Romanian Intellectuals Research Articles

The Role of the ”Petru Maior” and ”România Jună” Societies in the Formation of the Romanian Elite

In the second half of the 19th century, both in Vienna and Budapest there were numerous Romanian students, but also a Romanian elite consisting of several Romanian intellectuals who held important positions. Vienna and Budapest were the most important university centers for Romanians in Transylvania. Arriving in the two capitals, the young Romanians became aware of the problems faced by the Romanian society and some of them got involved in various activities aimed at solving them and emancipating the Romanians. Among them we might mention Nicolae Oncu, who will stand out as the director of an important Romanian bank from the Dual Monarchy, the future publicist Iosif Vulcan, the composer Ciprian Porumbescu, the politician Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, the writer Ioan Slavici, the politician Vasile Goldiș, or the Romanian national poet, Mihai Eminescu. The two societies of Romanian students in the Austro-Hungarian capitals are important, because it was here that these young people met and made friends. In less than a decade they asserted themselves as important personalities, active both in Romania and in the ranks of Romanians from the Dual Monarchy. Most of them became supporters of the idea of national unity of all Romanians. The beginnings of their activity are linked to the experiences they lived through in Vienna and Budapest.

The Literature Published at Balta­ ­Tiraspol (1932–May 1937)

Between 1932–1937, books in Romanian language and Latin script were printed in Tiraspol and Balta, in the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova /the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (aSSRM). New literature emerged, mostly produced by radically left-wing émigré Romanian intellectuals, and by a young generation of writers from the villages with Moldovan population. Previously, during the tsarist period, there were no publications in Romanian or institutions operating in this language. In our opinion, the literature of the aSSRM belongs to no one. Most authors were tried and murdered during the cruel purges of 1937–1938 (S. Lehtțir, D. Milev, L. Madan, P. Chior, N. Cabac and many others whose actual names are unknown). Some of the most fortunate were able to flee, others survived either because they were tolerated by the regime or for other unknown reasons (I. Canna, I.D. Ciobanu, L. Cornfeld, V. Galit, M. Oprea).
 Literary activity was centered around the journal “Octeabriu” which became “Octombrie” (“October”) in 1932. The books issued were edited by employees of the State Publishing House of Moldova, which had two printing houses in Balta and Tiraspol (the latter gained most importance after 1936).

On the occasion of the centennial of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1923: Nicolae C. Paulescu-between scientific creativity and political fanatism.

On the occasion of the centennial of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1923: Nicolae C. Paulescu-between scientific creativity and political fanatism.

Историческая политика и мемориальная культура современного румынского общества

The aim of the research is to analyze the contemporary politics of memory in Romania in the early 2020s. The author examines the role and place of intellectual communities as key spaces of memory genesis and the functioning of memorial culture and collective historical memory in the contemporary social and political thought of Romania. The novelty of the study lies in exploring the current stage in the development of the historical politics of Roma­nian society in the context of an objective deficit of interdisciplinary research focused on the analysis of memorial cultures. The article demonstrates that: 1) the intellectual community, as one of the systemic segments of modern Romanian society, significantly contributes to the development and transformation of memorial culture; 2) the spectrum of memorial practices of Romanian intellectuals, as agents of historical memory politics and shapers of various ver­sions of memorial culture, varies from historical revisionism to attempts to form a liberal me­morial canon; 3) the memorial practices of the contemporary intellectual community are in­terconnected with the development of civil and ethnic nationalist discourse; 4) the participa­tion of intellectuals in memory politics actualizes the political and ideological heterogeneity of modern society, contributing to the simultaneous coexistence and competition of different forms of historical memory. It is assumed that the role of Romanian civil society in the histor­ical politics of contemporary Romania will increase, and the intellectual community will re­main one of the active participants in the politics of collective memory.

Diaspora românească din Ungaria în perioada postcomunistă – Portrete de intelectuali

When we talk about the Romanians in Hungary, especially about the life of the community in post-communism, we cannot omit the fact that alongside the historical community here there are representatives of a Romanian diaspora who are actively involved in community life, participating in the common effort to preserve the Romanian identity. The Romanian intellectuals who migrated in the last three decades to the area populated by Romanians in western Hungary or to Budapest, managed to leave their mark on the cultural, journalistic, educational and spiritual life of the Romanians here. Analyzing their identity path, the way in which they managed to integrate into the historical Romanian community in Hungary, but also the challenges and difficulties encountered due to the different cultural code, can provide a clearer perspective on how this Romanian community currently lives and functions, outside the borders of Romania, being in a permanent transformation, trying to preserve their ethnic identity and resist assimilation.

Corespondența ca spațiu de întâlnire: „Fondo Culturale italo-rumeno della Prof.ssa Rosa Del Conte”

1948 represents a turning point in the “intimate”, intellectual, academic biography of Rosa Del Conte. In fact, the sudden repatriation, determined by the complex political situation, marks the conclusion of her Romanian work experience. It was a sixyear footnote which was, first, an opportunity to open up to the Romanian cultural space. Upon returning to Italy, Rosa Del Conte became a spokesperson for the Romanian language and culture, first in Milan and later in Rome. Brilliant philologist and literary critic, passionate professor, Rosa Del Conte manages to maintain relations with the cultural elite that remained in Romania during the difficult years of communism, but also with Romanian intellectuals active in Europe. Starting from the archival material, especially from the correspondence, kept at the Fondo italo-rumeno della Prof.ssa Del Conte, I intend to propose a reconstruction of the Italian professor network of human and academic relations. To support the working hypothesis, I will propose two (synthetic) case studies from Rosa Del Conte’s correspondence: Emil Turdeanu and Lucian Blaga.

André Scrima’s Christology and Its Practical Implications

Father André Scrima is one of the most enigmatic figures of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Everything related to him passes as extraordinary. He was an exception among the Romanian intellectuals who suffered under communism. Beyond that, his journeys and spiritual experiences possess something indescribable, almost sacramental. His presence overwhelmed those who met him and his writings retained this trait. The present study focuses on Scrima’s Christology, highlighting its uniqueness and its practical implications. Although Scrima does not dedicate a book to the subject, all of his writings refer to it. However, due to his distinctiveness, it is difficult to organize his Christology in a systematic way. The most lucrative approach is to group his texts along the hermeneutical moments that define his writing: images, stories and stances. In Scrima’s logic, all words/signs are the very synthesis of a spiritual experience, all stories develop the theological synthesis of the signs, and the relation between the stories forms the tradition as a set of interrogations and communitarian commitments. If we evaluate Scrima’s Christology in this manner, we do not come to a system, but to a succession of images. The core of these images remains the same, Jesus Christ, yet it is seen in nuances that unveil His beauty—Stranger, Gate, Logos, Name above all names—, in an unpredictable play of perspectives. It can be said that Scrima’s approach resembles a kaleidoscope, which, by using mirrors and light, gives an insight to the unsuspected possibilities of all fixed forms.

R. Chris Davis. Hungarian Religion, Romanian Blood: A Minority’s Struggle for National Belonging, 1920–1945.

R. Chris Davis. <i>Hungarian Religion, Romanian Blood: A Minority’s Struggle for National Belonging, 1920–1945</i>.

O nouă perspectivă asupra literaturii române din perioada postcomunistă. Mihai Iovănel, Istoria literaturii române contemporane: 1990–2020

New Perspective on Romanian Post-Communist Literature. Mihai Iovănel, History of Contemporary Romanian Literature: 1990–2020 The article addresses Mihai Iovănel’s 2021 History of Contemporary Romanian Literature: 1990–2020, the first history of Romanian literature that presents the development of Romanian post-communist prose and poetry. Iovănel’s book sparked a heated debate among literary critics, historians and writers, because it discusses and redefines prevalent concepts in Romanian literary theory and criticism, focusing on the extraliterary (political, social, economic) conditioning of literary production and inscribing Romanian literature into the system of transnational literary interactions. The paper shows thus the most important assumptions of Iovănel’s work and discusses the critical reception of the volume among Romanian intellectuals.

RELAȚIILE INTERETNICE LA INTELECTUALII DIN REGIUNEA AUTONOMĂ MAGHIARĂ (DIN LOCALITĂȚILE ACTUALELOR JUDEȚE COVASNA ȘI HARGHITA)

The present article analyzes the state of inter-ethnic relations among the intellectuals of the Hungarian Autonomous Region (in the localities of the current Covasna and Harghita counties). In the beginning, data are presented regarding the ethnic and confessional structure of the communities in the reference period. Then the inter-ethnic relations between Romanian and Hungarian intellectuals are analyzed, differentiated into the main socio-professional categories: political leaders, state officials, teachers, doctors, engineers, priests, etc. The article shows the negative aspects of the inter-ethnic relations between the few Romanian intellectuals left in the area and their Hungarian colleagues, but also moments of “normality”. At the same time, the difference between the period 1952–1960, when the districts of Tg. Secuiesc and Sf. Gheorghe belonged to the Hungarian Autonomous Region from 1960 to 1968, when the two districts were part of the Stalin Region and Brașov, respectively.

Romanian Francophony, the Beautiful Stranger

French in Romanian space meant much more than mastering a linguistic instrument, being the expression of adherence to a whole series of values, ideas and ideals specific to modern European nations. Romanian intellectuals and political elites chose French as an idiom for the expression of freedom, modernity and the belonging of Romanian space to the Europe of free nations. The francophone dimension of Romania developed especially during the first half of the 20th century. It was at this time that Bucharest became little Paris”. Many Romanian writers then chose to create the most significant part of their work in French. Illustrious names, including those of Constantin Brancusi, Eugène Ionesco, Mircea Eliade, Georges Enesco, Emil Cioran, have since become part of the Francophone cultural heritage. The French-speaking component of Romanian history, built over two centuries of history, has been able to resist even under the conditions of great precariousness imposed under totalitarianism, after the Second World War. Immediately after the return of democracy, Romania joined, as a full member, the institutional Francophonie (1993), returning to the Francophone family to which it was attached in an extremely rich past.

Matei Călinescu-Ion Vianu, Scrisori Din Exil. Corespondenţă Inedită, Editura Humanitas, 2019

Abstract The Book Letters from Exile. Unpublished correspondence is the proof of a long friendship, the letters gathered here revealing scenes, portraits and events that reconfigure the biographies of the two exiled Romanian intellectuals, Matei Călinescu and Ion Vianu. The affective imprint, the vague colour of nostalgic emotion compresses the impediments of spatial distance, the long friendship between the two being the result of reuniting several circumstances, affinities, closeness, because a friendship is strengthened, as we know, by analogies and empathy, tolerance, patience and sincerity, but also from the valences of the modelling and recovering confession. A theme that appears with a significant frequency is the theme of exile, of the rupture of identity, with old and new existential meanings, with difficulties, illusions and disappointments. A recurring topos is that of travel, as many epistolary notations summarize projects of meetings, reunions, trips, planned in detail, trips in real geography and trips on the map of a postmodern imaginary, bearing the imprint of intercultural dialogue, ideas, references bibliographies, reading sheets, possible conferences and other opportunities for intellectual debates that, for us today, do not mean so much anymore.

The Society of Physicians and Naturalists of Iași and the Union of the Romanian Principalities

The Union of the Romanian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia has been an ideal of the nation for centuries, expressed by its intellectuals and policy makers. Its fulfillment was rendered possible in the enlightened era of the nineteenth century, following the Crimean War (1853-1856) and the Peace of Paris. The Peace Treaty of 1856, involving Russia, the Ottoman Empire, France, Great Britain and the Kingdom of Sardinia, and then the Paris convention of 1858, enabled the Union of the Principalities in 1859. In this context, the progressive Romanian intellectuals played an essential role in awakening the national consciousness of the masses called upon to vote, as well as in the elaboration of the strategy to be implemented, both internally and internationally. The Society of Physicians and Naturalists of the Principality of Moldavia (SPN), the first scientific society not only in the Romanian Principalities but also in Southeast Europe (1830), got involved in this national unification process, seen as a condition of emancipation, stability and European integration of their country. SPN was therefore not only the seat where Colonel Alexandru Ioan Cuza was appointed as the sole candidate for the Reign of Moldavia on January 3rd , 1859, but also a nucleus of struggle for the Union. It is plausible that, due to the participation of some of the leading SPN members, ideological confrontations took place within this scientific forum and tactics were envisaged meant to achieve the Union of the Principalities through the victory of the Unionist Party. Ever since SPN remained linked to the memory of Cuza's election in Moldavia, and this constituted another fundamental contribution of this academic institution to the overall establishment of modern Romania. Immediately after the Union, in 1860 the Society of Physicians and Naturalists of the Principality of Moldavia became the Society of Physicians and Naturalists of Iași and kept on integrating both national and international personalities from the entire world.

The Salva Greek-Catholic Parish (Bistriţa-Năsăud County) during the First World War and before the Great Union

Abstract: Based on the information provided by the Bistrița-Năsăud Department of the Romanian National Archives, the present article tries to outline the situation of the Salva Greek-Catholic Parish during the First World War. We regard the role played by Priest Iuliu Morariu as quite important, for he has led this community between 1907 and 1946, and helped to preserve the spirit of national identity and morals in the context of the organised denationalisation activity promoted by the Austro-Hungarian authorities. This article also discusses the general situation of the village, the activity of the pupils from this Parish during the aforementioned period, and the way in which national identity was preserved thanks to the activity of the Greek-Catholic Gymnasium of the former Military Border District in Năsăud (town in the neighbourhood of Salva). Aspects like marriage, birth, child mortality, the lives of those who remained at home, that of the wounded soldiers coming back, the contribution of the Church to the formation of Romanian intellectuals (like the correspondent member of the Romanian Academy, physician Leon Daniello, who graduated from the above-mentioned Gymnasium of Năsăud during the war), and the peoples’ efforts despite the unfavourable context are emphasized here, in a research in which the documentary sources are compared with the pauper historiography on the investigated topic.

Prevodilačka delatnost Rumuna sa prostora današnje Vojvodine u 19. i u prvim decenijama 20. veka

The paper presents different aspects of the translation work of Romanians from the territory of the present day Vojvodina (Banat) during the 19th and the first decades of the 20th century, up until the Second World War. The translation work in administration, education, religious institutions, and primarily in journalism and literature, has played an important role in the multicultural society of Banat. Various languages, cultures, traditions and religions interacted and intertwined there, and the society functioned on principles which enabled mutual understanding and cooperative work of all those who lived in Banat, regardless of the differences. The first translations in the Romanian language, primarily from German and Serbian, appeared in the 18th century, for the needs of state administration, education or religious work. The translations became more diverse and of a higher quality thanks to the work of the first elite Romanian intellectuals from the period of the late Enlightenment, the representatives of whom were Paul Iorgovici, Constantin Diaconovici Loga, and Sofronie Ivacicovici. In the 19th century, the translations got new content in the form of publication of multilingual posters, invitations, association rules, monetary instructions, newspaper articles, religious books, but also literary works, among which the most prominent were the translations of Hungarian literary works to the Romanian language, done by the writer and publicist Alexandra Tintariu. In the period between the two World Wars, translation work also gained new content because translations from German and Hungarian to Romanian stopped as the focus was placed on translations from Serbian to Romanian and vice versa.

Constructions and Deconstructions of Cultural Identities in Greater Romania. B. Fundoianu and the Self-Colonizing Metaphor

The article “Constructions and Deconstructions of Cultural Identities in Greater Romania. B. Fundoianu and the Self-Colonizing Metaphor” proposes a general overview of two dominant narratives in cultural identity discourse in Greater Romania: the traditionalist and the modernist one. Even though the proponents of each of the tendencies have a different vision of constitutive elements which Romanian identity consists of their aspirations are similar: they want to define Romania’s place in the changed political system in Europe after World War I. Furthermore, they attempt to answer the following question: what path of evolution should the new-born country follow? However, the article also presents a critical approach to the ideas and myths circulating in intellectual milieus after 1918. Hence, the second part of the study analyzes two essays: “Preface” to Images and Books from France and “Critical Spirit in Romanian Culture,” published by a Romanian Jewish author B. Fundoianu (1898–1944). Through his texts, the young essayist builds a counter-narrative which exposes the danger of blind search for national specificity and encourages Romanian intellectuals to use the “critical spirit” as the main tool in the processes of modernization. Denominating Romania “a French cultural colony,” Fundoianu draws attention to the dilemmas discussed in the article through the prism of the category of “self-colonization,” introduced to the discourse about Central and South-Eastern Europe by the contemporary Bulgarian historian Alexander Kiossev.

Antilethe – o revistă pentru rememorarea exilului românesc / Antilethe – a magazine for the remembrance of the Romanian exile

A literary magazine having a distinct character among all Romanian publications is Antilethe. Its name remind us of the Lethe River (the river of oblivion in Greek mythology) because the main purpose of the founder – Mihaela Albu – together with the editorial board - is an act of restitutio. In short – to bring into attention of the contemporary readers the cultural activity of the Romanian intellectuals from exile. Each issue has a specific subject - Vintilă Horia (no. 1), Mircea Popescu (no. 2), Ștefan Baciu (no. 3) and Camilian Demetrescu (no. 4). Our presentation is mainly focused on the life and activity of the great artist Camilian Demetrescu.

„La Țigănci”, nuvela-parabolă a profetismului eliadesc / "La Țigănci" – The Parable of the Eliadesc Prophetism

The unprecedented experience of Gavrilescu, the main character in the La Țigănci short story, continues to arise various interpretations, proving the viability of this eliadesc writing. For some literary critics, he is the anti-hero by definition, which lives what Eliade understands by "level break", but without understanding anything of it. The ordinary man, with a banal existence, routinely in the profane becomes the Chosen One uselessly claimed by sacred, for ignorance prevents him from seeing beyond the Illusion. In the hut of the gypsies, he crosses a rite of passage, from life to death, proof being the shrouded curtain that will wrap his naked body, the terrible thirst for unpopularity, and the surprising encounter with the always young Hildegard, the beloved of his youth.In this article, I try to reveal another dimension of this eliadesc short story, linked to the name of the main character, which, in my opinion, refers to the name of the archangel Gabriel, the "pair" of the other, Michael. As it is known, the name of the archangel Michael is directly related to the Romanian legionary movement in the inter-warperiod, a nationalistic, violent and criminal political-ideological movement that has successfully manipulated local religious and cultural elements to gain followers and become strong. Up to a point, the Romanian legionary movement stood under the sign of both archangels, synthesizing both the intellectual and the political dimensions.In time, the two directions have broken apart, and the legion has remained exclusively under the warlike sign of the warrior archangel. The Romanian intellectuals, who originally sympathized with the nationalist ideals of the legionary movement, distanced themselves from it and remained under the soteriological mark of Archangel Gabriel. This is, in my opinion, the message hidden by Eliade in this unusual short story. Also, using allegory and symbol, the Romanian author turns out to be a man of vision and prophesies the future of Romania, which has been culturally and historically marked, in time, by Germany. The present does not contradict Eliade, because Germany is the engine of the European Union, of which Romania wants to be part.

The Romanian Journalistic Education – the History of a Polemic

Abstract The present study introduces the reader to early approaches relating to journalists' education and accession to the journalistic profession. In Romania, the press was originally managed by writers, priests and teachers, who used to promote a rhetoric of talent, rather than one of competence in the trade of journalism. It was often said that talent was of prime importance here, and, since there was no vouching for talent in schools, journalism needed not to be taught in an educational format. However, Romanian intellectuals who had been schooled in Germany, France or elsewhere would plead for journalistic education. Unfortunately, all attempts in journalistic education failed in Romania until the communist regime came to power.

Clark, Roland Holy Legionary Youth: Fascist Activism in Interwar Romania (review)

REVIEWS 765 move Soviet Jews to the Crimean steppe and his preference for shifting local Crimean Tatars there instead (p. 82), backed up by ‘“the gradual repartition of Crimean Turks from abroad”’ (p. 79, quoting Edige Kirimal). The third major claim is that, despite this new-found unity, ‘Crimean Tatars are still aware of their original sub ethnic-geographic origins and all can tell you whether they are a Yaila Tat, Yaliboyu Tat or Nogai, their contemporary identities are more profoundly shaped by their exile experiences. Those who lived in Tashkent, for example, consider themselves to be cosmopolitan and talk of this great Central Asian city’s restaurants, efficient subway system, museums and so forth. Those from Samarkand have a certain nostalgia for that city’s chaihanas (traditional tea shops), and longing for the soil which grew “Uzbekistan’s best grapes”’ (p. 150). The Russian occupying authorities have sought to play divide-and-rule; but there is little evidence to date that they have been able to exploit these underlying divisions. The leaders of the mainstream Mejlis have been exiled to ‘continental’ Ukraine. Pro-Russian groups like Qirim (‘Crimea’) and Qirim Birligi (‘Crimea Union’) seem largely to have been created by money, political technology and pressure on vulnerable groups like the few surviving Crimean Tatar businesses to conform. Kyiv has belatedly recognized both the Mejlis and the Crimean Tatars’ ‘rooted’ status after years of relative neglect. The seventieth anniversary of the Deportation in May 2014 was a mooted affair. The troubled history of the Crimean Tatars continues. UCL SSEES Andrew Wilson Clark, Roland. Holy Legionary Youth: Fascist Activism in Interwar Romania. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY and London, 2015. xiii + 271 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $39.95. This book is a welcome addition to the works available in the English language on the history of the Romanian Legionary movement, which is generally regarded as the third most popular fascist movement in interwar Europe. In writing this volume, Roland Clark has undertaken exhaustive research in the Romanian National Archives, as well as those of the Securitate. In addition, Clark has drawn on published primary sources, legionary memoirs and the many newspapers and periodicals produced by the movement and its sympathizers. The volume spans the time period from the early 1920s, positioning the Legion’s origins in the ‘communities of violence’ created by the antisemitic student movement, through to the movement in exile in Western Europe and South America in the 1960s. SEER, 94, 4, October 2016 766 The most detailed section of the book, however, covers the heyday of the movement in the mid-to-late 1930s when the Legion under Codreanu moved away from its stress on antisemitic hooliganism towards pursuing ostensibly more peaceful, and educational, methods to build up the movement. This was the era of the Legionary work camps, cooperatives and restaurants, the expansion of the membership and the propaganda campaigns in towns and countryside which led to the Legion achieving third place in the 1937 elections. It was also the era which saw many Romanian intellectuals (and visual artists) becoming legionaries or open sympathizers. Chapter five on ‘The Power of Print’ is particularly illuminating in this respect. As well as producing numerous books, pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, to which many leading intellectuals contributed, the Legion also became adept at producing legionary calendars, posters and postcards with which they could expand awareness of the movement amongst the general public. Writings by, and images of, Codreanu and the two legionary ‘martyrs’ Ion Moţa and Vasile Marin, were significant in this regard. Clark also explores the links between the Legion and the Orthodox priesthood which closely identified with the Christian concepts of sacrifice and salvation expounded by the Legion. The Spanish Civil War gave the legionaries an opportunity to put these ideals into practise. The death of Ion Moţa and Vasile Marin in the Spanish Civil War fighting on the nationalist side, and their grandiose reburial in Bucharest in 1937, provided the movement with the opportunity to portray itself as the protector of the church and the nation against both Communism and mainstream Romanian politicians which the Legion regarded as corrupt and in cahoots with the...