Theodor August Rășcanu, also credited as Teodor Râșcanu or Rîșcanu (4 November 1888 – 29 July 1952), was a Romanian novelist, historian and poet, also noted for his involvement with groups on the right and far-right of the political spectrum. He was born into the boyar class of Western Moldavia, whose social history is a main topic of his prose; he was related to several figures of note, including Alexandru Ioan Cuza, a founding figure of the united Romanian state. His own childhood witnessed the final stage of the aristocracy's decline, and he theorized early on that its misfortunes were intimately connected with a rise in Jewish immigration. Despite his early interest in politics, and his 1910s recruitment by the Conservative Party, Rășcanu's first published works were poems, including a large number of sonnets. Such contributions were generally ignored by critics, as was his 1925 debut as a social novelist. Meantime, he served as a volunteer in the Second Balkan War, and, despite his qualms about Romania's support for the Entente powers, also fought in World War I.
Rășcanu's own magazine, Politica and Gândul Liber, sketched out his ideological approach to Romanian issues, as did his surviving thesis of political economy. His judgments passed into a succession of interwar novels, as well as into his articles for various newspapers. He reached literary significance in 1932 with Ileana Lupului, which, though still seen by critics as somewhat clumsy, impressed with its psychological perspective on the rural soul. Promoția '907, appearing as a feuilleton in 1935, was censored due to its unflattering depiction of Greater Romania's political and literary elites. After openly defying the left-wing Poporanists, Rășcanu also embraced anti-communism, and for a while corresponded with the more senior anti-Soviet intellectual, Panait Istrati. Still a self-confessed antisemite, he enlisted in the National-Christian Defense League, and was afterwards a collaborator, as well as briefly a member, of the fascist Iron Guard; however, he was treated with suspicion in these circles, because of his willingness to acknowledge Jewish contributions on the frontlines. From 1934, he also asked Romanians to refrain from blaming foreigners for all their woes.
By the start of World War II, Rășcanu returned with a celebrated biography of his royal cousin. He was reputedly jaded in early 1941, when Ion Antonescu's government repressed the Iron Guard. After Antonescu had engaged Romania on the Eastern Front, he immersed himself in his literary work, printing or merely announcing various episodes from his own family saga. His family estate in Vaslui County, reduced by a 1920s land reform, then damaged by a 1940 earthquake, was ransacked during the Soviet occupation. Rășcanu sold his reduced property and moved around the country, hoping to escape arrest by the newly proclaimed communist regime. He died in Vaslui, possibly by suicide; he remained forgotten into the 1980s, his work only partially recovered and reconsidered after the end of communism.
Biography Origins and childhood The writer was born at Iași, in the Kingdom of Romania's Western-Moldavian half, on 4 November 1888 (17 November New Style).A., "Eu și strada mea", in Adevărul, 3 March 1937, p. 5 The family lived out in Drăgușeni, but rented the Iamandi house in Iași specifically so that he could be born there. He was then taken to Drăgușeni, but had his first memories from Nice, where he wintered with his parents in 1891–1892. His father, August, was a member of the landed gentry in Vaslui County, while his mother, Maria, was born into a Trifești branch of the Ghica family.Mihai Sorin Rădulescu, "O familie boierească din Moldova – Râșcanii", in Contemporanul, Issue 43/1992, p. 7Durnea, p. 811 Theodor and his magistrate brother Eduard were thus linked on both sides to the boyar aristocracy of old Moldavia. They were great-grandsons of Iordachi Rășcanu, who had served as Vornic in the 1820s, and grandsons of Toderiță, who had taken part, as an exile liberal, in the French Revolution of 1848.Theodor Rășcanu, "Un glas din Moldova", in Neamul Românesc, 2 October 1937, p. 1 The Rășcanus, first attested in the 17th century, divided themselves early on into clans of boyars and peasants. One of these branches remained in Bessarabia, which was annexed by the Russian Empire after an 1812 treaty. Parallel research by scholar Gheorghe Ghibănescu noted that these socially stratified branches had lost contact with each other, and no longer viewed themselves as related. The Rășcanus' fully yeoman side included its own set of notabilities—such as diplomat Constantin Langa-Rășcanu, and two generals: Ioan Rășcanu and Constantin Vasiliu-Rășcanu.
The writer himself acknowledged that one of his grandmothers, Penelopi Eliadis, was of Greek ethnicity.Theodor Rășcanu, "Dragă domnule Pisani...", in Facla, 15 February 1937, p. 1 He took more pride in noting that his mother's family was related to the Cuza dynasty through Tudosica, the wife of an 18th-century Paharnic and conspirator, Ioniță Cuza. As mentioned by genealogist Mihai Sorin Rădulescu, he was related to that clan in other ways as well: his great-great-grandmother, Paraschiva Lambrino, wife of Vornic Constantin (died 1828), was a matrilineal Cuza (through her, he also had genealogical links to Miron Costin, the pioneer Moldavian historian).Valer Mitru, "Viața în mers. Elocvența mută a istoriei", in Viața, 12 November 1942, p. 3 Nonetheless, and against the Cuzas' agenda, grandfather Toderiță had spent his final years opposing the unionist movement, specifically by demanding that Moldavia be kept independent of Wallachia. His virulent resistance to the agenda came even as Alexandru Ioan Cuza had emerged as Domnitor of the unified state (1859–1866). Theodor and Eduard were the Domnitors first cousins once removed. Their maternal great-uncle was Calinic Miclescu, who, shortly before the novelist's birth, was serving as Orthodox Metropolitan-Primate; an uncle was the politician Leon Bogdan.
Rășcanu's father died in 1892, and Maria sold Drăgușeni to liquidate her debt, taking her son to Iași. They rented the Goldenthal house on Mârzescu Street, which he later described as mice-infested. It was also in close proximity to the Notre Dame de Sion, a Catholic school that he described as bleak. His mother attempted to have him enlist there, but he fled after one day (preserving from this episode a lifelong rejection of total institutions). Once the family had moved into a better lodging in Păcurari ward (where he lived between 1895 and 1912), his education was handled by private tutors. He learned Russian (having been "stricken by Russophilia" after a visit to Odessa) alongside French, and also took up fencing. Finally enlisted at the National College, he was put into remedial class, then withdrawn and tutored for another five years, before finally returning as a student for the three final years.Durnea (2020), p. 811
With his classmates, Rășcanu issued in 1904 the magazine Spre Lumină ("Into the Light"), where he also published his first poems. The same pieces were collected in 1906 as a volume called Pagini intime ("Intimate Pages"); a second volume, announced as Clipele de aur ("Gilded Moments"), never saw print.Durnea (2020), p. 811 Literary historian Victor Durnea sees the cycle as a talentless exercise in neo-romantic imitation, with heavy borrowings from George Coșbuc and more discreet ones from Vasile Alecsandri and Mihai Eminescu.Durnea (2020), p. 812 Pagini intime was nonetheless praised by traditionalist reviewers of the day, including Nicolae Iorga and Sextil Pușcariu. The self-conscious Rășcanu made only small contributions to poetry after 1906. In addition to his own pieces done in formes fixes or as sonnets, he did translations from the more difficult authors of Parnassian and Symbolist Frenchmen—Paul Bourget, José-Maria de Heredia, Leconte de Lisle, and Henri de Régnier.Durnea (2020), p. 812
Political debut In 1905, Maria could afford to purchase a new estate, at Buhăiești. According to an October 1937 letter to Iorga, Rășcanu vacationed there for long intervals. This early experience made him into a self-confessed antisemite and Romanian nationalist, since he blamed an "invasion" of Jewish immigrants for the region's changing fortunes. In early 1907, he personally witnessed the events that led up to a massive peasant revolt. As he observed in 1936, many authors had pinned these events down on the class of Jewish tenants and exploiters, which were "a neurosis, but not a source". He disagreed with antisemites on this point, blaming instead the opposition National Liberal Party (PNL), who, he argued, was interested in gaining power at all cost.Theodor Rășcanu, "O conferință și... o eroare", in Facla, 25 December 1936, p. 2 He also wrote about how Jewish tenants had been scapegoated in the process, citing the case of his mother's own lessees. Both of them had been seriously injured by the rebels, and had to flee with her to Iași.
Later in 1907, Rășcanu enlisted at the University of Iași department of law. During this interval, he published his prose in periodicals that included Conservatorul, Evenimentul, Mișcarea, Universul, and A. C. Cuza's Unirea.Durnea (2020), p. 811 He graduated in 1910, when he also joined the Conservative Party. He was admitted into the bar association and set up a practice in Păcurari, but immediately after moved to Bucharest, where he lived for a while in the civil servants' palace on Victory Square. From May 1912, he was secretary of Vaslui County Council,"Ultime informațiunĭ. Mercurĭ", in Universul, 10 May 1912, p. 3. See also Durnea (2020), p. 811 resigning just one year into his office. He only rarely worked as an attorney, but took his Ph. D. with a thesis of political economy, Problema pământului în România ("The Land Issue in Romania", printed 1922).Durnea (2020), p. 811 In March 1913, Unirea hosted his critique of the moderate-liberal press, including Adevărul of Bucharest, which he described as manipulated by Jewish interests. He believed that his stance on limiting Jewish emancipation had been backed by the Romanian King, Carol I, who had advised against changes to the 1866 constitution.Theodor Rășcanu, "Scrisoare deschisă Domnului Ion Em. Protopopescu-Pake", in Unirea. Foaia Naționaliștilor-democrați Ieșeni, Issue 12/1913, p. 2