 | This articlehas an unclearcitation style. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style ofcitation andfootnoting.(June 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Zamfir Arbore | |
|---|---|
 Arbore's portrait, painted by his daughterNina, ca. 1914 | |
| Born | (1848-11-14)14 November 1848 |
| Died | 2 April 1933(1933-04-02) (aged 84) |
| Other names | Zamfir Arbure, Zemphiri Ralli, Z. K. Ralli, Aivaza |
| Academic background | |
| Influences | Mikhail Bakunin,Karl Marx,Élisée Reclus |
| Academic work | |
| Era | 19th and 20th centuries |
| School or tradition | Anarchist,Narodnik,Socialist |
| Main interests | ethography,sociology,social geography,economic geography,political geography,philology,popular history,Slavic studies |
| Notable works | Basarabia în secolul XIX (1898) Dicționar geografic al Basarabiei (1904) |
| Influenced | |
| Senator of Romania | |
| In office 1919–1922 | |
| Personal details | |
| Party | People's Party(1920–1922) Peasants' Party(1919–1920) Social Democratic Workers' Party of Romania(1893–1900) |
Zamfir Constantin Arbore (Romanian pronunciation:[zamˈfirkonstanˈtinˈarbore]; bornZamfir Ralli,Russian:Земфирий Константинович Арборе-Ралли,Zemfiriyi Konstantinovich Arborye-Ralli; also known asZamfir Arbure,Zamfir Rally,Zemphiri Ralli andAivaza;[1] 14 November 1848 – 2 or 3 April 1933) was aBukovinian-bornRomanian political activist originally active in theRussian Empire, also known for his work as an amateur historian, geographer andethnographer. Arbore debuted inleft-wing politics from early in life, gained an intimate knowledge of the Russian revolutionary milieu, and participated in bothnihilist andNarodnik conspiracies. Self-exiled toSwitzerland, he became a member of theInternational Workingmen's Association. Arbore was mostly active as an internationalanarchist and a disciple ofMikhail Bakunin, but eventually parted with the latter to create his independent group, the Revolutionary Community. He was subsequently close to the anarchist geographerÉlisée Reclus, who became his new mentor.
Arbore settled in Romania after 1877, and, abandoning anarchism altogether, committed himself to the more moderate cause ofsocialism. His campaign againstRussian despotism also led him to champion the cause of freedom forBessarabia region, to which he was personally tied by his family history. These commitments resulted in Arbore's outside support for theRussian Revolution of 1905, when he andPetru Cazacu founded the Swiss-basedBasarabia newspaper. Arbore had by then earned academic credentials with his detailed works onBessarabian geography, and, as a cultural journalist, cultivated relationships with socialist andNational Liberal activists. He was also notoriously the friend of poetMihai Eminescu in the 1880s, and worked closely with writerBogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu during the 1890s.
DuringWorld War I, Zamfir Arbore provoked controversy when he supported a Romanian alliance with theCentral Powers, justified in his opinion by a need to liberate Bessarabia. Despite this, and although he publicly welcomed theOctober Revolution, Arbore was reintegrated into the political scene ofGreater Romania, serving two terms inSenate. Before his death in 1933, he was drawn intoagrarian andcooperativist politics, and was successively a member of thePeasants' Party and thePeople's Party. Arbore was survived by his two daughters, both of them famous in their own right:Ecaterina was acommunist politician and physician;Nina amodern artist.
Zamfir Ralli was the scion ofboyar aristocracy from the principality ofMoldavia: his paternal grandfather Zamfirache Ralli was an ennobledGreek merchant, married into the localRomanian elite; Zamfir's mother was anethnic Ukrainian.[2] Although cosmopolitan, the future activist always prioritized his Romanian roots, changing his birth name toArbore (var.Arbure) in the belief that his Romanian ancestors had inherited the name and boyar status from the ancient Arbore family.[3][4] Zamfirache's son Constantin, the friend of poetAlexander Pushkin, was reputedly adopted by Dimitrie Arbore.[5] He also inherited theRalli family mansion, a Bessarabian manorial estate inDolna, which in the 1820s had served as the Pushkin's vacation house.[5][6]
The subsequent genealogical claim traced the family history back to the late 15th century, withHetmanLuca Arbore.[5] It also made Zamfir a distant relative of various members of Romanian socialist environment, includingVasile Morțun andIzabela Sadoveanu.[7] The claim's reliability divides modern researchers. While historian of journalism Victor Frunză sees Arbore as descending "from an ancient family of local boyars",[8] academicLucian Boia describes Zamfir Arbore as being tied to the historical Arbores by "a rather thin line".[3] Boia also notes that Arbore's "revised past" and arbitrary interpretation of his own background may have been opportunistic, leaving Arbore free to gravitate between conflicting national identities and rendering his radical discourse more palatable for all cultural contexts.[9] According to political scientistArmand Goșu, Arbore had effectively "stolen" his grandmother's maiden name, reviving an otherwise extinct boyar line.[4]
Although mostly active in Bessarabia, Arbore was actually a native ofChernowitz (Romanian:Cernăuți), the administrative center of Bukovina within theAustrian Empire (now Chernivtsi,Ukraine).[6][10] He later moved into Bessarabia (the Russian-ruledBessarabian Governorate), attending school inKishinev (Chișinău), before moving to another school inNikolayev.[6] During his troubled youth, Arbore-Ralli underwent medical training inMoscow andSaint Petersburg, but was more involved within the revolutionary,nihilist andpan-Russian anarchist underground, with the goal of subvertingTsarist autocracy.[10][11] His political sympathies also connected him with theNarodnik movement, which he joined at the same time as other young Bessarabian intellectuals (Victor Crăsescu,Axinte Frunză,Constantin Stere,Nicolae Zubcu-Codreanu) who saw a link between theirnationalist struggle and theagrarian cause of Russian Narodniks[12][13] (he is believed to have been personally acquainted with the agrarian theorist and Narodnik father figureAlexander Herzen).[10]
The subversive activities brought Zamfir to the attention of Tsarist authorities, particularly after his involvement inSergey Nechayev's nihilist conspiracy of 1869.[10][14] Unable to finish his studies, Arbore was singled out for arrest, and according to his own account, since placed under doubt,[3] even served time as apolitical prisoner in thePeter and Paul Fortress and inSiberia.[15][16][17] Eventually, he made his way toSwitzerland, where he contacted international anarchist figures such asMikhail Bakunin andÉlisée Reclus.[10][18] Arbore corresponded with the latter for a significant period, sharing his interest insocial geography.[10][13][19] His complex relationship with radical exiles also resulted in contacts withanarcho-communist theoristPeter Kropotkin[10][20] and theBulgarian anarchist sympathizerHristo Botev.[21] He was also, with philosopherVasile Conta, one of the few intellectuals with a Romanian background to affiliate directly with theInternational Workingmen's Association (First International), which regrouped the variousMarxist and anarchist communities of Europe.[22] In tandem, Arbore was active within Bakunin's Revolutionary Brotherhood, and, according to anarchist historianGeorge Woodcock, one of the "most influential" among the Russian propagators ofBakuninism;[23] political historianJames H. Billington also refers to "Zemfiry Ralli" as "Bakunin's principal editor".[24]
Arbore's beliefs led him to join theJura federation, an anarchist cell within the First International,[10] and to become initiated intoFreemasonry (1872).[6] He became strongly opposed to Bakunin's marginalization during the First International'sHague Congress, and signed his name (Z. Ralli) to a letter of protest, alongsideNikolay Ogarev.[25] Also in 1872, Arbore also helped draft theGerman-language pamphlet which documented Bakunin's condemnation of Nechayev:Ist Netshaejeff ein politischer Verbrecher oder nicht? ("Is Nechayev a Political Felon, or Is He Not?").[26] With Bakunin andErrico Malatesta, he was personally involved in the anarchist agitation sweepingRestoration Spain during the 1870s: he personally helped translate Bakunin's letter to theIberian anarchists, but their hopes of inciting a new revolution were unsuccessful; progressively after that moment, Arbore and Bakunin grew estranged from one another.[10] According to Woodcock, the reason behind this "personal" rather than ideological conflict was Bakunin's "tactless" support for Arbore's adversaryMikhail Sanzhin, leading Arbore and his partners, the "young Bakuninists", to establish the Revolutionary Community organization.[23] The reasons and objectives of this group, whose other members wereVladimir Holstein,Alexander Oelsnitz andNikolai Ivanovich Zhukovsky,[23] were outlined in a letter to Jura anarchistJames Guillaume.[27]
Moving fromZurich toGeneva, and known primarily asRalli, Arbore ran a socialist publishing house, through which he helped popularize the political manifestos of anarchism, as well as his own history of theParis Commune.[10][28] He was among those who established, in 1875, the Genevan Russian-language newspaperRabotnik ("The Worker"), which bridged the "young Bakuninist" faction with theEser Party ofVera Figner and Reclus'St. Imier International.[29] One of his colleagues there, future astronomerNikolai Alexandrovich Morozov, recalled that Arbore was actively involved in redacting news arriving from Russia, manipulating them for dramatic effect and political conformity.[30] In 1875, he also wrote and published the anarchist tractSytye i golodnye ("The Sated and the Hungry"), as well as an appeal toUkrainian peasants in the Russian Empire.[31]
The Swiss period was the start of his new family life. Arbore was by then married, to the Russian Ecaterina Hardina.[32][33] Thedowry she brought helped maintain his new publishing venture.[28] His eldest child was daughterEcaterina Arbore-Ralli, the future communist,feminist and militant physician, born on 11 November 1873, atBex.[34] His son Dumitru (Mitică) was born on 11 January 1877, in Geneva.[35]
Zamfir Arbore first set foot in Romania during 1873, when he traveled from Geneva toIași, meeting with the young socialist sympathizerEugen Lupu.[1] He was later in contact with the Iași Marxist circle ofIoan,Iosif andSofia Nădejde, sending them books byKarl Marx and his anarchist commentators (Johann Most,Carlo Cafiero).[1] Arbore also established contacts with the socialist cell ofBucharest. He corresponded with some of the Russian socialists who had set up camp there, primarily so withConstantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea andNicolae Zubcu-Codreanu. Together, they set up the Society for Student Culture and Solidarity, a semi-clandestine club located at the Concordia Hotel.[36]
Again in Switzerland, he took part in the violentRed Flag Riot ofBern, organized in 1877 by theanarchist dissidence of the International—allegedly, his life was saved by fellow anarchistJacques Gross.[37] In 1878, Arbore was also the editor of the international tribune of the Revolutionary Community,Obshchina ("Community"), which was published as a successor ofRabotnik.[38]
Reputedly threatened with anextradition back into the Russian Empire,[4] Zamfir Arbore moved to Romania after the beginning of aRusso-Turkish War, during which the country, a Russian ally, obtained her independence from theOttoman Empire. He later recalled that the inspiration for this move was young Romanian leftistMircea Rosetti, whom he had first met during Reclus' visit toVevey.[39] Arbore's original goal was the spread of revolutionary propaganda among soldiers in theImperial Russian Army, but, in short time, he settled down in Bucharest.[40] It was there that Arbore fathered a second daughter, Lolica, who died without reaching maturity.[10][32][41]
Arbore later set up, with fellow exiles Dobrogeanu-Gherea, Zubcu-Codreanu,Pavel Axelrod andNikolai Sudzilovsky (Russel), an underground political movement agitating for the cause of Bessarabian Romanians; by means of this group, he is said to have gained access within the governingNational Liberal Party, even earning discreet support from two of its leading figures,Ion Brătianu andC. A. Rosetti (father of Mircea Rosetti).[42] Arbore would later speak of Brătianu as a discreet supporter of his projects to undermine Russian governments.[43] Additionally, C. A. Rosetti is alleged to have personally assisted Arbore and Zubcu-Codreanu, who shared a Bucharest apartment, from evading both the persistent scrutiny ofRomanian Police forces and the threat of extradition.[1] In May 1877, Police forces quashed the Concordia hotel club, arresting various of its members.[36] Arbore's connections were unsuccessful when it came to rescuing Dobrogeanu-Gherea, kidnapped and deported by the Russian Army in autumn 1877, although he eventually helped track down Gherea in Russia.[44] Three years later, when Dobrogeanu-Gherea escaped back to Romania, Arbore helped him set up a restaurant inPloiești station, from which Gherea supported his family.[45]
Another National Liberal figure, the Bessarabian historianBogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, also cultivated a friendship with Arbore. According to Arbore's own recollections, although he and Hasdeu had been separated by "political-social views", they had been brought together by the recent deaths ofIulia Hasdeu and Lolica Arbore.[41] Their shared loss, Arbore recalled, was leading them both to seek intellectual comfort inspiritualism orspiritism: Arbore, who was in correspondence with spiritistsCamille Flammarion andWilliam Crookes, recalled having joined a secretive spiritualist circle formed in Hasdeu's home, and being ridiculed in the Romanian press over this issue.[41] Hasdeu was one of the noted guests in Arbore's own house.[46]
After theTrial of the Fourteen, the Revolutionary Community and all other Bakuninist groups were losing the battle in front of renewed Tsarist repression.[47] Arbore, who now criticized Bakunian anarchism, quickly came to the conclusion that a socialist party was needed as a more radical alternative to the Romaniantwo-party system: in 1879, he helped organize the first-ever conference of Romanian socialist clubs, and, over the following months, was member of the editorial staff atRomânia Viitoare, the socialist review (as a result of his participation, the magazine also enlisted contributions from Reclus and his brotherÉlie, as well as from poetLouis-Xavier de Ricard).[48] The next year, he and the Nădejdes were briefly in contact with the senior political radicalTitus Dunka, distributing for a while Dunka's gazetteÎnainte! ("Forward!").[49]
In 1880, after a failed attempt on Ion Brătianu's life, the socialist circles faced government suspicion and became less organized, a situation which lasted until theelection of 1888.[50] At the time, Arbore was editor of Rosetti's democratic gazetteRomânul, and later moved to a similar position with the left-leaning newspaperTelegraful Român.[46] Also at that stage, he befriended the BukovinianMihai Eminescu, later recognized as Romania'snational poet, but at the time a secondary figure in the Bucharest press. Eminescu, who worked for theConservative Party tribuneTimpul, confided in Arbore about hispessimistic vision of Romanian society.[51] At this stage, Arbore is believed to have helped other foreign-born socialists to find refuge in Romania: in particular to have assisted Peter (Petru) Alexandrov, the brother-in-law of writerVladimir Korolenko, in obtaining a license to practice medicine inTulcea and in defending himself during subsequent police inquiries.[52] In 1881, he was himselfnaturalized a citizen of the newly proclaimedKingdom of Romania.[3][10]
By summer 1883, when Arbore too lost National Liberal support and was briefly expelled from Romania, Eminescu had become afflicted with mental illness (he eventually died in relative isolation, in 1889).[53] Arbore was, around 1890, a correspondent forFrédéric Damé's Bucharest newspaperLa Liberté Roumaine, withexposé pieces on the kidnapping of juniorBulgarian Navy officer Vladimir Kisimov by Russian spies.[54] His third daughterNina, later known as a visual artist, was born in January 1888.[55] The elder, Ecaterina, was already taking her first steps in socialist politics, as a delegate to the International Congress of Students, held inGiurgiu.[33]
Meanwhile, Zamfir Arbore was progressively integrated into the Romanian civil service: a clerk at theState Archives, he became astatistician in service to theBucharest City Hall (from 1896 to 1920).[56] As a socialist activist, he was coming to support the faction of Dobrogeanu-Gherea andConstantin Mille, who publishedLumea Nouă review and ultimately set up the short-livedRomanian Social Democratic Workers' Party (PSDMR).[57]
From 1891 to 1898, he andVictor Crăsescu (who signed with the pen nameȘtefan Basarabescu) were founders and managers ofAmicul Copiilor ("The Children's Friend") magazine, which circulated classic works ofchildren's literature[46] and is sometimes rated as the firstcomic book magazine in Romanian history.[58] Hasdeu, one of its main writers,[59] is occasionally given credit as the person behindAmicul Copiilor.[58] Arbore himself experimented with the genre, publishing children's versions ofDon Quixote,Tartarin of Tarascon andRobinson Crusoe, as well aspopular histories—one aboutAncient Egypt, the other about1821 rebelTudor Vladimirescu.[60] Hasdeu co-opted Arbore for the early 1899 project to create aprofessional association of writers as part of his Press Society (an actualRomanian Writers' Society was only created some 10 years later, after Hasdeu's death).[61]
As statistician, Arbore was in charge of Bucharest'sBuletinul Statistic ("Statistical Bulletin") and of the City Hall Library, which under his direction acquired several thousands of new books.[46] With Ioan Nădejde, Arbore translated into Romanian the RussianCommercial Code.[46] In parallel, he completed his main and lengthiest study in ethnography,Basarabia în secolul XIX ("Bessarabia in the 19th Century"), first published in 1898.[3][13] It earned its author the annualIon Heliade Rădulescu Prize of theRomanian Academy.[6][13][62] Beginning 1903, he also taughtRussian at theBucharest War School.[4][56] Arbore followed up on his scholarly work with the 1904Dicționar geografic al Basarabiei ("AGeographical Dictionary of Bessarabia").[6][13] The same year, he was a voluntary contributor, with Bessarabian-themed entries, to the first-ever Romanian encyclopedic dictionary:Enciclopedia română, published inAustria-Hungary byCornelius Diaconovich andASTRA cultural society.[63]
In 1906, during the National Exhibit held in celebration of the Romanian Kingdom (and one year before thelarge-scale peasants' revolt), Arbore joined a scientific committee which supervised an academic inquiry into the state of Romanian peasants, whose main author was militantsociologistG. D. Scraba.[64]
Before and during theRussian Revolution of 1905, Arbore was also involved in trafficking subversive works of literature over the Romanian–Russian border, hoping to encourage a rebellion among Bessarabian Romanian peasants and intellectuals.[4][13][65][66] Theodor Inculeț, a theologian and political agitator, was one of his connections there. As Inculeț later wrote, the books "sent over by Arbure" were unequivocally "anti-Russian".[65]
In 1904,Mikhail Nikolayevich von Giers, theRussian Ambassador to Romania, warned National LiberalPremierDimitrie Sturdza that "Mr. Ralli-Arbore" intended to send into Russia many small packages of brochures, to be delivered by a special network of socialist agents.[46] This exchange of notes degenerated into a major diplomatic incident when some of thecontraband books were confiscated by Russian officials, and discovered to contain firearms.[4][10][46] Arbore was singled out for extradition, but saved through the intercession ofTake Ionescu, theInterior Minister, who even managed to have the weapons dispatched back to Romania.[4][46] This was the beginning of an unusually close relationship with Romania'sconservative environment andKingCarol I (to whom he dedicated a volume of hismemoirs).[4] Reportedly as a favor to the Bessarabian activist, Carol was to allow safe passage into Romania to the wantedRussian Eser assassinBoris Savinkov.[4] According to Arbore's own account, Carol, "the founder of modern Romania", privately resented Russia's national policy on Bessarabia.[43]
Zamfir Arbore also welcomed into his house thePotemkin mutiny refugees—including socialist sailorAfanasi Matushenko, who became his close friend.[46] He registered another personal triumph in 1905, when his aging friend Reclus also traveled to Romania.[10] However, his main interest was by then outside the realm of socialist or anarchist politics. Together withPetru Cazacu, Arbore founded and edited a newspaper namedBasarabia, printed in Switzerland but clandestinely circulated the Russian Empire during the Revolution.Basarabia went out of print after six consecutive issues, and, throughout its existence advertised itself as aChișinău-based paper (although its editorial office was located in Geneva).[67]
An immediate predecessor for the legalBasarabia of 1906, it was noted for its radical support of Bessarabian autonomy, demands foruniversal suffrage, and adoption of amodern Romanian alphabet instead of traditionalMoldavian Cyrillic letters.[68] In its final issue, Arbore and Cazan's gazette published the program of an incipientNational Moldavian Party.[69] After the Revolution toned down repression, Arbore could also collaborate with theSaint Petersburg-based socialist magazineByloye, which published his biographical sketch ofSergey Nechayev.[70][71] The text, signedZemfir Ralli Arbore, notably includes detail on Nechayev's isolated political outlook, which, Arbore argued, was linked directly to 18th centuryJacobin theorists and agitators (Maximilien de Robespierre,Philippe Buonarroti) rather than to later socialist schools.[71]
By 1908, Arbore had founded another venue for pro-Bessarabian political activism, theMilcovul Society (named after theMilcov River, a symbol of Romanian unity). The association was soon after infiltrated by the Russian spyGheorghe V. Madan: exposed through a public scandal, Madan was expelled fromMilcovul by Arbore's own vote.[72] The controversy drew attention from Romania's secret service,Siguranța Statului, whose agents suspected, probably without just cause, that Arbore maintained contacts with Madan over the following period.[72] In June 1909, Constantin Mille's daily,Adevărul, printed a draft of Arbore's memoirs, dealing with Eminescu's political views.[51]
During the same years, Arbore played host to a new generation of Romanian socialist leaders and leaders of thelocal labor movement, who attempted to recreate a socialist party from the defunct PSDMR:Christian Rakovsky,Gheorghe Cristescu,I. C. Frimu andN. D. Cocea.[46] Arbore did not join theRomanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR), created by Rakovsky in 1910, but was a special guest at its reunions.[46] He was thus present at the PSDR's 1912 rally atSala Dacia, where, in agreement with Rakovsky's political tenets, he spoke about the need to contain Russianimperialism;[73] on the centenary of Bessarabia's occupation, he also addressed Romanian student organizations, informing them about the state of affairs in Russian dominions.[43] Arbore was also claiming that some violent anarchists were in fact Russian agents: according to him, the suspected terroristIlie Cătărău was a secret affiliate of the loyalistBlack Hundreds.[17]
In September 1914, Arbore was honored by the PSDR's festive assembly honoring the 50th anniversary of the First International.[46] In parallel, he gave external support to unionizing efforts, being notably an honored guest at the Romanian Journalists' Union festivities of May 1912, where he mainly spoke about Bessarabia.[74] His first-born daughter, who had by then made her first contributions tosocial medicine, became directly involved with the PSDR and theRomânia Muncitoare club, and, also in 1912, was elected to the PSDR Executive Committee.[75] Dumitru, who was a chemical engineer in thethriving oil industry, and Nina, a debuting painter, were also both affiliated with PSDR at a grassroots level.[55]
During that interval, the Bessarabian scholar was also becoming interested in cultivating arapprochement between Romania and theKingdom of Bulgaria, Romania's new neighbor to the south. This was reflected in his set of contributions toSlavistics andphilology. His Romanian-Bulgarian dictionary,Българо-румънски речник, saw print in 1909.[76] In 1912, Arbore translated and published forMinerva newspaper the 1886 manifesto "To the Romanian People", signed by Bulgarian revolutionaryZahari Stoyanov, in which Stoyanov spoke about his country's "moral duty" toward Romania and deplored the slow descent into ethnic rivalry.[77]
Arbore's activity as a publicist, activist and newspaperman flared up during the early stages ofWorld War I, as Romania hesitated between joining theEntente Powers or honoring its loose commitment to theCentral Powers, and in particular theGerman Empire. Like other Bessarabian exiles, Arbore objected to the first option, since it threw Romania into the same camp as the Russian Empire, opening the way for Russian domination in Romania, while leaving Bessarabia oppressed andRussified; he also identified the Ententist preoccupation with the Romanians ofTransylvania andBukovina as excessive, claiming thatAustria-Hungary would inevitably transform itself into a democratic federation upon the end of war.[78] These ideas made their way into his wartime articles forSeara newspaper and his standalone political essays: the 1914Autonomia sau anexarea. Transilvania și Bucovina ("Autonomy or Annexation. Transylvania and Bukovina"), the 1915Liberarea Basarabiei ("The Liberation of Bessarabia") and the 1916Ukraina și România ("Ukraine and Romania").[79]
Of these,Liberarea Basarabiei was printed with support from an eponymous political society, the League for the Liberation of Bessarabia.[80] Arbore's stance was compatible with the PSDR'sZimmerwald neutralism: by 1915, Ecaterina Arbore was also noted for her political statements against a Russian alliance.[81] Internationally, her father collaborated withAnnales des Nationalités, theanti-imperialist periodical put out byJean Pélissier andJuozas Gabrys.[46] Suspicion arose that Arbore was also in the pay of German intelligence, receiving at least 28,000lei through such channels.[82]
In summer 1916, Romania disappointed Arbore by rallying with the Entente. After a short-lived offensive into Transylvania, theRomanian Land Forces were defeated, and the Central Powersinvaded southern Romania. Arbore stayed behind in German-occupied Bucharest while the legitimate government withdrew toIași, and maintained a generally friendly but discreet attitude toward the occupiers.[83] He was less active as a journalist and militant, but contributed to theGermanophile dailyLumina, put out by the Bessarabian activistConstantin Stere, and once lectured on theBessarabian question during April 1918.[84] Arbore also kept a low profile during the1918 truce, when, with German acquiescence, Romaniaunited with Bessarabia. Reputedly, Stere, who negotiated the union with theBessarabian Assembly, mistrusted and sidelined Arbore during the events.[83]
In his own account of the wartime years, Arbore claimed to have been arrested on several occasions by the occupation authorities, but this claim, Boia notes, remains unverified and doubtful.[85] Arbore was returning to a socialist discourse, probably rekindled and reshaped by news of theOctober Revolution in Russia.[4][85] During the period, he took a personal interest in the fate of Russian prisoners held on occupied territory, and, in a letter to the Germanophile academicIoan Bianu, spoke about the need to popularize revolutionary ideas among this particular group.[85]
After the unexpectedGerman defeat of November 1918 brought a moral victory for Romanian Ententists and the return of Ententist forces in government, Arbore withstood scrutiny as an allegedcollaborator with the enemy. In this context, he rallied with a new radical force, thePeasants' Party, and ran for political office in what was by thenGreater Romania. During theNovember 1919 election, he presented himself as aSenate candidate forChișinău, Bessarabia, and was elected.[85] His new political credo was outlined in his Senate speech of 27 December 1918, which focused on proposals to change the1866 constitutional regime and amend the prewar tradition ofcentralized government, while also outlining his main defense against suspicions of collaborationism.[85] His daughter Ecaterina was rendered a suspect by herSocialist Party of Romania militancy. She further antagonized the public when, as aCommunist Party of Romania founder, she supported the self-determination of Bessarabia and its separation from Romania, in line withComintern policies.[86] After being arrested several times, she made her may into the Soviet state.[4][35] Dumitru Arbore also joined the Communist Party, was kept under surveillance by the authorities for hosting conspirative sessions at his home inPrahova County, but remained in Romania, where he died in an October 1921 accident.[87]
Arbore lost his Senate seat whenParliament was dissolved byKingFerdinand I; he soon after left the Peasants' Party, pushed into opposition, and was reelected to the Senate as aPeople's Party candidate in thesummer 1920 election.[85] Late in 1920, he was co-founder and secretary of theSocialist Peasants' Party, together with playwrightIon Peretz, publicistIoan Pangal, abbotIuliu Scriban etc.[88]
Withdrawn from national politics, Arbore again focused on his journalist's activity and was at the forefront ofRomanian Freemasonry. His membership in the local subsidiary of theGrand Orient de France was confirmed in December 1922 byMihail Noradunghian, and he was recognized as a Rank 33 Mason, Worshipful Master of Human RightsLodge (located in Bucharest).[6] On 23 April 1923, Arbore was electedGrand Master of a major RomanianScottish Rite branch, the Grand Lodge (Grand Master for life after 1930), and was the Grand Orator for Romania within the Supreme Scottish Rite Council from 1929.[6] These promotions were scrutinized by theanti-Masonicfar right: in a public conference,Nicolae Paulescu of theNational-Christian Defense League called Arbore the Grand Master of a "Kike-Romanian Masonic group".[89]
His ownfar left inclinations were by then contrasting with his civil service positions, which he maintained even as his daughter Ecaterina was becoming apersona non grata.[4] In 1923, Arbore published a new installment of his memoirs, asÎn temnițele rusești ("In the Russian Dungeons").[90] In March 1924, he replacedVasile Ghenzul as editorial director ofFurnica ("The Ant"). Thecooperativist andagrarian bimonthly was published in Bessarabia, and printed a Russian-language supplement.[91] He was still a contributor to the central leftist press: in December 1926,Adevărul published his piece about theSerbian politicianNikola Pašić, defunct leader of thePeople's Radical Party.[27] During this interval, Ecaterina tried to return to Romania. According to the opinion of journalist Victor Frunză, she was trying to hide her growing disillusionment with communism under the pretext that she needed to take care of her ailing father.[92] The Romanian authorities did not allow her entry into the country, and she was forced back.[93] Zamfir and his wife had earlier adopted Dumitru's young child, Zamfir Dumitru Arbore.[55]
In 1930, the recently widowed[32] Zamfir Arbore was pensioned from his teaching position at theBucharest War School, where he had also been lecturing in Geography andTopography.[4] During the final years of his life, Arbore was a sporadic contributor toPan Halippa's reviewViața Basarabiei.[10][94] In tandem, his revolutionary past, in particular his early dealings withHristo Botev, were also the subject of interviews with journalist Vasile Christu.[95] His own output as a researcher included an undatedmonograph on his friend and ally Zubcu-Codreanu, who had died in 1878 (O pagină din istoria socialismului român, "A Page in the History of Romanian Socialism"),[13][96] as well as the collected memoirs:Temniță și exil ("Prison and Exile") andÎn exil. Amintirile mele ("In Exile. My Memories").[10]
Zamfir Arbore died in Bucharest, on 2 or 3 April 1933.[6] He was buried at Sfânta Vineri Cemetery, alongside Ecaterina, Dumitru, and Lolica Arbore.[32] Paradoxically, his funeral ceremony comprised both themilitary honors owed to his position in the War School and revolutionary orations given in tribute by his socialist comrades.[4] The socialist tribuneSocietatea de Mâine published an obituary, which referred to Arbore as "one of the highest profile representative figures [in socialism], and one of the most worthy examples for all people-loving generations to follow."[42]
Despite official promotion, Zamfir Arbore had serious trouble integrating his views within the political landscape of 20th century Romania.[4][10][12] Critic and political historianIoan Stanomir writes that Arbore, "the agent who precipitates revolution", was "an aristocrat animated by dramatic self-loathing".[97] HisNarodnik ideals subsided with time: according to literary historianLeonid Cemortan, Arbore was "totally defeated" in his Narodnik activity, realized that it was an "unattainable dream", but was nonetheless unable to "verify and correct" his vision.[12] Arbore, who never registered his membership with any Romanian socialist party or faction,[46] was reportedly perplexed by theantisemitism prevalent in his adoptive country, including among the Romanian socialists andtrade unionists.[10]
His transition from anarchism to a more moderate platform was also shown by his treatment of the Bessarabian issue. In 1905, hisBasarabia newspaper tied together demands of social reform with political and cultural goals, endorsing theplanned land reform and demanding the official use of Romanian ("Moldavian") in the administrative apparatus and theBessarabian Orthodox Church.[98] Its demand forself-governance around an enlargedSfat ("Assembly") referred back to promises made upon the creation of aBessarabian Governorate.[69] The entire program, scholar Marcel Mitrașcă notes, was one of the first manifestations of "Bessarabian [Romanian]nationalism", the prototype for an agenda later espoused by theNational Moldavian Party.[99] Political analysts Mihai Cernencu and Igor Boțan suggest that the political doctrine supported byBasarabia was at once an early instance ofBessarabian liberalism and a regional affiliation to theConstitutional Democratic Party, somewhat permeated by the doctrines ofsocial democracy.[69] More intimately, Arbore was contemplating the possibility of an independent Bessarabia, free from what he considered to be the excesses of Romanian nationalism.[10]
By the end of his life, he was publicizing his disappointment with the political environment of Greater Romania and explaining his return to socialism. In aViața Basarabiei article, he claimed: "Wherever I look around me I see only decay. The old and the young, the cultivated and the illiterate, all behave equally, not even asking themselves what the meaning of their life is in the general progress of humanity. Living inside Romanian society I for one was not able to merge into it. [...] I haven't had and I still don't have friends in Romania."[10] His attitude, including claims that Bessarabia was being colonized by rapacious Romanians from other provinces, outraged the nationalist newspapermanAlexandru "Ion Gorun" Hodoș, who wrote that Arbore was no longer sincerely interested in national unity, but rather displayed "the need to detect, under any Romanian uniform, an assassin of Bessarabia's population."[100]
Arbore's main research onBessarabian history andlocal geography fused scientific and political objectives. Allegedly inspired by the similar interests ofÉlisée Reclus,Dicționar geografic al Basarabiei was the first-ever actual Bessarabiangazetteer.[10] In his two works on Bessarabia, Arbore sought to present a detailed account ofeconomic andsocial geography. He notably inventoried the villages originally settled by free peasants (răzeși), accounting for 151 such localities in central Bessarabia and 4 in theBudjak.[101]
Overall, the politicized aspect of his contribution also had negative connotations. According to literary criticBogdan Crețu (who builds on the conclusions of literary historian Leonte Ivanov), Arbore was also responsible for circulating a stereotyped image of the Russian Empire and its inhabitants.[102] Before 1914, Arbore made accusatory claims aboutRussification and theRussian Orthodox Church expansion into Bessarabia: depicting theRussian Synod as a heretical, non-Orthodox, institution, he argued that church officials were burning Romanian books for heating.[43]
Arbore's wartime stance, in particular his conjectural support for theCentral Powers, was likened byLucian Boia to that of fellow BessarabianConstantin Stere, with the exception that Arbore was more the political radical, opposed toTsarist autocracy, than a nationalist orRussophobe.[103] However, as early as 1912, Arbore was envisaging a general rising against Russia, also involving thePoles and theFinns.[43] InAutonomia sau anexarea, he claimed that "damned Russia" secretly wanted to lure Romania into her war with theAustro-Hungarian provinces inhabited by Romanians, and in exchange expand its own territory southwards, into theDanube Delta andDobruja.[9] Arbore therefore saw theTransylvanian union as a hopeless project; his consolation for Romanians, Transylvanian as well as Bukovinian, was in thefederalization of Austria-Hungary. Later, he claimed that his beliefs on the Transylvanian issue were quite similar to the skepticalHabsburg loyalism of Transylvanian politicos, fromEugen Brote andIoan Slavici toAurel Popovici.[85]
The articles he contributed toSeara noted with surprise that the pro-EntenteFrancophiles were more interested in rescuing France than they were in the fate of Bessarabian Romanians.[84]Liberarea Basarabiei, Marcel Mitrașcă argues, was one of the select few manifestations of Romanian national sentiment to advocate Bessarabian emancipation at the peak of wartime agitation, alongside similar manifestos by Stere,Axinte Frunză,Dumitru C. Moruzi etc.[104] Arbore's political theory was later expanded into aGermanophile manifesto: Arbore claimed that Romania's only option was to rally with "Russia's enemies" on theEastern Front, limitingEuropean Russia to the "ethnographic" borders of ancientMuscovy; the alternative, he warned, was that themuscălime ("Moskals") would in the long run annex Romania and all herirredenta.[9] Again, he described the Romanian prospects of "liberating Bessarabia" as intrinsically linked with the German-sponsored emancipation ofCongress Poland, theGrand Duchy of Finland andUkraine.[9] In an August 1915 piece forSeara, Arbore saluted theGerman people as the more "enlightened" combatant, who had accumulated a "colossalvital energy" and was therefore poised to emerge as the victor.[84]
WithUkraina și România, Zamfir Arbore spoke out against the opinions expressed by Romanian nationalist historianNicolae Iorga, a leading figure in pro-Entente politics, who had denied the existence of a distinctUkrainian identity. In fact, Arbore argued, thecultural separation between Ukrainians andRussians was both justified by history and opportune for the Romanian cause: since the Russian Empire could not hope to become a federation, and an independent Ukraine was therefore inevitable, "the Ukrainian state would be a peaceful neighbor toGreater Romania."[105]
According to Lucian Boia, Arbore's public stances under the actualGerman occupation were surprisingly toned down.[83] His one article forLumina (November 1917) reviewed the Russian issue in quite different terms, prophesying that a multinational federation could be effected around theRussian Provisional Government.[84] His 1918 public lectures on Bessarabia were focused on geographic and statistical information—"one would have expected more", Boia notes.[84] Arbore was more outspoken during theinterwar period: his December 1918 speech demanded the guarantee ofminority rights in Greater Romania, saluted the policies ofSoviet Russia as a liberating force, and predicted aBolshevik victory in theRussian Civil War.[85] On the occasion, Arbore also demanded the release ofSocialist Party activists held in Romanian custody, as well as the freeing of Transylvanian collaborationist Slavici.[85]
As both a historical figure and a historian, Zamfir Arbore received mixed reviews from other academics. HisViața Basarabiei partnerPan Halippa noted that Arbore's historical but minor merit in opposing "Russification" was equivalent to that of other Bessarabianboyars and writers from various epochs: Stere,Alecu Donici,Alexandru Hâjdeu,Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu andConstantin Stamati.[106] Although an ideological adversary of Arbore, Nicolae Iorga similarly referred to his Bessarabian colleague as a pioneer of Romanian Bessarabian activism.[10][107] SociologistHenri H. Stahl focused instead on Arbore's contributions as a scientist. Stahl discusses him and Stere, alongside theoristConstantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea andNicolae Zubcu-Codreanu, as one of the most important intellectuals in the group of ex-Narodniks who contributed to the left-wing school ofsocial sciences in Romania.[13] He notes that Arbore stood apart in this group for his anarchist ideals, uncommon in his adoptive Romania.[13] Contrarily, historian Cyril E. Black assessed that, unlike Stere's post-Narodnik theory ofPoporanism, Arbore's influence in Romanian politics was "negligible".[108] A more controversial aspect of Arbore's legacy is an enduring accusation ofplagiarism: his works are alleged to have borrowed the research of various other authors, to whom Arbore did not give proper credit.[4]
As early as 1879, Dobrogeanu-Gherea circulated some of Arbore's reminiscences of revolutionary life, quoted as excerpts in his own essays.[109] One of the earliest historiographic works to trace Arbore's lifelong socialist militancy was authored shortly before its subject died, in 1933. Authored by I. C. Atanasiu, it was titledMișcarea socialistă ("The Socialist Movement").[110] The same year, an account of his activities inGeneva was published as part ofPavel Axelrod's book of memoirs.[16] Amonograph on Arbore's life and work was published in 1936 by social scientist Alexandru Siedel.[13]
From her adoptiveSoviet Union, Arbore's older daughterEcaterina cultivated her father's image: in 1931, she helped publish fragments of hismemoirs onMikhail Bakunin andSergey Nechayev, translated into Russian and signed with the abridged nameZ. K. Ralli.[4] Noted for her medical work and political standing, Ecaterina was nevertheless labeled anenemy of the Soviet people, arrested and killed during theGreat Purge of the late 1930s.[10][13][97][111] As an author, Zamfir Arbore was somewhat tolerated in the Soviet Union and itsMoldavian SSR, created in 1940 by theSoviet occupation of Bessarabia. In the late 1940s, his name was included on a long list of authors officially banned by theSoviet censorship apparatus.[112] However, in later years he was officially quoted and praised, one of the few exceptions to the rule which put limits on the popularization ofRomanian literature (unlike Stere, whose work were still banned).[113]
In Romania, Arbore was survived by daughterNina (d. 1942). Known as the Romanian student ofHenri Matisse,[114] she maintained an interest in moderate leftist causes, joining the group formed aroundCuvântul Liber newspaper.[115] Her nephew Zamfir Dumitru Arbore fought againstNazi Germany inWorld War II, receivingSteaua României.[55]
In postwarCommunist Romania, Zamfir Dumitru Arbore worked as astate planner, and established a family: his successors were still living at the family home in Bucharest in the early 1970s.[55] The Arbores' patriarch was being rediscovered as a scholar, in particular after the 1960sliberalization (when Ecaterina wasposthumously rehabilitated).[92]Communist censorship however intervened in his various republished texts, cutting out all remarks which could seem Russophobic,[85] keeping his political writings hidden from public view while allowing some exposure to his geography tracts.[10] Among theanti-communistRomanian diaspora, genealogistMihai Dim. Sturdza completed a more thorough account of Arbore's career, which covered the controversial aspects and was published in Sturdza's dictionaryFamiliile boierești din Moldova și Țara Românească ("Boyar Families ofWallachia and Moldavia").[4][97]Armand Goșu noted that the entry comprised "the best pages ever written on Zamfir Arbore",[4] whileIoan Stanomir sees in it a real-life equivalent ofFyodor Dostoevsky'sThe Possessed andJoseph Conrad'sUnder Western Eyes.[97] During the 1960s, the exiled journalistPamfil Șeicaru also included ample references to Arbore's anti-Russian texts in his own anti-communist propaganda works.[16] After theRomanian Revolution of 1989, Arbore's name resurfaced in a nationalistconspiracy theory, which claims thatMihai Eminescu's descent into mental illness was staged by his more conservative political rivals. According to this interpretation, theinvoluntary commitment of Eminescu in summer 1883 was set to coincide with the expulsion of his friend Arbore.[53]
Arbore's works were reprinted inMoldova, theindependent post-Soviet republic comprising the bulk of historical Bessarabia. Moldovan literary historiansIon Varta and Tatiana Varta oversaw the 2001 reprint ofBasarabia în secolul XIX; the same year,Editura Fundației Culturale Române and Editura Museum co-edited hisDicționar geografic al Basarabiei, withIurie Colesnic as caretaker.[116] His name was assigned to streets in both Chișinău and Bucharest. HisDolna manor is preserved as a museum.[6]
Arbore's contribution also made an impact outside its immediate cultural context. His memoirs were reviewed early on by anarchist historianMax Nettlau, who called them inaccurate, without specifying to what extent.[10] Later, the various writings of Arbore-Ralli were studied, translated and preserved by exile MarxistsBoris Nicolaevsky and Egor E. Lazarev, and passed on to theHoover Institution.[117] Writing in 1994,American historianKeith Hitchins reviewedBasarabia în secolul XIX as "an old, in some ways classic" and "still useful" Romanian study of the Bessarabian question.[118] Arbore's 2009 biography at the anarchistKate Sharpley Library focuses on his revolutionary career rather than his other commitments, claiming that the Romanian reviews of his nationalist policies, beginning with Nicolae Iorga's texts, are "mystification", and noting that his activities in Greater Romania "remain to be investigated".[10] According to the same source, an English translation ofTemniță și exil was in progress, and considered for publication withCanada's Black Cat Press.[10]
