Sabin Manuilă (or Mănuilă; February 19, 1894 – November 20, 1964) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian statistician, demographer and physician. A nationalist activist during World War I, he became noted for his pioneering research into the biostatistics of Transylvania and Banat regions, as well as a promoter of eugenics and social interventionism. As a bio- and geopolitician, Manuilă advocated the consolidation of Greater Romania through population exchanges, colonization, state-sponsored assimilation, or discriminatory policies.
Manuilă entered national politics in the early 1930s, representing the National Peasants' Party as a junior cabinet member. A disciple of the sociologist Dimitrie Gusti, who obtained him a membership in the Romanian Academy, he directed Romania's first Statistical Institute. During World War II, he rose to prominence as an expert adviser of Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu, applauding the antisemitic legislation and making antiziganism an official policy of the Romanian state. He was among the first intellectuals to propose the deportation of Romanian Jews and Romanies into occupied Transnistria. Additionally, Manuilă involved himself in the diplomatic standoffs between Romania and the Kingdom of Hungary, fighting against the loss of Northern Transylvania, then campaigning for her recovery.
By 1944, Manuilă was an Antonescu opponent, and involved himself in the August coup d'état that toppled him. He remained active on the political scene even after the start of Soviet occupation, serving as Undersecretary of State on two successive coalition governments. He fell out with the Romanian Communist Party, and escaped the country before the imposition of a communist regime, rallying with the Romanian National Committee. He lived his final years in the United States, employed by Stanford University and the Census Bureau.
Biography Early life and activism Manuilă was born in Sâmbăteni, Arad County, on the traditional border between the regions of Banat and Crișana, both of which were then in Austria-Hungary. He was the son of Fabriciu Manuilă, a Romanian Orthodox Protopope from Lipova. As an ethnic Romanian activist, Father Fabriciu had been fighting the region's Magyarization, joining efforts with Sabin's uncle, Vasile Goldiș, who was a prominent militant in the Romanian National Party.Bolovan & Bolovan, p. 128 As noted by scholar M. Benjamin Thorne, the Manuilă family also harbored racist prejudice against the Romanies (Gypsies), which may have shaped Sabin's political stances.Thorne, p. 185 He was educated at home and later graduated high school in Brașov. Since he could not pursue his studies in Romanian, Sabin entered the medical faculty of the University of Budapest in 1912, but remained active in Romanian nationalist circles, and published articles in political newspapers.Bolovan & Bolovan, pp. 128–129 He interrupted his studies from 1914 to 1918, taking part in World War I. A medic in the Austro-Hungarian Army, he saw action on the Russian Front,Bolovan & Bolovan, p. 129 and was wounded.Dan Dungaciu, Elita Interbelică: Sociologia românească în context european, p. 232. Editura Mica Valahie, Bucharest, 2011, Wedekind, p. 55
By November 1918, following the split of Austria-Hungary and the democratization of Hungary, Manuilă was working as a physician in Lipova.Moldovanu, p. 134 He resumed his nationalist activities in support of Crișana and Transylvania's union with Romania, joining the Romanian National Guard and becoming its local commander. In December, he was called upon by his university colleagues to represent them at the Alba Iulia Great National Assembly, where he voted for union with Romania.Bolovan & Bolovan, p. 129; Moldovanu, pp. 133–134, 162, 163, 164, 168, 171 The motion for union was read out by his uncle, Goldiș; Fabriciu and Sabin's brother, Camil Manuilă, were also present.Bolovan & Bolovan, pp. 128, 129 In 1919, he obtained his doctorate in medicine.Moldovanu, p. 162 In 1920, he married Veturia Leucuția, a Banat native who would later become a doctor and set up an infrastructure for nursing education in Romania. She had also been a student representative at Alba Iulia.Moldovanu, pp. 134, 152, 161, 162
Sabin was soon after employed by the University of Cluj, first as head of its children's hospital and assistant lecturer to Victor Babeș, then as head the social hygiene department.Bolovan & Bolovan, pp. 129–130; Moldovanu, pp. 162, 173 His scientific, teaching and publishing career took off between 1919 and 1926. He collected thousands of blood samples throughout Transylvania, pioneering the study of serology and immunology, and publishing his findings in Western scientific journals.Bolovan & Bolovan, p. 130 During this period, he also began writing articles about epidemiology and the healthcare system's organization. His monograph on Epidemiile din Transilvania ("Epidemics in Transylvania") was presented by Babeș to the Romanian Academy, earning Manuilă the Academy Prize for 1921. His project doubled as an inquiry into racial science: Manuilă followed Ludwik Hirszfeld's ideas about the "racial index", concluding that there existed a distinct serological cluster of Balkan peoples, of which Romanians were a distinct subtype. The conclusion was discussed by other serologists: Gheorghe Popoviciu, who concluded that Manuilă's data were flawed, and that Romanians were not a race apart; and Petru Râmneațeanu, who believed that Manuilă was largely correct.Turda, pp. 424–429. See also Wedekind, pp. 34–41, 55
Manuilă became an assistant to Iuliu Moldovan, a pioneer in Romanian public health, but also a promoter of eugenics—a field which also interested Manuilă, who suggested the sterilization of the disabled and the encouragement of births among the healthy.Bucur, pp. 14, 26–27, 99–100; Solonari, pp. 101–102. See also Turda, p. 427 The recipient of a Rockefeller Scholarship,Achim (2005), p. 140; Bolovan & Bolovan, pp. 130, 133; Coșovanu, p. 3; Moldovanu, p. 162; Petraru, p. 139; Solonari, pp. 101–102; Stahl, p. 148; Wedekind, p. 55 he studied biostatistics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore in 1925–1926. Visiting Charles Davenport's laboratory, he became convinced that American liberal eugenicism was a viable model for Romania.Bucur, pp. 100–101 Also a Rockefeller scholar,Wedekind, p. 56 Veturia followed her husband to America. She became an enthusiast of social work and interventionism,Moldovanu, p. 161; Stahl, pp. 148, 190–191 and later an outspoken conservative feminist.Butaru, pp. 241–242 Camil Manuilă, meanwhile, settled in Timișoara and became a noted figure in the business community, and eventually secretary of the Banat Chamber of Commerce and Industry.Emil Grădinariu, Ion Stoia-Udrea, Ghidul Banatului, Editura Oficiului de Turism & Editura Revistei Vrerea, Timișoata, 1936, p. 7 In 1925, he was president of the Romanian Football Federation.Camil Manuilă, "Cronica sportivă", in Societatea de Mâine, Nr. 42/1925, pp. 737–738
Bucharest relocation and 1930 census
Upon his return, Manuilă was named inspector general for public health in Transylvania.Bolovan & Bolovan, p. 130; Moldovanu, p. 163; Wedekind, p. 55 In 1927, he gave lectures on eugenics and biopolitics at ASTRA Society.Bucur, p. 230 Founding a biopolitical and biometrical research center at Cluj University, he began cooperating with the eugenicist Sheldon C. Reed on "biological issues".Marie-Thérèse Nisot, La question eugénique dans les divers pays, Vol. II. G. Van Campenhout, Brussels, 1929, p. 433
Also in 1927, Manuilă moved to the national capital, Bucharest, where he began collaborating with Dimitrie Gusti and with the statistical school of Octav Onicescu. Focusing on biopolitics, his research took him into the exploration of local demographics and demographic history. He was especially active in the field of "ethnodemographic prognosis", one of the first and few Romanians who took up this chore.Achim (2005), p. 141 According to fellow statistician Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, his "organisation of Romania's vital statistics was an international paragon".Georgescu-Roegen, p. 24
In 1929, he entered Gusti's Romanian Social Institute, and that year, together with five other doctors, he participated in a Gusti-coordinated monograph-writing campaign at Drăguș village in the vicinity of Făgăraș.Stahl, pp. 148–149 As such, he led operations for the nationwide census of 1930, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation,Coșovanu, p. 3; Petraru, p. 139 subsequently leading the Institute of Demography and Census. At the Social Institute, with Gusti's consent, he established a section for eugenics and biological anthropology.Bucur, pp. 75, 318 Supervised by Gusti and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, Manuilă and his wife also created a Bucharest School of Social Work, which doubled as an institute for the propagation of eugenic ideals.Bucur, pp. 15, 20, 74, 238–240 It was located on YMCA grounds, and had Henri H. Stahl, Francisc Rainer, Gheorghe Banu, Mircea Vulcănescu, and Xenia Costa-Foru among its lecturers.Bucur, p. 239; Stahl, pp. 148–149, 189–192
At the time, Manuilă himself made groundbreaking discoveries about the demography of Transylvania and the Romanianization of its cities. In 1929, he put out the treatise ("The Demographic Evolution of Cities and Ethnic Minorities in Transylvania"), which earned him another Academy prize.Bolovan & Bolovan, p. 131 He made projects about population exchanges between Greater Romania and its various neighbors, with the goal of discarding "elements with a centrifugal tendency" and keeping "ethnic purity", and even proposed the colonization of his native Crișana with Romanians from Hungary.Achim (2001), pp. 594–596, 598–601. See also Wedekind, p. 54 Moreover, Manuilă campaigned for the adoption of social welfare and biopolitical laws that, he argued, would curb emigration from RomaniaAchim (2001), p. 595 and promote the consolidation of a Romanian urban society.Bucur, pp. 192–193 However, he believed that Romanianization was largely a natural phenomenon, and a facet of urbanization: the Romanian rural majority of the Austro-Hungarian period was moving into the cities. Uniquely among Romanian eugenicists, he endorsed fully the abortion-rights option, noting that natalism, while practical, should never infringe on a woman's informed choice.Bucur, pp. 274–275
ICS foundation Active politically, Manuilă joined the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), Lavinia Betea, Cristina Vohn, "Inedit. Primul ziar legal al PCdR a fost falsificat", in Jurnalul Național, October 25, 2005 and began corresponding on social matters with the International Agrarian Bureau.Coșovanu, p. 6 From 1927 to 1930, he was a high-ranking civil servant within the Labor, Health and Social Protection Ministry, and was Undersecretary of State in a PNȚ cabinet, under Prime Minister Iuliu Maniu.Granville, p. 73 He later became Maniu's adviser in matters of sociology.Moldovanu, p. 163 He represented Romania at congresses held by the International Statistical Institute, the International Institute of Sociology, the League of Nations Committee on Population, and International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP). He sided with Corrado Gini's wing of the IUSSP, which promoted the natalist and racialist dogmas of Italian fascism.Turda & Gillette, pp. 170, 172