Constantin Stere
Encyclopedia
Constantin G. Stere or Constantin Sterea (Romanian
; , Konstantin Yegorovich Stere or Константин Георгиевич Стере, Konstantin Georgiyevich Stere; also known under his pen name
Şărcăleanu; June 1, 1865 – June 26, 1936) was a Romania
n writer, jurist
, politician, ideologue of the Poporanist
trend, and, in March 1906, co-founder (together with Garabet Ibrăileanu
and Paul Bujor — the latter was afterwards replaced by the physician Ioan Cantacuzino
) of the literary magazine
Viaţa Românească
. One of the central figures of the Bessarabian intelligentsia at the time, Stere was a key actor during the Union of Bessarabia with Romania
in 1918, and is associated with its legacy.
Constantin Stere was professor of Administrative
and Constitutional law
at the University of Iaşi, serving as its rector
between 1913 and 1916. He is also remembered for his partly autobiographical novel
În preajma revoluţiei (literal translation: "On the Eve of the Revolution" — in reference to the Russian Revolution of 1917).
, Soroca County
, to a family of boyar
origins from Ciripcău
, Bessarabia
— which was part of the Russian Empire
at the time. Stere was one of the three sons of an ethnic Romanian
couple of Russian citizens: Gheorghe or Iorgu Stere (known as Yegor Stepanovich Stere, Егор Степанович Стере in Russian), a landowner whose family was originally from Botoşani County
in the Romanian part of Moldavia
, and Pulcheria (Пулкерия), a member of the impoverished gentry in Bessarabia. He spent most of his early years, until the age of eight, in Ciripcău, where the family manor
was located.
Around 1874, he graduated from a Chişinău
private school where classes were taught German
, and entered the school for dvoryane
in the city, where he became close friends with Alexandru Grosu and Lev Matveyevich Kogan-Bernstein (who were the basis for the characters Saşa Lungu and Moise Roitman in Stere's novel). It was also around this time that he became acquainted with progressive
, utopian socialist
, and Darwinist
ideas (notably reading the works of Nikolai Chernyshevsky
, Alexander Herzen
, Charles Darwin
, Karl Marx
, Mikhail Bakunin
, Ferdinand Lassalle
, and Peter Lavrovich Lavrov). Stere later indicated that, before the late 1870s, he could not spell the Romanian alphabet
, which had just been adopted over the border (see Romanian Cyrillic alphabet
), and had to rely on a few books smuggled
into Bessarabia for getting a sense of literary
Romanian
.
While still students, Stere and Kogan-Bernstein engaged in revolutionary politics as socialists
and Narodnik
s, initiating a conspirative
"self-instruction" cell of six inside their school. The group was affiliated with Narodnaya Volya, and Stere was responsible for multiplying and distributing locally the manifesto
issued by the latter after it had assassinated Emperor Alexander II
. This was also the first moment when Stere declared his opposition to a Social democratic
program, a Narodnik-inspired objection which would later form one of the tenets of his doctrine.
He was first arrested in late 1883, after Okhrana units decapitated the Bessarabian wing of the Narodnaya Volya. Detained in Odessa
(during which time he read intensely), Stere was frequently visited by Maria Grosu, the sister of Alexandru, who had fallen in love with him — a Narodnik and a feminist
, she asked Stere for a marriage of convenience
that was to meant to help her become free from parental tutelage (according to the laws of the Russian Empire, unmarried women were under their father's protection). Stere agreed, and they were married in the prison chapel
(1885).
to Siberia
, serving a three-year term. Briefly kept in Tyumen
prison awaiting transport further east, he was sent to Kurgan in the custody of two gendarmes
(October). He was joined there by Maria, who gave birth to their son Roman in 1886. Moving to Turinsk
, the Steres joined a group of revolutionaries in internal exile; Constantin Stere agreed to print copies of a Narodnik magazine, using a hectograph
, and was exposed during a raid by authorities. He was swiftly taken to Tobolsk
, then shipped down the Irtysh to the place where it met the Ob
; he traveled to the village of Sharkala (the northernmost part of Siberia he ever reached) in a Khanty
canoe, and was then settled in Beryozovsky District
, only to be arrested again and sent back to Tobolsk in the autumn of 1888.
He was tried for his activities in Turinsk, based on evidence collected by the Okhrana. While in prison, Stere, who was beginning to distance himself from socialism and proletarian internationalism
, argued in front of authorities that mention of his change in attitude was supposed to be kept by the court when passing the verdict. At the time, a physician who examined him noted that he had suffered a nervous breakdown
, and had him moved to a prison hospital. According to most accounts, he had attempted suicide (a gesture caused by either the death of one of his brothers, who had himself committed suicide, or by news that the Narodnik leader Lev Tikhomirov
had become a supporter of the political establishment). In hospital, Stere stated that:
Instead, he became familiar with Neo-Kantian philosophy
, expanding on his interest in Immanuel Kant
's Critique of Pure Reason
(which he was reading in Beryozovsky District). It was at this time that Stere began writing.
In March 1889, the court decided to extend his term of exile by three more years, and relocated him to the village of Serginsk, near Minusinsk
. He much later claimed that, while passing through the prison of Krasnoyarsk
, he met Vladimir Lenin
, the future Bolshevik
leader — this is unlikely, as Lenin passed through the city several years after Stere. His other claim to have met and befriended Józef Piłsudski, future head of state of Poland
(and, at the time, a prominent member of the Polish Socialist Party
), was confirmed by Piłsudski himself in 1927 (Stere's novel, În preajma revoluţiei, included Piłsudski as a character, under the name Stadnicki).
, crossing the border clandestinely. He studied Law at the University of Iaşi (under Petre Missir, while carrying on as a leftist
activist and quickly becoming an influential figure among the youth of Iaşi
, the inspiration behind a left-leaning student society that engaged in a virulent polemic with the nationalist youth, and an acquaintance of socialist leaders such as Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
, Garabet Ibrăileanu
, Ioan Nădejde, Sofia Nădejde, Constantin Mille
, Theodor Speranţia, Vasile Morţun, and Nicolae L. Lupu
. Later, a controversy erupted over Stere's academic credentials, as it was never consistently proven that he had passed his baccalaureate
between being arrested and applying for law school.
Stere's break with Marxism
led him to attempt persuading the newly created Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party (PSDMR) to amend its proletariat
-focused policies, and, in 1893, to found the student society Datoria ("The Duty"), which preserved the Narodnik focus on educating peasants. He and his followers nevertheless continued to rely much of their thesis on Marxist concepts, coupled with an interest taken in the reformist socialist
way advocated by Eduard Bernstein
.
After debuting as a journalist for the liberal-inspired Evenimentul in 1893 (and engaging in public debates with the socialist press), Stere also sent substantial contribution to Adevărul
, a tribune of various left-wing trends that was being published in Bucharest
under the direction of Anton Bacalbaşa. Later in 1893, he took part in founding Evenimentul Literar, the literary supplement of Evenimentul.
He joined in the socialists Bacalbaşa and Ibrăileanu in a cultural polemic with the poet Alexandru Vlahuţă
and his magazine Vieaţa. Vlahuţă, who had sided with Dobrogeanu-Gherea during the latter's conflict with Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
, nonetheless clashed with the leftists
over the issue of "art for art's sake
", arguing that the interest his adversaries took in didacticism
was harming literature. This exchange of replies soon involved the former socialist Eduard Dioghenide, who attacked Evenimentul Literar with Antisemitic language, contending that Stere was "an employee of the little kikes" and had "lost his soul to the Jews
". At the time, Stere's activity with Datoria also came under attack from various student societies — most of them associates of the Conservative Party.
During the late 1890s, he had begun making use of the Şărcăleanu alias in his polemic articles, which became a particular topic of dispute after his confrontation with Dioghenide (who first speculated that Stere was the author of Şărcăleanus articles). Dioghenide's supporters, editors of the newspaper Naţionalul, consequently pressured Stere to indicate who Şărcăleanu was ("We wish to know him, does he wear sidelocks
or is he a Judaisized
Romanian?"). Similar calls were voiced by Vieaţa, who alleged that Stere himself was a Russian Jew
.
Winning the support of several Conservative politicians, Stere successfully applied for Romanian citizenship in February 1895, obtaining naturalization
through a special law, as "a Romanian from Bessarabia".
In 1897, Stere obtained a licensure
with a thesis on legal entity and individualism
, one which drew criticism from the influential Conservative-inspired group Junimea
, on the assumption that it had been partly inspired by Marx. At the time, he also published an incomplete series of philosophical essays centered on the works of Wilhelm Wundt
. After graduation, Stere, who was by then the father of four, lived for a while in Ploieşti
, and afterwards joined the Bar association
in Iaşi as a practicing lawyer. During the period, he met and befriended the influential writer Ion Luca Caragiale
.
(PNL) — Morţun's camp, which also included Alexandru G. Radovici, became known in time as "the generous ones" (generoşii). According to Constantin Titel Petrescu
, Stere, despite his own polemics with Dobrogeanu-Gherea, sided with the latter and against Morţun ("Even Stere [...] declared himself against moving to the Liberals"). Nevertheless, during merger talks between the "generous ones" and the left-wing of the National Liberals, Stere was approached by the latter's Ion I. C. Brătianu
; Brătianu and Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, who were gathering supporters at a time when the PNL cabinet of Dimitrie Sturdza
looked set to lose the general elections of 1899 to a strong coalition of Conservatives and former Liberals such as Petre S. Aurelian
, proposed to Stere that he become a city councilor in Iaşi, and he accepted. During the period, he split with Evenimentul, as the paper became close to Liberal splinter groups and virulently criticized the contacts between the PNL and former PSDMR affiliates.
Eventually, Stere entered the PNL as a left-wing radical
and populist
, supporting an original tactic that blended a Narodnik focus on the peasantry with a weariness towards capitalism
and industrialisation
. This was the origin of Poporanism
, a theory expanded upon in his influential 1908 essay Poporanism sau social-democraţie?, "Poporanism or Social democracy
?" (Stere coined the original term in 1894, viewing it the best translation of the word Narodnik).
In essence, Poporanism ceased to view socialism as a goal in countries such as Romania. Stere noted that the group to be defined as industrial proletariat
accounted for ca. 1% of the total number of taxpayers (around 1907), and argued instead for a "peasant state", which was to encourage and preserve small agricultural
plots as the basis for economic development. Citing the example of Denmark
(see Danish cooperative movement
), he also proposed that cooperative
industries were to be created in the rural sphere, and that initiative agriculture could also rely in cooperative farms:
Despite its name, Stere understood the "peasant state" not as an actual hegemony
of the peasantry, but as an immediate move from the census suffrage
in the Kingdom of Romania
to a universal one
, intended to accurately reflect the country's social realities (see 1866 Constitution of Romania
). In an 1898 speech, he also stressed a loyalty for the King of Romania
(Carol I
at the time).
Stere notably rejected Karl Kautsky
's support for capitalization in agriculture, arguing that it was neither necessary nor practical. He was not, however, opposed to modernization
, and invested trust in the role of intellectual
s as militants and activists, as well as building on Werner Sombart
's theory that agrarian economies were facing new and special conditions (as opposed to those that bore the mark of the Industrial Revolution
). Stere observed changes occurring in the developed world at the turn of the 19th century, and concluded that industrialization of backward countries was also being blocked by colonialism
and the prosperity it had brought to the British Empire
and the United States
. He argued that a new form of capital
was being created at a larger, non-national, scale; he deemed it "vagabond capital", and viewed in it the source for the lack of accuracy in Marxist predictions over proletarian alienation
(as it appeared that, in developed countries, the proletariat was growing wealthier).
This was also the start of a polemic between him and the Marxist Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
. Although the two shared skepticism over the possibility of early socialist success in Romania (agreeing with Titu Maiorescu
's verdict that it was one of the "forms without substance", and thus an ill-suited effect of Westernization
), Dobrogeanu-Gherea argued that Stere's program of basing Romania's economy on cooperatives and small-scale agricultural holdings could only lead to endemic underdevelopment
.
ordered a clampdown on the surviving PSDMR. This came after the Conservative opposition voiced allegations that socialist clubs in the countryside were inciting laborers to revolt (an accusation which threatened to decrease the popularity of the Dimitrie Sturdza
cabinet). As all former PSDMR members in the PNL came under scrutiny, he was himself the target of attacks in Parliament
, and notably criticized by the Constitutional Party
's Titu Maiorescu for allegedly using his position to "disturb the elementary order; [...] leading to the only place it could lead: peasant rebellion".
He lost his position in March 1899, following Sturdza's fall from power over a scandal involving relations between Romanian and Austria-Hungary
. Consequently, he welcomed the remaining "generous ones" inside the PNL as the PSDMR was dissolved (April 1899); those socialists who remained independent continued to consider Stere the main instigator of the move. At the time, he relied on what he interpreted as Ion I. C. Brătianu
's promise that a PNL cabinet was going to enforce both universal suffrage
and land reform
, and hoped to exercise an influence on the party's Left. With Pherekyde, Petre Poni, Toma Stelian and Spiru Haret
, Stere was soon involved in public protests against the successive Conservative cabinets of Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino and Petre P. Carp
— provoked by the Hallier Affair — involving a French firm which used its government connections to regain a public works
contract in the port of Constanţa
, although it had failed to respect its obligations —, and the "Law on spirits
" (or "law on ţuica
") — which established homebrewing
tax, engendering violence in the countryside.
Following a conflict between Cantacuzino and Carp, which caused the latter's cabinet to be invalidated with assistance from Conservative parliamentarians (February 1901) Sturdza returned to power triumphantly. In the 1901 suffrage, he was first elected to Chamber
for the 3rd Electoral College in Iaşi. Stere largely owed his 1901 appointment as Deputy Professor at the University of Iaşi to his political connections: falling short of legal requirements, he asked Brătianu and Spiru Haret to make an exception in his case (in order to avoid breaking the law which prevented state employees from being elected deputies, he asked not to receive a salary for his first course). After he became a full Professor, his assistant at the department was Nicolae Daşcovici.
Stere sided with Brătianu and Vasile Lascăr in 1904, at a time when the two confronted Sturdza and resigned from their government offices, provoking the cabinet's fall (and Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino's reinstatement as Premier).
's victory in the Russo-Japanese War
and the string of social problems Russia experienced, and that he had sent the General Staff of the Romanian Army
a memorandum on the matter.
Soon after the Russian Revolution of 1905, Stere and a group of his followers returned to Bessarabia in order to encourage local Romanian sentiment during elections for the State Duma
and zemstvo
s — according to Stere, the group had the tacit approval of the Conservative government. In parallel, Stere represented the Chişinău
zemstvo as a lawyer in a civil lawsuit. They arrived at a time of conflict, when Black Hundreds activity was gaining momentum and peasant pressures in the countryside were meeting with resistance from reactionary
politicians such as Vladimir Purishkevich
and Pavel Krushevan
. Initially, Stere doubled as a correspondent for PNL French language
newspapers, signing them as C. Şercăleano.
He issued a magazine (Basarabia
) of which he was editor (together with Ion Inculeţ
, Teodor Inculeţ, Ion Pelivan
, Alexei Mateevici
, and Pan Halippa
), attempting to profit from the political gains in Russia by calling for both in-depth social reforms and decentralization
; their influence waned after reactionary
politicians made electoral gains and, as the new administration, confiscated most of the magazine's issues (leading to its bankruptcy
in 1907). Stere himself first returned to Romania in early 1906, and immediately left on a trip to Austro-Hungarian
-ruled Transylvania
, where he met with the poet and activist Octavian Goga
in Sibiu
, as well as with other prominent ethnic Romanians, becoming in time an unofficial envoy of the PNL in the region. His involvement in the zemstvo trial became the topic of a scandal, after the institution accused Stere of having failed to fulfill his obligations as a lawyer, and called on him to return the fees he had received.
Viaţa Românească
In its first editorial (1906), Viaţa Românească
(a magazine which Stere had planned during his return to Bessarabia) summarized the cultural guidelines of the Poporanist trend, ones which Stere had first theorized in 1899 articles for Evenimentul Literar:
, literature
, ways of living — and this will only be possible when, through culture, enlarged political participation and economical uplifting, the peasantry will be awarded a social value in proportion with its numerical, economical, moral and national values, when we shall be one people, when all the social class
es shall be of the same people [...]."
Stere distanced himself from the competing and equally peasant-focused trend of Sămănătorul
, which aimed to preserve the peasant way of life in front of modernization rather than enforce the peasant economy advocated by Poporanism. He was notably involved in polemics with Sămănătoruls Octavian Goga
and Nicolae Iorga
.
As he later admitted, he attempted to divert attention from the Şărcăleanu alias by making use of another one, P. Nicanor & Co. (used before and after him by various Viaţa Românească contributors to the magazine's closing column), and by writing an article in which he claimed Stere and Şărcăleanu were not one and the same, thus maintaining the relative ambiguity until the early 1930s.
), Stere began campaigning in favor of dismissing the Conservative cabinet of Premier
Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino, at a time when the latter also faced Take Ionescu
's dissidence. This coincided with the outbreak of the 1907 Peasants' Revolt
, which managed to bring down the cabinet after Ionescu agreed to support the Dimitrie Sturdza
's return to power, as a means to ensure a response to the troubles. Like many other "generous ones", Stere was integrated in the new administration, and became a prefect
of Iaşi County
; instead of calling in the Romanian Army
to pacify the area, he interfered in landowner-peasant relations to ensure better conditions for the latter, thus causing alarm in the Conservative camp. Although no violent reprisal against the rebels was recorded in his prefecture, his association with the repressive cabinet was the topic of criticism from many of his former allies, most notably Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
, Paul Bujor, and Constantin Mille
. Together with his deputy prefect Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, Stere resigned his position in April and was replaced with Gheorghe Kernbach, preparing to run in the legislative election of that year — for the 2nd Electoral College in Iaşi; he won the seat in late May.
In early June, Premier Sturdza appointed Stere, alongside Take Ionescu, Petre P. Carp
, Ion G. Duca
, Alexandru Djuvara
, Constantin Alimănişteanu, Ion and Alexandru G. Radovici, Dinu
and Vintilă Brătianu
, and 24 other parliamentarians, to a Committee charged with settling the agricultural issue; ultimately dissolved later in the same month, the Committee did not achieve any clear result, and Stere's radical proposals were repeatedly ignored by his own party. During the same period, a conflict erupted between Stere and the independent Antisemitic politician A. C. Cuza
, who had been one his opponents in the election; after making use of the word "trivial" in reference to Stere's attitudes, Cuza was sued by the latter, and refused a challenge to face him in a duel
(an additional aspect of the scandal was the accusation that Stere had purposely failed students who supported Cuza's policies). Following the creation of Take Ionescu's Conservative-Democratic Party (PCD), the PNL launched accusations that the new group was financed by the leaseholder Mochi Fischer (whose property in Flămânzi
had seen the outbreak of the 1907 revolt); in reaction, the PCD newspaper Opinia, representing the views of Alexandru Bădărău, accused Stere of having failed to protect the interests of his clients in the Bessarabia
n zemstvo
— Stere challenged the article's author Gheorghe Lascăr, former mayor of Iaşi, to a duel on Copou Hill, during which Lascăr was defeated and injured (March 11, 1908).
Calling for an amnesty
in respect to peasant rebels, Stere was initially silent on the new legislation (which, without questioning traditional landed property, allowed room for communal
ownership), and was mostly absent from Chamber sessions. He nevertheless authored several studies in which he condemned the state of affairs in Romanian agriculture, concluding one of them with a Latin
verdict, paraphrasing Pliny the Elder
, Latifundia perdidere Romaniam ("The great estates have ruined Romania"). He expressed full support for the newly established agricultural bank, Casa Rurală, at a time when the project for its creation was voted in Parliament (February 1908).
(with a single electoral collage, and idea also promoted by Take Ionescu), and reported on it in Parliament, being criticized by the Conservative opposition on the basis of suspicions that he was still promoting socialist ideals. By mid-1909, he was the target of a campaign in Evenimentul, which had by then turned Conservative, being again accused of having profited from the zemstvo in Bessarabia without providing the required services.
At the time, Stere and Ibrăileanu began mentioning the Poporanist or "democratic peasantist" trend as a small but representative faction of the PNL. Such attitudes caused further tensions inside his party: Henri Sanielevici, himself a former socialist National Liberal, commented that "[Stere] seeks to to strengthen himself through and inside the Liberal Party and break with it only when he will become strong enough"; at a time when Brătianu was thought to be considering Stere for a cabinet position, the right-wing
section of the PNL expressed its opposition and took steps to marginalize him (a catalysis for this attitude was the clash between the PNL and România Muncitoare
affiliates, caused by the expulsion of the socialist activist Christian Rakovsky
, together with promises made by Brătianu that his party would not push for land reform
and universal suffrage
). Largely absent from the political scene during 1909-1910, Constantin Stere nevertheless aided the PNL, fallen from power in December 1910, to reach an agreement with the Conservative-Democrats over opposition to the Petre P. Carp
cabinet, by improving his relations with Alexandru Bădărău.
In his 1910 Neo-Serfdom
(A Social and Economic Study of Our Land Issue), Dobrogeanu-Gherea viewed the relation between left-leaning cultural circles in Romania and Stere's Narodnik focus as conjectural, and made mention of competing trends inside Poporanism:
The apparent heterogeneous character of Poporanism was also criticized by others, who noted that its discourse also featured nationalist
rhetoric. Nevertheless, PSDMR members other than Dobrogeanu-Gherea tended to refer to Viaţa Românească as "engaged in Sterist politics". Constantin Stere had a moderate reaction to the publishing of Neo-Serfdom, briefly criticizing the arguments it brought against Poporanist politics (with Dobrogeanu-Gherea's renewed message that socialism was possible in backward countries); additional replies to the thesis came from Stere's disciple, the engineer Nicolae Profiri (among others who engaged in the debate was Dobrogeanu-Gherea's son, the future Leninist
Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea
).
Around 1912, while visiting Florence
, Italy
, Stere began a long extra-marital relationship with Ana Radovici, the widow of Ion Radovici (the latter had committed suicide in 1909). No longer elected to the Chamber in the 1912 suffrage, he returned to his chair at the Iaşi University. During the electoral campaign, reelected leader of the Liberal club, he was again attacked by Evenimentul, and, having taken part in denouncing A. C. Cuza
for plagiarism
, clashed with his supporters (who briefly occupied the PNL headquarters in Iaşi in May).
, arguing in favor of a policy focused on Bessarabia's recovery and against what he saw as Russian expansionism
- ultimately, this led him to split with the pro-Entente
PNL upon the outbreak of World War I
. The socialist Ioan Nădejde commented on the fact that Stere had become rivals with members of the Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party who had joined the PNL in 1899, and especially with their leader Vasile Morţun. He joined his voice to a diverse intellectual
opposition which also included the Conservative Party's Petre P. Carp
and Alexandru Marghiloman
, the left-leaning writers Tudor Arghezi
, Dumitru D. Pătrăşcanu, and Gala Galaction
, as well as the revolutionary socialist Christian Rakovsky
.
Following the occupation of Bucharest by the Central Powers
, Stere remained in the city, in contrast with the mass the Bucharesters who followed the Romanian authorities' refuge to Iaşi. With financial support from Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
, he began publishing his Lumina, a newspaper that was nevertheless, according to its editor, "supportive of the Romanian point of view" and thus subject to censorship
("a German [censorship], for [views on] external politics [...] and for internal politics [the one] exercised by Petre P. Carp's men, who cut out my articles on expropriation
[that is, land reform
] and universal suffrage
").
In late March 1918, he represented the Alexandru Marghiloman
government in Chişinău
, during the time after the February
and October Revolution
s when Bessarabia had proclaimed itself a Moldavian Democratic Republic
— he was charged with assisting Ion Inculeţ in proposing a union of Bessarabia and Romania in Sfatul Ţării
, the republic's legislative assembly. After prolonged debates, the vote was carried in favor of union on March 27 (see Greater Romania
).
With the change in fortunes brought by the Armistice with Germany
, Stere was charged with treason
and imprisoned; never facing trial, he was eventually set free.
and Ion Inculeţ
). In late 1918, most of it merged into Ion Mihalache
's Peasants' Party
(PŢ), of which he and Halippa became high-ranking members (Inculeţ disagreed with the political union, and led a smaller party that eventually merged into the PNL).
Stere caused a scandal after running and winning elections for the Chamber of Deputies of Romania
in Soroca
(1921, under the Alexandru Averescu
government), when all parties joined Nicolae Iorga
in opposition to his appointment in office (Iorga considered Stere's anti-Entente past to be equivalent with treason
). Fears of Bolshevik
appeal in Bessarabia led to widespread allegations that the former socialist Stere was "Bolshevizing" the region. Speaking from the non-communist
Left, Ioan Nădejde expressed concerns that Stere was radicalizing his message:
In 1919, Stere had shown his awareness of that he and his party were being criticised by various political groups claiming Marxist orthodoxy, far left
included. Stating again his belief in the fragile and minority position of industrial proletarians in the landscape of Romanian economy of the period, he indicated that the latter class was destined to adapt its demands to the interests of the peasantry:
-based Romanian National Party
(PNR) in 1924, as the PNR's leaders resented his anti-Entente past.
Two years later, however, he was admitted as one of the leaders of the newly created National Peasants' Party
, a fusion of the two groups that was partly aided by the attack of National Liberal agents on Pan Halippa
and the government's refusal to punish the guilty. Stere was the author of a legislation which aimed at providing for a degree of administrative decentralization and local initiative in government, passed in 1929 by the Iuliu Maniu
executive.
He soon clashed with the more conservative
politicians who had been members of the PNR. In March 1930, the mention of his name during a public celebration provoked a number of Romanian Army
generals to leave in protest; immediately after, the National Liberal group around Vintilă Brătianu
began attacking Stere's party for harbouring him, and for causing a split between Army and political establishment. General Henry Cihoschi, the Minister of Defense, was publicly criticized in parliament
for not siding with his subordinates, and had to resign on April 4; Maniu appeared to support Stere's ousting.
In reply, Stere again expressed his view that Romania's government had been wrong in 1916, and left to create the minor Democratic Peasants' Party (not to be confused with the one created later by Nicolae L. Lupu
), which he led into a union with Grigore Iunian
's Radical Peasants' Party.
. Poporanism, alongside Marxism itself, was a contributing factor in Dimitrie Gusti
's original theories on sociology
.
Stere's original ideas on economic development and Marxist topics were subject to censorship
in Communist Romania
; although works on him were published after the establishment of Nicolae Ceauşescu
's rule, they generally avoided presenting and quoting his writings. Described as a "reactionary
" until the 1960s, he was considered by revised official historiography
to have taken a "radical
-bourgeoisie
position".
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
; , Konstantin Yegorovich Stere or Константин Георгиевич Стере, Konstantin Georgiyevich Stere; also known under his pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Şărcăleanu; June 1, 1865 – June 26, 1936) was a Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n writer, jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
, politician, ideologue of the Poporanist
Poporanism
The word “poporanism” is derived from “popor”, meaning “people” in the Romanian language. The ideology of Romanian Populism and poporanism are interchangeable. Founded by Constantin Stere in the early 1890s, populism is distinguished by its opposition to socialism, promotion of voting rights for...
trend, and, in March 1906, co-founder (together with Garabet Ibrăileanu
Garabet Ibraileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu was a Romanian-Armenian literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Iaşi University professor , and, together with Paul Bujor and Constantin Stere, for long main editor of the Viaţa Românească literary magazine between 1906 and 1930...
and Paul Bujor — the latter was afterwards replaced by the physician Ioan Cantacuzino
Ioan Cantacuzino
Ioan C. Cantacuzino was a renowned Romanian physician and bacteriologist, a professor at the Romanian School of Medicine and Pharmacy and a member of the Romanian Academy...
) of the literary magazine
Literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...
Viaţa Românească
Viata Româneasca
Viaţa Românească, originally Viaţa Romînească , is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania...
. One of the central figures of the Bessarabian intelligentsia at the time, Stere was a key actor during the Union of Bessarabia with Romania
Union of Bessarabia with Romania
On , the Sfatul Ţării, or National Council, of Bessarabia proclaimed union with the Kingdom of Romania.-Governorate of Bessarabia:The 1812 Treaty of Bucharest between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empires provided for Russian annexation of the eastern half of the territory of the Principality...
in 1918, and is associated with its legacy.
Constantin Stere was professor of Administrative
Administrative law
Administrative law is the body of law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda. Administrative law is considered a branch of public law...
and Constitutional law
Constitutional law
Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
at the University of Iaşi, serving as its rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
between 1913 and 1916. He is also remembered for his partly autobiographical novel
Autobiographical novel
An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fiction elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction...
În preajma revoluţiei (literal translation: "On the Eve of the Revolution" — in reference to the Russian Revolution of 1917).
Early life
He was born in HorodişteHorodişte, Donduşeni
Horodişte is a commune in Donduşeni District, Moldova. It is composed of a single village, Horodişte .-Bibliography:* Monitorul Oficial al R. Moldova nr.16/53 din 29.01.2002. Legea nr...
, Soroca County
Soroca County
Soroca was a county of Moldova. The seat was Soroca....
, to a family of boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
origins from Ciripcău
Ciripcău
Ciripcău is a commune in Floreşti district, Moldova. It is composed of a single village, Ciripcău....
, Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
— which was part of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
at the time. Stere was one of the three sons of an ethnic Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
couple of Russian citizens: Gheorghe or Iorgu Stere (known as Yegor Stepanovich Stere, Егор Степанович Стере in Russian), a landowner whose family was originally from Botoşani County
Botosani County
Botoșani is a county of Romania, in Moldavia, with the capital city at Botoșani.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 452,834 and the population density was 91/km2.*Romanians – – the highest percentage of Romanians in Romania...
in the Romanian part of Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
, and Pulcheria (Пулкерия), a member of the impoverished gentry in Bessarabia. He spent most of his early years, until the age of eight, in Ciripcău, where the family manor
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
was located.
Around 1874, he graduated from a Chişinău
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
private school where classes were taught German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and entered the school for dvoryane
Russian nobility
The Russian nobility arose in the 14th century and essentially governed Russia until the October Revolution of 1917.The Russian word for nobility, Dvoryanstvo , derives from the Russian word dvor , meaning the Court of a prince or duke and later, of the tsar. A nobleman is called dvoryanin...
in the city, where he became close friends with Alexandru Grosu and Lev Matveyevich Kogan-Bernstein (who were the basis for the characters Saşa Lungu and Moise Roitman in Stere's novel). It was also around this time that he became acquainted with progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
, utopian socialist
Utopian socialism
Utopian socialism is a term used to define the first currents of modern socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, and Robert Owen which inspired Karl Marx and other early socialists and were looked on favorably...
, and Darwinist
Darwinism
Darwinism is a set of movements and concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or of evolution, including some ideas with no connection to the work of Charles Darwin....
ideas (notably reading the works of Nikolai Chernyshevsky
Nikolai Chernyshevsky
Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky was a Russian revolutionary democrat, materialist philosopher, critic, and socialist...
, Alexander Herzen
Alexander Herzen
Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen was a Russian pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism...
, Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
, Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
, Ferdinand Lassalle
Ferdinand Lassalle
Ferdinand Lassalle was a German-Jewish jurist and socialist political activist.-Early life:Ferdinand Lassalle was born on 11 April 1825 in Breslau , Silesia to a prosperous Jewish family descending from Upper Silesian Loslau...
, and Peter Lavrovich Lavrov). Stere later indicated that, before the late 1870s, he could not spell the Romanian alphabet
Romanian alphabet
The Romanian alphabet is a modification of the Latin alphabet and consists of 31 letters:The letters Q , W , and Y were officially introduced in the Romanian alphabet in 1982, although they had been used earlier...
, which had just been adopted over the border (see Romanian Cyrillic alphabet
Romanian Cyrillic alphabet
The Romanian Cyrillic alphabet was used to write the Romanian language before 1860–1862, when it was officially replaced by a Latin-based Romanian alphabet. Cyrillic remained in occasional use until circa 1920...
), and had to rely on a few books smuggled
Smuggling
Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
into Bessarabia for getting a sense of literary
Literary language
A literary language is a register of a language that is used in literary writing. This may also include liturgical writing. The difference between literary and non-literary forms is more marked in some languages than in others...
Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
.
While still students, Stere and Kogan-Bernstein engaged in revolutionary politics as socialists
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and Narodnik
Narodnik
Narodniks was the name for Russian socially conscious members of the middle class in the 1860s and 1870s. Their ideas and actions were known as Narodnichestvo which can be translated as "Peopleism", though is more commonly rendered "populism"...
s, initiating a conspirative
Conspiracy (political)
In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of persons united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination....
"self-instruction" cell of six inside their school. The group was affiliated with Narodnaya Volya, and Stere was responsible for multiplying and distributing locally the manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
issued by the latter after it had assassinated Emperor Alexander II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
. This was also the first moment when Stere declared his opposition to a Social democratic
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
program, a Narodnik-inspired objection which would later form one of the tenets of his doctrine.
He was first arrested in late 1883, after Okhrana units decapitated the Bessarabian wing of the Narodnaya Volya. Detained in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
(during which time he read intensely), Stere was frequently visited by Maria Grosu, the sister of Alexandru, who had fallen in love with him — a Narodnik and a feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, she asked Stere for a marriage of convenience
Marriage of convenience
A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than the reasons of relationship, family, or love. Instead, such a marriage is orchestrated for personal gain or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as political marriage. The phrase is a calque of - a marriage of...
that was to meant to help her become free from parental tutelage (according to the laws of the Russian Empire, unmarried women were under their father's protection). Stere agreed, and they were married in the prison chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
(1885).
Siberia
In 1885, he was deportedPenal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, serving a three-year term. Briefly kept in Tyumen
Tyumen
Tyumen is the largest city and the administrative center of Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located on the Tura River east of Moscow. Population: Tyumen is the oldest Russian settlement in Siberia. Founded in 16th century to support Russia's eastward expansion, the city has remained one of the most...
prison awaiting transport further east, he was sent to Kurgan in the custody of two gendarmes
Special Corps of Gendarmes
The Special Corps of Gendarmes was the uniformed security police of the Russian Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its main responsibilities were law enforcement and state security....
(October). He was joined there by Maria, who gave birth to their son Roman in 1886. Moving to Turinsk
Turinsk
Turinsk is a town and the administrative center of Turinsky District of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Tura River midway between Verkhoturye and Tyumen, near its confluence with the Yarlynka, northeast of Yekaterinburg...
, the Steres joined a group of revolutionaries in internal exile; Constantin Stere agreed to print copies of a Narodnik magazine, using a hectograph
Hectograph
The hectograph or gelatin duplicator or jellygraph is a printing process which involves transfer of an original, prepared with special inks, to a pan of gelatin or a gelatin pad pulled tight on a metal frame.-Process:...
, and was exposed during a raid by authorities. He was swiftly taken to Tobolsk
Tobolsk
Tobolsk is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh Rivers. It is a historic capital of Siberia. Population: -History:...
, then shipped down the Irtysh to the place where it met the Ob
Ob River
The Ob River , also Obi, is a major river in western Siberia, Russia and is the world's seventh longest river. It is the westernmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean .The Gulf of Ob is the world's longest estuary.-Names:The Ob is known to the Khanty people as the...
; he traveled to the village of Sharkala (the northernmost part of Siberia he ever reached) in a Khanty
Khanty people
Khanty / Hanti are an indigenous people calling themselves Khanti, Khande, Kantek , living in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a region historically known as "Yugra" in Russia, together with the Mansi. In the autonomous okrug, the Khanty and Mansi languages are given co-official status with Russian...
canoe, and was then settled in Beryozovsky District
Beryozovsky District, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug
Beryozovsky District is one of nine districts of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug — Yugra, Russia, located in the northwestern part of the autonomous okrug, on the left bank of meridional part of the Ob River within the limits of North Sosva altitudes and the east slope of the North and Pre-Polar Ural...
, only to be arrested again and sent back to Tobolsk in the autumn of 1888.
He was tried for his activities in Turinsk, based on evidence collected by the Okhrana. While in prison, Stere, who was beginning to distance himself from socialism and proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is a Marxist social class concept based on the view that capitalism is now a global system, and therefore the working class must act as a global class if it is to defeat it...
, argued in front of authorities that mention of his change in attitude was supposed to be kept by the court when passing the verdict. At the time, a physician who examined him noted that he had suffered a nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
, and had him moved to a prison hospital. According to most accounts, he had attempted suicide (a gesture caused by either the death of one of his brothers, who had himself committed suicide, or by news that the Narodnik leader Lev Tikhomirov
Lev Tikhomirov
Lev Alexandrovich Tikhomirov , originally a Russian revolutionary and one of the members of the Executive Committee of the Narodnaya Volya, following his disenchantment with violent revolution became one of the leading conservative thinkers in Russia...
had become a supporter of the political establishment). In hospital, Stere stated that:
"Quite a while ago have I begun to remove myself from the influence of political exiles and their tradition. Recent times, filled with major hardships for me, I have decided firmly and sincerely to break with these traditions, as well as with all things «illegal» in my past."
Instead, he became familiar with Neo-Kantian philosophy
Neo-Kantianism
Neo-Kantianism refers broadly to a revived type of philosophy along the lines of that laid down by Immanuel Kant in the 18th century, or more specifically by Schopenhauer's criticism of the Kantian philosophy in his work The World as Will and Representation , as well as by other post-Kantian...
, expanding on his interest in Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
's Critique of Pure Reason
Critique of Pure Reason
The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant, first published in 1781, second edition 1787, is considered one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. Also referred to as Kant's "first critique," it was followed by the Critique of Practical Reason and the Critique of Judgement...
(which he was reading in Beryozovsky District). It was at this time that Stere began writing.
In March 1889, the court decided to extend his term of exile by three more years, and relocated him to the village of Serginsk, near Minusinsk
Minusinsk
Minusinsk is a historic town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It serves as the administrative center of Minusinsky District, although it is not administratively a part of it. Population: 44,500 ....
. He much later claimed that, while passing through the prison of Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk is a city and the administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. It is the third largest city in Siberia, with the population of 973,891. Krasnoyarsk is an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and one of Russia's largest producers of...
, he met Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, the future Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
leader — this is unlikely, as Lenin passed through the city several years after Stere. His other claim to have met and befriended Józef Piłsudski, future head of state of Poland
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
(and, at the time, a prominent member of the Polish Socialist Party
Polish Socialist Party
The Polish Socialist Party was one of the most important Polish left-wing political parties from its inception in 1892 until 1948...
), was confirmed by Piłsudski himself in 1927 (Stere's novel, În preajma revoluţiei, included Piłsudski as a character, under the name Stadnicki).
Datoria and Evenimentul
In late 1891 or early 1892, having been set free, Stere returned to Bessarabia, and eventually sought political refuge inside RomaniaRomania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, crossing the border clandestinely. He studied Law at the University of Iaşi (under Petre Missir, while carrying on as a leftist
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
activist and quickly becoming an influential figure among the youth of Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
, the inspiration behind a left-leaning student society that engaged in a virulent polemic with the nationalist youth, and an acquaintance of socialist leaders such as Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and journalist....
, Garabet Ibrăileanu
Garabet Ibraileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu was a Romanian-Armenian literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Iaşi University professor , and, together with Paul Bujor and Constantin Stere, for long main editor of the Viaţa Românească literary magazine between 1906 and 1930...
, Ioan Nădejde, Sofia Nădejde, Constantin Mille
Constantin Mille
Constantin Mille was a Romanian journalist, novelist, poet, lawyer, and socialist militant, as well as a prominent human rights activist...
, Theodor Speranţia, Vasile Morţun, and Nicolae L. Lupu
Nicolae L. Lupu
Dr. Nicolae Lupu was a Romanian politician and medical doctor, active in the National Peasants' Party....
. Later, a controversy erupted over Stere's academic credentials, as it was never consistently proven that he had passed his baccalaureate
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
between being arrested and applying for law school.
Stere's break with Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
led him to attempt persuading the newly created Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party (PSDMR) to amend its proletariat
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
-focused policies, and, in 1893, to found the student society Datoria ("The Duty"), which preserved the Narodnik focus on educating peasants. He and his followers nevertheless continued to rely much of their thesis on Marxist concepts, coupled with an interest taken in the reformist socialist
Reformism
Reformism is the belief that gradual democratic changes in a society can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic relations and political structures...
way advocated by Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein was a German social democratic theoretician and politician, a member of the SPD, and the founder of evolutionary socialism and revisionism.- Life :...
.
After debuting as a journalist for the liberal-inspired Evenimentul in 1893 (and engaging in public debates with the socialist press), Stere also sent substantial contribution to Adevărul
Adevarul
Adevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...
, a tribune of various left-wing trends that was being published in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
under the direction of Anton Bacalbaşa. Later in 1893, he took part in founding Evenimentul Literar, the literary supplement of Evenimentul.
He joined in the socialists Bacalbaşa and Ibrăileanu in a cultural polemic with the poet Alexandru Vlahuţă
Alexandru Vlahuta
Alexandru Vlahuţă was a Romanian writer. His best known work is România pitorească, an overview of Romania's landscape in the form of a travelogue. He was also the main editor of Sămănătorul magazine, alongside George Coşbuc....
and his magazine Vieaţa. Vlahuţă, who had sided with Dobrogeanu-Gherea during the latter's conflict with Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history. Hasdeu is considered to have been able to understand 26 languages .-Life:...
, nonetheless clashed with the leftists
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
over the issue of "art for art's sake
Art for art's sake
"Art for art's sake" is the usual English rendering of a French slogan, from the early 19th century, l'art pour l'art, and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only "true" art, is divorced from any didactic, moral or utilitarian function...
", arguing that the interest his adversaries took in didacticism
Didacticism
Didacticism is an artistic philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature and other types of art. The term has its origin in the Ancient Greek word διδακτικός , "related to education/teaching." Originally, signifying learning in a fascinating and intriguing...
was harming literature. This exchange of replies soon involved the former socialist Eduard Dioghenide, who attacked Evenimentul Literar with Antisemitic language, contending that Stere was "an employee of the little kikes" and had "lost his soul to the Jews
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
". At the time, Stere's activity with Datoria also came under attack from various student societies — most of them associates of the Conservative Party.
During the late 1890s, he had begun making use of the Şărcăleanu alias in his polemic articles, which became a particular topic of dispute after his confrontation with Dioghenide (who first speculated that Stere was the author of Şărcăleanus articles). Dioghenide's supporters, editors of the newspaper Naţionalul, consequently pressured Stere to indicate who Şărcăleanu was ("We wish to know him, does he wear sidelocks
Payot
Payot is the Hebrew word for sidelocks or sidecurls. Payot are worn by some men and boys in the Orthodox Jewish community based on an interpretation of the Biblical injunction against shaving the "corners" of one's head...
or is he a Judaisized
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
Romanian?"). Similar calls were voiced by Vieaţa, who alleged that Stere himself was a Russian Jew
History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
The vast territories of the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest populations of Jews in the diaspora. Within these territories the Jewish community flourished and developed many of modern Judaism's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions, while also facing periods of...
.
Winning the support of several Conservative politicians, Stere successfully applied for Romanian citizenship in February 1895, obtaining naturalization
Naturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
through a special law, as "a Romanian from Bessarabia".
In 1897, Stere obtained a licensure
Licensure
Licensure refers to the granting of a license, which gives a "permission to practice." Such licenses are usually issued in order to regulate some activity that is deemed to be dangerous or a threat to the person or the public or which involves a high level of specialized skill...
with a thesis on legal entity and individualism
Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
, one which drew criticism from the influential Conservative-inspired group Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
, on the assumption that it had been partly inspired by Marx. At the time, he also published an incomplete series of philosophical essays centered on the works of Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German physician, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology. He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology"...
. After graduation, Stere, who was by then the father of four, lived for a while in Ploieşti
Ploiesti
Ploiești is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia in Romania. The city is located north of Bucharest....
, and afterwards joined the Bar association
Bar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...
in Iaşi as a practicing lawyer. During the period, he met and befriended the influential writer Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
.
Birth of Poporanism
By 1898, Stere, who had continued to acquire influence with Iaşi-based socialists, became involved in disputes over the future of the Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party (PSDMR) and Vasile Morţun's call for a merger with the National Liberal PartyNational Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
(PNL) — Morţun's camp, which also included Alexandru G. Radovici, became known in time as "the generous ones" (generoşii). According to Constantin Titel Petrescu
Constantin Titel Petrescu
Constantin Titel Petrescu was a Romanian politician and lawyer. He was the leader of the Romanian Social Democratic Party.He was born in Craiova, the son of an employee of the National Bank in Bucharest...
, Stere, despite his own polemics with Dobrogeanu-Gherea, sided with the latter and against Morţun ("Even Stere [...] declared himself against moving to the Liberals"). Nevertheless, during merger talks between the "generous ones" and the left-wing of the National Liberals, Stere was approached by the latter's Ion I. C. Brătianu
Ion I. C. Bratianu
Ion I. C. Brătianu was a Romanian politician, leader of the National Liberal Party , the Prime Minister of Romania for five terms, and Foreign Minister on several occasions; he was the eldest son of statesman and PNL leader Ion Brătianu, the brother of Vintilă and Dinu Brătianu, and the father of...
; Brătianu and Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, who were gathering supporters at a time when the PNL cabinet of Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza was a Romanian statesman of the late 19th century, and president of the Romanian Academy between 1882 and 1884.-Biography:Born in Iaşi, Moldavia, and educated there at the Academia Mihăileană, he continued his studies in Germany, took part in the political movements of the time,...
looked set to lose the general elections of 1899 to a strong coalition of Conservatives and former Liberals such as Petre S. Aurelian
Petre S. Aurelian
Petre S. Aurelian was a Romanian politician who served as a Prime Minister of Romania between 2 December 1896 and 12 April 1897....
, proposed to Stere that he become a city councilor in Iaşi, and he accepted. During the period, he split with Evenimentul, as the paper became close to Liberal splinter groups and virulently criticized the contacts between the PNL and former PSDMR affiliates.
Eventually, Stere entered the PNL as a left-wing radical
Radicalism (historical)
The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
and populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
, supporting an original tactic that blended a Narodnik focus on the peasantry with a weariness towards capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and industrialisation
Industrialisation
Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...
. This was the origin of Poporanism
Poporanism
The word “poporanism” is derived from “popor”, meaning “people” in the Romanian language. The ideology of Romanian Populism and poporanism are interchangeable. Founded by Constantin Stere in the early 1890s, populism is distinguished by its opposition to socialism, promotion of voting rights for...
, a theory expanded upon in his influential 1908 essay Poporanism sau social-democraţie?, "Poporanism or Social democracy
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
?" (Stere coined the original term in 1894, viewing it the best translation of the word Narodnik).
In essence, Poporanism ceased to view socialism as a goal in countries such as Romania. Stere noted that the group to be defined as industrial proletariat
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
accounted for ca. 1% of the total number of taxpayers (around 1907), and argued instead for a "peasant state", which was to encourage and preserve small agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
plots as the basis for economic development. Citing the example of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
(see Danish cooperative movement
Danish cooperative movement
The Danish cooperative movement was a means of economical organization under leadership of consumer- or producer-controlled corporations, where each individual member owned a part of the corporation. The type of organization was especially used in the farming industry and in consumer organizations...
), he also proposed that cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
industries were to be created in the rural sphere, and that initiative agriculture could also rely in cooperative farms:
"The essential role of peasant cooperatives resides in that they, while keeping the small-scale peasant holdings intact, award them the possibility to make use of all the advantages of large-scale production."
Despite its name, Stere understood the "peasant state" not as an actual hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
of the peasantry, but as an immediate move from the census suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
in the Kingdom of Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
to a universal one
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
, intended to accurately reflect the country's social realities (see 1866 Constitution of Romania
1866 Constitution of Romania
The 1866 Constitution of Romania was the fundamental law that capped a period of nation-building in the Danubian Principalities, which had united in 1859. Drafted in a short time and using as its model the 1831 Constitution of Belgium, then considered Europe's most liberal, it was substantially...
). In an 1898 speech, he also stressed a loyalty for the King of Romania
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
(Carol I
Carol I of Romania
Carol I , born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was reigning prince and then King of Romania from 1866 to 1914. He was elected prince of Romania on 20 April 1866 following the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup...
at the time).
Stere notably rejected Karl Kautsky
Karl Kautsky
Karl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 until the coming of World War I in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of...
's support for capitalization in agriculture, arguing that it was neither necessary nor practical. He was not, however, opposed to modernization
Modernization
In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...
, and invested trust in the role of intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
s as militants and activists, as well as building on Werner Sombart
Werner Sombart
Werner Sombart was a German economist and sociologist, the head of the “Youngest Historical School” and one of the leading Continental European social scientists during the first quarter of the 20th century....
's theory that agrarian economies were facing new and special conditions (as opposed to those that bore the mark of the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
). Stere observed changes occurring in the developed world at the turn of the 19th century, and concluded that industrialization of backward countries was also being blocked by colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
and the prosperity it had brought to the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He argued that a new form of capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
was being created at a larger, non-national, scale; he deemed it "vagabond capital", and viewed in it the source for the lack of accuracy in Marxist predictions over proletarian alienation
Marx's theory of alienation
Marx's theory of alienation , as expressed in the writings of the young Karl Marx , refers to the separation of things that naturally belong together, or to put antagonism between things that are properly in harmony...
(as it appeared that, in developed countries, the proletariat was growing wealthier).
This was also the start of a polemic between him and the Marxist Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and journalist....
. Although the two shared skepticism over the possibility of early socialist success in Romania (agreeing with Titu Maiorescu
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
's verdict that it was one of the "forms without substance", and thus an ill-suited effect of Westernization
Westernization
Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
), Dobrogeanu-Gherea argued that Stere's program of basing Romania's economy on cooperatives and small-scale agricultural holdings could only lead to endemic underdevelopment
Underdevelopment
Underdevelopment is a term often used to refer to economic underdevelopment, symptoms of which include lack of access to job opportunities, health care, drinkable water, food, education and housing...
.
Early National Liberal politics
As a city coucilor in 1899, Stere soon found himself in an unusual position after Minister of the Interior Mihail PherekydeMihail Pherekyde
Mihail Pherekyde was a Romanian politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and two terms as the Minister of Internal Affairs of Kingdom of Romania-Life and political career:...
ordered a clampdown on the surviving PSDMR. This came after the Conservative opposition voiced allegations that socialist clubs in the countryside were inciting laborers to revolt (an accusation which threatened to decrease the popularity of the Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza was a Romanian statesman of the late 19th century, and president of the Romanian Academy between 1882 and 1884.-Biography:Born in Iaşi, Moldavia, and educated there at the Academia Mihăileană, he continued his studies in Germany, took part in the political movements of the time,...
cabinet). As all former PSDMR members in the PNL came under scrutiny, he was himself the target of attacks in Parliament
Parliament of Romania
The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...
, and notably criticized by the Constitutional Party
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
's Titu Maiorescu for allegedly using his position to "disturb the elementary order; [...] leading to the only place it could lead: peasant rebellion".
He lost his position in March 1899, following Sturdza's fall from power over a scandal involving relations between Romanian and Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
. Consequently, he welcomed the remaining "generous ones" inside the PNL as the PSDMR was dissolved (April 1899); those socialists who remained independent continued to consider Stere the main instigator of the move. At the time, he relied on what he interpreted as Ion I. C. Brătianu
Ion I. C. Bratianu
Ion I. C. Brătianu was a Romanian politician, leader of the National Liberal Party , the Prime Minister of Romania for five terms, and Foreign Minister on several occasions; he was the eldest son of statesman and PNL leader Ion Brătianu, the brother of Vintilă and Dinu Brătianu, and the father of...
's promise that a PNL cabinet was going to enforce both universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
and land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
, and hoped to exercise an influence on the party's Left. With Pherekyde, Petre Poni, Toma Stelian and Spiru Haret
Spiru Haret
Spiru C. Haret was a Romanian mathematician, astronomer and politician. He made a fundamental contribution to the n-body problem in celestial mechanics by proving that using a third degree approximation for the disturbing forces implies instability of the major axes of the orbits, and by...
, Stere was soon involved in public protests against the successive Conservative cabinets of Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino and Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp , commonly rendered as P. P. Carp, was a Romanian conservative politician and literary critic who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for two terms...
— provoked by the Hallier Affair — involving a French firm which used its government connections to regain a public works
Public works
Public works are a broad category of projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community...
contract in the port of Constanţa
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
, although it had failed to respect its obligations —, and the "Law on spirits
Distilled beverage
A distilled beverage, liquor, or spirit is an alcoholic beverage containing ethanol that is produced by distilling ethanol produced by means of fermenting grain, fruit, or vegetables...
" (or "law on ţuica
Tuica
Ţuică is a traditional Romanian spirit of somewhere in between 45%-60% alcohol by volume. It is usually made from plums.Ţuică is the official name for the drink when it is prepared only from plums...
") — which established homebrewing
Homebrewing
Homebrewing is the brewing of beer, wine, sake, mead, cider, perry and other beverages through fermentation on a small scale as a hobby for personal consumption, free distribution at social gatherings, amateur brewing competitions or other non-commercial reasons...
tax, engendering violence in the countryside.
Following a conflict between Cantacuzino and Carp, which caused the latter's cabinet to be invalidated with assistance from Conservative parliamentarians (February 1901) Sturdza returned to power triumphantly. In the 1901 suffrage, he was first elected to Chamber
Chamber of Deputies of Romania
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 315 seats, to which deputies are elected by direct popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms...
for the 3rd Electoral College in Iaşi. Stere largely owed his 1901 appointment as Deputy Professor at the University of Iaşi to his political connections: falling short of legal requirements, he asked Brătianu and Spiru Haret to make an exception in his case (in order to avoid breaking the law which prevented state employees from being elected deputies, he asked not to receive a salary for his first course). After he became a full Professor, his assistant at the department was Nicolae Daşcovici.
Stere sided with Brătianu and Vasile Lascăr in 1904, at a time when the two confronted Sturdza and resigned from their government offices, provoking the cabinet's fall (and Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino's reinstatement as Premier).
1905 Russian Revolution
In his later years, Stere argued that he had foreseen JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
's victory in the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
and the string of social problems Russia experienced, and that he had sent the General Staff of the Romanian Army
Romanian Armed Forces
The Land Forces, Air Force and Naval Forces of Romania are collectively known as the Romanian Armed Forces...
a memorandum on the matter.
Soon after the Russian Revolution of 1905, Stere and a group of his followers returned to Bessarabia in order to encourage local Romanian sentiment during elections for the State Duma
State Duma of the Russian Empire
The State Duma of the Russian Empire was a legislative assembly in the late Russian Empire, which met in the Taurida Palace in St. Petersburg. It was convened four times between 1906 and the collapse of the Empire in 1917.-History:...
and zemstvo
Zemstvo
Zemstvo was a form of local government that was instituted during the great liberal reforms performed in Imperial Russia by Alexander II of Russia. The idea of the zemstvo was elaborated by Nikolay Milyutin, and the first zemstvo laws were put into effect in 1864...
s — according to Stere, the group had the tacit approval of the Conservative government. In parallel, Stere represented the Chişinău
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
zemstvo as a lawyer in a civil lawsuit. They arrived at a time of conflict, when Black Hundreds activity was gaining momentum and peasant pressures in the countryside were meeting with resistance from reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
politicians such as Vladimir Purishkevich
Vladimir Purishkevich
Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich , was a Russian politician before the Bolshevik revolution, noted for his monarchist and antisemitic views...
and Pavel Krushevan
Pavel Krushevan
Pavel Aleksandrovich Krushevan was a journalist, editor, publisher and an official in the Imperial Russia. He was an active Black Hundredist and was known for his far-right, ultra-nationalist and openly antisemitic views and was the first publisher of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.Born...
. Initially, Stere doubled as a correspondent for PNL French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
newspapers, signing them as C. Şercăleano.
He issued a magazine (Basarabia
Basarabia (newspaper)
Basarabia was the first Romanian language newspaper to be published in Bessarabian guberniya of the Russian Empire in 1906-1907.-History:It was written with the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet and published twice weekly...
) of which he was editor (together with Ion Inculeţ
Ion Inculet
Ion C. Inculeț was a Bessarabian politician and the president of the Moldavian Democratic Republic. Also, he was a minister in Romania.-Early career:...
, Teodor Inculeţ, Ion Pelivan
Ion Pelivan
Ion Gheorghe Pelivan was a Moldovan politician.- Biography :In 1898, Ion Pelivan graduated from the Teological Seminary in Chişinău and in 1903 he graduated from Dorpat University...
, Alexei Mateevici
Alexei Mateevici
Alexe Mateevici was a Moldavian poet.- Biography :He was born in the town Căinari, in Eastern Bessarabia, which was part of the Russian Empire, now in the Republic of Moldova...
, and Pan Halippa
Pan Halippa
Pantelimon "Pan" Halippa was a Bessarabian and later Romanian journalist and politician. One of the most important promoters of Romanian nationalism in Bessarabia and of this province's union with Romania, he was president of Sfatul Ţării, which voted union in 1918...
), attempting to profit from the political gains in Russia by calling for both in-depth social reforms and decentralization
Decentralization
__FORCETOC__Decentralization or decentralisation is the process of dispersing decision-making governance closer to the people and/or citizens. It includes the dispersal of administration or governance in sectors or areas like engineering, management science, political science, political economy,...
; their influence waned after reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
politicians made electoral gains and, as the new administration, confiscated most of the magazine's issues (leading to its bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
in 1907). Stere himself first returned to Romania in early 1906, and immediately left on a trip to Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
-ruled Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, where he met with the poet and activist Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
in Sibiu
Sibiu
Sibiu is a city in Transylvania, Romania with a population of 154,548. Located some 282 km north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt...
, as well as with other prominent ethnic Romanians, becoming in time an unofficial envoy of the PNL in the region. His involvement in the zemstvo trial became the topic of a scandal, after the institution accused Stere of having failed to fulfill his obligations as a lawyer, and called on him to return the fees he had received.
Viaţa Românească
Viata Româneasca
Viaţa Românească, originally Viaţa Romînească , is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania...
(a magazine which Stere had planned during his return to Bessarabia) summarized the cultural guidelines of the Poporanist trend, ones which Stere had first theorized in 1899 articles for Evenimentul Literar:
"A 'national' culture with specific characteristics will only be born when the large, truly Romaniancreating and assessing cultural values — literary languageRomaniansThe Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
, popular masses will partake in
Literary language
A literary language is a register of a language that is used in literary writing. This may also include liturgical writing. The difference between literary and non-literary forms is more marked in some languages than in others...
, literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
, ways of living — and this will only be possible when, through culture, enlarged political participation and economical uplifting, the peasantry will be awarded a social value in proportion with its numerical, economical, moral and national values, when we shall be one people, when all the social class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
es shall be of the same people [...]."
Stere distanced himself from the competing and equally peasant-focused trend of Sămănătorul
Sămănătorul
Sămănătorul or Semănătorul was a literary and political magazine published in Romania between 1901 and 1910. Founded by poets Alexandru Vlahuţă and George Coşbuc, it is primarily remembered as a tribune for early 20th century traditionalism, neoromanticism and ethnic nationalism...
, which aimed to preserve the peasant way of life in front of modernization rather than enforce the peasant economy advocated by Poporanism. He was notably involved in polemics with Sămănătoruls Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
and Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
.
As he later admitted, he attempted to divert attention from the Şărcăleanu alias by making use of another one, P. Nicanor & Co. (used before and after him by various Viaţa Românească contributors to the magazine's closing column), and by writing an article in which he claimed Stere and Şărcăleanu were not one and the same, thus maintaining the relative ambiguity until the early 1930s.
1907 Revolt and aftermath
Alongside other followers of Brătianu (including Garabet IbrăileanuGarabet Ibraileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu was a Romanian-Armenian literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Iaşi University professor , and, together with Paul Bujor and Constantin Stere, for long main editor of the Viaţa Românească literary magazine between 1906 and 1930...
), Stere began campaigning in favor of dismissing the Conservative cabinet of Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino, at a time when the latter also faced Take Ionescu
Take Ionescu
Take or Tache Ionescu was a Romanian centrist politician, journalist, lawyer and diplomat, who also enjoyed reputation as a short story author. Starting his political career as a radical member of the National Liberal Party , he joined the Conservative Party in 1891, and became noted as a social...
's dissidence. This coincided with the outbreak of the 1907 Peasants' Revolt
1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt
The 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt took place in March 1907 in Moldavia and it quickly spread, reaching Wallachia. The main cause was the discontent of the peasants about the inequity of land ownership, which was in the hands of just a few large landowners....
, which managed to bring down the cabinet after Ionescu agreed to support the Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza was a Romanian statesman of the late 19th century, and president of the Romanian Academy between 1882 and 1884.-Biography:Born in Iaşi, Moldavia, and educated there at the Academia Mihăileană, he continued his studies in Germany, took part in the political movements of the time,...
's return to power, as a means to ensure a response to the troubles. Like many other "generous ones", Stere was integrated in the new administration, and became a prefect
Prefect (Romania)
A prefect in Romania represents the Government in each of the country's 41 counties, as well as the Municipality of Bucharest.-Attributes:The main attributes of prefects are defined at Article 123 of the Constitution of Romania:...
of Iaşi County
Iasi County
Iași is a county of Romania, in Moldavia, with the administrative seat at Iași.-Demographics:As of 1 July 2007, Iași County had a population of 825,100, making it the second most populous county in Romania after Bucharest, with a population density of 150/km².*Romanians - 98.1%*Roma -...
; instead of calling in the Romanian Army
Romanian Armed Forces
The Land Forces, Air Force and Naval Forces of Romania are collectively known as the Romanian Armed Forces...
to pacify the area, he interfered in landowner-peasant relations to ensure better conditions for the latter, thus causing alarm in the Conservative camp. Although no violent reprisal against the rebels was recorded in his prefecture, his association with the repressive cabinet was the topic of criticism from many of his former allies, most notably Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and journalist....
, Paul Bujor, and Constantin Mille
Constantin Mille
Constantin Mille was a Romanian journalist, novelist, poet, lawyer, and socialist militant, as well as a prominent human rights activist...
. Together with his deputy prefect Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, Stere resigned his position in April and was replaced with Gheorghe Kernbach, preparing to run in the legislative election of that year — for the 2nd Electoral College in Iaşi; he won the seat in late May.
In early June, Premier Sturdza appointed Stere, alongside Take Ionescu, Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp , commonly rendered as P. P. Carp, was a Romanian conservative politician and literary critic who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for two terms...
, Ion G. Duca
Ion G. Duca
Ion Gheorghe Duca was prime minister of Romania from November 14 to December 30, 1933, when he was assassinated for his efforts to suppress the fascist Iron Guard movement.-Life and political career:...
, Alexandru Djuvara
Alexandru Djuvara
-Early years:Djuvara was born in Bucharest on December 20, 1858. He was the uncle of prominent Romanian historian Neagu Djuvara.After graduation from Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, he went on to study Law in the School of History and Political Science...
, Constantin Alimănişteanu, Ion and Alexandru G. Radovici, Dinu
Dinu Bratianu
Dinu Brătianu , born Constantin I. C. Brătianu, was a Romanian politician, who led the National Liberal Party starting with 1934.-Early career:...
and Vintilă Brătianu
Vintila Bratianu
Vintilă Brătianu was a Romanian politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania between 24 November 1927 and 2 November 1928.Vintilă and his brothers Ion and Dinu were the leaders of the National Liberal Party of Romania...
, and 24 other parliamentarians, to a Committee charged with settling the agricultural issue; ultimately dissolved later in the same month, the Committee did not achieve any clear result, and Stere's radical proposals were repeatedly ignored by his own party. During the same period, a conflict erupted between Stere and the independent Antisemitic politician A. C. Cuza
A. C. Cuza
A. C. Cuza was a Romanian far right politician and theorist.-Early life:Born in Iaşi, after attending secondary school in his native city and in Dresden, Cuza studied law at the University of Paris, the Universität unter den Linden, and the Université Libre de Bruxelles...
, who had been one his opponents in the election; after making use of the word "trivial" in reference to Stere's attitudes, Cuza was sued by the latter, and refused a challenge to face him in a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
(an additional aspect of the scandal was the accusation that Stere had purposely failed students who supported Cuza's policies). Following the creation of Take Ionescu's Conservative-Democratic Party (PCD), the PNL launched accusations that the new group was financed by the leaseholder Mochi Fischer (whose property in Flămânzi
Flamânzi
Flămânzi is a town in Botoşani County, Romania. It administers five villages: Chiţoveni, Flămânzi , Nicolae Bălcescu, Poiana and Prisăcani....
had seen the outbreak of the 1907 revolt); in reaction, the PCD newspaper Opinia, representing the views of Alexandru Bădărău, accused Stere of having failed to protect the interests of his clients in the Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
n zemstvo
Zemstvo
Zemstvo was a form of local government that was instituted during the great liberal reforms performed in Imperial Russia by Alexander II of Russia. The idea of the zemstvo was elaborated by Nikolay Milyutin, and the first zemstvo laws were put into effect in 1864...
— Stere challenged the article's author Gheorghe Lascăr, former mayor of Iaşi, to a duel on Copou Hill, during which Lascăr was defeated and injured (March 11, 1908).
Calling for an amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
in respect to peasant rebels, Stere was initially silent on the new legislation (which, without questioning traditional landed property, allowed room for communal
Communes of Romania
A commune is the lowest level of administrative subdivision in Romania. There are 2686 communes in Romania. The commune is the rural subdivision of a county .There is no clear restriction on the population of a commune, even though when a commune...
ownership), and was mostly absent from Chamber sessions. He nevertheless authored several studies in which he condemned the state of affairs in Romanian agriculture, concluding one of them with a Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
verdict, paraphrasing Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
, Latifundia perdidere Romaniam ("The great estates have ruined Romania"). He expressed full support for the newly established agricultural bank, Casa Rurală, at a time when the project for its creation was voted in Parliament (February 1908).
First clashes with the PNL
After again siding with Brătianu during the inner-party conflict with Sturdza — culminating in Brătianu's arrival to power after the premier fell victim to a nervous disease —, Stere replaced Petre Poni at the head of the Liberal club in Iaşi (June 1908), and soon came to be opposed by Mârzescu over his promotion of former socialists to party offices. Following the PCD's rise to the detriment of the PNL, Stere was able to enlist his party's support for his vision of electoral reformElectoral reform
Electoral reform is change in electoral systems to improve how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of:...
(with a single electoral collage, and idea also promoted by Take Ionescu), and reported on it in Parliament, being criticized by the Conservative opposition on the basis of suspicions that he was still promoting socialist ideals. By mid-1909, he was the target of a campaign in Evenimentul, which had by then turned Conservative, being again accused of having profited from the zemstvo in Bessarabia without providing the required services.
At the time, Stere and Ibrăileanu began mentioning the Poporanist or "democratic peasantist" trend as a small but representative faction of the PNL. Such attitudes caused further tensions inside his party: Henri Sanielevici, himself a former socialist National Liberal, commented that "[Stere] seeks to to strengthen himself through and inside the Liberal Party and break with it only when he will become strong enough"; at a time when Brătianu was thought to be considering Stere for a cabinet position, the right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
section of the PNL expressed its opposition and took steps to marginalize him (a catalysis for this attitude was the clash between the PNL and România Muncitoare
România Muncitoare
România Muncitoare was a socialist newspaper, published in Bucharest, Romania....
affiliates, caused by the expulsion of the socialist activist Christian Rakovsky
Christian Rakovsky
Christian Rakovsky was a Bulgarian socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet diplomat; he was also noted as a journalist, physician, and essayist...
, together with promises made by Brătianu that his party would not push for land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
and universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
). Largely absent from the political scene during 1909-1910, Constantin Stere nevertheless aided the PNL, fallen from power in December 1910, to reach an agreement with the Conservative-Democrats over opposition to the Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp , commonly rendered as P. P. Carp, was a Romanian conservative politician and literary critic who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for two terms...
cabinet, by improving his relations with Alexandru Bădărău.
In his 1910 Neo-Serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
(A Social and Economic Study of Our Land Issue), Dobrogeanu-Gherea viewed the relation between left-leaning cultural circles in Romania and Stere's Narodnik focus as conjectural, and made mention of competing trends inside Poporanism:
"[There is] the Poporanism established in this country around 15 years after [the Narodnik original] and from the very same source. Lacking the rigorous method of Marxism, [...] Poporanism appears to have being against Social Democracy as its sole attribute [...].
[There is also] our national, Romanian, Poporanism, as it has originated from the different and real circumstances of our country. [It] is more practical than theoretical, and does not in fact have its own theory. Mr. Stere's effort to award it one was not at all successful. But this Poporanism has its own views and attitudes and — what's more important — its own praxis. And to this real praxis, influencing the real course of things in this country, all kinds of Poporanists have associated themselves in one way or another, including those who are under the influence of Russian [Narodnik ideas]. But even this national Poporanism is far, very far from being uniform. This can even be seen in those multiple groupings composing it, [...] which many times quarrel with one another."
The apparent heterogeneous character of Poporanism was also criticized by others, who noted that its discourse also featured nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
rhetoric. Nevertheless, PSDMR members other than Dobrogeanu-Gherea tended to refer to Viaţa Românească as "engaged in Sterist politics". Constantin Stere had a moderate reaction to the publishing of Neo-Serfdom, briefly criticizing the arguments it brought against Poporanist politics (with Dobrogeanu-Gherea's renewed message that socialism was possible in backward countries); additional replies to the thesis came from Stere's disciple, the engineer Nicolae Profiri (among others who engaged in the debate was Dobrogeanu-Gherea's son, the future Leninist
Leninism
In Marxist philosophy, Leninism is the body of political theory for the democratic organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party, and the achievement of a direct-democracy dictatorship of the proletariat, as political prelude to the establishment of socialism...
Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea or Alexandru Gherea was a Romanian communist militant and son of socialist, sociologist and literary critic Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea...
).
Around 1912, while visiting Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Stere began a long extra-marital relationship with Ana Radovici, the widow of Ion Radovici (the latter had committed suicide in 1909). No longer elected to the Chamber in the 1912 suffrage, he returned to his chair at the Iaşi University. During the electoral campaign, reelected leader of the Liberal club, he was again attacked by Evenimentul, and, having taken part in denouncing A. C. Cuza
A. C. Cuza
A. C. Cuza was a Romanian far right politician and theorist.-Early life:Born in Iaşi, after attending secondary school in his native city and in Dresden, Cuza studied law at the University of Paris, the Universität unter den Linden, and the Université Libre de Bruxelles...
for plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
, clashed with his supporters (who briefly occupied the PNL headquarters in Iaşi in May).
World War I
In 1916, Stere strongly supported Romania's alliance with the Central PowersCentral Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
, arguing in favor of a policy focused on Bessarabia's recovery and against what he saw as Russian expansionism
Expansionism
In general, expansionism consists of expansionist policies of governments and states. While some have linked the term to promoting economic growth , more commonly expansionism refers to the doctrine of a state expanding its territorial base usually, though not necessarily, by means of military...
- ultimately, this led him to split with the pro-Entente
Triple Entente
The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance among Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....
PNL upon the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The socialist Ioan Nădejde commented on the fact that Stere had become rivals with members of the Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party who had joined the PNL in 1899, and especially with their leader Vasile Morţun. He joined his voice to a diverse intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
opposition which also included the Conservative Party's Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp , commonly rendered as P. P. Carp, was a Romanian conservative politician and literary critic who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for two terms...
and Alexandru Marghiloman
Alexandru Marghiloman
Alexandru Marghiloman was a Romanian conservative statesman who served for a short time in 1918 as Prime Minister of Romania, and had a decisive role during World War I.-Early career:...
, the left-leaning writers Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
, Dumitru D. Pătrăşcanu, and Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman and theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing activist, as well as a political figure of the People's Republic of Romania...
, as well as the revolutionary socialist Christian Rakovsky
Christian Rakovsky
Christian Rakovsky was a Bulgarian socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet diplomat; he was also noted as a journalist, physician, and essayist...
.
Following the occupation of Bucharest by the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
, Stere remained in the city, in contrast with the mass the Bucharesters who followed the Romanian authorities' refuge to Iaşi. With financial support from Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod or Vaida-Voievod was a Romanian politician who was a supporter and promoter of the union of Transylvania with the Romanian Old Kingdom; he later served three terms as a Prime Minister of Greater Romania.-Transylvanian politics:He was born to a Greek-Catholic family in the...
, he began publishing his Lumina, a newspaper that was nevertheless, according to its editor, "supportive of the Romanian point of view" and thus subject to censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
("a German [censorship], for [views on] external politics [...] and for internal politics [the one] exercised by Petre P. Carp's men, who cut out my articles on expropriation
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
[that is, land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
] and universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
").
In late March 1918, he represented the Alexandru Marghiloman
Alexandru Marghiloman
Alexandru Marghiloman was a Romanian conservative statesman who served for a short time in 1918 as Prime Minister of Romania, and had a decisive role during World War I.-Early career:...
government in Chişinău
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
, during the time after the February
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
and October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
s when Bessarabia had proclaimed itself a Moldavian Democratic Republic
Moldavian Democratic Republic
The Moldavian Democratic Republic , a.k.a. Moldavian Republic, was the state proclaimed on by Sfatul Ţării of Bessarabia, elected in October-November 1917 in the wake of the February Revolution and disintegration of the political power in the Russian Empire.Sfatul Ţării was its legislative body,...
— he was charged with assisting Ion Inculeţ in proposing a union of Bessarabia and Romania in Sfatul Ţării
Sfatul Tarii
Sfatul Țării was, in 1917-1918, the National Assembly of the Governorate of Bessarabia of the disintegrating Russian Empire, which proclaimed the independent Moldavian Democratic Republic in December 1917, and then union with Romania in April 1918.-Russian participation in World War I:In August...
, the republic's legislative assembly. After prolonged debates, the vote was carried in favor of union on March 27 (see Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
).
With the change in fortunes brought by the Armistice with Germany
Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)
The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...
, Stere was charged with treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
and imprisoned; never facing trial, he was eventually set free.
Creation of the Peasants' Party
In the late 1910s, he became discreetly involved in the movement that led to the creation of the Bessarabian Peasants' Party (founded and led by Pan HalippaPan Halippa
Pantelimon "Pan" Halippa was a Bessarabian and later Romanian journalist and politician. One of the most important promoters of Romanian nationalism in Bessarabia and of this province's union with Romania, he was president of Sfatul Ţării, which voted union in 1918...
and Ion Inculeţ
Ion Inculet
Ion C. Inculeț was a Bessarabian politician and the president of the Moldavian Democratic Republic. Also, he was a minister in Romania.-Early career:...
). In late 1918, most of it merged into Ion Mihalache
Ion Mihalache
Ion Mihalache was a Romanian agrarian politician, the founder and leader of the Peasants' Party and a main figure of its successor, the National Peasants' Party .-Early life:...
's Peasants' Party
Peasants' Party (Romania)
The Peasants' Party was a political party in post-World War I Romania that espoused a left-wing ideology partly connected with Agrarianism and Populism, and aimed to represent the interests of the Romanian peasantry. Through many of its leaders, the party was connected with Romanian populism , a...
(PŢ), of which he and Halippa became high-ranking members (Inculeţ disagreed with the political union, and led a smaller party that eventually merged into the PNL).
Stere caused a scandal after running and winning elections for the Chamber of Deputies of Romania
Chamber of Deputies of Romania
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 315 seats, to which deputies are elected by direct popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms...
in Soroca
Soroca
Soroca is a Moldovan city situated on the Nistru river about 160 km north of Chişinău. It is the administrative center of Soroca District.- History :The city has its origin in the medieval Genoese trade post of Olchionia, or Alchona...
(1921, under the Alexandru Averescu
Alexandru Averescu
Alexandru Averescu was a Romanian marshal and populist politician. A Romanian Armed Forces Commander during World War I, he served as Prime Minister of three separate cabinets . He first rose to prominence during the peasant's revolt of 1907, which he helped repress in violence...
government), when all parties joined Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
in opposition to his appointment in office (Iorga considered Stere's anti-Entente past to be equivalent with treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
). Fears of Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
appeal in Bessarabia led to widespread allegations that the former socialist Stere was "Bolshevizing" the region. Speaking from the non-communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
Left, Ioan Nădejde expressed concerns that Stere was radicalizing his message:
"[...] Stere aims to scrape together a socialist party, allied with the Peasants' Party, against all other social classes, and thus follows a policy out of which, in the end, we could only get Bolshevism."
In 1919, Stere had shown his awareness of that he and his party were being criticised by various political groups claiming Marxist orthodoxy, far left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
included. Stating again his belief in the fragile and minority position of industrial proletarians in the landscape of Romanian economy of the period, he indicated that the latter class was destined to adapt its demands to the interests of the peasantry:
"[...] for a country such as Romania, it is obvious that the urban working classWorking classWorking class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
' fate is literally in the hands of the rural working class. [...]
In these conditions, would it not be an act of suicide from the industrial working class of Romania if it were to adopt a hostile attitude toward the peasantry?
And: it is obvious that, no matter what the political and social doctrine preached by the urban proletariat, it would become hostile toward the peasantry if it wanted to impose upon it a form of economic structuring rejected by the peasantry, such as, for one, the immediate and violent socializationNationalizationNationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
of peasant agriculture.
A socialist worker expresses, in the pages of [a socialist journal], the fear that the Peasants' Party of Romania will follow the example of the peasant parties in Bulgaria and SerbiaKingdom of SerbiaThe Kingdom of Serbia was created when Prince Milan Obrenović, ruler of the Principality of Serbia, was crowned King in 1882. The Principality of Serbia was ruled by the Karađorđevic dynasty from 1817 onwards . The Principality, suzerain to the Porte, had expelled all Ottoman troops by 1867, de...
[that is, the Bulgarian Agrarian National UnionBulgarian Agrarian National UnionBulgarian Agrarian National Union also tiranslated to English as Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union is a political party devoted to representing the causes of the Bulgarian peasantry. It was most powerful between 1900 and 1923. In practice, it was an agrarian movement...
and the Serbian Peasant Party], who, once in power, are said to have oppressed the workers.
But can this serve as an argument against the solidarity in interests of the workers in villages and cities?
In these murky times, we have also assisted to the spectacle of bloody repression, by a socialist government [formed by the Social Democratic Party of GermanySocial Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
], of the workers' movements in GermanyGerman RevolutionThe German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I, which resulted in the replacement of Germany's imperial government with a republic...
.
Does this mean that there is a real conflict of interests between those elements of the German proletariat that are being led by the orthodox Social Democracy, and the elements that follow the banner of the Independent PartyIndependent Social Democratic Party of GermanyThe Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was a short-lived political party in Germany during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of left wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany...
?"
Scandal and dissidence
Stere's position in his party's leadership prevented it from entering a close union with the TransylvaniaTransylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
-based Romanian National Party
Romanian National Party
The Romanian National Party , initially known as the Romanian National Party in Transylvania and Banat , was a political party which was initially designed to offer ethnic representation to Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Transleithanian half of Austria-Hungary, and especially to those in...
(PNR) in 1924, as the PNR's leaders resented his anti-Entente past.
Two years later, however, he was admitted as one of the leaders of the newly created National Peasants' Party
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
, a fusion of the two groups that was partly aided by the attack of National Liberal agents on Pan Halippa
Pan Halippa
Pantelimon "Pan" Halippa was a Bessarabian and later Romanian journalist and politician. One of the most important promoters of Romanian nationalism in Bessarabia and of this province's union with Romania, he was president of Sfatul Ţării, which voted union in 1918...
and the government's refusal to punish the guilty. Stere was the author of a legislation which aimed at providing for a degree of administrative decentralization and local initiative in government, passed in 1929 by the Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician. A leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, he served as Prime Minister of Romania for three terms during 1928–1933, and, with Ion Mihalache, co-founded the National Peasants'...
executive.
He soon clashed with the more conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
politicians who had been members of the PNR. In March 1930, the mention of his name during a public celebration provoked a number of Romanian Army
Romanian Armed Forces
The Land Forces, Air Force and Naval Forces of Romania are collectively known as the Romanian Armed Forces...
generals to leave in protest; immediately after, the National Liberal group around Vintilă Brătianu
Vintila Bratianu
Vintilă Brătianu was a Romanian politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania between 24 November 1927 and 2 November 1928.Vintilă and his brothers Ion and Dinu were the leaders of the National Liberal Party of Romania...
began attacking Stere's party for harbouring him, and for causing a split between Army and political establishment. General Henry Cihoschi, the Minister of Defense, was publicly criticized in parliament
Parliament of Romania
The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...
for not siding with his subordinates, and had to resign on April 4; Maniu appeared to support Stere's ousting.
In reply, Stere again expressed his view that Romania's government had been wrong in 1916, and left to create the minor Democratic Peasants' Party (not to be confused with the one created later by Nicolae L. Lupu
Nicolae L. Lupu
Dr. Nicolae Lupu was a Romanian politician and medical doctor, active in the National Peasants' Party....
), which he led into a union with Grigore Iunian
Grigore Iunian
Grigore Iunian was a Romanian left-wing politician and lawyer. A member of the National Liberal Party during the 1910s, he rallied with the Peasants' Party after World War I, and followed it into the National Peasants' Party , before leaving in 1933 to create the Radical Peasants' Party-Grigore...
's Radical Peasants' Party.
Legacy
Despite his dissidence, Stere's ideas remained highly influential inside the National Peasants' Party, and constituted a major influence on the doctrines of Virgil MadgearuVirgil Madgearu
Virgil Traian N. Madgearu was a Romanian economist, sociologist, and left-wing politician, prominent member and main theorist of the Peasants' Party and of its successor, the National Peasants' Party...
. Poporanism, alongside Marxism itself, was a contributing factor in Dimitrie Gusti
Dimitrie Gusti
Dimitrie Gusti was a Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian, and voluntarist philosopher; a professor at the University of Iaşi and the University of Bucharest, he served as Romania's Minister of Education in 1932-1933...
's original theories on sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
.
Stere's original ideas on economic development and Marxist topics were subject to censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
in Communist Romania
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
; although works on him were published after the establishment of Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
's rule, they generally avoided presenting and quoting his writings. Described as a "reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
" until the 1960s, he was considered by revised official historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
to have taken a "radical
Radicalism (historical)
The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
-bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
position".