Constantin Dobrescu-Argeș
Constantin I. Dobrescu-Argeș | |
---|---|
Romanian Assembly of Deputies | |
In office 1889–1898 | |
Constituency | Argeș County |
Personal details | |
Born | June 28, 1856 Mușătești, Wallachia |
Died | December 10, 1903 Mușătești, Kingdom of Romania | (aged 47)
Nationality | Romanian |
Political party | Peasants' Committee (1881–1888) Conservative Party (1888) Radical Party (1889) League of Universal Suffrage (1894) Partida Țărănească (1894–1899) |
Spouse | Avida Poinăreanu (1890–1893; her death) |
Relations | Alexandru Valescu (brother-in-law) |
Profession | Schoolteacher, jurist, social scientist, activist, cooperative organizer, editor, playwright, ghostwriter |
Constantin I. Dobrescu, better known as Dobrescu-Argeș (June 28, 1856 – December 10, 1903), was a
Although well liked by cultural and political figures of all hues, with whom he collaborated on various projects, Dobrescu's clandestine support for the concept of "
Dobrescu's nationalism and his association with ill-reputed figures such as
Biography
Beginnings
Born in Mușătești, his father Ion "Niță" Dobrescu was a
After attending Popa Dincă's school, where he used dirt and his own fingers as writing utensils,
During this period, Dobrescu also became interested in the cause of peasant representation, militating against the
Social historian Mircea Vrânceanu sees the
Dobrescu's other work was focused on cultural activism, for the goal of creating and popularizing "rural dramas, rural comedies, rural poetry, [...] our own philosophy, our own arts, purpose, traditions and our own sort of civilization".
Committees
In order to better organize for his struggle, in 1881 Dobrescu founded at Mușătești a Peasants' Committee, a political network that brought together activists from Argeș and Gorj, later expanded into other regions of Muntenia and Oltenia. Its co-leaders were Schileru and Mucenic Dinescu, and its first congress was held at Corbeni in August 1882.[33] The previous month, Dobrescu and Schilleru had dined together in Bâlteni, where Dobrescu first outlined the idea of a "peasant party", which would have been focused on preserving the peasantry's constitutional rights; his program in this respect greatly enraged the political establishment, including the National Liberals, who favored expanding the urban middle classes, and the Conservative Party, focused on preserving landowner privileges.[34] During the early 1880s, Dobrescu was also considering corporatism, with each social group electing representatives exclusively from its own ranks—knowing that peasants had secured a permanent numerical advantage.[35]
Historian Ioan Scurtu notes that the Corbeni gathering had over 400 people in attendance, but also that these were "well-off peasants", or chiaburi.[36] According to Dobridor, the rally was a historic moment, bringing together peasants who had hitherto been separated by sectarian causes. Dobrescu "simply lifted up his sword to sever the ropes of coterie that had penetrated the very soul of the peasants, had carved the mark of slavery into their napes, like a yoke carving into the neck of a buffalo."[37] Aware that the authorities would eventually intervene to ban such gatherings, Dobrescu and other delegates attempted to quickly rouse the peasants of Muscel County, riding into Nămăești and announcing a second congress to be held in that village. By some accounts, the meeting was broken up by police, who asked that all Argeș envoys be sent back to their homes.[38] Journalist Luca Paul suggests instead that the Nămăești rally was held "in broad daylight", indifferent to any threats made by the authorities.[39]
An ardent
Despite being constantly harassed with the authorities, the Committees sent four deputies to the Assembly in the general election of 1883—one of them for Argeș.[36] Dobrescu himself returned as a peasant candidate repeat elections of 1884, winning a seat for Argeș's Third College against the National Liberal favorite, Toma Trifonescu.[43] He was again invalidated, since, as a teacher, he had a conflict of interest.[44] He ran again in by-elections of 1885, though by then the Committees had disbanded.[36] As reported by Vrânceanu, government put up ten candidates to draw away votes from his platform, while police intervened to prevent him from even registering. He only managed to enter the race by traveling to Pitești in disguise as a shepherd.[45] Although he had suspended his work in state education, Dobrescu was again faced with invalidation. This time, he was reproached for not having served in the Romanian Army,[46] but the real reason may have been his irredentist subversion.[47]
Days after the election, Brătianu had Dobrescu kidnapped and brought to his manor in Ștefănești, where he tried to either intimidate or persuade him into joining the National Liberals. According to Vrânceanu, this "meeting of two worlds" ended with Brătianu ordering his rival's release on condition that he return to teaching; Dobrescu was soon stripped of all but one of his teaching posts, for Brătianu to make sure that he would not the time and income for politics.[48] Deaconu writes that Brătianu ordered the "insolent peasant" conscripted as an infantryman, but that this measure was toned down by Dimancea, who released Dobrescu and sent him back to Mușătești.[49] He was eventually drafted and sent to Northern Dobruja, where he fell gravely ill; upon his return, he discovered that his two fellow teachers in Mușătești had been sacked, and that his time was fully occupied with his handling the school.[50]
Some official reports suggest that his subversive activity was never fully interrupted. In 1886, he traveled into Transylvania, creating additional outrage in National Liberal circles: government officials claimed that he was there to purchase fur hats "à la Michael the Brave", to use as a quasi-uniform for his "peasant army" to invade Bucharest with.[51] Vinieru claims that Dobrescu was involved in the June 1887 episode which ended with a shootout between an "irredentist" group and the Army, at Albeștii de Muscel. Also according to Vinieru, the affair was kept secret by the National Liberals, and altogether ignored by the opposition Conservatives.[52] Dobrescu had parted ways with the other Peasants' Committee veterans. Under Schileru and Dinescu's watch, a revived Committee had turned into an agrarian branch of the National Liberal Party. As noted by Argeș historian Gheorghe I. Deaconu, Brătianu was using the committee as a wedge against the peasant caucus—and more specifically against Dobrescu's own electorate. Deaconu also argues that, in 1887, Brătianu sent George D. Pallade to befriend and spy on Dobrescu, obtaining information which the establishment then used to bring down the peasant leader.[53]
Parliamentary debut
In the
Overall, Dobrescu argued for
This period also brought his involvement in the controversy about socialist agitation in the countryside. Dobrescu had been curious about socialism, and frequented the Marxist Ioan Nădejde.[65] However, he soon grew to dislike both the movement and Nădejde, exposing the latter as an "ass in a lion's pelt".[66] He also claimed that Nădejde had failed the test of proletarian internationalism, since, allegedly, he opposed the naturalization of Romanian Jews—possibly referring to the specific case of Ralian Samitca.[67] In turn, Mille, by then co-opted by the socialist journal Drepturile Omului, ridiculed Dobrescu as a "carnival peasant".[68] In February 1889, with fellow deputies Grigore Cozadini, Mihail Caracostea, and Ernest Sturdza, Dobrescu visited Roman County to investigate the election of Lascăr Veniamin as socialist deputy.[69] The commission's findings eventually led the other socialist deputy, Vasile Morțun, to resign and demand that he be formally tried.[70] Some of the peasants he met asked him to run for their constituency, following Veniamin's looming invalidation. Reportedly, this showed the abrupt decline of the socialist movement.[71] In May 1890, Dobrescu, Panu and Nădejde still co-sponsored a bill together, namely one which would have removed references to the King of Romania in the oath taken by judges (and which historian Vasile Niculae described as "Parliament's first socialist and democratic act to have an anti-monarchic nature").[72]
Dobrescu also edited several periodicals: Țĕranul (1881–1884), Romania's first rural cultural and political publication; and Gazeta Poporului and Gazeta Țăranilor (1892–1903), through which he attempted to spread his ideas into the villages, aiming to integrate all rural teachers into cultural societies.[1][73][74] The former in particular was very time-consuming: "[it] was being put out in the Pitești press owned by C. Popescu. Here is where Dobrescu's torments would begin. On each Saturday, after finishing his work with the students, he would ride to Pitești on his buckskin and, after ensuring that the paper would come out, traveled back on Sunday evening, to where his other work took him."[75]
Deaconu notes that this 100-kilometer weekly ride was seized upon as an opportunity for persecution by the National Liberal authorities, who sent inspectors to Dobrescu's school once every three days.[76] From 1892, Dobrescu and Valescu set up the Society for Peasant Culture, which was designed as a funding mechanism for a more accessible printing press. In founding this venue, Dobrescu explained that "printing a peasant newspaper in someone else's printing shop is like hatching cuckoo eggs in a wren's nest."[77] Alarmed by these developments, the authorities encouraged Dobrescu's adversaries in the teaching profession to sue him for embezzlement; the court ruled in Dobrescu's favor.[78] Before September 1890, Dobrescu had come under investigation for supposedly illegal activities also involving the artillery guards, and was shamed for this by both the left-wing daily Adevărul and the Conservative organ Timpul. They suggested that he should resign his seat, and argued that his self-promotion was distasteful.[79]
Scurtu reads the Society's charter as a "moderate" political program;
Brussels and party formation
Dobrescu pursued his mission in various other ventures: pioneering institutions founded by Dobrescu during this interval include, in 1893, the cooperative in Mușătești, named after
Dobrescu-Argeș's political stances were becoming ambiguous, and left-wingers came to suspect that he was secretly an ally of Lascăr Catargiu and his Conservative cabinet. Dobrescu openly supported some Conservative causes: with his theater, he performed one of his plays in front of King Carol I, who awarded him a decoration and his own portrait as a souvenir;[90] in November 1892, he voted for adding 300,000 lei to the civil list, going to the royal family.[91] A serious scandal erupted in November 1893, during debates over the establishment of an agricultural bank. Dobrescu promised nationalists A. C. Cuza and Constantin Popovici that he would endorse their amendment, excluding non-Romanians from the enterprise. He took the paper for signing, but never returned it, and found himself chased around the Assembly, threatened by Major N. Pruncu, and pummeled by Popovici.[92] The incident was witnessed by writer (and deputy) Alexandru Vlahuță, who declared himself disgusted and demoralized by the casualness of the affair.[93] Such displays prompted his 1889 rival Morțun to reuse the derisive moniker of "carnival peasant",[91] an insult later popularized by Adevărul, alongside "poisonous mushroom" and "inveterate thief".[92]
The incongruity was also noted by the Radical Panu, who argued that the "extremely congenial" Dobrescu showed up in Romanian dress but was "not a peasant, however much he may enjoy that designation [...] he merely dresses like one". He honored in Dobrescu the "intelligent man of the Argeș", noting how fast he picked up on new things, but also that he lacked discipline.[94] His abilities were also noted by the staff journalist at Foaia Populară, who described Dobrescu as the "miraculous" figure of a self-made man,[95] and by Bacalbașa, who remembered him as "highly intelligent, cultured, and overflowing with political ambitions".[96]
In winter 1890, Dobrescu married Avida Poinăreanu, daughter of a Muscel peasant leader.
By March 1895, Dobrescu stood in the generic opposition, and, alongside Cuza, attacked Catargiu's cabinet, and the Conservative Party in general, for not doing enough to improve rural education. The claim enlisted a lengthy retort from the Conservative Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, who furnished evidence for the role of upper classes in rural advancement.[103] Alongside Ion Rădoi, Dobrescu was by then invested in creating a nation-wide peasants' group, called Partida Țărănească ("Peasants' Party"). Reviewing Dobrescu's articles on this topic, Scurtu highlights the projected recruitment of "teachers, priests, communal councilors, mayors and notaries. Therefore, this was to be a party of the rural bourgeoisie."[36] His agitation in favor of rural emancipation led to his arrest at Costești, but he was soon released due to his parliamentary immunity.[36]
The group was ultimately established on October 4, 1895, with an inaugural congress held in Bucharest;[104] this caucus also established a permanent Action Committee, co-chaired by Dobrescu and Rădoi.[36] The platform, voted by peasant representatives from 20 counties, restated and detailed some of Dobrescu's main goals, including state investment into cooperatives and breeding programs, communalism with room for personal property and common land for gazing, and the auditing of peasant debt. It also had nativist requests, suggesting that peasants access a land reserve created from land repurchased by the state from non-nationals, and that leases on land be granted only by locals; an additional goal was the establishment of Greater Romania "spread as far as the Romanian language is spoken".[105] The group still enjoyed disproportionate support from Bulgarians, who had grievances against the Romanian state and appreciated Partida's anti-establishment ethos.[106]
The first party of its kind in Romania, Partida operated until 1899.[1][107] By 1894, Dobrescu had sided with the emerging caucus of politicians favoring a switch to the universal suffrage—as he put it, the "8,000,000 citizens who make up the bulk of this nation" needed to be spoken for by a "league of resistance", which is what Partida could represent.[108] However, Panu and the Adevărul team, who mounted this campaign, were openly alarmed by his alleged corruption and, in 1895, obtained his withdrawal from the nascent League of Universal Suffrage. According to Niculae, Dobrescu was merely used by the Radicals as a "pretext allowing them to ditch any concrete action in favor of universal suffrage, and to keep the masses uninformed about [their own] blatantly pro-conservative orientation".[109] Dobrescu and his followers were more interested in tax reform and a balanced budget, with Dobrescu speaking up against state employees "whose number", Dobrescu argued, "has offset the number of electors".[110] The group also called for predictability in taxation, and for adopting "those methods that statesmen in more civilized countries" have used to "increase peasant revenues".[111] These goals went in tandem with unionization: Dobrescu spoke about legalizing agricultural syndicates to "protect labor".[112]
Scandal
Dobrescu was returned to the Assembly a final time in 1895, after defeating the National Liberal Daniil Sterescu 645 votes to 280.[113] In the latter race, he shared a ticket with his brother-in-law Valescu.[114] Partida also won a seat for Muscel, taken by M. Moisescu, with Dincă Schileru as a dissident National Liberal.[113][115] The campaign in Vâlcea County was mounted by Ștefan Drăghicescu, with Partida registered locally as the Peasants and Workers' Party. It failed to win Drăghicescu a seat.[116] Dobrescu also backed a Mușătești native, the policeman Ion Niculescu-Fotografu, who was running for a deputy's seat in Suceava County. At the time, the two were close friends, with Dobrescu acting as a ghostwriter for Niculescu, and advertising for his artisans' guild.[117]
By then, Dobrescu's party had shifted some of its weight toward Muscel, with Gazeta being printed from Câmpulung[118] before finally relocating to Bucharest. According to Dobrescu, during the 1895 electoral campaign Catargiu had ordered a clampdown on the printing press in Mușătești, with authorities threatening his readers throughout the region. The editorial offices, however, remained in place.[119] Valescu was tasked with editing Gazeta Țăranilor. He was singled out for retribution by the Conservative government, who suspended him from his job as a schoolteacher and wished to have him barred from that profession altogether. Dobrescu resolved this issue by assigning the editorial position to Rădoi, a former judge; he finally donated Gazeta to Valescu in 1896.[120] In August 1895, Rădoi highlighted his and Partida's legalist credentials during an audience with King Carol. The monarch asked him to specify the difference between Dobrescu's followers and the socialists, to which Rădoi allegedly replied: "The socialists are mostly active in the cities, among the industrial workers, whereas we mostly work in the villages."[36]
In addition to his clashes with Catargiu, Dobrescu found himself competing with the left-wing factions of the National Liberal Party, respectively led by the
As noted by Scurtu, Partida was effectively prevented from circulating its message outside speeches in the Assembly and the occasional electoral rally.
By then, Dobrescu had been formally indicted of falsifying an insurance policy and embezzling funds. In June 1898, he was arrested and sent to Văcărești Prison, but made bail. As reported by Filipescu's Epoca, his time in confinement was needlessly prolonged by hostile bailiffs, causing Dobrescu's mother to faint in public. However, the authorities discarded normal procedure, and left out biometrics when Dobrescu refused to comply, threatening to kill himself.[129] During his interval in prison, he met Filipescu, who was being held there after killing Emanoil Lahovary in a duel—he and Filipescu became "friends for eternity."[130]
Dobrescu-Argeș pleaded his case at the Correctional Tribunal, arguing that any counterfeiting was by his mistress, Elena Ionescu.
Disgrace, arrest, and death
Valescu alleges that the Conservatives secretly rejoiced upon noting Pallade's efforts. He claims to quote Alexandru Marghiloman, a junior Conservative, arguing that "the parties ought to serve each other" when it came to subduing the peasant ethos.[133] Various other accounts similarly suggest that Dobrescu was being framed by the ruling class,[134] although such accusations had surfaced independently in earlier years. In 1889, the peasants of Mușătești had complained that Dobrescu, hired to legalize their land claims, had absconded with their money.[135] According to legend, Dobrescu also financed his party selling worthless bonds to peasants across the country. The scheme was only uncovered when one of his invoices showed up in a bankruptcy lawsuit.[136] He was subsequently derided by his adversaries as Dobrescu-Chitanță ("Dobrescu-Invoice").[79][88][92][137]
Dobrescu's work in public subscription also collected funds for a statue of Tudor Vladimirescu, in Târgu Jiu. He began this project in March 1895, with articles in Gazeta Țăranilor, increasingly revolutionary in tone; he also oversaw the printing of a Vladimirescu biography.[138] He was free by January 1899, and, against Pallade's warning, continued and stepped up his political involvement, publishing a new program for the peasant movement.[139] Also in 1899, as he inaugurated the Vladimirescu statue, Dobrescu spoke about his mission of bringing about "rule of the people, by the people", "democracy in both name and fact."[7] He issued samples of self-criticism for his previous legalism, noting that his imprisonment was engineered to "cast terror among my people". As he put it at the time: nu jenă trebuia să produc cârmuirii, ci la răsturnare trebuia să tind ("I should not have aimed for merely disturbing those in power, it is their toppling I should have aimed for").[124]
During that year's elections, remnants of Partida formed local clubs that vied for seats—on this topic, Scurtu notes: "Government terror prevented any of its [Partida's] candidates from entering the Assembly of Deputies."[124] Drăghicescu tried to obtain a seat for the Committee of Peasant Students, which he founded with Sergiu Victor Cujbă and Toma Dragu; he only managed to win as a National Liberal, in 1901.[140] Also in 1899, Dobrescu himself was again rallying with the controversial candidate Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești, at Slatina. He acted as electoral agent among the peasants, promising them that Bogdan-Pitești would redistribute land from a national reserve. When his patron was defeated, the enraged peasants rioted and had to be repressed using military force.[141] Various reports have it that Dobrescu-Argeș retired himself as a candidate in the same election after being told by government agents that the charges against him would be lifted as part of that deal.[142] As a backup plan, the National Liberals had begun circulating a brochure by Niculescu-Fotografu, containing "all manner of calumnies and insults".[143]
Meanwhile, Dobrescu's trial, in which he was represented by Fleva, came before the Ilfov County tribunal, being postponed there over the absence of witnesses.[144] Finally receiving a nine-month jail term in February 1900,[95] he was detained during the winter of 1900–1901. This left homeless his young disciples, including C. Marinescu Trubadurul, whom he had lodged in his home.[145] Dobrescu was again free in mid 1901, when he was putting out, and almost exclusively contributing content for, the weekly magazine Viața Națională ("National Life"). It was return to his educational-focused agenda, describing schools as the necessary sources of "cultural nationalism".[146] His term was reduced to three months in 1903, with Dobrescu serving his sentence at Văcărești. After being released, he was completely demoralized and soon disappeared from public life.[147] The implications of his sentencing also included felony disenfranchisement, meaning that "he was practically removed from Romania's political life."[124] According to notes left by Arghezi, Dobrescu was also prevented from returning to his ancestral homes by "posses" (haite) who chased him down to Bucharest. Arghezi also reports that Dobrescu was living on Știrbei Vodă Street with his wife or concubine, a "young peasant woman from Argeș".[148]
Vrânceanu notes that the agrarianist leader was finally able to move back home to treat his debilitating "rheumatism" at the spas of Brădet, between Corbeni and Mușătești.[149] Dobrescu-Argeș's clinical depression aggravated the disease, which manifested as ataxia and resulted in "great pain."[150] He is credited as the founder of the Hydrotherapy Institute in that town, which opened in August 1902.[151] Near the end of 1902, already paralyzed in both legs, he was taken from Bucharest to Mușătești. He was discreetly employed by Vasile Lascăr, the Interior Minister, to review or even draft new legislation.[152] Filipescu, as the Agriculture Minister, handed him similar work; however, the conditions of his contract were reportedly determined by Lascăr, who had Dobrescu confined to a house in Bucharest and withheld payments.[150] Dobrescu-Argeș lived to see the revival of his peasant theater, which, on August 6, 1903, staged his last play În sat sau la oraș ("In the Village or in the City") in front of an audience that included Minister Haret.[31] 2,000 peasants reportedly attended this "grandiose cultural-artistic manifestation."[77] During his final days, Dobrescu reportedly felt overwhelmed about political issues, including Conservative opposition to the administrative law he had been working on, telling Valescu: "They won't even let me die, those bandits".[153]
Dobrescu-Argeș had his final stay in Bucharest in August–November 1903, after which he returned to Curtea de Argeș, then Mușătești. He was bedridden on arrival; according to Deaconu, his health was entirely compromised when a physician, who was also a National Liberal voter, advised him to drink
Legacy
Political legatees
With time, left-wingers had become more lenient toward their deceased adversary. In January 1904, Mille wrote a column describing Dobrescu as an extraordinary orator, "eternal master of a constituency that had previously been thought of as a government fief".
Gazeta accepted Kogălniceanu's leadership of the party, but maintained a Dobrescu-like stance on land reform, only favoring the renting of estates to cooperatives (rather than full redistribution among individual owners).
The agrarian movement went inactive for more than a decade.
By 1909, Dobrescu's other brother-in-law, P. T. Rădulescu, was a national representative in schoolteachers' organizations, allegedly using his position to advance the corrupt agenda of cooperative-bank managers.[6] Valescu retired the Mușătești printing press in 1912, but continued to put out a newspaper, Vocea Argeșului, from Curtea de Argeș.[174] Muscel schoolteacher Ion Mihalache, who was emerging as a leader of the agrarian movement, tried to visit Dobrescu-Argeș in 1903, and was informed of his death. He never read any of Dobrescu's writings until after 1918, but formed a secretive committee to network for the reestablishment of a peasantry party.[175] Just before the elections of May 1914, Mihalache described himself a would-be "peasants' deputy", like Dobrescu, but also declared that he intended to remain politically independent of any parties, and of government influence.[176] Reflecting back on this period, Arghezi called Mihalache "a distant descendant of Dobrescu-Argeș, so very less romantic, more positive, more concise".[177] In 1915, a Dobrescu-Argeș Cultural Home was launched in Mușătești, alongside a local library with 5,000 titles and decimal classification.[77] Around that time, with Romania still preserving neutrality in World War I, Valescu and Gazeta allegedly became mouthpieces of the Central Powers.[178] Alexandru and Paraschiva's son Emil Valescu, who was aged 8 at his uncle's death, fought in the subsequent campaigns against the Central Powers, and became a Romanian Army Colonel.[5]
Later echoes
Ultimately, following World War I, land reform and universal suffrage were introduced throughout the newly established Greater Romania, making it possible for Mihalache to form his own Peasants' Party (PȚ) as the first of several interwar agrarianist movements. He was joined by Valescu, who took a Senate seat at Argeș in the elections of 1919.[114][179] According to political essayist Pamfil Șeicaru, the party's solid win at Argeș, Muscel, and Dâmbovița was owed primarily to Dobrescu-Argeș's fieldwork in previous decades.[180] The movement, in which "Dobrescu-Argeș's memory" was a "foundation stone",[181] remained factionalized to a degree: in 1920, at Priboieni, the folklorist Constantin Rădulescu-Codin relaunched "Gazeta Țăranilor as a National Liberal mouthpiece, critical of Mihalache's policies.[182] In 1924, right-wing poet Octavian Goga noted that the PȚ itself had drifted into "macabre promiscuity", and was destined to crumble. Goga asserted that: "Important countryside tribunes, once they are dazzled by the shiny flooring of this perfidious Capital City, swoon and fall down. You all remember how that poor fella Dobrescu-Argeș stumbled, and how much he had to repent for having discarded his ancestral home!"[183]
The period came with an overall reevaluation of Dobrescu's role in the movement. A re-investigation of his politics was hampered by the destruction of his Țĕranul, issues of which are exceedingly rare;[184] research was able to track down, but not recover, the flag used by Dobrescu in rallying peasants, which, in 1933, was "hidden away in a Gorj County village".[185] By the 1930s, the consolidated National Peasants' Party (PNȚ) was claiming Dobrescu as its patriarch. An earlier bust done by Frederic Storck from live sittings[186] was raised at Curtea de Argeș in October 1933. PNȚ leaders Mihalache and Armand Călinescu were guest speakers at that ceremony.[187] The former's musings, published in Dreptatea, described Dobrescu and Partida as precedents in an "organic" movement for "Peasantism".[175] Also for the occasion, Adevărul revisited its earlier stances, dedicating Dobrescu a retrospective and quoting him on its frontispiece. As argued therein by editor Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște, "most of [Dobrescu's] goals, to this day, are just goals". The land reform, he claimed, was haphazard and purposefully unsustainable; the enfranchisement was also compromised by "savage elections", and by Mihalache's own praise of corporatism.[63]
By 1936, Mihalache, and, through him, Dobrescu, were drawing attention from Hungarian Romanian voters in Transylvania. In that context, journalist Endre Kakassy explained Dobrescu as Romania's own Áchim L. András.[188] Serving as PNȚ chairman in October 1936, during the party's ten-year anniversary, Mihalache returned to praising Dobrescu as a political model—in the line of social revolutionaries such as Vladimirescu and Horea. As he argued at the time, these precursors had combined the "national instinct" with a "social character", with the PNȚ taking up the same cause.[189] In January 1937, a "Dobrescu-Argeș Canteen" was founded by the PNȚ for rural peasants studying in Bucharest. Speaking at its inauguration rally, which doubled as an anti-fascist protest, Paul Bujor honored Dobrescu as the "precursor and martyr of peasantism".[190] Pitești also hosted a Dobrescu-Argeș cooperative bank, managed by the PNȚ cadre Petre Gr. Dumitrescu.[191] As noted in 1939 by sociologist Henri H. Stahl, Dobrescu had an enduring but paradoxical influence on Muscel's culture, where city-dwellers still dressed up in a modernized peasant costume—"this style was created and spread, quite intentionally, through propaganda, starting with Dobrescu-Argeș".[192]
During the
By then, Nicolae G. Teodorescu and Onița Gligor had published monographs seeing to understand Dobrescu and his cause through the lens of "
Notes
- ^ ISBN 978-973-7839-39-8
- ^ Dobridor, p. 213; Paul, p. 1; Vrânceanu, pp. 56–57
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 56–57
- ^ a b c d Paul, p. 1
- ^ a b George Ungureanu, "Recenzii și note bibliografice. Vasile Novac, Colonei argeșeni", in Argessis. Studii și Comunicări, Seria Istorie, Vol. XXI, 2012, p. 366
- ^ a b Scipione, "Reflexiuni asupra congresului învățătoresc", in Opinia, July 24, 1909, p. 2
- ^ a b Octavian Ungureanu, "Tudor Vladimirescu în conștiința argeșenilor. Momente și semnificații", in Argessis. Studii și Comunicări, Seria Istorie, Vol. VIII, 1999, p. 171
- ^ a b c Cernăianu, p. 4
- ^ Dobridor, p. 213; Vrânceanu, pp. 56–58, 61, 80. See also Paul, p. 1; Teodorescu, p. 110
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 59, 111
- ^ Dobridor, pp. 14–15
- ^ Dobridor, pp. 213–214; Vrânceanu, p. 58
- ^ Dobridor, p. 214; Vrânceanu, pp. 58–59
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 58–59
- ^ Cernăianu, p. 4; Vrânceanu, pp. 59–61
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 59–61. See also Paul, p. 1
- ^ Vrânceanu, p. 61
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 62–63
- ^ a b Neagoe, p. 510
- ^ a b c Neagoe, p. 511
- ^ Dobridor, p. 209
- ^ Dobridor, pp. 196, 211
- ^ Deaconu, p. 380
- ^ Vrânceanu, p. 72
- ^ Deaconu, pp. 380–381
- ^ Stoian, p. 40
- ^ Dobridor, p. 212; Neagoe, p. 511; Stoian, pp. 40–41
- ^ (in Romanian) Alin Ion, "Povestea incredibilă a unui ales al poporului cum nu vom mai găsi în România: Dincă Schileru, deputatul care venea în Parlament în straie populare", in Adevărul, Târgu Jiu edition, June 9, 2015
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 61–62
- ^ Ionescu, "Momente din lupta...", p. 517. See also Dobridor, p. 214
- ^ a b Vrânceanu, p. 62
- ^ Neagoe, p. 510. See also Paul, p. 1; Vrânceanu, p. 65
- ^ Deaconu, p. 381; Dobridor, pp. 14–15, 211–212; Neagoe, p. 511; Paul, p. 2; Scurtu (1980), p. 53. See also Stoian, p. 41; Vrânceanu, pp. 73–82
- ^ Stoian, pp. 41–42
- ^ Stoian, p. 41
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Scurtu (1980), p. 53
- ^ Dobridor, pp. 211–212
- ^ Deaconu, p. 381. See also Stoian, p. 41
- ^ a b c Paul, p. 2
- ^ Ionescu, "Momente din lupta...", pp. 513–517
- ^ Iosa, pp. 1419–1420. See also Niculae (1973), pp. 70–71
- ^ Iosa, p. 1426
- ^ Vrânceanu, p. 83
- ^ Deaconu, p. 381; Dobridor, p. 212; Neagoe, p. 511; Scurtu (1980), p. 53; Vrânceanu, p. 83
- ^ Paul, p. 2; Vrânceanu, p. 84
- ^ Deaconu, pp. 381–382; Dobridor, p. 212; Neagoe, p. 511; Scurtu (1980), p. 53; Vrânceanu, pp. 83–85
- ^ Ionescu, "Momente din lupta...", p. 517
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 83–85
- ^ Deaconu, pp. 381–382
- ^ Deaconu, p. 382
- ^ Deaconu, p. 383
- ^ Ionescu, "Momente din lupta...", p. 516
- ^ Deaconu, pp. 382–383
- ^ "Ultime informațiuni", in Epoca, October 15 (27), 1888, p. 3
- ^ "A 3a edițiune. Resultatul alegeri Col. III", in Epoca, November 30 (December 12), 1888, p. 3
- ^ "Dupe interpelări" and "Discursul Domnului Theodor Rosetti asupra rescoalei țeranilor", in Epoca, November 30 (December 12), 1888, pp. 1, 2
- România Liberă, February 22 (March 6), 1889, p. 2
- ^ a b "Fizionomia Camereĭ", in Lupta, February 22, 1889, p. 1
- ^ Eidelberg, p. 189
- România Liberă, April 6 (18), 1889, p. 1
- ^ "A 2a edițiune. Camera. Ședința de la 2 Decembre 1888", in Epoca, December 3 (15), 1888, p. 3
- ^ "Viața politică. Vechea tradiție 'țărănistă' și național-țărănismul de azi. Cine a fost 'precursorul' țărănismului?", in Universul, July 12, 1937, p. 11
- ^ a b Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște, "Inscripții pe soclu", in Adevărul, October 28, 1933, p. 1
- ^ Eidelberg, pp. 29, 106, 160–162, 233–234
- ^ Panu, p. 35. See also Scurtu (1980), p. 54
- ^ Panu, p. 35
- ^ "Indigenatele", in Revista Israelită, Issue 4/1889, pp. 88–89
- ^ Nicolescu, p. 46
- ^ "Informațiuni", in Epoca, February 4 (16), 1889, p. 2
- ^ "Camera. Ședința de la 17 Februarie 1889" and "Ultime informațiuni", in Epoca, February 18 (March 2), 1889, pp. 2–3
- ^ "Ultime informațiuni", in Epoca, February 15 (27), 1889, p. 3
- ^ Vasile Niculae, "Republica în concepția și acțiunea mișcării muncitorești și socialiste din România pînă la crearea P.C.R.", Vol. XVIII, Issue 5, 1972, p. 15
- ^ a b c (in Romanian) Enciclopedia Argeșului și Muscelului – D, at the University of Pitești Enciclopedia Argeșului și Muscelului site, p. 34
- ^ Neagoe, pp. 510, 511; Nicolescu, pp. 43–44, 47, 68; Paul, passim; Scurtu (1980), p. 53; Teodorescu, p. 111
- ^ Vrânceanu, p. 75
- ^ Deaconu, p. 381
- ^ a b c d e Cernăianu, p. 5
- ^ Deaconu, pp. 383–384
- ^ a b "Deputatul Dobrescu-Chitanță judecat de Timpul și Adevĕrul", in Voința Națională, September 12 (24), 1890, p. 2
- ^ a b Deaconu, p. 384
- ^ Iorga & Bacalbașa, pp. 165, 186–187
- ^ Cernăianu, p. 5; Nicolescu, p. 68
- ^ "Cărți noi. Tipografiile din România dela 1801 până azi de Gr. Crețu, profesor", in Noua Revistă Română, Issue 12/1911, p. 261. See also Paul, p. 2; Scurtu (1980), p. 53; Vrânceanu, p. 107
- ^ Alexandru Macedonski, "Notițele Literatoruluĭ. Banchiet Țĕrănesc", in Literatorul, Issue 6/1892, p. 16
- ^ Cernăianu, p. 5; Neagoe, pp. 510–511
- ^ Davidoiu, pp. 301–304
- ^ Iosa, p. 1425; Panu, p. 35
- ^ a b Satyr, "Satira zileĭ. Chitanțele lui CC. Lascarache", in Adevărul, May 2, 1893, p. 1
- ^ Nicolae Isar, "Învățămîntul în dezbaterile Parlamentului în anii 1892—1893", in Revista Istorică, Vol. I, Issue 3, March 1990, p. 267
- ^ Dobridor, p. 214; Vrânceanu, p. 62
- ^ a b "Fizionomia Camereĭ. Ploconul de 300,000 leĭ", in Lupta, November 26, 1892, pp. 1–2
- ^ a b c Bran, "Hoția de la Cameră" and Rigolo, "Satira zilei. Tamazlîcul parlamentar", in Adevărul, November 25, 1933, p. 1
- ^ Alexandru Vlahuță, Un an de luptă, pp. 27–30. Bucharest: Editura Librărieĭ Carol Müller, 1895
- ^ Panu, pp. 34–35; Vrânceanu, pp. 87–88
- ^ a b c "Cronica săptămâneĭ", in Foaia Populară, Issue 8/1900, pp. 2–3
- ^ Iorga & Bacalbașa, p. 186
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 101–106. See also Deaconu, pp. 384–385
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 106, 111–114
- ^ Vrânceanu, p. 112
- ^ "Informații", in Epoca, May 30, 1889, p. 2
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 114, 118
- ^ Scurtu (1980), p. 55
- ^ Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, Lumină tuturora... (Discursul Domnuluĭ B. Ștef. Delavrancea pronunțat în ședința Camereĭ de la 17 Martie 1895), pp. 3–8, 18–21, 35–37. Bucharest: Tipografia Voința Națională, 1895
- ^ Dobridor, p. 212
- ^ Dobridor, pp. 212–213
- ^ George Ungureanu, "File din gândirea militară românească. Viziunea politico-strategică asupra Dobrogei (de Nord) în perioada 1878–1913", in Gândirea Militară Românească, Issue 2/2020, p. 80
- ^ Brett, p. 31; Neagoe, pp. 511–512; Scurtu (1980), pp. 53–54
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 96–97
- ^ Niculae (1973), p. 72
- ^ Vrânceanu, p. 99
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 93–94
- ^ Vrânceanu, p. 92
- ^ a b "Rezultatele C. III Cameră", in Epoca, November 3, 1895, pp. 1–2
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Enciclopedia Argeșului și Muscelului – V, at the University of Pitești Enciclopedia Argeșului și Muscelului site, pp. 266–267
- ^ Iosa, pp. 1425–1426, 1429; Vrânceanu, pp. 100–101. See also Scurtu (1980), p. 54
- ^ Beu, pp. 123, 125
- ^ Deaconu, pp. 391–392
- ^ Simonescu, p. 93
- ^ a b Teodorescu, p. 111
- ^ Vrânceanu, p. 107
- ^ Ornea, pp. 24–25
- ^ Iosa, pp. 1425–1429. See also Eidelberg, p. 185; Niculae, p. 73
- ^ Ornea, p. 23
- ^ a b c d e Scurtu (1980), p. 54
- ISBN 978-973-88115-4-6
- ^ "Corpurile Legiuitoare. Camera Deputaților. Ședința de la 10 Martie (urmare). Interpelarea d-luĭ Dobrescu-Argeș", in Epoca, March 12, 1898, p. 3
- ^ Aurelian Chistol, "Aspecte legate de activitatea lui Ion I. C. Brătianu în fruntea Ministerului Lucrărilor Publice (31 martie 1897 – 30 martie 1899)", in Argesis. Studii și Comunicări, Seria Istorie, Vol. XVII, 2008, p. 208
- ^ Davidoiu, pp. 304–305
- ^ "Afacerea Dobrescu-Argeș", in Epoca, June 5, 1898, p. 3
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 120–121. See also Deaconu, pp. 389–390
- ^ Deaconu, pp. 383–386, 391–394; Vrânceanu, pp. 115–116
- ^ Deaconu, p. 387. See also Scurtu (1980), p. 54
- ^ Deaconu, p. 386
- ^ Brett, pp. 31–32; Dobridor, pp. 214–216; Ionescu, "Momente din lupta...", p. 517; Neagoe, p. 512; Simonescu, p. 93; Vrânceanu, pp. 115–119
- ^ Nicolae P. Leonăchescu, "Lichidarea 'Treimii proprietății' din Stroești-Argeș", in Argessis. Studii și Comunicări, Seria Istorie, Vol. VIII, 1999, p. 230
- ^ Ludo, p. 308
- ^ Ludo, pp. 308–309; Ionescu, "Momente din lupta...", pp. 516–517
- ^ Teodorescu, p. 110
- ^ Deaconu, p. 389
- ^ Beu, pp. 123–127
- ^ N. Leobeanu, "Dosarul lui Bogdan-Văcărești. 'Directorul ziarului Seara' autorul moral al unor măceluri țărănești", in Opinia, June 20, 1913, p. 2
- ^ Deaconu, p. 389; Vrânceanu, p. 117
- ^ Deaconu, pp. 389, 393
- ^ "Ultima oră", in Epoca, June 24, 1898, p. 3
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 117–118
- ^ "C. Dobrescu-Argeș și învățământul profesional", in Dreptatea, October 27, 1933, p. 2
- ^ Dobridor, pp. 214–216; Vrânceanu, pp. 122–124
- ^ Vrânceanu, p. 122. See also Scurtu (1980), p. 54
- ^ a b Vrânceanu, pp. 122–123
- ^ a b Deaconu, p. 390
- ^ Moisescu, p. 139
- ^ Deaconu, p. 390; Dobridor, pp. 214–216; Vrânceanu, pp. 123–125
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 124–125
- ^ Deaconu, pp. 390–391
- ^ Deaconu, p. 394
- ^ Vrânceanu, pp. 125–126. See also Deaconu, pp. 390, 394
- ^ Deaconu, p. 394; Vrânceanu, p. 126
- ^ Beu, pp. 121–122
- ^ Drăghicescu, p. 88. See also Beu, pp. 123–126, 135
- ^ Cernăianu, p. 5; Eidelberg, pp. 138–147, 184–189; Ionescu, "Bucureștii...", pp. 133–134, and "Momente din lupta...", p. 517; Neagoe, p. 512; Scurtu (1968), p. 512
- ^ a b Ion Roman, "Scriitorii și 1907. I. C. Vissarion și 'Lupii'", in Contemporanul, Issue 10/1957, p. 3
- ^ Eidelberg, pp. 135–136, 138–139, 146–147, 155, 184–187, 205–207, 210
- ^ Eidelberg, pp. 187–189, 205–228
- ^ Ionescu, "Bucureștii...", pp. 133–134
- ^ Ionescu, "Bucureștii...", p. 134
- ^ "Informații. Dosarul anchetei", in Opinia, March 24, 1907, p. 2
- ^ Scurtu (1968), p. 512; Vrânceanu, p. 107
- ^ Brett, pp. 31–32; Neagoe, p. 512
- ^ Aurel Popovici, "Spre democrație 'tot mai largă'. Mai ales în atențiunea d-luĭ C. Stere și a ziarului Viitorul. III", in Sămănătorul, Vol. VII, Issue 47, November 1908, pp. 1043–1044
- ^ Grigore Botez, Mihail Bordeianu, "Texte și documente. Scrisorile lui M. Sadoveanu către G. Ibrăileanu (II)", in Viața Românească, Vol. XVII, Issue 2, February 1964, p. 112
- ^ Scurtu (1968), pp. 512–518
- ^ Drăghicescu, pp. 88–89
- ^ Stoian, pp. 43–44
- ^ Moisescu, p. 140
- ^ a b Ion Mihalache, "C. Dobrescu-Argeș: promotorul partidului țărănesc", in Dreptatea, October 27, 1933, p. 1
- ^ "Deputatul țăranilor", in Magazin Istoric, February 1994, p. 7
- ^ Tudor Arghezi, "Vărul Mihalache", in Chemarea Tinerimei Române, Vol. IV, Issue 16, June 1929, p. 4
- ^ "Ultima oră. Corpurile Legiuitoare. Senatul", in Viitorul, February 14, 1916, p. 3
- ISBN 978-973-46-7993-5
- ISBN 978-973-46-7993-5
- ^ Stoian, p. 48
- ^ Simonescu, p. 94
- ^ Octavian Goga, "Odiseea unei cămăși", in Țara Noastră, Vol. V, Issue 25, June 1924, p. 768
- ^ Nicolescu, p. 43
- ^ Paul, pp. 1–2
- ^ Alexandru Saint-Georges, "Texte și documente. Activitatea de medalist a sculptorului Frederic Storck", in Revista Fundațiilor Regale, Issue 9/1943, pp. 627–628
- ^ "Actualitățile săptămânii", in Realitatea Ilustrată, Issue 353, November 1933, p. 5. See also Moisescu, p. 141
- ^ Endre Kakassy, "Mazsolás a parasztállam felé", in Brassói Lapok, June 1, 1936, p. 1
- ^ "Însemnări. Apelul d-lui Ion Mihalache la sărbătorirea fuziunii", in Țara de Mâine, Vol. II, Issues 9–10, September–October 1936, p. 212
- ^ Dr. P., "Studențimea, sub flamura lui Dobrescu-Argeș...", in Adevărul, January 31, 1937, p. 1
- ^ (in Romanian) Enciclopedia Argeșului și Muscelului – D, at the University of Pitești Enciclopedia Argeșului și Muscelului, p. 60
- ^ Henri H. Stahl, Pentru sat, pp. 67–68. Bucharest: Fundația Regele Carol I, [1939]
- ^ Ludo, pp. 308–309
- ^ Moisescu, p. 143
- ^ "O aniversare sub semnul întrebării", in Scînteia, September 2, 1968, p. 2
- România Liberă, May 20, 1969, p. 3
- ^ Nicolae P. Leonăchescu, "Monografia Vâlsănești – un sat pe Valea Vâlsanului, de Vasile P. Moise, între Capitoliu și Tarpeia", in Studii și Comunicări, Vol. VIII, 2015, pp. 548, 553. See also Scurtu (1980), p. 55
- ^ Deaconu, pp. 378–379
- ^ Marieta Bursuc, "La zi. 'Zilele culturii mușăteștene'", in Tribuna Școlii, Vol. III, Issue 120, December 1973, p. 10
- OCLC 601455562
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