Vasile Morțun | |
|---|---|
 Morțun in 1910 | |
| President of the Assembly of Deputies | |
| In office 11 December 1916 – 25 April 1918 | |
| Monarch | Ferdinand I of Romania |
| Preceded by | Mihail Pherekyde |
| Succeeded by | Constantin Meissner |
| Minister of Internal Affairs | |
| In office 4 January 1914 – 11 December 1916 | |
| Monarch | Ferdinand I of Romania |
| Preceded by | Take Ionescu |
| Succeeded by | Alexandru Constantinescu |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1860-11-30)November 30, 1860 |
| Died | July 20, 1919(1919-07-20) (aged 58) |
Vasile G. Morțun (November 30, 1860 – July 20, 1919) was aRomanian politician, playwright and prose writer.
Born inRoman, he came from a wealthyMoldavianboyar family,[1] and was ofArmenian origin.[2] After studying at the privateInstitutul Academic inIași and at the ParisianCollège Sainte-Barbe, he enrolled in the literature and philosophy faculties atParis andBrussels, but did not graduate.[1] He returned to Romania in 1885, and by 1892 had begun the passionate acquisition of an art collection that was famous in its day.[3] Morțun founded and led, alone or in collaboration withIoan Nădejde,Constantin Mille andVintilă Rosetti, numerous gazettes and magazines:Dacia viitoare,Muncitorul,Revista socială,Ciocoiul andÎnainte!. Beginning in 1885, he edited the literature section of the socialist magazineContemporanul. He also contributed toAdevărul,Almanahul social-democrat,Calendarul pozitivist,Critica socială,Drepturile omului,Evenimentul literar,Flacăra,Generația nouă,Literatură și știință,Lumea nouă,Lumea nouă științifică și literară,Munca,Revista democrației române,Rodica,Telegraful Român,Viața Românească andViața socială. Aside from political articles, he published prose poems that remained in the pages of various periodicals, articles on dramatic theory (Chestii teatrale, inContemporanul, 1887) and plays (Ștefan Hudici,Zulniea Hâncu, both 1891). He wrote a few translations and adaptations from Jules de Marthold (Pascal Fargeau, novel, 1882),Edmond Gondinet,Alexander Pushkin,Leo Tolstoy,Mikhail Lermontov andFyodor Dostoyevsky; these remained in the pages ofContemporanul. Morțun published an edition ofMihai Eminescu's work (Proză și versuri, 1890), which included several posthumous writings.[1]
A socialist journalist and activist, he was a leader of theRomanian Social Democratic Workers' Party and entered parliament on its lists, but was among its prominent members who joined theNational Liberal Party in 1899.[1][4] Beginning in January 1888, when he waselected to representRoman County as the first socialist in theAssembly of Deputies,[5] Morțun served multiple terms there,[1] and was itsPresident from December 1916 to April 1918.[4] Additionally, he entered theSenate in 1914. He wasMinister of Public Works from March 1907 to December 1910 andInterior Minister from January 1914 to December 1916, underDimitrie Sturdza andIon I. C. Brătianu.[4]
As Interior Minister, Morțun took part in theCrown Council meeting of August 1914, supporting Romania's neutrality in World War I; and in the session of August 1916, where he backedRomania's entry into the war on the side of theAllies. During the two years of neutrality, he led counterespionage efforts against theCentral Powers, who had numerous spies working in the country, and coordinated efforts by theRomanian Police to lay the groundwork for the eventualseizure of Transylvania from Austria-Hungary.[4] Once Romania entered the war, the ministry was involved in securing provisions for the army and ensuring public order, including in newly occupied territories.[6]
When the war started going badly for Romania as the autumn of 1916 wore on, the ministry was involved in organizing resistance to German-led occupation, destroying the petroleum infrastructure, sinking grain deposits in the Danube and sending theRomanian Treasure to Moscow.[7] When the army began retreating into Moldavia, Morțun was blamed for his handling of the material evacuation, in particular of the grain supply. He was also criticized for not working ahead of time to create an informants' network in potentially occupied areas. He exited the government right after theBattle of Bucharest resulted in the capital falling to the Central Powers and the national leadership moving to Iași. During his subsequent time as Assembly president, he oversaw the June 1917 adoption of reforms to theConstitution, providing for electoral andland reform, and the April 1918 ratification of theunion of Bessarabia with Romania.[8] He owned an estate inBroșteni,Neamț County, outside Roman; during the1907 peasants' revolt, a mob of some 400 peasants destroyed the house of its Jewish leaseholder.[9] Morțun himself, who lived to see much of his estate expropriated, died in Broșteni in 1919,[1] and was buried on the premises.[10]
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