Mandru Anca PDF

Cultural Nationalism alongside Official State-Building:
The Romanian Cultural League in the Interwar Period
By
Anca Mandru
Submitted to
Central European University
History Department
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
Supervisor: Professor Constantin Iordachi

Second Reader: Professor Marsha Siefert
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Budapest, Hungary
2009
Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full
or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged
in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must
form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions
may not be made without the written permission of the Author.
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Abstract
This thesis uses the case study of the Romanian Cultural League in the interwar period
to question generally held assumptions about the development and endurance of cultural
nationalism and its characteristics. The thesis finds that in the Romanian case cultural
nationalism has survived the fulfillment of its goals by the creation of Greater Romania in 1918
and readjusted its program to the context of the interwar period. A survey of the League’s
program and activity shows that the cultural nationalism advocated by the organization
coexisted and complemented the official projects aimed at creating a cohesive national culture.
The League engaged in cultural practices aimed at a moral regeneration of the community and a
cultural unification of the various traditions characteristic to the provinces making up interwar
Romania. The League’s identification with its leader, the historian and politician Nicolae Iorga,
ensured its visibility but at the same time consigned it to a traditionalist niche of the public
discourse.
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Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1
Chapter I: Theoretical Framework: Locating Cultural Nationalism ............................................ 8
Chapter II: Setting up a Cultural Organization........................................................................... 16

1. The Social Composition of the League: Who Were the Cultural Nationalists? ................. 18
2. The Beginnings: Establishing the Organization.................................................................. 23
3. Sustaining the Network after the War ................................................................................. 26
4. Financing Cultural Nationalism .......................................................................................... 28
Chapter III: Programmatic Cultural Nationalism ....................................................................... 31

1. Mystical Organicism: Culture and Nation .......................................................................... 31
2. Cultural Nationalism and Morality ..................................................................................... 35
3. Cultural Nationalism and the State ..................................................................................... 39
4. The League and the National Question............................................................................... 44
5. Further Challenges: Old Romanians and New Romanians in Greater Romania ................ 49
Chapter IV: Practices of Cultural Nationalism........................................................................... 52

1. In Honor of the Past ............................................................................................................ 52
a. Celebrations ..................................................................................................................... 52
b. Conferences ..................................................................................................................... 57
c. Publications and Other Initiatives .................................................................................... 60
2. Staging Cultural Nationalism: Theatre, Music, Folk Dances ............................................. 62
3. Alternative Education: The Summer Courses at Valenii de Munte .................................... 66
4. Dilemmas of Cultural Nationalism ..................................................................................... 70
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Conclusion: The Relevance of Cultural Nationalism ................................................................. 74
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 78
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Introduction
Nationalism, while a political ideology, cannot be separated from cultural practices.
Whether modernists, perennialists or primordialists, theorists of nationalism agree on the
importance of culture in nationalist mobilization. Indeed the prevalence of cultural initiatives is
evidence enough to convince some theorists to view cultural nationalism as separate from and
complementary to political nationalism 1 . Whatever the validity of this claim, the relevance of
cultural nationalism once the goal of a nation-state is achieved is subject to question.
Nationalist celebrations, publications, conferences and privately organized reading rooms,
libraries and museums thrive when the particular ethnic group lacks an autonomous political
organization or, alternatively, the nation-state harbors irredentist aspirations towards territories
it considers legitimately its own. Once all these desiderata are fulfilled, however, cultural
nationalism seemingly loses its very reason of being. While history books, monuments and
commemorations are still necessary, they become the responsibility of the state. Lacking a goal
that would mobilize their adherents, cultural associations whose contribution has been notable
in the past become decorative.
It is the aim of this thesis to question this assumption by focusing on the case-study of
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the Romanian Cultural League. An organization endorsing a program of cultural nationalism,
the League survived the creation of Greater Romania and continued its activity throughout the
interwar period. While readjusting its goals to the interwar context, the society continued to
1
John Hutchinson, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism: The Gaelic Revival and the Creation of the Irish State
(London: Allen and Unwin, 1987), and “Re- Interpreting Cultural Nationalism.” Australian Journal of Politics and
History 45, no.3 (1999): 392.
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profess a program of cultural nationalism and engage in the same kind of activities which
characterized it before the war. By showing the continuity between the League’s prewar and
postwar initiatives, the thesis will address the question of the lifespan of such private
associations and the ability of the kind of nationalism they embrace to adapt to the conditions
of a nation-state.
In 1890 Romanian émigrés from Transylvania and patriots from the Old Kingdom of
Romania founded in Bucharest Liga pentru unitatea culturala a tuturor romanilor (The League
for the Cultural Unity of all Romanians). While endorsing, as its name suggested, a program of
cultural nationalism, the League’s objectives were inherently political. In statutes, speeches and
publications bordering on irredentism, the League systematically argued for the autonomy of
the Romanians in Transylvania and ultimately, if less outspoken, for the region’s incorporation
into Romania. After more than two decades of militancy of varying intensity, the League
unexpectedly saw its goal achieved with the end of the First World War and the creation of
Greater Romania. These transformations faced the League with the challenge of readjusting its
ideology as well as its very character.
Previously an irredentist organization agitating for the rights of Romanians abroad, in
the interwar period the League had to adapt to functioning within the framework of a nation-
state. While the goal of cultural unity was no less of a desideratum, the League now faced
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competition from other actors. Foremost among these was the Romanian state itself which,
following the war, engaged in the politics of cultural unification, implementing educational
policies aimed at assimilating Romanians from the new provinces of Transylvania, Bessarabia
2
and Bukovina, as well as Greater Romania’s large minorities 2 . In the context of a conscious,
planned state-led “cultural offensive” 3 , the activities of a private organization inevitably fade
when compared with the broader scope of state intervention. This is even more the case in the
conditions of political turmoil, social instability and frequent changes of regime which
characterize interwar Romania. Nevertheless, even if marginal in impact, the activity of
organizations like the League illustrate a different dimension of the Romanian nation-building.
In a centralized and increasingly undemocratic system, private associations did have a voice,
and it made itself heard in debates over highly controversial issues like the pace of cultural
unification, the place of minorities in Greater Romania and the status of the Romanians from
the newly acquired provinces.
The latter in particular had been the League’s concern from its inception. Back in 1890,
the League was officially established as a medium for assisting Romanians from Austria-
Hungary financially and by other means, as well as for raising awareness in the Old Kingdom
and abroad concerning the Magyarization policies of the Hungarian authorities in Transylvania.
In these attempts, the League was reasonably successful. The cause of the Romanians abroad
was appealing enough to ensure the participation of a public from a variety of social strata, but
also the contribution of prominent university professors and politicians. In the first decade
following its establishment, the League’s activity was noteworthy. Starting in Bucharest, by
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1893 the League already had forty-one local branches. In addition to annual congresses, the
League organized meetings, conferences, and marches where occasionally thousands of people
attended. Since 1896 it published a weekly newspaper, Liga Romana (The Romanian League),
2
Irina Livezeanu, Cultural Politics in Greater Romania: Regionalism, Nation-Building and Ethnic Struggle
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995).
3
Ibid., 29.
3
later to be turned into a magazine. Irregularly, the League published brochures and pamphlets,
either with a pronounced political character or simply on subjects related to national history.
Also seeking to promote national solidarity, the League organized celebrations of important
historical dates and erected monuments of Romanian historical figures. More pragmatically,
through a country-wide network of subscriptions, the League assisted the Romanian movement
in Transylvania financially, either by helping individuals, or through financing Romanian-
language periodicals, schools and libraries.
The League reached its maximum of visibility during the Memorandum Trial of 1894,
when Romanian leaders from Transylvania were trialed and then sentenced to prison after
presenting the emperor Francis Joseph with a memorandum complaining against the Hungarian
nationalities policy. The League provided legal and financial assistance to the defendants and
their families, popularized the cause in the Old Kingdom and abroad and stirred agitation to the
extent to which the Hungarian authorities asked the Romanian government to outlaw it.
Following the effervescence of the Memorandum moment, however, and despite growing
membership, the League’s activity declined, also due to dissensions within the leadership.
Its revival, starting in 1908, coincided with the ascension of Nicolae Iorga, by then
already a prominent historian, to the position of secretary of the League. From then on, until
Iorga’s assassination by the Iron Guard in 1940, the Cultural League was associated with
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Iorga’s name. His influence was so overwhelming, in fact, that at times, the League’s program
and ideology were completely subordinated to the historian’s own. Nevertheless, despite
charges of monopolizing the League, Iorga’s influence was definitely beneficial. Before the
war, its membership soared, reaching over 20000 active members in 1912 and 103 branches in
Romania and abroad a year later. In 1914 the League also operated a symbolic change of name,
4
becoming Liga pentru unitatea political a tuturor romanilor (The League for the Political
Unity of all Romanians).
Under Iorga’s leadership, the League survived the creation of Greater Romania in 1919
and continued its activity in the interwar period. The League’s activities remained essentially
the same. It continued to publish periodicals and brochures and to organize conferences,
meetings and celebrations. Owing to Iorga, the League became increasingly associated with the
courses organized at his initiative at the summer university in Valenii de Munte. The context,
as well as the targets of these activities were, however, essentially different.
The creation of Greater Romania brought both benefits and challenges to the League. In
the new conditions, the League could pursue its activities unhindered by foreign interferences,
without having to employ stratagems like smuggling patriotic brochures across the
Transylvanian border, as had previously been the case. On the other hand, the League now had
to compete, and sometimes, counteract, the state’s aggressive campaign of Romanianization
undertaken in the new provinces. The Cultural League had traditionally been allied with the
leaders of the Romanian national movement in Transylvania and throughout its first decades of
existence it collaborated closely with the Romanian Party of Transylvania. In the interwar
period, however, the overly harsh centralizing policies of the Romanian government
increasingly alienated Transylvanian Romanians who initially had hopes for some sort of
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autonomy. In these circumstances, the League had to bring together the contesting parts, if it
were to remain faithful to its program of cultural unification and national solidarity.
The new political context also faced the League with the challenge of addressing the
question of national minorities. As minorities made up to 29 percent of the population of
Romania in 1930, the state took the problem they represented very seriously. In consequence,
5
so did the League, if in a less aggressive fashion. While Iorga’s attitude towards minorities was
ambivalent, unlike the Romanian government he did acknowledge the right of the “national
minorities”, by which he understood the Hungarians and the Germans, to develop their own
cultures freely 4 . Like in the case of most Romanian intellectuals of the time, Iorga’s tolerance
did not extend to Jews. However, his and by extension, the League’s, attitude towards
minorities differed extensively from the state’s. As such, this thesis will examine the League’s
projects involving minorities and Romanians from the new provinces and locate them within
the League’s broader program of cultural nationalism. In addition, the latter doctrine will be
analyzed against the background of Romania’s manifold interwar political and intellectual
discourses.
The scholarly literature on the Cultural League is generally scarce. Its interwar activity
has not been previously examined in the English or Romanian-language literature. The only
available survey of its activity prior to 1918 is Gheorghe Marinescu’s and Vasile Netea’s “Liga
Culturala” si unirea Transilvaniei cu Romania 5 , which, although valuable in terms of factual
information and links to primary material, is written from an uncritical perspective and bears
the mark of communist historiography. While strong in its pre-1900 section and especially in
its presentation of the League’s contribution to the Memorandum movement, the book’s
examination of the League after the turn of the century is superficial and minimizes the role
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played by Iorga. Other articles and studies mention the League only sporadically, focusing
especially on its role in the Memorandum trial 6 . Biographies and studies on Iorga occasionally
4
William Oldson, The Historical and Nationalistic Thought of Nicolae Iorga (Boulder, Colorado: Columbia
University Press, 1974).
5
Gh. Marinescu and Vasile Netea. “Liga Culturala” si unirea Transilvaniei cu Romania. (Iasi: Junimea, 1978).
6
Vasile Curticapeanu, Miscarea culturala romaneasca pentru Unirea din 1918 (Bucuresti: Editura Stiintifica,
1968); Razvan Paraianu, “National Culture as a Plot against Modernity.” Studia Hebraica 4 (2004).
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mention his activity within the League 7 . However, understandable in the light of Iorga’s
diverse interests and overwhelming productivity, the League is treated marginally.
The first chapter will provide an overview of the League’s history and organization. It
will describe the setting up of the society, the social background of its members, the challenges
faced in creating and preserving a country-wide network of sections and the ways in which a
cultural society of this kind managed to finance itself. The second chapter will examine the
League’s understanding of “cultural nationalism” and its programmatic goals, as well as the
relation between culture and morality. It will do so especially by examining Iorga’s interwar
doctrine and the way it related to the early twentieth century samanatorist trend whose main
advocate he was. Special emphasis will be placed on the League’s relation with state
institutions and on the contrast between the League’s anti-state discourse and the occasional
collaboration with the authorities. In addition the chapter will examine the League’s answer to
the challenges of integrating the Romanians and the minorities from the new provinces in the
“national culture”.
The third chapter will look more closely at the practices of cultural nationalism and thus
at the activities of the League’s as such. It will examine the celebrations and conferences
organized by the League and look at the use of theatre, music and folk dances, as well as at the
League’s other manifold initiatives. It will analyze separately a project closely associated with
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the League, namely the summer courses organized by Valenii de Munte and inquire into the
causes of its enduring success. Finally, the limits of such activities and dilemmas of cultural
nationalism will conclude this chapter.
7
See Barbu Theodorescu, Nicolae Iorga (Bucuresti: Editura Tineretului, 1968), William Oldson, The Historical
and Nationalistic Thought of Nicolae Iorga (Boulder, Colorado: Columbia University Press, 1974) and Nicholas
Nagy-Talavera, Nicolae Iorga: A Biography (Iasi, Oxford, Portland: The Center for Romanian Studies, 1998).
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Chapter I: Theoretical Framework: Locating Cultural
Nationalism
For an organization which boasted its nationalist credentials the choice of nationalism
theory seems obvious. However, the peculiar character and history of the League, which covers
almost half a century of major political changes, demanding equally radical shifts in the
organization’s goals and ideology, inevitably limits this choice. Equally constraining are the
characteristics of Romania itself. Essentially an agrarian country, with an industry in an
incipient phase and a still large proportion of illiterate population, Romania, for most of the
League’s lifespan, does not meet the prerequisites postulated by major theories of nationalism.
The characteristics of the organization and its setting limit in fact the application of
most modernist theories of nationalism. While Ernest Gellner’s 8 view of nations and
nationalism as essentially modern is certainly to be retained, his structural theory is otherwise
of little use. Gellner’s powerful argument tracing the advent of nationalism to the emergence of
mass public education and industrialization is less rewarding in this case, as the Romanian
society of the time scarcely meets these conditions. Moreover, as opponents of the modernist
approach have pointed out, the latter presupposes “mass participation in the social and political
life of the nation” 9 and is thus inapplicable in areas where general enfranchisement is lacking
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or has only recently been introduced. At the same time, focusing on the state, Gellner’s theory
leaves little room for the role of private associations complementing or challenging the official
nation-building project. Culture itself, the very reason of being of associations like the League,
8
Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003).
9
Anthony D. Smith, “The genealogy of nations: an ethno-symbolic approach” in When is the nation?: towards an
understanding of theories of nationalism, edited by Atsuko Ichijo and Gordana Uzelac (Abingdon, Oxon ; N.Y. :
Routledge, 2005), 96.
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bears little relevance to Gellner. Inasmuch as he refers to culture, Gellner is interested in the
standardized “high culture” disseminated through the mass system of education. Only when
becoming public, official and state-directed culture becomes “national culture”. Otherwise, if
outside the sphere of the state, culture remains, in the formulation of a later criticism of
Gellner’s theory, “the rhetorical ammunition of nationalist activists” 10 .
A similar understanding of cultural practices emerges from Eric Hobsbawm’s work on
the “invention of tradition” 11 , more relevant in this case than his later study on the dichotomy
between civic and ethnic types of nationalism 12 . In the former work, Hobsbawm focuses on the
emergence of the practice of commemorations, festivals, parades and monuments as a modern
way to channel the participation of the masses in the political life of the nation 13 . Like Gellner,
focusing exclusively on state-directed initiatives, Hobsbawm disregards the presence of similar
private projects. As such, while insightful in its analysis of the factors contributing to the
successful institutionalization or, on the contrary, the limited appeal of such commemorative
practices, Hobsbawm’s theory is incomplete and therefore inapplicable in this case.
The use of the other highly influential modernist theory, springing from Benedict
Anderson’s 14 interpretation of nations and nationalism as cultural artifacts, poses similar
dilemmas. While Anderson addresses the question of professional intellectuals and their
associations in more detail, he assigns them a limited role. Accordingly, the intelligentsia is
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responsible with disseminating and making accessible the specific vernacular languages which
for Anderson are the medium of nationalism. But while the emphasis in Anderson’s account of
10
Joep Leersen, “Nationalism and the Cultivation of Culture,” Nations and Nationalism 12 (4) 2006: 560.
11
Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, The Invention of tradition (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press,
1983).
12
Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and nationalism since 1780 : programme, myth, reality (Cambridge : Cambridge
University Press, 1992).
13
Hobsbawm and Ranger,263.
14
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London, New York: Verso, 1995).
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nationalism is on invention and imagination, little attention is dedicated to the internal
mechanisms of these processes. Anderson does distinguish between “official” and “popular”
nationalisms, the former being prompted by the latter 15 . As critics have emphasized, this
interpretation is reductionist, some historical examples pointing to the opposite taking place 16 .
In any case, in Anderson’s account this phenomenon appears as a linear process, leaving no
room for debate and conflict between the various agents of its propagation. Similarly, there is
no suggestion of the possibility for official and popular nationalism to coexist.
Consequently, alternatives to modernist theories of nationalism constitute more fertile
ground in what the role of culture and private associations is concerned. In this sense, applying
Anthony D. Smith’s 17 ethno-symbolist theory, a more substantial analysis of the contribution of
the intelligentsia to imagining the nation, is more fruitful. Unlike primordialism or
perennialism, which postulate the antiquity of nations, ethno-symbolism, whereas
acknowledging that nations are modern, argue that they emerge out of pre-modern ethnic ties.
While controversial in its own right, ethno-symbolism remains relevant because of its
combined “historical, cultural and sociological character” 18 . For the case in question, it is
especially appropriate because unlike modernist theories, it focuses mainly on the field of
culture 19 . As one critic has argued, for ethno-symbolists, like for nationalists themselves,
nations are “forms of cultural communities” 20 .

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15
Ibid., 110.
16
See Breuilly’s critique of Anderson in Umut Ozkirimli, Theories of nationalism: a critical introduction (New
York: Palgrave, 2000), 154-155.
17
Anthony D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996).
18
When is the nation?: towards an understanding of theories of nationalism, 89.
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid., 99.
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The cultural character of the nation being dominant, the propagators of culture become
relevant as well. According to Smith, the rise of the secular intellectuals replaces the traditional
religious authority with a rational one which derives its legitimacy from the use of science. He
gives due credit to the importance of recurrent myths, traditions and beliefs and rehabilitates
the work of historicist intellectuals whose creative return to the past reconstructs the historical
memory of the community and reinforces its cohesion. But as the work of any historicist
scholar is the expression of a particular interpretation of the past, Smith allows for the
emergence of rival intellectual factions, which proceed to select different myths from the
available memories of the past. Thus the process of reaching a comprehensive vision of the
nation can be a lengthy one of trial and error and conflict and competition between groups with
divergent understandings of the past. However, while the idea of inherent contest between
different intellectual groups committed to shaping the nation is valid, Smith’s argument
overlooks the case of the competition between the agenda of various intelligentsia groups and
voluntary associations and the state-led nation-building effort.
As the very name of the League suggests, for the nature of the particular nationalist
project contemplated by the association, the use of John Hutchinson’s theory of cultural
nationalism is most apt 21 . Following Smith, Hutchinson contends that intellectuals, historians
in particular, committed to the study of the past and the revival of the society play a distinct
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role in creating a unitary image of the nation. However, Hutchinson goes further and argues in
favor of cultural nationalism as separate from and complementary to political nationalism.
Consequently, cultural nationalism is a recurrent movement, emerging at times when political
nationalism fails. Like in the case of the Cultural League, cultural nationalism comes forward
21
Hutchinson, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism: The Gaelic Revival and the Creation of the Irish State.
11
when a state bent on modernization and reform challenges established identities and social
categories.
This view develops and at the same time challenges another influential theory, that
advanced by Miroslav Hroch. In his three-phases theory of nationalism, Hroch has argued that
cultural manifestations are not a simple rhetorical, propagandistic addition to social and
political processes, as Gellner would have it, but are developments in their own right which
anticipate political transformations. Accordingly, Hroch’s Phase A in the development of
national movements is characterized by the emergence of activists devoted to the inquiry into
and the dissemination of the group’s language, history and traditions 22 . However, as subsequent
commentators have pointed out, cultural agitation is not restricted to the incipient phases of
nation-building but can remain prominent, emerging in “successive” 23 stages, even after the
accomplishment of political goals or independent statehood. Consequently, here is where the
significance of Hutchinson’s characterization of cultural nationalism as a recurrent movement
comes in.
According to Hutchinson, cultural nationalism perceives the nation as an organic being
in danger of moral decay. However, unlike previous theoreticians who perceived cultural
nationalism as a regressive movement, Hutchinson insists that its purposes are regenerative, not
reactionary. In fact, by envisaging themselves as “moral innovators” 24 , cultural nationalists

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reject traditionalism and modernism alike, seeking to reconcile them in a feasible project of the
22
Miroslav Hroch, “From National Movement to the Fully-formed Nation: The Nation-building Process in
Europe,” in Mapping the Nation, ed. Gopal Balakrishnan (Verso: London, New York, 1996), 81.
23
Leersen, 563.
24
Hutchinson, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism: The Gaelic Revival and the Creation of the Irish State, 30.
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nation. Consequently the integrative character of cultural nationalism explains why the
movement remains in most cases a “minority enthusiasm” 25 .
The typical advocates of cultural nationalism are historians, philologists and artists who
equally typically organize themselves in private cultural societies, establishing a “loose
network of language societies, dramatic groups, publishing houses, lending libraries, summer
schools, agricultural co-operatives and political parties” 26 . However, while endorsing a strictly
cultural program, the objectives of such movements are inherently political. Cultural
nationalism competes with political nationalism in providing contrasting solutions,
communitarian versus state-led, to the challenges of modernization27 . According to
Hutchinson, cultural nationalism is doomed to fail, as its program is periodically adopted by the
state and turned official. However, the case of the Cultural League will question this
assumption by showing how private cultural initiatives and agendas can coexist along official
ones without becoming institutionalized.
Later elaborations on the relationship between cultural nationalism and the state are,
however, of particular relevance in this case. In a text from 2001, Hutchinson argued that
“State modernization is an important factor in the formation of national

cultures, but not as is generally assumed in creating the cultural
homogeneity necessary for a common citizenship. It ignites competing
ethnic traditions with their different visions of community, and recurring
conflicts that generate an exploration of different strategies by which
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nations can negotiate contingencies” 28
Hutchinson’s formulation leaves room precisely for the kind of private organizations like the
League, which had the same misgivings about the state’s ability to undertake the cultural
25
Ibid., 17.
26
Ibid., 17.
27
Ibid., 40.
28
John Hutchinson, “Nations and Culture” in Understanding Nationalism, edited by Montserrat Guibernau and
John Hutchinson (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001), 93.
13
unification of its territory and aimed to complement or at times replace the initiatives of the
authorities. As scholars of nationalism have underscored, the main quality of ethno-symbolist
approaches is that they are “concerned to conceptualize culture as a relatively autonomous
process, in no way reducible to politics” 29 , This framework, asserting a separate domain for
culture, even if intertwined with politics, allows for a more accurate interpretation of the
League’s projects as well as of its program of cultural nationalism.
While A.D Smith’s ethno-symbolist approach and Hutchinson’s theory of cultural
nationalism can reasonably explain the League’s origins, ideology and practice, they do not
sufficiently account for its impact and reception. While Hutchinson assigns the limited success
of cultural nationalism to its integrative character, most reports of the Cultural League reflect
not dissatisfaction with the particular politics of the League, but apathy towards the national
cause in general. Time and again the League’s propagandists, especially those sent in rural
areas, describe the mood of the population in terms reminiscent of what historians of
nationalism elsewhere have qualified as “national indifference”30 .The theoretical framework
behind this view belongs to Rogers Brubaker whose insights, even if scarcely complementary
to those of Smith and Hutchinson, should be nevertheless retained 31 .
While most scholars have long argued in favor of a fluid understanding of ethnic and
national identities, Brubaker challenged even the most acknowledged modernist theories by
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questioning the validity of concepts like “identity” and “ethnic group” altogether. In Brubaker’s
view, the many correctives used when employing the term “identity”, whether in stating its
29
Jonathan Hearn, Rethinking Nationalism: A Critical Introduction (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 182.
30
Pieter Judson, Guardians of the Nation: Activists on the Language Frontiers of Imperial Austria (Cambridge,
Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2006), 2. Also Tara Zahra, Kidnapped Souls: National Indifference and the
Battle for Children in the Bohemian Lands, 1900-1948 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008).
31
Rogers Brubaker, Ethnicity without groups (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2004).
14
constructed, flexible or multi-layered character, speak against its legitimacy as a conceptual
tool in general 32 . Most importantly for students of nationalism, Brubaker’s theory consequently
reevaluates the understanding of key terms like “ethnicity” and “nationhood”, which, in his
words, should be interpreted not as “things in the world”, but as “perspectives on the world” 33 .
The challenges encountered by the League’s activists in popularizing the national cause testify
to the difficulty of imposing their perspective on the masses at large. While problematic as an
explanation of the emergence and development of nationalism, Brubaker’s suggestions should
be kept hold of when analyzing the League’s reception, appeal and uncertain mobilization.
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32
Ibid., 33.
33
Ibid., 17.
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Chapter II: Setting up a Cultural Organization
Proponents of cultural nationalism thought of themselves as having a unique
contribution to the national cause. Their program of cultural enlightenment was thought
fundamentally different from political ones and was believed to build cultural affinities and a
moral solidarity that no official or state-directed initiative could instill. Iorga believed the
Cultural League pursued a crucial goal for the future of the Romanian nation. He also believed
that its cultural program was above politics and its cultural activities independent and different
from state-initiated ones. Theorists of nationalism who regard cultural nationalism as an
analytic category in itself also believe in a unique set of characteristics which differentiate
cultural nationalism from political nationalism. The emphasis on culture, the integrative
character, the focus on moral regeneration and the adversarial relation with the State and
official nationalism are considered key features which can reflect the experiences of cultural
nationalists everywhere.
The interpretation of both practitioners and theoreticians of cultural nationalism is,
however, incomplete without a proper contextualization of each case of cultural nationalism.
Many variables come into play in shaping the character of such a movement and give birth to
significant nuances without which the assessment of a particular kind of cultural nationalism
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would be superficial. Like in the League’s case, the presence of a dominant personality whose
doctrine becomes identified with the one of the movement he leads can be one such factor.
Competition with different trends, fashions and visions of the nation’s future can be another.
Together, they can amend both the way in which the designers of such movements themselves
16
imagined their cultural nationalism and the way in which it was subsequently interpreted by
analysts.
For the nationalist activity itself, the historical context is crucial and the League’s
evolution provides ample proof for this. Before the war, the independent character of the
League allowed it to engage in irredentists activities which the Romanian state could not
possibly sponsor openly. During the war, the active lobby in favor of entering the war against
Austria-Hungary had a significant echo in political circles. Immediately afterwards, at the
beginning of the interwar period, the League benefited from the initial disarray to occupy a
niche of commemorative practices and educational projects which the State did not yet take on.
By mid 1920s, as the internal situation stabilized, the League’s visibility declined. However,
while the creation of Greater Romania deprived the League of its main reason of being, the
challenges of the integration of the new provinces provided new avenues for the League to
channel its activity. The Depression hit the League severely and its activity stagnated for a
couple of years. Iorga’s other priorities, as prime-minister in 1931-32, also affected the
organization. By mid 1930s, however, the League was again on the rise, recovering from the
financial collapse and restarting its activities.
Political and economic context aside, the cultural and intellectual atmosphere
influenced the impact of the cultural nationalism advocated by the League. Interwar Romania
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had been the stage of prolific debates on Romania’s national identity and the right path for its
development. Whether scholars divide thinkers by labels such as Europeanists and
traditionalists 34 , Westernizers, pro-Orientals or indigenists 35 , or even argue that such
34
Keith Hitchins, Rumania, 1866-1947 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 292.
17
categorizations simplify the otherwise blurred and overlapping boundaries between them 36 , the
multiplicity of discourses was overwhelming. As expected, such strong competition influenced
both the impact of the League’s discourse and its very character. Cultural nationalism, even if
propounding a distinct program, is not immune to the evolution of the public discourse in
general. Following the radicalization of the Romanian public sphere in the 1930s and the
increased presence of an anti-Semitic discourse, the League drastically readjusted its goals by
focusing on a program of “Romanization of commerce”. In other circumstances, such a turn
would have been unthinkable for an association of cultural nationalism. Circumstances,
however, influenced who cultural nationalists would be, how their priorities would look like
and how they would act as a movement.
1. The Social Composition of the League: Who Were the Cultural

Nationalists?
The cultural nationalism predicated by the League cannot be separated from the
samanatorist trend whose main proponent was Iorga 37 . Emerging at the turn of the century and
taking its name from the journal Samanatorul (The Sower) which appeared in 1901,
Samanatorism was an agrarian current aiming at the emancipation of the peasant and his rescue
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from the alienating world of capitalist towns and corrupt politics. Unlike other advocates of the
35
Katherine Verdery, “National Ideology and National Character in Interwar Romania”, in National Character
and National Ideology in Interwar Eastern Europe, ed. by Ivo Banac and Katherine Verdery (New Haven: Yale
Center for International and Area Studies, 1995), 111.
36
Irina Livezeanu, “After the Great Union: Generational Tensions, Intellectuals, Modernism and Ethnicity in
Interwar Romania,” in Nation and National Ideology: Past, Present and Prospects (Bucharest: The Center for the
History of the Imaginary and New Europe College, 2001), 111.
37
For the main study on samanatorism see Z. Ornea, Samanatorismul (Bucuresti: Minerva, 1971). For an overview
of the trend see Keith Hitchins, Rumania, 1866- 1947, 67-71.
18
peasantry, however, the samanatorists aimed to help the rural world not trough social and
economic projects but through a moral and cultural revolution. As Keith Hitchins pointed out,
proponents of this trend “believed that the peasant did not so much lack land as ‘light’” 38 .
Under Iorga, in charge of the newspaper since 1904, concern with the peasantry took
the form of its glorification. Like previous critics of what they considered to be Romania’s
hasty modernization, Iorga was an adept of organic evolution 39 . In Iorga’s view change can
only be slow and gradual, without disrupting structures which took centuries to take shape.
Moreover, change should not overcome tradition, which should retain a leading role in spite of
the necessary transformations a country like Romania must undergo. Iorga saw the peasant and
the rural world as the unspoiled embodiments of this tradition. Even the peasantry however,
was doomed to change in a modernizing world. While idealizing the village, Iorga could not
help but recognize that it will eventually be taken over by the town 40 . His concern was to
ensure that in these conditions the peasant will preserve its purity and moral values. His
samanatorism thus amounted to both the emulation of the traditional values personified in the
peasantry and its protection from the alienating influence of the outside world. Its idealism and
lack of practical focus prevented samanatorism from proving enduring as a trend. By 1910 it
was already no longer relevant, being replaced by more pragmatic agrarian currents like
poporanism. Iorga’s outlook, on the other hand, can be said to remain a samanatorist one for
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the rest of his life. Consequently, the League’s program itself can be interpreted to a certain
extent as a vehicle for the prolongation of samanatorism at a time when the trend itself was no
longer appealing.
38
Hitchins, 67.
39
See Chapter 2 for a more detailed analysis of Iorga’s organicism and its sources.
40
Hitchins, 71.
19
As such, when becoming secretary of the League, Iorga understandably focused the
organization’s activity also on the rural world. Members of the League were likely to include
those close to the rural world, who could help educate the peasants, “awaken” them to the
national cause and at the same time preserve the traditional character of the village. For
disseminating its program, the League relied especially on the so-called “intellectuality of the
villages”, namely teachers and priests. Before the war the League’s brochures used to include
appeals to teachers and priests to join the cause of the League 41 . In this they were moderately
successful. Reports from 1910 and 1912 record many cases of teachers from rural areas joining
the League 42 . The fact that the League was often willing to help their schools financially or
through book donations undoubtedly constituted an incentive in poor and remote rural areas.
Nevertheless, as letters from members attest, the League’s propaganda for Romanian abroad
occasionally also struck a sensitive chord 43 . Feelings of genuine patriotism thus went hand in
hand with pragmatic concerns. In any case, this worked in the League’s benefit, as teachers
were the most likely to fulfill one of the League’s main desiderata, namely the founding of
sections of the League in the villages 44 .
Higher echelons of the educational establishment proved less responsive. If initially the
League benefited from the allegiance of well-known university professors, their contribution,
like the activity of the League itself, declined after the turn of the century. After 1906, when re-
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established under Iorga’s leadership, the League failed to attract members of the academia to
the same extent. Most likely Iorga’s own position in the academic world attracted few
41
Pentru Congresul Ligii Culturale 1910 (Valenii de Munte: Tipografia Neamul Romanesc, 1910), Pentru
Congresul din Constanta al Ligii Culturale. Rapoarte si informatii publicate de Comitetul Central. (Valenii de
Munte: Tipografia Societatii “Neamul Romanesc”, 1912).
42
Ibid.
43
Pentru Congresul Ligii Culturale 1910.
44
Ibid, 14.
20
sympathies. While university professor since 1893 at the age of twenty-four, his rapid
ascension triggered envies and suspicions and he was denied entrance in the Romanian
Academy until 1811. Neither was Iorga an amiable personality. The dictatorial and egocentric
outlook isolated him from most of his colleagues 45 . His organization’s appeal therefore found
little support among fellow professors. Sections in other university towns like Iasi complained
that professors seldom attend the League’s meeting and conferences 46 .
The priesthood was a more compliant category. In this case, apart from the allegiance of
the lower ranks, the League enjoyed the support of the higher hierarchy. The League’s
brochures featured letters of support from metropolitan bishops or other high representatives of
the Church 47 . Apart from stimulating the priesthood to join the League, the leaders sometimes
also contributed financially. For its part, the League did its best to strengthen this connection. It
organized conferences on religious subjects, made important figures of the Church honorary
members and occasionally invited them to preside over the congresses of the League, like was
the case in 1922 and 1924 48 . The alliance with the Church enhanced the League’s credibility
especially in the rural world but at the same time added to its traditionalist character. Other
categories symbolically associated with traditionalism and morality constituted target audiences
of the League. This was the case of army members, to which the League issued similar calls. 49 .
While never reaching the numbers of teachers and priests, officers and army employees
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remained a constant source of members for the League.
45
Nicholas Nagy-Talavera, Nicolae Iorga: A Biography, 134.
46
Pentru Congresul din Constanta al Ligii Culturale. Rapoarte si informatii publicate de Comitetul Central.
(Valenii de Munte: Tipografia Societatii “Neamul Romanesc”, 1912), 106.
47
Pentru Congresul Ligii Culturale 1910, 31.
48
Arhivele Nationale Istorice Centrale (ANIC) Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.
5/1919-1925, 21.
49
Pentru Congresul Ligii Culturale 1910 , 23.
21
Students constituted a target group with a different history. While one of the most active
groups at the League’s founding in 1891, their presence declined constantly throughout the
years. The League, nevertheless, never gave up the hope of incorporating them. In the early
1900s, the plan was for every section to found an additional student sub-section 50 . While the
initiative failed in most cases, at the time some section could still claim substantial participation
of the students at their meetings 51 . After the war, however, students became almost a lost cause.
Iorga, whose impact over students at the turn of the century has been impressive 52 , no longer
exerted the same influence. In a desperate move, the League requested the Ministry of Public
Instruction in 1923 to ask all students to join the League 53 . While the request remained
unanswered, even if accepted it would have meant an abdication from the League’s principles,
which was essentially a voluntary organization. The fact that the League turned to such extreme
measures only testifies to the decline and confusion experienced after the war. Almost a decade
later, the League would try again to lure students, if in a less aggressive way, with similar
results. 54 While the League was never altogether repulsive to the youth and its members always
included students, it never gained the mass adherence it hoped for.
At the very time the League failed to penetrate the students, other social groups were
more permeable. The League’s registries from 1929 and 1930, recording all requests to join the
Bucharest section of the League, suggest that the majority of aspirants were clerks, artisans and
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militaries and workers 55 . The presence of the latter owed to the League’s increased emphasis
50
Ibid., 20.
51
Ibid., 67.
52
Nicholas Nagy-Talavera, Nicolae Iorga: A Biography, 149.
53
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no. 5/1919-1925, 44.
54
See chapter 3 for an examination of the conferences designed especially for students and their impact.
55
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.25/ 1929-1930.
22
on the communist threat and its propaganda in factories 56 . The League was popular also among
housewives and pensioners, who represented significant segments of its supporters 57 . Later on
in the interwar period the League seemed to have penetrated the liberal professions as well. The
registries from 1942-1945, the last years when the League functioned, even if only in theory,
listed almost only doctors, lawyers and engineers 58 .
That aside, the League’s stronghold was for most of its existence the rural world and the
lower middle classes from urban centers. From the beginning the focus of the League’s
propaganda has been the province and the rural areas and village teachers and priests have
proved the League’s most truthful agents. While samanatorism was long extinct and attempts at
neo-samanatorist revivals proved futile 59 , the League continued its legacy throughout the
interwar period. The establishment and maintenance of such an organization was not, however,
without challenges.
2. The Beginnings: Establishing the Organization
In 1891, when it was founded, the League had 591 members and was restricted to
Bucharest 60 . According to Marinescu and Netea, the authors of the only available monograph
on the League’s prewar history, a year later the League had 21 local sections. By 1913 the
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number would raise to 102, with over 20000 active members 61 . While the data is questionable,
especially since not all the sections were actually active and not all registered members
56
Ibid., File no. 49/1931-1935, 88.
57
Ibid., File no.25/ 1929-1930.
58
Ibid., File no. 76/ 1942-1945.
59
Z. Ornea, Traditionalism si modernitate in deceniul al treilea (Bucuresti: Editura Eminescu, 1980), 216.
60
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no. 2/ 1981.
61
Gh, Marinescu and Vasile Netea, “Liga Culturala” si unirea Transilvaniei cu Romania (Iasi: Junimea, 1978),
130.
23
participated in its activities, the fact remained that the League experienced a rapid ascension.
This, however, proved more difficult than the above mentioned authors’ emphasis on the
appeal of the League’s patriotic message would suggest.
At its inception, the League did not break new ground in what nationalist activity was
concerned. Other societies, especially in the territories outside the Old Kingdom were long
active. Societies like Astra, Carpatii (The Carpathians) or Transilvania enjoyed a long
tradition. The League’s merit was to attempt to channel the interest of the Romanians inside for
the fate of their “brothers” abroad. Once Iorga was entrusted with its leadership, the League
contemplated more ambitious goals. If not very explicitly, the League in fact aimed to become
an umbrella organization for channeling cultural projects. As such, it often flirted, even in the
interwar period, with the idea of the federalization of all cultural associations under its
leadership 62 . While this was never accomplished, the League endeavored and to a considerable
extent succeeded in creating a country-wide network of sections.
In this they often competed with other associations which, without aspiring to a network
or a visibility similar to the League’s, nevertheless were strongly anchored in their local
communities and refused to allow other organizations to take the stage. Reports from local
sections record competition with societies based in the towns. In one case, in Sinaia in 1910
the League’s program was contested, the rival local society advocating the primacy of
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economic nationalism over the cultural one 63 . In the same year in Mehedinti, the local cultural
society boycotted the meetings of the League 64 .
62
63
64
Ibid., 64.
24
In the first decades most sections struggled with logistical difficulties. The goal of most
of them was to acquire their own headquarters, many sections meeting in locations they could
not actually afford or whose rent took up all their incomes. Most sections failed to collect all
subscriptions dues and some deliberately abstained from doing so out of fear of losing their
members. Consequently sections used to appear and disappear overnight and an assessment of
the League’s real network is therefore difficult.
More than anything else, the League had to confront the prevailing apathy of the
population. Report after report complains about the stagnation and lack of interest of the public.
The brochure of the 1912 congress includes relevant examples of this kind. The Campina
branch reported that “things go slowly, since people cannot rise above the material and
understand the importance of the sacrifice for our ideal” 65 . The League’s members in Caracal
claimed they would “have accomplished more if [they] didn’t meet the indifference of the
public” 66 . In Constanta, the indifference was blamed on the “cosmopolitan character of the
town”, which made “the great majority of the Romanian elements, engaged in petty struggles,
to look down on the League and regard it at best with indifference” 67 . Finally, the League in
Turnu-Magurele denounced “the condemnable indifference shown by our public for idealistic
enterprises and especially for the national cause”68

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65
Pentru Congresul din Constanta al Ligii Culturale. Rapoarte si informatii publicate de Comitetul Central, 33.
66
Ibid., 35.
67
Ibid., 40.
68
Ibid., 101.
25
3. Sustaining the Network after the War
After the war the challenges faced by the League multiplied. Once the political goal of
the unification was achieved, the League’s program understandably lost much of its appeal.
While the League’s leadership acquiesced to this reality, it nevertheless sought new ways to
reach its audience. The League consequently established more ambitious goals for penetrating
the rural world. By 1924 the goal was for each urban section to establish ten rural
subsections 69 . While the number was unrealistic, many rural branches were set up.
Throughout the interwar period many sections were thus established. While each year
new sections were founded, many were ephemeral. The lifespan of some sections did not even
reach one year. Like before the war, often sections disintegrated only to be reestablished a
couple of years later. While the official number of sections increased almost every year, in
practice many no longer answered the convocations of the central committee and most likely
existed on paper alone. For example the brochure of League’s congress from 1928 lists 96
sections but mentions that 36 are inactive 70 . A year later the ratio of active to inactive sections
is 111 to 35. In 1930 as many as 54 sections out of 116 were no longer active 71 . In 1931 the
ratio changed again to 53 out of 128 72 .
During the Depression the membership understandably declined. While it is difficult to
assess the League’s total membership, the registries of the Bucharest section provide an
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eloquent sample of the decline in membership (see Table 1).
69
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no. 5/ 1919-1925, 58.
70
Ibid., File no.30/1929, 97.
71
Ibid., File no. 39/ 1930, 14.
72
Congresul Ligii Culturale: tinut la Focsani in zilele de duminica, 13 si luni, 14 septembrie 1931, dari de seama
si rapoarte. (Valenii de Munte: Datina Romaneasca, 1931).
26
Year Members
1930 1300
1931 655
1932 594
1933 Not available
1934 350
Table 1: Membership of the Bucharest section of the League 73
Numbers alone, however, can be misleading. While the table suggests a sharp decline in
membership from 1930 to 1931, in fact in that period almost 800 members were erased from
the lists because of failure to pay the annual contribution 74 . In 1934, in a desperate attempt to
reverse the downturn, the League would approach the former members with the promise of
erasing their debt if they agree to rejoin and pay only the subscription for the current year 75 .
What this figures fail to reveal, however, is that even in these troubled years people continued
to join the League, even if in small numbers.
Following the Depression, the League seem to have recovered, if not numerically, then
at least financially. The brochures of the congresses from the second half of the 1930s no
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longer contain lists of the sections, or reports of individual sections specifying the number of
their members. However, from the general reports which emphasize the activity of the most
productive urban and rural sections it can be reasonably speculated that the League’s network
73
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no. 49/1931-1935.
74
Ibid., 26.
75
Ibid., 128.
27
remained relatively stable even if all sections were probably inevitably affected by a decline in
membership. The lack of information concerning membership is compensated by reports of the
League’s financial situation. In 1938 general M.C. Schina, the League’s administrator claimed
that the League has never been more thriving 76 . What he had in mind was not the League’s
activity, which indeed apparently intensified in the second half of the decade, but its finances.
For the first time since the end of the war, the League was not only no longer in debt but
enjoyed a surplus in its budget. The story of the League’s financial odyssey is relevant not only
for the history of the League, but also for an understanding of the challenges faced by cultural
nationalism itself
4. Financing Cultural Nationalism
“Without money, nothing can be done” 77 . The statement, dating from 1933 and coming
from Ilie Ardelean, the secretary of the Bucharest section of the League, reflects one of the
main difficulties faced by the League throughout the years. The League’s most stable source of
financing, the subscription fees, did not cover the expenses required by the League’s activities.
The fees were not only small, many members benefiting from discounts, but also seldom
collected in their entirety. In fact, as the overview of the League’s history suggested, in periods
of decline, like during the Depression, the fees were often cancelled completely in order to
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retain members.
In the absence of substantial revenue from inside, the League turned to various other
means to supplement its income. Fundraising balls and lotteries were among the most frequent.
76
Congresul Ligii Culturale: tinut la Botosani in zilele de 29 si 30 iunie 1938, dari de seama si rapoarte (Valenii
de Munte: Datina Romaneasca, 1938), 14.
77
28
At times, the League’s calendar included advertisements to support the costs of its publication.
Apart from these, however, the League depended on loans and subventions. This was the case
especially after the war, when the League’s savings were taken to Moscow and never
recovered 78 . While the League hoped the National Bank would compensate for the loss, the
plan never came to fruition. As such, the League turned to various banks in search for loans. In
1920 the League obtained a loan from Marmorosch Bank, followed by others from Banca
Urbana (The Urban Bank) and Casa de Depozite (The Deposits House) 79 .
All the funds went into the building of the League’s Palace, one of Iorga’s main
ambition but an unrealistic project for a financially-challenged society like the League’s. The
scale of the Palace (today the Bulandra Theater in Bucharest), whose building took almost
twenty years, was a disproportionate headquarters for a society which lost much of its visibility
in the interwar period. For Iorga, however, this was a goal beyond questioning. Like nineteenth
century nationalists who relished in the building of national museums and state operas, Iorga
dreamt of the palace as not only the League’s house, but the “house of the Romanian people
and the Romanian culture” 80 . More pragmatically, the construction once began, the Palace was
supposed to sustain itself and even become a source of income for the League. Indeed as soon
as parts of the building were finalized they were rented to the Romanian Railways Company.
The long-term contract allowed the League first to repay parts of its loans and then to earn an
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additional revenue 81 .
State subventions sustained the League in times of financial distress. While Chapter 3
will address the question of the relationship between the League and the State in more detail,
78
79
Ibid., 13.
80
Nicolae Iorga, O viata de om asa cum a fost (Bucuresti: Minerva, 1981), vol. 3, 55.
81
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.39/1930.
29
suffices to say that the authorities saved the League in critical moments either through
donations, by reimbursement or by taking up the League’s loans. Apart from official
subventions, Iorga’s political connections ensured other kinds of sponsorship. As such, in 1922
the banker Aristide Blank, later prominent member of king Carol II’s camarilla 82 , main
shareholder of the Popular Theater, donated his shares to the League, which was thus able to
retain control over the theater 83 . However, this kind of support from private individuals with a
clear political agenda undermined the credibility of the League. At a time when the League
claimed to be above party politics and against the financial oligarchy, this kind of association
made its discourse seem hypocritical. As a survival tactic, however, it proved effective. The
1938 claims concerning the League’s prosperity were not just empty propaganda. By that year,
the League was not only no longer in debt but its budget actually recorded a significant
surplus 84 . Given the idealistic cultural nationalism embraced by the League this was indeed
remarkable.
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82
Hitchins, Rumania 1866-1947, 386.
83
84
Congresul Ligii Culturale: tinut la Botosani in zilele de 29 si 30 iunie 1938, dari de seama si rapoarte, 18-19.
30
Chapter III: Programmatic Cultural Nationalism
1. Mystical Organicism: Culture and Nation
The League’s projects and activities derived from a self-styled program of “cultural
nationalism”, which individualized the League and separated it from both the state and other
nationalist movements. Springing from Iorga’s thought, the League’s programmatic cultural
nationalism had its roots in the historian’s peculiar understanding of the relation between
culture and nation. Originating in the conservative canon inaugurated in Romania by the
Junimea cultural and political group, Iorga’s discourse would retain the latter’s emphasis on
organic development while acquiring an increasingly nationalistic and populist bent 85 .
The original Junimist perspective, which took coherent form in Titu Maiorescu’s theory
of “forms without substance”, emphasized the dangers of the indiscriminate and untimely
adoption of Western institutions and behaviors in a society which was far from reaching
Western standards 86 . The theory, however, was more ambiguous than subsequent conservatives
would have it. Undoubtedly Maiorescu understood the “forms” to refer to the liberal
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institutions whose inauguration he considered premature, as well as to the Western mores and
fashions to which the Romanian intelligentsia got accustomed abroad and continued to practice
at home.
85
Ioan Stanomir, Spiritul conservator de la Barbu Catargiu la Nicolae Iorga (Bucuresti: Curtea Veche, 2008),
113.
86
Titu Maiorescu, “O cercetare critica asupra poeziei romane de la 1867,” in Titu Maiorescu, Opere I (Bucuresti:
Editura Minerva, 1978), 26.
31
It is, however, less clear what he understood by “substance”. While Western
historiography interpreted this as referring to the “innate” character of the Romanian people 87 ,
this assumption is questionable. Whereas Maiorescu himself noted with regret that the
Romanian society is no longer in a tabula rasa condition that would allow its molding
according to predetermined principles 88 , Z. Ornea, the exegete of Junimea, insightfully notes
that Junimea nevertheless constructed its theory as if this was still true and Romania was in an
original state allowing social experiments 89 . In effect, it can be argued that Maiorescu warned
against the imposition of Western forms in the absence of any substance. He expressly argued
that the first manifestations of modern Romanian culture started as late as 1860, thus
repudiating any previous achievements of the nation 90 .
Iorga’s outlook could hardly have been more different. In this his model was not
Maiorescu, with whom he was temperamentally opposed, but Mihai Eminescu, the poet
associated with Junimea but never a mainstream Junimist because of his nationalistic
excesses 91 . While appropriating the discourse against “forms without substance”, Iorga, like
Eminescu, had no doubts as to where this substance was to be found. For Iorga the answer was
the nation, progressing through ages and mystically embodied in its culture.
Nations, in Iorga’s view, were organic, just like individuals. Iorga’s organic outlook,
however, went beyond that of most nationalists. According to him, nations were “divine,
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mysterious formations, which cannot be harmed” 92 . A mystical concept of the nation and its
87
Roumen Daskalov, “Ideas about, and Reactions to, Modernization in the Balkans.” Eastern European Quarterly
31:2 (1997),164.
88
Titu Maiorescu, “Observari polemice,” in Titu Maiorescu, Opere I, 141.
89
Zigu Ornea, Junimea si Junimismul (Bucuresti: Eminescu, 1978), 204.
90
Titu Maiorescu, “O cercetare critica asupra poeziei romane de la 1867,” in Titu Maiorescu, Opere I, 26.
91
Stanomir, 113.
92
Nicolae Iorga, Ce dureaza: conferinta la Liga Culturala din Brasov octombrie 1939 (Valenii de Munte, 1940),
9.
32
destiny made Iorga argue that a “supernatural power” governs the existence of nations, which
do not have to be “ready or right” in order to fulfill their goals. Instead, circumstances,
controlled by the mystical power, work in their service 93 . The condition, however, is for
nations to fight for their greatness. In this sense, Iorga did not blame the Hungarians, whose
quest to ensure the “glory and strength” of their nation was just as legitimate as any other 94 .
Later on, in mid 1930s, he would still claim, this type referring to the Jews, that he harbors “no
hatred against any nation”, each nations having the right to develop organically 95 .
For Iorga the reservoir of the nation’s strength was its culture, which in its own turn was
shaped and depended on language, the first and foremost expression of a nation’s spirituality.
According to Iorga, language was “the highest and most complete embodiment of a nation’s
soul” 96 . Language, seen as inexorably linked with nationality, was also a living organism,
transformed through generations, bearing the mark of the past but also the potential for change
in the present 97 . For Iorga language was not a simple tool for communication but was
inseparable from the ideas it expressed.
Like the nationalism described by Anthony D. Smith, Iorga’s also had the “cult of
authenticity” 98 . For Iorga, the authentic Romanian culture was the traditional one, embedded in
the peasant world. The samanatorist trend postulated that literary works are valuable to the
extent to which they reflect the realities of the rural world. While most literary critics regard
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93
Nicolae Iorga, Cultura nationala si politica nationala (Valenii de Munte: Tipografia Neamul Romanesc, 1908),
9.
94
Ibid.
95
Congresul Ligii Culturale tinut la Iasi in zilele de 27, 28 si 29 iunie 1937. Dari de seama si rapoarte (Valenii
96
Nicolae Iorga, Lupta pentru limba romaneasca (Bucuresti: Minerva, institute de arte grafice si editura, 1906), 16
97
Ibid, 17
98
A.D. Smith, Myths and Memories of the Nation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 67.
33
literary samanatorism as an aesthetic failure 99 its message was influential for a time and
faithfully reflects Iorga’s beliefs.
While the traditional, rural and patriarchal culture was paramount for Iorga, he was
nevertheless not altogether adverse to change. In this sense, Iorga’s discourse was at times
controversial. While arguing that each Romanian can contribute to the national culture which
was also bore the imprint of successive generations 100 , Iorga would alternatively also insist that
Romanian culture has achieved a definite form, no longer necessitating change or alteration.101
As William Oldson pointed out, Iorga’s understanding of culture was teleological 102 .
Through culture, people should rediscover their roots. Time and again Iorga emphasized that
the past is the nation’s only “fortune” 103 . In turn, this rediscovery itself would lead to the
further development of culture. In addition, only by being familiar with their own culture
Romanians can understand and appreciate other cultures. For Iorga, mutual comprehension
between cultures is conditioned by each nation being in constant contact with its own 104 .
Knowledge of the national culture, understood as a mystical force in itself, was the
prerequisite for the creation of “national solidarity”, also an important concept in Iorga’s
thinking. According to Iorga, when a culture achieves a certain stage in its evolution it gives
way to an instinctual type of moral cohesion, understood as “national solidarity”. The latter
manifests itself by putting the interests of the nation above any other and by disregarding social
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differences and political affiliations 105 . The degree to which a nation can achieve this kind of
99
Z. Ornea, Samanatorismul, 278.
100
Nicolae Iorga, “Conditiile adevaratei culturi” Neamul romanesc, July 17, 1937.
101
Congresul Ligii Culturale tinut la Iasi in zilele de 27, 28 si 29 iunie 1937. Dari de seama si rapoarte, 4.
102
Oldson, 62.
103
Nicolae Iorga, Pe ce se poate sprijini un popor (Valenii de Munte: Tipografia Soc. Neamul Romanesc, 1910),
13.
104
Ibid.
105
Nicolae Iorga, “Solidaritatea nationala”, Neamul romanesc, January 26, 1935.
34
national solidarity has ramifications in the political field. According to Iorga, there can be no
difference between “national culture” and “national politics” 106 . The state itself is organic,
emerging from the “national life” of the people and reflecting its characteristics 107 .
Consequently, it is efficient as long as the organic link between the state and the nation,
represented primarily by the peasantry, remains intact. Different phases in the development of
the national culture can demand different political actions. As such, Iorga argued in the first
decade of the century that the emancipation of the peasants was demanded by the stage
achieved by the national culture itself 108 .
2. Cultural Nationalism and Morality
Characteristic of the League and of cultural nationalism more generally, is also a
constant concern with morality. Springing from Iorga’s samanatorist convictions, the
preoccupation with ensuring standards of decency in the Romanian public space remains a
regular objective of the League. In part, concern for morality is a natural continuation of the
League’s interpretation of cultural unification and the means to achieve it. From its inception,
the League perceived itself as the institution around which the Romanian nation, divided by
borders between provinces and by political and social differences within the Old Kingdom,
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should coagulate. Amid divested interests and prevailing apathy, the League set to build a new
sense of national solidarity. In this, morality came paramount. As Hutchinson had emphasized,
106
Nicolae Iorga, Cultura nationala si politica nationala, 8.
107
Nicolae Iorga, “Ideile abstracte si statul organic”, Neamul romanesc, April 3, 1935.
108
Nicolae Iorga, “Avem nevoie de o organizatie sanatoasa, de o natiune unita, de o natiune multumita..” in
Nicolae Iorga, Discursuri parlamentare 1907-1917 (Bucuresti: Editura politica, 1981), 297.
35
cultural nationalists saw themselves as “moral innovators” 109 . Their work was supposed to
regenerate a community in disarray. In the League’s case, the disarray became especially
obvious in the first decade after the war. At the League’s congress in 1928, Iorga deplored the
“the lack of a moral bond that would link the different provinces and the different social
classes” 110 .
Apart from its idealistic perception, the League acted as a guardian of morality in a
pragmatic sense as well. Its alliance with village priests and teachers made this possible.
Among the many subjects covered by the League’s conferences, in 1912 one dealt particularly
with the question of concubinage and the means to prevent it 111 . More often than not, however,
the League’s interest in morality affected not the private lives of the citizens but the League’s
main field, culture. In the latter, the League’s initiatives were at best questionable. Iorga’s
literary taste was notoriously conservative. In his subordination of literature to the national
cause, and the indiscriminate glorification of the peasant and the nation, Iorga promoted
obscure writers and denigrated valuable ones. The main targets of his criticism were
modernism and symbolism, perceived as decadent. Understandably, Iorga thus made flagrant
errors of judgment, discarding artists and writers that would become part of the canon. For
example, for over two decades Iorga directed his criticism against Tudor Arghezi, today and at
the time an acknowledged poet, but to Iorga the incarnation of moral abjection and
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pornography 112 . Other prominent figures like Brancusi or Tristan Tzara were the subject of
109
Hutchinson, 30.
110
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.30/1928, 87.
111
112
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreapta romaneaca. (Bucuresti: Est, 2008), 520-527.
36
unrelenting scorn 113 . On the other hand, Iorga’s concern with morality also underpinned his
condemnation of the “unhealthy mysticism” 114 prevalent in the 1930s in the writings and
teachings of “gandirists” and “trairists”. While the supporter of traditional, Christian culture
himself, Iorga rose against the “orthodoxism” prevalent at the time, which identified the
essence of the Romanian soul in the Orthodox religion. In reaction to Nichifor Crainic, founder
of the journal Gandirea and the main advocate of “orthodoxism”, Iorga denounced the
“orthodox mysticism” as not only unrepresentative for the Romanian nation, but as an imported
idea itself, originating in philosophical circles in Germany and Austria 115 . Undoubtedly,
however, while reticent to this kind of extremes, Iorga’s cultural nationalism remained
essentially conservative. In this sense, there is a significant variation from the model advanced
by Hutchinson which assumed that cultural nationalism is generally an attempt to reconcile
traditionalism and modernism 116 . While not questioning the validity of the model itself, this
case suggests that additional factors, like the overwhelming influence of a leader, which in the
League’s case determined its essentially traditionalist outlook, can influence significantly the
character of a particular cultural nationalism.
The League thus imitated Iorga’s idiosyncrasies with consistency and perseverance. As
time passed by, however, its voice in the matter, just like Iorga’s, became increasingly
anachronistic. In the interwar period the days of samanatorism were long over and its echoes
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seemed out of place. Paradoxically, at the same time, the League’s demands became more and
more radical and unrealistic. The 1928 congress of the League witnessed the traditional rally
113
Nicolae Iorga, Lupta mea contra prostiei: conferinta la Liga Culturala (Valenii de Munte: Datina Romaneasca,
1936)
114
115
Z. Ornea, Traditionalism si modernitate in deceniul al treilea , 557.
116
Hutchinson, 33.
37
against pornographic literature and its corrupting effect on the youth 117 . An internal memo of
the Bucharest section, however, reveals more drastic plans. Dated March 7, 1934, the memo
reiterates the League’s commitment to the fight against modernism and pornographic literature,
also stating the League’s ambition to become a “kind of ministry for these ideas and
struggles” 118 .
This time, however, instead of vague commitments, the memo allows for a more precise
understanding of the way the League intended to implement its goals. As such, the League
planned to form teams of referents, fluent in a couple of languages, which would check books
proposed for translation in Romanian for moral inadequacies. In addition, the League would
organize “intervention teams” which would supervise publishers and booksellers. Following
the uncovering of purveyors of immoral works, lawyers appointed by the League would then
sue the culprits. Finally, other teams would ask the assistance of the Police in burning the
decadent books. Intense propaganda would complement these practical actions 119 . By 1937,
the League tempered its zeal, this time announcing at its annual congress its intention to
establish its own bookstores, where only “healthy” literature was supposed to be sold 120 . The
1934 memo, however, remains revealing of how far some of the members were willing to go in
achieving this purging of the Romanian cultural space. Designed by a local section, at a time
when Iorga’s interests rested primarily in politics, it is uncertain whether the plan would have
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met his approval. Undoubtedly, however, the origins of the League’s censorious agenda lie in
his views.
117
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no. 30/1928.
118
Ibid., , File no.49/ 1929-1935, 136.
119
Ibid., 138.
120
38
3. Cultural Nationalism and the State
The League’s interest in safeguarding standards of morality also sprang from its distrust
in the ability of the State to accomplish the task. The same was true for more crucial problems
affecting the life of the nation:
“Who should address, in Romania, the national question? The society?

But the society does not exist yet, outside the State. In normal
circumstances, the society creates, controls, corrects the State. In our
case it does not work this way. The State does not represent the society
but replaces it; does not serve it, but dominates it, destroying it
spiritually” 121
Iorga’s statement, dating from 1913, seems to confirm the conclusion reached by Hutchinson in
his study on cultural nationalism in Ireland according to which the relationship between
cultural nationalism and the state is necessarily adversarial 122 . Accordingly, cultural
nationalism emerges in times when the state undergoes through periodical crises. Alternatively,
once reconsolidated, the state takes up the attributions of cultural nationalism. Practice,
however, like in the case of the Cultural League, reveals a relationship a lot more ambiguous
than this model allows. While often tense, the relationship between the League and the
Romanian state would be more accurately described as one of complementarity. More often
than not the activities of the League complemented the official projects of the authorities,
whether in terms of culture or national propaganda.

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Understandably the League’s, and especially Iorga’s, rhetoric, would seldom admit this.
Even before the war the League envisaged its actions as not only different, but also
qualitatively better than the state’s. Speaking at the 1914 commemoration of the 1848
121
Nicolae Iorga, Doua apeluri catre rominii din Regat si cuvantarea tinuta la intrunirea Ligei Culturale de la 9
iunie 1913 (Valenii de Munte, Tipografia Soc. “Neamul Romanesc”, 1913), 26, my translation.
122
Hutchinson, 43.
39
revolution, Iorga contrasted the commemoration organized by the League with the sterile ones
directed from above:
“I think we have enough commemorations which come from the state,

from the officialdom and I don’t see why we would add, to the state’s
and the authorities’ celebrations, another one that would fail to change
anything in anyone’s soul and fail to stimulate people to put all their
resources in the service of the country” 123
Apparently, in contrast with the artificial, strictly formal official celebrations, the ones
promoted by the League had the merit of really connecting the present with the past and thus
achieving a spiritual re-awakening of the people 124 .
In Iorga’s view, however, and in tune with a prevailing discourse of the time, the state
was guilty of a lot more than failure to instill feelings of national solidarity. After the war,
following the philosopher Constantin Radulescu-Motru, who first coined the term 125 , Iorga
accused the state of “politicianism” or the practice of politics for the sake of politics.
Accordingly, the state was corrupt, dominated by either the old oligarchy or the newly rich.
Party interests and the “rotten bureaucracy” consequently suffocated any project. Even if
initiated, the frequent changes of ministers and the high turnover of offices prevented their
completion 126 . All these prevented the state from becoming the “great predicator and patron of
moral order” 127 which the League envisioned.
In its more moderate moments, however, the League saw itself as accomplishing a task
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which the state, given the many social and political challenges of the interwar period, was yet
123
Nicolae Iorga, La comemorarea zilei de 3 Maiu 1848 (Bucuresti: Editura Ligei Culturale, 1914), 8, my
translation.
124
Ibid., 9-10.
125
Constantin Radulescu-Motru, Cultura romana si politicianismul (Bucuresti: Libraria Socec, 1904).
126
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.30/1928, Congresul Ligii Culturale
tinut la Targoviste in zilele de duminica 3 si luni 4 iunie 1928. Dari de seama si rapoarte (Bucuresti, 1928), 6.
127
Nicolae Iorga, “Liga Culturala, ce a fost, ce este, la ce foloseste” in Nicolae Iorga, Sfaturi pe intunerec:
conferinte la radio (Bucuresti: Minerva, 1996), 65.
40
unable to undertake. In 1928 Iorga complained that the “new unified Romanian state does not
rest on a unified culture” 128 . As the state, sunk in corruption and bureaucratic practices, is
unable to achieve it, the conclusion was that “only free associations can undertake this beautiful
but difficult task” 129 . Only a year later, however, Iorga would play down his previous
radicalism. This time, the League was supposed only to supplant the state temporarily, until the
latter would be capable to achieve the desired cultural unity. Talking about cultural projects in
front of the League’s members, Iorga claimed that “the state will take care of these when it will
be able to do so financially; until then it is our duty” 130 . Iorga’s attitude was hardly constant. A
year later still, he argued that the state could only fulfill its role by limiting itself to
administration, national defense and primary education. Otherwise, municipalities should be in
charge of higher levels of education and private associations like the League should be in
charge of actions pertaining to the cultural sphere 131 .
Iorga’s inconsistencies derived from the fact that the League, despite its reticence to
admit it, depended financially on the state. Iorga’s own discourse in this respect is highly
contradictory. Even in the same speech, following his boasting that the League had performed
its activity without subventions, Iorga complains about the “the difficultly squeezed mercy” of
the State 132 . The fact was that, while self-sustaining to a considerable degree, the League
benefited from important subventions in key moments of its activity. Examples of such
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instances are many. In 1924 the League received from the Bucharest town hall the donation of
128
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.30/1928, Congresul Ligii Culturale
tinut la Targoviste in zilele de duminica 3 si luni 4 iunie 1928. Dari de seama si rapoarte (Bucuresti, 1928), 5.
129
Ibid.
130
131
Ibid., File no.39/1930, 6.
132
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.35/1929, 130
41
the site where the future palace of the League would be built 133 . Subventions obtained from
various ministries contributed to the building itself 134 . More importantly, in 1937 the Ministry
of Finances took over the payments for two important loans, contracted by the League at Casa
de Depuneri (The Deposits House) and Societatea Creditul Urban (The Urban Credit
Society) 135 . Equally relevant was the cooperation with the state in lobbying for the national
cause. In 1921, the League requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be entrusted with
“written Romanian propaganda” abroad and stated its willingness to contribute in any way 136 .
A year later the League received a subvention for publishing and distributing a brochure in
French which would refute “tendentious allegations” against Romania 137 .
The League’s collaboration with other state-owned institutions was no less fruitful. For
most of the 1930s the League repaid its loans by renting parts of its palace to the Romanian
Railways 138 . The latter, since 1921, granted a fifty percent discount for the League’s members
when traveling at its congresses 139 . Also since 1921 the League was exempted from paying
postal taxes 140 . Apart from administrative arrangements, the League, in spite of Iorga’s
rhetoric, was not reticent to seek the collaboration of the authorities for its own cultural
initiatives or to participate in state-sponsored ones. Consequently, the League had a long
relationship with Casa scoalelor (The Schools’ House). Accordingly, the League selected the
books offered as prizes for students at the end of the school year and was afterwards
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133
Ibid., File no.5/1919-1925, 55.
134
Ibid., , File no.35/1929, 130.
135
136
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.5/1919-1925, 20.
137
Ibid., 42
138
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.39/1930, 90
139
Ibid., File no.5/1919-1925, 43.
140
Ibid., 32.
42
remunerated from the state budget 141 . Moreover, despite the League’s condemnation of official
celebrations, it occasionally took part in organizing them together with state institutions 142 .
The League’s relationship with the state cannot be dissociated from Iorga’s own
political affiliations. Following Iorga’s fluctuating relationship with the political establishment,
the League’s attitude was either critical or supportive. At times when his own short-lived party
proved to be a failure, Iorga vehemently denounced the “politicianism” and corruption of those
in power. Alternatively, when his pupil Carol II returned to the throne and established his
personal dictatorship, the League was officially entrusted with printing and disseminating the
brochure of the new constitution 143 .
The relation between the League and the state was therefore ambiguous and
undoubtedly considerably closer than the League would have liked to acknowledge. The
League certainly longed for complete independence from the state. Claiming to be above
politics, it resented interference with the authorities and the party interests they represented.
Nevertheless, the League would not have survived without the financial support of the state.
Moreover, its actions seldom came in opposition to official ones. More often, they amounted to
a parallel sphere, which complemented the projects of the state 144 .
Iorga’s own ambitions and involvement on the political scene can question the validity
of the Cultural League as a case study of the relationship between cultural nationalism and the
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state. Nevertheless, cultural nationalism can seldom be completely dissociated from politics
and the fact that its proponents often also play political roles confirms this. Except for isolated
141
Ibid., 61.
142
See chapter 3 for the example of the Aviation Day in 1928.
143
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.66/ 1938, 41-48.
144
See the case of the summer courses at Valenii de Munte, designed as an alternative to formal education,
discussed in chapter 3.
43
cases, however, the performance of cultural nationalists while in office is generally
unimpressive. The advocates of cultural nationalism focus disproportionately on culture and
come poorly equipped for party politics. Their cultural nationalism, however, even if at times in
opposition to the state, can hardly endure without it. More likely, in practice associations
endorsing a program of cultural nationalism coexist along the state and complement its activity.
4. The League and the National Question
Especially before the war but also afterwards the main venue for the League to complement the
state was to address the national question. The League’s national goals mirrored Iorga’s
understanding of cultural nationalism. In the integrative mode which Hutchinson defined as
characteristic of cultural nationalism in general, the League protested against social, political or
religious divisions permeating the society 145 . The national question should stand above class
differences, political allegiances or religious distinctions. Back in 1910, referring to the
Transylvanian Romanians’ division in the Orthodox and Uniate (Greek-Catholic) confessions,
the League deplored

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“the hideous and destructive enmity springing from the religious

accident of separating the Romanians across the mountain in two
confessions, which have the right to compete in the Romanian cultural
field, but not to antagonize in the benefit of foreigners.” 146
145
Hutchinson, 30.
146
Pentru Congresul Ligii Culturale 1910 (Valenii de Munte: Tipografia Neamul Romanesc, 1910), 18, my
translation.
44
Prior to the war, dissensions amplified the danger of denationalization which jeopardized the
Romanians from outside the Old Kingdom 147 . At the time, the League’s projects naturally
focused on Romanians abroad and especially Transylvania. For Iorga and the League, there
was no question about which region should receive priority. In Iorga’s words, Transylvania was
the “right hand” which, once freed, would help acquire the other regions:
“One thing I can tell you for sure: with Bessarabia, lagging behind,
overwhelmed by foreigners, we will not accomplish the takeover of
Transylvania, but with a free Transylvania we will be able to fulfill our
historical mission in its entirety” 148
Throughout the first decade of the century the League militated more or less explicitly in favor
of Transylvania’s unification with Romania. While claiming to endorse Romania’s neutrality at
the beginning of the war, since, in the League’s view, the nation should rally behind the Crown
in times of crises 149 , the League nevertheless continued to lobby in favor of entering the war
and succeeded in influencing the foreign policy of the state 150 .
In the interwar period, the integrative character of the League’s program was
reconfigured to include the Romanians from the new provinces and the minorities. In 1928 the
League’s slogan advocated “cultural unity between Romanians, cultural cooperation with
minorities, cultural collaboration with neighboring countries” 151 . The following chapter will
address in more detail the specific projects designed to promote mutual awareness and
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tolerance between the new categories of Romanian citizens. However, at the very time when
147
Politica Ligei Culturale. Bucuresti 14 Decembrie 1914. Raportul secretarului general. (Bucuresti: Tipografia
Romaneasca, 1914), 4.
148
Intrunirea Ligei culturale tinute la Bucuresti in ziua de 15 februarie 1915 (Valenii de Munte: Atelierele
Tipografiei “Neamul romanesc”, 1915), 35, my translation.
149
Politica Ligei Culturale, 17.
150
Marinescu and Netea, 263.
151
45
the League designed courses and conferences encouraging solidarity, the danger of
denationalization resurfaced as one of its chief concerns.
In the 1930s, following the general radicalization of discourse in Romania, the League
did not remain immune to the xenophobic tendencies ravaging the public sphere. Iorga’s, and
implicitly the League’s, discourse on minorities have always been ambivalent. Before the war,
denunciations of foreigners within the Old Kingdom appeared sporadically in the League’s
reports, especially in those from towns in Moldova where the proportion of Jewish Population
was high 152 . After the war, however, the League’s official discourse changed radically.
According to Iorga,
“We, the Romanians, are no longer alone in our country. A fate we must
understand and welcome with pleasure and humanity had given us
people of different languages and cultures as neighbors and fellow
citizens.” 153
The nationalities Iorga had in mind were the Hungarians and the Transylvanian Szeklers, who
should be appreciated for and emulated in their contribution to universal culture 154 . The
Szeklers in particular ranked highly in Iorga’s view, who considered them hard-working,
cultivated and intelligent. In spite of this however, by the end of the 1930s Iorga found reasons
of displeasure with them, as he did with minorities in general. While acknowledging that the
Romanian administration had often been inept, Iorga accused the minorities of revisionist
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plans. This was the case with the Szeklers who, Iorga claimed, approached him after the war in
152
Pentru Congresul Ligii Culturale 1910, 98, Pentru Congresul din Constanta al Ligii Culturale. Rapoarte si
informatii publicate de Comitetul Central. (Valenii de Munte: Tipografia Societatii “Neamul Romanesc”, 1912),
57.
153
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.30/1928, 88. My translation.
154
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no. 35/1929, 129.
46
order to “introduce them in the Romanian consciousness” but by mid 1930s retreated in their
“Transylvanian fortress” where they plotted against the Romanian state 155 .
Hungarians were suspected of doing the same, in their case, Iorga hypocritically
asserting that Romania has been “very tolerant, very noble, very just and very merciful” 156 . His
constant reassuring of the desire for understanding and good relations went hand in hand with
anti-revisionist propaganda against Hungarians agitating for the changing of borders 157 . Two
decades after the war the League exhibited the same ‘besieged fortress’ complex. In the
members’ view, the League was in competition with the schools of the minorities, which
“mocked” the Romanian nation 158 . In spite of the League’s integrative discourse, minorities
were still a danger, rather than a potential ally:
“The others are few, but richer and more cultivated […] the others don’t
come to Bucharest but stay at home and strengthen their position, unlike
Romanians, who led astray by party interests, abdicate from their first
duty.” 159
Fear of denationalization remained a central concern of the League in the interwar period.
Especially in the 1930s, the League warned constantly against the danger of denationalization
in the predominantly Szekler counties as well as in Bukovina, where the Romanian population
was in danger of being “Ukrainianized” 160 . Similar fears were expressed concerning
Bessarabia and the 1937 congress demanded the “reromanization” of towns in Moldova 161 .
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The underlying problem behind this hysteria was the Jewish question. Resurfacing
periodically throughout the history of modern Romania, the problem became particularly acute
155
Ibid., File no. 34/1933, 30.
156
Ibid., 28.
157
158
Ibid.
159
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File 34/1929, 30 my translation.
160
161
Ibid, 6.
47
in the 1930s when violent anti-Semitic demonstrations took place in university towns. While
officially condemning the violence 162 , Iorga’s attitude was nevertheless ambivalent. Iorga was
definitely an anti-Semite, although the claim that he “was one of the fathers of Romanian anti-
Semitism in the twentieth century” may be exaggerated 163 . More likely he belonged to a
tradition of anti-Semitism which affected Romanian intellectuals of the nineteenth and early
twentieth century 164 . In most cases, however, like in Iorga’s, anti-Semitism did not exclude the
possibility of dialogue with the Jews. Iorga’s own anti-Semitism went through phases of
varying intensity, being most virulent at the turn of the century, temperate at the beginning of
the interwar period, and vehement again in the 1930s 165 .
For Iorga, the problem was that Jews were inassimilable and therefore could not
constitute a “national” minority. In more pragmatic terms, his concern was with Jewish
domination of the economic life of Moldovan towns. Consequently, from 1934 the League
would abandon its strictly cultural initiatives and embark on a project to “re-romanianize”
Romanian commerce. Since then on, the League would neglect its cultural projects in the
benefit of propaganda in favor of Romanian merchants 166 . Iorga’s slogan, “We amongst
ourselves, for ourselves” expressed the new autarchic credo of the League 167 . As the League’s
case suggests, in cases of real or perceived danger for the nation, cultural nationalism can cease
to remain strictly cultural and emerges in new forms, in this case economic nationalism. Most
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likely, its imprecise and idealistic goals allow it to take on an amphibian character.
162
Ibid.
163
Radu Ioanid, “Nicolae Iorga and Fascism” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 27, No. 3. (Jul., 1992), 472.
164
See William Oldson. A Providential Anti-Semitism: Nationalism and Polity in Nineteenth Century Romania
(Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1991) and Leon Volovici, National Ideology and Anti-Semitism:
The Case of Romanian Intellectuals in the 1930s (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1991).
165
Oldson, The Historical and Nationalistic Thought of Nicolae Iorga, 85.
166
Congresul Ligii Culturale: tinut la Botosani in zilele de 29 si 30 iunie 1938, dari de seama si rapoarte. (Valenii
de Munte: Datina Romaneasca, 1938), 6-10.
167
Ioanid, 477.
48
5. Further Challenges: Old Romanians and New Romanians in
Greater Romania
Minorities alone did not constitute the single challenge faced by the League in the
interwar period. The end of the war and the creation of Greater Romania translated in the
fulfillment of the League’s goals only apparently. While the political unification had been
achieved, there was still a long way to the cultural cohesion and national solidarity the League
aspired to. In spite of its occasionally idealistic rhetoric, and in spite of declining membership
once the goal of political union has been achieved 168 , the League saw this clearly. In the 1930s,
its standard forms for requests for joining the League read:
“Although God has found us worthy to see the fulfillment of Romanianism’s

greatest dream, Greater Romania, the accomplishment of our cultural unity still
requires our unrelenting effort” 169 .
The obstacle to cultural unity was the difficult integration not only of minorities, but
also of Romanians from the new provinces, into Greater Romania. Decades of propaganda in
favor of Romanians in Austria-Hungary, of financial support and collaboration with Romanian
leaders from across the border and of trips to the “unfree” regions did not quite prepare the
League, or the public in the Old Kingdom at large, for the challenges of integrating the
Romanians from the new provinces in Greater Romania.

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The state took up the challenge in a forceful and determinate way engaging in an
170
aggressive campaign of cultural unification . In her study of cultural politics in Greater
Romania, Irina Livezeanu has examined the educational policies implemented by the Romanian
168
169
Ibid., File no. 25/ 1929-1930. My translation.
170
See Livezeanu, Cultural Politics in Greater Romania: Regionalism, Nation-Building and Ethnic Struggle.
49
state with the explicit goal of leveling regional differences and creating a unified national
culture. The state’s “cultural offensive”, led by teachers but backed up by the army,
encountered resistance not only among minorities but also among Romanians from the new
provinces whose traditions were disregarded. More importantly, and one of the crucial insights
of Livezeanu’s book, the modernizing polices of the state in the educational field, coupled with
inadequate resources and ethnic competition, led to a radicalization of the student body and
implicitly to the rise of the extreme right.
From the League’s perspective, the state handled a very delicate problem with
carelessness and short-sightedness. Its alienating policies had worsened already existing
tensions by spreading “hatred” and “animosity” 171 . In a speech from the League’s 1933
congress, Iorga advised the authorities to handle the Romanians from the new regions, and
especially Transylvania, tactfully and without “offending” them 172 . Otherwise, in case they
disregard the Transylvanians’ own political traditions, the central authorities could produce a
long-lasting and profound schism. Iorga’s phrasing is revealing in this sense:
“Here in the old Romania, it is not good if some mess around. But if they want
to, they can do it. But in Transylvania, in Bukovina, in Bessarabia, nobody
should be allowed to mess around” 173
Of course, Iorga’s counsel came late. At the time, the Transylvanians’ autonomous institutions
were long abolished and centralization was well under way. In the mediating tradition of
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cultural nationalism, however, Iorga reproached not only the Romanian state, but the Romanian
leaders from the provinces as well. In a transparent allusion to Iuliu Maniu, leader of the
Romanian National Party from Transylvania, Iorga argued that while the desire of
171
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no. 34/ 1929, Calendarul Ligii Culturale
1933 (Bucuresti: Editura Ligii Culturale, 1933), 33.
172
Ibid., 32.
173
Ibid. my translation.
50
Transylvanian leaders to dominate the political life of Romania is legitimate, their priority
should be the governing of their own provinces 174 . Personal dislikes aside, Iorga’s speech did
touch upon a valid point. Reiterating a recurrent theme, Iorga complained about the mutual
ignorance which characterized relations between the Old Kingdom and the provinces 175 . At
least in this the League had a right to speak. Iorga himself, through extended travel and
research, and the majority of the League’s members were more familiar with the lives of the
Romanians outside the Old Kingdom than most Romanians were. Precisely familiarity with the
new provinces made them wary of the danger of regional identities 176 . For cultural nationalists
like the members of the League, regional identities, even without the threat of separatism, and
even when embodied in benign appellations like “Transylvanians” of “Bessarabians”, were
jeopardizing the goal of national cohesion 177 . Instead of emphasizing differences, interwar
Romanians had to be reminded constantly of what they had in common. For its own part, the
League contributed to this by organizing celebrations, conferences and cultural projects aimed
at bolstering the feeble sense of solidarity.

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174
Ibid.
175
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor,File 30/1928, Congresul Ligii Culturale tinut la
Targoviste in zilele de duminica 3 si luni 4 iunie 1928. Dari de seama si rapoarte (Bucuresti, 1928), 6.
176
ANIC Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor,File 35/1929, Congresul Ligii Culturale tinut la
Cluj in zilele de sambata 22 si duminica 23 iunie 1929. Dari de seama si rapoarte (Bucuresti, 1929), 5.
177
Ibid.
51
Chapter IV: Practices of Cultural Nationalism
“The dead are dead only for those who forget them.
Anything can be taken from us except the past.” 178
1. In Honor of the Past
a. Celebrations
“The contact with the past is a national necessity” 179 . When making this assertion at the
League’s congress in 1933, Iorga was in fact confessing his life’s creed. The key to national
development, to the achievement of solidarity and cohesion, of the spiritual union which was
the very purpose of cultural nationalism, was not only didactic knowledge of the nation’s past,
but the very materialization of that past in the eyes and minds of the contemporaries. As
Anthony D. Smith had argued about the nationalist intelligentsia, their concern for history was
never “a disinterested enquiry into the past ‘as it really was’” 180 . Instead, the goal was to
“breathe life into it, to create a truly living past” 181 .
For Iorga and other cultural nationalists there was no better way to stay in touch with
the past than by celebrating it. Commemorations, festivals, monuments and exhibitions
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celebrating the nation’s achievements and its heroes have been the League’s hallmark since its
inception. The League inaugurated this tradition by organizing a flamboyant celebration in
1904 at the Putna Monastery, in Bukovina, celebrating four hundred years since the death of
178
Nicolae Iorga, Pe ce se poate sprijini un popor, 13.
179
ANIC, Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.34/1929, 31.
180
Anthony D. Smith The Ethnic Origins of Nations, 180.
181
Ibid.
52
the legendary Moldovan ruler Stephen the Great 182 . While the tradition of celebrations held at
Putna started in 1871 183 , subsequent events failed to materialize until the League took the
initiative in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Instruction 184 .
The League’s politics of commemorations was essentially twofold. As such, the League
would celebrate either famous leaders or other revolutionary figures, or important dates, usually
connected with the unification of the Romanian lands. Under Iorga’s direction, the League
established a genuine cult for medieval rulers. Apart from Stephen the Great, the favorite was
Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave), the author of the mythical “union” of 1600 between
Walachia, Moldova and Transylvania, later to become the patron of the League 185 . A
significant figure of the national pantheon 186 , Michael the Brave was of special relevance to
Iorga. Accordingly, Michael the Brave’s “union” was not only the starting point in the
development of the idea of the political union of the Romanians, but also the initial stage in the
evolution of a “superior Romanian culture” 187 .
Even in times of financial distress, like in the beginning of the 1930s, the
commemorations of Michael the Brave, as well as that of January 24, the date of the 1859
union of Moldova and Walachia , were the only ones the League was certain to keep. But the
League did a lot more than annual celebrations. It published brochures, issued commemorative
medals and organized pilgrimages to his grave 188 . Like other committed nationalists, the
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members of the League were fascinated with what Patrice Dabrowski, in his study of
182
Curticapeanu, 159.
183
Teodor Balan. Serbarea de la Putna: 1871 (Cernauti: Tipografia Mitropolitului Silvestru, 1932).
184
Marinescu and Netea , 206.
185
186
Lucian Boia, History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness (Budapest: Central University Press, 2001), 192.
187
Nicolae Iorga, “Constiinta nationala romaneasca de la Mihai Viteazul pana astazi”, in Nicolae Iorga, Conferinte
(Bucuresti: Minerva, 1987), 179.
188
53
commemorations in Poland, called “eloquent ashes” 189 , tangible evidence of the nation’s
greatness. The contact with the past was not only spiritual, but, if possible, physical. As such, in
1919 the League organized the transport of Michael’s ashes, “his honored head” 190 , from Iasi to
the Dealu Monastery, where the League planned to erect a proper mausoleum191 .
The League, however, did not limit itself to festivities dedicated to Michael the Brave.
Especially in its more active phases, other figures, sometimes even obscure ones, were
celebrated. Before the war, the idea was for each local section to have its own patron, who
would thus provide the section with its “specific heroic meaning” 192 . While this desideratum
was seldom achieved, especially due to the fast pace at which some sections used to disappear
and then re-emerge, the League’s pantheon was nevertheless comprehensive. In 1920 the
League organized an exhibition in Bucharest commemorating one hundred years since the birth
of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the one responsible for the 1859 union 193 . A year later, the League
would organize an array of manifestations in Targu Jiu, to commemorate one hundred years
since the death of Tudor Vladimirescu, leader of the 1821 revolt. The League would hold its
annual congress at the same date, publish a brochure, open a museum and a public library,
unveil commemorative plaques and organize contests of Tudor’s portrait 194 . In 1924 similar
activities were undertaken in honor of Horea, Closca and Crisan, initiators of a revolt in
Transylvania one hundred and fifty years before 195 . In all years the League would organize
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189
Patrice M. Dabrowski, Commemorations and the Shaping of Modern Poland (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 2004), 77.
190
Pentru Congresul Ligii Culturale 1910, 13
191
192
193
Ibid., 15
194
Ibid., 19, 20, 22.
195
ANIC, Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no 49/1931-1936, 167.
54
pilgrimages to the graves of various medieval rulers, as well as commemorations of the
revolution of 1848 196 .
The League’s favorites were, nevertheless, the commemorations of the unification of
the Romanian provinces. As such January 24 and December 1, the date of the union with
Transylvania in 1918, were celebrated with religious devotion. In the spirit of the union,
celebrations were often organized in collaboration with other cultural associations. The League
traditionally collaborated with the Transylvanian societies Astra and Carpatii (The
Carpathians). The cooperation continued into the interwar period, the societies often
organizing the December 1 celebrations together 197 . As the state was slow to take up the
celebration of December 1 in the first years after the war, the commemorations organized by
private associations were the only ones taking place and where thus of particular
significance 198 . Usually the program for the celebration of major events such as these was
decided by the Central Committee in Bucharest and then communicated to the local sections,
whose duty was to organize them the best they could. Otherwise, in the cherished “spirit of
decentralization” 199 , sections were encouraged to organize their own celebrations dates, with
programs as they saw fit.
Celebrations ensured the League’s visibility. Major ones were advertised in newspapers
and managed to gather large crowds. Apart from serving the League’s programmatic goals,
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they were also a source of financing. During the building of the League’s palace, which lasted
for almost two decades, celebrations were often accompanied by lotteries. While only
196
197
Ibid., 114.
198
Maria Bucur, “Birth of a Nation: Commemoration of December 1, 1918, and National Identity in Twentieth-
Century Romania” in Staging the Past: The Politics of Commemoration in Habsburg Central Europe, 1848 to the
Present, edited by Maria Bucur and Nancy Wingfield (West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2001), 27.
199
55
occasionally amounting to a significant sum 200 , the selling of lottery tickets was nevertheless a
constant source of revenue.
In the rural areas, where celebrations seemed to have been the most successful, they
also served as means of recruitment 201 . At times urban sections would organize celebrations in
villages precisely with the purpose of setting up a rural section there 202 . Like always in the case
of the Cultural League, the support of the village priest and teacher proved crucial. The
intensity of the local section’s activity varied greatly. Some would boast the organization of
weekly festivals and gatherings (“sezatori”) 203 . Others would limit themselves to the
celebration of January 24. Before the war, larger local sections would generally organize every
year an average of ten such celebrations and gatherings including conferences, folk dances and
music performances 204 .
As John R. Gillis pointed out about nineteenth-century commemorations, “they were
largely for, but not of, the people. Fallen kings and martyred revolutionary leaders were
remembered, generals had their memorials, but ordinary participants in war and revolution
were consigned to oblivion” 205 . Even after the war the League’s celebrations could largely fit
this description. In terms of themes of celebration, there was in fact a remarkable continuity
between its prewar and interwar activity. Aside from the date of the unification with
Transylvania itself, the League incorporated surprisingly few symbols of the First World War
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in its plethora of important dates and people. On one hand, later on in the interwar period this
became the domain of the state. On the other, they most likely belonged to a history too recent
200
Pentru Congresul din Constanta al Ligii Culturale. Rapoarte si informatii publicate de Comitetul Central, 6-8.
201
Ibid., 35-36; Pentru Congresul Ligii Culturale 1910, 41.
202
Ibid., 44.
203
Pentru Congresul din Constanta al Ligii Culturale. Rapoarte si informatii publicate de Comitetul Central, 26.
204
Ibid., 70.
205
John R. Gillis, Commemorations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 9.
56
to be easily incorporated in the League’s pantheon. While the union itself was of recent date, it
was precisely the long history of the goal which made it so important.
The exception was the Aviation Day of 1928, probably one of the most grandiose
celebrations organized by the League in the interwar period. Benefiting from the support of
various ministries, including those of Instruction, Internal Affairs and Cults, as well as of other
cultural associations, the League practically mobilized the entire country. The program of the
day included conferences in all towns, speeches in all villages, lectures in factories and schools
and theater and cinema performances in all towns in the benefit of the army 206 .
Otherwise, the League’s celebrations remained conservative. In the interwar period the
League occupied a niche of traditionalist discourse. The cultural nationalism advocated by the
League proved largely refractory to change. This was most likely a consequence of Iorga’s
understanding of national culture, which he thought was permanent, requiring no modification
or innovation 207 . Moreover, times of change and instability required an even more solid
anchoring in the past. Constant return to traditional myths and figures was thus welcome.
b. Conferences
This conclusion can also apply to the League’s other main instrument of education and
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propaganda, the conferences. Like in the case of celebrations, the thematic of the conferences
shows surprisingly little variation between the prewar and interwar period. Predictably, the
League’s prewar conferences had a patriotic and nationalistic tone. Romanian history and
culture were favorite subjects, although, in tune with the samanatorist tradition, the peasantry
206
ANIC, Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.30/1928, 6, 20, 26.
207
57
also enjoyed ample coverage. While the conferences in Bucharest were designed for an
educated audience, featuring more elaborate subjects pertaining to history and culture, the ones
in small towns and villages were tailored to the listeners’ interests, including, in addition to the
historical-nationalist program, conferences dealing with religion, health, agriculture or law 208 .
Whereas the number of lecturers was few, leading some sections to complain about their
inability to organize more conferences in their absence 209 , in the years before the war the
League, like most nationalist movements in Eastern Europe, benefited from the unfailing
enthusiasm of historians 210 . In the League’s case, Vasile Parvan was the absolute champion in
touring the country, followed by A.D. Xenopol and Iorga himself 211 .
After the war the League’s conferences proceeded along the same lines. The registries
of the Bucharest section between 1931 and 1936 provide a telling sample of the frequency and
the content of the conferences in the interwar period. In 1934 and 1935 the League was largely
inactive because it lacked a conference room, its own being rented to the Romanian Railways
and the rent being used to repay the League’s loans. Nevertheless, between January 1931 and
April 1936 the League organized eighty conferences. Out of these, thirty were on Romanian
history and twenty on Romanian culture, including literature, linguistics and folkloric
traditions. Twelve dealt with various questions related to social sciences (psychology,
pedagogy, sociology), six treated religious matters, six addressed the sciences, and five dealt
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with various other issues 212 .
208
209
210
See Dennis Deletant and Harry Hanak, Historians as nation-builders : central and southeast Europe (London :
Macmillan, 1988).
211
Marinescu and Netea, 220.
212
ANIC, Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.49/ 1931-1936, 78, 117, 156, 169, 172,
189.
58
As can be seen, history remained paramount in the League’s concerns. Moreover, the
choice of themes was reminiscent of the League’s prewar interests and typical of its obsessions.
No less than ten conferences discussed the unification of the Romanian lands and the national
movements that preceded it. Key dates in Romanian history, as well as in the League’s calendar
of celebrations, were subject of more than one conference. For example four conferences, in
different years and by different lecturers, were dedicated to January 24. The 1918 union, as
well as the history of the newly incorporated provinces, were also recurring subjects. Favorite
figures of the League, like Michael the Brave, also appeared more than once. Unfortunately the
memos record nothing about the audience, in case the conferences proceeded as planned.
However, there were cases, if few, when conferences were cancelled because of too few people
attending 213 . The traditionalist character of the conferences, together with the general decline of
the League at the time, undoubtedly contributed to this.
At the beginning of the 1930s, even if in obvious regress, the League, in an
uncharacteristically innovative move, tried to attract a social group previously reticent to its
appeal: the students. In Bucharest it did so by inaugurating a series of lectures especially for
high-school students, entitled Conversatii Amicale (Amicable Conversations). The initiative
failed miserably. Only nine lectures were held in 1931 and 1932 before the plan was eventually
abandoned. Often the lectures were cancelled because too few students attended 214 . Even when
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held, the conferences could at best gather forty people215 . The League ostensibly made an effort
to adjust its program to the interests of the youth. None of the usual historical patriotic subjects
213
Ibid., 8, 58, 90, 116.
214
Ibid., 79, 158.
215
Ibid., 55.
59
typical of the League were present in this series. Instead, the conferences featured subjects like
“Darwinism”, “Questions in sociology”, or “The personality”.
The League’s attempt at readjustment, however, was both insufficient and tardy. The
youth was long accustomed with more appealing and up-to-date conferences. The League’s
initiative unluckily coincided with the series of conferences inaugurated by the Criterion group
led by Petru Comarnescu. In 1932 Criterion mesmerized the youth with conferences on Freud,
Gandhi, Lenin, Mussolini, Chaplin, Proust, Gide, Picasso and Stravinski 216 . Understandably the
public was more attracted by the lectures of the “new generation” rather than to the dusty
sermons of the League. Moreover, except for Iorga, who had long lost the influence it had over
students in the first decade of the century, the League lacked magnetic speakers. It was thus
beyond its ability to compete with the charismatic orators like Nae Ionescu whose influence
over students, at least between 1928 and 1933, was overwhelming 217 .
c. Publications and Other Initiatives
Aside from conferences, the League’s most regular way of popularizing its cause
consisted in publications. Before the war these publications were naturally designed for
consumption in the provinces outside the Old Kingdom. The League took pride in the way its
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messengers deceived the vigilance of the customs officers and smuggled patriotic brochures
across the border. The story of Iorga’s “History of the Romanians”, circulated under the title
“Guide for potato cultivation”, is well-known 218 . The League distributed 10000 copies of the
216
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreapta romaneaca. (Bucuresti: Est, 2008), 181.
217
Ibid., 262.
218
Curticapeanu, 221.
60
latter in the provinces and 1000 copies of “Faptele stramosilor” (“The Ancestors’ Deeds) for
propaganda abroad 219 . Similar stratagems were undertaken for the distribution of Iorga’s
newspaper, Neamul romanesc, and for the League’s calendar, important vehicles for rallying
the masses in support of the national cause especially in Transylvania. The calendar in
particular was designed as a “repertoire of Romanian life abroad”220 . Other actions also
focused on popularizing the Romanian cause in Transylvania. The League for example
organized protests when scandals involving Romanians broke out in Austria-Hungary 221 .
Before the war the League urged its sections to subscribe to Romanian language newspapers
from the “unfree” provinces and thus contribute to their survival. As such, by the time of the
1912 congress, most sections were subscribed to at least one journal from every province 222 .
After the war the League’s activity inevitably declined. For most of the interwar period
the League’s funds were committed to the building of the palace. Still, the League still
managed to publish at least its calendar in most years 223 . In 1921 the League sold 20000 copies
of the calendar and experimented with its own bookstore and printing house, as well as with its
own book series, entitled “Cartea buna” (“The Good Book”) which started with a republication
of Eminescu’s works 224 . While the project proved ephemeral, the League however, continued
to sell or donate books and brochures available in its deposit. Understandably many of them
were written by Iorga and treated historical subjects. In addition, the League offered patriotic
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postcards and paintings of famous Romanians.
219
220
Pentru Congresul din Constanta al Ligii Culturale. Rapoarte si informatii publicate de Comitetul Central, 5
221
Ibid.
222
Ibid.
223
ANIC, Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor , File nr.39/1930.
224
Ibid., File no. 5/ 1919-1925, 32.
61
Emerging naturally from the League’s concern with the dissemination of patriotic works
was its propaganda for libraries and museums. In 1920 the League set to found “civic” and
regional museums at its local branches225 . By 1929 all rural sections had their own libraries and
in 1933 the central library of the League in Bucharest had its official opening 226 . In the same
spirit of supporting education, the League, both before and after the war provided prizes for
students, offered scholarships to students from the new provinces coming to the University of
Bucharest or subsidized the university’s residence halls 227 . In addition, it sponsored schools in
the new provinces, most often with donations in books but also financially. As expected, the
League received considerably more requests for help than it could honor and many appeals
remained without response 228 . At a time when the state did not yet take up the charge to equip
rural schools, its contribution was nevertheless significant.
2. Staging Cultural Nationalism: Theatre, Music, Folk Dances
Important as they were in the League’s program, the mobilizing potential of
celebrations, conferences and publications was nevertheless limited. Regardless of their
frequency, celebrations remained occasional events. Conferences, on the other hand, depended
on the availability of the lecturers and the interests of the audience. The League’s leadership
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was aware that patriotic declamations alone would not create the national solidarity that it
aspired to. What were needed were grass-roots activities which would keep the communities
engaged throughout the year. The League thus looked with envy at the nationalist credentials of
225
Ibid., 17.
226
Ibid., File no.49/ 1931-1935, 109.
227
Ibid., 160.
228
Ibid., File no. 5/ 1919-1925, 62.
62
gymnastic associations like the Czech Sokol and the Bulgarian Iacut and urged local sections to
emulate their example 229 . While gymnastics clubs never really took off, the League
compensated with theater troupes, choirs and folk dances ensembles.
The League’s affiliation with theater had a long history. Before the war the central
committee recommended sections to create amateur troupes which would give representations
with historical and patriotic themes 230 . Since 1919 the League became an associate of the
Popular Theater in Bucharest. The relation was initially fraught with conflict. While the terms
were favorable for the League, the troupe performing under the League’s aegis but without any
financial support from it, by 1922 Iorga was unsatisfied with the leadership and the repertoire
of the theater and severed the ties 231 . In the same year, however, the banker Aristide Blank,
main shareholder of the theater, donated his shares to the League 232 . With the help of
subventions from various ministries the League consequently became the official owner of the
theater. Under the League’s direction the Popular Theater would continue to function until the
League’s demise. While under financial pressures in the years following its acquisition, by
1928 the theater became profitable 233 .
The theater served the League’s propagandistic purposes but above all its educational
ones. In Iorga’s view, theater was not a form of entertainment, but a “school of civic
education” 234 . From the beginning the target audience of the theater was not necessarily the
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educated audience of Bucharest, where the troupe would compete with many other fashionable
theaters, but the population of the countryside, which the theater would tour every year. The
229
230
Ibid.
231
ANIC, Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no. 5/1919-1925. 35.
232
Ibid, 40.
233
ANIC, Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no. 30/1928, 90.
234
Ibid., File no. 49/1931-1936, 150.
63
repertoire, meant to be a “sanctuary of light for the people” 235 would thus include works of
moral and national character.
Undoubtedly, Iorga’s own ambitions as playwright influenced the important role played
by theater in the League’s propaganda 236 . However, Iorga’s plays, although omnipresent, did
not monopolize the repertoire. Instead, the latter featured classical authors which in Iorga’s
view could instill the moral and civic virtues advocated by his cultural nationalism. Thus,
Greek authors, Corneille or Racine were especially recommended. In practice, however, light
comedies were often preferred 237 . Not only were they more appealing to the masses, but they
constituted a “healthy” form of distraction in contrast with what Iorga’s traditionalist outlook
perceived as the depraved fashions of the time. In its propagandistic zeal, the League proved
unusually receptive to modern technology and in 1922 incorporated ARCA, The Romanian
society for cinema and film production 238 . In the twenties and thirties conferences were often
accompanied by projections and cinema was seen as a promising tool for propaganda.
Theater and cinema, however, were not the only way to bring the nation together. The
brochure of the 1910 congress stated that “the role played by choirs in the life of Romanians
abroad is well-known. The harmony of sounds is the surest way to achieve the harmony of
souls” 239 . They were not the only ones to reach this conclusion. Nationalist movements across
Eastern Europe were known to have turned folk music into a vehicle for nationalism. While
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some scholars restrict this development to the nineteenth century 240 , most would argue in favor
235
Ibid., 151.
236
Pamfil Seicaru, Nicolae Iorga (Bucuresti: Clio, 1991), 125.
237
ANIC, Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no. 49/1931-1936, 177.
238
Ibid., File no. 5/ 1919-1925, 33.
239
Pentru Congresul Ligii Culturale 1910 , 6.
240
In a classic study, Carl Dahlhaus argued that “Nationalistic music, it seems, invariably emerges as an
expression of a politically motivated need, which tends to appear when the national independence is being sought,
64
of the nationalist character of folk music way into the twentieth century. Accordingly, “by the
turn of the twentieth century national song and the music of nationalism were ubiquitous
phenomena throughout Europe” inaugurating an era in which music was to take a decisively
national character 241 .
The League was quick to pick up on the mobilizing potential of music. Apart from
organizing music performances at celebrations, the sections were encouraged to have their own
choirs. In 1938 the choir of the Bucharest section, counting seventy members, received the
support of the General Direction for National Propaganda to undertake a tour abroad with a
repertoire of Romanian folk music 242 . Closely related to this initiative was the project of folk
dances ensembles. Like in the case of the theater, folk dances performances initially ran a
deficit but soon became profitable 243 . Even more than the choirs, the folk dances
representations served the League’s objective of preserving and popularizing manifestations of
the national culture. The interest for folk dances came as the natural continuation of another
project, serving also Iorga’s agenda of integrating women in the national cause, of collecting
national costumes and national sewing patterns244 . In the case of the latter Iorga’s passion as a
historian and a collector seemed to have superseded his nationalist fears. While resenting
regionalism to the extent to which he considered appellations like “Transylvanian” or
“Moldovan” dangerous 245 , Iorga appreciated regional diversity when it came to national
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costumes and made an effort for their preservation. Theater, choral representations and folk
denied, or jeopardized, rather than attained or consolidated”. Carl Dahlhaus, Nineteenth-Century Music (Berkeley :
University of California Press, 1989), 38.
241
Phillip. V. Bohlman, The Music of European Nationalism (Santa Barbara, CA : ABC-CLIO, 2004), 58.
242
ANIC, Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no. 66/1938.
243
ANIC, Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.49/ 1931-1936, 93.
244
Ibid., 80.
245
File 35/1929, Congresul Ligii Culturale tinut la Cluj in zilele de sambata 22 si duminica 23 iunie 1929. Dari
de seama si rapoarte (Bucuresti, 1929), 5.
65
dances were more discreet ways in which the League popularized its cause. While not as
ostentatious as the celebrations or as ideological as the conferences, artistic representations
reminded the public of the League’s mission on a regular basis.
3. Alternative Education: The Summer Courses at Valenii de Munte
Among the League’s many educational and propagandistic projects, no other reached
the fame and the amplitude of the summer courses organized by Iorga at Valenii de Munte.
While not an initiative of the League per se, the society would become closely associated, and
even identified with it. From the beginning, the courses were the perfect embodiment of Iorga’s
idea cultural nationalism. Far from being a traditional school, the one month courses were
supposed to instill feelings of national solidarity and to boost spiritual growth. Their goal was
the “rectification of the Romanian mentality”, so that Romanians would “wash themselves of
lack of self-confidence, of despair and of humility towards foreigners” 246 . Iorga took pride in
the fact that interest in the Romanian culture and the national cause alone animated both
lecturers and audience. The school provided no gratifications for professors and no diplomas
for students. Both categories had to cover their own expenses 247 . Only disinterested passion for
knowledge and for national communion would thus drive the participants.
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In part the origins of this ideal of alternative education sprang from Iorga’s repulsion
towards state education. He himself a graduate of the University of Bucharest at the age of
nineteen, Iorga deeply resented his formal education, which he considered dehumanizing 248 .
The courses at Valenii de Munte would thus constitute an alternative to “the infamous abstract,
246
Neamul romanesc, August 27, 1910.
247
Barbu Theodorescu, Nicolae Iorga , 218.
248
Nicolae Iorga, O viata de om asa cum a fost, vol.1, 90.
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standardizing school, the same for every place, every people, every character”249 . Instead of
mechanical lecturing and memorizing, the courses would provide an environment where
students and professors would learn from each other. Also, instead of the “amalgam of subjects
which is the misfortune of educational institutions of all times” 250 , the courses would focus on
essential cultural questions, aiming at a “vulgarization” of encyclopedic knowledge 251 . Iorga’s
traditionalist outlook blended with this ideal. The location itself, a small town in Walachia, was
not very remote but also not easily accessible. As visitors later remembered, it was a bucolic
place, where time seemed to have stopped “a hundred years ago”252 . For Iorga this was an
“absolutely patriarchal” place of untainted by modernization, the ideal repository of the
traditional way of life and of authentic Romanian culture 253 .
The courses started in 1908, under Iorga’s direction but in response to an earlier
proposal from the Bukovinan teacher and journalist Gheorghe Tofan who suggested the idea of
specially designated courses for Romanians from outside the Old Kingdom 254 . After an
unspectacular beginning, with only six lectures and few attendants in 1908, the courses
gradually gained in popularity, reaching their prewar climax in 1912 255 , with a large audience,
mainly Transylvanians, and twenty-seven lectures, some delivered by important personalities of
the Romanian academic world, like the historians Vasile Parvan, Constantin Moisil and A.D.
Xenopol, the economist Virgil Madgearu, the philologists Vasile Bogrea and Simion
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Mandrescu and the politician A.C. Cuza. In the meantime, after initially competing with
249
Nicolae Iorga, “Asezamintele mele” Boabe de grau 1930 (8), 64.
250
Iorga quoted in Isabela Sadoveanu, “Valenii de Munte: Centru de cultura nationala” in Boabe de grau 1930 (8),
278.
251
Theodorescu, 213.
252
Sadoveanu, 272.
253
Nicolae Iorga, O viata de om asa cum a fost, vol.2, 204.
254
Theodorescu, 211.
255
Curticapeanu, 226.
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courses for teachers organized by the authorities in Iasi 256 , Iorga’s summer courses gained
official support from the Ministry of Instruction. The subvention, granted in 1911, served for
acquiring the school’s own site, previously the courses taking place in rented locations 257 .
Interrupted during the war and a couple of years later, the courses would restart in 1921,
this time featuring also foreign lecturers as well as representatives of the minorities who would
lecture on their national cultures. Part of the audience would consist of minorities (see Table 1),
for whom special Romanian language courses were organized. In 1922 the courses officially
changed their name into the “Popular University Nicolae Iorga”. By 1924 almost a hundred
lecturers would come at Valenii, most of them from the Universities of Bucharest, Cluj, Iasi
and Chisinau.
Year Romanians Minorities
1921 200 40
1922 420 90
1923 380 60
1924 390 60
1925 380 70
1926 375 55
1927 390 50
1928 385 65
1929 350 68
Table 2: Participants at the summer courses between 1921 and 1929 by ethnicity 258
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In time Iorga would add other institutions to the summer courses. In 1922 Iorga
established the “The Queen Mary School of Moral and National Missionaries”. The institution,
part of Iorga’s goal of regimenting women in the service of the national cause, would provide
256
Theodorescu, 212.
257
Sadoveanu, 274-275.
258
Reproduced from Sadoveanu, 278.
68
one-year long courses for young women, high-school graduates, who would then work as
village teachers. The school enrolled Romanians, but also members of the minorities, usually
Germans. The university boasted other facilities for minorities, like the specially founded
“King Ferdinand Institute” 259 , where Hungarian and German teachers could learn Romanian.
The summer university was undoubtedly the most successful of Iorga’s cultural
initiatives. The courses proved remarkably enduring, attracting a plethora of personalities of the
Romanian cultural and political life. More than any other project, it also gained official
recognition. King Carol II himself would attend both the inauguration and the celebration of 25
years since their establishment. Various officials would also attend the latter. This success
cannot be explained by Iorga’s prestige alone. His frequent travels abroad made him indeed
popular with the Romanians from the new provinces 260 , for whom the courses were originally
intended. This, however, cannot account for the success in its entirety. After all, he was behind
other initiatives of the League which proved less thriving. More likely the idea of an informal
popular university was in itself attractive. The League contributed to making it also more
accessible. Many local sections granted scholarships to people attending the courses 261 .As
participants later recalled, even if benefiting from the presence of prominent lecturers whose
outlook and doctrine would inevitably differ from Iorga’s, the courses were very much infused
with their founder’s ideal of cultural nationalism 262 . Even if in the form of one month long
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summer courses, Iorga seemed to have found a formula in which his cultural nationalism would
be appealing.
259
Ibid, 281.
260
Un moment cultural: un sfert de veac de la intemeierea Universitatii populare “N. Iorga” din Valenii de Munte
(Valenii de Munte: Editura Ligii Culturale, 1934), 20.
261
ANIC, Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no. 5/1919-1925, 52.
262
Un moment cultural: un sfert de veac de la intemeierea Universitatii populare “N. Iorga” din Valenii de Munte
69
4. Dilemmas of Cultural Nationalism
In 1931, Iorga warned the members of the League gathered at the annual congress in
Focsani that by busying itself with “celebrations and excursions” the League would unwillingly
contribute, through “inertia and indolence”, to the “destruction of a country received from the
ancestors but left to die in the absence of a common spiritual bond” 263 . For Iorga, the last
decade of his life seemed to have brought awareness of many relevant shortcomings of the
League. A couple of years later, at the 1934 congress, he would admit that his monopolizing of
the League was detrimental to its activity and especially its future. Characteristically, he
blamed it on the members who supposedly lacked initiative. Nevertheless, he came to realize
the fact that the complete identification of the League with himself could not but be
unproductive 264 .
As far as the League was concerned, his remarks from 1931 were, however, more
disconcerting. After all, Iorga himself was one of the main promoters of the cult of the past and
celebrations and festivals have been one of the best ways to achieve the League’s goal of
cultural nationalism. Commemorations were associated with the League’s image and in fact
ensured its survival in the interwar period. To question the utility of patriotic manifestations
was similar to questioning the League’s main pillar of existence.
While Iorga’s prestige gave weight to the question, the concern was not unheard of in
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the League’s history. Almost thirty years earlier, in 1902, Ovid Densusianu, former member of
263
Congresul Ligii Culturale tinut la Focsani in zilele de duminica 13 si luni 14 septembrie 1931. Dari de seama
si rapoarte (Valenii de Munte: Asezamantul Tipografic “Datina Romaneasca”, 1931), 7.
264
Congresul Ligii Culturale tinut la Iasi in zilele de duminca 15 si luni 16 iunie 1934. Dari de seama si rapoarte
(Valenii de Munte: Asezamantul Tipografic “Datina Romaneasca”, 1934), 6.
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the League, voiced similar worries in a more vehement tone 265 . Lamenting the obvious decline
of the League at the time, Densusianu directed his attack against V.A.Urechia, the leader of the
League at the time. Urechia, a self-taught, romantic historian and philologist and an exalted
nationalist, excelled in speeches rather than in actions 266 . In Densusianu’s words, for Urechia
“the Transylvanian question could be solved in a merry way, over a bottle of champagne” 267 .
Under his leadership the League succumbed to “a parody of the patriotic sentiment”, fuelled by
“nationally-decrepit literature” 268 . The solution was to abandon “the old custom of noisy and
unwelcome manifestations, of buffooneries and national feasts” 269 and resume serious work.
While Iorga was no Urechia despite their similar nationalist devotion, and while the
League undoubtedly achieved more than noisy agitation under his leadership, the concern with
the validity of the League’s strategy was not unfounded. While many actions were successful,
the League never gained the following it hoped for. The periodically declining membership and
the cancelled sessions of the Bucharest session attest this. Both before and after the war reports
of the local sections abound in complaints about the communities’ “apathy”, “stagnation” and
“indifference” to the national cause 270 .
The explanations for this phenomenon are manifold. On one hand, before the creation
of Greater Romania, the League’s agents faced challenges familiar to nationalist activists
everywhere. As recent case-studies in nationalism have shown, “national indifference” has

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265
Ovid Densusianu, Romani buni si romani rai: Pareri impartiale asupra activitatii patriotice a “Ligii
Culturale” (Bucuresti: Institutul de Arte Grafice Carol Grobl, 1902).
266
See Vistian Goia V.A. Urechia (Bucuresti: Minerva, 1979).
267
Densusianu, 20.
268
Ibid.
269
Ibid., 67.
270
Most reports from the 1910 and 1912 congresses.
71
been the norm rather than the exception 271 . Mobilization for the national cause has not been an
easy target, especially in cases like Romania, where people were asked to support, financially
and otherwise, the “brothers” abroad. On the other hand, while the League readjusted its goals
after the war, the fulfillment of the political union made its calls less stringent and less
appealing. This was obvious enough for the League’s members themselves, who sought
various ways out of the stalemate 272 .
The League’s case thus illustrates several dilemmas of cultural nationalism. The major
one is clearly the adjustment of a previously irredentist organization to the conditions of a
nation-state. The occasional dissenting voices, like that of Densusianu and the late Iorga,
however, suggest more about the internal dynamics of such movements. Apparently
movements such as the League’s are characterized by periodical questioning of their role,
tactics and overall effectiveness. In this sense, Densusianu’s diatribe can be considered
legitimate. While focusing on cultural activities, the implicit goal of the prewar League was the
political union with Transylvania. As such, Densusianu had a right to demand more decisive
actions. Iorga’s attitude, on the other hand, is more intriguing. After all, the League’s stated
objectives, both before and after the war, were hardly measurable. While the numbers of
minorities and Romanians from outside the Old Kingdom attending the courses at Valenii de
Munte could provide clues about the League’s appeal, there was no way to ascertain the level
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of cultural integration and national solidarity which was the League’s objective.
271
Pieter Judson, Guardians of the Nation: Activists on the Language Frontiers of Imperial Austria (Cambridge,
Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2006) and Tara Zahra, Kidnapped Souls: National Indifference and the Battle
for Children in the Bohemian Lands, 1900-1948 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008).
272
ANIC, Fond Liga pentru Unitatea Culturala a tuturor romanilor, File no.49/ 1931-1936, 121.
72
Neither is this inability necessarily a shortcoming. According to Hutchinson, cultural
nationalism inevitably fails “in terms of its communitarian goals” 273 , because the state
gradually takes up its attributions 274 . As the case of the League suggests, however, private
initiatives can coexist with the state. The summer academy at Valenii de Munte competed
successfully with similar courses organized by the authorities and proved enduring. While it is
true that the “minority enthusiasm” 275 which animated the League diluted even more in time,
the League survived considerably longer than is expected of associations endorsing a program
of cultural nationalism in times when the latter is no longer necessary. At the same time, the
elusive goals prevented clear diagnoses of both success and failure. More likely, the kind of
nationalist activism undertaken by the League could not be but difficult to assess and therefore
always prone to questioning.

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273
Hutchinson, 17.
274
Ibid., 41.
275
Ibid., 17.
73
Conclusion: The Relevance of Cultural Nationalism
Dilemmas notwithstanding, cultural nationalism in the form promoted by the Cultural
League proved enduring despite all odds. Lacking a goal that would mobilize the masses, with
a declining membership and visibility and competing with many other influential trends and
actors, the League survived the interwar period engaging in the same kind of activities that
consecrated it before the war. Consequently, in the Romanian case at least, cultural nationalism
was not restricted to the periods before the establishment of the nation-state or the
incorporation of all the territories claimed by the latter. Instead, cultural nationalism in the form
advocated by the League underwent a readjustment of its goals. While the building of cultural
cohesion and national solidarity remained chief objectives, the League no longer focused on the
Romanians abroad but on the effective integration of the Romanians and minorities from the
new provinces in Greater Romania.
A single case study certainly cannot challenge or even confirm a theory. John
Hutchinson’s theory of cultural nationalism, even if controversial, remains a valid starting point
for an analysis of nationalist movements of this kind. Cultural practices, goals of moral
regeneration and social harmonization remain essential features of cultural nationalism.
However, even a single case study can reveal nuances and variations which, even if relevant for
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that case alone, suggest the diversity of forms which cultural nationalism can take. Moreover,
case studies, being inseparable from the context which generates them, reveal the way the
political and historical background influence a doctrine otherwise constant. As such, the
implications of the analysis of the League’s cultural nationalism are noteworthy since even if
74
they do not mirror a general pattern, they exhibit features which can be reasonably expected to
characterize other similar movements as well.
In the League’s case cultural nationalism coexisted with official nationalism. Even if at
the level of discourse the League portrayed what Hutchinson characterized as an adversarial
relation to the state, the League in fact often depended on the authorities. The League
undoubtedly revolted against and criticized the state and dreamt of complete independence
from its institutions. In fact, however, the League never achieved that much sought after
autonomy. Instead, in its case, the relationship between cultural nationalism and the state was
one of complementarity. The League replaced the state’s initiatives when the latter were
missing, like in the case of the early interwar commemorations, or offered alternative to its
projects, like in the case of the popular university at Valenii de Munte.
More than anything else, the League suggests the extent to which the personality of a
strong leader can shape the character of a particular cultural nationalism. Iorga’s samanatorist
beliefs dictated the League’s organicist stance. While organic evolution is characteristic of
cultural nationalism in general, Iorga’s influence also determined the League’s less typical
focus on the rural world and the peasantry. At the level of doctrine, it shaped its traditionalist
outlook and its anti-modernist direction. Instead of reconciling tradition with modernity, as
other cultural nationalist movements did, the League held tight to its conservative tenets and its
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archaic understanding of morality, at times becoming anachronistic .Also, occasionally, Iorga’s
often contradictory convictions deprived the League of a definite direction. While the
shortcomings of having an organization depend on a single individual are many, at the same
time it is questionable if without Iorga the League would have enjoyed even its limited
visibility.
75
The historical context influenced the League’s appeal greatly. Competition from other
social and intellectual trends prominent in interwar Romania explains why the League proved
successful in mobilizing some social groups and less so in other cases. Priests, teachers and
clerks always filled the League’s ranks while students remained largely aloof to its calls. The
changing political context, the radicalization of the public discourse in general and the political
affiliations of its leader also led to unexpected turns in the League’s activities. The League’s
program of the Romanization of commerce from the late 1930s is unusual for cultural
nationalism and testifies to the way these movements can adjust according to circumstances.
While the doctrine and activities of cultural nationalism everywhere present significant
similarities, the particular contexts in which they evolve can individualize them to a
considerable extent.
If Iorga and his followers defined their movement as one of cultural nationalism, the
validity of the concept as an analytic tool is more questionable. Hutchinson’s theory, even if
inspiring similar studies, is still controversial. Hutchinson himself, when asserting that cultural
nationalism is inherently political, opens the door for criticism of his model. The League itself,
at least before the war, while engaging in strictly cultural activities, made no secret that its goal
was the political unification of Romania with Transylvania. In the eyes of the critics, looking
for fine distinctions between political nationalism and the “cultural but inherently political” one
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can amount to an unnecessary exercise in which intricacies confuse rather than illuminate our
understanding of nationalism in general.
However, even if the validity of cultural nationalism as a theoretical concept is not yet
confirmed, the work of Hutchinson and other ethno-symbolists have the merit of emphasizing
the relationship between nationalism and culture. While an unusual approach initially,
76
nowadays few overviews of debates in the field on nationalism studies would overlook the
subject. The work of Hutchinson drew attention away from the state and politics towards
private actors and culture. Previous theories, like Gellner’s, either downplayed culture or took it
for granted as a state-directed way to create a standardized public space. Hutchinson instead
looked at the role of private organizations, of cultural practices as such and the small-scale
dynamics of such movements. Thus, even if the concept of “cultural nationalism” itself has not
yet passed the test of scholarly analysis, it remains a welcome addition to state and politics-
centered theories.
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77
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Cultural Nationalism alongside Official State-Building:

The Romanian Cultural League in the Interwar Period

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Supervisor: Professor Constantin Iordachi

Chapter I: Theoretical Framework: Locating Cultural Nationalism ............................................ 8

Chapter II: Setting up a Cultural Organization........................................................................... 16

Chapter III: Programmatic Cultural Nationalism ....................................................................... 31

Chapter IV: Practices of Cultural Nationalism........................................................................... 52

Conclusion: The Relevance of Cultural Nationalism ................................................................. 74

Nationalism, while a political ideology, cannot be separated from cultural practices.

Whether modernists, perennialists or primordialists, theorists of nationalism agree on the

importance of culture in nationalist mobilization. Indeed the prevalence of cultural initiatives is

cultural nationalism once the goal of a nation-state is achieved is subject to question.

Nationalist celebrations, publications, conferences and privately organized reading rooms,

in the past become decorative.

the Romanian Cultural League. An organization endorsing a program of cultural nationalism,

ideology as well as its very character.

Previously an irredentist organization agitating for the rights of Romanians abroad, in

characterize interwar Romania. Nevertheless, even if marginal in impact, the activity of

the newly acquired provinces.

in Transylvania financially, either by helping individuals, or through financing Romanian-

language periodicals, schools and libraries.

Unity of all Romanians).

as well as the targets of these activities were, however, essentially different.

to compete, and sometimes, counteract, the state’s aggressive campaign of Romanianization

question of national minorities. As minorities made up to 29 percent of the population of

Culturala” si unirea Transilvaniei cu Romania 5 , which, although valuable in terms of factual

diverse interests and overwhelming productivity, the League is treated marginally.

nationalism will conclude this chapter.

characteristics of Romania itself. Essentially an agrarian country, with an industry in an

nationalism as essentially modern is certainly to be retained, his structural theory is otherwise

Gellner’s theory, “the rhetorical ammunition of nationalist activists” 10 .

A similar understanding of cultural practices emerges from Eric Hobsbawm’s work on

emergence of the practice of commemorations, festivals, parades and monuments as a modern

focusing exclusively on state-directed initiatives, Hobsbawm disregards the presence of similar

practices, Hobsbawm’s theory is incomplete and therefore inapplicable in this case.

Anderson’s 14 interpretation of nations and nationalism as cultural artifacts, poses similar

no suggestion of the possibility for official and popular nationalism to coexist.

Consequently, alternatives to modernist theories of nationalism constitute more fertile

Anthony D. Smith’s 17 ethno-symbolist theory, a more substantial analysis of the contribution of

the intelligentsia to imagining the nation, is more fruitful. Unlike primordialism or

perennialism, which postulate the antiquity of nations, ethno-symbolism, whereas

nations are “forms of cultural communities” 20 .

voluntary associations and the state-led nation-building effort.

favor of cultural nationalism as separate from and complementary to political nationalism.

Consequently, cultural nationalism is a recurrent movement, emerging at times when political

anticipate political transformations. Accordingly, Hroch’s Phase A in the development of

accomplishment of political goals or independent statehood. Consequently, here is where the

significance of Hutchinson’s characterization of cultural nationalism as a recurrent movement

According to Hutchinson, cultural nationalism perceives the nation as an organic being

reactionary. In fact, by envisaging themselves as “moral innovators” 24 , cultural nationalists

movement remains in most cases a “minority enthusiasm” 25 .

equally typically organize themselves in private cultural societies, establishing a “loose

nationalism competes with political nationalism in providing contrasting solutions,

communitarian versus state-led, to the challenges of modernization27 . According to

ones without becoming institutionalized.

“State modernization is an important factor in the formation of national

nations can negotiate contingencies” 28

authorities. As scholars of nationalism have underscored, the main quality of ethno-symbolist