{{short description|Romanian journalist}} {{Infobox person | name = Stelian Popescu | image = Stelian Popescu.jpg | alt = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1874|02|19}} | birth_place = Lacu Turcului, Prahova County, Kingdom of Romania | death_date = {{Death date and age|1954|03|08|1874|02|19}} | death_place = Madrid, Spain | occupation = {{hlist|Journalist|judge|politician}} | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} thumb|Medallion on the facade of the Universul Palace, representing the face of the journalist Stelian Popescu '''Stelian Popescu''' (February 19, 1874 – March 8, 1954) was a nationalist Romanian journalist.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dYLtOFBzZikC&q=Universul+%22Stelian+Popescu+%22&pg=PA305 |title= United Romania |pages=305–306 |first=Charles |last=Upson Clark |location= New York |publisher=Arno Press |year=1971|isbn=978-0405027413 |access-date=2012-07-25}}</ref>
== Biography == He was born in Lacu Turcului, Prahova County. He was elected to Parliament many times. He was Minister of Justice in the Ionescu cabinet (December 17, 1921 – January 19, 1922), the Știrbey cabinet (June 4 – 20, 1927), the Seventh Ion I. C. Brătianu cabinet (June 22 – November 24, 1927) and the Vintilă I. C. Brătianu cabinet (November 24, 1927 – November 9, 1928).
Popescu ran the Universul newspaper from 1915 to 1945, transforming it into one of the most readable newspapers of the interwar period. Being a right-wing journalist, the newspaper remained influenced by this ideas, which attracted many adversities, especially from the social-democratic or socialist newspapers, such as the newspaper Adevărul. He criticized the governments of the time, came into conflict with King Carol II of Romania, and at the beginning of the 1940s he unconditionally supported Marshal Ion Antonescu.
On his initiative, between 1926 and 1930, the Universe Palace was built, the headquarters of the editorial and typography of the Universul newspaper.
In 1933, the "Anti-revisionist League" was founded in Romania, led by Popescu, a nationalist with an audience in Romania, who was fighting against Hungary's claims on Transylvania, in writing and in public events.<ref>{{Citation | url=http://axa.info.ro/arhiva/anul-i/axa-12/item/261-sfarsitul-romaniei-mari-1940| archive-url=https://archive.today/20100719135532/http://axa.info.ro/arhiva/anul-i/axa-12/item/261-sfarsitul-romaniei-mari-1940| url-status=dead| archive-date=2010-07-19| title=Sfârșitul României Mari (1940)| date= 19 July 2010| access-date=29 April 2020}}</ref> The activity of the Anti-revisionist League was banned by Carol II on March 7, 1939.
In 1944 Popescu took refuge in Switzerland, the newspaper's management remaining in the hands of one of his sons-in-law, Ion Lugosianu.<ref>{{Citation | url=https://politeia.org.ro/dosare/jurnalismul-interbelic-2-ziarul-universul/14080/| title=Jurnalismul interbelic (2) – Ziarul "Universul"| newspaper=PoliteiaWorld| date= 17 June 2013| access-date=29 April 2020}}</ref>
After World War II, he was tried in absentia by the Bucharest People's Tribunal and sentenced on June 4, 1945 to life imprisonment. He was included in the "group of 14 journalists", along with, among others, {{ill|Pamfil Șeicaru|ro}}, Nichifor Crainic, and Radu Gyr. All were accused that ''"through newspaper articles, brochures or conferences, they were serving Fascist or Hitlerist propaganda or they contributed by their action to support a hateful regime and a bad foreign policy, a policy that had to have the consequences of Romania implication in a disastrous adventure and the political and military collapse of the country"''.<ref>{{Citation | url=http://istoriacomunismului.blogspot.ro/2006/03/ziaristii-fascisti-in-boxa-acuzatilor.html| archive-url=https://archive.today/20140726103426/http://istoriacomunismului.blogspot.ro/2006/03/ziaristii-fascisti-in-boxa-acuzatilor.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=2014-07-26| title=Istoria comunismului românesc: "Ziariștii fasciști", în boxa acuzaților| date= 26 July 2014| access-date=29 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.descopera.ro/istorie/14366342-75-de-ani-de-la-procesul-ziaristilor-fascisti-vinovati-de-dezastrul-tarii-cum-ii-santaja-pe-politicieni-pamfil-seicaru|title=75 de ani de la procesul "ziariștilor fasciști, vinovați de dezastrul țării". Cum îi șantaja pe politicieni Pamfil Șeicaru| first=Mihaela|last=Stoica| website=descopera.ro|language=ro|date=May 30, 2020|access-date=December 4, 2020}}</ref>
Popescu died on March 8, 1954, in Madrid, Spain.
Before the war, his influence had become so great that his hometown was renamed "Stelian Popescu" by the Liberal government. Regarding this naming, Marta Breaban wrote the following in her journal:<ref>{{Citation | url=http://michel.pourtier.pagesperso-orange.fr//Journals/Marta.htm| archive-url=https://archive.today/20131031133617/http://michel.pourtier.pagesperso-orange.fr//Journals/Marta.htm| url-status=dead| archive-date=2013-10-31| title=Bucovina și școala Eraclide la București| newspaper=archive.is| date= 31 October 2013| access-date=29 April 2020}}</ref> ''“It was called Stelian Popescu because the director of the Universe newspaper at that time was born in this commune, his father being a priest here. In his native village, Stelian Popescu built the church, school, town hall and dispensary. The church was painted by the painter Norocea who followed the design of Curtea de Argeș.”''
Popescu had a house in Bucharest, on Dionisie Lupu street (today Tudor Arghezi) no. 10 bis, built in 1911, that was built according to the design of architect Paul Smarandescu.<ref>{{Citation | url=http://www.paul-smarandescu.info/article-32249905.html| archive-url=https://archive.today/20130918200428/http://www.paul-smarandescu.info/article-32249905.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=2013-09-18| title=Casa Stelian Popescu, București, strada Dionisie, 1911 – Paul Smarandescu| date= 18 September 2013| access-date=29 April 2020}}</ref>
Popescu also had a villa in Balchik, built in 1936 by the architect Henrieta Delavrancea-Gibory. The villa was demolished in 2009, because it was inclined due to the settlement of the land, and on that land a hotel was built.<ref>{{Citation | url=https://wikimapia.org/5369636/ro/Vila-Stelian-Popescu| title=Vila Stelian Popescu| website=Wikimapia| access-date=29 April 2020}}</ref>
In 1933 Eustațiu Stoenescu painted a portrait of Popescu.<ref>{{Citation | url=http://muzeuldeartacraiova.ro/foto_eustatiu_stoenescu.php| archive-url=https://archive.today/20130918202338/http://muzeuldeartacraiova.ro/foto_eustatiu_stoenescu.php| url-status=dead| archive-date=2013-09-18| title=Muzeul de Artă din Craiova| date= 18 September 2013| access-date=29 April 2020}}</ref>
The Student House of Culture in Bucharest, on Calea Plevnei, was built by public subscription of Popescu, who donated it to the University, on November 18, 1937, with the same destination that it has today.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://jurnalul.ro/special-jurnalul/interviuri/elena-ceausescu-era-innebunita-dupa-cantecele-song-ului-628957.html| title=Elena Ceaușescu era înnebunită după cântecele Song-ului|first=Ștefan|last=Mitroi| website=jurnalul.ro| date=November 14, 2012|access-date=December 4, 2020}}</ref>
On 8 May 1995, after the fall of Communism, 10 of the sentences pronounced during the Post-World War II Romanian war crime trials were overturned by the Supreme Court of Justice. They were part of the 14 war criminals convicted in the "Journalists' trial" of 1945. Attorney General Vasile Manea Drăgulin presented the convictions decided upon in 1945 as illegal, believing the interpretation of the evidence to have been “retroactive, truncated, and tendentious”, therefore amounting to a “conviction decision, whose content is a synthesis of vehement criticism of their activity, to which we forcefully ascribed the character of war crimes”. Stelian Popescu was among the 10 who were rehabilitated.<ref>Andrei Muraru, "Elie Wiesel” Institute`s Journal, 2020, ''Outrageous Rehabilitations: Justice and Memory in the Attempts to Restore the War Criminals’ Remembrance in Post-Holocaust Romania. The Recent Case of General Nicolae Macici (I)'' in ''Holocaust. Studii şi cercetări / Holocaust. Study and Research, vol. XII, issue 1(13)'', {{nobr|pp. 345–348}}</ref><ref>Alexandru Florian, Indiana University Press, Jan 24, 2018, ''Holocaust Public Memory in Postcommunist Romania'', {{nobr|pp. 73, 79, 93–94}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Ionescu Cabinet}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Popescu, Stelian}} Category:1874 births Category:1954 deaths Category:People convicted by the Romanian People's Tribunals Category:People from Prahova County Category:Romanian activists Category:Romanian newspaper editors Category:Ministers of justice of Romania Category:Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania) Category:Romanian expatriates in Spain Category:Romanian expatriates in Switzerland