GAFENCU, GRIGORE

born Jan. 30, 1892, Bucharest died Jan. 30, 1957, Paris Gafencu, 1939 Romanian diplomat, journalist, and politician who as foreign minister at the outbreak of World War II tried to maintain Romania's neutrality. Educated at Geneva and Paris, Gafencu entered journalism after World War I. In 1924 he became editor and publisher of Argus, a leading economic periodical, and during the 1930s founded Timpul, which soon became Bucharest's leading daily journal. He also established the Orient-Radio news agency. As a member of the National Peasant Party, he was elected to the Romanian Parliament in 1928 and served in various cabinet-level posts. Appointed foreign minister in December 1938 as a gesture to the Western democracies, he tried to balance Romania's EastWest relations but was eventually dismissed to appease the Axis powers (June 2, 1940). During 194041 he served as minister to the Soviet Union, but soon after his return to Romania in June 1941 he left for Switzerland. After World War II he settled in Paris. In November 1947, after a Communist government had seized power in Romania, he was sentenced in absentia to 20 years' imprisonment. He wrote Prliminaires de la guerre l'Est (1944; Prelude to the Russian Campaign, 1945) and Derniers jours de l'Europe (1946; Last Days of Europe, 1948).