Misplaced Pages

#67932

182-696: Ralea was a professor at the University of Iași and, from 1938, the University of Bucharest . By 1935, he had become a doctrinaire of the National Peasants' Party , managing Viața Românească review and Dreptatea daily. He had publicized polemics with the far-right circles and fascist Iron Guard , which he denounced as alien to the Romanian ethos; Ralea approximated a Poporanist, leftist , take on Romanian nationalism , which he opposed to both fascism and communism. He later drifted apart from

364-722: A Comrat rally of the PNC, where Topciu received the organizational banner. On the occasion, he declared his loyalty to the Romanian Crown, informing the Gagauz public that Christians were engaged in a defensive war against "the kikes"—he viewed Jewish subversion as responsible for both the Soviet experiment and the Spanish Civil War ; he also proposed a restructuring of the agricultural chambers and co-operatives, beginning with

546-522: A corporatist reorganization of society. Historians tend to describe Ralea's attitude toward Carol as "servile", and Ralea himself as Carol's "pocket Socialist" or "intellectual trophy". Ralea himself claimed that the king cultivated his friendship as a likable "communist", though, as Camelia Zavarache argues, there is no secondary proof to attest that Ralea was ever part of Carol's camarilla . Schoolteacher and communist sympathizer Mihail I. Dragomirescu, who met Ralea at this stage, later claimed that Ralea

728-542: A "new generation" of anti-rationalists, and Ralea's personal rivalry with one of the White Lily intellectuals, Petre Pandrea . Pandrea's Manifesto was at once a plea for aestheticism and Christian mysticism , a critique of "that famed social justice" idea, and an explicit denunciation of Ralea, Ibrăileanu, Suchianu and the Sburătorul group as "dry", "barren", all too critical. Ralea answered with half-satirical comments:

910-764: A Bessarabian seat in the Russian Constituent Assembly . This document spoke about "the Moldavians" as engaged in an usurpation of Russian statehood and in a forced Romanianization of the Bessarabian province, comparing them to the Black Hundreds . Following a concurrent corporate election , the Gagauz-and-Bulgarians obtained five seats in the autonomous legislative council, Sfatul Țării , which subsequently became

1092-600: A backup provisional government in northern Oltenia . His friend and PSȚ colleague, Grigore Geamănu, was more directly involved in the coup, helping PCdR leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej to escape from Târgu Jiu camp and join the other conspirators. In the PSȚ newspaper, Dezrobirea , Ralea saluted "the full triumph of the ideas and principles for which our foremost activists have been militating uninterruptedly these past six years" (a pedigree which seemingly included Ralea's own activities under King Carol). He reissued Viața Românească with

1274-542: A bad omen and an attack on world peace. He became one of the PNȚ men affiliated with Lord Cecil 's International Peace Campaign, which, in Romania, was dominated by PSDR militants. He also had rapports with the outlawed Romanian Communist Party (PCdR): with Dem I. Dobrescu , he formed a committee to defend jailed communists such as Alexandru Drăghici and Teodor Bugnariu . He was supported by his sister Eliza, who contributed to

1456-607: A ban on distilling cereals, as well as on the circulation of wood vinegar . At the Syndicate's Imobiliara Hall meeting in June, he also decried the competition of moonshine , claiming: "in Bessarabia they're just about all intoxicated on rectified spirit , which presents a very concerning situation." As a temperance activist , Iuliu Scriban also quoted him as saying that "in Bessarabia they drink twice as much as they did under

1638-563: A champion of the winemakers' corporate interests, and simultaneously a temperance activist , who spoke out against the consumption of Bessarabian moonshine . He won his first mandate in the Assembly of Deputies after elections in 1926 , being returned in 1931 as an affiliate of the Democratic Nationalist Party . Topciu served additional terms during which he veered from agrarianism to fascism , affiliating with

1820-405: A colleague, George Călinescu, for publishing a 1941 treatise which included racialist profiles of Romanian writers, alongside criticism of Ralea's own anti-nationalism . With the 1943 collection of essays, Între două lumi ("Between Two Worlds", published at Cartea Românească ), Ralea revised his earlier prophecies about the triumph of collectivism. Evidence of Ralea's participation in subversion

2002-655: A comfortable lifestyle". Like the rest of the FND, Ralea participated in the movement to depose the monarchist premier, General Nicolae Rădescu . Faced with the PCdR's obstructionism, Rădescu approached Ralea with an alternative offer: the Ploughmen's Front was to form a new government with no communist ministers. Ralea divulged this offer to the Soviet envoy, Andrey Vyshinsky . On February 16, 1945, together with 10 other academics (among them Balmuș, Parhon, Rosetti and Oțetea), he signed

SECTION 10

#1732786651068

2184-453: A fact noted by the Front leadership during the single-list elections of June 1939 , when Ralea was known as the only likable candidate in Ținutul Prut. His time in office brought the creation of a workers' leisure service, Muncă și Voe Bună (MVB), together with a Workers' University, a workers' theater, and a hostel for vacationing writers ( Casa Scriitorilor ). Nepotistic in his selection of

2366-775: A fine for his involvement with the black market , also serving a short sentence in Caransebeș Prison ; he lived his final decade in obscurity, at his new home in Bucharest . Topciu was born on September 2, 1888, among the Gagauz people in Tomai , Bessarabia Governorate (now in the Gagauz Autonomous Unit of Moldova ). His patronymic was rendered in Romanian as Gheorghe (shortened to Gh. ), though some Russian records have Davydovich ; his political associate Gheorghe Cuza knew him primarily as Mitia (from

2548-470: A former " anti-Romanian " and "presently a Nazi ", Topciu was credited by Gh. Cuza, by then his PNC superior, with having "provided the party with massive support from the minority population of the county." On August 25, 1935, Chișinău hosted the first PNC Bessarabian congress. This affair was largely staged by Topciu: "To transport people to Chișinău, he ordered 6 railway wagon to be brought in at Tighina station, and 2 wagons at Ceadîr-Lunga station". During

2730-501: A glorious career as a patriotic nationalist." In the early 1920s, Topciu joined the local Chamber of Agricultural Credit as administrator-delegate, alongside his Sfatul colleagues Balmez and Gheorghi Cara . Topciu was eventually recruited by Alexandru Averescu 's People's Party (PP). He headlined its Assembly of Deputies list for the legislative election of March 1922 in Tighina, with Bulgarians Nicolae Petrov and Iacov Cunev as

2912-710: A great number of manuscripts and old books. Alexandru Ioan Cuza University is involved in over 400 national and international research projects, with the logistic support of 24 research centres. The university is a member of different university networks and associations, such as the Coimbra Group , the European University Association , the Utrecht Network , the International Association of Universities , or

3094-521: A guest speaker, with a lecture on "Social Education". At around that time, with Gusti as president of the Broadcasting Company, Ralea became a frequent presence on the radio. In his columns and essays, Ralea defended Ibrăileanu's "national specificity" against criticism from the new-wave modernists at Sburătorul . Eugen Lovinescu , the modernist ideologue, had reconnected with 19th-century classical liberalism , rejecting Poporanism as

3276-553: A landlord, having built himself a 6-storey mansion on the corner of Tunari and Eminescu Streets. On July 4, the Gigurtu cabinet was formed, signaling Romania's attempted rapprochement with Nazi Germany , and he joined it as Undersecretary of State for Agriculture. On July 7 he helped establish a Committee for Assisting Refugee Agriculturalists, tied to the Union of Agricultural Syndicates and overseen by Garoflid. A month later, he paid

3458-458: A large parade of support for Carol II. This was meant to undermine the leftist Workers' Day while showing the success of the FRN's worker guilds , and was partly inspired by Nazi festivities. Nevertheless, the parade was voluntarily joined by militants of the underground PCdR, who found that it gave them an opportunity for chanting "democratic slogans". In underground PSDR circles, as well as in inside

3640-543: A letter of protest, accusing Rădescu of stalling land reform and of undermining the work of the Allied Commission . Bloody clashes ensued in Bucharest, most of them between anticommunists and communist agents. They signaled a new political crisis, and forced the FND into power. Ralea was made Minister of Arts on March 6, 1945, when Groza took the premiership from the deposed General Rădescu. In June 1945 Ralea

3822-665: A manager of Nistriana-Matex Society in 1941–1944. Specifically, he and other six people, including a Dumitru D. Topciu, who was his son, were due to face trial for having allegedly trafficked "thousands of meters of silk" on the black market . He was sentenced in December 1948 to pay a fine of 6,000 lei; his son was not charged. Topciu went on to serve time in Caransebeș Prison , alongside old-regime figures such as Ion Costinescu and political dissidents such as Anton Dumitriu . The latter recounts that they were huddled up together with some thirty other prisoners, and regularly tormented by

SECTION 20

#1732786651068

4004-624: A marginalization of the Cuza faction). Topciu abandoned his Bessarabian properties on June 28, 1940, immediately after the region was stormed into and annexed by the Soviets ; as Duminică notes, he feared arrest by the NKVD . This happened to Major Zeletin, his right-hand man at the Tighina PNC, who was detained at Vorkutlag until 1955. Topciu moved permanently to Bucharest, where he had become

4186-504: A ministerial staff, by November 1939 his ministry was able to co-opt PSDR politicians such as George Grigorovici and Stavri Cunescu . He appropriated socialist propaganda, and attracted more or less sizable contributions from various centrists and left-wingers: Sadoveanu, Vianu, Suchianu, Philippide, as well as Demostene Botez , Octav Livezeanu  [ ro ] , Victor Ion Popa , Gala Galaction , Barbu Lăzăreanu , and Ion Pas . Another former PSDR man who found employment under Ralea

4368-699: A national controversy: in 1934, he accused Gurie Grosu , the Orthodox Metropolitan of Bessarabia , of having staged an illegal land grab in Bumbăta and Rezina . On June 4, 1936, he contributed to another scandal involving the bishopric, after he showed up at the church meeting in Chișinău alongside Tomescu, who was wearing a swastika lapel. The PNȚ's Pan Halippa protested against this "pagan" display; Topciu violently interrupted his speech, being in turn struck down by Haralambie Marchetti . Nic. Ionescu, of

4550-431: A nationalist, culturally isolationist, and socializing phenomenon. Lovinescu and Ralea denounced each other's politics as reactionary . Ralea opined that Poporanist ideas were still culturally relevant, and not in fact isolationist, since they provided a recipe for "originality"; as he put it, "national specificity" had become inevitable. The conflict was not just political: Ralea also objected to modernist aesthetics, from

4732-534: A new administrative region incorporating parts of Western Moldavia and Bessarabia . He was created a Knight 2nd Class of the Order of Cultural Merit  [ ro ] , publishing, at Editura Fundațiilor Regale, the volume Psihologie și vieață ("Psychology and Life"). Toward the end of 1938, Ralea moved from his old chair at the University of Iași and took up a similar position at his Bucharest alma mater. Vianu

4914-554: A new intellectual movement, critical of both modernism and Poporanism, was emerging in the cultural life of Greater Romania. Led by poet-theologian Nichifor Crainic , this group took over at Gândirea , turning the magazine against its former Viața Românească allies. As pointed out by Lovinescu, Ralea was initially welcoming of Crainic's "remarkable" program. He did not object to Crainic's Romanian Orthodox devotion (seeing it as compatible with secularism and "national specificity"), but mainly to his national conservatism , which worshiped

5096-456: A new rhythm of national struggle [and] did not want to submit to the strict discipline of Cuzist ideology". This conflict gave way to a "close camaraderie, [in which] I learned to appreciate his qualities and flaws." The two men were publicly associated with each other and with Nichifor Robu as early as January 1936, when they toured Suceava County to campaign in the by-elections. The local National Liberal paper, Glasul Bucovinei , alleged at

5278-646: A parliament of the Chișinău-based Moldavian Democratic Republic. Topciu was among those elected by "a certain 'Bulgarian–Gagauz organization', which probably included smaller associations." Also elected at the time, Krste Misirkov initially specified that he himself represented a Bulgarian National Party in Bessarabia; historian Ivan Duminică reports that as many as 19 deputies, including Topciu, had full or partial Gagauz or Bulgarian ethnicity, though some, such as Nicolae Alexandri and Alexei Culeva , did not represent that ethnic bloc. Among

5460-410: A permanent seat at the University of Iași, at the expense of PNȚ colleague Ioan Hudiță . He tried to do the same for Rosetti, but was met with the stiff opposition of linguist Giorge Pascu . Hudiță was particularly vexed by these maneuvers, and, in 1934, asked for a formal inquiry by Parliament , and even for a formal review of Ralea's own 1926 appointment. More privately, Hudiță also claimed that Ralea

5642-462: A propaganda tour which, according to historian Petre Țurlea  [ ro ] , was consuming enough "to make it seem like the Government was on a break, like nothing was being worked on". The establishment offered Ralea several honors, including a reprint of his works by the ministry press. In addition to his ministerial appointment, Ralea became Royal Resident, or governor, of Ținutul Prut ,

Mihai Ralea - Misplaced Pages Continue

5824-501: A refugee from Soviet-occupied territory, Traian Chelariu ; meanwhile, Panaitescu was stripped of his position and briefly imprisoned. Still present in public life after the Romania's entry into the anti-Soviet war , Ralea returned to publishing with articles in Revista Română and the 1942 book Înțelesuri ("Meanings"). Despite being partly recovered by the new regime, and allegedly proposing to Antonescu that they revive together

6006-402: A revolution, a social movement needed at once a "social body", an "ideal", and a "transfer of power"—depending on which trait was prevailing, revolutions were, respectively, "organic", "programmatic", or "means-based". The focus of his attention was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon , whom he rediscovered (and criticized) as a proponent of "class solidarity" and nonviolent revolution . The work earned Ralea

6188-747: A seat in the Assembly of Deputies , and was reelected in 1933 ; during that interval, he also presided upon Fălciu's party chapter. Ralea was one of a compact group of National Peasantist academics in Poporanist Iași, together with Botez, Oțetea, Constantin Balmuș , Iorgu Iordan , Petre Andrei , Traian Bratu , and Traian Ionașcu . Inside the party, Ralea was a follower of the Poporanist founding figure, Constantin Stere , but did not follow Stere's " Democratic Peasantist " dissidence of 1930. Around 1929, Ralea

6370-491: A similar statement about "the present triumph of our credo". Meanwhile, keeping up with his earlier threats, Maniu repeatedly asked for Ralea to be indicted for war crimes . Ralea played an instrumental part in the gradual installation of communism, and is described by various authors as the prototype " fellow traveler ". In December 1944, he was announced as the Literary Section Vice President of

6552-522: A small apartment above the Viața Românească offices. For the next two years, Ralea diversified his qualifications with the goal of obtaining employment in his main field. He published the tract Formația ideii de personalitate ("How the Notion of Personality Is Formed"), noted as a pioneering introduction to behavioural genetics . On January 1, 1926, following good referrals from Petrovici (and despite

6734-459: A surprising deal with Carol II and Premier Miron Cristea (the Patriarch of Romania ), becoming the country's Minister of Labor . He was promptly stripped of his PNȚ membership, and inaugurated his own party, the exceedingly minor Socialist Peasants' Party (PSȚ). By October 1938, he was working on a project to fuse all of Romania's professional organizations into a general union —the basis for

6916-474: A surprising victory—"Romanians are astonished, while foreigners poke fun; as well they should." He came in first of four PP deputies for that county, with Vladimir Chiorescu , Ion M. Leon, and Nicolae Stoianoglo holding the other three seats, and with Madgearu of the opposition Peasants' Party taking a remaining fifth seat. Topciu earned more attention and ridicule from Cuvântul journalists in July, when he took

7098-605: A system of guilds . Alongside Halippa and other, he was a guest for the Feast of the Baptism celebration held at Chișinău on January 6, 1940, used by Carol as a celebration of Greater Romania. In February 1940, he was also serving as manager of the Winemakers' Syndicate; in this capacity, he helped draft a new law on the protection of Romanian wine . On January 7, he had married a second time, to Lucreția Fășie-Ralea, sister of

7280-463: A visit to the winemakers of Panciu , in Putna County , assuring them of his ongoing support. The Carol–Gigurtu regime came down on September 4, 1940, when Ion Antonescu took over as executive leader, or Conducător . Topciu was allowed to keep his post for ten more days, until the proclamation of an Iron Guard government, the " National Legionary State ". On September 17, he was moved to

7462-625: A while, he also managed a Romanian restaurant owned by the banker Aristide Blank . His secular agenda was underscored when he joined the Romanian Freemasonry , which, historian Lucian Nastasă writes, implied a commitment to freethought and religious toleration. By 1946, he was an 18° in the Chapter of Rose Croix . He was part of a tight cell of Romanian students in letters or history, which also included Oțetea, Gheorghe Brătianu , and Alexandru Rosetti , who remained close friends over

Mihai Ralea - Misplaced Pages Continue

7644-509: A zealous warden; however, Dumitriu also reports that the conditions were overall better than in other communist prisons. Topciu himself survived confinement, and was allowed to go free after a relatively short period. He is known to have lived his final years in Bucharest, dying there in 1958. He was buried at the local Bellu Cemetery . The politician was survived by Lucreția, to her death in November 1974, and by his two children—Dumitru Jr,

7826-665: Is shared with the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University. Nowadays, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University is made up of 15 faculties and one department: Founded in 1835 as Library of the Academia Mihăileană, Mihai Eminescu Central University Library holds about 2.5 million volumes that form the main collection and an old and rare collection, from the 15th to the 19th centuries, of over 100,000 Romanian and foreign documents, manuscripts, books, albums, maps, stamps, archive items. The building that houses

8008-506: The Agence universitaire de la Francophonie . 47°10′27″N 27°34′18″E  /  47.174231°N 27.571691°E  / 47.174231; 27.571691 Dumitru Topciu Dumitru or Dimitrie Gheorghe Topciu ( Gagauz : Dmitriy Topçu , Bulgarian : Димитър Топчу , romanized :  Dimitar Topchu , Russian : Дмитрий Георгиевич Топчу , romanized :  Dimitri Georgevich Topchu ; September 2, 1888 – 1958)

8190-647: The Axis Powers on the Eastern Front and a temporary (1941–1944) recovery of Bessarabia . In mid-1942, he published two political essays about the positioning of Romania's agrarian economy within the German New Order . As paraphrased by Universul daily, these advised Romanians to "support the efforts undertaken by our most patriotic Marshal Antonescu, who has committed himself to making Romania more beautiful and stronger." Immediately following

8372-484: The Boarding High School , studying the classics. He was colleagues with another future sociologist, D. I. Suchianu , with whom he made visits to the café-chantant and planned to write his first book (a French-language study of human intelligence ); both men took top honors in their respective class. The two remained personal and political friends for the rest of their lives. Another enduring friendship

8554-715: The Dniester , he settled in Tighina , entering Romanian politics as a member of the People's Party . In interwar Greater Romania , Topciu became a proponent of Gagauz assimilation, embracing forms of Romanian nationalism which came to be ridiculed in the press; he was also outspoken in his resistance to Gagauz re- Turkification . In tandem, he was a leader of the Agricultural Syndicate in Tighina County ,

8736-617: The French Left , a reader of Jean Jaurès , and a guest of Léon Blum 's. Young Ralea defined himself as a rationalist , heir to the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution , and was ostensibly an atheist . Ralea's later friend and disciple psycholinguist , Tatiana Slama-Cazacu , suggests that he was a " salon socialist " who came to rely on his anti-socialist father's fortune so as to maintain his Parisian lifestyle. For

8918-405: The Gigurtu cabinet (1940). He supported Ion Antonescu 's takeover of the country, as well as his alliance with the Axis Powers . Having been chased out of Bessarabia by a Soviet invasion in 1940 , he became an organizer of formal and informal efforts to assist his fellow refugees. Topciu managed to survived the establishment of a Romanian communist regime in 1948. He was harassed and had to pay

9100-542: The Great National Assembly . His missions coincided with the inauguration of a Romanian communist regime , whose policies he privately feared and resented. His diplomatic mission, tinged in scandal, was cut short by Foreign Minister Ana Pauker ; Securitate operatives regarded him as a suspicious opportunist and contact for the Freemasonry , keeping him under close surveillance upon his return. He

9282-606: The Institut de France 's Prix Osiris  [ fr ] and a Doctor of Letters degree in 1923. He spent another several months frequenting lectures at the University of Berlin . It was there that he first met a future enemy, the poet-mathematician Ion Barbu . The latter left a corrosive record of their first encounter, dismissing Ralea as a "clown" with "aristocratic manias". Upon his return to Romania, Ralea began publishing his political and sociological essays in reviews such as Fapta , Ideea Europeană , and Gândirea . He

SECTION 50

#1732786651068

9464-489: The International Red Aid . In 1937, with an obituary piece to the "martyr" Stere, Ralea defended Poporanism from accusations of " Bolshevik " subservience. Bolshevism, he argued, was impossible in Romania. However, he had a working relationship with the PCdR, whose leaders were also interested in other PNȚ antifascists (one of those facilitating this encounter was the White Lily's Pandrea, who had since joined

9646-667: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs , as head of the new General Commissariat for Refugees. Topciu was no longer serving in any official capacity in February 1941, when he was petitioning the Ministry of Agriculture as a delegate of the Winemakers' Syndicate. In April, he and his wife were awarded 250,000 lei from a legal settlement in Fălciu County . Topciu lived out the remainder of World War II, which witnessed Romania's partnership with

9828-625: The National Agrarians (1932), the National Christian Party (1935), and the Union of National Awareness (1939). Touring the Budjak subregion, he had a major contribution in canvassing Gagauz votes for Romania's far-right groups. Topciu was finally recruited by King Carol II into his catch-all National Renaissance Front , which resulted in his peak political activity, as Undersecretary of State for Agriculture in

10010-700: The National Moldavian Party , forming, and presiding upon, a committee of the Bulgarians and Gagauz. A 1926 note in Cuvântul newspaper had it that Topciu, "a native Gagauz, belonged back in 1917 to a Bulgaro-Gagauz soviet that had been set up in southern Bessarabia to fend off the Moldavians ." In 1937, Dreptatea republished a manifesto used by Topciu in his campaign for the legislative election of October–November 1917 , contesting

10192-410: The National Socialist Party , Ralea was still under Siguranța watch, and also spied on by the Police and the German Embassy. His file contains a denunciation of his entire career and loyalties: he stood accused of having been a "socialist-communist" camouflaged within the PNȚ, of having revived the guilds so as to give the PCdR room for maneuver, and of having sponsored Soviet agents to protect himself in

10374-406: The Network of Francophone Universities (RUFAC). Iași has a long tradition in higher education, the first institute that functioned on the territory of Romania was Academia Vasiliană founded in 1640 by the Moldavian Prince Vasile Lupu , followed, in 1707, by Princely Academy of Iași . The Princely Academy (renamed, in 1812, The Academy of Filology and Science) matched up to the standards of

10556-454: The November 1946 election . In April of that year, the Romanian People's Tribunals , which investigated war crimes, had issued an invitation for "D. Topciu of Bucharest, last known domicile at No 6 Tunari Street" to participate in an interrogation. He survived the establishment of a Romanian communist regime in early 1948, but was arrested in June under suspicions of sabotage , and prosecuted in October. The charges referred to his status as

10738-492: The Provisional Council of the Russian Republic was cut short by the October Revolution , he was sent to Sfatul Țării , which acted as a legislative body of the Moldavian Democratic Republic . Topciu was absent during its March 1918 vote on that polity's union with Romania ; by his own testimony, he assisted the Romanian expeditionary force , in his other capacity as the provisional leader of Bender Uyezd . After escaping prosecution for his alleged smuggling activities along

10920-413: The Romanian Police . In May 1930, Topciu was a Tighina County delegate at the PP congress in Bucharest . By the time of new elections in June 1931 , he had rallied with the Democratic Nationalist Party (PND) list, or "National Union", emerging to take the third Assembly seat in Tighina, after Leon and Tancred Constantinescu . His defection disorganized the local PP; in August, academic Florin Sion

11102-442: The Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union (ARLUS). His position as a cultural policymaker was recognized by the moderate liberal Victor Iancu , of the Sibiu Literary Circle . One of Iancu's essays, published by the Circle in January 1945, indicated that Ralea had always been right to highlight the social function of "aesthetic thinking", and as such had provided templates for a "moral therapy for this age". Ralea's PSȚ

SECTION 60

#1732786651068

11284-402: The Romanianization laws. Ralea himself was involved in the Romanianization campaign: in late 1938, he accepted Wilhelm Filderman 's proposal for the mass emigration of Romanian Jews . In December 1938, Ralea became a founding member of Carol's single party , the National Renaissance Front (FRN)—joining its 24-member Directorate in January 1939. During that interval, he was participating in

11466-505: The Soviet Union . At the time, the PCdR acknowledged him as one of the intellectuals who could be trusted with "fulfilling the bourgeois revolution in Romania." Overall, Suchianu reports, "all communist intellectuals, or intellectuals who sympathized with [the PCdR], were permanent contributors." In January 1937, at the PNȚ Youth Conference in Cluj , Ralea spoke of the "peasant state" as a "neo-nationalist" application of democratic socialism , opposed to fascism, and in natural solidarity with

11648-407: The Târgu Jiu camp . He was held there for about three months, to March 1943, and apparently enjoyed a mild detention regime, with visitations. One of his visitors was Eliza Hagi Anton, who used this opportunity to traffic out of the camp a letter penned by the communist inmate Ion Gheorghe Maurer . Ralea's return from camp coincided roughly with the Battle of Stalingrad and the turn of fortunes on

11830-486: The UNESCO , and was posthumously diagnosed with a neurological disease. He endures in cultural memory as a controversial figure: celebrated for his sociological and critical insights, he is also reprehended for his nepotism, his political choices, and his literary compromises. He was survived by two daughters, one of whom was Catinca Ralea, who achieved literary fame as a translator of Western literature. A native of Huși , Fălciu County (currently in Vaslui County ), Ralea

12012-426: The University of Bucharest Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, under Constantin Rădulescu-Motru (who shortlisted and prepared Ralea for academic tenure). He made his debut in publishing during 1916, with an essay in Rădulescu-Motru's Revista de Filozofie , and with Convorbiri Literare articles that he usually signed with the initials M. R. (an alternative signature he would use for the rest of his career). Ralea

12194-400: The anti-Antonescu coup of August 1944 , though his camp had lost its political supremacy, he continued to assist Gagauz refugees. One of these was Ion Capsâz of Tomai, who became doorman of his Tunari offices—and who, in turn, assisted others fleeing the Budjak . Along with all other officials of the 1940–1944 regimes, Topciu was legally stripped of his voting rights and eligibility ahead of

12376-524: The republican militia ; this mission ran parallel with the Romanian military intervention in Bessarabia , with Topciu also acting as a liaison for the Romanian Land Forces in Tighina. Topciu's mandate in Sfatul ended on May 18, 1918, when the Bulgarian-and-Gagauz delegation replaced him with another community member. His mandate in Bender Uyezd lasted to March 22, 1919, though he continued to live in Tighina to 1940. As noted by politician and memoirist Constantin Argetoianu , around 1920 "my buddy Topciu"

12558-410: The École Normale Supérieure as a disciple of Lucien Herr , simultaneously registering for doctoral programs in letters and politics, with interests in sociology and psychology. He studied under the functionalist Célestin Bouglé , then under Paul Fauconnet and Lucien Lévy-Bruhl , and later, at the Collège de France , under Pierre Janet . As he himself recounted, he became a passionate follower of

12740-433: The "mythomaniacal" Iron Guard. The FRN regime soon organized a massive clampdown of the Guard. Ralea claimed to have protected Guardsmen employed by the Labor Ministry, and to have negotiated pardons for militants interned at Miercurea Ciuc . He obtained one such reprieve for Guardist historian P. P. Panaitescu . Himself a Guard sympathizer, Ion Barbu later claimed that Ralea was behind his marginalization in academia. Ralea

12922-552: The "traveling professors", who lived in Bucharest and only taught the minimum of classes allowed in Iași—one of his return trips to Iași, in 1936, was for the funeral ceremony of his mentor Ibrăileanu. He now owned an Iași townhouse and a villa in Bucharest's Filipescu Park. Although lovingly married to Ioana, he had begun an affair with another woman, Mariana Simionescu (credited in some sources as Marcela). Ralea's energies were also drawn into administrative disputes and professional rivalries. Alongside Brătianu, he fought to obtain Oțetea

13104-480: The 1933 conference in the Republic of Spain , but insisted on the benefits of statism and a planned economy . By then, Ralea was leaving behind his sociological research. As noted by his friend Botez, he was "absent-minded and preoccupied most of all with politics." Botez noted that Ralea was showing signs of hyperactivity , seemingly incapable of concentrating during formal functions. He became infamous as one of

13286-585: The Allies stood for "humanistic civilization". Former PCdR activists still enjoyed access to Ralea, through Constantinescu-Iași. In May 1940, the latter tried to create a bridge of communications between the Labor Minister and the Soviet Union. Various reports on both sides confirm that Ralea was in permanent contact with Soviet diplomats, arranged for him by Constantinescu-Iași and Belu Zilber . Ralea

13468-601: The Bulgarian-and-Gagauz deputies, Topciu and Anton Novakov were absent at the Sfatul session of March 27, 1918, in which the majority voted for union with Romania ; their colleagues inside the Bulgarian–Gagauz organization abstained, while Bulgarian Ștefan Balmez voted against union. Ten years after the fact, both Novakov and Topciu explained that they were absent on official duty, to ensure provisions for

13650-732: The Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Theology and the curriculum resembled to a great extent that of Austrian and German academies. After the Unification of the Romanian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia by the Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the inauguration, at 26 October 1860, of the University of Iași, the first Romanian modern university, was to be a stepping stone to modern higher education in Romania. By 1879,

13832-527: The Front's regional leader in Ținutul Mării . He fell from power in 1940, finding himself harassed by successive fascist regimes, and became a " fellow traveler " of the underground Communist Party . Ralea willingly cooperated with the communists and the Ploughmen's Front before and after their arrival to power, serving as Minister of Arts , Ambassador to the United States , and vice president of

14014-524: The Guard in late 1932, when he was presiding upon symposiums on French literature at Criterion society. One of the sessions, focusing on André Gide , was interrupted, on Crainic's instigation, by Guardsmen under Mihai Stelescu , who assaulted Criterion activists and created a bustle. By 1933, Ralea had quarreled with the Criterion cell, which had since adopted "new generation" idealism and sympathy for

14196-658: The Guard's assault of the leftist intellectual Alexandru Graur , Ralea decried fascism in Romania as an " island of Doctor Moreau ", an experiment in the growth of "blind and absurd mysticism". As a sociologist, Ralea also participated in public debates on the " Jewish Question " in Romania. During February 1934, Hasmonaea club and Rădulescu-Motru co-hosted a topical conference, with Ralea as a guest—alongside Henric Streitman (who spoke about Judaism ) and Sami Singer (who outlined issues pertaining to Zionism ). In 1935, 161 of Ralea's essays were collected and published at Editura Fundațiilor Regale as Valori ("Values"). They predicted

14378-500: The Iași-based review Însemnări Literare , which stood in for the temporarily disestablished Viața Românească . The magazine was managed by the novelist Mihail Sadoveanu and heavily influenced by Ibrăileanu. Their friendship sealed Ralea's affiliation to prewar Poporanism , a leftist current which promoted agrarianism , "national specificity", and art with a social mission. The Însemnări Literare group also recognized that Poporanism

14560-583: The Iron Guard. In private, he also dismissed the Guard's new convert and ideologue, Nae Ionescu , as a "trickster" and a "barber". The issue of Romanian fascism became stringent after the Guard assassinated Romanian Premier Ion G. Duca . In his articles, Ralea described the National Liberal administration as "insane and degenerate" for continuing to tolerate the Guard's existence, instead of jailing its leaders. At Dreptatea , protesting against

14742-518: The National Peasantist left current). Around 1937, Viața Românească ' s editorial panel was joined by dramatist Mihail Sebastian and poet Dumitru Corbea . As recalled by the latter, Suchianu and engaged Ralea had "[editorial] disputes of the most heated kind." Ralea also allowed PCdR intellectuals such as Ștefan Voicu and Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu to publish essays in Viața Românească , and hosted news about social life and culture in

14924-443: The PCdR under Carol. He defended these, arguing that he had aimed at securing a protective deal between Romania and the Soviets, and that Carol had approved of his effort. The explanation was viewed as plausible by police, and Ralea was allowed to go free. Nevertheless, the file was reopened by August, after revelations that Ralea had cultivated communists since at least the 1930s. In December 1942, Antonescu ordered Ralea's internment at

15106-542: The PNȚ. With Panaitescu as the new Rector, the university instituted a Commission for Review, which included Iron Guard sociologist Traian Herseni and eugenicist Iordache Făcăoaru . Of those professors brought before the commission, Ralea was the only one to have his contract terminated without the possibility of transfer. Panaitescu, Herseni and Făcăoaru found that his appointment to Bucharest had been illegal, and dismissed his scientific contributions as having "zero value". Ralea and his colleagues were able to defend Vianu, who

15288-723: The PSȚ, and attracted into its ranks a Social Democratic dissident faction, led by former PSDR theoretician Lothar Rădăceanu . The two reestablished contacts with the PCdR and other fringe parties: moving between Bucharest and Sinaia (where he owned a villa on Cumpătul Street), Ralea was involved in trilateral talks between the communists, the Ploughmen's Front of Petru Groza , and the National Liberal inner faction of Gheorghe Tătărescu , helping to coordinate actions between them. Again helped along by his sister Eliza, he had regular clandestine meetings with Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu , who lived outside Sinaia, in Poiana Țapului . In Brașov , he met with

15470-584: The Romanians". In his Assembly speeches, Topciu himself argued that the Gagauz, whom he estimated a 120,000 individuals, were loyal subjects of the state and adherents of the Romanian Orthodox Church ; as noted by the parliamentary reporter at Lupta , the message meant to scold those Gagauz activists who were cultivating Kemalism and Pan-Turkism . It was also warning against potential Islamization and Turkification , questioning if it

15652-461: The Russian pet name, Mitya ). Topciu tied his Gagauz identity to Eastern Christianity rather than Turkishness , since, as he explained in a January 1937 speech, the Gagauz "never even passed through Asia Minor ." After training as a lawyer at an unspecified university, he became an activist on behalf of the Bessarabian peasants and frequented the political circles of Kishinev (Chișinău) . Like

15834-563: The Russians." In January 1935, Topciu and Constantin C. Giurescu had set up a "winemakers' parliamentary bloc", which was directed against the propagation of hybrid grapes . Topciu had also become the local leader of the Goga party in Tighina, preserving this post after July 1935, as the group became the National Christian Party (PNC) upon merging with the LANC. Described by Dreptatea as

16016-624: The Soviets' offer of an armistice as "too soft" on Romania. Blocked out of the National Democratic Bloc coalition, which included the PNȚ, the PSDR, and ultimately the PCdR, Ralea watched from the side as the August 23 Coup deposed Antonescu and pushed Romania into the anti-Nazi camp. According to his sister, he corresponded with Pătrășcanu until hours before the events. In case of failure, he had been instructed to leave Sinaia and join

16198-611: The University of Iași had four faculties: Law, Letters and Philosophy, Sciences, and Medicine. In 1892, the Faculty of Sciences added the Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, followed by the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, in 1906, and the School of the Industrial Electricity, in 1910. In March 1937, the technical higher education departments and the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences were transferred to

16380-481: The army on the Prut , in preparation of a future defense. The subsequent occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina sent Romania into a deep political crisis. The events, and revelations about the existence of a Nazi–Soviet agreement , led Carol to order a final clampdown of the PCdR's remaining Romanian cells. In July, Ralea intervened to rescue a communist friend, the journalist George Ivașcu . The Romanian crisis

16562-520: The classic emblem of higher education. The three shiny stars stand for the three faculties of the university at its foundation moment, Philosophy, Law and Theology, on blue and argent background, the same colors used on the Cuza family shield. The university grounds lie on Copou Hill in the northern part of the city. The main university building, known as the University Palace, was erected between 1893 and 1897, and extended in 1933–1937, on

16744-459: The communists helped him provide for his large family, including former landowners, but his account is viewed as doubtful by Zavarache. Ralea's Socialist Peasantists were eventually absorbed into the Ploughmen's Front. As noted by Zavarache, Ralea now understood that his influence on political life was "exceedingly minor", aware that Groza himself was merely a communist "puppet"; "consequently, he sought to preserve those offices which could ensure him

16926-521: The country as a reactionary bulwark of "somber priests" and "festooned soldiers". Another Memorial , serialized by Adevărul Literar și Artistic , detailed his trips through Germanic-speaking Europe . Shortly before the election of December 1928 , Ralea was attracted into the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), speaking out against the National Liberal political class as "an abnormal regime of corruption and brutality." He successfully contested

17108-639: The country, he noted, could do without "prophets" with "fun and interesting biases", but not without "liberty, paved roads, justice and cleanliness in the streets". In his view, the Manifesto authors were modern-day Rasputins , prone to fanatical vandalism. From that moment on, Crainic's Orthodox spirituality and traditionalism made a slow transition into far-right politics. Their rejection of democracy became another issue of dispute, with Ralea noting, in 1930, that "all civilized countries are democratic; all semi-civilized or primitive countries are dictatorial." Over

17290-405: The culture critic Garabet Ibrăileanu , who became Ralea's mentor. Ralea recalled that his first encounter with Ibrăileanu was "my life's greatest intellectual event". Described by Vianu as a "young luminary" with "new and original ideas", "always surrounded by a sizable pack of students", Ralea returned to cultural journalism in postwar Greater Romania . From February 1919, he was a contributor to

17472-542: The decades. Suchianu and his sister Ioana, who were also studying in Paris, lived in the same boarding house as Ralea. With funds raised by a Support Committee that included Ralea, Viața Românească was eventually revived by Ibrăileanu. Ralea became its foreign correspondent, sending in articles about the intellectual life and philosophical doctrines of the Third Republic , and possibly the first Romanian notices about

17654-591: The eastern front. He soon established contacts with the antifascist opposition, repeatedly seeking to set up a Peasantist left and rejoin the PNȚ. Maniu received him and listened to his pleas, but denied him readmission and invited him to create his own coalition from shards of the Renaissance Front, promising him some measure of leniency "for that hour when we shall be evaluating the past mistakes that have thrown this country into dejection." Their separation remained "unbridgeable"; eventually, Ralea reestablished

17836-513: The eclectic modernizer of poetic language, as Romania's greatest poet of the day. Ralea (and, before him, Ibrăileanu) campaigned for social realism in prose. His natural favorite was Sadoveanu, but he was also enthusiastic about modernist novels with a flavor of social radicalism, including those by Sburătorul ' s Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu . With the Lovinescu–Ralea debate occupying the center stage at Viața Românească and Sburătorul ,

18018-489: The economist Victor Jinga , whose antifascist and socialist program was reused in later PSȚ propaganda. Together with party colleague Stanciu Stoian , he signed the PSȚ's adherence to the PCdR's clandestine "Patriotic Antihitlerite Front". In addition to such underground work, Ralea was notably involved in combating the nationalism and racism of the Antonescu years. He was one of several literary critics who publicly chided

18200-586: The effects of the Great Depression and the overall unsoundness of debt relief policies imposed by the PND. Topciu was by then a supporter of poet-activist Octavian Goga , who discarded the PP to establish his own National Agrarian Party (PNA). The PND leader and Prime Minister , Nicolae Iorga , noted on April 10, 1932 that Topciu and Sergiu Niță had been "beguiled" ( smomiți ) by Goga, and were abandoning

18382-445: The elimination of Jewish business interests. In the local elections in July 1937 , Topciu ensured a comfortable win for the Tighina PNC, including a seat for himself on the county council. Just days after, his stances created schisms within his PNC chapter: former LANC members rebelled against his leadership, describing him as a profiteer who had capitalized on their popularity. They also resented him for assigning political offices to

18564-496: The emergence of a stable civilization, conformist and collectivist , whose great merit was the elimination of careerism. Ralea synthesized his critique of fascism in the 1935 essays on "The Right's Doctrine", taken up by Dreptatea and Viața Românească . These texts described the far-right and fascism as parasitical phenomena, feeding on democracy's errors, with an ignorant mindset, incapable of subtlety. His assessments were countercriticized by Guardist intellectual Toma Vlădescu , in

18746-594: The end of the year, Carol began exercising his dictatorial authority through the National Renaissance Front (FRN). A secretary of A. C. Cuza 's Union of National Awareness, Topciu followed the other party leaders in joining the FRN during October 1939. Topciu took a seat in the Senate of Romania in the one-party elections of June 2, 1939 . Selected as a representative of the agricultural profession, he co-sponsored legislation to fully reestablish

18928-541: The establishment of a workers' theatrical troupe, Teatrul Muncitoresc CFR Giulești . As a side project, he republished his 1930s travel accounts, completed with notes from his trip to Egypt , as Nord-Sud ("North-South"). University of Ia%C8%99i The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University ( Romanian : Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza" ; acronym: UAIC ) is a public university located in Iași , Romania. Founded by an 1860 decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza , under whom

19110-449: The event of a Soviet invasion. One Siguranța record suggests that, in secret, Ralea was hoping to consolidate a left-wing opposition movement against Antonescu during the early months of 1941. More alarmingly for the regime, Ralea had also begun cultivating a revolutionary and pro-Allied youth, through a new magazine called Graiul Nostru and with British funds. In February, Ralea was subjected to formal interrogations over his contacts with

19292-676: The fellow Gagauz Pavel Guciujna , he was also sympathetic to the aspirations of Bessarabian Romanians—including their quest for autonomy inside the Russian Republic, after the February Revolution. He was acquainted with activist Gherman Pântea , who allegedly followed Topciu's advice when meeting with Vladimir Lenin , leader of the Russian Bolsheviks , in April 1917, to probe him about the far-left's views on

19474-516: The former Academia Mihăileană was converted to a university, the University of Iași , as it was named at first, is one of the oldest universities of Romania, and one of its advanced research and education institutions. It is one of the five members of the Universitaria Consortium (the group of elite Romanian universities). The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University offers study programmes in Romanian, English, and French. In 2008, for

19656-462: The governmental arc altogether. Beginning in that month, Topciu helped to form PNA sections in Gagauz areas, and "managed to attract many of his brethren to the party." Memoirs left by Gh. Cuza claim that he was drawn into the new group by its title, which suggested a commitment to mainline agrarianism , rather than by its hard right-wing component. Topciu was frustrated by the law which awarded land to all pro-Romanian members of Sfatul , since he

19838-538: The grounding of Gândirist theory: Romanian Orthodoxy, he noted, was part of an international Orthodox phenomenon that mainly included Slavs , whereas many Romanians were Greek-Catholic . He concluded, therefore, that Orthodoxy could never claim synonymy with the Romanian ethos. Ralea also insisted that, despite its nativist anti-Western claims, Orthodox religiousness was a modern "trifle", that owed inspiration to Keyserling 's Theosophy and Cocteau 's Catholicism. He maintained that Romanian peasants, whose religiousness

20020-430: The historical past. Like other Poporanists, Ralea adopted left-wing nationalism , arguing that the very concept of nation was a product of French radicalism: "[It] emerged from the great French Revolution, the modest ideology of the bourgeoisie. [...] What's more, we may claim that only a democracy can truly be nationalistic." He credited the core ideas of Romanian liberalism , according to which Romanian national awareness

20202-901: The issue of national determination. Topciu also supported this autonomist agenda while attending the Congress of Bessarabian Co-operativists in late 1917. On September 3, 1917, he became chairman of the provisional council in Bender (Tighina) Uyezd. He was assigned as a peasant delegate to the Provisional Council of the Republic in Petrograd on October 7, but lost his seat with the Bolshevik coup of November 7. Topciu's political adversaries claimed to have uncovered evidence that he had come to oppose Romanian nationalism as embodied by

20384-562: The list for Fălciu. In his capacity as minister, Ralea set in motion the purge of PNȚ-ist functionaries and of artists perceived by the PCdR as pro-fascist. In November 1945, he and Grigore Preoteasa reportedly published a forged issue of Ardealul newspaper, as part of an effort to prevent the PNȚ from rallying protests against Groza. Around the same time, Ralea extended his personal protection to Șerban Cioculescu , who became Iași University professor in 1946 upon his intervention. Ralea also pursued his projects for workers' education, authorizing

20566-528: The main collection is located at the base of Copou Hill, and it was built between 1930 and 1934 to serve as the headquarters of King Ferdinand 's Cultural Foundation. The triangular building with Doric columns and cupola is decorated with Carrara marble and Venetian mosaics . By 1945, the Foundation library had become one of the biggest in the country. Today, the library is the largest in Moldavia, with

20748-419: The ministerial structures, rumors spread that Ralea was using secret funds at his discretion to sponsor various PCdR militants, including his schoolmate Petre Constantinescu-Iași ; these stories were partly confirmed by Ralea himself. From March 1939, the premiership had passed to Armand Călinescu , a former PNȚ politician. Ralea was his friend and confidant, and, as he later claimed, defended Călinescu against

20930-468: The movement's candidates, in terms he would later describe as "cordial". His apparent compromise with the Guard is one of the most serious charges in Pandrea's later criticism of Ralea. The tied elections, and the successes of the Guard, prompted the authoritarian King Carol II to increase his participation in politics, beyond his royal prerogative . Identified as one of the PNȚ "turncoats", Ralea sealed

21112-525: The national income", and the "collective" but peaceful "redemption of an entire class." Ralea's time at Dreptatea overlapped with the emergence of fascism , whose leading Romanian representatives were members of the Iron Guard . This violent movement had been temporarily banned in 1931, by order of a PNȚ Interior Minister , Ion Mihalache . Mihalache's ban followed repeated requests by the party's left-wingers, Ralea included. Ralea had his own brush with

21294-436: The nationalist monthly Prut și Nistru , saw Topciu's intervention as an attempt to restore order, against Halippa and Guciujna: "There was one man who held up a finger, and who instantly brought peace and quiet to the room; his name is Topciu. He improvised his speech on the spot, but it came out logically. He never riled up the crowd, and never lost his temper." On September 27, Topciu and Colonel Eugen Adamovici presided upon

21476-515: The new regime reinstated Ralea to his professorship. Antonescu castigated the Commission for Review as a "shame", and declared Ralea to be "indispensable". In a companion to Romanian philosophy , published that year, Herseni revised his stance, calling Ralea "a thinker of unquestionable talent", whose sociological work had been "a true revelation." Ralea returned to teach at the university where, in addition to Vianu, he had received as his assistant

21658-536: The newer PNC recruits—including Vladimir Sereda, formerly of the PNȚ. Topciu described the controversy as a one-man intrigue by Vladimir Croitoru, whom he expelled from the party in September; by then, Sereda had been confirmed as the PNC organizer in Bulboaca . Ahead of a new legislative election in December , he toured Bessarabia alongside Cuza and two Bulgarian PNC-ists, Gheorghe Colac and Vladimir Novițchi. He

21840-641: The newly established Gheorghe Asachi Polytechnic School , and in 1948, the Medical School became the independent Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy of Iași . Its coat of arms with the Y-shaped heraldic pall symbolizes the three initiatives which led to the foundation of the university: the Academia Vasiliană, the Academia Mihăileană, the University of Iași. The central element is the Bible,

22022-546: The newspaper Porunca Vremii . According to Vlădescu, the "right-wing ideology" existed as an expression of the "human equilibrium", and, at its very core, was antisemitic. With the advent of Nazi Germany and the invigoration of European fascism, Ralea was again moving to the left, cooperating with the Social Democratic Party (PSDR). In 1936, at Dreptatea , he condemned the German march into Rhineland as

22204-465: The next year, Ralea and N. Bagdasar rejected the application of Constantin Noica , the traditionalist philosopher, to join the university teaching staff. In his report, Ralea noted that Noica had "an absolute and metaphysical mindset", with no "practical reason", and that he was therefore unsuited for research and teaching. He also appeared as a defense witness for Gheorghe Vlădescu-Răcoasa , an activist of

22386-652: The old Uyezd was transformed into a Tighina County , serving as leader of he PP's county lodge. In this capacity, he supported an alliance with the National Liberals for the August 1925 elections to the agricultural chambers—in contrast to other PP militants in Bessarabia, including his Gagauz colleague Guciujna. Topciu himself was sent to the Assembly after elections in May–June 1926 , in what Cuvântul labeled as

22568-557: The other European Academies of the time and the Romanian language gained importance over the Greek language. The foundation, in 1835, of the Academia Mihăileană is considered a landmark in the history of Romanian higher education. The Academia Mihăileană was created under the auspices of Prince Mihail Sturdza (hence its name), striving for progress and for "meeting the standards of the enlightened Europe". Three faculties were set up:

22750-439: The others, ordering Zăvoianu to resign. In later years, Ralea confided to his friends that he was sure he would be killed on that night, and that it was in fact Herseni who had pleaded for his release. During the clashes of January 1941 , the Iron Guard was ousted, and Antonescu remained unchallenged. The events saw Guardists occupying Ralea's Bucharest residence, and army tanks being used to clear them out of it. Although fascist,

22932-576: The outbreak of World War II caught Romania isolated from either the Axis Powers and the Western Allies . During the Battle of France , the FRN regime itself was divided between partisans of a détente with Germany and Francophiles such as Ralea. As witnessed by the Swiss diplomat René de Weck , Ralea was restating his Valori ethos at cabinet meetings, in front of Axis representatives, declaring that

23114-441: The party's centrist leadership and his own democratic ideology, setting up a Socialist Peasants' Party , then embracing authoritarian politics. He was a founding member and Labor Minister of the dictatorial National Renaissance Front , representing its corporatist left-wing. Seeing himself as a social reformer whose talents had been channelled by the Front, Ralea founded the leisure service Muncă și Voe Bună , and later served as

23296-529: The preference of psychology students, who favored C. Fedeleș), Ralea was appointed Professor of Psychology and Aesthetics at the University of Iași. As noted by historian Adrian Neculau, his victory showed that no one in Iași could stand up to Poporanists' "power strategy". Ralea soon became one of Viața Românească ' s ideologues and polemicists, as well as architect of its satire column, Miscellanea (alongside Suchianu and, initially, George Topîrceanu ). By 1925, he

23478-408: The proceedings, he also presented the only female affiliate—described by Cuza as "a Gagauz or Bulgarian woman, though I can't say for sure"; "the unfamiliar melody of her speech brought a smile to the faces of those sitting behind the podium." Cuza and the PNC's Bessarabian leader, Constantin N. Tomescu , initially quarreled with Topciu, who, as an old-time agrarianist, "did not understand the need for

23660-458: The pure poetry cultivated by Sburătorul to the more radical Constructivism of Contimporanul magazine. Ralea was not an anti-modernist, but rather a particular modernist. According to his friend and colleague Octav Botez , he was an "integrally modern man" in tastes and behavior, "one of the few philosophers who conceived of, and lived, their lives as regular people, with a naturalness and facility that were charming and stimulating." The same

23842-446: The results had been swiftly invalidated upon government pressure; Leon, who had defected to the National Liberal caucus, was then proclaimed as elected. On March 11, 1928, an "enduring animosity" between him and Leon turned violent. Reportedly, Topciu had taken the liberty of presiding a meeting of the county council, of which he was not a member; this irregularity upset Leon, who stormed into the hall and hit Topciu, until being evicted by

24024-505: The retention of a more liberal, de-Stalinized , communist doctrine. A personal friend of the Communist General Secretary, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej , and to secondary figures such as Ion Gheorghe Maurer , he endorsed the regime's transition into national communism . Always an avid traveler and raconteur, he became completely uninterested in scholarly ventures around the age of sixty. He died abroad, while on mission to

24206-426: The right. In February 1935, he co-authored and published the new PNȚ Party Program, which rendered explicit the goal of transforming Romania into a "peasant state". In Dreptatea , addressing Universul editor Pamfil Șeicaru , Ralea dismissed suspicions that the "peasant state" signified a "simplistic domination" or a dictatorship of the peasantry. He maintained that the notion simply implied "a juster distribution of

24388-530: The rostrum to declare that: "It was I who united Bessarabia with Romania!" A former deputy after the elections of July 1927 , Topciu found himself investigated by the Brătianu cabinet . In August, his home in Tighina was raided by the local prosecutor's office. Various documents were confiscated, and Topciu's arrest was announced as imminent. The PP's Îndreptarea of October 21 reported that he had been lawfully elected chairman of Tighina's county council, but that

24570-479: The runners-up. Topciu's sympathy toward Romanian nationalism was made explicit after 1926, when he became a contributor to Onisifor Ghibu 's magazine, România Nouă . A February 1934 article by Ion Dimitrescu suggests that his political colleagues were much amused by his continued inability to speak proper Romanian—his "highly original" phonetics and his "boorish accent that's not yet fully polished" ( accentul bocciu insuficient dat la tocilă ). The same point

24752-577: The site of the first Iași National Theatre which had burned down in 1888. The Hall of the university, known as The Hall of the Lost Footsteps , served as a parliamentary debating chamber between 1917 and 1918 when, during the Great War , Iași was the capital of Romania. In 1968–1978, the painter Sabin Bălaşa created a series of strongly romanticized frescoes for the arcades. The University Palace

24934-597: The sociologist and FRN politician Mihai Ralea . He became a legal tutor of her two sons from a previous marriage, Radu and Mircea Fășie. Carol was considering a limited reward for his "Cuzists", promising them three prefectures , two of which were in Bessarabia—Topciu was supposed to lead Tighina County, and Gh. Cuza was assigned Bălți County . On February 11, the king reduced his offer, only assigning offices to Topciu and Istrate Micescu (the latter of whom refused all such appointments, in protest against what he saw as

25116-403: The third year in a row, it was placed first in the national research ranking compiled on the basis of Shanghai criteria. The university is a member of some of the most important university networks and associations: the Coimbra Group (CG) , Utrecht Network , European University Association (EUA), International Association of Universities (IAU), University Agency of Francophony (AUF), and

25298-638: The time that they had engaged in electoral intimidation, including by temporarily "kidnapping" in Cacica the PNȚ candidates, namely Mihail Ghelmegeanu and Teofil Sauciuc-Săveanu . Gh. Cuza viewed his Gagauz associate as fully compatible with the PNC doctrines, since these addressed all "Romanian minorities of the Christian faith, with the aim of fraternal cooperation in the name of the common good." The shared platform focused on antisemitism , with Jews rated as former allies, turned into "implacable enemies of

25480-515: The trade unions. He felt confident that this alliance would be powerful enough to outweigh fashionable totalitarianism . In March, he spoke at an all-peasant rally in Ilfov County , whose purpose was to show that the PNȚ had not lost its core electorate. During April, Ralea and his Iași colleagues expressed public solidarity with his old Poporanist friend Sadoveanu, whose books were being burned by far-right militants. Ralea's own sociological work

25662-465: The underground Union of Patriots . Together with Hudiță and other rival PNȚ-ists, and his friends in Iași academia, Ralea signed to Grigore T. Popa 's manifesto of the intellectuals, demanding that Antonescu negotiate a separate peace with the Soviets. Reputedly, the document had been stripped of references to the prosecution of FRN and Antonescian officials, leading Maniu to conclude that the signers were "cowardly". According to Hudiță, Ralea objected to

25844-489: The villages, and surrounded by valuable men". Overall, the PNA only took 1,783 votes and eighth place in that county, which registered a major win for the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), with 10,770 votes; the group was at the time overshadowed by the ultra-nationalist National-Christian Defense League (LANC), a matter which contributed to Topciu's defeat. Topciu was again a Tighina candidate in December 1933 . He took 12.4% of

26026-411: The vision of a "peasant state", accepting socialist reformism , but still cautious of socialist industrialization, and rejected outright the idea of proletarian primacy . Criticized by the communist left as "outstanding shortsightedness", this ideological position came to define the PNȚ in the mid-1930s. Ralea defended classical parliamentarianism at several Inter-Parliamentary Union meetings, including

26208-564: The vote, and was confirmed on Christmas Day as the only opposition candidate to take a seat in that precinct. Upon winning, he complained that the election of his PNA colleagues had been prevented by the Duca cabinet , with direct intimidation by the Gendarmes . Around that time, Topciu was associating with Constantin Garoflid and Eftimie Antonescu of the Winemakers' Syndicate. In 1933, he

26390-635: The work of Marcel Proust . He traveled extensively, studying first-hand the cultural life of France, Belgium, Italy, and Weimar Germany . In 1922, Ralea took his Docteur d'État degree (the sixth Romanian to ever qualify for it) with L'idée de la révolution dans les doctrines socialistes ("The Idea of Revolution in Socialist Doctrines"). Under the Francized name Michel Raléa , he published it at Rivière company in 1923. L'idée de la révolution... theorized that, in order to be classified as

26572-453: The working class." As noted in 1945 by political scientist Hugh Seton-Watson , there was a cynical side to Ralea's reform-mindedness: "however much [the average Romanian intellectual] cursed the regime, he was grateful to it for one thing. It stood between him and the great, dirty, primitive, disinherited masses, whose 'Bolshevik' desire for Social Justice threatened his comforts." Ralea was relatively popular when compared to other FRN officials,

26754-482: The years, Gândirists produced more and more systematic attacks on Ralea's ideology, condemning its atheism, " historical materialism ", and Francophilia . In reply, Ralea noted that, beyond their facade, national and religious conservatism meant a reinstatement of primitive customs, obscurantism , Neoplatonism , and Byzantinism . He pushed the envelope by demanding a program of forced Westernization and secularization, to mirror Kemalism . His comments also challenged

26936-444: Was Jewish . The family was relatively wealthy, and Dumitru had served as Fălciu representative in the Senate of Romania . His son was always spiritually attached to his native region and, later in life, bought himself a vineyard on Dobrina Hill, just outside Huși, building himself a vacation home. He completed his primary education at Huși (Târgul Făinii) School No 2, before he moved on to the urban center of Iași , where he enlisted at

27118-586: Was Ștefan Tita , who claimed that the MVB's magazine version, nominally supervised by Sadoveanu, had a "profoundly democratic orientation". Ralea's mandate was also a crossover of left-wing corporatism and fascism. In June 1938, he even visited Nazi Germany and had a formal meeting with his counterpart, Robert Ley . His MVB was directly inspired by Strength Through Joy and the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro . In 1939, Ralea celebrated May Day with

27300-749: Was a Romanian politician and agriculturalist of Bessarabian birth and Gagauz ethnicity . Originally a subject of the Russian Empire , he established his reputation as a lawyer and advocate of peasant welfare, also networking between the Bessarabian Gagauz, Romanians , and Bulgarians . He formed a Bulgarian–Gagauz caucus after the February Revolution , seeking representation inside the Russian Republic , and overall shunning Romanian nationalism . After his mandate in

27482-424: Was a noted contributor to the party press organ Acțiunea Țărănistă and to Teodorescu-Braniște 's Revista Politică . In January 1933, Ibrăileanu retired, leaving Ralea and literary critic George Călinescu as editors of Viața Românească . Ralea eventually affiliated with the centrist current of the PNȚ, distancing himself from those party factions who were tempted by socialism. Ralea and Ibrăileanu still promoted

27664-528: Was aggravated in August, when the Nazi-inspired Vienna arbitration stripped her of Northern Transylvania . The political standstill propelled the Iron Guard, which was Nazi-aligned, into government, and forced Carol into permanent exile. The emerging " National Legionary State " banned reviews such as Viața Românească , and moved to prosecute all former FRN dignitaries. The country's new Conducător , General Ion Antonescu , announced early on that he would audit Ralea's estate—news of which were warmly received by

27846-484: Was also accused by Pandrea of having done nothing to prevent the arrest of his former Dreptatea colleague, the anti-Carol PNȚ-ist Madgearu. On September 21, 1939, following a spree of extrajudicial killings ordered by government, an Iron Guard death squad took its revenge, assassinating Premier Călinescu. Ralea, Andrei, and other former PNȚ-ists preserved their governmental posts as the premiership passed to Constantin Argetoianu , then to Gheorghe Tătărescu . Meanwhile,

28028-479: Was also involved with Dimitrie Gusti and Virgil Madgearu 's Romanian Social Institute, publishing his texts in its Arhiva pentru Știință și Reformă Socială . In 1923, it hosted his essay on "The Issue of Societal Classification" and his critical review of German sociology. While still in Paris, Ralea was confident that he would find employment: the University of Iași Chair of Sociology had been set aside for him by Rădulescu-Motru, with Ibrăileanu's approval. The matter

28210-566: Was also noted by Contimporanul writer Sergiu Dan , who proposed that Ralea denied himself "all sort of transaction with the confuse world of sentiment". Ralea's literary columns very often promoted modernist writers, or modernist interpretations of classical ones, such as when he used Janet's psychology to explain the genesis of works by Thomas Hardy . More famous was his reading of Proust through Henri Bergson 's classification of memory . Ralea offered much praise to rationalist modernists such as Alexandru A. Philippide , and hailed Tudor Arghezi ,

28392-464: Was also regularly featured in the left-wing daily Adevărul , and its cultural supplement, Adevărul Literar și Artistic . His essays were taken up by other cultural magazines throughout Romania, including Kalende of Pitești and Minerva of Iași. In 1927, when Ralea published his Contribuțiuni la știința societății ("Contributions to Social Science") and Introducere în sociologie ("Companion to Sociology"), Gusti's Social Institute had Ralea as

28574-419: Was an afterthought of Jacobinism : "We have had to visit France to find out we're Romanians." As noted by scholar Balázs Trencsényi : "Ralea sought to separate the study of national specificity, which he considered to be legitimate, from the exhortation of national particulars, which he rejected." In 1928, Gândirea hosted the inflammatory "White Lily" Manifesto. It signaled the Poporanists' confrontation with

28756-425: Was called in from Iași to act as his successor. Commuting to Bucharest, in November Topciu helped form a cultural and political society called Agrarian Youth of Romania, which was chaired by Nicolae D. Cornățeanu . In early 1932, he was also chairman of the Tighina Agricultural Syndicate. In this capacity, he supervised the public consultation at Tighina's Capitol Cinema, during which his colleagues complained about

28938-532: Was complicated when another Paris graduate, Garabet Aslan , ran for the same position. Supported by Ibrăileanu and Gusti, Ralea was eventually moved to the Logic and Modern Philosophy Department, as an assistant professor to Ion Petrovici , while also employed as lecturer in social pedagogy . According to Ralea's own words, this was a "ridiculous" situation: most of his students were girls, some of whom were infatuated with him. He had married Ioana Suchianu in November 1923, while still in Bucharest, and lived with her in

29120-414: Was dispatched by his colleagues to neighboring Poland , which was the only major importer of Bessarabian wine , and where he hoped to obtain an intensfication of economic exchanges. On April 2, 1934, he attended a congress of the Syndicate chapters in Western Moldavia and Bessarabia. Elected one of its regional vice presidents (alongside Hagi Anton and Vladimir Cristi ), he demanded that government place

29302-504: Was disregarded by government: in June 1943, when the German Foreign Ministry nominated Ralea as a high-risk target, Antonescu personally replied that this was not the case. In November, Ralea applied for a new Chair of Psychology at Bucharest, reserving his old department for Vianu. The review committee, overseen by leftist allies such as Gusti and Mircea Florian , gave him immediate approval for transfer. His inaugural lecture saw him being publicly applauded by his new students. In February of

29484-428: Was drawn into the National Democratic Front (FND) coalition, which comprised the PCdR, the Ploughmen's Front, and the Union of Patriots. According to the PCdR, this transformation of the Antihitlerite Front was "a progressive step, befitting the tasks of the people's revolution"; according to historian Adrian Cioroianu , it was more of an opportunistic move on Ralea's part. In private, Ralea claimed that his alignment with

29666-433: Was exhorted by Crainic, were "superstitious, but atheistic", not respectful "of any spiritual value when it should compete with their logical instincts." No other people, he contented, was as blasphemous as Romanians when it came to profanities . Ralea collected his critical essays as a set of volumes: Comentarii și sugestii ("Comments and Suggestions"), Interpretări ("Interpretations"), Perspective ("Perspectives"). He

29848-422: Was falling under Guardist scrutiny: in December, Buna Vestire hosted a piece by Horia Stamatu , which referred to Ralea's contribution as "unhinged", and to Ralea personally as "kike-turned", "at odds with the new man". The December 1937 election toned down Ralea's anti-Guard militancy: the PNȚ had a non-aggression pact with the Guardsmen. Consequently, Ralea campaigned in his native Fălciu County alongside

30030-422: Was formed on school grounds between Ralea and historian Petre Constantinescu-Iași , who became Ralea's main connection to the revolutionary left. According to Suchianu, they were avid readers, who quickly went through the popular collections put out by Flammarion , and ended up discovering Marxist literature—mainly through the introductions put out by Charles Gide and Gabriel Deville . Ralea went on to attend

30212-440: Was having affairs with his female students, and even with younger girls who presented to Ralea for their baccalaureate examination . Such criticism did not dissuade Ralea. In 1937, he also managed to obtain an Iași University chair for Călinescu, in controversial circumstances. From 1934 to March 1938, Ralea was also editor of the main PNȚ newspaper, Dreptatea . He contributed its political editorials, answering to criticism from

30394-447: Was involved in smuggling on either bank of the Dniester. At the time, the Romanian authorities had promised to exchange old rubles for lei , at a rate that was slightly advantageous for ruble holders. Topciu was allegedly captured while entering Romania with rubles he had procured in Soviet Ukraine . Argetoianu was serving as both Finance and Interior Minister , and as such claims to have "kept [him] out of jail, allowing him to build

30576-493: Was made inadequate by the social promises of land reform and universal male suffrage . These policies, Ibrăileanu acknowledged, "settled a debt" with the peasantry. Poporanism was generally pro- Westernization , with a noted reserve; taken separately, Ralea was the most pro-Western, socialist, and least culturally conservative thinker of this category. Also in 1919, Ralea and his new friend, Andrei Oțetea , earned state scholarships to complete his doctorate in Paris. Ralea entered

30758-425: Was one of the rapporteurs at the Ploughmen's Front largest-ever General Congress. On March 6, 1946, he also took over the Ministry of Religious Affairs, replacing the disgraced Constantin Burducea until August (when Groza himself replaced him in this function). Ralea became one of several intellectuals who were mobilized to run on the Ploughmen's Front (and FND) list in the 1946 parliamentary election ; he headlined

30940-455: Was openly Jewish, and who was threatened with demotion under the racial purity laws . Withdrawing to Huși, Ralea became the target of surveillance by agents of the Siguranța , who monitored his subversive conversations, including his wager that Guard rule would be short-lived. In November 1940, the Guard's Police chief, Ștefan Zăvoianu , ordered the arrests of several FRN dignitaries, Ralea included. This angered Antonescu, who freed Ralea and

31122-460: Was prevented from campaigning in places such as Comrat by the terminal illness of his first wife, Evdochia. She ultimately died in August of that year. Topciu was returned to the Assembly as the only PNC deputy elected for Tighina (with 19.9% of the vote). In the aftermath, he emphasized national unity, arguing that: "the National Christian Party is here to assist each and every man, regardless of their political persuasion." On January 31, 1938, he

31304-416: Was pushed into collaboration with Carol by their shared "anti-Guardism"; by contrast, Iuliu Maniu , the PNȚ chief and leader of the semi-clandestine democratic opposition, suggested that Ralea had "not a trace of character" to complement his intellectual gifts. At the time, PNȚ activists began collecting evidence that Ralea was not an ethnic Romanian, which meant that he could no longer hold public office under

31486-443: Was raised by parliamentary reporter C. Balș, who commented that Topciu was "still not reconciled with [Romanian] grammar". As Topciu's political rival, Virgil Madgearu once confronted him about his linguistic incompetence, to which Topciu replied (noting Madgearu's own non-Romanian origin): "I speak Gagauz, and you speak Aromanian [ sic ], everyone speaks as best they can." Topciu maintained his political profile as

31668-462: Was sidelined, then recovered, and, as a Marxist humanist , was one of the regime's leading cultural ambassadors by 1960. Heavily controlled by communist censorship , his work gave scientific credentials to the communist rulers' anti-American propaganda, though Ralea also used his position to protect some of those persecuted by the authorities. Ralea's final contributions assisted in the re-professionalization of Romanian psychology and education, with

31850-440: Was sound for the 40 Gagauz communes to have "Mohammedan teachers" giving lessons in Turkish . Topciu's identification with Romanian Orthodoxy also surfaced in his sponsoring a law project to nullify Romania's Concordat , since this had afforded state recognition to Roman Catholicism . The Orthodox mouthpiece, Telegraful Român , praised him as a Romanian patriot. Meanwhile, Topciu's conflicts over agrarian issues has sparked

32032-399: Was still being given new responsibilities within the FRN structure. That same month, after a complicated selection process, he became president of its regional chapter in Ținutul Mării . Just a month later, the Soviets issued an ultimatum, demanding that Romania cede Bessarabia. During the deliberations, Ralea voted in favor of Argetoianu's proposal: withdrawing from the region and mobilizing

32214-412: Was still involved in psychological research, with tracts such as Problema inconștientului ("The Problem of the Unconscious Mind") and Ipoteze și precizări privind știința sufletului ("Hypotheses and Précis Regarding Spiritual Science"). Ralea also resumed his European travels, touring the Kingdom of Spain , and was unenthusiastic about its conservatism. Ralea's travelogue, Memorial din Spania , depicts

32396-420: Was tasked with drafting Tighina's PNC lists for the scheduled elections. Liberal democracy was ended within less than a month by King Carol II , who staged a self-coup and promulgated his authoritarian constitution , including a nominal ban on all parties. Topciu found himself prosecuted for still engaging in partisan propaganda after that date, but was acquitted in June by a Bessarabian military court. Before

32578-439: Was technical disqualified by his absence from the union vote. Like Novakov, he sued the Ministry of Agriculture in 1928. Topciu's case was reviewed in February 1932, when he was awarded a 50- hectare estate in Ceadîr-Lunga , and again in August, when he was ordered to hand it back. The former Uyezd chairman headlined the PNA list in the Assembly election of July 1932 , being described in Dimineața daily as "quite well-known in

32760-400: Was the assistant professor, lecturing in specialized aesthetics and literary criticism, and in practice taking over all of Ralea's classes. Historian Lucian Boia argues: "Of all the king's dictatorship dignitaries, one may count Mihai Ralea as the most left-wing." In Ralea's own view, the FRN regime was, overall, progressive: "I had inaugurated a corpus of social reforms that were approved by

32942-413: Was the son of a Dumitru Ralea, a local magistrate, and Ecaterina Botezatu-Ralea. The couple also had daughters, one of whom married the Gagauz politician Dumitru Topciu in 1944; another one, Eliza, married Hagi Anton, worked at the Radio Broadcasting Company . According to historian Camelia Zavarache, Ralea's ethnic background was non-Romanian: on his father's side, he was a Bulgarian , while his mother

33124-447: Was university colleagues with philosophers Tudor Vianu and Nicolae Bagdasar , who also joined his circle of intimate friends. Their studies were interrupted by the Romanian Campaign of World War I , during which time Ralea relocated to Iași. He and Suchianu served in the Romanian Land Forces , as part of an artillery battery. Ralea took his final examination in Law and Letters at the University of Iași , in 1918. His professors included

#67932