The Fate of the Young Generation and the Legacy of Criterion

Bejan, Cristina A.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-20165-4_8

Cristina A. Bejan³

Part of the book series: Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe ((MOMEIDSEE))

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Abstract

In this chapter, Bejan traces the fates of the members of the Young Generation after WWII and the installation of communism in Romania. After examining those who escaped and had successful careers in exile (Eliade, Cioran and Ionesco), the chapter uncovers the diverse destinies of those left behind in Romania (Vulcănescu, Sebastian, Comarnescu, Tudor, Stancu, Noica and Sadova). The chapter explores what the Criterionists wrote about Criterion in their memoirs and correspondence. Then, the initial thesis question is considered, and the chapter addresses some general reasons fascism appealed to the Young Generation. Finally, this chapter states that the book can be a contribution to better understanding the complicated secrets of the intellectuals of Romania’s Golden Era.

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Notes

1.
Letter from Eugène Ionesco to Tudor Vianu, September 19, 1945, Paris. From Eugen Ionescu, Scrisori către Tudor Vianu, II (1936–1949), 274–275. A portion of the letter is also cited in English in Ioanid, ‘Introduction,’ MSJ, xvi.
2.
See Dennis Deletant, Communist Terror in Romania: Gheorghiu-Dej and the Police State, 1948–1965.
3.
Eliade, Jurnalul Portughez şi alte scrieri Vol. I. 137, September 23, 1942.
4.
Mac Linscott Ricketts, ‘Eliade’s First 500 Days in Exile,’ INTER LITTERAS ET TERRAS, Vol. 2. 162.
5.
Ibid., 161.
6.
ACNSAS CN Fond I 1515612, Dosar Nr. 205407 Vol. 2, f. 15.
7.
Ibid.
8.
Cioran quoted in Petreu, An Infamous Past, 245–246.
9.
Petreu, An Infamous Past, 133.
10.
Ibid., 185.
11.
Cioran quoted in Petreu, An Infamous Past, 244.
12.
Ionesco, Present Past Past Present, 45.
13.
Ibid., 42–43.
14.
Ibid., 51.
15.
Ibid., 65.
16.
Ionesco, Fragments of a Journal, 72.
17.
Ionesco, Present Past Past Present, 38.
18.
Ionesco, Fragments of a Journal, 93.
19.
Alexandru Climescu, ‘Law, Justice, and Holocaust Memory in Romania,’ Alexandru Florian, ed., Holocaust Public Memory in Postcommunist Romania, 93.
20.
Well-known communist prisons for intellectuals were the Sighet, Gherla and Aiud prisons and the Poarta Albă labour camp where prisoners constructed a canal between the Danube and the Black Sea.
21.
For a comprehensive analysis of Vulcănescu’s wartime activity and legacy, please see Alexandru Florian, ‘Mircea Vulcănescu, a Controversial Case,’ Alexandru Florian, ed., Holocaust Public Memory in Postcommunist Romania, 175–207.
22.
Ibid., 192. ‘The criminal investigation … began in April 1945. The trial lasted two years (September 1946 to October 1948).’
23.
BAR Ach. 17/2001 PCPA, XXXIV Imprimate 1 f. 61.
24.
Ibid., f. 54.
25.
AMNLR, Constantin Noica, Correspondence, Letters to Petru Comarnescu, 25201/10–11, November 21, 1949.
26.
AMNLR, Eugène Ionesco, Correspondence, Letters to Petru Comarnescu, 290/II/8, 25121/1–16, ff. 6–9, January 7, 1946, Paris.
27.
AMNLR, Petre Pandea, Correspondence, Letters to Petru Comarnescu, 291/III/3, 25210, September 6, 1946, Poiana-Tapului.
28.
AMNLR, Eugène Ionesco, Correspondence, Letters to Petru Comarnescu, 290/II/8, 25121/1–16, ff. 12–14, July 2, 1947, Paris.
29.
AMNLR, Mircea Eliade, Correspondence, Letters to Petru Comarnescu, 66/III/18, 25.155/1–15, f. 1, October 15, 1946, Paris, ‘It is such a shame you didn’t succeed in leaving for the States, where you would have been of great use.’ And ‘I regret enormously that you didn’t leave for America.’
30.
PCJ, 13–14 [pisica elastică].
31.
BAR Ach. 17/2001 APPC., XXXIV Imprimate 1, f. 28 (an invitation to an event in honor of Pushkin, by society ‘Trăiasca prietenia romano-sovietică!’); f. 31, f. 35, f. 36, f. 39 (the full program for the week of the festivities, at the end, a reading of a telegram from Stalin).
32.
Ibid., f. 35.
33.
Comarnescu’s PhD dissertation was translated into Romanian from English, expanded, published in 1946 and re-titled Kalokagathon. It did not receive the popular reception for which he had hoped, though it was praised by his close friends. Noica’s praise can be found in AMNLR Constantin Noica, Correspondence, Letters to Petru Comarnescu, 25.201/26–27, June 18, 1946 Bucharest.
34.
Petru Comarnescu, ‘Retrospective: Petru Comarnescu despre diaspora românească la 1966,’ Bucovina literară, 1–2/2005. Nicolae Cârlan, ed., 38–40.
35.
Gabriel Liiceanu, Păltiniş Diary: A Paideic Model in Humanist Culture, 211.
36.
ACNSAS CN Fond I 4664; Dosar Nr. 85321, f. 1.
37.
Liiceanu, Păltiniş Diary, 210.
38.
For the most comprehensive account of the Noica-Pillat trial, see Stelian Tănase. Anatomia mistificării. Procesul Noica-Pillat.
39.
ACNSAS CN Fond I 1515612 Dosar Nr. 205407 Vol. 2, f. 116. Letter dated January 17, 1972.
40.
ACNSAS CN Fond I 1515612 Dosar Nr. 205407 Vol. 1, f. 28. ‘Nota’ from September 4, 1978.
41.
Cioran quoted in Petreu, An Infamous Past, 245.
42.
ACNSAS CN Fond I 4664; Dosar Nr. 85321, ff. 73–85.
43.
Ibid., f. 73.
44.
Ibid., f. 102 (no. 2).
45.
Ibid., f. 161.
46.
ACNSAS MS Fond I 209489 Vol. 1, f. 154.
47.
ACNSAS MS Fond I 209489 Vol. 2, f. 3.
48.
ACNSAS MS Fond I 209489 Vol. 1, f. 96.
49.
Ibid.
50.
ACNSAS MS Fond I 209489 Vol. 2, f. 3.
51.
ACNSAS MS Fond I 209489 Vol. 1, f. 2.
52.
Ibid., f. 3, reverse.
53.
For more on the 1956 tour see Vladimir Tismaneanu and Cristian Vasile, ‘Turneul Teatrului Naţional la Paris din 1956: Secţia de Relaţii Externe, exilul şi raporturile culturale româno-franceze,’ Studii şi Materiale de Istorie Contemporană, serie nouă, Vol. 8 (2009): 193–206.
54.
Ibid.
55.
Ibid., ff. 97–101.
56.
ACNSAS MS Fond I 209489 Vol. 2, f. 3 reverse.
57.
ACNSAS MS Fond I 209489 Vol. 1, f. 2.
58.
Ibid., f. 98.
59.
Ibid., f. 99.
60.
Ibid., f. 3.
61.
ACNSAS MS Fond I 209489 Vol. 2, ff. 2–3.
62.
According to Molea, Marietta Sadova sau Arta de a trăi prin teatru, 7, Sadova only served three years in prison.
63.
Mircea Eliade, ‘Unpublished Journal.’ ff. 1208–1209. Manuscript on microfilm lent to me by Mac Linscott Ricketts, who ordered it from the University of Chicago Library.
64.
Ibid.
65.
Ibid., 1211.
66.
MSJ, 14. Sebastian refers to Leni as ‘a good girl.’
67.
MEAI, 216–217.
68.
MSJ, 85.
69.
AMNLR, Mircea Eliade, Correspondence. Letters to Petru Comarnescu. 66/III/18 25.155/1–15, f. 15, November 7, no year specified, Paris.
70.
Ricketts, Mircea Eliade: The Romanian Roots, Vol. 1, 551–552.
71.
AMNLR, Eugène Ionesco, Correspondence, Letters to Petru Comarnescu. 290/II/8, 25121/1–16, f. 4, February 2, 1940, Paris. In 1940 the South American nations were neutral in WWII. There was an abounding sense of potential and promise for the continent. In 1929 Argentina was one of the world’s ten wealthiest nations and in the 1930s, similar to Bucharest, Buenos Aires was known as ‘the Paris of South America.’
72.
AMNLR, Eugène Ionesco, Correspondence, 290/II/8, 25121/1–16, f. 10. April 6, 1947, Paris, unknown recipient, letter written in French.
73.
Călinescu, ‘Ionesco and Rhinoceros: Personal and Political Backgrounds,’ 397.
74.
Ibid., 145.
75.
Ibid., 53.
76.
Ionesco, Present Past Past Present, 67–68.
77.
Cioran quoted in Petreu, An Infamous Past, 243.
78.
Richard Wolin, The Seduction of Unreason.
79.
Petreu, ‘Generation ’27 Between Holocaust and Gulag,’ 24.
80.
Jianu, ‘In Exclusivitate: Amintiri despre Criterion,’ 1.
81.
Mac Linscott Ricketts, Former Friends and Forgotten Facts, 145.
82.
Cioran quoted in Petreu, An Infamous Past, 247.
83.
PCJ, 77.

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Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
Cristina A. Bejan

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Bejan, C.A. (2019). The Fate of the Young Generation and the Legacy of Criterion. In: Intellectuals and Fascism in Interwar Romania. Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20165-4_8

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20165-4_8
Published: 24 August 2019
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-20164-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-20165-4
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