STURDZA, DIMITRIE ALEXANDRU

born March 10, 1833, Miclauseni, Moldavia [now Moldova] died Oct. 21, 1914, Bucharest, Rom. Romanian statesman who four times served as prime minister of Romania and played a prominent role in national affairs from preunification days to the peasant uprising of 1907. The scion of a great boyar family, Sturdza participated through 185758 in the Moldavian organizational commissions that prepared the ground for Romanian unification and, later (1866), served on the secret committee that successfully planned the deposition of Romania's first prince, Alexandru Cuza, and his replacement by Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, thereafter Carol I. In the cabinets of Ion Ghica and Ion Bratianu he held several ministerial posts and, as foreign minister in 1883, signed a secret treaty with Austria-Hungary and Germany. From 1892 he was chairman of the Liberal Party and served as prime minister in 189596, 189799, 190104, and 190709. His last ministry was marked by a 1907 peasant uprising, which he suppressed with great cruelty and at the cost of 10,000 lives. From 1909 he was secretary general of the Romanian Academy.