Gheorghe Pop de Băsești

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Early life

Gheorghe Pop de Băsești was born on 1 August 1835 in the village of Szilágyillésfalva/Băsești (Transylvania, Austrian Empire), as the son of Petru Pop de Băsești and Susana Pop de Turț, both members of the local gentry. He completed the gymnasium in Nagybánya/Baia Mare (the first 6 grades) and in Nagyvárad/Oradea (the last 2 grades of the gymnasium), before moving on to study Law at the Nagyvárad Academy.<ref name="graiulsj">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

After graduating from the Oradea Academy in 1859, Pop de Băsești found a clerk's job, but shortly after he was conscripted in the Austrian Imperial Army and participated in the Second Italian War of Independence (1859–1860).<ref name="ltgpb"/><ref name="tribuna"/>

In 1860, after he had been released from the active service, Pop de Băsești returned to his native county, where he worked as first praetor in Hadad/Hodod and as a judge.<ref name="graiulsj"/> In 1860, he married Maria Loșonți, with whom he had 2 children: Maria Carolina (who died at the age of 1 on 16 January 1862)<ref name="caietesilvane">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Elena (1862–1940).<ref name="ltgpb"/><ref name="tribuna"/> According to a source, Maria Loșonți, the widow of the Baron Sebeși, had had with Pop de Băsești in 1859 another daughter out of wedlock, Ana, before they married one year later.<ref name="rus">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Political activity

Deputy in the Diet of Hungary

On 22 June 1872, Pop de Băsești was elected for the first time deputy in the Hungarian diet in the Szilágycseh electoral district, where, for the following nine years (he was again elected in 1875 and 1878), he advocated for the rights of ethnic Romanians living in Transylvania.<ref name="graiulsj"/><ref name="ltgpb"/> In that capacity Pop de Băsești protested vehemently against the consequences of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and the Magyarization conducted via the education laws of 1868 and 1879, the Nationalities Law, the Electoral and Press laws,<ref name="ltgpb"/> comparing the status of the Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary with that of the Irish in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: "For the Ireland of the Magyar state, for this is what the unfortunate Transylvania is, we have endured in these lands for longer than 2000 years. All our tribulations and hopes bond us to the land on which we live".<ref name="gazetamm">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On the adoption of the Trefort education bill in 1879, which sought to make the Hungarian language mandatory in primary and confessional schools, Pop de Băsești stated the following: "If it's a sin to make an attempt on another man's life, in the case of the present law it is a greater sin to make an attempt on the life of an ethnicity, even of more nationalities, of all nationalities of the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen".<ref name="ltgpb"/>

Pop de Băsești's personality gained the respect of his political opponent Kálmán Tisza, who declared: "You're a fierce man, fanatical Daco-Romanian! We are a world apart from each other. We shall never find any common ground. However I respect the deep conviction with which you defended so heartily the cause of your people".<ref name="ltgpb"/>

In 1879, Pop de Băsești resigned from the Template:Ill (where he held the position of vice president) after having lost the belief that Romanians' and Hungarians' interests could be reconciled.<ref name="graiulmm">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His resignation provided the occasion for Kálmán Tisza to attempt convincing Gheorghe Pop de Băsești to join his party: "We would need brave and determined men. Come and join us and I guarantee there is no dignity in Hungary you couldn't obtain", to which Pop de Băsești replied: "Even if you gave me the whole Hungary I would not betray the righteous cause of my poor and unfortunate people, who, beside God, my comrades and myself, has no other defenders against your oppressive tendencies".<ref name="graiulmm"/>

Romanian National Party

Subsequently, Pop de Băsești joined the National Party of Romanians in Transylvania. Between 12–14 May 1881, he participated at the national conference in Nagyszeben that sealed the merger of the National Party of Romanians in Transylvania with the National Party of Romanians in Banat and Hungary into the Romanian National Party (Template:Langx, PNR).<ref name="graiulsj"/><ref name="ltgpb"/> Pop de Băsești was also elected in the executive committee of the party as the central coordinator for the Szilágy, Szatmár and Máramaros counties.<ref name="graiulsj"/>

In 1881, Pop de Băsești ran again for a deputy seat in Szilágycseh, however he lost after the authorities called in 120 gendarmes from 5 surrounding counties. He would not run again until 1905, after the PNR had abandoned the strategy of political passivism.<ref name="graiulsj"/>

The Transylvanian Memorandum

At the 1887 national conference of the PNR the participants voiced their grievances in regard to the worsening situation of the ethnic Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary and decided to present the Emperor a petition encompassing the growing complaints against the consequences of the Ausgleich: the discrimination and the Magyarization process conducted against the ethnic Romanians, their underrepresentation in the Hungarian Parliament through the electoral laws despite their demographic majority in Transylvania and the way the Ausgleich was adopted, without consulting the Transylvanians.<ref name="memorandum">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="oszk">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Nevertheless, at the next national conference (1890) it was decided to postpone this endeavor to a later, more convenient date.<ref name="graiulsj"/> As a result of this decision, in November 1891, Pop de Băsești asked for the resignation of the PNR president Vincențiu Babeș and argued that the leadership of PNR should be taken over "by an appeasing person, with a calm temperament and above all totally independent and master of his own ideas and beliefs".<ref name="graiulsj"/><ref name="graiulmm"/>

The signatories of the Memorandum (among them Gheorghe Pop de Băsești, third from the left, bottom row)

Heeding his call, the delegates of the PNR elected in 1892 Template:Ill as president and Pop de Băsești as vice president of the PNR.<ref name="graiulsj"/> The new leaders decided to task Vasile Lucaciu and Iuliu Coroianu with drafting and publishing the petition. Under the name of "Transylvanian Memorandum", the petition was approved by the PNR on 25 March 1892 and brought on 28 May 1892 to Vienna by 300 delegates of the PNR (among them 48 members from Szilágy County, including Pop de Băsești) to be presented to the Emperor Franz Joseph in a sealed envelope.<ref name="memorandum"/> At the request of the Hungarian government, Franz Joseph did not receive the delegation and forwarded the unopened envelope to the Hungarian Prime-Minister, which in turn forwarded it unopened to the Torda-Aranyos Ispán in order to be returned to the sender, Ioan Rațiu, arguing that the Hungarian Ministry of Interior was not authorized to present the Emperor with petitions of individuals not entitled to represent the ethnic Romanians in Hungary.<ref name="memorandum"/><ref name="oszk"/>

Met with refusal, PNR published the memorandum in the press. Tensions ran high: Rațiu's home in Torda was damaged by Hungarian demonstrators, leading to protests in Romania.<ref name="oszk"/> After a while, the government in Budapest gave in to pressure from the Hungarian nationalists and in May 1893 it launched proceedings against the PNR president, Raţiu, the vice president, Pop de Băsești, the secretaries Vasile Lucaciu and Septimiu Albini, and other PNR leaders who acknowledged their involvement in drafting and publishing the petition.<ref name="oszk"/>

Consequently, on 7 May 1894, 14 leaders of the PNR, including Pop de Băsești, were put on trial in Kolozsvár for various charges, ranging from disturbing the peace to high treason.<ref name="digi">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="memorandum"/> On 25 May 1894, the verdicts were handed down: all the accused were found guilty, and on 27 May 1894, the judge sentenced them to imprisonment for terms ranging from 5 years (Vasile Lucaciu) to 1 year, in total 31 years and 2 months.<ref name="memorandum"/> Pop de Băsești was handed the mildest sentence (of one-year imprisonment), his only regret being that he received less than the others.<ref name="graiulsj"/> Present at the trial, Octavian Goga witnessed that moment: "All the accused acknowledged the sentences in a manful manner. Leading the group, Father Lucaciu seemed to be an ancient hero. Mr. Rațiu came in with his head held high. [..] Only Brother Gheorghe wept because he said they mocked him by handing him a milder sentence than his fellows."<ref name="ltgpb"/>

On 28 July 1894, the PNR was banned by the Hungarian authorities, who invoked the lack of a party statute and "relations with foreign elements".<ref name="historia">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Pop de Băsești served his sentence in the Vác prison until 5 August 1895.<ref name="graiulsj"/><ref name="tribuna"/><ref name="ltgpb"/><ref name="graiulmm"/> As his wife Maria passed away he was shortly released on parole on 11 June 1895 so that he could attend her burial.<ref name="graiulmm"/> Eventually all signatories of the memorandum were pardoned by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1895, following secret negotiations between Austria-Hungary and the Romanian king Carol I.<ref name="digi"/>

Later political activity

After Ioan Rațiu's death in 1902, Gheorghe Pop de Băsești was elected president of the PNR.<ref name="graiulmm"/><ref name="graiulsj"/>

On 10 January 1905, Pop de Băsești summoned the national conference of the PNR in Nagyszeben, where it was decided to rescind the policy of political passivism and to engage again in the electoral process.<ref name="graiulsj"/> At the elections that year he ran for the deputy seat in Szilágycseh, nevertheless he lost in the second round against the Liberal candidate, Baron Elemér Bornemisza, after harsh measures had been employed to rig the results: Pop de Băsești (then 69 years old) and his supporters were beaten (some of them to death) by political opponents.<ref name="graiulsj"/><ref name="graiulmm"/><ref name="adevarul"/> The situation would repeat during the 1906 elections.<ref name="graiulsj"/>

Philanthropic work

Although he never abandoned politics, Gheorghe Pop de Băsești focused on providing for poor children in his native area, sponsoring Romanian-language magazines in Transylvania (Federațiunea, Lupta, Gazeta de Transilvania) and founding credit unions to help the ethnic Romanians. By 1909, Pop de Băsești led 6 credit unions: "Aurora" (Naybánya/Baia Mare), "Chiorana" (Nagysomkút/Șomcuta Mare), "Codreana" (Szilágyillésfalva/Băseşti), "Sătmăreana" (Szinérváralja/Seini), "Sălăgeana" and "Silvania" (Szilágysomlyó/Șimleu Silvaniei). He also served in the board of directors of the Template:Ill and wrote a book about agriculture.<ref name="graiulmm"/>

When the World War I started, Pop de Băsești decided to write his testament and leave his whole wealth (estimated at around 4 million Kronen) to the Greek Catholic Metropolitan in Balázsfalva/Blaj.<ref name="graiulsj"/> The will provided that the donated wealth was to be used to establish agricultural schools and Romanian cultural institutes, to award scholarships and to help preserve the local church and school in his native village of Băsești.<ref name="graiulsj"/>

President of the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia

File:Original Photo National Museum of Union-Alba Iulia.jpg

The Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia (1 December 1918)

Towards the end of World War I, the Austrio-Hungarian monarchy began to disintegrate. On 18 October 1918, inspired by Wilson's Fourteen Points and mandated by the executive committee of the PNR, deputy Alexandru Vaida-Voevod demanded in the Hungarian Diet the right of self-determination of the Romanians in Hungary, and afterwards the executive committee established the Romanian National Council, which proceeded to organize elections for a National Assembly of all Romanians in Hungary.<ref name="digi100">Template:Cite news</ref>

On 30 November 1918 Pop de Băsești, elected as a representative and accompanied by lieutenant Alexandru Kiș of the Romanian National Guard, set off by train to Alba Iulia, despite his old age.<ref name="tribuna"/><ref name="kis">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The trip was not without incident: in the Războieni railway station their railcar was fired upon by the Hungarian National Guard, killing Template:Ill.<ref name="kis"/> However, according to other sources, Ioan Arion, the 24-year old representative of Agriș, was killed in the Teiuș railway station.<ref name="hotnews">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="unirea2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After he had arrived in Alba Iulia, on a blistering cold day, the monk Leon Manu asked him: "For the love of God, Brother George, how could you venture to make such a long and exhausting journey on such weather?", to which Pop de Băsești replied: "How could I have missed it since I've been waiting for this day for 80 years? I came even if I should pay with my life for this, because now nothing else remains for me to say but the following, like the righteous Simeon of the Gospels: 'Lord, now let your servant depart in peace'".<ref name="graiulsj"/>

The event in Alba Iulia attracted large crowds, which put the local lodging capacity under strain.<ref name="kis"/> After a long wait and repeated requests, Pop de Băsești and lieutenant Kiș were finally given an unheated room in the Hotel "Hungaria" (whose name was later changed to "Dacia").<ref name="tribuna"/><ref name="kis"/><ref name="mediafax">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They were later joined there by Pop de Băseşti's son-in-law Francisc Hossu-Longin, who was the representative of Deva in the Great National Assembly.<ref name="kis"/>

On 1 December 1918, at Iuliu Maniu's proposal, Pop de Băsești was elected president of the Assembly.<ref name="graiulsj"/> As a leading figure of the PNR he unified all the divergent currents in the Assembly and bridged the differences, his election as president ending all rivalries among the representatives.<ref name="kis"/><ref name="adevarul"/> In his opening speech he emphasized that the Great National Assembly of all Romanians of Transylvania and the Banat was destined to obliterate the bondage of the past, ending with the following words: "Brethren, let yourselves be enthralled by the holy joy of this bright national feast and in the utmost brotherly harmony let us lay the foundation of our future happiness. God bless this assembly and its resolutions".<ref name="graiulsj"/><ref name="centenar">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On the same day the Assembly unanimously decreed the union between the Romanian Old Kingdom and Transylvania, the Banat, Crișana and Maramureș.

The next day the Assembly established the Template:Ill (Template:Langx) as the provisional parliament of Transylvania, and the Template:Ill (Template:Langx) as the provisional government of Transylvania, electing Gheorghe Pop de Băsești as president of the High Council and Iuliu Maniu as president of the Directory Council.<ref name="tribuna"/> After closing the session of the High National Romanian Council, Pop de Băsești repeated the words attributed to Simeon: "Lord, now let your servant depart in peace", adding "as I have seen the salvation of my people".<ref name="graiulmm"/>

Death

After spending a couple of days at his daughter's house in Deva and two night stops in Teiuș and Cluj (also not without incidents), on the way back from the Ulmeni railway station to his home in Băsești, on an icy weather, Pop de Băsești caught a severe cold that would confine him to bed.<ref name="kis"/><ref name="tribuna"/> According to another source, his overnight stay in the unheated hotel room in Alba Iulia was another cause for him becoming ill.<ref name="adevarul"/> The prolonged illness caused his death a few months later on 23 February 1919, at the age of 83, after skirmishes of the initial stage of the Hungarian–Romanian War had been occurring in the neighboring villages of Stremț/Bükktótfalu and Odești/Vadafalva.<ref name="kis"/>

Pop de Băsești was buried in his native village while the funeral procession was fired upon by Hungarian troops.<ref name="adevarul">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His epitaph reads: "Lord, now let your servant depart in peace", the words he uttered at Alba Iulia.<ref name="graiulmm2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Pop de Băsești's birthplace is now home to a Template:Ill.

Gallery

Gheorghe Pop de Băsești on a 2018 stamp of Romania
Bust in Alba Iulia

References

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Gheorghe Pop de Băsești

Contents

Early life

Political activity

Deputy in the Diet of Hungary

Romanian National Party

The Transylvanian Memorandum

Later political activity

Philanthropic work

President of the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia

Death

Gallery

References

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Gheorghe Pop de Băsești

Early life

Political activity

Deputy in the Diet of Hungary

Romanian National Party

The Transylvanian Memorandum

Later political activity

Philanthropic work

President of the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia

Death

Gallery

References

Navigation menu

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