Sfarmă-Piatră
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Sfarmă-Piatră (pronounced
Noted for its contemptuous style of journalism and its recourse to violent language, Sfarmă-Piatră launched press campaigns against various figures who advocated
Initially adverse to King Carol II and attempting a rapprochement with the fascist Iron Guard, it came to support Carol's National Renaissance Front after 1938. During World War II, it switched its position, offering to back to the Guard's National Legionary regime and finally to that of Conducător Ion Antonescu. The 1941 edition of Sfarmă-Piatră is remembered for welcoming Operation Barbarossa and the Iași pogrom, and for circulating antisemitic canards. The paper was ultimately shut down after Antonescu's fall in 1944, and its staff either went into hiding or was prosecuted for various political crimes.
History
Beginnings
The paper was a successor to Nichifor Crainic's daily Calendarul. The latter had been shut down by the authorities in December 1933, just after Romanian Premier Ion G. Duca was murdered by the Iron Guard's Nicadori death squad. By then, Dragoș Protopopescu, the managing editor of Calendarul, had become a close associate of the Guard.[2] Together with Protopopescu, with Cuvântul journalist Nae Ionescu, and with other far-right supporters in the press, Crainic was arrested on charges of having morally instigated the killing. They faced trial on such charges in 1934. Still, they were eventually acquitted.[3] On the occasion, Crainic and the others publicly distanced themselves from the Guard and its leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, but, at various times, switched back to supporting Codreanu's politics.[4] By then, Crainic was also putting an end to his brief association with the PNC. This was the start of internecine conflicts within Romania's radical right, highlighted when Crainic criticized Alexandru Vaida-Voevod (whose own right-wing party, the minor Romanian Front, was about to merge into the PNC).[5]
Crainic sought to revive Calendarul, but his attempts were frustrated by successive governments down to 1938.[4] As such, Sfarmă-Piatră saw print on November 14, 1935, once Crainic received his funding from sympathizer Stelian Popescu.[4] In its first issue, it proclaimed a commitment to ethnic nationalism. Sfarmă-Piatră also produced a manifesto targeting corruption, stating that it was time to "obliterate those rookeries that the naive see as temples and the con artists claim are eternal", while stating that its goal was to bring down "the freckled dragons" of Romanian political life.[4]
According to literary historian
Sfarmă-Piatră constantly popularized the claim that Romania was subject to a Jewish invasion and featured articles in which Jews who took on Romanian-sounding names were referred to under their original ones, seeking to brand and marginalize them.
From early on, Sfarmă-Piatră also made a point of attacking the political establishment, and in particular members or former leaders of the
As noted by researcher
Sfarmă-Piatră, modernism and traditionalism
Sfarmă-Piatră regularly featured appeals to rescue
Published a year after Bucur's, Ovidiu Papadima's contributions were also turning on Lovinescu. Announcing to the world that "the era of unforgiving judgments is approaching", Papadima accused Sburătorul of having engineered "spiritual decay" within a modernist "invasion" and hoped that, like the intrusion of "foreign capital" on the local market, such ideas would be reversed.[16] Papadima identified the enemy in both culture and economy: "the rapacious claws of the Judaic spirit."[6][16] Ridiculing Lovinescu as "a desk sociologist" with "the temperament of a subdued ruminant", unable to resist "modernist dares", Papadima concluded that Jewish intellectuals were exploiting Lovinescu's vanities for their own benefit.[16] Within the group of Lovinescu manipulators, Papadima nominated Sburătorul Jewish authors Benjamin Fondane, Camil Baltazar, Ilarie Voronca and Felix Aderca.[16] Another such article mockingly twisted the modernist doyen's name into Oegen Lovinescu, and referred to his elder colleague Pompiliu Constantinescu as Fonfăilă Constantinescu (from fonf, "mouth-breather").[6][17] The campaign against Sburătorists became a common feature of the far right newspapers, and Sfarmă-Piatră continued to host articles where Lovinescu was denounced as "histrionic" and "the falsifier of Romanian culture".[16]
Criticism of Mihail Sadoveanu was also regularly found in the radical right-wing press from 1936 after the novelist took on managerial offices at Adevărul and Dimineața newspapers. Sadoveanu, a traditionalist among the Poporanists, much celebrated for his
Religious agenda and anti-"pornography" campaign
In opposition to modernity, the newspaper promoted a rural ethos and publicized calls for a Christian revival. Vintilă Horia was at the time noted for promoting a neo-traditionalist artistic credo. His articles for the Sfarmă-Piatră saw modern civilization as ungodly and dehumanizing, seeking a revival of the ancient ways (as illustrated by Horia's own travelogue of the
Crainic, a trained theologian and expert on
In 1936–1937, Papadima and Vintilă Horia used Sfarmă-Piatră to denounce those writers who, in their view, had authored
Like Gândirea and other publications from the same ideological field, Sfarmă-Piatră issued strong criticism of Tudor Arghezi, whose work bridged the gap between modernism and traditionalism. The controversy centered on Arghezi's volume Flori de mucigai ("Mildew Flowers"): after publishing an article in which he declared himself dissatisfied with the newly found experimental focus in Arghezi's literature, Horia returned with a piece denouncing the older writer for his "willing adhesion to pornography" and "treason" of the traditionalist guidelines.[29] He described Arghezi's modern style as "bloated and muddy".[6][30] Horia asserted: "[when it comes to Arghezi,] no insult is too much, no curse word is at fault."[30]
In April 1938, Papadima signed a congratulatory article addressed to the justice system. This came after a tribunal ordered avant-garde writer Geo Bogza to be imprisoned for publishing some frankly erotic poems.[31] On the occasion, Papadima furnished a list of other writers who, he claimed, were guilty of that offense: Aderca, H. Bonciu, and Max Blecher.[31] The text referred to the former two solely under their Jewish names (respectively, Froim Aderca and Haimovici Bonciu), which neither were using in their literary careers.[31]
Early rivalries within the far right
One of the campaigns launched by Sfarmă-Piatră involved attacks on the
Writing for the newspaper in 1937, Crainic complained that, while antisemitic, A. C. Cuza was still exclusively pro-democracy. He stated his own belief in the totalitarian method: "And then how can Cuzism be democratic, if it is antisemitic? The 'elimination' of kikes through democracy? But what reasonable political thinker could conceive of such an aberration, other than Mr. A. C. Cuza?"[35] The same year, after that program had been rebutted by corporatist ideologue Mihail Manoilescu in the magazine Buna Vestire, effectively an Iron Guard platform, Crainic returned with a Sfarmă-Piatră editorial expressing deep disappointment.[36] He still took care to note that the ethnocratic project model was not a "chromatic imitation" of Nazi German or Italian fascist totalitarianism, but his newspaper regularly featured homages to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.[37] In one article of this series, Crainic himself referred to Mussolini as "one of the greatest educators of mankind".[34]
Although Nichifor Crainic attempted to unify the far right movement around himself, and create a "Christian Workers' Party",
More enthusiastic about Mussolini than he was about Hitler, and dreaming of a fascist communion of all Romance peoples, Crainic was also disappointed that Codreanu was openly supporting Nazism.[41] Believing that the Nazi attitudes were best suited to the "Nordic" psychology, Crainic stated: "the Romanian would err profoundly if he were to deny the virtues of our Latinism."[41] With the start of the Spanish Civil War, the paper was staunchly supportive of the Nationalists, and published in translation the memoirs of Alfonso Ruiz de Grijalba.[42]
At the time, Protopopescu left Crainic's enterprise and became manager of Manoilescu's Buna Vestire.
Just before the 1937 election, when the Iron Guard, the PNC and other far right parties competed against each other, Crainic again deplored factionalism, calling for a unified bloc against the political left.[46] The election had a uniquely indecisive result, and King Carol II nominated Goga's party (the fourth-running) to form the new cabinet. Crainic switched his backing to the PNC, applauding from the side its introduction of racial discrimination policies.[47] Sfarmă-Piatră oscillated for two more months, during which the PNC and its Lăncieri paramilitary units fought Codreanu's movement over control of the cities. In January 1938, Crainic's column celebrated the Iron Guard, referring to its Legionaries as the real victors in the 1937 election (where they had placed third), praising them for their youth and supposedly universal social appeal, and claiming that they best represented his ideal of nationalist unity.[47] His piece called the Guard's rise "a phenomenon that nothing shall be able to curb from now on."[47]
Less than a month later, King Carol decided to end his partnership with the PNC and to depose Premier Goga. In what Ornea characterizes as an "opportunistic" move, Sfarmă-Piatră claimed that the Goga cabinet had shown itself to be "noisy, superficial and utterly unprepared".
1938 decline and support for King Carol
In February–June 1938, Crainic was absent from among Sfarmă-Piatră's staff, dedicating himself entirely to his work on Porunca Vremii.[48] In his absence, Sfarmă-Piatră became a tribune for some younger and more radical essayists who, as a common trait, identified themselves with the ancient Dacians more than with the Latins (see Origin of the Romanians, Dacianism). The signs of this change were already present in Horia's account of his trek through the mountains,[21] and in Botta's political essays. Their justification of indifferent death cited the sacrificial Dacian cult of Zalmoxis.[49] In parallel contributions to Gândirea, Botta outlined his theory about the survival of Dacian and "Thracian" identities within the modern-day Romanian man. His views were highly controversial, being rated by other commentators as "Thracomania"[50] and "obsession".[51] Other than Botta, the Dacianist category at Sfarmă-Piatră included Simion Dimancea, who, in a 1938 issue of Sfarmă-Piatră, commented on Romania's cultural future: "Will the Latin style predominate, or will the Dacian one? Both. However, the Dacian one will shine more majestically: it is at home."[52] At the time, the Sfarmă-Piatră board included poet and essayist Ștefan Baciu, who contributed literary notices.[53]
Upon Crainic's return, the magazine was struggling with both financial difficulties and the
Meanwhile, a government backlash decimated the Iron Guard. The authorities killed Codreanu in custody, after which the Guard's surviving lower echelon turned to a relentless campaign of violence. In January 1939, Crainic and Sfarmă-Piatră again threw their support behind the authorities: condemning all political assassinations ordered by Codreanu's successor
Sfarmă-Piatră reemerged, again as a newspaper, on December 22 of the same year, when it continued to support Carol and his dictatorship.
World War II politics
In late 1940, Carol's regime succumbed to the loss of
The magazine was still in print after the January 1941
Horia and the other Sfarmă-Piatră men also offered their support to the new wave of antisemitic repression, enacted on Antonescu's orders. Their role as instigators was recorded during the June 1941 pogrom, carried out in the eastern city of Iași: Leizer Finchelstein, the Jewish employee of a newsstand and pogrom survivor, recalled that the Romanian authorities had explicitly asked him to distribute and display Sfarmă-Piatră, alongside Porunca Vremii, in the months before violence erupted.[64] On the eve of the massacre, Crainic's paper publicized the official version of the events, under the misleading headline: "500 Judeo-communists Who Shot at Romanian and German Troops, Executed in Iași".[63] The action was further commended in Declinul iudaismului ("The Decline of Judaism"), an editorial piece by Vintilă Horia. It argued that Romania was fighting off a "universal Jewish dictatorship", and thus supporting the emancipation of Russian Christians.[65]
In July of that year, Sfarmă-Piatră hosted an article by a V. Beneș. It described in detail the "Antijudaic and antimasonic policy" of
By that stage, the Sfarmă-Piatră Dacianists had established a new cell around Dacia, a semi-official magazine co-edited by Botta.[50][51] Their activity there was touched by scandal, once Botta questioned the alternative Dacianism of philosopher Lucian Blaga. Blaga offered his irate and politically-tinged reply in Timpul newspaper; a duel between the two writers was narrowly avoided.[50][51]
Posterity
Aftermath
The newspaper was eventually disestablished later in the war: following the change of fortunes and the start of
Protopopescu distanced himself from the Guard as early as April 1938, and lived in fear of retribution.[73] He committed suicide by throwing himself under an elevator, before Securitate operatives managed to apprehend him.[74] In contrast, Pan M. Vizirescu escaped a prison sentence by hiding in an attic for a period of 23 years.[75] Never completely rehabilitated under communist law, he remained a vocal supporter of Codreanu's ideas well into old age.[75] Papadima, kept in prison from 1952 to 1955, only regained his right of signature in 1971, becoming a widely respected folklorist and cultural historian.[69] Although noted by his contemporaries as an outspoken follower of the Guard,[51] Dan Botta was merely ignored by the communists or prevented from publishing until his death in 1958.[71] According to one account, at least one Sfarmă-Piatră journalist was recovered by Zaharia Stancu, head of the state-sponsored Writers' Union. Stancu, who had debuted with Crainic's press before switching to leftist politics, was a self-declared "enemy" of Sfarmă-Piatră's fascist stance, but refused to "chase away like dogs" any colleague in despair.[76]
Other members of the Sfarmă-Piatră group, whom the war's end caught on the other side of the Iron Curtain, escaped the political backlash altogether. Gregorian avoided repatriation, and, in contrast with Crainic, was eventually employed by the American-financed Radio Free Europe.[8] The self-exiled Horia pursued a successful literary career in Western Europe until 1960, when revelations of his fascist past, including his Sfarmă-Piatră articles, prevented him from receiving The Goncourt.[63] Recovered as editor of the newspaper Libertatea, Ștefan Baciu became affiliated to the Social Democratic anti-communist faction, and, appointed to a diplomatic posting in Bern, defected to the West.[77] He worked as a writer and academic in Latin America, Seattle, and ultimately Honolulu. He was kept under surveillance by the Securitate, which repeatedly claimed that he was secretly an Iron Guard affiliate.[78]
Posthumous controversies
A decade after the
Around 2000, the creation of minor Iron Guard-inspired groups brought the creation of an online newspaper, also called Sfarmă-Piatră. As noted by political scientist Gabriel Andreescu, this is one of several strictly online projects of pro-Legionary activists trying to gain exposure in the mainstream media—in this case, the publisher is a "George Manu Foundation".[82] Similarly, educationist Ștefan Popenici suggested that, against anti-defamation legislation, the deregulated web could still foster "hatefilled" sites, from sfarma-piatra.com and Noua Dreaptă's homepage to a Romanian electronic version of NSDAP/AO (1972).[83] Media analyst William Totok additionally noted that the new Sfarmă-Piatră, a "pro-Sima" venture, was partly dedicated to combating other factions that claim to represent the Guard's legacy.[84] The publication sat on the far right of the Bessarabian reunification movement, and publicized an appeal (seen as "revisionistic" by Andreescu) for Romania not to recognize an independent Moldova.[85]
According to Michael Shafir, its circulation as of 2003 was "probably minuscule".[7] It was still existing in 2009, and, through a Syndikat Z network, maintained connections with other far right circles in Europe (German People's Union, Workers' Party of Social Justice) and North America.[86]
Notes
- ^ Ornea, pp. 245, 439
- ^ Bălu, pp. 58–59; Clark, pp. 118, 136–138, 160–161, 201–202
- ^ Ornea, pp. 244–245
- ^ a b c d e f g Ornea, p. 245
- ^ Ornea, pp. 245–246, 255–258
- ^ a b c d e f g (in Romanian) Ruxandra Cesereanu, "Zavistia. Imaginarul lingvistic violent al extremei drepte românești", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 109, March–April 2002
- ^ a b Michael Shafir, "Varieties of Antisemitism in Post-Communist East Central Europe. Motivations and Political Discourse", in the Central European University's Jewish Studies Yearbook, 2003, p. 182
- ^ a b c (in Romanian) Nicolae Manolescu, "Câteva precizări cu privire la George Ivașcu" Archived 2018-01-26 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 51–52/2011
- ^ Final Report, p. 184
- ^ Ornea, p. 398
- ^ Ornea, pp. 245, 246
- ^ Bălu, pp. 59–60
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Valeriu Râpeanu, "Pro și Contra Nicolae Titulescu: Ion Petrovici: 'O autentică strălucire intelectuală'; N. Iorga: 'Profesorul unei universități căreia n-a avut timp să-i consacre ostenelile sale' ", in Curierul Național, January 18, 2003
- ^ (in Romanian) Valeriu Râpeanu, "Nichifor Crainic despre Nicolae Titulescu: 'Gloria lui internațională era mândria națională' " Archived 2017-11-10 at the Wayback Machine, in Curierul Național, January 11, 2003
- ^ a b Ornea, pp. 438–439
- ^ a b c d e Ornea, p. 439
- ^ Ornea, p. 441
- ^ Ornea, p. 459
- ^ a b c d Ornea, p. 463
- ^ Ornea, p. 464
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Cristian Radu, " 'Sentimentul românesc al ființei' în opera lui Vintilă Horia"[permanent dead link], in Tribuna, Nr. 150, December 2008, p. 13
- December 1 University of Alba Iulia's Philologica Yearbook, 2000
- ^ (in Romanian) "Oameni cari văd", in Vestitorul, Nr. 4/1937, p. 40 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University Transsylvanica Online Library)
- ^ (in Romanian) M. T. C., "La bloc slav, bloc latin", in Vestitorul, Nr. 2/1937, p. 14 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University Transsylvanica Online Library)
- ^ a b Dan Dungaciu, "Maglavit – un test pentru societatea românească", in Historia, Nr. 103, July 2010, p. 22
- ^ Ornea, pp. 446–447
- ^ Ornea, p. 179
- ^ Ornea, p. 452
- ^ Ornea, pp. 447–448
- ^ a b Ornea, p. 448
- ^ a b c Ornea, p. 451
- ^ Ornea, pp. 246, 257–262
- ^ Ornea, pp. 246, 250, 258–262
- ^ a b Ornea, p. 246
- ^ Ornea, p. 262
- ^ a b c Ornea, p. 263
- ^ Ornea, pp. 246, 252
- ^ Clark, p. 161
- ^ Ornea, pp. 246, 248
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Andrei Oișteanu, "Mircea Eliade, între ortodoxism și zalmoxism", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 127, July–August 2002
- ^ a b Ornea, p. 252
- ^ Clark, p. 212
- ^ Bălu, p. 60; Clark, pp. 161–162
- ^ Clark, p. 161; Ornea, pp. 246, 263
- ^ Fănel Teodorașcu, "Judgments and Prejudices on the Journalistic Status of Pamfil Șeicaru", in the Danubius University Acta Universitatis Danubius, Nr. 1/2010, pp. 97, 99
- ^ Ornea, pp. 246–247
- ^ a b c d e f Ornea, p. 247
- ^ Ornea, pp. 247–248
- ^ Merlo, pp. 79–80
- ^ a b c (in Romanian) George Achim, "Dan Botta și ideea specificului național", in Viața Românească, Nr. 3–4/2009
- ^ a b c d (in Romanian) Ion Simuț, "Dan Botta și Lucian Blaga - idei în litigiu" Archived 2017-11-10 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 10/2005
- ^ Merlo, p. 56
- ^ (in Romanian) Miron Neagu, "Din arhiva Emil Giurgiuca" Archived 2017-11-10 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 51–52/2006
- ^ a b c d e Ornea, p. 248
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Ștefan Baciu, "Cronici germane. Cuvânt de început", in Universul Literar, Nr. 43/1939, p. 2 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University Transsylvanica Online Library)
- ^ Ornea, pp. 248–249, 379
- ^ Ornea, pp. 248–249
- ^ a b c d e Ornea, p. 249
- ^ Spiridon & Toader, p. 163
- ^ Ornea, p. 250
- ^ Final Report, pp. 92, 96; Voicu, pp. 216, 230
- ^ Final Report, p. 96; Laszlo, passim
- ^ a b c d Laszlo, p. 9
- ^ Cioflâncă, p. 248
- ^ Laszlo, pp. 9–10
- ^ Voicu, p. 230
- ^ Laszlo, p. 10
- ^ (in Romanian) Pavel Țugui, "George Ivașcu, cronicar de război, la ziarul Vremea (1941–1944). II" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 18/2013
- ^ a b c d e (in Romanian) Alex. Ștefănescu, "Scriitori arestați (1944–1964) (I)" Archived 2012-08-04 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 23/2005
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Ioan Stanomir, "Memorie, exil și istorie" Archived 2012-02-10 at the Wayback Machine, in Idei în Dialog, Nr. 8 (11)/August 2005
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Ion Simuț, "Antologia demnității scriitorului român" Archived 2017-11-10 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 32/2008
- ^ (in Romanian) Ion Cristoiu, "Securitatea, un bun istoric literar" Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine, in Jurnalul Național, September 2, 2005
- ^ Bălu, pp. 60, 62
- ^ Bălu, pp. 62–63; Ion Papuc, "Ceea ce știu" Archived 2013-10-02 at the Wayback Machine, in Convorbiri Literare, January 2006
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Iulia Popovici, "Sociologia militans" Archived 2017-11-10 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 45/2003
- ^ (in Romanian) Constantin Coroiu, "Scriitorii și moara istoriei" Archived 2017-11-10 at the Wayback Machine, in Cultura, Nr. 113
- ^ Spiridon & Toader, pp. 162–163
- ^ Spiridon & Toader, pp. 163–164
- ^ (in Romanian) Paul Cernat, "Lumini și umbre", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 292, October 2005
- ^ Laszlo, passim
- ^ (in Romanian) Geo Șerban, "2,830 kg", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 313, March 2006
- ^ Andreescu, pp. 16–17
- ISBN 978-1-56518-242-4
- ^ (in Romanian) William Totok, "Sacrificarea lui Antonescu pe altarul diplomației (II)", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 57, July 2001
- ^ Andreescu, pp. 18–19
- ^ (in German) Wilhelm Heitmeyer, Dierk Borstel, Andreas Grau, Sandra Legge, Claudia Luzar, Julia Marth, Analysen und Handlungsvorschläge zum Rechtsextremismus in Dortmund[permanent dead link], Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence, Bielefeld, 2009, p. 27
References
- Final Report of the ISBN 973-681-989-2
- ISBN 973-86239-0-1
- (in Romanian) Andi Bălu, "Dragoș Protopopescu: Cronologie", in ISBN 978-606-8366-15-9
- Roland Clark, Sfîntă tinerețe legionară. Activismul fascist în România interbelică, Polirom, Iași, 2015. ISBN 978-973-46-5357-7
- (in Romanian) Laszlo Alexandru, "O minciună scandaloasă", in Tribuna, Nr. 107, February 2007, pp. 9–10
- (in Italian) Roberto Merlo, "Dal mediterraneo alla Tracia: spirito europeo e tradizione autoctona nella saggistica di Dan Botta", in the Romanian Academy Philologica Jassyensia, Nr. 2/2006, pp. 49–83
- ISBN 973-9155-43-X
- (in Romanian) Raluca Nicoleta Spiridon, Mihaela Toader, "Sub lupa Securității. Ștefan Baciu – un destin al exilului românesc (1918–1993)", in Caietele CNSAS, Nr. 2/2010, pp. 161–173
- ISBN 973-46-0497-X:
- George Voicu, "Tragedia evreilor ieșeni în presa epocii: parafraza mediatică a versiunii oficiale", pp. 215–233
- Adrian Cioflâncă, "Mărturia lui Leizer Finchelstein, supraviețuitor al celui de-al doilea 'tren al morții' ", pp. 247–255