Vasile Vasilievici StroescuClark, p. 296; Constantin et al. (2012), pp. 559, 608; Lupu et al., p. 766 (, Vasily Vasilyevich Stroesko; November 11, 1845 – April 13, 1926), also known as Vasile de Stroesco,"Vasile de Stroesco" and ""Scrisoarea dlui V. de Stroesco, in Unirea, Issue 14/1910, pp. 1–2Bucin, p. 13 Ion Preasca, "Vasile Stroescu, boierul basarabean care a fost primul președinte al Parlamentului României Mari", in Adevărul Moldova, November 30, 2013 Basile Stroesco,The Roumanian Occupation..., pp. 190–195, 207; Ciobanu, p. 69"Communiqués", in Le Figaro, September 2, 1918, p. 2 or Vasile Stroiescu, was a Bessarabian and Romanian politician, landowner, and philanthropist. One of the proponents and sponsors of Romanian nationalism in Russia's Bessarabia Governorate, as well as among the Romanian communities of Austria-Hungary, he was also a champion of self-help and of cooperative farming. He inherited or purchased large estates, progressively dividing them among local peasants, while setting up local schools and churches for their use. An erudite and traveler, he abandoned his career in law to focus on his agricultural projects and cultural activism. For the latter work, he became an honorary member of the Romanian Academy.
Having backed the nationalist papers Basarabia and Cuvânt Moldovenesc, Stroescu was drawn into the more elitist cell of the nationalist movement, centered on the parts of the zemstva and gentry assembly. He was thus honorary president of the National Moldavian Party shortly after the February Revolution but, with Vladimir Herța, drifted away from the core of the movement to set up his own aristocratic branch. He became an absentee member of Sfatul Țării during the existence of a Moldavian Democratic Republic and its union with Romania. In 1919–1920, he served in the Assembly of Deputies, and was its de facto President for one day, on November 20, 1919. Rallying with the Bessarabian Peasants' Party, Stroescu became critical of the unification process, decrying government abuses in Bessarabia, and also objected to the 1920s land reform. At the age of eighty, he was elected to the Senate of Romania with backing from the Romanian National Party; he died shortly after in Bucharest, after a brief battle with bronchitis, and was granted a state funeral.
Biography
Beginnings The Stroescus were a family of ethnic Romanian aristocrats and shepherds from Moldavia: the family patriarch Ioan Stroescu had the Moldavian boyar title of jitnicer in the late 17th century. His grandson, Gavriil, was a șătrar; Ienache, Gavriil's son, reverted to pastoralism, and owned ranches in Iași County.Bezviconi (1943), p. 163 His own two sons Vasile (1795–1875) and Ioan moved between Moldavia and Bessarabia, which, following the 1812 Treaty of Bucharest, had been absorbed into the Russian Empire. Vasile owned ten estates on either side of the border, split between Iași and Hotin counties. The Stroescus were all inducted into Russian nobility in 1828 and granted arms in 1867.Bezviconi (1943), pp. 69, 163 From his marriage to Profira Manoil Guțu (1808–1856), Vasile Sr had many children, of whom Vasile Jr was the fifteenth. Their progeny included two other surviving sons—Mihail (1836–1889) and Gheorghe (1840–1922). The couple also had four daughters, married off to aristocrats of Russian, Greek, or Polish Bessarabian descent: Ana Kazimir, Maria Druganov, Elena Martos, and Ecaterina Șumanski.Bezviconi (1943), pp. 108, 123, 133, 163 The latter's husband was Clemente Șumanski, Mayor of Kishinev in the 1870s.
The most detailed accounts report that Vasile Jr was born on November 11, 1845, in Trinca, a Hotin County village (now in Edineț District, Moldova); some of the earlier sources gave his birth year as 1844, and his birth place as the family manor of Stolniceni.Lupu et al., p. 767 Young Stroescu was taught reading and writing by his mother and sisters—he studied the Psalter, written in standardized Romanian, which, as he recalled in 1920, only differed slightly from the Moldavian dialect he spoke at home (for instance, by using zăpadă for the Moldavian omăt, or "snow").Gorun, p. 206 He then read up on lay Romanian literature, being especially enthusiastic about Moldavian contributors such as Vasile Alecsandri and Ion Creangă, in whom he identified the primordial wisdom of peasants. In his later activity as a cultural sponsor, he prioritized editions from both authors.Gorun, pp. 208–209 Stroescu attended the Bessarabian Lyceum of Kishinev, then the school of Kamenets-Podolskiy and Odessa's Richelieu Lyceum. His training here was in Russian, which he had never spoken before: "I struggled a lot until I got to pick up this and than word." In a 1920 interview, he declared his enduring love of Russian literature, recommending in particular Gogol, Tolstoy, and Ivan Turgenev. He argued that, of all the Westerners he had ever read, only Maupassant could come close to this triad.Gorun, pp. 207–208 Also in 1920, he confessed that his training was not completed in Odessa, but rather at a gymnasium in Saint Petersburg; it was afterwards that he returned to the Richelieu school, which had become the Imperial Novorossiya University. It was there that he took his law degree.
Later on, Stroescu furthered his training at the universities of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Berlin.Bolovan & Bolovan, p. 23; Constantin (2010), p. 240; Iliev, p. 253. See also Bucin, p. 13 Though it is known that the latter institution awarded him a doctorate of law,Iliev, p. 253 he remained unusually discreet about his youth, his studies, and their exact dating (in one rare exception to this rule, he informed his friends that he had been lodging in Berlin during 1866).Lupu et al., p. 766 An erudite, he reportedly spoke all Slavic languages, German, French, English and Italian, in addition to his native Romanian. Upon graduation, he traveled throughout Europe, including in the Kingdom of Romania, and also visited the Western colonies in Africa.Constantin (2010), p. 240. See also Gorun, p. 206 In addition to championing the Romanian cause, he was enamored with South America; he went as far south as Chile, and wanted to cross the Pacific into Australia—though he never managed to visit that continent.Gorun, p. 207 This passion for traveling was shared by his older brother Mihail. A schoolmate of the celebrated writer Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu and a veteran of the Crimean War,Liviu Marian, "Vasile Stroescu. amintiri", in Adevărul Literar și Artistic, Vol. VII, Issue 281, April 1926, p. 1 he was once shipwrecked in the Pacific, and wrote memoirs of his adventures.Colesnic, pp. 192–193
Vasile was appointed a judge at the Hotin city tribunal in 1867,Basciani, p. 78 becoming colleagues with Hasdeu's father, Alexandru Hâjdeu.Constantin (2010), p. 240 A memoir by the Romanian Ștefan Dan reports that, in 1869, Stroescu was already active in Romanian nationalist circles, and sabotaging cultural Russification. According to this account, he took under his care the fellow landowner Matei Donici, who was in danger of losing his proficiency in Romanian, and made him relearn the language.Ștefan Dan, "Din viața lui Vasile Stroescu", in Tribuna, Issue 71/1910, pp. 3–4 Following his father's death, Stroescu withdrew from the legal profession altogether, making Brînzeni his main residence. There, he began his trade as a gentleman farmer, peasant educator, and amateur agronomist, while maintaining a lively interest in historical research. After receiving his inheritance, Stroescu owned 9,000 hectares (22,000 acres), but later came to purchase 16,000 more hectares (some 4,000 acres) of land, with several manors, ranches, and stables, making him one of the richest people in the region.Bolovan & Bolovan, p. 23 He reportedly drove herds of cattle across several countries, selling them in Vienna at a great profit."Corpurile legiuitoare. Ședințele dela 6 Aprilie 1928. Discursul d-lui dr. N. Lupu", in Viitorul, April 8, 1928, p. 4
Many of his properties he auctioned off, using the money to finance his philanthropy, or divided between the peasant obshchiny, with Stroescu as a pioneer of cooperative farming and cooperative forestry. He personally verified his plowmen's techniques and corrected their mistakes. As noted by Brînzeni native Ion Buzdugan, he was "modest and balanced", but also "ruthless with those who squandered his wealth." As a child, Buzdugan met Stroescu, later describing him as an "altar of diligence and kindness", and commending him for his efforts in preserving Romanian folklore. Fellow activist Pan Halippa noted that Stroescu was a "real democrat" and "true Christian", who "never married and lived modestly." "This man", Halippa claims, "used his great managerial competence to please those living on his estate. He [...] helped everyone own a proper home grange, acting as a statesman ought to. [...] If only those ministers who call themselves democrats and socialists could know how the great Bessarabian Romanian Vasile Stroescu used to live!"Constantin & Negrei (2009), pp. 68–69 By 1918, Stroescu only had some 8,000 hectares left to his name, spread about between Trinca, Bădragii Vechi, Druța and Zăbriceni.Clark, p. 296
Nationalist sponsor
As noted by historian Iurie Colesnic, Stroescu and Nicolae Ștefan Casso stood among those boyars who reverted Russification or Moldovenism, "neutralizing the influence" of pro-imperial adversaries such as Alexander N. Krupensky.Colesnic, pp. 573, 576–577 Stroescu built of refurbished several schools in Bessarabia, founded hospitals in his native village and in Brătușeni, and became ktitor of Bessarabian Orthodox churches in Trinca, Pociumbăuți, Șofrîncani, and Zăicani. In 1899, he offered to sponsor state schools, ran through the zemstvo network—provided that they be allowed to teach classes in Romanian. This proposal was simply disregarded by government. With the liberalization made possible by the Revolution of 1905, Stroescu began participating in conspiratorial meetings of the Romanian elite in Kishinev, exchanging ideas with Halippa, Nicolae Alexandri, Ion Inculeț, Nicolae Bivol, Alexis Nour, Ion Pelivan, and Paul Gore, where they first discussed the prospect of Romania and Bessarabia uniting.Constantin & Negrei (2009), pp. 82–83, 85 As Pelivan notes, he and Emanuil Gavriliță tried to persuade Stroescu to finance a magazine for the Romanian-speaking populace, but the landowner "seemed rather skeptical".Constantin et al. (2012), p. 354 However, in 1906 he sponsored Halippa in setting up a democratic-and-nationalist newspaper, Basarabia, eventually shut down by the Russian authorities in March 1907.Constantin & Negrei (2009), pp. 14–15; Constantin et al. (2012), pp. 42–43, 354, 600–601. See also Rutkowski, p. 140