Paul Sterian (May 1, 1904–September 14, 1984) was a
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
n poet and civil servant.
Born into a cultured family in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
, his parents were physician
Eraclie Sterian
Eraclie Sterian (also known as Eracle or Eracli Sterian; November 23, 1872 – 1948) was a Romanian physician, writer, and political activist, known for introducing sexology and sex education in his country. Trained as a pathologist, he establishe ...
and his wife Alexandrina (''née'' Gulimănescu); he was married to . From 1910 to 1917, Sterian attended the applied school of the society for the education of the Romanian people, followed by
Gheorghe Lazăr High School from 1918 to 1921. From 1921 to 1924, he studied at the philosophy and law faculty of the
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...
. He earned a degree ''magna cum laude'', with a thesis on the emotions and the
endocrine gland
Endocrine glands are ductless glands of the endocrine system that secrete their products, hormones, directly into the blood. The major glands of the endocrine system include the pineal gland, pituitary gland, pancreas, ovaries, testes, thyroid ...
s, applying a theory by
Constantin Ion Parhon
Constantin Ion Parhon (; 15 October 1874 – 9 August 1969) was a Romanian neuropsychiatrist, endocrinologist and politician. He was the first head of state of the Romanian People's Republic from 1947 to 1952. Parhon was President of the Physic ...
. Also at Bucharest, he took a doctorate in public law, his dissertation dealing with copyright. From 1926 to 1929, he studied at the
University of Paris
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
; Sterian's second doctoral thesis, in law and economics, had to do with Romania and
World War I reparations
Following the ratification of article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles at the conclusion of World War I, the Central Powers were made to give war reparations to the Allied Powers. Each of the defeated powers was required to make payments in eith ...
. In Paris, upon the recommendation of
Mircea Vulcănescu
Mircea Aurel Vulcănescu (3 March 1904 – 28 October 1952) was a Romanian philosopher, economist, ethics teacher, sociologist, and far-right politics, far-right politician. Undersecretary at the Ministry of Finance from 1941 to 1944 in the ...
,
Ilarie Voronca
Ilarie Voronca (pen name of Eduard Marcus; 31 December 1903, Brăila—8 April 1946, Paris) was a Romanian avant-garde poet and essayist. life and career
Voronca was of Jewish ethnicity. In his early years, he was connected with Eugen Lovine ...
, and
Benjamin Fondane
Benjamin Fondane () or Benjamin Fundoianu (; born Benjamin Wechsler, Wexler or Vecsler, first name also Beniamin or Barbu, usually abridged to B.; November 14, 1898 – October 2, 1944) was a Romanian and France, French poet, critic and Existentia ...
, he worked for an insurance firm.
He was valued by
Dimitrie Gusti
Dimitrie Gusti (; 13 February 1880 – 30 October 1955) was a Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian, and voluntarist philosopher; a professor at the University of Iaşi and the University of Bucharest, he served as Romania's Minister of ...
, performing psychotechnic tests in a rural environment as part of the sociologist's research teams and working on the 1929 film about
Drăguș
Drăguș (german: Drachenbach, Traschen; hu, Dragus) is a commune in Brașov County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Drăguș, part of Viștea Commune until being split off in 2004.
Drăguș is located at the western ...
village. From 1929 to 1930, he was a civil servant at the
Labor Ministry, then in 1931 headed the national office for student aid. In this capacity, he was able to join a
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
-affiliated institute in 1932. In 1931, he was in New York City on a scholarship from the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
. In 1932, he was an editor for ''Curentul'' and ''Cuvântul'' newspapers; the following year, he worked as an economic adviser. He was an administrator for the
1937 Paris Expo; in 1938, he became economic adviser to the Romanian legation in Washington, D.C. and head of Romania's economic legation in New York City. After returning home, Sterian worked at the Ministries of
National Economy (1940–1941),
Finance
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...
(1942) and
Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...
(1944).
After the
1944 coup d'état, he was excluded from the government but not charged with war crimes; from 1945 to 1948, until
nationalization
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
, he headed a textile factory.
[ Victor Durnea]
"Cazul Paul Sterian - Ortodox și futurist"
in ''România Literară ''România Literară'' is a cultural and literary magazine from Romania. In its original edition, it was founded on 1 January 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași until 3 December 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared on ...
'', Nr. 29/2007 In 1948, upon the advent of the
communist regime
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...
, he became a day laborer, followed by an accountant's position in 1950. In 1951, he began inspecting credit records at
Tecuci
Tecuci () is a city in Galați County, Romania, in the historical region of Western Moldavia. It is situated among wooded hills, on the right bank of the Bârlad River, and at the junction of railways from Galați, Bârlad, and Mărășești.
...
. He successively worked as an accountant in Bucharest (1953),
Balotești
Balotești is a Communes of Romania, commune in the northwestern part of Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania. Two small rivers flow through this location: Cociovaliștea and Vlăsia. It is composed of three villages: Balotești, Dumbrăveni and Săfti ...
(1954), and at the state fruit and vegetable monopoly Aprozar (1956). In 1957 and 1963, he was head of external relations for the composers' union, holding a similar position at the geriatrics institute from 1964 to 1969.
In the late 1950s, he was arrested and sent to
Aiud Prison
Aiud Prison is a prison complex in Aiud, Alba County, located in central Transylvania, Romania. It is infamous for the treatment of its political inmates, especially during World War II under the rule of Ion Antonescu, and later under the Commu ...
; it is possible that this was due not to his work during the
Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu (; ; – 1 June 1946) was a Romanian military officer and marshal who presided over two successive wartime dictatorships as Prime Minister and ''Conducător'' during most of World War II.
A Romanian Army career officer who made ...
regime but because of his affiliation with the "Burning Pyre" (''Rugul Aprins'')
Romanian Orthodox
The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; ro, Biserica Ortodoxă Română, ), or Patriarchate of Romania, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchates i ...
prayer group. Sterian had made donations to
Antim Monastery The Antim Monastery is located in Bucharest, Romania on Mitropolit Antim Ivireanu Street, no. 29. It was built between 1713 and 1715 by Saint Antim Ivireanu, at that time a Metropolitan Bishop of Wallachia. The buildings were restored by Patriarch ...
and held conferences there in 1948-1949. He was amnestied in the early 1960s.
His literary work appeared in ''
Contimporanul
''Contimporanul'' (antiquated spelling of the Romanian word for "the Contemporary", singular masculine form) was a Romanian (initially a weekly and later a monthly) avant-garde literary and art magazine, published in Bucharest between June 1922 an ...
'', ''Azi'', ''Floarea de foc'', ''
Gândirea
''Gândirea'' ("The Thinking"), known during its early years as ''Gândirea Literară - Artistică - Socială'' ("The Literary - Artistic - Social Thinking"), was a Romanian literary, political and art magazine.
Overview
Founded by Cezar Pet ...
'', ''Cuvântul'', ''
unu
''unu'' (Romanian for "one"; lower case used on purpose) was the name of an avant-garde art and literary magazine, published in Romania from April 1928 to December 1932. Edited by writers Sașa Pană and Moldov, it was dedicated to Dada and Su ...
'' and ''
Viața Românească
''Viața Românească'' (, "The Romanian Life") is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania. Formerly the platform of the left-wing traditionalist trend known as poporanism, it is now one of the Writers' Union of Romania's main venues.
Th ...
''.
[Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. II, p. 623-24. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. ]
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sterian, Paul
1904 births
1984 deaths
Writers from Bucharest
Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church
University of Bucharest alumni
Romanian poets
Christian poets
Romanian newspaper editors
Romanian civil servants
20th-century Romanian civil servants
20th-century Romanian writers
Romanian prisoners and detainees
Inmates of Aiud prison
Gheorghe Lazăr National College (Bucharest) alumni