Dinu Brătianu (January 13, 1866 – August 20, 1950), born Constantin I. C. Brătianu, was a Romanian engineer and politician who led the National Liberal Party (PNL) starting in 1934.
Upon returning to Romania, he worked on the coordination of oil field exploitation works in Solonț, Bacău County. He took part in the installation of the first wells in Moinești, in the construction of the railway that was mounted on Tarcău River valley, and of the railway bridges between Barboși and Brăila.[2] He later was the director of the Romanian Bank, the most important private bank in the country at the time, and several other credit unions.[3]
Dinu Brătianu with the press, 1933
Brătianu was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies of Romania in 1895, and was elected without interruption between 1910 and 1938. He held no governmental position until 1933–1934, when he was Minister of Finance.
He sought to oppose the communists by protesting to the American and British diplomats from Bucharest. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Schuyler, the American general, portrayed the man who was supposed to fight communists: "Generally, Mr. Brătianu has disappointed me as a political leader", Schuyler wrote in 1945. "He is almost 80 and seems to be wasting his energy. Although he is very unhappy about the actual state of things, he has not offered a constructive programme for recovery, aside from a general opposition to what he calls the exorbitant and unjust demands set by Russia".
He refused to be part of the communist cabinet formed by Petru Groza on March 6, 1945. The Siguranța (the secret police service, which by that time had been taken over by the communists) had him under close surveillance.[4] Kept under house arrest by the authorities, Brătianu was arrested in 1950 and imprisoned without trial. On May 5, 1950 he was sent to the notorious Sighet Prison, where he died a few months later, on August 20, in cell number 12. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the nearby Pauper's Cemetery [ro], Sighetu Marmației. In the fall of 1971, his remains were reburied in a niche in the inner wall of the church in his birthplace, Florica.[2]
Private life and legacy
The Dinu Brătianu House on Calea Dorobanților, in Sector 1 of Bucharest
On August 26, 1907, he married Alexandrina (Adina) Costinescu (1886–1975), the daughter of Emil Costinescu, an important National Liberal Party politician.[3][5] In 1909, Brătianu had his residence built at 16, Calea Dorobanților, near Piața Romană in Bucharest; the architect was Petre Antonescu.[3][6] During World War I, when Brătianu took refuge in Iași with his family, the mansion was pillaged by the Central Powers troops that had occupied Bucharest in December 1916.[1]
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