Paul Bujor (bornPavel Bujor;[1] August 2, 1862 – May 17, 1952) was aRomanian zoologist, physiologist andmarine biologist, also noted as a socialist writer and politician. Hailing from ruralCovurlui County, he studied biology inFrance andSwitzerland, where he was attracted by left-wing ideas; hisevolutionary biology, informed by the work ofCarl Vogt, veered intoMarxism andirreligion. Returning to theKingdom of Romania, he was a junior member of theRomanian Social Democratic Workers' Party, active on its moderate wing. He earned the critics' attention in the 1890s as a short story writer with a socialist and pacifist message, but only returned to fiction writing briefly, in the 1930s. An award-winningichthyologist, Bujor was hired by theUniversity of Iași, where he taught for 41 years, and throughout the period worked on documenting theBlack Sea fauna, and made discoveries concerning the environment ofTechirghiol Lake. He inaugurated the Romanian study ofanimal morphology, while also contributing tohistology,embryology, andparasitology, and gave popular lectures on evolution andphysical culture.
Bujor rallied with thePoporanist movement, infiltrating theNational Liberal Party from the left. He was among the founders of the leading Poporanist review,Viața Românească, but expelled after expressing disagreement with its refusal to criticize the National Liberal mainstream. As an independent left-winger, constantly pushing forland reform anduniversal suffrage, Bujor had publicized and sometimes violent conflicts with his far-right colleague at university,A. C. Cuza. Elected toSenate as a university representative, and serving throughout thesocial upheaval of World War I, Bujor clashed with the National LiberalPrime MinisterIon I. C. Brătianu, whom he accused of bringing disaster upon the country. In 1919, he was one of the founders and leaders ofPeasants' Party, which became part of a successful electoral coalition, representing groups throughoutGreater Romania; Bujor was selected as Greater Romania's firstpresident of the Senate.
The Peasantist attempts at constitutional reform, and Bujor's own signs of approval for far-left concepts, eventually led to a backlash in 1920. Deposed byKingFerdinand I in 1920, Bujor expressed hopes for a revolution against "the oligarchy", but he was gradually marginalized. After 1926, with discipleIoan Borcea, he represented the dissident left within the consolidatedNational Peasants' Party, openly criticizing his party's leadership while serving as representative in theAssembly of Deputies. Bujor, still a rival of Cuza, professedanti-fascism throughout the 1930s, but withdrew from the public eye during World War II. He returned to prominence under thecommunist regime, when, at age 86, he was inducted into theRomanian Academy.
Bujor was born inBerești,Covurlui County (nowGalați County), on August 2 (Old Style: July 20), 1862.[1] Some sources suggest that his father Gavril was a modest farmer or laborer,[2][3] but he actually worked as a clerk; his mother, Nastasia, was a housewife.[1] According to philologist Livia Ciupercă, Bujor made efforts to conceal his true origins, and, for this reason, eventually broke all contact with his relatives.[4] Hosted by his grandfather Varlaam, then by an aunt,[1] Pavel attended primary school inBârlad, followed by the town'sGheorghe Roșca Codreanu National College. As he recalled, during his early years there he received a school inspection from poetVasile Alecsandri.[5] While living there, he was also roommates withAlexandru Vlahuță, with whom he shared an enthusiasm forMihai Eminescu's poetry.[2] Vlahuță reportedly wrote his celebrated poemDormi iubito! ("Sleep, My Love!"), inspired by the sudden death of a Bârlad belle, while recovering in Bujor's room at theboarding school.[6] Bujor remained close friends with the slightly older writer, and stayed over in his house "sometimes for days on end".[7] He later described his meetings, through Vlahuță, with two other major Romanian writers,Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu andBarbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, claiming that he and Vlahuță also helped "recluse" painterNicolae Grigorescu organize his first-ever retrospective exhibit.[5]
Bujor took hisBaccalaureate atIași (1880), then performed his six-months service in theRomanian Land Forces, at a cavalry regiment, and ultimately enrolled at the Natural Sciences department,University of Bucharest, while working as a copyist in theMinistry of Internal Affairs.[8] At the time, he came to be influenced byGrigore Cobălcescu'smaterialism, which informed his worldview and attracted him to left-wing ideas.[9] Eventually, sponsored by his brother-in-law, he was able to fulfill his dream of studying biology at theUniversity of Paris, underHenri de Lacaze-Duthiers.[10] According to other reports, he also received a Romanian state scholarship.[11]
In the French capital, he came into contact with international socialism, meetingJules Guesde andPaul Lafargue.[12] Alongside his biologist colleaguesIoan Cantacuzino,Dimitrie Voinov andEmil Racoviță,[10] he joined the students' socialist circle, presided upon byIoan Nădejde.[5] He also had friends outside the socialist movement, includingIon I. C. Brătianu—future leader of theNational Liberal Party (PNL)—, his brotherDinu, playwrightIon Peretz, and landownerIuniu Lecca.[5] He also visited Alecsandri andIon Luca Caragiale, the celebrated playwright and humorist, at his exile homes in Paris and Berlin. He would later recall that Caragiale was impressed by the "socialist education" of German proletarians.[5] However, it is known that Caragiale mocked Bujor in at least one letter he sent toMihail Dragomirescu.[13]
Having done independent research inmarine biology atVillefranche-sur-Mer,[14] Bujor moved to Geneva for specialized courses in animal morphology, under the guidance ofCarl Vogt. He had been impressed by Vogt's work andtransformist outlook, and was enthusiastic about taking courses underErnst Haeckel; but he also found life in Paris hardly affordable.[10] Bujor was well-liked by Vogt, who made him part of his research team, and then also worked under Professor Wiederschein at theUniversity of Fribourg; withGrigore Antipa, he began work on a vast project to study theBlack Sea fauna, stocking up on specialized instruments.[14] He also continued his engagement with socialism, and attended lectures byGeorgi Plekhanov.[2][12] He received a doctorate in natural sciences from theUniversity of Geneva in 1891; the work described the larval stages of development in thebrook lamprey. It was one of the first Romanian contributions to dynamic morphology,[15] and also won Bujor theRousseau Institute's Davey Prize.[16]
Upon his return, Bujor had a stint on the University of Bucharest teaching staff, and was an assistant in the physiology laboratory, underAlexandru M. Vitzu.[2][17] Originally, he had wanted to fulfill his socialist vocation and resign to a schoolteacher's position. He was dissuaded from this by the Marxist philosopherConstantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, who noted that he could do much more as an academic.[16] This was also the time of Bujor's literary debut, which was also overseen by Dobrogeanu-Gherea—in the 1930s, Bujor described himself as one of the writers "belonging to the generation and literary school shaped by Gherea."[5]
Although sometimes credited as a writer of theContemporanul circle, Bujor was never actually part of that team, although he may have been in contact with it.[18] Instead, by 1894, he was a noted contributor toGarabet Ibrăileanu'sEvenimentul Literar of Iași,[19] and also wrote for Gherea's own review,Literatură și Știință—which hosted various of his "countryside sketches",[20] including theanti-war,didacticMi-a cântat cucu-n față ("A Cuckoo Sang to My Face").[5][21] Written atMédan, it depicted the tragedy of Dinu, a Romanian peasant drafted into the local militia, where he is driven to drink, then to murderous insanity.[12] According to literary historianGeorge Călinescu, "the bourgeois state" is the antagonist.[12] Other critics note that it was the first of several Bujor stories in which urban civilization is a factor for ethical dissolution, a theme "idyllic and ideological",[22] repeated to the point of "obsession".[23]
AfterLiteratură și Știință, Bujor was also a contributor toLumea Nouă, organ of theRomanian Social Democratic Workers' Party (PSDMR)—although, according to fellow socialist I. C. Atanasiu, he did not involve himself in militant politics, being a regular party member.[24] The same Atanasiu notes that, onLabor Day 1894, Bujor acted as a courier for the PSDMR moderate mainstream, warning the party cell inGalați not to invite in, nor respond to, police violence.[25] In the late 1890s, he and folkloristGheorghe T. Kirileanu reviewed for print the debut short story of another intellectual from Gherea's circle, namelyPaul Zarifopol.[26]
Bujor was eventually hired as a professor in the animal morphology department of theUniversity of Iași in 1895 or 1896[27] (tenured 1899).[12] In 1898–1899, together withDeodat Țăranu, he was also curator of the Medical and Naturalist Society, criticized by researcher N. A. Bogdan for their inconsistent, "haphazard" work at the numismatics collection.[28] Nevertheless, in 1901 Bujor became the Society's secretary general, serving until 1905 or 1906.[29] His research took him outside the country: with Voinov and Racoviță, he worked as a marine biologist atBanyuls-sur-Mer and at theStazione Zoologica ofNaples,[30] returning with a rich collection of biological samples, which he donated to his faculty.[31] In 1903, withAlexandru Popovici andLeon Cosmovici, he held a pioneering extracurricular course onparasitology.[32] He then followed up with other such courses, inembryology andhistology.[31] From 1904, his articles promotingphysical culture among the peasantry were hosted byCultura Română, the popular pedagogy magazine,[33] with Bujor serving as president of the Iași Society for Gymnastics, Sport and Music.[34] His efforts in that field led to the establishment of multi-sport venues inCopou Park, and the first ever chalet onCeahlău Massif.[35]
A dean in 1906, Bujor published an overview of his faculty's organization and funding.[36] Bujor then laid the foundation for Iași's animal morphology collections; conducted research in descriptive and comparative morphology, as well as in hydrobiology and experimental zoology; and also organized the department's laboratory and museum.[31] He authored scientific articles in Romanian and in French,[2][37] conducting research into living organisms found insalt lakes. Bujor notably established the biological process whereby black mud is formed inLake Techirghiol.[31] One of his generation's leadingevolutionists,Darwinists, andevolutionary biologists,[38] in January 1907 he gave popular lectures introducing the public to the work ofCharles Darwin.[39]
By 1898, with the PSDMR in the process of disintegration, Bujor had been drawn into the post-socialist agrarian current known asPoporanism, having already been its literary precursor, according to critic Alexandru Hanță.[23] Together with Poporanist leaders Ibrăileanu,Constantin Stere, andSpiridon Popescu, he entered the PNL in 1899, situating himself firmly on the left wing of the organization.[40] In later years, he continued to express his feelings of regret that the PSDMR had fallen apart, and that the movement had blended into a "bourgeois party".[41] As he noted in 1923, his friends' desertion from the PSDMR had made it possible for Brătianu to be elected PNL chairman, meaning that they had been used by him.[42]
This period also brought his sparse literary contributions to Vlahuță andNicolae Iorga's traditionalist review,Sămănătorul—by 1900, Bujor had met and befriended both Iorga and his associate inIași, professorA. C. Cuza, who espoused radicalRomanian nationalism.[43] Bujor was also one of the few pose writers to contribute in its first edition of 1902.[44] However, by 1905, the split between Poporanism andSămănătorul was irreconcilable, as Stere, Ibrăileanu and Bujor alike declared that agrarianism could only be progressive, whereas Vlahuță and Iorga defended cultural conservatism.[45] In October 1906, the press reported a "lively conflict" at university, between Cuza and Bujor, "occasioned by the opening ceremony of the academic year."[46]
Together with Stere, Bujor became co-director of the newly launched Poporanist magazineViața Românească in March 1906, and was also one of the first contributors there.[47] During this period, he published in its pages the sketchesSuflete chinuite ("Tormented Souls") andMăcar o lacrimă ("If Only a Tear"),[2] as well as introductions to marine biology. As noted with amusement by Dobrogeanu-Gherea, these were identical to pieces that Bujor had sent to be published inHenric Sanielevici'sCurentul Nou.[48] AcademicA. D. Xenopol liked the works overall, remarking their "beautiful scientific language". However, he also objected to Bujor's reliance on neologisms.[49]
Bujor remained on the editorial staff until April 1907, when Stere objected to his ideological vacillation—a dispute between them was aired in the dailyOpinia, andIoan Cantacuzino took his place.[50] For his part, Bujor, who now shunned the PNL, depictedViața Românească as a National Liberal mouthpiece.[51] Thepeasants' revolt of March 1907 had seen him and his friends Voinov take firm stands against the repressive government ofDimitrie Sturdza.[52]
By then, Bujor also contributed to several other literary magazines, includingArta,Lupta,Noua Revistă Română, andRevista Literară și Științifică (where he was editing secretary),[2] and also to newspapers such asOpinia andTribuna Conservatoare.[11] His short stories were collected asMi-a cântat cucu-n față (1910).[2][53] In 1911, Bujor published the essayFoamea și iubirea în lupta pentru existență ("Hunger and Love in the Fight for Existence"),[36] and, with Cantacuzino,Gheorghe Marinescu, andFrancisc Rainer, founded the international journalAnnales de Biologie.[54] This activity was followed in 1913 by a piece advocating democratization andland reform (Reforma electorală și agrară).[55] At the time, Bujor warned the establishment that the peasants' revolt would repeat itself unless land would be divided among the landless.[56]
Those years accentuated his conflict with Cuza: in October 1909, when he planned to speak at university about the execution ofFrancisco Ferrer by theSpanish restoration government, his address was violently interrupted by far-right students.[57] In 1911, he reportedly refused to be granted theBene-Merenti medal byKingCarol I, because Cuza, suspected of plagiarism, was also a recipient;[58] however, he later was created Grand Officer of theOrder of the Crown, being received into it at the same time as Cuza, who was appointed Commander.[59]
While marginalized by the Poporanist mainstream, Bujor found a disciple in his junior colleague at university,Ioan Borcea.[60] He also cooperated with biologistNicolae Leon, sharing his commitment toirreligion, and criticizing theMoldavian Orthodox Bishopric for itsconsecration ceremonies at university.[61] On his own, Bujor founded a Darwinian Studies Circle, whose students reacted against professors who favored mysticism.[62] His Darwinian studies, carried byRevista Științifică V. Adamachi, discussed issues such asparthenogenesis, and commented onPeter Kropotkin'sMutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution.[63] His other friends in Iași includedOctav Băncilă,Eugen Heroveanu andMihai Pastia, with whom he founded a bakers' cooperative, in early 1912.[64]
Bujor represented his university in theSenatefrom 1914,[2] the only independent in that chamber.[65] In July 1914, just after theSarajevo assassination and during thedrive to war, he was selected onToma Stelian's senatorial panel, which proposed reforms to the1866 constitution.[66] The period coincided with Romania's neutrality in World War I, with Bujor, by then a contributor toPetre P. Carp'sMoldova newspaper,[11] involving himself in passionate debates at the university. Alongside his former Poporanist mentor, Stere, he supported Romania's collaboration with theCentral Powers, and preferred war against theRussian Empire.[67] While sometimes credited as the author of anti-war Marxist brochures,[2] these were actually written by a namesake,Mihail Gheorghiu Bujor.[68]
At the Senate rostrum, Bujor suggested that no military operation was possible before sorting out "social inequities", as Romania's strength depended on peasant recruits. He debated the issue with thePrime Minister, his old friend Brătianu, who responded that the proposed social reforms were inopportune.[69] In 1916, Romania, under Brătianu's PNL government,entered the war against the Central Powers; by 1917, its territory had been invaded, with onlyWestern Moldavia still under control. The cabinet and both chambers ofParliament relocated to Iași. By April–May 1917, senator Bujor was an ally of the oppositionLabor Party and of breakawayConservative Democrats, calling for more progressive policies than the National Liberals offered. During those months, he joined a parliamentary commission on land reform—although, as PNL manIon G. Duca notes, these were dominated "by the great landowners, since Brătianu's goal was to get those most affected by the reforms to support them as well."[70] On May 30, he signed up to a list of demands formulated by the Conservative Democrat dissidentsIon C. Grădișteanu andConstantin Argetoianu, which argued that the PNL's plan to enact reforms was "political diversion", one meant to cover Brătianu's contribution to the "national disaster".[71] Duca found this oratory "of no interest at all", simply dismissing Bujor as the "untalented and irrelevant" version ofMatei B. Cantacuzino.[72] In the end, Bujor was not among the five senators who voted against reforms as proposed by Brătianu.[73]
The country appeared beaten by early 1918, when she signed anarmistice with Germany. Bujor emerged from the Laborer Party (Partidul Muncitor), which he helped establish, from the remnants of Labor Party chapters, in November 1918—just asthe world war was ending. The group included other academics (Borcea andConstantin Ion Parhon), and producedcollectivist programs, some of which were signed by Bujor himself.[74] In parallel, Bujor and Băncilă adhered to the Brotherhood of Unified Moldavia, a regionalist organization which also regrouped some of his right-wing rivals—including both Cuza and Iorga.[75] In February 1919, the Laborites fused with thePeasants' Party (PȚ), a Poporanist successor and rival of the PNL.[76][77] Subsequently, Bujor was elected to a seat on the initial central committee of the enlarged organization,[78] which now represented agrarianists throughoutGreater Romania. As noted at the time by sociologistDimitrie Drăghicescu, he was one of many former National Liberals in the PȚ, confirming claims that the Peasantists were only the "impatiently democratic" side of the PNL mainstream.[79] The Bujor faction immediately claimed a degree of autonomy inside the larger movement, forming tactical alliances with parties that the PȚ as a whole disavowed.[80]
In theelection of November 1919, which testeduniversal male suffrage and brought a relative victory for theRomanian National Party (PNR), Bujor returned as senator for his university. He also ran on the PȚ list for theAssembly of Deputies in Iași, and won, but renounced his seat in favor the senatorial mandate; Neculai Costăchescu also renounced, and the seat ultimately went to Gheorghe Ciobanu.[81] Bujor regarded this moment as a great victory for his cause, publishing a thank-you note to his voters, congratulating them for thus "ridding the country of its internal enemy".[82] He accompanied party leaderIon Mihalache during talks with the PNR and other parties, establishing a solidified government coalition. These discussions also involvedIuliu Maniu of the PNR,Ion Inculeț of theBessarabian Peasants' Party, and both Cuza and Iorga as rival leaders of theDemocratic Nationalist Party (PND).[83] As reported by Iorga, Bujor expressed his opposition to the centrist platform adopted by the emerging "Democratic Bloc", declaring himself a man "of the far-left", until Mihalache threatened to expel him from the party.[84]
On November 25, Bujor was officially designated as the coalition candidate forpresident of the Senate (Greater Romania's first-ever); he was formally elected on November 28.[85] In his speech thanking senators for casting their vote, Bujor again voiced his radicalism, asserting that "dawn shows itself from the East", a discreet allusion to theOctober Revolution.[4][76][86] This generated outrage among opposition members, particularly PNL-ists andProgressive Conservatives who accused him of pro-Bolshevik sympathies.[86] Bujor also had debates with the nationalist senator Ilie Roșoagă, when the latter proposed a vote to recognize Romanian-inhabited portions of theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as irrendenta. Bujor advocated a détente "between us and our neighbors", and insisted thatRomanian Ukrainians would not be forgotten for that.[87] Overall, Bujor endured as a "timidly democratic socialist" (according to Călinescu),[88] a "progressive idealist" (according to the communistPetre Constantinescu-Iași),[89] or, as seen by Drăghicescu, a "likable [and] incorrigible idealist".[3] As argued by historian Radu Filipescu: "Paul Bujor was seen by his contemporaries as a sentimental socialist, a peaceful social dreamer."[76]
By December, Bujor and his colleagues were also trying to obtain support fromAlexandru Averescu and hisPeople's Party. Reportedly, they convinced Averescu to accept a reform of the 1866 constitution; in the end, Averescu withdrew from the talks, and embarked on a rapprochement with the PNL.[90] During those weeks, in his many meetings with King Ferdinand, Bujor declared himself a constitutionalist, which the king reportedly found a constructive approach; to Iorga, he stated his intention to work "for democracy".[91] He was despondent when Vaida would not assignprefectures to PȚ men, declaring that the opportunity for a regime change had been lost.[92] Renewing his support for land reform, Bujor was again a noted critic of the antisemitic Cuza, whom he accused of wanting to destroy the university with his mystical rhetoric and his violent actions.[93] He was also reportedly upset that Cuza was the government's key man in Iași.[94]
During the early months of 1920, Bujor reverted to a more uncompromising stance, voting to put pressure on the king and thus force into law Mihalache's land reform proposal. On March 12–13, the king informed him and Iorga that he expected Democratic Bloc ministers to resign, with Bujor protesting, in vain, that the regime being revoked was "good for the country".[95] When Averescu took over as prime minister, Bujor, waiting to be deposed from his Senate chairmanship, was one of several calling Bloc leaders still calling for resistance.[96] The Democratic Bloc fell apart on March 18, and Bujor was one of those supporting the divorce, with hopes of renegotiating alliances; two days later, he also streamlined an alliance with Iorga's half of the PND.[97] Bujor was one of the PȚ delegates on the bureau of the resulting Federation of National Social Democracy (FDNS). Other leading members were Vaida, Maniu, Mihalache,Nicolae L. Lupu,Ion Nistor,Virgil Madgearu, andIon Inculeț.[98] As Iorga notes, during the banquet marking this alliance, Bujor perplexed those in the audience by again mentioning his revolutionary credentials and, obliquely, hisproletarian internationalism.[99]
During July, Bujor in the Senate and Mihalache in the Assembly reintroduced for debate their radical version of land reform. Both proposals were ignored, and parliament only debated a more conservative project, advanced by Averescu'sAgriculture Minister,Constantin Garoflid; this incensed the FDNS to address the peasants directly, with leaflets condemning the lawmaking-landowners.[100] Alongside Iorga, Bujor also proposed thenationalization of underground resources, against Garoflid, who wanted the subsoil placed under a mixed property regime.[101] As the Democratic Nationalists split, with Cuza backing Averescu, Bujor openly celebrated Iorga as the more progressive nationalist, one "in the spirit of the times".[102]
During 1921, Bujor joined a parliamentary board of inquiry into the Romanian administration ofBessarabia, presided upon byNicolae Constantin Batzaria. AlongsideVasile Săcară and others, he inspectedCahul County, where he recorded various cases of official misconduct, including theft of property and beatings.[103] During the constitutional debates, he supported the (ultimately defeated)women's suffrage motion presented byGeorge Meitani, arguing that the graduation of women into politics was "a necessity imposed on us by the social conditions". Women, he noted, had proven themselves competent workers and managers during the war years.[104]
Ahead of the1922 elections, with Brătianu again returning in power, Bujor declared an all-out fight with the "oligarchy" for the "holy rights of liberty and justice." He optimistically argued that the "three-headed dragon" would be defeated by the "fire-sword archangel" of democracy, claiming that the fall of the Vaida cabinet was just a symptom of the PNL's losing struggle.[105] During those weeks, he andIon Răducanu were the two PȚ envoys negotiating an alliance with the PNR, the Conservative Democrats, and the Progressive Conservatives.[106] He himself was returned to the Senate, when he defended himself against renewed accusations, voiced by the PNL'sVictor Iamandi, that he had "really done it" with his "dawn in the East" statement. Bujor dismissed this, arguing that Iamandi and his National Liberals were picking up on any detail that might help them silence the opposition.[76] However, following the establishment and immediate repression of theRomanian Communist Party, Bujor appeared as a defense witness in theDealul Spirii Trial, where he spoke favorably of communists such asTimotei Marin.[107]
Bujor unsuccessfully fought against the1923 constitution, proposed by a PNL-dominated Assembly. In his editorial forAdevărul in March 1923, he declared the PNL to be a party of the far-right, penetrated not just by oligarchy, but also by the "obscurantism" of extremist movements. He also accused the formerly progressive Brătianu of "cowardice" for having gone back on promises forproportional representation.[42] With the BessarabianVasile Stroescu, and with many other activists and socialists, he founded in August the League for Human Rights.[108] In October 1924, speaking both in parliament and at university, Bujor condemned Cuza's disciple,Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, for the assassination ofConstantin Manciu—described by him as an "odious" deed, one ultimately inspired by Cuza and theNational-Christian Defense League.[109]
In theJune 1926 election, Bujor won an Assembly seat forIași County, as one of two deputies not affiliated with the People's Party; the other was Cuza for the Defense League.[110] Eventually, Bujor followed the Peasantists into merger with the PNR, thus joining the consolidatedNational Peasants' Party (PNȚ). He was head of its Iași chapter until June 1928, when he resigned without renouncing his membership. Responding to rumors that he was going to rejoin the PNL, Bujor announced that the only two parties he supported were the PNȚ and theSocial Democrats.[111]
Although the PNȚ carried theelections of December 1928, both Bujor and Borcea remained on the group's far-left, criticizing perceived fascist tendencies on the right, and were, overall, largely inactive members.[112] Such internal opposition was expressed in October 1930, when Bujor wrote anotherAdevărul editorial asking for the inclusion of Social Democratic ministers. He also denounced the PNȚ "oligarchy", portrayingIuliu Maniu as a dictator and exposing Vaida as a "reactionary antisemite", guilty of having "massacred innocent workers at Lupeni".[113] In parallel interviews forAdevărul, he and the former socialist Atanasiu were debating whether the PSDMR had any chance of surviving the 1898 split: while Bujor suggested that it did, Atanasiu insisted that Romania was not ripe for socialism.[41] Bujor's other political involvement was with the Action Committee of the League Against War, where he was colleagues with another Iași academic,Iorgu Iordan.[114]
Among his last academic assignments was touring Greater Romania on an examination commission, testing the Romanian-language aptitudes of the teaching staff inherited fromAustria-Hungary. His irreligion interfered with this project: he decided to examineJewish professors fromOradea on August 11, 1934, which was aShabbat.[115] After 40 years of teaching, Bujor retired from his university chair in 1936.[2][116] By then, his pupil Borcea had died, leaving him to deplore the loss of a "dutiful professor and citizen", "my kind and beloved colleague". His death, Bujor claimed, was attributable to "great sorrow" over the rise of Romanian fascism.[117] In January 1937, a speaker at a PNȚ youth rally which doubled as an anti-fascist demonstration, Bujor honored the "precursor and martyr of peasantism",Constantin Dobrescu-Argeș.[118] By April, again formally affiliated with theViața Românească writers and their anti-fascist platform, Bujor expressed publicly his support for the novelistMihail Sadoveanu, who was being targeted by the far-right press.[119]
Bujor lived all his remaining years in Bucharest, occupying a home at theNatural History Museum,[35] an institution which he expanded and modernized.[120] His final works in literature where the 1938 short story collectionÎndurare! ("Forgiveness!"), titled after a piece in which the protagonist, a peasant, exacts cruel revenge on his oppressor; and a 1939 memoir,Amintiri de A. Vlahuță și I. L. Caragiale ("Recollections about A. Vlahuță and I. L. Caragiale").[121] The latter work, scholar Dan Jumară, remains "convincing" as a literary contribution, although it is "written in the sociological manner."[120]
Following World War II, Bujor returned to public life as an associate of the newcommunist regime—Livia Ciupercă describes him as a "firebrand propagandist of the socialist-communist doctrine."[4] In 1948, when government revamped theRomanian Academy, he was elected an honorary member, his candidature personally endorsed byTraian Săvulescu.[35] Decorated withOrdinul Muncii, 1st Class, he also received a seat on theGrivița people's council in the1950 local elections.[35] His selected prose appeared in 1951 asScrieri alese.[120] As Bujor himself explained in articles for the official newspaperScînteia, he was also co-opted by theWorld Peace Council, holding political meetings with Grivița workers to condemn the "imperialist governments of the West." He also noted: "I deeply regret that my advanced age will not permit me to be as active in this as I would like."[122]
Nevertheless, in his last years, Bujor was plagued by financial uncertainty, and resorted to petitioning the state for an increase of his income.[4] He died at his museum home in Bucharest on May 17, 1952,[4][35] and was incinerated atCenușa crematorium that same day. The ceremony was attended by a delegation from Iași university, headed byTeofil Vescan, and by academiciansȘtefan Vencov andNicolae Sălăgeanu.[123] His ashes were then deposited near the mausoleum inCarol Park.[124] Among his papers was a short story, preserved by theMuseum of Romanian Literature and only published in 2014 byDacia Literară. TitledBărbuță Lăutarul, it has for an eponymous protagonist aRomany violinist, orlăutar, marginalized and left to starve by thephonograph.[125]
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