Radu DEMETRESCU-GYR was born as Radu Demetrescu;, on March 2, 1905, Câmpulung-Muscel and died on 29 April 1975, in Bucharest.
He had his literary debut at the age of 19, with ‘Linisti de schituri’. After his graduation of the University of Bucharest (Faculty of Literature and Philosophy) he became a lecturer and won various literary awards from the Romanian Writers Society and respectively from the Romanian Academy. As an active member of the Legionary Movement he was appointed general Director of the Theatres, a time during which he founded the Jewish Theatre in Bucharest (Teatrul Evreiesc). Under the dictatorship of King Carol II he is imprisoned, to be freed for ‘rehabilitation’, as part of the Sarata battalions. Less then five years later, in 1945, Radu Gyr falls foul of the Russian-installed Communist government which condemns him to 12 years detention in some of the harshest Romanian jails, such as the infamous Aiud prison (see above poem). Freed in 1956, at the time of the Hungarian uprising against the Communist regime, Radu GYR is rearrested in 1958, after writing his poem “Arise, brother Andrew, arise, brother John!”.
Radu GYR is summarily judged and sentenced, having spent, in all, twenty years in Romania’s most infamous and harshest political prisons. During his detention he is refused the most elementary medical assistance, becomes terminally ill and dies soon after being freed from prison.
POEMS
VIDEO: Metanie
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see also:
Poems from communist prisons translated by Mother Alexandra (Princess Ileana of Romania). Contains several authors, including Radu Gyr
The Legionary Movement 