ANDREI POPOVICI, UN DIPLOMAT ROMÂN ÎN STATELE UNITE ALE AMERICII PE VREMEA EXPOZIȚIEI UNIVERSALE DE LA NEW YORK (1939-1940)
ANDREI POPOVICI, A ROMANIAN DIPLOMAT IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AT THE TIME OF THE NEW YORK WORLD՚S FAIR (1939-1940)

Summary/Abstract: The present text tried to reconstruct from disparate pieces a biographical sketch of the Romanian diplomat Andrei Popovici, posted in Washington during the interwar period. In particular, it aims to bring his work as Deputy Commissioner General of Romania at the New York World՚s Fair from 1939- 1940 to the forefront. It was during this period that he worked closely with Romania՚s Commissioner General, Dimitrie Gusti, as well as with the Minister of the Bucharest government in Washington, Radu Irimescu. Throughout this time, he designed and coordinated the work of a propaganda office in the United States during the exhibition, supervised all the construction and fitting out of the national pavilions, oversaw payments to architects, builders, insurers, lawyers (as there were disputes), suppliers, staff, etc. In this endeavor, unpublished documents from the Washington collection of the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were used, especially as there are few bibliographical references to the diplomat՚s biography (there are a few suggestions in works by Nicolae Dascălu, George G. Potra or L. D. Grigorescu and Marian Ștefan). Andrei Popovici՚s ascension in the diplomatic service was also mentioned, as he advanced one step at a time, starting in 1925, through all the phases of the profession: from legation attaché, secretary (three courses had to be completed in this case), reaching positions such as consul general and minister plenipotentiary class II in 1938. Unfortunately, not much information about Andrei Popovici՚s activity and life after the New York World՚s Fair has been found so far, except that in 1941 he was called back to the country and worked for a while in the Central Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and by 1947 he was in the United States of America, among his former diplomatic colleagues in Washington, in an exile imposed by the change of the political regime in Romania, which had taken place shortly after the end of the Second World War.

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