Background
Alexandru Averescu was born into a peasant family in Ismail, Bessarabia, March 9, 1859.
Alexandru Averescu was born into a peasant family in Ismail, Bessarabia, March 9, 1859.
Averescu enlisted in the Rumanian army in 1876 and fought in his country's war against Turkey for independence, 1877-78. When Bessarabia was annexed by Russia in the peace settlement, Averescu chose Rumanian citizenship. He served in the ranks in the 1880s, received his lieutenant's commission in 1891, and then rose quickly to the rank of captain. Like many of his contemporaries, Averescu went abroad for advanced training. He attended the Italian General Staff School in Turin and returned home with an Italian bride. Three years as military attaché in Berlin followed, 1895-98. Promoted colonel in 1901, he rose to brigadier general five years later.
In 1907 Averescu's career took a new turn. He joined the Liberal government of Ion Bratianu as minister of war. The peasant rebellion that year dominated events. Averescu, a peasant leading a peasant army, repressed the uprising with the massive use of force: flying columns armed with artillery, pitched battles against insurgent bands, large-scale reprisals. Under his control, the army remained a reliable tool even in this heated situation. A major general in 1912, Averescu served as the army's chief of staff during the Balkan Wars. Prince Ferdinand held the nominal position of commander in chief. In fact, it was Averescu who directed operations during the brief, bloodless invasion of Bulgaria in July 1913.
The outbreak of World War I did not draw Rumania into the conflict immediately, but Averescu's reputation guaranteed him a leading role once Rumania entered the hostilities. He was made commander of the Second Army in August 1916, and led a successful advance across the central Carpathians into Transylvania. When General von Mackensen responded by threatening Rumania's Black Sea province of the Dobrudja, Averescu became the leading advocate of shifting Rumanian strategy. He called for reinforcing the southern front at the expense of the Carpathians and striking boldly into Mackensen's rear. He received command of the Third Army and the forces in the Dobrudja; the former he intended to use in a daring operation across the Danube while the latter fixed Mackensen's army in position. Critics like General Prezan claimed that Rumania's poor transportation network made such an operation too risky and threatened to weaken the Carpathian front fatally.
The crossing of the Danube failed. Bad weather, the opposition of enemy river flotillas, and the fortuitous presence of strong Bulgarian units at the crossing point made it impossible to carry out the assault on Mackensen's rear. Averescu returned to the Second Army in the Carpathians to conduct a spirited resistance in the mountain passes. The inexperienced Rumanian forces were at their best in such defensive operations, and Averescu restored his shaken military reputation. He helped cover Prezan s unsuccessful offensive on the outskirts of Bucharest, then conducted a fighting retreat northeastward to the Sireth. There Averescu and the Second Army became the only Rumanian forces in the field, as Prezan and his French advisers worked frantically to rebuild the battered Rumanian army.
The year 1917 made Averescu Rumania's greatest wartime hero. In late July he led a successful advance at Marasti against strong enemy positions. Intended to be part of a general offensive on the eastern front, the Rumanian effort was overshadowed by the accelerating collapse of the Russian army. The Central Powers responded in August with an assault aimed at capturing Jassy and driving the Rumanians out of their last bit of unoccupied territory. Averescu then distinguished himself at the battle of Marasesti, defending the salient he had won in the previous month. The Sireth line held, but Russian forces crumbled.
Averescu became Rumania's second wartime prime minister on February 8, 1918. Bratianu had resigned, intending meanwhile to supervise events from behind the scenes. He encouraged King Ferdinand to replace him with the well-known general. Averescu's acquaintance with Mackensen extended back to his years as an attaché in Berlin. Such a per¬sonal link might ease Rumania's plight. Moreover, Averescu's concern over the spread of Bolshevism and his conviction that the Central Powers would win the war made him - at least to Bratianu - the best candidate for the thankless task of negotiating peace.
Prime Minister Averescu found himself helpless. Whatever Mackensen felt, Generals von Hindenburg and Ludendorff (qq.v.) were intransigent. They threatened to renew hostilities unless Rumania gave in on all major issues: the surrender of the Dobrudja, open transit for German forces across Rumania to the Ukraine, the subordination of the Rumanian economy to the needs of the Central Powers. Averescu found these terms intolerable. But he insisted military resistance was futile. Bratianu shunted him aside in hopes the Germanophile Marghiloman could do better.
His political ambitions awakened, Averescu stationed himself on the edge of power. In the fall of 1918 he maneuvered unsuccessfully to replace the fading Marghiloman. In the postwar period, he founded his own political party and offered himself as a defender of order. Seton-Watson and, more recently, Victoria Brown have found him little more than a cardboard figure erected by established moderate and conservative leaders as a barrier to land reform. He served again as prime minister in the early 1920s, returned to office in the years 1926-28, and made a final effort to form a government in 1934. He was named a field marshal in 1930. Averescu died in Bucharest, October 2, 1938. He was buried at the scene of his greatest military triumph, the battlefield of Marasti.