49 Ottmar Trașcă Rebeliunea legionară in viziunea Consulatului german din Iași 19 25 ianuarie 1941 in Archiva Moldaviae Vol II 2010 pp 235 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Dumitru Coroamă amp oldid 1188702996, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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