Petre Țuțea (; 6 October 1902 – 3 December 1991) was a Romanian philosopher, journalist, and economist. Biography Early years and the Legionary Movement Petre Țuțea was born in the village of Boteni, Muscel County (now in Argeș County). His father, Petre Bădescu, was a Romanian Orthodox priest and his mother, Ana Țuțea, was of peasant stock. In 1920, after the Union of Transylvania with Romania, Țuțea left his village to finish high school in Cluj and went on to study law at the University of Cluj. After graduating, he obtained in 1929 a Ph.D. in Administrative Law, also at the University of Cluj. Țuțea moved to Bucharest and in 1932 he founded, together with Petre Pandrea, a leftist newspaper, "Stânga" ("The Left"), that was quickly and forcefully closed by the government. Although he was familiar with Marxist writings in his youth, he rejected it and later became a devout Orthodox Christian. In 1935 Țuțea and four other writers published a nationalist program of economic and social development, "Manifestul Revoluției Naționale" ("Manifesto for a National Revolution"). Around the same time he met the influential philosopher Nae Ionescu and wrote for his famous newspaper, "Cuvântul", along with Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran, Radu Gyr, Mircea Vulcănescu, Mihail Sebastian, and other known writers. Țuțea was a member of the Criterion literary society and, like many other fellow members, became a sympathizer of the Iron Guard, a fascist organization. According to various published interviews of that time, Țuțea felt democracy would have not guaranteed the sovereignty of the Romanian people. He also noted that many Romanian intellectuals had supported the Legionnaires, because "their radical position against the harmful influence of Russian Bolshevism", which he considered to be "controlled by Jews" (see Judeo-Bolshevism). Speaking of the Iron Guard, Țuțea believed the main difference between this organization and Fascism or National Socialism was its avowed Christian character. Between 1936 and 1939, he was a director in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, in charge of the Office of Economics Publications and Propaganda. In May 1937 Țuțea was awarded the Order of the Crown, Knight rank. He then was a director of the research office in the Ministry of Foreign Trade. As the National Legionary State was proclaimed in 1940, he was a member of the Romanian delegation to Moscow for economic negotiations. He returned after the National Legionary State was abolished (after January 1941). In May