Mihail Sadoveanu | |
|---|---|
 1949 photograph | |
| Born | (1880-11-05)5 November 1880 |
| Died | 19 October 1961(1961-10-19) (aged 80) |
| Resting place | Bellu Cemetery,Bucharest,Romania |
| Pen name | Mihai din Pașcani, M. S. Cobuz |
| Occupation | novelist, short story writer, journalist, essayist, translator, poet, civil servant, activist, politician |
| Language | Romanian |
| Nationality | Romanian |
| Genre | historical novel,adventure novel,biographical novel,political novel,psychological novel,crime fiction,memoir,travel literature,nature writing,fantasy,reportage,biography,sketch story,children's literature,lyric poetry |
| Literary movement | Realism,Social realism,Naturalism,Sămănătorul,Poporanism,Socialist realism |
| Years active | 1892 – 1952 |
| Spouses | Ecaterina Bâlu; Valeria Mitru |
| Children | |
| President of the Presidium of theGreat National Assembly of thePeople's Republic of Romania | |
| In office 7 January 1958 – 11 January 1958 Serving with Anton Moisescu | |
| Preceded by | Petru Groza |
| Succeeded by | Ion Gheorghe Maurer |
| Head of state of Romania | |
| In office 30 December 1947 – 13 April 1948 | |
| Preceded by | Michael I(asKing of Romania) |
| Succeeded by | Constantin Ion Parhon(as President of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly) |
| President of the Assembly of Deputies of Romania | |
| In office 5 December 1946 – 24 February 1948 | |
| Preceded by | Alexandru Vaida-Voevod |
| Succeeded by | Gheorghe Apostol(as President of the Great National Assembly of the People's Republic of Romania) |
| President of the Senate of Romania | |
| In office 18 June 1931 – 10 June 1932 | |
| Preceded by | Traian Bratu |
| Succeeded by | Neculai Costăchescu |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Romanian Communist Party(1944–1961) |
| Other political affiliations | National Renaissance Front Agrarian Union Party National Agrarian Party National Liberal Party–Brătianu People's Party |
| Awards | Lenin Peace Prize |
| Signature |  |
Mihail Sadoveanu (Romanian:[mihaˈilsadoˈve̯anu]; occasionally referred to asMihai Sadoveanu; 5 November 1880 – 19 October 1961) was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and political figure, who twice served as actinghead of state for thecommunist republic (1947–1948 and 1958). One of the most prolificRomanian-language writers, he is remembered mostly for hishistorical andadventure novels, as well as for hisnature writing. An author whose career spanned five decades, Sadoveanu was an early associate of the traditionalist magazineSămănătorul, before becoming known as aRealist writer and an adherent to thePoporanist current represented byViața Românească journal. His books, critically acclaimed for their vision of age-old solitude and natural abundance, are generally set in thehistorical region ofMoldavia, building on themes from Romania'smedieval andearly modern history. Among them areNeamul Șoimăreștilor ("The Șoimărești Family"),Frații Jderi ("The Jderi Brothers") andZodia Cancerului ("Under the Sign of the Crab"). WithVenea o moară pe Siret... ("A Mill Was Floating down theSiret..."),Baltagul ("The Hatchet") and some other works of fiction, Sadoveanu extends his fresco to contemporary history and adapts his style to thepsychological novel,Naturalism andSocial realism.
A traditionalist figure whose perspective on life was a combination ofnationalism andHumanism, Sadoveanu moved betweenright- andleft-wing political forces throughout theinterwar period, while serving terms inParliament. Rallying withPeople's Party, theNational Agrarian Party, and theNational Liberal Party-Brătianu, he was editor of the leftist newspapersAdevărul andDimineața, and was the target of a violentfar right press campaign. AfterWorld War II, Sadoveanu became a political associate of theRomanian Communist Party. He wrote in favor of theSoviet Union andStalinism, joined theSociety for Friendship with the Soviet Union and adoptedSocialist realism. Many of his texts and speeches, including the political novelMitrea Cocor and the famous sloganLumina vine de la Răsărit ("The Light Arises in the East"), are also viewed aspropaganda in favor ofcommunization.
A founding member of theRomanian Writers' Society and later President of theRomanian Writers' Union, Sadoveanu was also a member of theRomanian Academy since 1921 and a recipient of theLenin Peace Prize for 1961. He was alsoGrand Master of theRomanian Freemasonry during the 1930s. The father ofProfira andPaul-Mihu Sadoveanu, who also pursued careers as writers, he was the brother-in-law of literary criticIzabela Sadoveanu-Evan.
Sadoveanu was born inPașcani, inwestern Moldavia. His father's family hailed from the southwestern part of theOld Kingdom, inOltenia.[1] Their place of origin,Sadova, provided their chosen surname (lit. "from Sadova"),[2] which was adopted by the family only in 1891.[3][4] Mihail's father was the lawyer Alexandru Sadoveanu (d. 1921), whom literary criticGeorge Călinescu described as "a bearded and well-to-do man";[2] according to the writer's own notes, Alexandru was unhappy in marriage, and his progressive isolation from public life impacted on the entire family.[5] Mihail's mother, Profira née Ursachi (or Ursaki; d. 1895), hailed from a line of Moldavian shepherds,[6] all of whom, as the writer recalled, had beenilliterate.[7] Literary historianTudor Vianu believes this contrast of regional and social identities played a part in shaping the author, opening him up to a "Romanian universality", but notes that, throughout his career, Sadoveanu was especially connected with his Moldavian roots.[8] Mihail had a brother, also named Alexandru, whose wife was the Swiss-educated literary critic Izabela Morțun (later known asSadoveanu-Evan, she was the cousin ofsocialist activistVasile Morțun).[9] Another one of his brothers, Vasile Sadoveanu, was an agricultural engineer.[10]
Beginning in 1887, Sadoveanu attended primary school in Pașcani. His favorite teacher, a Mr. Busuioc, later served as inspiration for one of his best-known short stories,Domnu Trandafir ("Master Trandafir").[11] While away from school, young Sadoveanu used much of his spare time exploring his native region on foot, hunting, fishing, or just contemplating nature.[12] He was also spending his vacations in his mother's nativeVerșeni.[4][13] During his journeys, Sadoveanu visited peasants, and his impression of the way in which they were relating to authority is credited by critics with having shaped his perspective on society.[14] Shortly after this episode, the young Sadoveanu left to complete his secondary studies inFălticeni and at theNational High School inIași.[15][16][17] While in Fălticeni, he was in the same class as future authorsEugen Lovinescu andI. Dragoslav, but, having lost interest in schoolwork, he failed to get his remove, before eventually graduating top of his class.[17]
In 1896, when he was aged sixteen, Sadoveanu gave thought to writing amonograph onMoldavian PrinceStephen the Great,[18] but his first literary attempts date from the following year.[16][19] It was in 1897 that asketch story, titledDomnișoara M din Fălticeni ("Miss M from Fălticeni") and signedMihai din Pașcani ("Mihai from Pașcani"), was successfully submitted for publishing to theBucharest-based satirical magazineDracu.[16] He started writing forOvid Densusianu's journalVieața Nouă in 1898. His contributions, featured alongside those ofGala Galaction,N. D. Cocea, andTudor Arghezi,[18] include another sketch story and alyric poem.[20] Sadoveanu was however dissatisfied with Densusianu's agenda, and critical of the entireRomanian Symbolist movement for which the review spoke.[20] He ultimately began writing pieces for non-Symbolist magazines such asOpinia andPagini Literare.[16][20] In parallel, he founded and printed by hand a short-lived journal, known to researches as eitherAurora[20] orLumea.[3]
Sadoveanu left for Bucharest in 1900, intending to study law at theUniversity's Faculty of Law, but withdrew soon after, deciding to dedicate himself to literature.[3][16][21] He began frequenting thebohemian society in the capital,[3] but, following a sudden change in outlook, abandoned poetry and focused his work entirely onRealist prose.[21] In 1901, Sadoveanu married Ecaterina Bâlu, with whom he settled in Fălticeni,[4][16][17][22] where he began work on his firstnovellas and decided to make his living as a professional writer.[16] His first draft for a novel,Frații Potcoavă ("The Potcoavă Brothers"), came out in 1902, when fragments were published byPagini Alese magazine under the pseudonymM. S. Cobuz.[23] The following year, Sadoveanu was drafted into theRomanian Land Forces, stationed as a guard nearTârgu Ocna, and inspired by the experience to write some of his firstsocial criticism narratives.[21]
After that time, he spent much of his home in the country, where he raised a large family.[24] Initially, the Sadoveanus lived in a house previously owned by celebrated Moldavian raconteurIon Creangă, before they commissioned a new building, famed for its surroundingGrădina Liniștii ("Garden of Quietude").[17] He was the father of eleven,[18] among whom were three daughters: Despina, Teodora andProfira Sadoveanu, the latter of whom was a poet and a novelist.[25] Of his sons, Dimitrie Sadoveanu became a painter,[25] whilePaul-Mihu, the youngest (born 1920), was author of the novelCa floarea câmpului... ("Like the Flower of the Field...") which was published posthumously.[25][26][27]
After receiving an invitation from poetȘtefan Octavian Iosif in 1903,[23][28] Sadoveanu contributed works to the traditionalist journalSămănătorul, led at the time by historian and criticNicolae Iorga. He was by then also a contributor toVoința Națională, a newspaper published by theNational Liberal Party and managed by politicianVintilă Brătianu—beginning December of the same year, the paper serializedȘoimii ("The Hawks"), an extended variant ofFrații Potcoavă, with an introduction by historianVasile Pârvan.[23] In 1904, he regained Bucharest, where he became acopyist for theMinistry of Education's Board of Schools, returning to Fălticeni two years later.[16][29] After 1906, he rallied with the group formed aroundViața Românească, which was also joined by his sister-in-law Izabela.[9]
Sămănătorul andViața Românească, having comparable influence over theliterature of Romania, stood for a traditionalist and ruralist approach to art, even though the latter adopted a moreleft-wing perspective, known asPoporanism. The leading Poporanist ideologue,Garabet Ibrăileanu, became a personal friend of the young writer after inviting him on an excursion down theRâșca River.[30] With his subsequent pieces forViața Românească, Sadoveanu became especially known as the raconteur of hunting trips,[31] but also sparked controversy when a young woman writer,Constanța Marino-Moscu, accused him of havingplagiarized her works in hisMariana Vidrașcu, a serialized novel which was discontinued and later largely forgotten.[32]
1904 was Sadoveanu's effective debut year: he published four separate books, includingȘoimii,Povestiri ("Stories"),Dureri înăbușite ("Suppressed Pains") andCrâșma lui Moș Petcu ("Old Man Petcu's Alehouse").[4][16][18][21][33][34] The beginning of a prolific literary career covering more than a half century and of his collaboration withEditura Minerva publishing house,[23] this debut was marked by intense preparation, and drew on literary exercises spanning the previous decade.[23][33][35] HisSămănătorul colleague Iorga deemed 1904 "Sadoveanu's Year",[16][18][23][36] while the influential and aging criticTitu Maiorescu, leader of theconservative literary societyJunimea, gave a positive review toPovestiri, and successfully proposed it for aRomanian Academy award in 1906.[23][37] In a 1908 essay, Maiorescu was to list Sadoveanu among Romania's greatest writers.[38] According to Vianu, Maiorescu saw in Sadoveanu and other young writers the triumph of his theory on a "popular" form of Realism, a vision which theJunimist thinker had advocated in his essays from as early as 1882.[39] Sadoveanu later credited Iorga, Maiorescu, and especially so the cultural promoterConstantin Banu andSămănătorul poetGeorge Coșbuc, with having helped him capture the interest of the public and his peers.[23] He was by then facing adversity from opponents ofSămănătorul, primarily criticHenric Sanielevici and hisCurentul Nou review, which published claims that Sadoveanu's volumes, which depicted immoral acts such asadultery andrape, showed that Iorga's program of moraldidacticism was hypocritical.[23] As he latter recalled, Sadoveanu was himself upset with some of Iorga's critical judgments regarding his own work, noting that theSămănătorist doyen had once declared him equal toVasile Pop (one of Iorga's protegés, and viewed as overrated by Sadoveanu).[23]
The same year, Sadoveanu became one ofSămănătorul's editors, alongside Iorga and Iosif.[40] The magazine, originally a traditionalist mouthpiece founded byAlexandru Vlahuță andGeorge Coșbuc, proclaimed with Iorga its purpose of establishing "a national culture", emancipated from foreign influence.[41] However, according to Călinescu, this ambitious goal was only manifested in a "great cultural influence", as the journal continued to be aneclectic venue which grouped together ruralist traditionalists of the "national tendency" and adherents to thecosmopolitan currents such as Symbolism.[42] Călinescu and Vianu agree thatSămănătorul was, for a large part, a promoter of older guidelines set byJunimea.[43] Vianu also argues that Sadoveanu's contribution to the literary circle was the main original artistic element in its history, and credits Iosif with having accurately predicted that, during a period of literary "crisis", Sadoveanu was the person to provide innovation.[44]
He continued to publish at an impressive rate: in 1906, he again handed down for print four separate volumes.[33] In parallel, Sadoveanu pursued his career as a civil servant. In 1905, he was employed as a clerk by the Ministry of Education, headed by theConservative Party'sMihail Vlădescu. His direct supervisor was poetD. Nanu, and he had for his colleagues the geographerGeorge Vâlsan and the short story writerNicolae N. Beldiceanu.[45] Nanu wrote of this period: "It is a clerical packed full with men of letters, no work is being done, people smoke, drink coffee, create dreams, poems and prose [...]."[45] Having interrupted his administrative service, Sadoveanu was again drafted into the Land Forces in 1906, being granted an officer's rank.[33] An already overweight man, he had to march fromProbota in Central Moldavia toBukovina, which caused him intense suffering.[33]
Sadoveanu returned to his administrative job in 1907, the year of thePeasants' Revolt. Kept in office by the National Liberal cabinet ofIon I. C. Brătianu, he served under the reform-minded Education MinisterSpiru Haret.[46] Inspired by the bloody outcome of the Revolt, as well as by Haret's moves to educate the peasantry, Sadoveanu reportedly drew suspicion from thePolice when he publishedself-help guides aimed at industrious ploughmen, a brand ofsocial activism which even resulted in a formal inquiry.[47]
Mihail Sadoveanu became a professional writer in 1908–1909, after joining theRomanian Writers' Society, created in the previous year by poetsCincinat Pavelescu andDimitrie Anghel, and becoming its president in September of that year.[48][49] The same year, he, Iosif, and Anghel, together with authorEmil Gârleanu, set upCumpăna, a monthly directed against bothOvid Densusianu's eclecticism and theJunimist school (the magazine was no longer in print by 1910).[3][50] At the time, he became a noted presence among the group of intellectuals meeting in Bucharest'sKübler Coffeehouse.[51]
In 1910, he was also appointed head of theNational Theater Iași, a position which he filled until 1919.[3][4][16][17] That year, he translated from the French one ofHippolyte Taine's studies on the genesis of artworks.[52] He resigned his office within the Writers' Society in November 1911, being replaced by Gârleanu, but continued to partake in its administration as a member of its leadership committee and a censor.[48][49] He was a leading presence atMinerva newspaper, alongside Anghel and criticDumitru Karnabatt, and also published in theTransylvanian traditionalist journal,Luceafărul.[53]
Sadoveanu was again called under arms during theSecond Balkan War of 1913, when Romania confrontedBulgaria. Having reached the rank ofLieutenant,[16] he was stationed in Fălticeni with the16th Infantry Regiment,[54] after which he spent a short period on the front.[30][33] He returned to literary life. Becoming good friends with poet and humoristGeorge Topîrceanu, he accompanied him and other writers on cultural tours during 1914 and 1915.[55] The series of writings he published at the time includes the 1915Neamul Șoimăreștilor.[16][23]
In 1916–1917, as Romania enteredWorld War I and was invaded by theCentral Powers, Sadoveanu stayed in Moldavia, the only part of Romania's territory still under the state's authority (seeRomanian Campaign). The writer oscillated between theGermanophilia of hisViața Românească friends, the stated belief that war was misery and the welcoming of Romania's commitment to theEntente Powers.[56] At the time, he was reelected President of the Writers' Society, a provisional mandate which ended in 1918, when Romania signed thepeace with the Central Powers,[48] and, as Armyreservist, edited the Entente's regional propaganda outlet,România.[57] He was joined by Topîrceanu, who had just been released from aPOW camp in Bulgaria, and with whom he founded the magazineÎnsemnări Literare.[30][55] Sadoveanu subsequently settled in the Iași neighborhood ofCopou, purchasing and redecorating the villa known locally asCasa cu turn ("The House with a Tower").[4][58] In the 19th century, it had been the residence of politicianMihail Kogălniceanu, and, during the war, hosted composerGeorge Enescu.[58] During that period, he collaborated with leftist intellectualVasile Morțun and, together with him andArthur Gorovei, founded and edited the magazineRăvașul Poporului.[17][59]
In 1921, Sadoveanu was elected a full member of theRomanian Academy;[4][16][18] he gave his reception speech in front of the cultural forum two years later, structuring it as a praise ofRomanian folklore in general and folkloric poetry in particular.[4][16][60] At the time, he renewed his contacts withViața Românească: withGarabet Ibrăileanu and several others, he joined itsinterwar nucleus, while the review often featured samples of his novels (some of which were originally published in full by its publishing venture).[61] His house was by then host to many cultural figures, among whom were writers Topîrceanu,Gala Galaction,Otilia Cazimir,Ionel andPăstorel Teodoreanu, andDimitrie D. Pătrășcanu, as well as conductorSergiu Celibidache.[58] He was also close to a minorsocialist poet and short story author,Ioan N. Roman, whose work he helped promote,[62] to the aristocrat and memoiristGheorghe Jurgea-Negrilești,[63] and to a satirist named Radu Cosmin.[64]
Despite his health problems, Sadoveanu frequently traveled throughout Romania, notably visiting local sights which inspired his work: theRomanian Orthodox monasteries ofAgapia andVăratec, and theNeamț Fortress.[33] After 1923, together with Topîrceanu,Demostene Botez and otherViața Românească affiliates, he also embarked on a series of hunting trips.[55] He was charmed in particular by the sights he discovered during a 1927 visit to theTransylvanian area ofArieș.[10][16] The same year, he also visited the Netherlands, which he reached by means of theOrient Express.[16][33] His popularity continued to grow: in 1925, 1929 and 1930 respectively, he published his critically acclaimed novelsVenea o moară pe Siret...,Zodia Cancerului andBaltagul, and his 50th anniversary was celebrated at a national level.[16][36] In 1930, Sadoveanu, Topîrceanu and the schoolteacher T. C. Stan wrote and edited a series of primary school textbooks.[65]
In 1926, after a period of indecision, Sadoveanu rallied with thePeople's Party, where his friend, the poetOctavian Goga, was a prominent activist.[33] He then rallied with Goga's ownNational Agrarian Party.[66] During thegeneral election of 1927, he won a seat in theChamber forBihor County, in Transylvania, holding a seat in theSenate forIași County after the1931 suffrage.[33][67] UnderNicolae Iorga'sNational Peasants' Party cabinet of the period, Sadoveanu was President of the Senate.[33][67] The choice was motivated by his status as "a cultural personality".[33] Around that date, he was affiliated with theNational Liberal Party-Brătianu, a right-wing party inside theliberal current, who stood in opposition to the main National Liberal group.[68] In parallel, he began contributing to theleft-wing dailyAdevărul.[69]
Sadoveanu was by then affiliated with theFreemasonry, as first recorded by the organization in 1928,[70] but was probably a member since 1926 or 1927.[71] Reaching the 33rd degree within the organization[72] and overseeing theMasonic LodgeDimitrie Cantemir of Iași,[36] he was electedGrand Master of the National Union of Lodges in 1932, thus replacing the vacatingGeorge Valentin Bibescu.[36] There subsequently occurred a split between Bibescu and Sadoveanu's supporters, aggravated by their publicized conflict with a third group, that ofIoan Pangal—splits which ended after some three years, when Sadoveanu marginalized both of his opponents, without however earning legitimate recognition from theGrand Orient de France.[36] By 1934, he was recognized as Grand Master of the United Romanian Freemasonry, which regrouped all major local Lodges.[33][36][46][70]
He was publishing new works at a regular rate, culminating in the first volume of his historical epicFrații Jderi, which saw print in 1935. In 1936, the writer accepted the honorary chairmanship ofAdevărul and its morning edition,Dimineața. During that time, he was involved in a public dispute with thefar right andfascist press, replying to their attacks in several columns.[73] Affiliates of the radical right organizedpublic burnings of his volumes.[74] The scandal prolonged itself over the following years, with Sadoveanu being supported by his friends in the literary community.[16][75] Among them was Topîrceanu, who was at the time hospitalized, and whose expression of support was made shortly before his death toliver cancer.[76] In September 1937, as a statement of solidarity and appreciation, theUniversity of Iași conferred Sadoveanu the title of doctorhonoris causa.[77]
Mihail Sadoveanu withdrew from politics in the late 1930s and early 1940s, as Romania came to be led by successive right-wing dictatorships, he offered a measure of support toKingCarol II and hisNational Renaissance Front, which attempted to block the more radically fascistIron Guard from power. He was personally appointed a member of the reducedcorporatist Senate by Carol.[78] In 1940, the official establishmentEditura Fundațiilor Regale published the first volume of hisOpere ("Works").[23] Sadoveanu kept a low profile under the Iron Guard'sNazi-alliedNational Legionary regime. AfterConducătorIon Antonescu overthrew the Guard during theLegionary Rebellion and established his own fascist regime, the still-apolitical Sadoveanu was more present in public life, and lectured on cultural subjects for theRomanian Radio.[79] After publishing the final section of hisFrații Jderi in 1942, Sadoveanu again retreated to the countryside, in his beloved Arieș area, where he had built himself a chalet and a church; this seclusion produced hisPovestirile de la Bradu-Strâmb ("Bradu-Strâmb Stories").[80] During those years, the sixty-year-old writer met Valeria Mitru, a much youngerfeminist journalist,[81] whom he married after a brief courtship.[10]
In August 1944, Romania'sKing Michael Coup toppled Antonescu and switched sides in the war, rallying with theAllies. As aSoviet occupation began at home, Romanian troops fought alongside theRed Army on the European theater. Paul-Mihu Sadoveanu was killed in action in Transylvania on 22 September.[26] During the same months, Sadoveanu was a candidate for the Writers' Society presidency, but, in what has been read as proof of a rivalry within the Freemasonry, was defeated byVictor Eftimiu.[36] Later that year, the 40th anniversary of Mihail Sadoveanu's debut was celebrated with a special ceremony at the academy and Tudor Vianu's speech, offered as a retrospective of his colleague's entire work.[23][36][82]
After the Soviet-backed advent of theCommunist system in Romania, Sadoveanu supported the new authorities, and turned from his own version ofRealism to officially-endorsedSocialist realism (seeSocialist realism in Romania). This was also the start of his association with the Soviet-sponsoredRomanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union (ARLUS), which was led by biologist and physicianConstantin Ion Parhon. Having served as a host to official Soviet envoysAndrey Vyshinsky andVladimir Kemenov during their late 1944 visits, he soon after became president of the ARLUS "Literary and Philosophical Section" (seconded byMihai Ralea andPerpessicius).[83] In February 1945, he joined Parhon, Enescu, linguistAlexandru Rosetti, composerGeorge Enescu, biologistTraian Săvulescu and mathematicianDimitrie Pompeiu in a protest against the cultural policies ofPremierNicolae Rădescu and his cabinet, one in a series of moves to discredit the non-communist Rădescu and make him leave power.[84] WithIon Pas,Gala Galaction,Horia Deleanu,Octav Livezeanu andN. D. Cocea, Sadoveanu edited the association's weekly literary magazineVeac Nou after June 1946.[85]
Sadoveanu's literary and political change became known to the general public in March 1945, when he lectured about Soviet leaderJoseph Stalin at a conference hall in Bucharest. Part of a conference cycle, his speech was famously titledLumina vine de la Răsărit, which soon became synonymous with the attempts to improve the image ofStalinism in Romania.[86] ARLUS would issue the text of his conference as a printed volume later in the year.[70] Also in 1945, Sadoveanu journeyed to the Soviet Union together with some of his fellow ARLUS members—among them biologists Parhon and Săvulescu, sociologistDimitrie Gusti, linguistIorgu Iordan, and mathematicianSimion Stoilow.[87] Invited by theSoviet Academy of Sciences to attend the 220th anniversary of its foundation, they also visited research institutes,kolhozy, andday care centers, notably meeting withNikolay Tsitsin, an agronomist favored by Stalin.[88] After his return, he wrote other controversial texts and gave lectures which offered ample praise to the Soviet system.[89] That year, the ARLUS enterpriseEditura Cartea Rusă also published his translation ofIvan Turgenev'sA Sportsman's Sketches.[52]
During therigged election of that year, Sadoveanu was a candidate for the Communist party-organized Bloc of Democratic Parties (BPD) in Bucharest, winning a seat in the newly unifiedParliament of Romania.[90][91] In its first-ever session (December 1946), the legislative body elected him its president.[92] He was at the time residing inCiorogârla, having been awarded a villa previously owned byPamfil Șeicaru, a journalist whose support for fascist regimes had made him undesirable, and who had moved out of Romania. The decision was viewed as evidence ofpolitical corruption by the oppositionNational Peasants' Party, whose press deemed Sadoveanu the "Count of Ciorogârla".[93]
In 1948, after Romania'sKingMichael I was overthrown by the BPD-member parties and thecommunist regime officially established, Sadoveanu rose to the highest positions ever granted to a Romanian writer, and received significant material benefits.[91][94] In 1947–1948, he was, alongside Parhon,Ștefan Voitec,Gheorghe Stere, andIon Niculi, a member of the Presidium of thePeople's Republic, which was elected by the BPD-dominated legislative.[95][96] He also kept his seat at the academy, which at the time was undergoing a communist-led purge, and, with several other pro-Soviet intellectuals, was voted in the Academy Presidium.[97]
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After the Writers' Society was restructured as theRomanian Writers' Union in 1949, Sadoveanu became its Honorary President.[48][98] In 1950, he was named President of the Writers' Union, replacingZaharia Stancu. According to writerValeriu Râpeanu, this last appointment was a sign of Stancu's marginalization after he had been excluded from theRomanian Communist Party, while the Writers' Union was actually controlled by its First Secretary, the communist poetMihai Beniuc.[99] Sadoveanu and Beniuc were reelected at the Union's first Congress (1956).[48][100] In the meanwhile, Sadoveanu published several Socialist realist volumes, among which wasMitrea Cocor, a controversial praise ofcollectivization policies. First published in 1949, it earned Sadoveanu the first-ever State Prize for Prose.[92]
Throughout the period, Sadoveanu was involved in major communist-endorsed cultural campaigns. Thus, in June 1952, he presided over the academy's Scientific Council, charged with modifying theRomanian alphabet, at the end of which the letterâ was discarded, and replaced everywhere withî (a spelling Sadoveanu is alleged to have already shown preference for in his early works).[101] In March 1953, soon after Stalin's death, he led discussions within the Writers' Union, confronting his fellow writers with the new Soviet cultural directives as listed byGeorgy Malenkov, and reacting against young authors who had not discarded the since-condemned doctrines ofproletkult.[102] The author was also becoming involved in theEastern Bloc'speace movement, and led the National Committee for the Defense of Peace at a time when the Soviet Union was seeking to portray itsCold War enemies as warmongers and the sole agents ofnuclear proliferation.[96] He also represented Romania to theWorld Peace Council, and received itsInternational Peace Prize for 1951.[103] As a parliamentarian, Sadoveanu stood on the committee charged with elaborating thenew republican constitution, which, in its final form, reflected both Soviet influence and the assimilation of Stalinism into Romanian political discourse.[104] In November 1955, shortly after turning 75, he was granted the title of "Hero of Socialist Labor".[105] After 1956, when the regime announced that it had embarked on a limited version ofDe-Stalinization, it continued to recommend Mihail Sadoveanu as one of its prime cultural models.[106]
Having donatedCasa cu turn to the state in 1950,[58] he moved back to Bucharest, where he owned a house near theZambaccian Museum.[10] From 7 to 11 January 1958, Sadoveanu,Ion Gheorghe Maurer andAnton Moisescu were acting Chairmen of the Presidium of theGreat National Assembly, which again propelled him to a position as titular head of state. His literary stature but also his political allegiance earned him the SovietLenin Peace Prize, which he received shortly before his death.[107]
After a long illness marked by astroke which impaired his speech and left him almost completely blind,[10] Sadoveanu was cared for by a staff of physicians supervised byNicolae Gh. Lupu and reporting to the Great National Assembly.[10] The Sadoveanus withdrew toNeamț region, where they lived in a villa assigned to them by the state and located near the Voivideniahermitage and the locality ofVânători-Neamț,[10] being visited regularly by literary and political friends, among them Alexandru Rosetti.[108] Mihail Sadoveanu died there at 9 AM on 19 October 1961,[2] and was buried atBellu cemetery, in Bucharest. His successor as President of the Writers' Union was Beniuc, elected during the Congress of January 1962.[48]
Following her husband's death, Valeria Sadoveanu settled in proximity to theVăratec Monastery, where she set up an informal literary circle and Orthodox prayer group, notably attended by literary historianZoe Dumitrescu-Bușulenga and by poetȘtefana Velisar, and dedicated herself to protecting the community of nuns.[109] She survived Mihail Sadoveanu by over 30 years.[109]
Often seen as the leading author of his generation, and generally viewed as one of the most representative Romanian writers, Mihail Sadoveanu was also believed to be a first-class story-teller, and received praise especially for hisnature writing and his depictions of rural landscapes. An exceptionally prolific author by Romanian standards, he published over a hundred individual volumes[110][111] (120 according to the American magazineTime).[95] His contemporaries tended to place Sadoveanu alongsideLiviu Rebreanu andCezar Petrescu—for all the differences in style between the three figures, the interwar public saw them as the "great novelists" of the day.[112] CriticOvid Crohmălniceanu describes their activity, altogether focused on depicting the rural world but diverging in bias, as one sign that the Romanian interwar itself was exceptionally effervescent,[113] while Romanian-born American historian of literatureMarcel Cornis-Pope sees Sadoveanu and Rebreanu as their country's "two most important novelists of the first half of the twentieth century".[114] In 1944,Tudor Vianu spoke of Sadoveanu as "the most significant writer Romanians [presently] have, the first among his equals."[115]
While underlining his originality in the context ofRomanian literature and among the writers standing for "the national tendency" (as opposed to the morecosmopolitanmodernists), George Călinescu also noted that, through several of his stories and novels, Sadoveanu echoed the style of his predecessors and contemporariesIon Luca Caragiale,Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești,Emil Gârleanu,Demostene Botez,Otilia Cazimir,Calistrat Hogaș,I. A. Bassarabescu andIonel Teodoreanu.[116] Also included among the "national tendency" writers, Gârleanu was for long seen as Sadoveanu's counterpart, and even, Călinescu writes, "undeservedly upstaged" him.[117] Cornis-Pope also writes that Sadoveanu's epic is a continuation of "the national narrative" explored earlier byNicolae Filimon,Ioan Slavici andDuiliu Zamfirescu,[114] while literary historians Vianu andZ. Ornea note that Sadoveanu also took inspiration from the themes and genres explored byJunimist authorNicolae Gane.[118] In his youth, Sadoveanu also admired and collected the works ofN. D. Popescu-Popnedea, a prolific and successful author ofalmanacs,historical novels andadventure novels.[62] Later, his approach toRealism was also inspired by his reading ofGustave Flaubert and especiallyNikolai Gogol.[20] Both Sadoveanu and Gane were also indirectly influenced byWilhelm von Kotzebue, the 19th centuryImperial Russian diplomat and author of the Romanian-themed storyLaskar Vioresku.[119]
In Vianu's assessment, Sadoveanu's work signified an artistic revolution within the local Realist school, comparable to the adoption ofperspective by the visual artists of theRenaissance.[120] Mihail Sadoveanu's interest in the rural world and his views on tradition were subjects of debate among the modernists. The modernist doyenEugen Lovinescu, who envisaged an urban literature in tune with European tendencies, was one of Sadoveanu's most notorious critics.[23][121] However, Sadoveanu was well received by Lovinescu's adversaries within the modernist camp:Perpessicius andContimporanul editorIon Vinea, the latter of whom, in search for literary authenticity, believed in bridging the gap between theavant-garde andfolk culture.[122] This opinion was shared by Swedish literary historianTom Sandqvist, who sees Sadoveanu's main point of contact with modernism was his interest in thepagan elements and occasionalabsurdist streaks of local folklore.[123] In the larger dispute about national specificity, and partly in response to Vinea's claim, modernist poet and essayistBenjamin Fondane argued that, as a signRomanian culture was tributary to those it had come into contact with, "Sadoveanu's soul can be easily reduced to theSlavic soul".[124]
Sadoveanu's personality and experience played a major part in shaping his literary style. After his 1901 marriage, Mihail Sadoveanu adopted what Călinescu deemed "patriarchal" lifestyle.[2] The literary historian noted that he took a personal interest in educating his many children, and that this also implied "making use of a whip".[2] AnEpicurean, the writer was a homemaker, an avid hunter and fisherman, and achess aficionado.[125] Recognized, like hisepigramist colleaguePăstorel Teodoreanu, as a man of refined culinary tastes, Sadoveanu cherishedRomanian cuisine andRomanian wine.[126] The lifestyle choices were akin to his literary interests: alongside the secluded and rudimentary existence of his main characters (connected by Călinescu with the writer's supposed longing for "regressions to the patriarchal times"),[127] Sadoveanu's work is noted for its imagery of primitive abundance, and in particular for its lavish depictions of ritualistic feasts, hunting parties and fishing trips.[95][128]
Călinescu opined that the value of such descriptions within individual narratives grew with time, and that the author, once he had discardedlyricism, used them as "a means for the senses to enjoy the fleshes and the forms that nature offers man."[129] He added that Sadoveanu'saesthetics could be said to recall theart of the Golden Age inHolland: "One could almost say that Sadoveanu rebuilds in present day Moldavia [...] the Holland of wine jugs and kitchen tables covered in venison and fish."[129] Vianu also argued that Sadoveanu never abandoned himself to purely aesthetic descriptions, and that, although often depicted withImpressionistic means, nature is assigned a specific if discreet role within the plot lines, or serves to render a structure.[130] The traditionalistGarabet Ibrăileanu, referring to Sadoveanu's poetic nature writing, even declared it to have "surpassed nature."[131] At the other end, the modernist Eugen Lovinescu specifically objected to Sadoveanu's depiction of a primordial landscape, arguing that, despite adopting Realism, his rival was indebted toRomanticism andsubjectivity.[23][132] Lovinescu's attitude, criticIon Simuț notes, was partly justified by the fact that Sadoveanu never truly parted with the traditionalism ofSămănătorul.[23] In 1962,Time also commented that his style was "curiously dated" and recalled not Sadoveanu's generation, but that ofLeo Tolstoy andIvan Turgenev, "although he has nothing like the power or skill of any of them."[95] For Călinescu and Vianu too, Sadoveanu is a creator with seemingly Romantic tastes, which recall those ofFrançois-René de Chateaubriand.[133] Unlike Lovinescu, Vianu saw these traits as "not at all detrimental to the balance of [Sadoveanu's] art."[134]
Seen by literary criticIoan Stanomir as marked by "volubility",[135] and thus contrasting with his famously taciturn and seemingly embittered nature,[10][136] the form ofRomanian used by Mihail Sadoveanu, particularly in hishistorical novels, was noted for both its use ofarchaisms and the inventive approach to theRomanian lexis. Often borrowing plot lines and means of expression from medieval and early modern Moldavian chroniclers such asIon Neculce andMiron Costin,[137] the author creatively intercalates severallocal dialects and registers of speech, moving away from a mere imitation of the historical language.[138] Generallythird-person narratives, his books often make little or no dialectal difference between the speech used by the story-teller and the character's voices.[139] According to Călinescu, Sadoveanu displays "an enormous capacity of authentic speech", similar to that of Caragiale andIon Creangă.[117] The writer himself recorded his fascination with the "eloquence" of rudimentaryorality, and in particular with the speech ofRudariRoma he encountered during his travels.[140] Building on observations made by several critics, who generally praised the poetic qualities of Sadoveanu's prose, Crohmălniceanu spoke in detail about the Moldavian novelist's role in reshaping theliterary language.[141] This particular contribution was first described early in the 20th century, when Sadoveanu was acclaimed byTitu Maiorescu for having adapted his writing style to the social environment and the circumstances of his narratives.[142] Vianu however notes that Sadoveanu's late writings tend to leave more room forneologisms, mostly present in those parts where the narrator's voice takes distance from the plot.[143]
Another unifying element in Sadoveanu's creation is his recourse to literary types. As early as 1904, Maiorescu praised the young raconteur for accurately depicting characters in everyday life and settings.[144] Tudor Vianu stressed that, unlike most of his Realist predecessors, Sadoveanu introduced an overtly sympathetic view of the peasant character, as "a higher type of human, a heroic human".[145] He added: "Simple, in the sense that they are moved by a few devices [which] coincide with the fundamental instincts of mankind, [they] are, in general, mysterious."[146] In this line, Sadoveanu also creates images of folk sages, whose views on life are of aHumanist nature, and often depicted in contrast with therationalist tenets ofWestern culture.[147] Commenting on this aspect, Sadoveanu's friendGeorge Topîrceanu believed that Sadoveanu's work transcended the "more intellectual [and] more artificial" notion of "types", and that "he creates [...] humans."[148] The main topic of his subsequent work, Sandqvist argues, was "an archaic world where the farmers and the landlords were free men with equal rights"[149] (or, according to Simuț, "autopia of archaic heroism").[23]
Thus, Călinescu stresses, Sadoveanu's work seems to be the monolithic creation through which "a single man" reflects "a single, universal nature, inhabited by a single type of man", and which echoes a similar vision of archaic completeness as found in the literature of poetMihai Eminescu.[117] The similarity in vision with Eminescu's "nostalgia, return, protest, demand, aspiration toward a [rural] world [he has] left" was also proposed by Vianu,[150] while Topîrceanu spoke of "the paradoxical discovery that [Sadoveanu] is our greatest poet since Eminescu."[151] Mihail Sadoveanu also shaped his traditionalist views on literature by investigatingRomanian folklore, which he recommended as a source of inspiration to his fellow writers during his 1923 speech at theRomanian Academy.[4] In Călinescu's view, Sadoveanu's outlook on life was even mirrored in his physical aspect, his "large body, voluminous head, his measured shepherd-like gestures, his affluent but prudent and monologic speech [and] feral indifference; his eyes [...] of an unknown race."[117] His assessment of the writer as an archaic figure, bluntly stated in a 1930 article ("I believe him to be very uncultured"), was contrasted by other literary historians:Alexandru Paleologu described Sadoveanu as a prominent intellectual figure, while his own private notes show that he was well-read and acquainted with the literatures of many countries.[33] Often seen as a spontaneous writer, Sadoveanu nevertheless took pains to elaborate his plots and research historical context, keeping most records of his investigations confined to his diaries.[33]
The writer's debut novel,Povestiri, was celebrated for its accomplished style, featuring early drafts of all themes he developed upon later in life.[2] However, Călinescu argued, some of the stories in the volume were still "awkward", and showed that Sadoveanu had problems in outlining epics.[2] The pieces mainly feature episodes in the lives ofboyars (members of Moldavia's medieval aristocracy), showing the ways in which they relate to each other, to their servants, and to their country.[2] In one of the stories, titledCântecul de dragoste ("The Love Song"), Sadoveanu touches on the issue ofslavery, depicting the death of aRom slave who is killed by his jealous master, while inRăzbunarea lui Nour ("Nour's Revenge"), a boyar refuses to make his peace with God until his son's death is avenged.[2] Other fragments deal solely with the isolated existence of villagers: for example, inÎntr-un sat odată ("Once, in a Village"), a mysterious man dies in a Moldavian hamlet, and the locals, unable to discover his identity, sell his horse.[152] The prose pieceNăluca ("The Apparition") centers on the conjugal conflict between two old people, both of whom attempt to hide the shame of their past. George Călinescu notes that, particularly inNăluca, Sadoveanu begins to explore the staple technique of his literary contributions, which involves "suggesting the smolder of passions [through] a contemplative breath in which he evokes a static element: landscapes or set pieces from nature."[152]
Sadoveanu's subsequent collection of short stories,Dureri înăbușite, builds on the latter technique and takes his work into the realm ofsocial realism andnaturalism (believed by Călinescu to have been borrowed from either the French writerÉmile Zola or from the RomanianAlexandru Vlahuță).[153] For Călinescu, this choice of style brought "damaging effects" on Sadoveanu's writings, and madeDureri înăbușite "perhaps the poorest" of his collections of stories.[152] In Lovinescu's view, Sadoveanu's move toward naturalism did not imply the necessary recourse toobjectivity.[132] The pieces focus on dramatic moments of individual existences. InLupul ("The Wolf"), an animal is chased and trapped by a group of peasants; the eponymous character inIon Ursu leaves his village to become aproletarian, and succumbs toalcoholism;[154] the indentured laborer inSluga ("The Servant") is unable to take revenge on his cruel employer at the right moment; inDoi feciori ("Two Sons"), a boyar comes to feel affection for his illegitimate son, whom he has nonetheless reduced to a lowly condition.[152]
In 1905, Sadoveanu also publishedPovestiri din război ("Stories from the War"), which compose scenes from the lives of Romanian soldiers fighting in theWar of 1878. Objecting to a series of exaggerations in the book,Time nevertheless noted that Sadoveanu "sometimes had the writing skill to make compelling even quite traditional reactions to old-fashioned war".[95] It concluded: "Sadoveanu's sketches have the virtues—and the vices—of old hunting prints and the romantically mannered battle scenes of the 19th century."[95]
Sadoveanu renounces this grim perspective on life in his volumeCrâșma lui Moș Petcu, where he returns to a depiction of rural life as unchanged by outside factors. Petcu's establishment, located on theMoldova Valley, is a serene place, visited by quiet and subdued customers, whose occasional outburst of violence are, according to Călinescu, "dominated by slow, stereotypical mechanics, as is with people who can only accommodate within them a single drama."[152] The literary critic celebratedCrâșma lui Moș Petcu for its depictions of nature, whose purpose is to evoke "the indifferent eternity" of conflicts between the protagonists,[152] and who, at times, relies "on a vast richness of sounds and words."[155] He did however reproach the writer "a certain monotony", arguing that Sadoveanu came to use such techniques in virtually all his later works.[155]
However, Sadoveanu's stories of the period often returned to a naturalistic perspective, particularly in a series ofsketch stories andnovellas which portray the modest lives ofRomanian Railways employees, of young men drafted into theRomanian Land Forces, ofBovaryist women who playfully seduce adolescents, or of the provincialpetite bourgeoisie.[156] At times, they confront the morals of barely literate people with the stern authorities: a peasant obstinately believes that the1859 union betweenWallachia and Moldavia was meant to ensure the supremacy of his class; a young lower-class woman becomes the love interest of a boyar but chooses a life of freedom; and a Rom deserts from the Army after being told to bathe.[157] InLa noi, la Viișoara ("At Our Place in Viișoara"), the life of an old man degenerates into bigotry and avarice, to the point where he makes his wife starve to death.[158] Sadoveanu's positive portrayal ofhajduks as fundamentally honestoutlaws standing up tofeudal injustice, replicates stereotypes found inRomanian folklore, and is mostly present in some of the stories through (sometimes recurrent) heroic characters: Vasile the Great, Cozma Răcoare, Liță Florea etc.[159] In the piece titledBordeenii (roughly, "The Mud-hut Dwellers"), he shows eccentrics andmisanthropes presided upon by the dark figure of Sandu Faliboga, brigands who flee all public authority and whom commentators have likened tosettlers of the Americas.[160] Lepădatu, an unwanted child, speaks for the entire group: "What could I do [...] wherever there are big fairs and lots of people? I'd have a better time with the cattle; it is with them that I have grown up and with them that I get along."[161] Romanticizing the obscure events ofearly medieval history inVremuri de bejenie ("Roving Times", 1907), Sadoveanu sketches the improvised self-defense of a refugee community, their last stand against nomadicTatars.[162]
In reference to the stories in this series, Călinescu stresses that Sadoveanu's main interest is in depicting men and women cut away from civilization, who view the elements ofWesternization with nothing more than "wonderment": "Sadoveanu's literature is the highest expression of the savage instinct."[163] In later works, the critic believed, Sadoveanu moved away from depicting isolation as the escape of primitives into their manageable world, but as "the refinement of souls whom civilization has upset."[129] These views are echoed by Ovid Crohmălniceanu, who believes that, unlike other Romanian Realists, Sadoveanu was able to show a peasant society that was not merely the prey of modern corruption or historical oppression, but rather refusing all contacts with the wider world—even to the point ofLuddite-like hostility in front of new objects.[164] Some of the early stories, Crohmălniceanu argues, do follow the moralizingSămănătorist pattern, but part with it when they refuse to present the countryside in "idyllic" fashion, or when they adopt a specific "mythical realism".[165]
Sadoveanu began his career as a novelist with more in-depth explorations into subjects present in his stories and novellas. At the time, Crohmălniceanu stresses, he was being influenced by the naturalism of Caragiale (minus the comedic effect), and by his own experience growing up in characteristically underdeveloped Moldavian cities andtârguri (somewhat similar to the aesthetic of boredom, adopted in poetry byGeorge Bacovia,Demostene Botez orBenjamin Fondane).[166] Among his first works of the kind isFloare ofilită ("Wizened Flower"), where a simple girl, Tincuța, marries a provincial civil servant, and finds herself deeply unhappy and unable to enrich her life on any level. Tincuța, seen by Călinescu as one of Sadoveanu's "savage" characters, only maintains urban refinement when persuading her husband to return for supper,[163] but, according to Crohmălniceanu, is also a credible witness to the "small-mindedness" of "bourgeois" environments.[167] A rather similar plot is built forÎnsemnările lui Neculai Manea ("The Recordings of Neculai Manea"), where the eponymous character, an educated peasant, experiences two unhappy romantic affairs before successfully courting a married woman who, although grossly uncultured, makes him happy.[163]Apa morților ("The Dead Men's Water") is about a Bovaryist woman who discards lovers over imprecise feelings of dissatisfaction, finding refuge in the monotonous countryside.[168] Călinescu noted that such novels were "usually less valuable than direct accounts", and deemedÎnsemnările lui Neculai Manea "without literary interest";[163] in Ovid Crohmălniceanu's view, the same story presents relevant detail on professional and intellectual failure.[169]
Praised by its commentators, the short novelHaia Sanis (1908) shows the eponymous character, aJewish woman who throws herself into the arms of a localGentile, although she knows him to be a seducer. Călinescu, who wrote with admiration about how the subject dissimulated pathos into "technical indifference", notes that the erotic rage motivating Haia has drawn "well justified" comparisons withJean Racine's tragedyPhèdre.[170] Crohmălniceanu believesHaia Sanis to be "perhaps [Sadoveanu's] best novella", particularly since the "wild beauty" Haia has to overcome at onceantisemitism,endogamy and shame, before dying "in terrible pain" during a botchedabortion.[171] Sadoveanu's work of the time also includesBalta liniștii ("Tranquillity Pond"), where Alexandrina, pushed into anarranged marriage, has a belated and sad revelation of true love.[172] In other sketch stories, such asO zi ca altele ("A Day like Any Other") orCâinele ("The Dog"), Sadoveanu follows Caragiale's close study of suburban banality.[173]
The novellaHanu Ancuței ("Ancuța's Inn"), described by George Călinescu as a "masterpiece of the jovial idyllicism and barbarian subtlety",[127] and byZ. Ornea as the first evidence of Sadoveanu's "new age",[174] is aframe story in the line ofmedieval allegories such asGiovanni Boccaccio'sDecameron andGeoffrey Chaucer'sCanterbury Tales.[175] It retells the stories of travelers meeting in the eponymous inn. Much of the story deals with statements of culinary tastes and shared recipes, as well as with the overall contrast between civilization and rudimentary ways: in one episode of the book, a merchant arriving from theLeipzig Trade Fair bemuses the other protagonists when he explains the more frugal ways and the technical innovations ofWestern Europe.[176] Sadoveanu applied the same narrative technique in hisSoarele în baltă ("The Sun in the Waterhole"), which, Călinescu argues, displays "a trickier style."[127]
InȘoimii, Sadoveanu's firsthistorical novel, the main character isNicoară Potcoavă, a late 16th-century Moldavian nobleman who becameHetman of theZaporozhian Cossacks andPrince of Moldavia. The narrative, whose basic lines had been drawn by Sadoveanu in his adolescent years,[35] focuses on early events in Nicoară's life, building on the story according to which he and his brother Alexandru were the brothers of PrinceIoan Vodă cel Cumplit, whose execution by theOttomans they tried to avenge. The text also follows their attempt to seize and killIeremia Golia, a boyar whose alleged betrayal had led to Prince Ioan's capture, and whose daughter Ilinca becomes the brothers' prisoner.[127] This story as well features several episodes where the focus is on depicting customary feasts, as well as a fragment where the Potcoavăs and their Zaporozhian Cossack allies engage inbinge drinking.[127] Glossing over several years in Nicoară's life, and culminating in his seizure of the throne, the narrative shows his victory against pretenderPetru Șchiopul and Golia, and the price he has to pay for his rise. Alexandru, who falls in love with Ilinca, unsuccessfully asks for the captured Golia not to be killed. Following the murder, both brothers become embittered and renounce power.[177] Călinescu describedȘoimii novel as "still awkward", noting that Sadoveanu was only beginning to experiment with the genre.[127]
The 1915Neamul Șoimăreștilor is aBildungsroman centered on the coming of age of one Tudor Șoimaru. The protagonist, born a free peasant inOrhei area, fights alongsideȘtefan Tomșa in the 1612 battles to capture the Moldavian throne. After participating in the capture ofIași, he returns home and helps local boyar Stroie in recovering his daughter, Magda, who had been kidnapped by Cossacks. Șoimaru, who feels for Magda, is however enraged by news that her father has forced his community intoserfdom. Trying to deal with hisinternal conflict, he travels intoPoland–Lithuania, where he discovers that Stroie is plotting against Tomșa, while Magda, who is in love with aszlachta nobleman, scorns his affection. He returns a second time to Orhei, marries into his social group, and plots revenge on Stroie by again rallying with Ștefan Tomșa. Following Tomșa's defeat, he again loses the lands of his ancestors, as Stroie returns home to celebrate his victory and have the Șoimarus put to death. Unexpectedly warned of this by Magda, Tudor manages to turn the tide: he and his family destroy Stroie's manor, killing the master but allowing Magda to escape unharmed.[178] In Călinescu's view, the novel is "somewhat more consistent from an epic perspective", but fails to respect the conventions of theadventure novel it sets out to replicate.[177] The critic, who deemed Magda's courtship by Tudor "sentimental", argued that the book lacks "the richness and unpredictable nature of the love intrigue"; he also objected to the depiction of Tudor as indecisive and inadequate for a heroic role.[177] However, Ovid Crohmălniceanu argued that the suddenness of Tudor's sentimental commitments was characteristic for the "peasant soul" as observed by Sadoveanu.[179]
Zodia Cancerului, Sadoveanu's later historical novel, is set late in the 17th century, during the third rule of Moldavian PrinceGheorghe Duca, and is seen by Călinescu as "of a superior artistic level."[177] The plot centers on a conflict between Duca and theRuset boyars: the young Alecu Ruset, son of the deposedPrince Antonie, is spared persecution on account of his good relations with the Ottomans, but has to live under close watch. Himself a tormented, if cultured and refined, man, Alecu falls in love with Duca's daughter Catrina, whom he attempts to kidnap. The episode, set to coincide with the start of a major social crisis,[180] ends with Alecu's defeat and killing on Duca's orders.[181]
In the background, the story depicts the visit of anAbbé de Marenne, aRoman Catholic priest and French envoy, who meets and befriends Ruset. Their encounter is another opportunity for Sadoveanu to show the amiable but incomplete exchange between the mentalities ofWestern andEastern Europe.[182] In various episodes of the novel, de Marenne shows himself perplexed by the omnipresent wilderness of underpopulated Moldavia, and in particular by the abundance of resources this provides.[183] In one paragraph, seen by George Călinescu as a key to the book, Sadoveanu writes: "[De Marenne's] curious eye was permanently satisfied. Here was a desolation of solitudes, one that his friends in France could not even guess existed, no matter how much imagination they had been gifted with; for at the antipode of civilization one occasionally finds such things that have remained unchanged from the onset of creation, preserving their mysterious beauty."[183]
In a shorter novel of the period, Sadoveanu explored the late years ofVasile Lupu's rule over Moldavia, centering on the marriage of Cossack leaderTymofiy Khmelnytsky and Lupu's daughter, Ruxandra. TitledNunta Domniței Ruxandra ("Princess Ruxandra's Wedding"), it shows the Cossacks' brutal celebration of the event around the court in Iași, depicting Tymofiy himself as an uncouth, violent and withdrawn figure.[184] The narrative then focuses on theBattle of Finta and the siege ofSuceava, through which aWallachian-Transylvanian force repelled the Moldo-Cossack forces and, turning the tide, entered deep into Moldavia and placedGheorghe Ștefan on the throne. Sadoveanu also invents a love story between Ruxandra and the boyar Bogdan, whose rivalry with Tymofiy ends in the latter's killing.[184] While Călinescu criticized the plot as being over-detailed, and the character studies as incomplete,[184] Crohmălniceanu found the intricate depiction of boyar customs to be a relevant part of Sadoveanu's "vast historical fresco."[185] In bothZodia Cancerului andNunta Domniței Ruxandra, the author took significant liberties with the historical facts. In addition to Tymofiy's death at the hands of Bogdan, the latter narrative used invented or incorrect names for some of the personages, and portrays the muscular, mustachioed, Gheorghe Ștefan as thin and bearded; likewise, inZodia Cancerului, Sadoveanu invents the character Guido Celesti, who stands in for the actualFranciscan leader of Duca's Iași, Bariona da Monte Rotondo.[184]
WithFrații Jderi, Sadoveanu's fresco of Moldavian history maintains its setting, but moves back in time to the 15th century rule of PrinceStephen the Great. Writing in 1941, before its final part was in print, Călinescu argued that the novel was part of Sadoveanu's "most valuable work", and noted "the maturity of its verbal means."[186] In the first volume, titledUcenicia lui Ionuț ("Ionuț's Apprenticeship"), the eponymous Jderi brothers, allies of Stephen and friends of his son Alexandru, fight off the enemies of their lord on several occasions. In what is the start of aBildungsroman, the youngest Jder, Ionuț Păr-Negru, consumed by love for Lady Nasta, who was kidnapped byTatars. He goes to her rescue, only to find out that she had preferred suicide to a life of slavery.[187] Călinescu, who believed the volumes show Sadoveanu's move to the consecrated elements of adventure novels, called them "remarkable", but stressed that the narrative could render "the feeling of stumbling, of a languishing flow", and that thedénouement was "rather depressing".[188] The second book in the series (Izvorul alb, "The White Water Spring") intertwines the life of the Jderi brothers with that of Stephen's family: the ruler weds theByzantine princessMary of Mangop, while Simion Jder falls for Marușca, who is supposedly Stephen's illegitimate daughter. The major episodes in the narrative are Marușca's kidnapping by a boyar, her captivity inJagiellon Poland, and her rescue at the hands of the Jderi.[189] The 1942 conclusion of the cycle,Oamenii Măriei-sale ("His Lordship's Men"), the brothers are shown defending their ancestral rights and their lord against the Ottoman invader and ambivalent boyars, and crushing the former at theBattle of Vaslui.[190]
TheJderi books, again set to the background of primitivism and natural abundance, also feature episodes of intense horror. These, Călinescu proposes, are willingly depicted "with an indolent complacency", as if to underline that the slow pace and monumental scale of history give little importance to personal tragedies.[189] The same commentator notes a difference between the role nature plays in the first and second volumes: from serene, the landscape becomes hostile, and people are shown fearing earthquakes and droughts, although contemplative depictions of euphoria play a central part in both writings.[191] The meeting between the wider world and the immobile local tradition surfaces inFrații Jderi as well: a messenger is shown wondering how the letter he brought could talk to the addressee; when she is supposed to encounter strange men, Marușca requests to be allowed to "shy away" in another room;[191] a secondary character, claimingprecognition, prepares his own funeral.[192]
For the 1925Venea o moară pe Siret..., Sadoveanu received much critical acclaim. The boyar Alexandru Filotti falls in love with a miller's daughter, Anuța, whom he educates and introduces to high society. The beautiful young lady is also courted by Filotti's son Costi and by the peasant Vasile Brebu—in the end, overwhelmed by jealousy, Brebu kills the object of his affection. George Călinescu writes that the good reception was not fully deserved, claiming that the novel is "colorless", that it was merely based on the writer's early stories, and that it failed in its goal of depicting "crumbling boyardom".[170]
InBaltagul (1930), Sadoveanu mergedpsychological techniques and a pretext borrowed fromcrime fiction with several of his major themes.[193] Written in just 30 days on the basis of previous drafts,[33] the condensed novel shows Vitoria Lipan, the widow of a murdered shepherd, following in her husband's tracks to discover his killer and avenge his death. Accompanied by her son, and using for a guide the shepherd's dog, Vitoria discovers both the body and the murderer, but, before she can take revenge, her dog jumps on the man and bites into his neck. By means of this plot line, Sadoveanu also builds a fresco oftranshumance and traces its ancestral paths, taking as a source of inspiration one of the best-known poems in local folklore, the balladMiorița.[33][194] Vitoria's sheer determination is the central aspect of the volume. Călinescu, who ranks the book among Sadoveanu's best, praises its "remarkable artistry" and "unforgettable dialogues", but nonetheless writes that Lipan's "detective-like" search and a "stubbornness" are weak points in the narrative.[195] Crohmălniceanu declaresBaltagul one of the "capital works" in world literature, proposing that, on its own, it manages to reconstruct "an entire shepherding civilization";[196] Cornis-Pope, who rates the book as "Sadoveanu's masterpiece", also notes that it "restated the theme of crime and punishment".[114]
Before the 1940s, Sadoveanu also became known as atravel writer. His contributions notably include accounts of his hunting trips:Țara de dincolo de negură ("The Land beyond the Fog"), and one dedicated to the region ofDobruja (Priveliști dobrogene, "Dobrujan Sights"). Călinescu wrote that they both comprised "pages of great beauty".[129]Țara de dincolo..., primarily showing recluse men in real-life symbiosis with the wilderness,[197] also attention for its sympathetic depiction of theHutsuls, aminoritySlavic-speaking population, as an ancient tribe threatened bycultural assimilation.[198] Sadoveanu's other travelogues include thereportageOameni și locuri ("People and Places") and an account of his trips intoBessarabia (Drumuri basarabene, "Bessarabian Roads").[129] He also collected and commented upon the memoirs of other avid hunters (Istorisiri de vânătoare, "Hunting Stories").[129]
A noted writing in this series wasÎmpărăția apelor ("The Realm of Waters"). It forms a detailed and contemplative memoir of his journeys as a fisherman, and, according to Crohmălniceanu, one of the most eloquent proofs of Sadoveanu's "permanent and intimate correspondence with nature."[199] Călinescu saw the text as a "fantastic vision of the entire aquatic universe", merging a form ofpessimism similar toArthur Schopenhauer's with a "calmkief" (cannabis-induced torpor), and as such illustrating "the great joy of participating in the transformations of matter, of eating and allowing oneself to be eaten."[129] Sadoveanu also contributed an account of his travels into the Netherlands,Olanda ("Holland"). It provides insight into his preoccupation with the meeting of civilization and wilderness: upset by what he called "the [Dutch] rampancy of cleanliness", the writer confesses his perplexity at coming face to face with a contained and structured natural world, and details his own temptation to go "against the current".[200] One of Sadoveanu's main conclusions is that Holland lacks in "true and lively wonders".[4][200] Sadoveanu also sporadically wrote memoirs of his early life career, such asÎnsemnări ieșene ("Recordings from Iași"), which deals with the period during which he worked forViața Românească,[201] a book about theSecond Balkan War (44 de zile în Bulgaria, "44 Days inBulgaria"),[33][202] and the account of years in primary school,Domnu Trandafir.[5] They were followed in 1944 byAnii de ucenicie ("The Apprenticeship Years"), where Sadoveanu details some of his earliest experiences.[4][203] Despite his temptation for destroying all raw personal notes, Sadoveanu wrote and kept a large number of diaries, which were never published in his lifetime.[46]
Also during that time, he retold and prefaced the journeys ofThomas Witlam Atkinson, an English architect and stonemason who spent years inTartary (a book he titledCuibul invaziilor, "The Nest of Invasions").[200] This was evidence of his growing interest in exotic subjects, which he later adapted to a series of novels, where the setting is "Scythia", seen as an ancestral area of culture connectingCentral Asia with the European region ofDacia (partly coinciding with present-day Romania).[204] The home of mysterious Asiatic peoples, Sadoveanu's Scythia is notably the background to his novelsUvar andNopțile de Sânziene. The former shows its eponymous character, aYakut, exposed to the scrutiny of aRussian officer.[200] In the latter, titled after the ancestral celebration ofSânziene during the month of June, shows a French intellectual meeting a nomadic tribe of MoldavianRom people, who, the reader learns, are actually the descendants ofPechenegs.[204] Călinescu notes that, in such writings, "the intrigue is a pretext", again serving to depict the vast wilderness confronted with the keen eye of foreign observers.[200] He seesNopțile de Sânziene as "the novel of millenarian immobility", and its theme as one of mythological proportions.[195] The narrative pretexts, including theSânziene celebration and the Rom people's socialatavism, connectNopțile... with another one of Sadoveanu's writings,24 iunie ("June 24").[205]
According to Tudor Vianu, the 1933fantasy novelCreanga de aur ("The Golden Bow") takes partial inspiration fromByzantine literature, and is evidence of a form ofHumanism found inEastern philosophy.[206]Marcel Cornis-Pope places it among Sadoveanu's "mythic-poetic narratives that explored theontology and symbolics of history."[207] The writer himself acknowledged that theesoteric nature of the book was inspired by his own affiliation to theFreemasonry, whose symbolism it partly reflected.[4] Its protagonist, Kesarion Brebu, is included by Vianu among the images of sages andsoothsayers in Mihail Sadoveanu's fiction,[208] and, as "the lastDeceneus", is a treasurer of ancient secret sciences mastered by theDacians and theAncient Egyptians.[4][209] The novel is often interpreted as Sadoveanu's perspective on the Dacian contribution toRomanian culture.[210]
Sadoveanu's series of minor novels and stories of the interwar years also comprises a set of usually urban-themed writings, which, Călinescu argues, resemble the works ofHonoré de Balzac, but develop into "regressive" texts with "a lyrical intrigue".[195] They includeDuduia Margareta ("Miss Margareta"), where a conflict occurs between a young woman and hergoverness, andLocul unde nu s-a întâmplat nimic ("The Place Where Nothing Happened"), where, in what is a retake on his ownApa morților,[211] Sadoveanu depicts the cultured but bored boyar Lai Cantacuzin and his growing affection for a modest young woman, Daria Mazu.[212] InCazul Eugeniței Costea ("The Case of Eugenița Costea"), a civil servant kills himself to avoid prosecution, and his end is replicated by that of his daughter, brought to despair by her stepfather's character and by her mother's irrational jealousy.[213]Demonul tinereții ("The Demon of Youth"), believed by Călinescu to be "the most charming" in this series, has for its protagonist Natanail, a university dropout who has developed a morbid fear of women since losing the love of his life, and who lives in seclusion as a monk.[117] In the rural-themedPaștele blajinilor ("Thomas Sunday") of 1935, a defeated brigand seeks a dignified end to his wasted life.[214] Written in 1938, the short storyOchi de urs ("Bear's Eye") introduces its hero Culi Ursake, the toughened hunter, into a bizarre scenery that seems to mock a human's understanding.[215]
During the period, Mihail Sadoveanu also wrotechildren's literature. His most significant pieces in this field areDumbrava minunată ("The Enchanted Grove", 1926),Măria-sa Puiul Pădurii ("His Highness the Forest Boy", 1931), and a collection of stories adapted fromPersian literature (Divanul persian, "The PersianDivan", 1940).Măria-sa Puiul Pădurii is itself an adaptation of theGeneviève de Brabant story, considered "somewhat highbrow" by George Călinescu,[129] while theframe storyDivanul persian consciously recalls the work of 19th centuryWallachian writerAnton Pann.[216] In 1909, Sadoveanu also published adapted version of two ancient writings: theAlexander Romance (asAlexandria) andAesop's Fables (asEsopia).[217] His 1921 bookCocostârcul albastru ("The Blue Crane") is a series of short stories with lyrical themes.[218] Among his early writings are twobiographical novels which retell historical events from the source,Viața lui Ștefan cel Mare ("The Life of Stephen the Great") andLacrimile ieromonahului Veniamin ("The Tears of Veniamin theHieromonk"), both of which, Călinescu objected, lacked in originality.[200] The former, published in 1934, was more noted among critics, for both intimate tone andhagiographic character (recounting Stephen's life on the model of saints' biographies).[4]
Despite the post-1944 change in approach, Sadoveanu's characteristic narrative style remained largely unmodified.[219] In contrast, his choice of themes changed, a transition which reflected political imperatives. At the end of the process, literary historianAna Selejan argues, Sadoveanu became the most influential prose author among Romanian Socialist realists, equaled only by the youngerPetru Dumitriu.[220] Historian Bogdan Ivașcu writes that Sadoveanu's affiliation with "proletarian culture" and "its masquerade", like that ofTudor Arghezi and George Călinescu, although it may have been intended to rally "prestige and depth" to Socialist realism, only succeeded in bring their late works to the level of "propaganda and agitation materials."[221] In contrast to these retrospective assessments, communist literary critics and cultural promoters of the 1950s regularly described Sadoveanu as the model to follow, both before and afterGeorgy Malenkov's views on culture were adopted as the norm.[222]
In hisLumina vine de la Răsărit, the writer built on the opposition between light and darkness, identifying the former with Soviet policies and the latter withcapitalism. Sadoveanu thus spoke of "the dragon of my own doubts" being vanquished by "the Sun of the East".[223] HistorianAdrian Cioroianu notes that this literaryantithesis came to be widely used by various Romanian authors who rallied withStalinism during the late 1940s, citing among theseCezar Petrescu and the formeravant-garde writerSașa Pană.[224] He also notes that such imagery, accompanied by portrayals of Soviet joy and abundance, replicated an ancient "structure of myth", adapting it to a new ideology on the basis of "what could be imagined, not of what could be believed."[225]Ioan Stanomir writes that Sadoveanu and his fellow ARLUS members use a discourse recalling the theme of areligious conversion, analogous to that ofPaul the Apostle (seeRoad to Damascus),[226] and criticCornel Ungureanu stresses that Sadoveanu's texts of the period frequently quote theBible.[4]
Following his return from theSoviet Union, Sadoveanu published travelogues and reportage piece, including the 1945Moscova ("Moscow", co-authored withTraian Săvulescu and economistMitiță Constantinescu) and the 1946Caleidoscop ("Kaleidoscope").[227] In one of these accounts, he details his encounter withLysenkoist agronomistNikolay Tsistsin, and claims to have tasted bread made from a brand ofwheat which yielded 4,000kilograms of grain perhectare.[228] In a later memoir, Sadoveanu depicted his existence and the destiny of his country as improved by thecommunist system, and gave accounts of his renewed journeys in the countryside, where he claimed to have witnessed a "spiritual splendor" supported by "the practice of the new times".[229] He would follow up with hundreds of articles on various subjects, published by the communist press,[92] including two 1953 pieces in which he lamented Stalin's death (one of them referred to the Soviet leader as "the great genius of progressive mankind").[230]
Upon its publication, thepolitical novelMitrea Cocor, which depicts the hardships and eventual triumph of its eponymous peasant protagonist, was officially described as the first Socialist realist writing in local literature, and as a turning point in literary history.[231] Often compared toDan Deșliu's ideologized poemLazăr de la Rusca,[232] it is remembered as a controversial epic dictated by ideological requirements, and argued to have been written with assistance from several other authors.[4][92] Seen by historiographerLucian Boia as an "embarrassing literary fabrication",[233] it was rated by literary criticsDan C. Mihăilescu andLuminița Marcu both as one of "the most harmful books in Romanian literature",[234] and by historianIoan Lăcustă as "a propaganda writing, a failure from a literary point of view".[235] A praise ofcollectivization policies that some critics believe was a testimony that Sadoveanu was submitting himself and imposing his public tobrainwashing,[4]Mitrea Cocor was preceded byPăuna-Mică, a novel which also idealizescollective farming.[234]
With his final published work, the 1951-1952 novelNicoară Potcoavă, Sadoveanu retells the narrative of hisȘoimii, modifying the plot and adding new characters.[23][236] Noted among the latter is Olimbiada, a female soothsayer and healer through whose words Sadoveanu again dispenses his own perspective on human existence.[237] The focus of the narrative is also changed: from the avenger of his brother's death inȘoimii, the pretender becomes a purveyor of folk identity, aiming to reestablish the Moldavia of Stephen the Great's times.[238] Praised early on by Dumitriu, who believed it was proof of "artistic excellence",[239]Nicoară Potcoavă is itself seen as a source for communist-inspired political messages. According to Cornel Ungureanu, this explains why it highlights the brotherhood between Cossacks and Moldavians, supposedly replicating the official view on Soviet-Romanian relations.[4] Cornis-Pope, who considers the novel one of Sadoveanu's "mere variations" on old subjects, suggests that it transforms its protagonist "from medieval fighter into political philosopher who announces the rise of a 'new world'."[240] Victor Frunză also notes that, although Sadoveanu returned to old subjects, he "no longer rises to the level he had reached before the war."[94]
The final part of Sadoveanu's creation also comprises a series of pieces where the narrative approach was, according to Crohmălniceanu, "corrected" to show his favorite recluse type won over by the new society.[241] In essence, Ungureanu argues, the new style that of "reportage and plain information, adapted to orders coming from above".[4] Such works include the 1951Nada Florilor ("The Flowers' Lure") andClonț-de-fier ("Iron Bucktooth"), alongside an unfinished piece,Cântecul mioarei ("Song of the Ewe").[4] InNada..., the peasant boy Culai follows his hero,tinsmith Alecuțu, into factory life.[241]Clonț-de-fier, an ideologized retake onDemonul tinereții, is about a monk returning from seclusion into the world of workers, where the landscape is reshaped by large-scale construction works.[4] According to Ungureanu, it also shows Sadoveanu's universe stripped of "all its deep meanings."[4] While their author came to personify the new cultural guidelines, Sadoveanu's previous books, fromFrații Jderi toBaltagul, were subject tocommunist censorship. Various statements contradicting the ideological guidelines were cut out of new editions: the books in general could no longer include mentions ofBessarabia (a region first incorporated into theSoviet Union by a1940 occupation) orRomanian Orthodox beliefs.[242] In one such instance, censors ofBaltagul removed a character's claim that "the Russian" was by nature "the drunkest of them all, [...] a worthy beggar and singer at the fairs."[242]
Sadoveanu's engagement in politics was marked by abrupt changes in convictions, seeing him move fromright- toleft-wing stances several times in his life. In close connection with his traditionalist views on literature, but in contrast to his career under aConservative Party andNational Liberal cabinets, Sadoveanu initially rallied withnationalist groups of various hues, associating with bothNicolae Iorga and, in 1906, with the left-wingPoporanists atViața Românească. An early cause of his was his attempt to reconcile Iorga with the Poporanists, but his efforts were largely fruitless.[243] In the 1910s, the anti-Iorga traditionalistIlarie Chendi recognized in Sadoveanu one of the Poporanists who promoted "the spiritual healing of our people through culture."[244]
Around that time, he formulated a ruralist and nationalist perspective on life, rejecting what he deemed "the hybrid urban world" for "the world of our national realities".[201] In Călinescu's analysis, this signifies that, like his predecessor, the conservative Eminescu, Sadoveanu believed the cities were victims of the "superimposed category" of foreigners, in particular those administeringleasehold estates.[201] Following the1907 Peasants' Revolt, Sadoveanu sent a report to hisMinister of EducationSpiru Haret, informing him on the state of rural education, and, beyond this, of the problems faced by villagers in Moldavia. It read: "The leaseholders and landowners, no matter what their nationality, make a mockery of the Romanians' labors. Everysurtucar [that is, urbanized character] in the village, mayors, notaries, paper-pushers, shamelessly [and] mercilessly milk this milk cow. They are joined by the priest—who [...] is in disagreement with the teacher."[46] WithNeamul Șoimăreștilor, the burdens offeudal society andmercantilism, most of all the restriction of economic rights, were becoming a background theme in his fiction, which later depictedStephen the Great as the original champion ofsocial justice (Frații Jderi).[245] During most of hisWorld War I activity, Sadoveanu also followed the Poporanists'Russophobia and dislike of theEntente side, describing theRussian Empire's national policies in Bessarabia as far more barbaric thanAustria-Hungary's rule over Transylvania.[246] In 1916, he abruptly switched to the Entente camp: his enthusiasm as propaganda officer was touched by controversy once Romania experienced massive defeats; Sadoveanu himself abandoned the Entente cause by 1918, when he wasdecommissioned, and resumed his flirtation withConstantin Stere'sGermanophile lobby.[247]
Călinescu sees Sadoveanu, alongside Stere, as one ofViața Românească's chief ideologues, noting that he was nonetheless "rendered notorious by his inconsistency and opportunism."[201] He writes that Sadoveanu and Stere both showed a resentment forethnic minorities, particularly members of theJewish community, whom they saw as agents of exploitation, but that, asHumanists, they had a form of "humane sympathy" for Jews and foreigners taken individually.[248] The Poporanist aspect of Sadoveanu's literature was also highlighted byGarabet Ibrăileanu in the late 1920s, when he referred to his contributions as evidence that Romanian culture was successfully returning to its specific originality.[249] In essence, Crohmălniceanu writes, Sadoveanu was tied toViața Românească by his advocacy of national specificity, his preference for the large-scale narrative, and his vision of pristine, "natural", human beings.[250]
According toZ. Ornea, Sadoveanu's affiliation to theFreemasonry shaped not only his political "demophilia", but also his "Weltanschauung, and, through a reflex, his [literary] work."[71] By consequence, Ornea argues, Sadoveanu became a supporter ofdemocracy, a stance which led him into open conflict with extreme nationalists.[72] Alongside its Humanism, Sadoveanu's nationalism was noted for beingsecular, and thus in contrast with theRomanian Orthodox imagery favored by nationalists on thefar right. Sadoveanu rejected the notion that ancestral Romanians were religious individuals, stating that their belief was in fact "limited to rituals and customs."[251] He was also a vocal supporter ofinternational cooperation, particularly among countries inEastern andCentral Europe. Writing for the magazineFamilia in 1935, 17 years afterTransylvania'sunion with Romania and 15 years after theTreaty of Trianon, Sadoveanu joined theHungarian authorGyula Illyés in pleading for good relations between the two neighbors.[114] As noted by Crohmălniceanu, although Sadoveanu's interwar novels may depict both clashes between polities and benign misunderstandings, they ultimately discourageethnic stereotypes, suggesting that "the gifts and qualities of various kinships" are mutually compatible.[252] According toMarcel Cornis-Pope, this cooperative vision is the background theme toDivanul persian, a book "demonstrating the value ofintercultural dialogue at a time of sharp political polarization."[240] The same text was described by Vianu as evidence of Sadoveanu's "understanding, gentleness and tolerance".[206]
In 1926, the year of his entry intoAlexandru Averescu'sPeople's Party, Sadoveanu motivated his choice in a letter toOctavian Goga, indicating his belief that theintelligentsia needed to partake in politics: "It would seem that what is foremost needed is the contribution of intellectuals, in an epoch when the overall intellectual level is decreasing."[33] His sincerity was doubted by his contemporaries: both his friendGheorghe Jurgea-Negrilești and the communistPetre Pandrea recount how, in 1926–1927, Sadoveanu andPăstorel Teodoreanu requested public funds fromInterior Minister Goga, with Sadoveanu motivating that he wanted to set up a cultural magazine and later spending the money on his personal wardrobe.[63] In contrast, Adrian Cioroianu notes that the People's Party episode, and especially the "mutual wariness" between Sadoveanu and theNational Liberals, underlined the writer's sympathy for the "intellectual Left".[253] Himself aMarxist, Ovid Crohmălniceanu suggested that, as early as the 1930s, Sadoveanu's attitudes were rather similar to the official line of communist groups.[254]
During the 1930s, following his stint as head ofAdevărul, a leftist newspaper owned by Jewish entrepreneurs, Sadoveanu was targeted by right-wing voices, who claimed that he had chosen to abandon his nationalist credentials.[255] Thus, Sadoveanu became the target of a press campaign in theantisemitic andfascist press, and in particular inNichifor Crainic'sSfarmă-Piatră and the journals connected with theIron Guard. The former publication deplored his supposed "betrayal" of the nationalist cause. In it,Ovidiu Papadima portrayed Sadoveanu as the victim of Jewish manipulation, and equated his affiliation to the Freemasonry withdevil worship, and mocked hisobesity, while Crainic himself compared the writer to his own character, the treacherousIeremia Golia.[256]Porunca Vremii often referred to him asJidoveanu (fromjidov, a dismissive term for "Jew"), depicted him as an agent of "Judaeo-communism" motivated by "perversity", and called on the public to harass the writer and beat him with stones.[257] It also protested when the public authorities inFălticeni refused to withdraw Sadoveanu the title of honorary citizen, and again when theUniversity of Iași made him a doctorhonoris causa, and, through the voice of novelistN. Crevedia, even suggested that the writer should use his hunting rifle to commit suicide.[258] In 1937,Porunca Vremii congratulated ultra-nationalists who had organizedpublic burnings of Sadoveanu's works inSouthern Dobruja and inHunedoara, as well as non-identified people who sent the writer packages containing shredded copies of his own volumes.[259] In April 1937, the anti-Sadoveanu campaign was met with the indignation of various public figures, who issued an "Appeal of the Intellectuals", signed byLiviu Rebreanu,Eugen Lovinescu,Petru Groza,Victor Eftimiu,George Topîrceanu,Zaharia Stancu,Demostene Botez,Alexandru Al. Philippide,Constantin Balmuș and others.[260] Denouncing the campaign as a "moral assassination", it referred to Sadoveanu as the author of "the most Romanian [works] in our literature."[260] Sadoveanu himself defended his fellow writerTudor Arghezi, who stood accused by the far right press of having written "pornography".[69]
Reviewing the consequences of these scandals, Ovid Crohmălniceanu suggests that all of what Mihail Sadoveanu wrote from 1938 to 1943 is in some way connected to the cause ofanti-fascism.[261] According to Cornis-Pope, Sadoveanu's dislike for the far right can be discovered inCreanga de aur, which doubles as "a politicalparable opposing an archaic peasant civilization to the growing threat of fascism."[240] However, George Călinescu claims, the writer himself had not actually revised his nationalist outlook, that he continued to believe that minorities and foreigners were a risky presence inGreater Romania, and that his Humanism was "a light tincture".[201] In one of his columns, Sadoveanu replied to those organizing the acts of vandalism, indicating that, had they actually read the novels they were destroying, they would have found "a burning faith in this nation, for so long mistreated by cunning men".[262] Elsewhere, stating that he was not going to take his detractors into consideration, Sadoveanu defined himself as an adversary of bothNazi Germany and any form of advocacy for a "National-Socialist regime in our country".[260]
Sadoveanu's subsequent endorsement ofauthoritarianKingCarol II and hiscorporatist force, theNational Renaissance Front, saw his participation in the monarch'spersonality cult. In 1940, he offered controversial praise to the ruler through the official journal,Revista Fundațiilor Regale, which caused Carol's political adversary, psychologistNicolae Mărgineanu, to deem Sadoveanu and his fellow contributors "scoundrels".[263] His renewed mandate in theSenate was a favor from Carol, also granted toGeorge Enescu, philosopherLucian Blaga, scientistsEmil Racoviță andIuliu Hațieganu, and several other public figures.[78] During theIon Antonescu dictatorship, Sadoveanu kept a low profile and was apolitical. However, Cioroianu writes, he supported theinvasion of the Soviet Union and Romania's cooperation with theAxis powers on theEastern Front, seeing in this a chance to recoverBessarabia and the northern part ofBukovina (lost to the1940 Soviet occupation).[92] In spring 1944, months before theKing Michael Coup toppled the regime, he was approached by the clandestineRomanian Communist Party and its sympathizers in academia to sign anopen letter condemning Romania's alliance toNazi Germany. According to the communist activistBelu Zilber, who took part in this action, Sadoveanu, like his fellow intellectualsDimitrie Gusti,Simion Stoilow andHoria Hulubei, refused to sign the document.[264] Also according to Zilber, Sadoveanu motivated his refusal by stating that the letter needed to be addressed not to Antonescu, but to KingMichael I.[264] However, and aside from its main topic,Păuna-Mică was noted as one of the few prose works of the 1940s to mention thewartime deportation of Romanian Jews by Antonescu's regime;[265]Caleidoscop also speaks about the 1941Iași pogrom as "our shame", and commends those who opposed it.[266]
Following hisLumina vine de la Răsărit lecture, Sadoveanu became noted for his positive portrayals ofcommunization andcollectivization. In particular, Sadoveanu offered praise to one of the major pillars ofStalinism, the1936 Soviet Constitution.[267] In 1945, claiming to have been "flashed upon" by "Stalin's argumentation", he urged the public to read the document for its "sincerity";[268] elsewhere, he equated reading the constitution with "a mystical revelation".[269]Adrian Cioroianu describes this as "an office assignment" from the ARLUS, at a time when the group was circulating free translated copies of the Soviet constitution.[270] The enthusiasm of his writings also manifested itself in his public behavior: according to his ARLUS colleagueIorgu Iordan, Sadoveanu was emotional during the 1945 Soviet trip, shedding tears of joy upon visiting aday care center in the countryside.[271] Running in the1946 election, Sadoveanu blamed the old political class in general for the problems faced by Romanian peasants, including the majordrought of that year.[91] By then, his political partners were making use of his literary fame, and his electoral pamphlet read: "There is no doubt that the thousands of people who have read his works will rush out on [election day] to vote for him."[96] After 1948, when theRomanian communist regime was installed, Sadoveanu directed his praise toward the new authorities. In 1952, as Romania adopted itssecond republican constitution and the authorities intensified repression againstanti-communists, Sadoveanu made some of his most controversial statements. Declaring thedefunct kingdom to have been a "long interval of organized injustice and crooked development in all areas", he presented the new order as an era of social justice, human dignity, available culture and universalpublic education.[272]
Criticism of Sadoveanu's moral choices also focuses on the fact that, while he led a luxurious existence, many of his generation colleagues and fellow intellectuals were being persecuted or jailed in notoriously harsh circumstances.[273] Having tolerated the purge within theRomanian Academy, Cioroianu notes, Sadoveanu accepted being colleagues with newly promoted "secondary characters [...] whom the new regime needed", such as poetDumitru Theodor Neculuță and historianMihail Roller.[274] In his official capacity, Sadoveanu even signed severaldeath sentences declared by communist tribunals,[135] and, in the wake of theTămădău Affair of summer 1947, presided over the Chamber sessions which outlawed the oppositionNational Peasants' Party: according to researcher Victor Frunză, he was a willing participant in this, having been upset by the exposure of his personal wealth in the National Peasantist press.[275] Later, Sadoveanu made a reference to his former colleague, the National Peasantist activistIon Mihalache, arguing that his oldAgrarianist approach to politics had made him a "ridiculous character".[135]Ioan Stanomir describes this fragment as one of "intellectual abjection", indicating that Mihalache, already apolitical prisoner of the regime, was to die in captivity.[135] However, as leader of theRomanian Writers' Union, the aging writer is credited by some with having protected poetNicolae Labiș, a disillusioned communist who had been excluded from theUnion of Worker Youth in spring 1954, and whose work Sadoveanu treasured.[276] He is also reported to have helped George Călinescu publish the novelScrinul negru, mediating between him and communist leaderGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.[242]
Mihail Sadoveanu provided a definition of his own political transition in conversation with fellow writerIon Biberi (1946). At the time, he claimed: "I have never engaged in politics, in the sense that one assigns to this word."[67] He elaborated: "I am a left-wing person, following the line of a Poporanist zeal in the spirit ofViața Românească, but one adapted to the new circumstances."[277] Cioroianu sees in such statements evidence that, trying to discard his past, Sadoveanu was including himself among thesocialist intellectuals "willing to let themselves be won over by the indescribable charm and the full swing of the communistutopia", but that he may in reality have been "motivated by fear".[278] Paraphrasing communist vocabulary, Stanomir describes the writer as one of the "bourgeois" personalities who became "fellow travelers" of the communists, and argues that Sadoveanu's claim to have always leaned towards a "people's democracy" inaugurated "a pattern of chameleonism".[226] In the view of historianVladimir Tismăneanu, Sadoveanu, like Parhon, George Călinescu,Traian Săvulescu and others, was one of the "non-communist intellectuals" attracted into cooperation with theRomanian Communist Party and the communist regime (Tismăneanu also argues that these figures' good relationship with Gheorghiu-Dej was a factor in the process, as was Gheorghiu-Dej's ability to make himself look "harmless").[279] Others have submitted that Sadoveanu's faction in theFreemasonry, which includedfar left advocatesMihai Ralea andAlexandru Claudian, and officially supportedevolutionary socialism, was a natural partner of the communists, to the point of sanctioning its ownstate-organized suppression.[36]
According to Adrian Cioroianu, Sadoveanu was not necessarily an "apostle of communization", and his role in the process is subject to much debate.[280] Describing the writer's "conversion to philosovietism" as "purely contextual",[92] Cioroianu also points out that the very notion of "light arising in the East" is read by some as Sadoveanu's encoded message to other Freemasons, warning them of a Soviet threat to the organization.[280] The historian notes that, for all their possible lack in sincerity, Sadoveanu's statements provided a template for other intellectuals to follow—this, he argues, was the case ofCezar Petrescu.[281] Other statements made by Sadoveanu also displayed a possibly studied ambiguity, as is the case with a 1952 lecture he gave in front of young writers attending the Party-controlled School of Literature, where he implicitly denied that one could be created a writer unless by "God orMother Nature".[282]
Sadoveanu's prose, in particular his treatment of natural settings, was a direct influence in the works of writers such asDimitrie D. Pătrășcanu,Nicolae N. Beldiceanu,Jean Bart, andAl. Lascarov-Moldovanu;[283] his storytelling techniques were also sometimes borrowed by comedic novelistDamian Stănoiu,[284] and, in later years, by historical novelistDumitru Vacariu.[285] According to Călinescu, Sadoveanu's early hunting stories published byViața Românească, together with those ofJunimistNicolae Gane, helped establish the genre within the framework ofRomanian literature, and paved the way for its predilect use in the works ofIoan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești.[31] Călinescu also notes thatScrisorile unui răzeș ("Letters of a Peasant"), an early work by novelist Cezar Petrescu, are deeply marked by Sadoveanu's influence, and that the same writer's use of theMoldavian dialect is a "pastiche" from Sadoveanu.[286]Ion Vinea too, while expressing admiration for Sadoveanu, defined all his disciples and imitators as "mushroom-writers from Sadoveanu's woods" and "butlers who steal [their lord's lingerie] in order to wear his blazon".[287] The issue was much later discussed by writer-criticIoan Holban, who likewise described most historical novelists inspired by Sadoveanu as "insignificant" to Romanian letters.[285]
Under the early stages of thecommunist regime, before the rise ofNicolae Ceaușescu engendered a series ofrehabilitations and accommodated nationalism, theRomanian curriculum was dependent on ideological guidelines. At the time, Sadoveanu was one of the writers from the interwar whose work was still made available to Romanian schoolchildren.[288] In the 1953 Romanian language and literature manual, he represented his generation alongside the communist authorsAlexandru Toma andAlexandru Sahia, and was introduced mainly through hisMitrea Cocor.[233] At the time, studies of his work were published by prominent communist critics, among themOvid Crohmălniceanu,[289]Paul Georgescu,Traian Șelmaru,Mihai Novicov,Eugen Campus andDumitru Isac,[290] while a 1953 reissue ofBaltagul was published in 30,000 copies (a number rarely met by the Romanian publishing industry in that context).[291] In later years,Profira Sadoveanu became a noted promoter of her father's literature and public image,[25] publishing children's versions of his biography, notably featuring illustrations byMac Constantinescu (1955 edition).[292]
Although Sadoveanu continued to be hailed as a major writer during the Ceaușescu years, and the seventy years of his debut were marked with state ceremony,[23] the reaction against Soviet influence affected presentations of his work: his official bibliography no longer included any mention ofPăuna-Mică.[94] Among the memoirs dealing with Sadoveanu's late years were those ofAlexandru Rosetti, published in 1977.[108] The official revival of nationalist discourse in the 1960s allowed controversial criticEdgar Papu to formulate his version ofProtochronism, which postulated that phenomenons within Romanian culture preceded developments in world culture. In this context, Papu spoke of Sadoveanu as "one of the great precursory voices", comparing him toRabindranath Tagore.[293] After the1989 Revolution toppled communism, Sadoveanu remained an influence on some young authors, who recovered the themes of his work in aPostmodern orparodic manner. Among them isDan Lungu, who, according to criticAndrei Terian, alluded to theHanu Ancuțeiframe story when constructing his 2004 novelParadisul găinilor.[294] In 2001, a poll carried among literati byObservator Cultural magazine listed six of his works as some of the best 150 Romanian novels.[295]
Mihail Sadoveanu's various works were widely circulated abroad. This phenomenon began as early as 1905, whenGerman-language translations were first published,[296] and continued during the 1930s, whenVenea o moară pe Siret... was translated very soon after its original Romanian edition.[170] In 1931, female author andfeminist militantSarina Cassvan includedFrench-language versions of his texts into an anthology designed to promote modern Romanian culture internationally.[297] Also then, some of Sadoveanu's texts were rendered inChinese byLu Xun.[298]
Tudor Vianu attributes the warm international reception Sadoveanu generally received to his abilities in rendering the Romanians' "own way of sensing and seeing nature and humanity",[296] while literary historianAdrian Marino points out that, Sadoveanu andLiviu Rebreanu were exceptional in their generation for taking an active interest in how their texts were translated, edited and published abroad.[299]
Later, publicizing Sadoveanu's work toEastern Bloc and world audiences became a priority for the communist regime. Thus,Mitrea Cocor was, together with similar works byZaharia Stancu andEusebiu Camilar, among the first wave of Romanian books to have been translated intoCzech and published inCommunist Czechoslovakia.[300] Alongside similar works byPetru Dumitriu,Mitrea Cocor was also among the few English-language editions sanctioned by the Romanian regime, being translated and published, with a preface byJack Lindsay, in 1953.[301] Nine years later, the collected short stories were a tool for cultural exchange between Romania and the United States.[95] Sadoveanu's good standing in the Soviet Union afterWorld War II also made him one of the few Romanian writers whose works were still being published in theMoldavian SSR (which, as part ofBessarabia, had previously been a region ofGreater Romania).[111]
Sadoveanu's diaries and notes were collected and edited during the early 2000s, being published in 2006 byEditura Junimea and the MLR. The main coordinators of this project were literary historianConstantin Ciopraga and Constantin Mitru, who was Sadoveanu's brother-in-law and personal secretary.[46] The popularity of his writings remained high into the early 21st century: in 2004, when the country marked a hundred years since Sadoveanu's debut,Șoimii was published in its 15th edition.[23] According to Simuț, the occasion itself was nevertheless marked with "the impression of general indifference", making Sadoveanu seem "a submerged continent, remembered by us only with piousness and confusion".[23]
Sadoveanu is an occasional presence in the literary works of his fellow generation members. HisȚara de dincolo de negură was partly written as a tribute toGeorge Topîrceanu's piece of the same name, with both authors sketching an affectionate portrait of one another.[302] Topîrceanu also parodied his friend's style in a five-paragraph sketch, part of a series of such fragments, recorded their encounters in various other autobiographical writings, and dedicated him the first version of his poemBalada popii din Rudeni ("Ballad of the Priest from Rudeni").[303] Under the nameNicolae Pădureanu, Sadoveanu is a character in the novel and disguised autobiographyÎn preajma revoluției ("On the Eve of the Revolution"), authored by his colleagueConstantin Stere.[304] Sadoveanu is honored in two writings byNicolae Labiș, collectively titledSadoveniene ("Sadovenians"). The first, titledMihail Sadoveanu, is aprose poem which alludes to Sadoveanu's prose, and the other, afree verse piece, is titledCozma Răcoare.[305]
In his scientific study of Sadoveanu's work,Eugen Lovinescu himself turns to pure literature, portraying Sadoveanu as a child blessed by theMoirai orursitoare with ironic gifts, such as an obstinacy fornature writing in the absence of actual observation ("You shall write; you shall write and could never stop yourself writing [...]. The readers will grow tired, but you will remain tireless; you shall not known rest, just as you shall not know nature [...]").[132] George Călinescu was one to object to this portrayal, noting that it was merely a "literary device which hardly covers the emptiness of [Lovinescu's] idea."[132] Also during the interwar, philosopherMihai Ralea made Mihail Sadoveanu the subject of a sociological study investigating his literary contributions in the context of social evolutions.[306]
A portrait of Sadoveanu was drawn by graphic artistAry Murnu, within a larger work which depicts theKübler Coffeehouse society.[51] Sadoveanu was also the subject of a 1929 painting byȘtefan Dumitrescu, part of a series onViața Românească figures.[307] In its original edition,Mitrea Cocor was supposed to feature a series of drawings made byCorneliu Baba, one of the best-known Romanian visual artists for his generation.[308][309] Baba, who had been officially criticized for "formalism", was pressured by the authorities into accepting the commission or risk a precarious existence.[308] The result of his work was rejected with a similar label, and the sketches were for long not made available to the public.[308] Baba also painted Sadoveanu's portrait, which, in 1958, art criticKrikor Zambaccian as "the synthesis of Baba's art", depicting "a man of letters aware of his mission [and] the leading presence of an active consciousness".[310] Constantin Mitru inherited the painting and passed it on to theMuseum of Romanian Literature (MLR).[311] A marble bust of Sadoveanu, the work ofIon Irimescu, was set up in Fălticeni in 1977.[312] In Bucharest, a memorial plaque was placed on Pitar Moș Street, on a house where he lived for a period.[313] During the 1990s, another bust of Sadoveanu, the work of several sculptors, was unveiled inChișinău,Republic of Moldova (the former Moldavian SSR), part of theAleea Clasicilor sculptural ensemble.[314]
Sadoveanu's writings also made an impact on film culture, and in particular onRomanian cinema of the communist period. However, the first film based on his works was a German production of 1929: based onVenea o moară... and titledSturmflut der Liebe ("Storm Tide of Love"), it notably starredMarcella Albani,Alexandru Giugaru andIon Brezeanu.[315] The series of Romanian-made films began with the 1952Mitrea Cocor, co-directed byMarietta Sadova (who also starred in the film) andVictor Iliu.[235][315][316] The film itself was closely supervised for conformity with ideological guidelines, and had to be partly redone because its original version did not meet them.[235][316]Mircea Drăgan directed a 1965 version ofNeamul Șoimăreștilor (with a screenplay co-written by Constantin Mitru) and a 1973 adaptation ofFrații Jderi (with contributions by Mitru and byProfira Sadoveanu).[315] In 1969, Romanian studios produced a film version ofBaltagul, directed byMircea Mureșan and withSidonia Manolache as Vitoria Lipan.[315] Ten years later,Constantin Vaeni releasedVacanță tragică ("Tragic Holiday"), based onNada Florilor, followed by a 1980 adaptation ofDumbrava minunată andStere Gulea's 1983Ochi de urs (tr. "The Bear Eye's Curse").[315] In 1989, just before the Romanian Revolution,Dan Pița produced his filmThe Last Ball in November, based onLocul unde nu s-a întâmplat nimic.[315]
During the early decades of communist rule, Sadoveanu,Alexandru Toma and laterTudor Arghezi were often paid homage with state celebrations, likened by literary critic Florin Mihăilescu to thepersonality cult reserved for Stalin andGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.[317] For a while after the writer's death, theWriters' Union club, commonly known as "The Writers' House", bore Sadoveanu's name.Casa cu turn in Iași, which Sadoveanu had donated to the state in 1950, went through a period of neglect and was finally set up as a museum in 1980.[58] Similar sites were set up in his Fălticeni house,[318] and in his final residence at Voividenia,[10] while the Bradu-Strâmb chalet was controversially granted to theSecuritate, and later to theRomanian Police.[80] Each year, Iași commemorates the writer through a cultural festival known as the "Mihail Sadoveanu Days".[319] In 2004, the 100th anniversary of his debut was marked by a series of exhibits and symposiums, organized by the MLR.[319] Similar events are regularly held in various cities, and include the "In Sadoveanu's Footsteps" colloquy of writers, held during March 2006 in the city ofPiatra Neamț.[320] Since 2003, in tribute to Sadoveanu's love for the game, an annualchess tournament is held in Iași.[321] TheSadoveanu High School and a bookstore in Bucharest are named after him, and streets named after him exist in, among other places, Iași, Fălticeni,Timișoara,Oradea,Brașov,Galați,Suceava,Călărași,Târgu Jiu,Miercurea Ciuc,Petroșani, andMangalia. Pașcani hosts a cultural center, a high school and a library named after him. Sadoveanu's memory is also regularly honored in the Republic of Moldova, where, in 2005, the 125th anniversary of his birth was celebrated in an official context.[111] A street in Chișinău and a high school in the town ofCupcini are also named after him.
Media related toMihail Sadoveanu at Wikimedia Commons| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President of the Senate of Romania 1931–1932 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania 1946–1948 | Succeeded byas President of the Great National Assembly |
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