Poporanism

VR 1/33, Boia (00, 10), Bucur, Călinescu, Cernat, Cioculescu, Lovinescu, Matei, Negrici, Niculae etc., Ornea, Sandqvist, Tismăneanu, Veiga, Vianu

Poporanism (from the dated Romanian poporan, meaning "of the people") was a left-wing agrarian, collectivist and populist ideology, cultivated by various Romanian intellectuals between ca. 1890 and 1920. With its roots in the heterodox interpretation of Marxism, equally influenced by the Narodnik movement and the sociological observations of Romanian Marxist Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, Poporanism proposed a "third way" project for the future. Poporanist leaders, such as Constantin Stere, Garabet Ibrăileanu and Mihail Sadoveanu, reacted against modernization and industrialization by endorsing "national specificity" and the rural basis of Romania's economy, while demanding an extensive land reform to benefit the numerically dominant peasant class. Theirs was principally a regional Moldavian movement, centered on the city of Iaşi—where Poporanists put out the influential magazine Viaţa Românească.

As a socially conservative form of left-wing nationalism, Poporanism was seen as "reactionary" by the more radical socialists. Nonetheless, the Poporanists steadily distinguished themselves from the right-wing agrarians, such as Nicolae Iorga and the Sămănătorul group, by promoting cultural inclusiveness and cooperation between ethnic groups. Through Stere and Ibrăileanu, Poporanism preserved links with Romania's liberal establishment, using their influence to contain the socialist movement and attracting socialists into the governing National Liberal Party (PNL). The agrarian-socialist wing of the PNL was frustrated in its attempt to democratize the party from within, and was unable to prevent the peasants' revolt of 1907.

The Poporanists' external policy was essentially Russophobic, supporting the emancipation struggle in Bessarabia, and denouncing Tsarist autocracy. By the time of World War I, Poporanism had sided with the "Germanophiles" and neutralists, finding itself at odds with the majority of public opinion. The movement then mutated into a corporative agrarianism, which became the official ideology of the anti-PNL Peasants' Party, and which survived to inspire groups still active in the 21st century. A Poporanist subcurrent moved to the far left, and, from 1948, its members were fellow travelers of the Romanian communist regime.

In Romanian culture, Poporanism represents a form of rural-themed traditionalism, often depicting the struggles of the Romanian peasantry and urban underclass. Ridiculed by, and ridiculing, the modernists, it nevertheless achieved near-universal recognition with Sadoveanu's parallel work as a novelist. Viaţa Românească, which moved beyond Poporanism with Ibrăileanu's retirement in the 1930s, survives as a major cultural institution.

Interwar "Peasantism"

Directory Council of Transylvania, effectively an autonomous regional government, which governed Transylvania following the PNR social program, before being dissolved by the central authorities in April 1920.^[1] The affair created resentment among PNR sympathizers, many of whom became Transylvanian autonomists or regional separatists.^[2]

The PNŢ's eclecticism created contacts with various other political entities and currents. The party had a working alliance with militant eugenicists from Transylvania^[3]

Carol II

Guided by Maniu, the PNŢ reacted negatively to Carol's authoritarianism. Over the 1930s, the Peasantists' support base was eroded, as dissident wings and conjectural supporters rallied under the king.^[4] A serious conflict opposed Maniu to his fellow Transylvanian Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, who established a right-populist answer to Peasantism, and then moved to the far right with his Romanian Front.^[5]

References

Maria Bucur, Eugenie şi modernizare în România interbelică, Polirom, Iaşi, 2005. ISBN 973-681-806-3

^ Bucur, p.57-60, 256-261, 266, 314
^ Bucur, p.60, 265-267
^ Bucur, p.57-67, 79, 124-125, 230, 256-273, 294-295, 315, 339
^ Bucur, p.62-63, 67, 294-295
^ Bucur, p.256, 339-340

[1] Bucur, p.57-60, 256-261, 266, 314

[2] Bucur, p.60, 265-267

[3] Bucur, p.57-67, 79, 124-125, 230, 256-273, 294-295, 315, 339

[4] Bucur, p.62-63, 67, 294-295

[5] Bucur, p.256, 339-340

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