Miron Cristea was one of the most important and influential political actors
in interwar Romania. He became the first patriarch of the Orthodox Church
(1925), a member of the Regency (1927-1930), and was prime minister
of Romania from February 1938 until his passing on 6 March 1939. Most
historiography on that era overlooks Cristea’s power and influence, being
focused primarily on the Iron Guard and on several political players, such as King
Carol II, Armand Călinescu, Corneliu Codreanu, or Iuliu Maniu. This article
traces the origins of this minimisation, unearthing evidence of a process started
in the 1970s. It deconstructs the various layers of history writing about Carol
II’s regime, examining communist and post-communist motivations behind the
focus on some players (such as the king, his mistress – Elena Lupescu, or the
royal camarilla) and the deliberate forgetting of others, including Miron Cristea.
Historiography on Carol II and the royal dictatorship has seen some changes
since communist times, some of them analysed here, but the writing on Miron
Cristea has remained, for several reasons, largely unchallenged
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