1. Corneliu Coposu was born in Bobota, Salaj County, at that time in Austria-Hungary, to the Romanian Greek-Catholic archpriest Valentin Coposu and his wife Aurelia Coposu.
15 Facts About Corneliu Coposu
1. 2.
Corneliu Coposu became the private secretary of Iuliu Maniu, the leader of the PNR and PNT, who had been a leading actor factor in Transylvania's union with Romania, and as head of the Transylvania Directory Council.
3.
Corneliu Coposu wrote in detail about this experience in his "secret diary", discovered after the collapse of communism and published in 2014.
4.
Corneliu Coposu became the political secretary of Maniu, the leader of the clandestine opposition to Marshal Ion Antonescu, and the leader of the anti-Nazi resistance in Romania.
5.
Maniu was contacted by representatives of the British authorities, and Corneliu Coposu was one of his trusted assistants; the group maintained contacts between the Romanian politicians who were negotiating the country's exit from the alliance with the Axis Powers, in order to join the Allies.
6.
In 1945, after the royal coup against the Antonescu regime, Corneliu Coposu became deputy secretary of the PNT and, after the reintegration of Northern Transylvania, the party's delegate to the leadership of provisional administrative bodies.
7.
Corneliu Coposu was active in organizing the party as the main opposition to the Communist Party and the Petru Groza cabinet before the 1946 general election.
8.
Corneliu Coposu was imprisoned without trial for nine years, as all charges brought against him were dismissed due to lack of evidence.
9.
Corneliu Coposu later attested that his imprisonment, imposed by Soviet officials overseeing the Securitate, was among those causing a stir in the higher echelons of the Communist Party.
10.
In 1956, Corneliu Coposu was sentenced to life imprisonment for "betrayal of the working class" and "crime against social reforms".
11.
Corneliu Coposu managed to keep contact with PNT sympathisers, and re-established the party as a clandestine group during the 1980s, while imposing its affiliation to Christian Democracy and the Christian Democrat International.
12.
Corneliu Coposu successfully grouped various organizations into the Romanian Democratic Convention, of which he was the leader between 1991 and 1993.
13.
Corneliu Coposu was elected to the Senate of Romania in the 1992 general election.
14.
Corneliu Coposu died in Bucharest while undergoing treatment for lung cancer.
15.
Corneliu Coposu was buried in the Catholic section of Bellu Cemetery.