Panait Istrati 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 of French

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...

 and 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...

 expression, nicknamed The Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky

Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...

 of the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

. Istrati was first noted for the depiction of one homosexual

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

 character in his work.

Early life

Born in Brăila

Braila

Brăila is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County, in the close vicinity of Galaţi.According to the 2002 Romanian census there were 216,292 people living within the city of Brăila, making it the 10th most populous city in Romania.-History:A...

, Istrati was the son of the laundress Joiţa Istrate and of a Greek

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 smuggler from the village of Faraklata

Faraklata

Faraklata is a small settlement located 6 km northeast of Argostoli, NW of Sami and north of the Argostoli-Sami Road . Faraklata is passed by the road linking near Razata and Dilinata and an uneven road to Makriotika. The village sits on a mountain and a valley areas and also has farmlands...

 in Kefalonia

Kefalonia

The island of Cephalonia, also known as Kefalonia, Cephallenia, Cephallonia, Kefallinia, or Kefallonia , is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece, with an area of . It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit...

 (whom Panait never met).

He studied in primary school for six years in Baldovineşti

Baldovinesti

Baldovineşti is a commune in Olt County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Baldovineşti, Gubandru and Pietriş. It included four other villages until 2004, when they were split off to form Găvăneşti Commune....

, after being held back twice. He then earned his living as an apprentice to a tavern

Tavern

A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food, and in some cases, where travelers receive lodging....

-keeper, then as a pastry cook and peddler

Peddler

A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a canvasser, cheapjack, monger, or solicitor , is a travelling vendor of goods. In England, the term was mostly used for travellers hawking goods in the countryside to small towns and villages; they might also be called tinkers or gypsies...

. In the meantime, he was a prolific reader.

His first attempts at writing date from around 1907, when he started sending pieces to the socialist

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,...

 periodicals in Romania - debuting with the article Hotel Regina in România Muncitoare

România Muncitoare

România Muncitoare was a socialist newspaper, published in Bucharest, Romania....

. Here, he later published his very first short stories - Mântuitorul ("The Redeemer"), Calul lui Bălan ("Bălan's Horse"), Familia noastră ("Our Family"), 1 Mai ("May Day

May Day

May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....

"). He also contributed pieces to other leftist

Left-wing politics

In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

 newspapers such as Dimineaţa, 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...

, and Viaţa Socială.

In 1910, he was involved in organizing a strike action

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

 in Brăila. He went to 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....

, Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

, Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 (1913–1914), and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 (where he settled for a while, trying to cure his tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

); Istrati's travels were marked by two successive unhappy marriages, a brief return to Romania in 1915, when he tried to earn his living as a hog farmer

Family farm

A family farm is a farm owned and operated by a family, and often passed down from generation to generation. It is the basic unit of the mostly agricultural economy of much of human history and continues to be so in developing nations...

, and long periods of vagabondage

Vagabond (person)

A vagabond is a drifter and an itinerant wanderer who roams wherever they please, following the whim of the moment. Vagabonds may lack residence, a job, and even citizenship....

.

While in the sanatorium

Sanatorium

A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...

, Istrati met Russian Jewish

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...

-Swiss Zionist

Zionism

Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...

 writer Josué Jéhouda

Josué Jéhouda

Josué Jéhouda was a Russian Jew and Swiss Zionist militant, French language writer and journalist....

, who became his friend and French language tutor.

Living in misery, ill and depressed, he attempted suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 in 1921 on his way to Nice

Nice

Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...

, but his life was rescued in time. Shortly before the attempt, he had written to the French writer he admired most, Romain Rolland

Romain Rolland

Romain Rolland was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.-Biography:...

, with whom he had tried to get in touch for long. Rolland received the letter through the Police

French National Police

The National Police , formerly the Sûreté Nationale, is one of two national police forces and the main civil law enforcement agency of France, with primary jurisdiction in cities and large towns. The other main agency is the military Gendarmerie, with primary jurisdiction in smaller towns and rural...

, and immediately replied to this letter. In 1923

1923 in literature

The year 1923 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Fictional detective Lord Peter Wimsey makes his first appearance in print....

 Istrati's story Kyra Kyralina (or Chira Chiralina) was published (with a preface

Preface

A preface is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a foreword and precedes an author's preface...

 by Rolland). It became the first in his Adrien Zograffi literary cycle

Literature cycle

Literary cycles are groups of stories grouped around common figures, often based on mythical figures or loosely on historic ones. Cycles which deal with an entire country are sometimes referred to as matters...

. Rolland was fascinated with Istrati's adventurous life, urging him to write more, and publishing part of his works in the magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 he and Henri Barbusse

Henri Barbusse

Henri Barbusse was a French novelist and a member of the French Communist Party.-Life:...

 owned, Clarté. The next major work by Istrati was his Codine novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

.

Istrati and Communism

Istrati shared the leftist ideals of Rolland, and, as much as his mentor

Mentor

In Greek mythology, Mentor was the son of Alcimus or Anchialus. In his old age Mentor was a friend of Odysseus who placed Mentor and Odysseus' foster-brother Eumaeus in charge of his son Telemachus, and of Odysseus' palace, when Odysseus left for the Trojan War.When Athena visited Telemachus she...

, placed his hopes in the 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....

 vision. In 1927 he visited the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 on the anniversary of the 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...

, accompanied by 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...

 during the first stage of the journey (Rakovsky was Soviet ambassador

Ambassador

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 to Paris, and by then already falling out of favor with Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

). He travelled through large sections of the European part, witnessing celebrations in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 and Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

. He was joined in Moscow by his future close friend, Nikos Kazantzakis

Nikos Kazantzakis

Nikos Kazantzakis was a Greek writer and philosopher, celebrated for his novel Zorba the Greek, considered his magnum opus...

; while in the city, Panait Istrati met Victor Serge

Victor Serge

Victor Serge , born Victor Lvovich Kibalchich , was a Russian revolutionary and writer. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks five months after arriving in Petrograd in January 1919 and later worked for the Comintern as a journalist, editor and translator...

 and expressed his wish to become a citizen of the Soviet Union. He and Kazantzakis wrote Stalin a congratulatory letter that remained unanswered.

In 1928-29, after a tumultuous stay in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 (where he was engaged in fights with the police and invited to leave the country), he went again to the Soviet Union. Through extended visits in more remote places such as the Moldavian ASSR

Moldavian ASSR

The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic , shortened to Moldavian ASSR or, less frequently, Moldovan ASSR, was an autonomous republic of the Ukrainian SSR between 12 October 1924 and 2 August 1940, encompassing modern Transnistria The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic...

 (where he got in touch with his friend Ecaterina Arbore

Ecaterina Arbore

Ecaterina Arbore, Arbore-Ralli or Ralli-Arbore , daughter of Zamfir Arbore , was a Romanian, Soviet and Moldovan communist activist and official.-Early life:She trained towards a medical...

), Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...

, Baku

Baku

Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...

 and Batumi

Batumi

Batumi is a seaside city on the Black Sea coast and capital of Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia. Sometimes considered Georgia's second capital, with a population of 121,806 , Batumi serves as an important port and a commercial center. It is situated in a subtropical zone, rich in...

, Istrati learned the full truth of Joseph Stalin's communist dictatorship

Dictatorship

A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...

, out of which experience he wrote his famous book, The Confession of a Loser, the first in the succession of disenchantments expressed by 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 such as Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...

, André Gide

André Gide

André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...

 and George Orwell

George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...

. Istrati dealt with the mounting persecution of Old Bolsheviks and the gradual victimization of whole population groups. His views were also harshly made clear in a two letters he sent to the GPU

State Political Directorate

The State Political Directorate was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1934...

 leadership in December 1928.

Thereafter, he suffered a crisis of conscience mainly due to being branded a "Trotskyist" or even a "Fascist" by his former communist friends, the most violent of which proved to be Henri Barbusse. Rolland had praised Istrati's letters to the GPU, but he nonetheless chose to stay clear of the controversy. Istrati came back to Romania ill and demoralised, was treated for tuberculosis in Nice, then returned to Bucharest.

Last years

In fact, the political opinions Istrati expressed after his split with Bolshevism are rather ambiguous. He was still closely watched by the Romanian secret police

Secret police

Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....

 (Siguranţa Statului), and he had written an article (dated April 8, 1933) in the French magazine Les Nouvelles Littéraires, aptly titled L'homme qui n'adhère à rien ("The man who will adhere to nothing").

At the same time, Istrati started publishing in Cruciada Românismului ("The Crusade of Romanianism"), the voice of a left-leaning splinter group of the ultra-nationalist Iron Guard

Iron Guard

The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...

. As such, Istrati became associated with the group's leader Mihai Stelescu

Mihai Stelescu

-With the Iron Guard:Born in Galaţi, he joined, while still in high school, the Legion of the Archangel Michael , an ultra-nationalist, Fascist, and anti-Semitic political movement led by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu....

, who had been elected as a member of Parliament for the Iron Guard in 1933 and whose dissidence was the reason for his brutal assassination

Assassination

To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

 by the Decemviri

Iron Guard death squads

During the 1930s, three notable death squads emerged from Romania's Iron Guard: the Nicadori, the Decemviri, and the Răzbunători. Motivated by a combination of fascist political ideology and religious-nationalist mysticism, they carried out several high-level political assassinations in the...

 later in the same year; Istrati was himself assault

Assault

In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...

ed several times by the Guard's squads.

Isolated and unprotected, Panait Istrati died at Filaret Sanatorium in Bucharest. He was buried in Bellu

Bellu

Bellu is the most famous cemetery in Bucharest, Romania.It is located on a plot of land donated to the local administration by Baron Barbu Bellu...

 Cemetery.

Adrien Zograffi's Accounts

• Kyra Kyralina (or Chira Chiralina; also translated under the title Kyra My Sister)
• Uncle Anghel
• The Haiduks (or The Bandits)
• Presentation of the Haiduks (or Presentation of the Bandits)
• Domnitza de Snagov

Adrien Zograffi's Childhood

• Codine (or Codin, Kodin)
• Michael (or Mikhaïl)
• Mes Départs
• The Sponge-Fisher

Adrien Zograffi's Life

• The Thüringer House
• Le Bureau de Placement
• Mediterranean (Sunrise)
• Mediterranean (Sunset)

Other works

• Kyr Nicolas
• The Perlmutter Family
• Nerantula (or Neranţula, Nerantsoula, Nerrantsoula)
• The Thistles of the Bărăgan (or Ciulinii Bărăganului)
• To the Other Flame and The Confession of a Loser (published also as Russia unveiled: 1927-1930)
• Tsatsa-Minnka

Filmography

While in the Soviet Union, Istrati wrote a screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 based on his own work - The Bandits, a project that was never completed.

Kira Kiralina was filmed in 1927 as a Soviet silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

. The novel was filmed for a second time in 1993, as a Romanian-Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 production directed by Gyula Maár

Gyula Maár

Gyula Maár is an Hungarian film director and screenwriter. He has directed 24 films since 1966. His 1975 film, Mrs. Dery Where Are You? won the award for Best Actress at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. In 1986, his film Első kétszáz évem was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival...

. There is also a 1958 Franco-Romanian film, Ciulinii Bărăganului

Ciulinii Baraganului

Ciulinii Bărăganului is a 1958 Franco-Romanian film directed by Louis Daquin and Gheorghe Vitanidis, based on a novel of the same title by Panait Istrati....

, and Codine

Codine (film)

Codine is a 1963 French crime film directed by Henri Colpi. It was entered into the 1963 Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for Best Screenplay.-Cast:* Alexandru Virgil Platon - Codine* Françoise Brion - Irène* Nelly Borgeaud - Zoitza Zograffi...

(Codin), a Franco-Romanian co-production of 1962.

Quotes

All right, I can see the broken eggs. Where's this omelette

Omelette

In cuisine, an omelette or omelet is a dish made from beaten eggs quickly cooked with butter or oil in a frying pan, sometimes folded around a filling such as cheese, vegetables, meat , or some combination of the above...

 of yours? - When he asked about the brutal outcome of social experiments in the Soviet Union, he was told that "in order to make an omelette, you must break some eggs".

I would still tie my faith to the faith of the Jewish people, I would still make its struggle for justice my own, for this is the struggle of all those who are persecuted across this Earth...

Because the kindness of a single human is more powerful than the meanness of a thousand; the evil extinguishes together with the one who provoked it; the good continues to beam after the disappearance of the just. (in Kyra Kyralina)

Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

[...] is the gold reserve of the Russian revolution. Without this reserve, I really cannot tell how there will be any revolutionary progress throughout Russia and the world. That would already be the trampling, the sinking... (in an interview)

A flame, just like a thousand others, has now been extinguished, in a vast land rich in hopes. Nothing is to be found in that land, [sic] but the chilling wind of egotism, [sic] that freezes life.

But it is still the land which gives birth to the most beautiful of flames that warm mankind. Through this, it is sacred and with a long future ahead of it.

Let us help it open its generous inner parts to our souls thirsty for the good and the beautiful.

LET US HEAD FOR THAT OTHER FLAME. (in To the Other Flame)

And while I am watching, out here on the confines of bourgeois Europe, the spectacle of workers who are fleeing workers' Russia, and who are machine-gunned down, followed all the way in front of the Romanian border patrols, finished on the spot and sometimes recaptured by GPU “proletarians” and forcedly brought back to the “worker's motherland”, while I am watching, I say, this system of “organizing” the new world, allow me to love and hate people in a way that is different from yours.

Also, allow me to linger in my “personal resentments” and continue to “narrate” them to the world, fighting alone, under the standard of “the man who will adhere to nothing”. These are, you say, “old trifles (for they are old, old!)” you add in brackets.

Yes, “old, old...” and forever true! Unfortunately. (in L'homme qui n'adhère à rien)

Critical works on Istrati

• Roger Dadoun, Panait Istrati, L'Arc, Aix-en-Provence, 1983.
• Elisabeth Geblesco, Panaït Istrati et la métaphore paternelle, Anthropos, Paris, 1989, ISBN 2-7178-1665-8
• Mircea Iorgulescu, Panaït Istrati, Oxus Éditions, collection Les Roumains de Paris, Paris, 2004, ISBN 2-8489-8037-0
• Monique Jutrin-Klener, Panaït Istrati: un chardon déraciné: écrivain français, conteur roumain, Éditeur F. Maspero, Paris, 1970
• Monique Jutrin-Klener, Hélène Lenz, Daniel Lérault, Martha Popovici, Élisabeth Geblesco, Catherine Rossi, Jeanne-Marie Santraud, Les haïdoucs dans l'œuvre de Panaït Istrati : l'insoumission des vaincus, L'Harmattan, collection Critiques Littéraires, Paris, 2002, ISBN 2-7475-3199-6
• Édouard Raydon, Panaït Istrati, vagabond de génie, Les Éditions Municipales, Paris, 1968
• David Seidmann, L'existence juive dans l'œuvre de Panaït Istrati, Éditions Nizet, Paris, 1984, ISBN 2-7078-1040-1
• Jean-François Bacot, "Panaït Istrati ou la conscience écorchée d'un vaincu" in Moebius : Écritures / Littérature, Numéro 35, hiver 1988, p. 95-114, éditions Triptyque (Montréal). http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/15212ac

External links

Short biography Istrati on Christian Rakovsky