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214-582: While the PNL itself appeared hesitant during the early stages of World War I , Viitorul was generally supportive of the Entente Powers . Its editorial line had to be toned down by Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu ; the Central Powers also attempted to buy influence in the country, including by paying off some of Viitorul ' s journalists. The newspaper was celebratory when Romania joined

428-491: A military training mission , and Russia promised modern munitions. The Allies promised at least 200,000 soldiers to defend Romania against Bulgaria to the south, and help it invade Austria-Hungary. At the outbreak of hostilities, the Austro-Hungarian Empire invoked a casus foederis on Romania and Italy linked to the secret treaty of alliance since 1883. However, both Italy and Romania refused to honor

642-417: A "great democrat" and a "great Romanian"; the opposition groups all agreed not to compete with the new cabinet until January 1928. As he prepared to take over as PNL chairman, Duca encouraged the party and its press to express support for a Federal Europe , as proposed at the time by Briand. From late 1930, pan-Europeanism was fully embraced by Viitorul and developed into an original Romanian project by one of

856-469: A "long article on Hungarian duplicity", exploring the chasm that existed between, on on hand, Pál Teleki 's assurances of friendship toward Romania, and, on the other, its cultivation of anti-Romanian groups such as Ébredő Magyarok . By 1920, Viitorul was also monitoring the activity of Hungarian Romanians , and alleging that EMKE, their cultural association, had a secret agenda in favor of Hungarian irredentism . Ahead of general elections of late 1919 ,

1070-480: A "terrorizing atmosphere" during the trial of Colonel Victor Verzea, who, in February, was ultimately sentenced to death for spying. As the same diarist notes, by early 1919 Viitorul was engaged in rewriting the history of the war, and presenting the union of Bessarabia with Romania , which had occurred under Marghiloman's watch, without mentioning as much. He and the newspaper staff still agreed with each other on

1284-542: A 1919 report of the French Foreign Ministry , Viitorul remained a paper of "average importance", though also the PNL's second most circulated, after the more politically significant L'Indépendence Roumaine . In a contrasting note, the trade magazine La Publicité reported that Viitorul ran at 50,000 copies per issue, whereas L'Indépendence Roumaine only put out 5,000, with both being well short of Universul (with 90,000). I. G. Cătuneanu, formerly

1498-724: A 1929 editorial in Viitorul , the PNL was still "decisively left-wing" when compared to the regrouped conservatives of the Vlad Țepeș League or to the Romanian fascist groups—as the main point of contention, the National Liberals rejected dictatorship and limited their critique of democracy. On the far-right, the National Romanian Fascio expressed admiration for Vintilă's fiscal conservatism (as theorized in

1712-490: A Romanian land. According to British military historian John Keegan , before Romania entered the war, the Allies had secretly agreed not to honour the territorial expansion of Romania when the war ended. In 1915, Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Thomson , a fluent speaker of French, was sent to Bucharest as British military attaché on the initiative of Lord Kitchener to bring Romania into the war. Once there, he quickly formed

1926-621: A Romanian union on both slopes of the Carpathians. For us the mountains and plains of Bukowina, where Stephen the Great has slept for centuries. In our moral energy and our valour lie the means of giving him back his birthright of a great and free Rumania from the Tisza to the Black Sea, and to prosper in peace in accordance with our customs and our hopes and dreams. Romanians! Animated by

2140-413: A bank which was supposed to help peasants to buy lots of 5 hectares (12 acres) from landlords. A law passed on April 12, 1908 banned anyone leasing more than 4,000 ha (9,900 acres) at one time. The events continued to resonate in the Romanian conscience, and were the subject of one of the novels of the interwar period, Răscoala ("The Revolt"), by Liviu Rebreanu , published in 1932. A film based on

2354-552: A better understanding of the ethnic situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Particularly in the province of L'Aquila, where a strong earthquake destroyed the roads and civil structures on January 13, 1915, the need for manpower led to the establishment in Avezzano of a camp with 15,000 prisoners. Over time, the component represented by prisoners of Romanian origin has increased significantly, who have developed

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2568-518: A claim that Marghiloman had negotiated with the head German occupier, August von Mackensen , to ensure that Mackensen could withdraw from Romania; this and other allegations prompted Marghiloman to refer to the newspaper editors as "bandits" and libelers. Brătianu's triumphant return to power at the head of another PNL cabinet also brought a settling of scores with the Ententists who had escaped to Paris , including Take Ionescu , as well as with

2782-669: A consolidated European bloc would have cancelled out the Soviet policy of predatory pricing in agriculture. Vintilă Brătianu died suddenly, in December 1930 (leaving his Viitorul colleagues to report that, as "Brateș", he had also contributed historical essays in their paper). Carol ultimately selected Nicolae Iorga , of the Democratic Nationalists , to serve as prime minister. When elections were convened in June 1931 ,

2996-590: A declaration of war prior to its attack of 31 August. Other sources place the declaration on 30 August or 1 September. The Ottoman declaration took place either on 29 August, 30 August or 1 September. Within two days of her own declaration, according to one source, Romania found herself at war with all the Central Powers. The Romanian Army was quite large, with over 650,000 men in 23 divisions, but it suffered from poor training and equipment, particularly when compared to its German counterparts. Meanwhile,

3210-399: A defense is ridiculous and odious." In January 1919, the paper returned at the center of public debates, with demands that all journalists who had previously collaborated with the Central Powers, including Arghezi and Grossman, be arrested and tried as traitors. Its other content at that stage included essays about the role of theaters in promoting "national education", as well as samples from

3424-580: A denunciation by Viitorul was enough to intimidate most professional politicians, including those on the far-left, which meant that that workers soon learned how to best represent their own interests. The paper's Red Scare -tactics, once censured by Duca himself, had unforeseen results: Viitorul was amply quoted by Hungarian papers such as the Pester Lloyd , which took the news to mean that Romanians had trouble governing themselves. In late 1924, Viitorul and Universul published letters supposedly from

3638-555: A figure of "several thousand". Prince Johann of Schönburg-Hartenstein  [ cs ] , the minister plenipotentiary of Austria-Hungary in Bucharest at the time, and also General Averescu estimated the number of dead between 1,000–2,000. According to figures given by Austrian diplomats, between 3,000-5,000 peasants were killed, while the French Embassy mentioned a death toll ranging between 10,000–20,000. Historians put

3852-542: A generic trend in PNL propaganda, Maxim published only a handful of portraits showing either Tătărescu or Brătianu, preferring instead to focus on personal attacks aimed at Maniu. After the election, Carol appointed a minority cabinet under the PNL's rival Goga, staffed by the antisemitic National Christian Party . Immediately after taking office, Goga proceeded to investigate the Jewish-owned Adevărul , claiming to have uncovered financial links between that paper and

4066-424: A glorious moment for Viitorul , since it was able to publicly refute the claims made by its adversaries. During the debate, Viitorul veered into personal attacks aimed at Nicolae's son, Grigore Filipescu . As Duca notes, this "ugly turn" may have seriously harmed Filipescu Sr's already frail health. Marghiloman suggests that Grigore was in the right, but unwise in the methods chosen for his own defense. In November,

4280-628: A good reputation and a good image among the civilian Italian population. The ease with which Italian citizens were able to communicate with the Romanians in relation to Germans and Hungarians, as well as their spirit of sacrifice associated with the demonstration of being good workers, led to the respect of the Italian civilians towards Romanians. This went to the point where Italian civil solidarity and assistance committees were spontaneously created, reserved for Romanian citizens and their families left in

4494-460: A habitual con artist—while noting that he had in fact been born as Moritz Iancu Leib. During 1928, a National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), unifying both of the PNL's rivals, emerged as the leading opposition group, and also as a critic of the regency formed around King Michael. As noted by historian Constantin I. Stan, Viitorul initially tried to present the merger as one in which the PNR had surrendered to

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4708-428: A mainstay of the Viitorul writing team, was made head of the national censorship apparatus—in which position he began curbing the spread of opposition newspapers. For a while after this reinstatement, Viitorul had very sporadic literary contributions, usually with nationalistic or monarchist messaging—one of Claudia Millian 's patriotic works and a monarchist poem by Nichifor Crainic both appeared in celebration of

4922-433: A mandate to debate and implement land and election reforms. As noted by Alexandru Marghiloman , the diarist and junior Conservative politician, in February 1914 the PNL tried to force its own program through—announcing, by way of Viitorul , that elections were scheduled for "this spring". Marghiloman asked for clarifications with King Carol I , who informed him that no such election would take place; he then speculated that

5136-502: A more right-wing platform drafted by Vintilă Brătianu . In this new incarnation, it backed economic nationalism and hard-line anti-communism, but moderated its antisemitism to where it favored Jewish emancipation (also embarking on an extensive polemic with far-right antisemitic agitators). It reacted with alarm when the National Peasants' Party , which in 1928 became the PNL's main competitor, expressed discreet support for

5350-610: A private citizen, but entitled to a large personal wealth. Such measures never prevented Carol from conspiring to win back the throne, which he regarded as rightfully his. In May 1928, Viitorul covered these schemes in detail, and congratulated the British state for having expelled from its territory a group of Carlist intriguers—comprising Nicolae and Constantin Lupescu, as well as several others. In July, it published an exposé on Carol's other associate, Barbu Ionescu, whom it described as

5564-478: A program of rural electrification . Both the party and its mouthpiece were now perceived as decisively right-wing: a 1928 article in Bernard Lecache 's Cri des Peuples calls out the paper as part of the "Romanian right-wing press", and also as one of the "more despicably reactionary journals"; literary historian Ioan Adam sees it as a leading "organ of the liberals' financial oligarchy". As explained in

5778-411: A proxy second Averescu cabinet . Through articles in Viitorul , it was pressuring its ministers into eliminating rent-control laws and cancelling state contracts that had not been vetted by its patrons. In exchange for this cooperation at a central level, the newspaper kept silent when provincial journals of the PNL appeared "mutilated" by government censorship. Viitorul nevertheless spoke out against

5992-652: A running conflict with the more radically leftist Facla , which had published criticism of the Romanian Orthodox Church . Though penned by Arghezi (a Christian and a former monk), the Facla articles were depicted by Viitorul as Jewish propaganda—a claim that was later reproduced in Neamul Românesc . Arghezi replied in writing, exposing their claims as manipulative, and ridiculing Viitorul ' s unsigned staff polemicist, whom he believed to be

6206-738: A six-page edition and is distributed at no charge". In an attempt to harm the PP's growing popularity, it published wartime documents purporting to show contacts between Averescu and the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee , a communist entity headed by Christian Rakovsky . Marghiloman, who was familiar with these texts, believed that they were also irrelevant; when the paper followed up with statements showing that Averescu had once courted Germanophiles such as Constantin Stere , he remarked that these generally evidenced

6420-707: A time when the latter was also paying for the upkeep of his impoverished mother. In the political landscape of the 1900s and 1910s, Viitorul channeled support for Romanian nationalism , at a time when many Romanians, as subjects of Austria-Hungary (primarily in Transylvania and the Duchy of Bukovina ) and the Russian Empire ( Bessarabia Governorate ), had been left outside the Romanian state. In January 1908, its Transylvanian reporter interviewed Emil Babeș , who wanted Romanians who wanted to live as subjects of

6634-606: A total of 60,000 prisoners of war of Romanian origin, 36,712 soldiers and 525 officers requested to join the Romanian Legion in Italy ( Legione Romena d'Italia ). Of the officers, one was a colonel, 5 were majors, 32 captains, 97 lieutenants, 294 sublieutenants, and 96 applicants. Only the three companies formed prior to October 1918 actually fought on the Italian front until the armistice of November 3, 1918. Taking part in

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6848-562: A treaty with the Allies (France, Britain, Italy, and Russia) on 17 August 1916 that pledged to declare war on Austria-Hungary by 28 August. The Romanian ambassador in Vienna actually transmitted the declaration of war on 27 August. Germany, caught by surprise, responded with a declaration of war on Romania the next day (28 August). The dates of the Bulgarian and Ottoman declarations of war are disputed. Ian Beckett says that Bulgaria did not issue

7062-649: A venue for strands of left-wing nationalism . One such voice was that of George Diamandy , another defector from Marxism, who in January 1910 aired his claim that virtually all Romanian Jews were unpatriotic. Embracing antisemitic tropes, Diamandy claimed that Jews had relished in the peasants' revolt; the Jewish paper, Revista Israelită , responded by reminding Diamandy that Jewish contributors to Romanian culture, such as Lazăr Șăineanu and Heimann Hariton Tiktin , had been chased out of public forums despite their loyalism to

7276-526: The Luftstreitkräfte , Romanian civilians demanded the seizure of any goods owned by the German community ; against Marghiloman's advice, Duca published this appeal in Viitorul . Covering a Romanian defeat at Turtucaia , it featured a strongly anti-Bulgarian article by the philologist Ioan Bianu , who, as a Germanophile, was keeping entirely silent about the other Central Powers. Those killed during

7490-665: The Anti-Comintern Pact , with its rapprochement between Germany and Fascist Italy . In September 1937, it interpreted the joint statements issued in Berlin by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler as having a "peaceful foundation", and that their directives needed to be embraced by Europe in its entirety. A column it published that same month seemingly agreed with the far-right that "intruders of dubious origins" needed to be segregated out of Romanian culture. Reporting on this, Porunca Vremii ' s I. P. Prundeni argued that

7704-709: The Bran - Câmpulung area, especially at Dragoslavele and Racoș . Particular heed was paid to the actions carried on for the defense of the Carpathians' alignment, the fights on the Jiu River . There, the Germans had massed large forces to beat their way south of the mountains. Faced with the enemy threat, the troops of the Romanian First Army, under command of General Ion Dragalina , offered strong resistance. The Romanian soldiers were supported everywhere by

7918-1054: The First Battle of Ypres , and gave ample exposure to pro-Entente positions of some PNL ministers, including Costinescu. However, the writing staff was allegedly infiltrated by supporters and spies of the Central Powers. In March 1915, agents of the Siguranța counterintelligence detained Gheorghe Mărculescu Sobaru of Giurgiu , who was collecting news about the Balkans theater —sending them to be published both in Viitorul and its Germanophile competitor, Seara . Siguranța noted that these articles, though presented as scoops, were more likely renditions of Bulgarian propaganda. Viitorul hosted much speculation about Bulgaria's own neutrality . As noted by Marghiloman, in early 1915 it had been persuaded by overzealous French propagandists, including Claude Anet and Frédéric Jenny, to announce that Bulgaria would enter as an Entente ally. In July, Viitorul

8132-537: The German Empire . The subsequent two years brought the unification with Transylvania and the consolidation of Greater Romania ; though Viitorul saluted this victory of the nationalist cause, it also came to resent the emergence of regional and regionalist challenges to the PNL's monopoly on power. During the interwar, which saw the adoption of universal male suffrage and the realization of land reform, Viitorul abandoned its leftist credentials, rallying to

8346-735: The Hellenic Republic . Viitorul caused "profound agitation" by not denying that this was the case, and by implicitly validating the notion that Brătianu was assisting Greek guerrillas against the Turkish National Movement in East Thrace . By 1924, Duca, as the minister of foreign affairs , went public with his project for European peace—unwittingly exposing the Little Entente's disunion when Viitorul , who republished his speeches, found itself mocked by

8560-595: The Hungarian Crown rather than seek a more complete political emancipation. In its coverage of this project, Viitorul concluded that Babeș had "no political significance". By mid-1919, however, the newspaper was expressing admiration for Archduke Franz Ferdinand , the Austro-Hungarian heir presumptive, since he had approached his Romanian subjects' demands with "a sense of justice and a kind heart." After renewed agitation in favor of Romanian causes, it

8774-556: The Hungarian Soviet Republic . As the Paris Peace Conference began, the PNL and its press campaigned for Romania's recognition as an Entente belligerent, asking that the country's withdrawal from the war in early 1918 be discounted. Reflecting government's official position, Viitorul also proposed that the Romanian border in the west be granted precisely as promised in 1916. In late March, as

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8988-795: The Krestintern , which they used as evidence that a Peasantist militant, Nicolae L. Lupu , was sympathetic toward the Soviet Union —and involved, alongside the Soviets, in the worldwide "insurrectionist movement". Lupu dismissed the documents as forgeries. When, in August 1925, the Peasantists won partial elections in Bessarabia's Lăpușna County , Viitorul deplored them as a victory for secessionists and Russophiles . According to Vinea,

9202-754: The Macedonian front and advanced in Transylvania . The next day, the Treaty of Bucharest was nullified by the terms of the Armistice of Compiègne . The Kingdom of Romania was ruled by kings of the House of Hohenzollern from 1866. In 1883, the King of Romania , Carol I of Hohenzollern , signed a secret treaty with the Triple Alliance that stipulated Romania's obligation to go to war only if Austria-Hungary

9416-581: The National-Christian Defense League regarding its supposed duplicity on the " Jewish Question ", Viitorul and other PNL organs declared that they had only ever opposed those Jews who "work against [Romania's] interests", and that they themselves were, overall, anti-Zionists . In October, after the authorities had arrested Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and other antisemitic youths for their attempt to assassinate government ministers and Adevărul editors, Viitorul raised alarm about

9630-463: The Ottoman Empire no later than August 1916, that Russia would send troops into Dobruja, and that the Romanian army would not be subordinated to Russian command. The Allies were to send 300 tons of provisions on a daily basis. According to the Romanian account, most of these clauses, with the exception of those imposed on Romania, failed to be respected. The Allies accepted the terms late in

9844-573: The People's Party (PP), formed in Iași by General Alexandru Averescu . Through Viitorul , Brătianu denied that the former represented Romania in any official capacity, and rejected any offer of collaboration with the latter. Faced with mounting opposition from the PP and PNR, the PNL and its organ sought to reconnect with the Paris group, but their offer of collaboration swiftly rejected by Ionescu. As assessed in

10058-578: The Reșița Works in Transylvania, which had passed under partial state ownership; Viitorul alleged that this was a conflict of interest . Adam reports that the campaign was double-edged. Viitorul , as the more respectable PNL mouthpiece, focused on current issues, while a more scandal-prone "rag", România Nouă , published unreliable revelations about Zamfirescu's alleged Germanophile past—eventually, it found itself exposed for its own connections with

10272-465: The Romanian population and about 60% of them owned small plots, or no land at all, while the large landowners owned more than half of the arable land . The National Liberal Party 's policy to encourage peasant cooperatives was not successful, as many landlords feared the organization of the peasants, preferring to lease to individual peasants rather than to cooperatives. According to Ioan Lahovary ,

10486-719: The Romanian Parliament . The data available to the Prime Minister Dimitrie Sturdza indicated 421 deaths between 28 March and 5 April 1907. Likewise, about 112 were injured and 1,751 detained. Newspapers patronized by Constantin Mille, Adevărul and Dimineața , gave a figure of 12,000–13,000 victims. In a conversation with the British ambassador in Bucharest , King Carol I mentioned

10700-512: The Romanian incursion into Transylvania with a measure of optimism: it declared the counteroffensive, whereby the enemy broke into the Romanian Carpathians , as a temporary setback, while announcing that the Romanians "are [still] learning how to wage a war". It reassured public opinion, including "some capitalists from the neutral countries", that Romania's oil industry was not threatened with destruction, and also that government

10914-595: The Russian Empire following the October Revolution and voted for union with Romania in April 1918. The parliament signed the treaty, but King Ferdinand refused to sign it, hoping for an Allied victory on the western front. In October 1918, Romania renounced the Treaty of Bucharest and on 10 November 1918, one day before the German armistice , Romania re-entered the war after the successful Allied advances on

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11128-441: The Tsardom of Bulgaria with the harsher realities at home. On the left, the emergent Social Democratic Party , which opposed the war and the subsequent annexation of Southern Dobruja , regarded Viitorul and the PNL as hypocritical—since the newspaper had been careful to downplay rumors of a stock market crash following the Bulgarian expedition, but had also tacitly endorsed the takeover of Dobrujan land. The newspaper sounded

11342-448: The Viitorul office", engaging in "hand to hand fighting" with the Romanian Police . The authorities' effort was partly thwarted when two paperboys of Romani ethnicity "succeeded in slipping through the police line", and distributed scores of Viitorul copies to the general public. The paradox of censorship was highlighted in June by French journalist Émile Buré: "the National Peasantist government, which had been elevated by denouncing

11556-569: The eight-hour day and a minimum wage ; according to Liveanu, these were entirely lifted from the Socialists' platform. In the new political climate, the PNL mainly stood for economic nationalism (sometimes called "neoliberalism" in a Romanian context), with ideological essays being penned by Duca and Vintilă Brătianu . In a 1921 piece for Viitorul , the latter explained that the country's economic revival could only have been brought about "through our own powers". Also in Viitorul , he recommended government spending in infrastructure works, including

11770-529: The elections of July , Viitorul was more appreciative of corporatism, noting that Iorga (who had lost the election overall) had had a strong support from the network of guilds. Codreanu's own fascist movement, called Iron Guard , had a noted ascent during the election, and was therefore viewed with alarm by Viitorul . Its articles on the issue were in turn derided by the Guardist intellectual, Dragoș Protopopescu , who observed that that Viitorul had indicted non-crimes, such as Guardists' habit of "riding around

11984-441: The interior minister , Octavian Goga , during antisemitic university riots in December 1926. It highlighted the clash between Averescu's message that students "have primarily to look after their studies" and Goga's tacit encouragement of the rioters. In addition to the Peasantists, Brătianu was feeling his position threatened by the Transylvanian-centered PNR. Initially, Viitorul gave intense coverage to any sign of distrust between

12198-428: The " Great Union ". As noted by Marghiloman, the actual union of Transylvania with Romania was given vague exposure in Viitorul . This was because Brătianu's centralizing policies had been thwarted by the local Romanian National Party (PNR), which had decided to maintain a Transylvanian regional government . Leftist opposition also intensified, particularly so during the typographers' strike of 6 December ; Viitorul

12412-427: The "anarchic" nature of PNȚ messaging, and described the gatherings as carnival-like. The dispute between the two camps soon became a central focus at Viitorul . In covering a major PNȚ rally, held at Alba Iulia in May 1928, it resorted to sheer satire, claiming that the group had barely managed to reach its attendance goals, and had used various tricks to inflate the numbers. At the peak of its anti-Carlist campaigns,

12626-433: The 57 mm guns were converted into anti-aircraft guns using a carriage designed by the Romanian General Ștefan Burileanu . The Romanian army badly lacked arms and ammunitions during the war, due to the industrial underdevelopment of the country. The ethnic Romanians in Austria-Hungary entered the war from the very beginning, with hundreds of thousands of Transylvanian and Bukovinian Romanians being mobilized throughout

12840-633: The Army were killed in the revolt: an officer, Lt. I. Nițulescu, killed in Stănești , Giurgiu County , two sergeants and seven soldiers. Four others were injured: an officer, Capt. Grigore Mareș, also wounded in Stănești, two sergeants and a soldier. Seventy-five soldiers of the Fifth Dorobanți Regiment ("Vlașca") appeared before military courts and charged with revolt; 61 were sentenced to hard labor for life and 14 to five years in prison. Many intellectuals, among them Nicolae Iorga , Alexandru Vlahuță , Ion Luca Caragiale , Constantin Stere , Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea , and Radu Rosetti , protested against

13054-430: The Austro-Hungarian Army included Oberleutnant ( Locotenent-Major ) and Imperial Adviser Constantin Isopescu-Grecul , as well as Octavian Codru Tăslăuanu , who also wrote valuable memoirs about his war experience. Samoilă Mârza , a private in the Austro-Hungarian Army, reached as far as Riga and became the first Romanian war photographer. In total, up to 150,000 Romanians were killed in action while fighting as part of

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13268-417: The Austro-Hungarian Army. Although the first Romanian Transylvanian prisoners in Italy were documented as early as June 1915, it was not until 1916 that the percentage of Romanian prisoners of war from Austro-Hungarian troops became significant, and they were mainly concentrated in northern Italy. Along with prisoners of other nationalities of Austria-Hungary, scattered throughout Italy, they contributed to

13482-401: The Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time, as well as in Southern Dobruja , which is currently part of Bulgaria . The Romanian campaign plan ( Hypothesis Z ) consisted in attacking Austria-Hungary in Transylvania, while defending Southern Dobruja and Giurgiu from Bulgaria in the south. Despite initial successes in Transylvania, after German divisions started aiding Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria,

13696-443: The Central Powers during their previous occupation of Romania. The subsequent Romanian occupation of Budapest was ended on orders from the Entente, issued at the Peace Conference in November 1919—the news of which were reported with noted dissatisfaction by Viitorul . The occupation then gave way to a conservative Regency of Hungary , which slowly returned to an inimical stance toward its neighbors. In October 1920, Viitorul carried

13910-447: The Central Powers, was also forced to drop out of the war. It signed the Treaty of Bucharest with the Central Powers in May 1918. Under the terms of the treaty, Romania would lose all of Dobruja to Bulgaria , all the Carpathian passes to Austria-Hungary and would lease all of its oil reserves to Germany for 99 years. However, the Central Powers recognized Romania's union with Bessarabia who had recently declared independence from

14124-405: The Conservative Ministry of War (therein, Filipescu argued that the Maiorescu cabinet was too soft on the Bulgarian issue). Filipescu became so regularly published in the 1913 edition of Viitorul that other journalists began jokingly referring to him as the "chief of the liberal party". Just shortly ahead of World War I, Parliament was set to reconvene as a constituent assembly , which had

14338-421: The Conservative Minister of Domains, a landlord could drive out a peasant refusing to pay his rent, but noted that for driving out a cooperative of 500 peasants, a regiment would be needed and the government may refuse to put it at the landlord's disposal. As such, by the end of 1907, there were only 103 village cooperatives having a membership of 11,118 leasing 37,344 hectares (92,280 acres), most of it leased from

14552-481: The Conservative leader, Petre P. Carp , as themselves responsible for the 1907 revolt, and for similar acts of sedition. As one who had been indirectly implicated by Carp, Education Minister Spiru Haret used Viitorul for his reply, published on 3 March 1912. Herein, Haret explained that the instigation he was guilty of was in defense of the people's education, self-help, and cooperative banking , and declared himself proud of this work. Soon after, Viitorul endorsed

14766-408: The Deutsche Bank. Zamfirescu declared himself perplexed by the accusations, seeing them as motivated by the "perfidy of liberal bankers", who were used to mixing business and politics when approaching rivals. He challenged Mavrodi to a duel, but the latter declined to show up. The PNL returned to power in early 1922, and was popularly confirmed by general elections in March . A controversy ensued when

14980-424: The Entente in August 1916 , supporting the subsequent Romanian expedition in Transylvania . This effort proved abortive, and the newspaper went down once Romania itself was overran by the Central Powers . It reemerged in November 1918, after the Entente had regained regional control , and thereafter campaigned for Romania's recognition as a co-belligerent—and for the prosecution of Romanians who had collaborated with

15194-439: The French journalist René Moulin as transactional and petty, it supported a delayed intervention, waiting out for the Entente to be at a clear advantage. In late August, the newspaper informed its readers that "nothing had changed" in Romania's neutralist position. In September 1915, there were clear signs that Bulgaria was set to join the Central Powers, and was mobilizing its troops in preparation. The issue caused great distress at

15408-816: The German Chief of Staff, General Erich von Falkenhayn , had correctly reasoned that Romania would side with the Allies, and had made plans accordingly. Thanks to the earlier conquest of the Kingdom of Serbia and the ineffective Allied operations on the Greek border (the Salonica campaigns ), and having a territorial interest in Dobruja, the Bulgarian Army and the Ottoman Army were willing to help fight

15622-709: The German-Bulgarian Detachment) surrounded and stormed the fortress of Turtucaia . The Romanian garrison surrendered on 6 September at the conclusion of the Battle of Turtucaia . At the same time, the Bulgarian Third Army with the 75th Turkish regiment, arrived on the last day of the battle, defeated a Romanian-Russian force including the First Serbian Volunteer Division at the Battle of Bazargic , despite

15836-644: The Guardists as agents of terror, in preparation for Duca's decision to outlaw the group altogether; on 29 December, Duca was assassinated by a Guardist death squad . The king subsequently cooperated with a PNL faction headed by Gheorghe Tătărescu , who also controlled the editorial line at Viitorul . Political diarist Constantin Argetoianu , of the rival Agrarian Union Party , alleges that, upon inaugurating his first cabinet in January 1934, Tătărescu had accelerated embezzlement and graft, which also benefited

16050-481: The Interior and General Alexandru Averescu as Minister of War . On 18 March a state of emergency was declared, and then a general mobilization , with 140,000 soldiers being recruited by 29 March. The Romanian Army began firing on the peasants; thousands of peasants perished and more than 10,000 were arrested. The exact number of peasant deaths is unknown, and even the course of events are not clear, because

16264-480: The Iron Guard had managed to defy government by raiding the Viitorul offices, where they then beat up PNL youths mounting a defensive action. The following month, Viitorul voiced explicit criticism of Nazi Germany and its policy of rearmament , but calmly argued that a "wall of States that wish to preserve civilization" still existed, to counter this threat. The paper nonetheless expressed some sympathy toward

16478-598: The Macedonian front and the conditions in which the Russians deployed insufficient troops on the battlefront in the south-east of Romania. These factors meant that the Romanian forces became too strained to put up effective resistance against the enemy advance. Romania had to fight on two 1,600 km-long battlefronts, the longest front in Europe, with a varied configuration and diverse geographical elements (by comparison,

16692-561: The National Action, and especially at its newspaper Epoca , led by the former Conservative Filipescu. Seeking retaliation, Epoca announced that Brătianu was preparing his resignation; the latter immediately laughed this off with a rebuttal appearing in Viitorul . While endorsing Brătianu's political leadership, the newspaper responded to Filipescu's allegations about mismanagement at the Ministry of War. Duca remembers this as

16906-537: The PNL and its press eventually adhered to the newer slogans of Romanian nationalism—including positive discrimination in favor of Romanians, and an implicit Jewish quota in education. On 9 March 1935, Viitorul announced that it did not regard this platform, which was being popularized by Vaida's Romanian Front , as "chauvinistic" or unfair; instead, it observed that Romania's ethnic minorities had obtained over-representation in public affairs through "weapons that are both illegal and dishonest." Tătărescu's maneuvering

17120-419: The PNL organ), but also commented negatively on his supposed indifference toward inflation . When the PNR finally took power with Alexandru Vaida-Voevod as prime minister , Viitorul attacked him and his government team as an "instrument for [Romania's] economic enslavement", whose activities could only convince Romanians that Transylvanians needed to be kept out of national affairs. Throughout late 1920,

17334-429: The PNL stood united around a moderate program. In July, the left-wing daily Adevărul observed that its adversaries were incoherent or manipulative: Viitorul gave ample exposure to Stere and his inner-party "League of Reforms", though it remained unclear if Brătianu, a man of "sphinx-like silence", still supported Stere. Meanwhile, his own brother, Vintilă Brătianu was taking a radical stance of land reform, proposing

17548-429: The PNL was reportedly favored by the caretaker military government , which also intensified its repression against the left-wing groups of Greater Romania , including the new Socialist Party . Le Populaire reported at the time that government made sure to limit the circulation of leftist newspapers, whereas " Viitorul , a paper of the liberal party but in actuality the true organ of this current government, appears in

17762-495: The PNL's chairman, was appointed prime minister, with Carol assuming that his would be a subservient, monarchist, cabinet. Mainline monarchists such as Goga rejected this arrangement, as did the Iron Guard, who emerged as Duca's main enemy. Before general elections in December , Viitorul claimed that the Guard was largely composed of former communists, and that "the far-right is not at all different from Bolshevism ." It also censured

17976-516: The PNL's core stances, including on the issue of Jewish emancipation —which was now codified into law, leading to a series of nationalist protests and riots. In that context, Viitorul was also becoming lenient toward the Judaic community: in early 1923, it called upon antisemitic students to put their "nervousness" in check, so as not to harm Romania's image abroad; it also promised that the government would compensate in other fields, namely by improving

18190-559: The PNL's own popularity. As relations between the PNL and Iorga's government soured, the newspaper commented with satisfaction on Iorga's unpopularity. In March 1932, after the Prime Minister had publicized his proposals for reestablishing Romania as a corporate state , Viitorul observed that Iorga had been voted out by "his own corporation", the University of Bucharest , when his peers did not want him as their rector. During

18404-617: The PNL's promise of a sweeping land reform to benefit the landless peasantry, particularly so in September 1913—when it hosted the new PNL program, penned by Ion I. C. Brătianu as a "famous open letter". As argued by historian Alin Marian Pîrvu, this text was directly motivated by the Second Balkan War , during which Romanian recruits had been unwittingly given a chance to compare egalitarian land relations that existed in

18618-536: The PNL; these were denied by Viitorul . Adevărul was banned days after, but a newspaper named Semnalul came to replace it. As noted by Argetoianu, it was staffed by journalists who also worked at Viitorul , thereby evidencing that Goga was right on this issue. Goga also looked into dissolving Parliament before it could convene, with both the PNL and the PNȚ opining, through their respective organs, that doing so would be unconstitutional. Viitorul still carried messages from

18832-486: The PNR's Iuliu Maniu and his Peasantist allies, repeatedly claiming that the two movements were barely compatible with each another, and also that Stere's emerging faction was in disagreement with both sets of leaders. As the PNR was establishing direct contacts with Ferdinand, the paper featured allegations that Maniu was secretly against the monarchy, and instead gave positive coverage to another Transylvanian faction, headed by Vasile Goldiș . Once Maniu spoke publicly about

19046-403: The PNȚ openly accused Carol of overextending his powers and interfering with democracy; instead, Duca and Viitorul declared their loyalty to the crown, and "accus[ed] the opposition of fomenting all sorts of attacks against the sovereign." They also gave much support to Iorga's program of debt relief for the smallholders, but, as the PNȚ journals noted, only because doing so would have increased

19260-474: The PNȚ's Mihail Cornescu, who had appeared at a public function in Târgoviște to declare his love for Carol. The newspaper extrapolated this incident to declare that the entire PNȚ was being infiltrated by Carlists. However, at exactly the same time, Mavrodi was going against his party by canvassing support for the prince. The new regime also used the censorship apparatus against its rivals, in an attempt to limit

19474-609: The Peasantists; it also deplored their shared platform as prolonging the "politics of negation that has already greatly harmed the effort to organize and consolidate our newly unified Romanian state." The opposition movement was immediately backed by a cross-section of the press, variously including Adevărul , Curentul , Cuvântul , and Dimineața dailies. Viitorul responded with topical articles claiming to expose rival journalists, from Constantin Graur and Emanoil Socor to Pamfil Șeicaru , as treasonous figures—also claiming that

19688-545: The Romanian Second Army attacked the Austro-Hungarians at Brașov , but the attack was repulsed and the counterattack forced the Romanians to retreat from there also. The Romanian Fourth Army , in the north of the country, retreated without much pressure from the Austro-Hungarian troops, so that by 25 October the Romanian army was back to its initial positions. The Central Powers succeeded in taking

19902-651: The Romanian campaign plan ( Hypothesis Z ), launched the Battle of Transylvania through the Carpathians . On that same night, the torpedo boats NMS  Rândunica , Bujorescu and Catinca attacked the Austro-Hungarian Danube Flotilla at the Bulgarian port of Ruse , sinking one barge loaded with fuel and damaging the port's quay. Initially, the only opposing force was the Austro-Hungarian First Army , which

20116-495: The Romanian forces (aided by Russia) suffered massive setbacks, and by the end of 1916 out of the territory of the Romanian Old Kingdom only Western Moldavia remained under the control of the Romanian and Russian armies. After several defensive victories in 1917 at Mărăști , Mărășești , and Oituz , with Russia's withdrawal from the war following the October Revolution , Romania, almost completely surrounded by

20330-594: The Romanian volunteers were incorporated in July 1918 into the Italian Royal Army, to be enlisted in October of the same year in a large national unit. Between July and October 1918, three companies were formed, named "Horea", "Cloșca" and "Crișan". The education given to the volunteers enrolled in the new units, emphasized the development of the Romanian national consciousness and the love for their country, which

20544-417: The Romanians. The German high command was seriously worried about the prospect of Romania entering the war, Paul von Hindenburg writing: It is certain that so relatively small a state as Rumania had never before been given a role so important, and, indeed, so decisive for the history of the world at so favorable a moment. Never before had two great Powers like Germany and Austria found themselves so much at

20758-913: The Russian front, stretching from the Baltic Sea to Bukovina , was only 1,000 km long). On 15 September the Romanian War Council decided to suspend the Transylvania offensive and concentrate on the Mackensen army group instead. The plan (the so-called Flămânda Offensive ) was to attack the Central Powers forces from the rear by crossing the Danube at Flămânda , while the front-line Romanian and Russian forces were supposed to launch an offensive southwards towards Cobadin and Kurtbunar . Russian reinforcements under General Andrei Zaionchkovsky arrived to halt Mackensen's army before it cut

20972-565: The Soviet Hungarian government declared a state of war with Romania, Viitorul unwittingly evidenced the PNL's indifference, only publishing news of this after they had appeared in a local newspaper (and not from an official source). During the brief Romanian campaign in Hungary , it announced that the families of soldiers killed in battle would be receiving agricultural tools and livestock from among those deemed to have been stolen by

21186-712: The Yugoslav press. Viitorul also became involved in the Pan-Latinist movement , sending Pompiliu Păltânea to attend a "Fifth Congress of the Latin Press", held in the Kingdom of Spain during July 1927 (Păltânea was received there by Prime Minister Miguel Primo de Rivera ). In late March 1926, as one of its final moves, the Brătianu cabinet successfully introduced a majority bonus system , giving political strength to any future governments. The legislation infuriated

21400-555: The activities of alleged Austro-Hungarian instigators, led the peasants to revolt. The revolt soon spread across most of Moldavia, with several landowners' properties destroyed and many lessors killed or wounded. The Conservative government ( Partidul Conservator ), led by Prime Minister Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino , couldn't handle the situation and resigned, and the Liberals ( Partidul Național-Liberal ) of Dimitrie Sturdza assumed power, with Ion I. C. Brătianu as Minister of

21614-473: The administrative director Sache Petreanu, as a "parasite". In his replies, Arghezi noted that the nationalist camp was keeping silent about uncomfortable facts not serving its own narrative—including Petreanu's own Jewishness. Banu's nationalism was complimented by his traditional tastes in art, clashing with Minulescu's own status as a herald of Romanian Symbolism. In 1912, Minulescu stated his independence by establishing his own literary review, Insula . The move

21828-467: The agents of "fake nationalism" wanted to destabilize the country with such disinformation, as a path toward its takeover. Late that month, Viitorul also discussed the recent death of its longtime adversary, Stere: "This gifted man of culture and of democratic inclinations could not live up to his promise, to what could have been under more auspicious circumstances and had he not made the same mistakes." In February 1937, rumors circulated according to which

22042-589: The alarm about the unpreparedness of the Romanian Land Forces , suggesting that the Conservatives were to blame for it. A main contributor on this topic was Gheorghe Becescu-Silvan, who, in October 1913, had to defend himself before a military tribunal for his reportage on the "squalor of the campaign". Brătianu, who had joined the army as a regular recruit, also allowed Viitorul to publish the resignation of Nicolae Filipescu , who had served as

22256-485: The almost double superiority of the Entente. The Romanian Third Army made further attempts to withstand the enemy offensive at Silistra , Dobrich , Amzacea , and Topraisar , but had to withdraw under the pressure of the enemy forces. Mackensen's success was favoured by the failure of the Allies to fulfill the obligation they had assumed through the military convention, by virtue of which they had to mount an offensive on

22470-622: The apparent decline of French cultural influence in the country. As it noted at the time, Romanian intellectuals were growing more familiar with, and enthusiastic about, German philosophy . Viitorul was pleasantly impressed when, in January 1925, Stefan Frecôt established a separate caucus for the French-speaking section of the Banat Swabians , noting that such divisions would limit the spread of Pan-Germanism . Its coverage of literature remained politicized over those years: upon

22684-477: The attached image showed a rugby football match. Through Caraivan, it backed efforts for unionization in the writers' profession, backing efforts that ultimately resulted in the establishment of a Romanian Writers' Society . Minulescu bridged his duties as editorial secretary with his intense promotion of the Symbolist movement . His articles in the paper featured celebrations of Futurism , with ample notes on

22898-525: The battle fronts was not favorable. The Romanian campaign was part of the Eastern Front of World War I , with Romania and Russia allied with Britain and France against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary , the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. Fighting took place from August 1916 to December 1917 across most of present-day Romania, including Transylvania , which was part of

23112-583: The battles of Mărăști , Mărășești and Oituz , where with Russian support the Romanian army managed to defeat an offensive by the Central Powers and even take back some territory. Romanian ethnics serving in the Austro-Hungarian forces were informed by the Allied aviation by launching leaflets on their positions, on the creation and existence of the Romanian Volunteer Corps in Russia and on

23326-464: The battles of Vittorio Veneto , Montello, Sisemolet, Piave, Cimone and Monte Grappa. After the end of the war, they participated in the Hungarian–Romanian War . Romanians! The war which for the last two years has been encircling our frontiers more and more closely has shaken the ancient foundations of Europe to their depths. It has brought the day which has been awaited for centuries by

23540-489: The best available tactic: Steagul argued for using German troops against the Red Army ; this was regarded as unacceptable by Viitorul , who nonetheless agreed with Winston Churchill 's warning that a Germany–Soviet Union rapprochement would result in a "new catastrophe" for the rest of Europe. Early in this new edition, much of the content was centered on justifying and defending the new Romanian borders, including against

23754-485: The cabinet's priorities. Whereas the country preserved its neutrality at I. I. C. Brătianu's behest, Viitorul supported the Triple Entente —to the point where, in October 1914, the Conservatives' Ion C. Grădișteanu accused it of forcing the country into war. A militant-Ententist position was taken by Hurmuz Aznavorian , who served as its foreign correspondent, though Viitorul also publicized Stere's ideas on

23968-449: The changes, it published an alleged dialogue between Stere and Averescu, which supposedly evidenced that the Peasantists were extorting the PP into outvoting Brătianu. The Peasantist organ, Aurora , claimed instead that the dialogue was entirely fabricated by Viitorul . As reported by Vinea, the PNL had reached an understanding with the PP: later in 1926, it was controlling the country through

24182-451: The civil population; during the Battle of Târgu Jiu , the town was defended by its inhabitants, men, women and children, young and old. There, a conspicuous figure was cut by Ecaterina Teodoroiu , who was to enter the consciousness of all Romanians as the "Heroine of the Jiu". The operation for the defense of the Carpathians holds a prominent place in Romanian military history not only because it

24396-405: The claim seemed merely "idiotic", but was more likely a pretext, meant to justify the increase of persecution. A while after, Viitorul had to deal with the uncomfortable realization that Stere was well-liked and protected by Ferdinand. It also contradicted itself, and became the target of Vinea's jibes, when it occasionally proposed the normalization of Romanian–Soviet relations, which also required

24610-458: The conspiracy's intellectual instigator—namely, the LANC's A. C. Cuza . Two years later, the newspaper congratulated Wilhelm Filderman for his monograph on Jewish loyalism toward Romania. The regime was consolidated in October 1922, when Ferdinand was symbolically crowned as king of all the Romanians in a ceremony at Alba Iulia . This gesture was covered in Viitorul as a veritable culmination of

24824-665: The content of the Darnița Declaration. Many novels have been written on this subject, including Liviu Rebreanu 's Forest of the Hanged . Romanian troops fought on all European fronts of the Dual Monarchy, some of them being distinguished, such as Feldmarschall-leutnant ( Lieutenant field marshal ) Ioan Boeriu , Oberst ( Colonel ) Dănilă Papp , Hauptmann ( Căpitan ) Gheorghe Flondor and Leutnant ( Locotenent ) Emil Rebreanu . Other notable Romanians who fought in

25038-473: The country on horseback". Carol appointed Vaida-Voevod as prime minister in early 1933, having decided to keep the fascist opposition in check. In that context, Viitorul expressed doubts that Vaida was an actual enemy of the Guardists, exposing government for encouraging them, as well as for turning a blind eye to the spread of Nazism among the Transylvanian Saxons . In November, Duca, already

25252-461: The death of the conservative Transylvanian novelist Ioan Slavici , the Viitorul staff only discussed him as a Germanophile and a traitor to Romania. Around the same time, it featured Alexandru Cazaban 's attacks on the (then-communist) novelist Panait Istrati —Istrati's defenders at Contimporanul laughed these off as "yelping out of Viitorul ' s basement" (in other pieces for Contimporanul and other journals, Vinea suggested that Viitorul

25466-580: The declassified letters of Ottokar Czernin , who had represented the Austro-Hungarian government in Romania, and the full text of Brătianu's 1916 treaty with the Entente. In tandem, it challenged the left-wing Ententists at Adevărul , in particular Constantin Mille , with an open letter from Captain Gheorghe Băgulescu —which suggested that Mille was an inconsequential journalist, and always "for sale". According to Marghiloman, Viitorul also maintained

25680-450: The defensive action were also honored with a poem by Ludovic Dauș , published in Viitorul and later in Coșbuc's own Albina . In a 17 October piece, Viitorul discussed the war as one of national liberation : "We, the Romanians, do not covet for foreign land, neither do we aim, as our enemies do, to invade and submit other peoples. We only want to free our brothers from bondage". It covered

25894-456: The deposed Crown Prince Carol , but ultimately accepted Carol's return as King of Romania . The Carlist monarchy also cooperated with the Viitorul team, making one of the newspaper's founders, Ion G. Duca , the country's prime minister in 1933. By then, the PNL was also being dragged into a conflict with the fascist Iron Guard —resulting in Duca's assassination just weeks into his office. During

26108-580: The editorial staff of a local PNL journal, Mișcarea . The situation was only reversed by the September 1918 campaigns ; the renewed association with the Entente also led to the fall of the Marghiloman cabinet , which had been mandated with appeasing the Central Powers . A second series of Viitorul was put out from 2 November 1918. It was reopened at roughly the same time as another Ententist paper, Universul , and coincided with crowds storming into

26322-572: The enemy from within, also proposing that PNL men be given lectures about the Guardist peril, and learn to disassociate from it. The following month, Viitorul sided with the left-wing press in condemning the Guardists and other far-right men, who had pelted with stones the Social Democrats' central offices in Bucharest. In mid-September, having been forced to debunk reports that Austrian Jews were seeking refuge in Romania, it claimed that

26536-637: The ever-stronger pressure of the German and Austro-Hungarian forces. Grim fights erupted in the Prahova Valley , where occupation of the locality of Predeal was one of the major aims pursued by the Central Powers. Given their dramatic character, the clashes for the Predeal town and railway station were frequently compared with the heaviest fights on the Western Front. Similar fights took place in

26750-487: The expropriation of at least some landowners. This vision was popularized with Viitorul articles that he usually signed as "V. I. B"; they immediately sparked a polemic between Vintilă and the Conservative Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea (who argued that the landowners had a divine law on their side). Tensions between PNL reformists and moderates peaked during the first months of World War I, which also changed

26964-479: The figures between 3,000–18,000, the most common being 11,000 victims. Another assessment of the number of victims was made by Major Gheorghe Dabija  [ ro ] who in February 1910 was appointed by General Grigore C. Crăiniceanu to analyze 32 files that referred to this event. Based on these documents, Dabija drew up a 117-page report which he submitted to the Ministry of War, from which it emerged that 1,786 peasants had been shot. Only ten members of

27178-718: The first counterattack came from Field Marshal August von Mackensen in command of a multi-national force composed of the Bulgarian Third Army , a German brigade and two divisions of the Ottoman VI Army Corps , whose units began arriving on the Dobrudja front after the initial battles. This army attacked north from Bulgaria, starting on 1 September. It stayed on the south side of the Danube river and headed towards Constanța . Bulgarian troops (aided by

27392-420: The government, to hide the size of the massacre, ordered the destruction of all documents relating to the uprising. Historian Markus Bauer mentions a greatly underestimated official figure of 419 deaths, while an unofficial figure, circulated by the press and widely accepted, of about 10,000 peasants killed, has never been proven to be true. The same figure of 419 deaths was mentioned by Ion I. C. Brătianu in

27606-503: The holy duty imposed upon us, and determined to bear manfully all the sacrifices inseparable from an arduous war, we will march into battle with the irresistible élan of a people firmly confident in its destiny. The glorious fruits of victory shall be our reward. Forward, with the help of God! FERDINAND Proclamation by King Ferdinand, 28 August 1916 On the night of 27 August 1916, three Romanian armies ( First , Second and Northern Army  [ ro ] ), deployed according to

27820-674: The homeland. Diplomatic and political efforts to establish the Legion started in early July 1916. These efforts gained notable consistency in Italy after the "Congress of the Oppressed Nations in Austria-Hungary" was held in April 1918 in Rome, at a time when Italy became interested in further efforts to hasten the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian state. Following requests for enlistment to fight against Austria-Hungary,

28034-431: The hypocrisy of Ententists. According to Marxist historian V. Liveanu, the 1919 election, carried by universal male suffrage , saw the PNL expunging its Poporanists and "generous ones", only maintaining tiny and "bourgeois" left-wing factions, manned by figures such as Ioan Nădejde and Alexandru Vlahuță . Its electoral program, carried in Viitorul , recognized the need for some leftist-inspired social reforms, such as

28248-526: The impossibility of revision, and the futility of her agitation." Upon ultimately gaining power in the 1928 race, the PNȚ started challenging various of the Brătianus' core policies. By January 1929, Vintilă was especially critical of the policy to purge PNL-ists out of the administrative apparatus. His worries were played down by the PNȚ's Dreptatea , which noted that Viitorul , "evidently written in its entirety by Mr Vintilă Brătianu", alleged that government

28462-455: The intervention, and began paying off various Romanian newspapermen—including Viitorul ' s Saniel Grossman . Though categorically denied by Banu with an explanatory piece, the rumor was confirmed when the Siguranța sifted through the notebooks of foreign spies that it had arrested. It was also confirmed in Duca's memoirs, though he also noted that Grossman, whom he presented as a "scribe" and

28676-525: The leases of the local peasants. Fischer used to lease about 75% of the arable land in three Romanian counties in Moldavia (the so-called "Fischerland"). The peasants, fearing that they would remain without work and, more importantly, without food, began to act violently. Scared, Fischer fled to a friend in Cernăuți , leaving the peasants without signed contracts. The fear of remaining out of work, combined with

28890-478: The liberal party", with Vintilă Brătianu "fashioned into the champion of press freedom." For a while, the monarch relied on the PNȚ to form government. At that stage, Viitorul gave some endorsement to the agrarianist majority, since it also supported European integration—the consensus was expressed in sociological articles by Mitiță Constantinescu and Dimitrie Drăghicescu . The latter's contributions also linked pro-European stances with anti-communism, observing that

29104-580: The liberal party's dictatorship, now had to resort to its own heavy-handed methods. It even enhanced its own tyranny by seizing the newspapers which fought against it with the most rage: Universul and Viitorul ." Also then, Carol returned unexpectedly, deposed Michael, and took over as king—his arrival welcomed by Buré as a solution to the PNȚ-ist incompetence. At the time, Viitorul was reportedly selling more copies than ever before, with its printing press guarded by "former ministers and old generals who belong to

29318-507: The manipulative article had been drafted by Brătianu himself. An electoral race ultimately took place in May , confirming Brătianu's new cabinet and a PNL majority in the constitutent assembly. The legislature opened with a speech by Banu, selected by Brătianu because Viitorul had been skeptical toward Stere's more revolutionary agenda; shortly after, in an interview for the same newspaper, Finance Minister Emil Costinescu reassured voters that

29532-845: The mercy of the military resources of a country which had scarcely one twentieth of the population of the two great states. Judging by the military situation, it was to be expected that Rumania had only to advance where she wished to decide the world war in favor of those Powers which had been hurling themselves at us in vain for years. Thus everything seemed to depend on whether Rumania was ready to make any sort of use of her momentary advantage. Between 1914 and 1916, 59 Romanian factories produced 400,000 artillery rounds, 70 million bullets, 1,500 caissons , and 332 gun carriages . Grenades were also manufactured, with three factories producing 1.5 tons of explosives daily. The 332 gun carriages were produced in order to convert Romania's 53 mm and 57 mm Fahrpanzer fortress guns into field artillery. Some of

29746-572: The middle of September, the Romanian offensive was halted. A separate Romanian offensive, carried out by the 1st Infantry Division, was much more limited in its aims and it succeeded: capturing the west bank of the Cerna River within the Banat region. The Romanian occupation of the area lasted for over two months, until mid-November. While the Romanian Army was advancing in Transylvania,

29960-481: The more left-wing members of this alliance were being subsidized by the Soviets. Ahead of its victory in the general elections in December 1928 , the new group held various rallies which illustrated its contempt for the Brătianu family and its political system (which the PNȚ regarded as undemocratic). These events were also covered in detail by Viitorul , which recorded samples from its enemies' speeches, and mocked their political "naivete"; it also expressed worry about

30174-458: The nation's history. As I. I. C. Brătianu carried out his promise of land reform, the PNL had come to be opposed by a more purist agrarian force, the Peasants' Party , which sought to reestablish Romania as a peasant state. The PNL mouthpiece, which was allegedly allocated free or subsidized paper at the height of nation-wide shortages, went on the offensive, declaring that the new group was an "adventurers' crew" of "brazen ignorance." It also took up

30388-403: The national conscience, by the founders of the Romanian State, by those who united the principalities in the war of independence, by those responsible for the national renaissance. It is the day of the union of all branches of our nation. Today we are able to complete the task of our forefathers and to establish forever that which Michael the Great was only able to establish for a moment, namely,

30602-444: The need to do away with the PNR's regionalism. As read by the former Germanophile Ioan C. Filitti , by February 1919 Viitorul was also acknowledging, if grudgingly so, that Marghiloman had been at least partly right in his negotiations with the conquerors. Both Viitorul and Steagul followed developments in the Russian Civil War , and agreed on the need to contain Soviet Russia , but reached significantly different conclusions on

30816-410: The need to focus on a future unification with Bessarabia—and therefore on a rapprochement with the Central Powers . Among the early scoops produced by the newspaper was a report from the Ottoman Empire , alleging that the local population had come to resent the "military dictatorship" imposed on it by Otto Liman von Sanders . It also prominently featured fake news about a sweeping Entente victory in

31030-446: The newspaper also speculated that the renegade prince was being backed by the Hungarian authorities. It thus raised alarm that Carol was ready to bargain the entirety of Transylvania in exchange for political or military backing, and claimed that PNȚ was similarly inclined. In June 1929, after Hungarian irredentism had been made an official policy by István Bethlen , Viitorul wrote: "Once and for all Hungary should calm down and realise

31244-441: The newspaper was focusing its attacks on the then-governing PP and the Averescu cabinet . It deplored the new laws regulating the oil industry, arguing that the PP had abandoned national reserves to the Royal Dutch . Viitorul also mounted a campaign against Duiliu Zamfirescu , a novelist who was serving as Chairman of the Deputies' Assembly on behalf of the PP-led majority. The critique focused on Zamfirescu's stint as manager of

31458-443: The newspaper's contributors, Mircea Djuvara . Djuvara's articles were also directed against " revanchism ", which he associated with Hungary, Bulgaria, the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy , and Weimar Germany . In Djuvara's version, European integration was to be limited by the preservation of national sovereignty, including in matters of nationalist economic policies. During the late 1920s uncertainty, there had been new developments in

31672-443: The next four years, Viitorul was disputed between two PNL factions: one led by Dinu Brătianu , the other by Gheorghe Tătărescu . The newspaper approved of Carol's repression of the Iron Guard, but was reluctant about embracing the increasingly authoritarian tenets of Carlism. Though the constitution of 1938 formally banned the PNL, both it and Viitorul continued to function; the Brătianu faction managed to obtain full control of

31886-448: The novelist Gala Galaction as a permanent collaborator, though he only ever allowed them to publish one of his short stories, "Soleima". From early 1912, the staff was joined by actor Alexandru Mavrodi (or "Alex Fronda"), who was both a theatrical columnist, political chronicler, and regional correspondent for Western Moldavia ; in parallel, he and Carol Steinberg ran one of Romania's first avant-garde publications, Fronda . According to

32100-421: The offices of a Germanophile paper, Steagul ; immediately after, it became noted for its "violent attack" against Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș , who had been leader of the police forces answering to the German occupiers. It also targeted biologist Grigore Antipa , who had supplied food for the German Army , as a "friend of our enemies", "the embodiment of a perfidious acolyte". Some time later, it began circulating

32314-517: The only Jew left at Viitorul , only took "modest sums". A 1920 inquest launched by the Assembly of Deputies additionally discovered that, in early 1916, the German Empire had also subsidized Viitorul as a whole, by means of the Deutsche Bank . In July 1916, still at Viitorul , Mavrodi was circulating rumors that the Bulgarian Land Forces had clashed with Romanian troops in Southern Dobruja. On 24 August, when King Ferdinand I celebrated his birthday, Viitorul praised his leadership, noting that

32528-468: The opposition (with the exception of the PP), being described by its exponents as the backbone of an authoritarian coup. Vinea saw the paper as standing out for the "counterrevolution", "the return of the 'oligarchy' to the political affairs from which it had been removed." The legislation was defended by Viitorul as doing away with needless parliamentary "struggles", and thus inaugurating an "era of disciplined and fecund work". While canvassing for support of

32742-420: The opposition declared these to have been rigged, walking out of the legislature; Viitorul mounted the counterattack, with "insulting epithets" against the hostile parties, whom it accused of "deserting [their] duties". In 1922–1923, the sixth Brătianu cabinet began enacting a series of structural reforms, including by adopting a new constitution and by enacting land redistribution. This period revised some of

32956-402: The paper in April of that year, but it and all other PNL assets were confiscated by the National Renaissance Front in December. Viitorul was only reestablished in September 1944, days after a successful anti-fascist coup , which saw the PNL returning into legality. Edited by Mihail Fărcășanu , it was increasingly confrontational toward the Romanian Communist Party , which, in the late 1940s,

33170-539: The paper: " Viitorul had a 17-million debt in credits at the Românească Bank. Today, they have built themselves their own headquarters on Academiei Street." Directed by Nicolae Maxim and putting out some 20,000 copies per issue (precisely 27,000 in 1934), Viitorul hosted short stories by Cazaban, regular theatrical chronicles by Ion Foti (now usually known as "Simeon Rufu") and Paul I. Prodan, with additional book reviews by Ion Filotti Cantacuzino and Grigore Tăușan . It lost Mavrodi, who died suddenly in September 1934—and

33384-435: The party's reformist agenda, taken up in print by one of the kingdom's younger politicians, Ion G. Duca . Literary historian Al. Raicu suggests that it was overall a voice from the " left-liberal faction " of the PNL. Its founding directors, other than Duca, were Constantin Alimănișteanu and Constantin Banu ; its editors included Ion Minulescu , Virgil Caraivan , Alexandru Anestin and Nicolae Baboianu, with Iosif Iser as

33598-821: The party, approving the participation of several party men, including Tătărescu, on the national unity government formed by Miron Cristea . As it explained at the time, this reflected the liberals' traditional commitment to the "primacy of national salvation" over any ideological squabbles. Romania in World War I Central Powers victory (December 1917) Allied victory (November 1918) [REDACTED] Romanian Front 1916: [REDACTED] 658,088 [REDACTED] 30,000 [REDACTED] 20,000 [REDACTED] 1,600 1917: [REDACTED] 400,000 [REDACTED] 1,000,000 [REDACTED] 535,700 335,706 dead 120,000 wounded 80,000 captured [REDACTED] 50,000 The Romanian Debacle 1917 Campaign Bessarabia Romania rejoins

33812-421: The patrol boat Barsch and one coal barge were damaged by Romanian coastal batteries and one large barge loaded with explosives was sunk. Körös took 12 hits and was disabled for the rest of the Romanian Campaign. Overall command was now under Erich von Falkenhayn (recently replaced as German Chief of Staff), who started his own counterattack on 18 September. The first attack was on the Romanian First Army near

34026-463: The playwright and memoirist Victor Eftimiu , he was excellent as a manager, and came to run the newspaper even as Banu was still credited as a main editor. Avant-garde poet Tudor Arghezi was also briefly affiliated with Viitorul , but left after a conflict with Banu. In his later articles, he argued that Banu had chosen to surround himself with intriguers and petty figures. According to Arghezi's accounts, Banu's nepotism resulted in Soricu's sacking, at

34240-443: The poetry of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti , as well as introductions to earlier works by Arthur Rimbaud and Lautréamont . As argued by the literary scholar Paul Cernat , the Viitorul offices were for a while home to the more modernist side of the Symbolist counterculture, which was already influenced not just by Rimbaud and the Futurists, but also by Walt Whitman and Maxim Gorky . Duca and Banu made repeated efforts to recruit

34454-445: The point of view of its belligerent status, Romania was a neutral country between 28 July 1914 and 27 August 1916, a belligerent country on the part of the Entente from 27 August 1916 to 9 December 1917, in a state of armistice with the Central Powers from 10 December 1917 to 7 May 1918, a non-combatant country between 7 May 1918 and 10 November 1918, and finally a belligerent country in the Entente between 10 and 11 November 1918. At

34668-498: The process. The 1864 land reforms gave the peasants full ownership rights for part of the land for which they previously had only the right to use. However, the peasants remained even after these reforms dependent on the local landlords. Additionally, the peasant population was rising fast, leading to rapidly shrinking properties: from an average family property of 3.42 hectares (8.5 acres) in 1896 down to 3.27 ha (8.1 acres) in 1905 and 3.06 ha (7.6 acres) in 1907. The state

34882-486: The rail line that linked Constanța with Bucharest. Fighting was furious, with attacks and counterattacks until 23 September. The Central Powers suffered a tactical defeat in the First Battle of Cobadin on 19 September, forcing them to halt their advance until mid-October. On 30 September, near the Romanian port of Sulina , the German submarine UB-42 launched a torpedo at the Romanian torpedo boat NMS  Smeul , but missed. The Romanian warship counterattacked, damaging

35096-504: The revolt was initially put on Jewish intermediaries, given that many of the lessors were of Jewish background, especially in Northern Moldavia. The revolt quickly spread southward, losing some of its anti-Semitic character and becoming basically a protest against the existing system of land tenure. The revolt began on the lands administered by one lessor, Mochi Fischer, in the village of Flămânzi by Trifan Roman Grosu , Ion Dolhescu , and Grigore Roman , due to Fischer's refusal to renew

35310-442: The revolt. The government also began enacting a series of reforms in order to provide some relief to the peasantry, but without expropriating the landlords. The December 23, 1907 law on agricultural contracts limited the degree to which the peasants could be exploited by the landlords and lessors: it set maximum prices for land leases, it set minimum wages for peasants working on landlords' estates and it established Casa Rurală ,

35524-430: The round-ups that had weakened the Socialist Party, indicating that these had likely been unconstitutional, Viitorul depicted him as a communist. I. I. C. Brătianu's death in November 1927 saw the country briefly governed by his brother Vintilă, who made hasty attempts to form a governing coalition with the PNR. The death was mourned by all the Romanian newspapers, with Viitorul paying additional homages to him as both

35738-425: The scene. The Entente incorrectly assumed that Germany would be unable to respond to the invasion, as the Battle of the Somme and the Brusilov Offensive were at their height around this time and tied down significant German forces. Nevertheless, eight divisions and an Alpine Corps were deployed under the command of Erich von Falkenhayn . The Austro-Hungarians also sent four divisions to reinforce their lines, and by

35952-443: The scope of such campaigns. In May 1930, Maniu, as the PNȚ-appointed Prime Minister , ordered the Gendarmerie to seize all copies of a Viitorul issue, in which Vintilă Brătianu had "scathingly attacked" his policies. Covering this issue at the time, the Chicago Daily Tribune speculated that the episode also had to with Viitorul ' s "attacks on Prince Carol". As a result, "scores of followers of Bratianu gathered in front of

36166-457: The shared signature of "A. Mirea"). A supply of artistic prose was handled by various talents, including Vasile Demetrius and N. Pora, with Caraivan, Drăghicescu, Petre Locusteanu and Vasile Savel providing either theoretical essays or literary chronicles. From its first issues, Viitorul covered the cultural and social innovations of the period. On 9 December 1909, it featured the first journalistic reference to football in Romania , though

36380-460: The simmering Hungarian–Romanian conflict: upon the discovery of weapons being illegally trafficked through Szentgotthárd from Italy, Viitorul expressed the belief that Hungary should have been placed under direct supervision by the League of Nations . The paper continued to be managed by Mavrodi, who was also a member of the Romanian Senate . During the same interval, in an effort to probe Italy's attitude regarding Hungary, Nicolae Titulescu , who

36594-502: The staff cartoonist and portraitist. Though a political sheet defending the PNL's take on public affairs (mainly through regular contributions by Banu and Duca), this first edition of Viitorul was also marginally significant in Romanian literature , hosting poetry by Minulescu, Dumitru Constantinescu-Teleormăneanu , Mihail Cruceanu , Dimitrie Drăghicescu , Ion Foti , Cincinat Pavelescu , I. U. Soricu , Claudia Millian , Dimitrie Anghel and Ștefan Octavian Iosif (the latter two under

36808-442: The staff writers were having a rare show of independence, by trying to "rid themselves from the strictures of treasonous liberalism". In late 1937, Viitorul involved itself in campaigning for interwar Romania's last free elections . In this context, it promised that the new administration would seek to uproot the political machines that functioned at a provincial level, and also that it would continue to pacify Romania. Reflecting

37022-620: The start of World War I , King Carol I of Romania favored Germany, while the nation's political elite favored the Entente. As such, the crown council decided to remain neutral. But after King Carol's death in 1914, his successor King Ferdinand I favored the Entente. For Romania, the highest priority was taking Transylvania from Hungary , which had around 2.8 milion Romanians, among approximately 5 milion other people. The Allies wanted Romania to join their side in order to cut rail communications between Germany and Turkey , and to cut off Germany's oil supplies. Britain made loans, France sent

37236-448: The state. By 1900, most large landowners preferred to live in the cities and did not want to bother with the administration of their properties. Therefore, the peasants no longer leased directly from the landowner, but sub-leased it from an intermediary lessor ( arendaș , or Arendators ). The fall of the price of grain on the world markets meant that the lessors would demand ever greater rents in order to make ends meet. The blame for

37450-475: The state. On 1 March 1911, Viitorul alleged that Bessarabian Jews , forced out of their homes by Russian antisemitism , were effectively colonizing the Romanian-owned portions of Moldavia. This claim was dismissed as a canard by both the then-governing Conservative Party and the Union of Native Jews . Viitorul still had Streitman as its editor in chief, though he left in December 1912 to issue his own apolitical magazine, Realitatea . By then, Viitorul had

37664-412: The strategic initiative in Transylvania by concentrating significant military forces rapidly brought in from the other theatres of operations in Europe and exploiting a quick shift of Romanian units to the battlefront in Dobruja. In October 1916, the Romanian army mounted a wide-scale operation, the main target of which was the defense of the mountain passes in the Southern and Eastern Carpathians against

37878-422: The students' living conditions. Reflecting government policy, it spoke at length about the Little Entente 's policy on minorities, educating the public about Romania's commitment to such equal-treatment clauses. However, in September, it openly celebrated when Aristide Briand of the French Radical-Socialists criticized the League of Nations for being too strict about the issue of minority rights. Questioned by

38092-399: The study of the Italian language. The equipment and endowment of the constituted units and subunits was made with Italian military equipment. The enlisted POWs received the corresponding rank in the Italian Royal Army. The sedentary part of the Romanian Legion, under the command of Colonel Camillo Ferraioli, was established at Albano Laziale , and the base camp in the Avezzano camp. Out of

38306-495: The submarine's periscope and conning tower and forcing her to retreat. On 1 October, two Romanian divisions crossed the Danube at Flămânda and created a bridgehead 14 kilometer-wide and 4 kilometer-deep. On the next day, this area was expanded, with 8 Bulgarian settlements ending up in Romanian hands. However, due to the deteriorating situation in Transylvania, the offensive was cancelled on 3 October. The Austro-Hungarian river monitors Bodrog , Körös and Szamos , together with

38520-502: The summer of 1916 ( see Treaty of Bucharest, 1916 ); Cyril Falls attributes the late decision to Romania's historical hostility towards the Russian Empire and purports that an earlier entry into the war, perhaps before the Brusilov offensive the same year, would have provided better chance for victory. According to some American military historians, Russia delayed approval of Romanian demands out of worries about Romanian territorial designs on Bessarabia, claimed by nationalist circles as

38734-421: The task of criticizing the Peasantists' own constitutional project, which was partly drafted by Stere—whom Viitorul repeatedly depicted as a former Germanophile. The PNL now equated the consolidation of left-wing agrarianism with infiltration by the Soviet Union . This narrative was enhanced in mid-1924, during the Tatarbunary Uprising —when, as the left-wing journalist Ion Vinea noted, Viitorul insisted that

38948-433: The toning-down of its anti-communist rhetoric. As early as 1919, Viitorul had hosted an art column, with contributors such as Alexandru Agnese and Traian Cornescu . Involved with the Romanian Writers' Society , by 1922 it was awarding a C. A. Rosetti prize (worth 20,000 lei ) to the best local novels. The paper was the voice of Francophile Romanians, and, around the time of the coronation, carried an article deploring

39162-423: The town of Hațeg ; the attack halted the Romanian advance. Eight days later, German troops attacked Sibiu , and on 29 September, the outnumbered Romanians began retreating to the Vulcan and Turnu Roșu passes. The latter, however, had been occupied by Bavarian mountain troops in a flanking movement, and the Battle of Turnu Roșu Pass ended with the Romanians retaking the pass at a cost of 3,000 men. On 17 October

39376-418: The transition to the enemy increased significantly in frequency on the Western Front in the last 2 years of the war, significantly affecting Austro-Hungarian military units in their structure and firepower. This has sometimes resulted in failures of entire front sectors. Prisoners of war held by the Russian Empire formed the Romanian Volunteer Corps who were repatriated to Romania in 1917. Many fought in

39590-410: The treaty on the grounds that it was not a case of casus foederis because the attacks on Austria were not "unprovoked" , as stipulated in the treaty of alliance. In August 1916, Romania received an ultimatum to decide whether to join the Entente "now or never" . Under the pressure of the ultimatum, the Romanian government agreed to enter the war on the side of the Entente, although the situation on

39804-483: The ultimate resolution regarding "the country's highest interests" was a prerogative of the throne. It therefore deferred to Ferdinand the decision to enter the war. The paper welcomed Romania's belated entry into the war , as an Entente country, which occurred just four days after the royal celebration. Its editor, Spiru Hasnaș , contacted the Transylvanian exile George Coșbuc to obtain a celebratory piece from him, but never received it. After retaliatory air bombing by

40018-427: The various nationalist groups into a structured movement. The paper also defended the "generous ones"—a group of reformists who had defected from the Social Democratic Workers' Party to work within the PNL. Its polemical stances and left-wing critique of Marxism were showcased through open letters by Constantin Stere and Garabet Ibrăileanu , both of whom advocated for the PNL. In that context, Viitorul acted as

40232-439: The view that an unprepared and ill-armed Romania facing a war on two fronts would be a liability, not an asset, to the Allies. This view was brushed aside by Whitehall , and Thomson signed a Military Convention with Romania on 13 August 1916. Within a few months, he had to alleviate the consequences of Romania's setbacks and supervise the destruction of the Romanian oil wells to deny them to Germany. The Romanian government signed

40446-558: The violent intervention of the forces of repression. Others emphasized that the government had a special responsibility for the fate of the peasantry and the country in general, and therefore an urgent solution to the "peasant question" was required. The Liberal government began a campaign to repress any kind of political organization of the peasants. Many teachers, priests and other countryside intellectuals were arrested, as were pro- universal suffrage activists Vasile M. Kogălniceanu and Alexandru Vălescu, who were regarded as instigators of

40660-419: The war see also The Kingdom of Romania was neutral for the first two years of World War I , entering on the side of the Allied powers from 27 August 1916 until Central Power occupation led to the Treaty of Bucharest in May 1918, before reentering the war on 10 November 1918. It had the most significant oil fields in Europe, and Germany eagerly bought its petroleum, as well as food exports. From

40874-416: The war on Allied side, Romania demanded support for its territorial claims to parts of Hungarian Transylvania, and especially those parts with a Romanian-speaking majority. The Romanians' greatest concerns in negotiations were the avoidance of a conflict that would have to be fought on two fronts (one in Dobruja with Bulgaria and one in Transylvania) and written guarantees of Romanian territorial gains after

41088-453: The war. According to studies made by the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire , the dedication of the Romanian military to the interest of Austria-Hungary was reduced, only ethnic Italians of the same empire can compete with them for the last place in a ranking according to devotion to the state, per 100 soldiers. Also, in the first 3 years of fighting, out of about 300,000 Austro-Hungarian deserters, 150,000 were ethnic Romanians. Desertion and

41302-419: The war. They demanded an agreement not to make a separate peace with the Central Powers, equal status at the future peace conference, Russian military assistance against Bulgaria, an Allied offensive in the direction of Bulgaria, and the regular shipment of Allied war supplies. The military convention they signed with the Allies stipulated that France and Britain should start an offensive against Bulgaria and

41516-407: The war; between 1914 and 1918, an estimated 400,000 to 600,000 ethnic Romanians served with the Austro-Hungarian army, of whom up to 150,000 were killed in action. Approximately 16% of the pre-war Austro-Hungarian population consisted of ethnic Romanians. Although most Transylvanian Romanians were loyal to the Empire, over time, their loyalty faded as the war progressed, especially after Romania joined

41730-481: The whole of Bessarabia was in the grip of communist agents. The paper also advanced fabricated claims that Stere, on behalf of the Peasantists, had met with Soviet diplomats, and implied that he had discussed the possibility of abandoning Bessarabia to the enemy. One Banu had parted with Viitorul , Mavrodi emerged as its unchallenged director. He began keeping special files on all public figures, that he then allegedly used to extort them into compliance. Vinea noted that

41944-467: The younger Filipescu pounced upon Viitorul editor M. D. Berlescu, who had to be rescued by bystanders. In December, Viitorul publicized a speech by PNL activist Mihail Orleanu , which indicated that all the party wanted Romania to join the Entente, as a way of "fulfilling its national ideal" regarding Transylvania, but also that only Brătianu could decide on the "opportune moment." The Central Powers were by then interested in swaying public opinion against

42158-437: Was also a big landholder; however, its policies for selling the land often did not favor poorer peasants, who were in the greatest need for land. Needing to supplement their shrinking properties, the peasants were forced to use land owned by the landlords, who owned large estates. As population grew, the peasants became more and more desperate for land, leading to rapidly rising rents. At that time, peasants formed up to 80% of

42372-536: Was attacked. While Carol wanted to enter World War I as an ally of the Central Powers, the Romanian public and the political parties were in favor of joining the Triple Entente . Romania remained neutral when the war started, arguing that Austria-Hungary itself had started the war and, consequently, Romania was under no formal obligation to join it. At the same time, Germany started encouraging Austria-Hungary to make territorial concessions to Romania and Italy in order to keep both states neutral. In return for entering

42586-518: Was banned at the border by the Hungarian authorities in November 1909. The issue was covered with derision in the more right-wing journal, Neamul Românesc , which argued that the Hungarian government had little reason to ban a cosmopolitan paper of "anonymous Symbolists", whose editorial team included the Romanian Jewish intellectual Henric Streitman and "his coreligionists". Some three months later, Viitorul publicized Simion Mândrescu and Moise Grozea 's new political club, which aimed to coagulate

42800-482: Was both firing clerks and hiring them in unprecedented numbers. In April, Viitorul raised alarm about the conduct of the new Interior Minister, Vaida-Voevod, whom it accused of conspiring together with a "secret association of students". Vaida mocked this claim, responding that the real conspiracy involving him was one "against the Liberals, because [...] I hope to clear up the extremely heavy burden which they have left as heritage." In May, Viitorul issued warnings about

43014-429: Was established on 18 November 1907, and published its first series to 21 November 1916 (initially as a "morning paper", down to 1910). As later acknowledged by its last editor-in-chief, Fărcășanu, it owed its existence to both the embarrassment caused by the major peasants' revolt of March and to the PNL's sweep in the general elections of June . It therefore considered itself a "fresh new daily", centered on popularizing

43228-407: Was increasing the weapons' supply. The paper's inaugural series ended once the Central Powers had stormed into much of Romania-proper , ultimately reaching Bucharest and settling in as the occupier of most Romanian regions. The government relocated to Iași , and was followed there by many in the literary field and in the political press. Duca, alongside Viitorul colleagues such as Hasnaș, joined

43442-450: Was localized in that area, it quickly spread, reaching Wallachia , including as far as Oltenia . The main cause was the discontent of the peasants over the inequity of land ownership, which was mostly in the hands of just a few large landowners. Following the fall of the Conservative Party government on March 12, the new Liberal government crushed the revolt violently with the help of the Romanian Army , killing thousands of peasants in

43656-437: Was merely a front of the Siguranța , with "moronic" articles that dismissed all its enemies as Soviet hirelings). The newspaper's solution to preserving the international peace was increasingly reliant on proposals for regional alliances. While Ferdinand was having his official crowning ceremony, Constantine I of Greece , who had just been deposed, described the existence of a working alliance between Romania, Yugoslavia , and

43870-469: Was mourned after by Carol himself. Tătărescu's rise was censured by figures on the Assembly's right-wing caucus—including Goga, who created national controversy by suggesting that Duca would not have been assassinated at all, had he left the Guard organize in peace. Viitorul replied on 4 March, noting that such leniency could was made impossible by the Guard's own violent antisemitism, adding: "Our party abhors racial hatred and persecutions." Under Tătărescu,

44084-526: Was one of the most difficult operations waged by the Romanian army until then, but also because it was one of the most important as regards the complexity of the actions carried on and the highly valuable lessons derived from their evolution. 1907 Romanian peasants%27 revolt [REDACTED] Kingdom of Romania A peasant revolt ( Romanian : Răscoala țărănească din 1907 ) took place in Romania between 21 February and 5 April 1907. It started in northern Moldavia and, after three weeks in which it

44298-493: Was resisted from within the PNL by Dinu Brătianu , who consolidated his own faction—in May 1936, Viitorul published news that Tătărescu and Carol had agreed to share power with Brătianu, but (as Argetoianu argues) only in vague terms that had to be clarified by a more in-depth report in Universul . Brătianu also curbed Tătărescu's attempts to strike out an agreement with the Iron Guard. As a result of this change of course, on 15 May Viitorul hosted an article condemning fascism as

44512-403: Was serving as Romanian delegate to the League of Nations, visited Rome ; Mavrodi was also part of that delegation. Viitorul had by then involved itself in the dynastic crisis, which saw Crown Prince Carol sidestepped for the position of Romanian King in favor of his junior son Michael I . In January 1926, it openly welcomed the conflict's apparent resolution—namely, that Carol be demoted to

44726-424: Was steadily encroaching on multiparty democracy. The communists sabotaged its printing; it was banned by the Allied Commission in February 1945, after putting out a mysterious message which seemed to be encoded. Briefly relaunched in January 1946, it only survived to February. Pursued by the authorities, Fărcășanu escaped the country later in 1946, months before the proclamation of a communized republic . The paper

44940-470: Was steadily pushed back toward Hungary. In a short time, the towns of Brașov , Făgăraș , and Miercurea Ciuc were captured, and the outskirts of Sibiu were reached. In areas populated with Romanians, the Romanian troops were warmly welcomed, and the locals provided them considerable assistance in terms of provisions, billeting and guiding. However, the rapid Romanian advance alarmed the Central Powers, and within weeks sizable reinforcements began arriving at

45154-428: Was the only press organ to be printed throughout these incidents, by strike-breakers guarded by an infantry regiment. The PNL consequently allowed violent retaliation against trade unionists such as I. C. Frimu . However, when Frimu was murdered in prison, Viitorul tried to play down the incident, alleging that he had died of typhus . Its attitude was met with indignation by the PP's Îndreptarea , which argued: "Such

45368-439: Was to be Romania, a country that many knew only through the hostile propaganda of Austria-Hungary. Also, this education aimed to eliminate the distrust in the new Italian ally, as well as the difficulties of communication with other soldiers from the other Romanian historical regions. The only language used in military service was Romanian. Officers of Romanian origin had a complex training program, which included, among other things,

45582-506: Was used by Brătianu's cabinet to dismiss rumors that a new regional alliance was being formed between Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece . Also then, Viitorul engaged in a polemic with the Conservative-Democratic Party and its "National Action" movement, which wanted Romania to immediately join the Entente—by mid-1915, government was openly clashing with the Ententist opposition, leading Viitorul to cut down on its Ententist content. Its own editorial line mirrored Brătianu's tactics: criticized by

45796-434: Was welcomed by Arghezi, who nevertheless noted as a paradox that Insula was being put out in opposition not just to Viitorul , but also to Banu's own cultural magazine, Flacăra . The polemic over church and art affairs was meanwhile being carried out more directly, between Arghezi and Banu, with occasional interventions from Locusteanu. The PNL's leftists, increasingly self-identifying as " Poporanists ", were regarded by

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