AVERESCU, ALEXANDRU

born April 22, 1859, Izmail, Bessarabia, Moldavia, Ottoman Empire died Oct. 3, 1938, Bucharest military leader and politician who three times served as premier of Romania and was the chief executor of the official suppression of the peasant revolt of 1907. After serving in the Romanian war of independence against Turkey (Russo-Turkish War, 187778), Averescu was sent to Italy for military training. As an army general and newly appointed minister of war during the peasant uprising of MarchApril 1907, he balanced the land reforms with a ruthless campaign of suppression that within three days claimed the lives of perhaps 10,000 peasants. As Romanian chief of staff, he directed military operations against Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War (1913); and during World War I he conducted the successful resistance to the Germans at Marasesti (July 1917). The idol of the soldiery, Averescu was appointed premier in March 1918 to conclude peace with the Central Powers (the coalition of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey), but he resigned before the Treaty of Bucharest was concluded with them in May 1918. Later, as head of the newly created People's Party, he again served as premier (March 1920December 1921), introducing a much diluted measure of the long-awaited land redistribution. Between March 1926 and June 1927, Averescu again formed a government. His domestic policies were generally conservative and authoritarian; his foreign policies favoured Italian interests.