
Anton Golopenția (May 12, 1909 – September 9, 1951) was an
Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...
-born
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
n sociologist.
Biography
Beginnings, education and early career
Born in
Prigor
Prigor () is a commune in Caraș-Severin County, western Romania with a population of 2,078 people as of 2021. It is composed of five villages: Borlovenii Noi (''Újborlovény''), Borlovenii Vechi (''Óborlovény''), Pătaș (''Nérapatas''), Pri ...
,
Caraș-Severin County
Caraș-Severin () is a county ( județ) of Romania on the border with Serbia. The majority of its territory lies within the historical region of Banat, with a few northeastern villages considered part of Transylvania. The county seat is Reșița ...
, his father Simion was a lawyer originally from
Pecinișca, while his mother Emma-Magdalena (''née'' Staschek) was the daughter of a bank clerk from
Bozovici
Bozovici (; ; ) is a commune in Caraș-Severin County, western Romania. It is composed of four villages: Bozovici, Poneasca (''Ponyászkatelep''), Prilipeț (''Prilipec''), and Valea Minișului (''Ménesvölgy'').
The commune is located in the so ...
. He divided his childhood between Prigor and Bozovici; when he was still a boy, his native region
united with Romania. He attended high school in
Timișoara
Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...
, where he received top marks every year, graduating in 1927. He then enrolled in the
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...
, graduating from its faculties of law (1930) and philosophy (1933). Between 1930 and 1933, he worked as a librarian at the university's sociology department.
It was while working in the
Bessarabia
Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...
n village of
Cornova, with one of
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 Iași and the University of Bucharest, he served as Romania's Minister ...
's teams of monographers, that the latter noticed Golopenția and recruited him into his inner circle.
[ Z. Ornea]
"Cazul Anton Golopenția"
, 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 ...
'', nr. 43/2001 In 1932-1933, he was office director and then secretary to his professor Gusti, then serving as
Education Minister
An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...
.
While in this position, he worked on a failed education reform project for his superior.
He received a scholarship to study at the
Leipzig University
Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...
, which he did between 1933 and 1936; his doctoral thesis dealt with state leadership and traditional sociology.
[Daba, p. 3]
Upon his return home, Golopenția returned to monographic work,
and became editor of ''Sociologie românească'' magazine in January 1937. That autumn, he became a teaching assistant at the Gusti-chaired sociology, ethics and politics department,
and a director at the latter's Social Institute. He also helped his mentor set up the Romanian pavilion at the 1937
Paris Expo.
In 1939, he married , a Romanian-language teacher and folklore specialist. Due to differences of opinion regarding the methodology and purpose of sociological research, he left both the department and Gusti's Social Institute the same year. Golopenția was unemployed until the following April, when he was hired at the Central Statistics Institute. There, he worked on the team of director
Sabin Manuilă
Sabin Manuilă (or Mănuilă; February 19, 1894 – November 20, 1964) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian statistician, demographer and physician. A nationalist activist during World War I, he became noted for his pioneering research into the b ...
, whom he accompanied to
Turnu Severin
Drobeta-Turnu Severin (), colloquially Severin, is a city in Mehedinți County, Oltenia, Romania, on the northern bank of the Danube, close to the Iron Gates. It is one of six Romanian county seats lying on the river Danube. "Drobeta" is the name ...
for negotiations with
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
that would be enshrined in the
Second Vienna Award
The Second Vienna Award was the second of two territorial disputes that were arbitrated by Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy. On 30 August 1940, they assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania, including all of Maramureș and part of Cri ...
's territorial exchanges. He prepared and participated in the census undertaken in
Bessarabia
Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...
and northern
Bukovina
Bukovina or ; ; ; ; , ; see also other languages. is a historical region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. It is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided betwe ...
.
From August 1942 to autumn 1943 he led field operations, ordered by ''
Conducător
''Conducător'' (, meaning 'Leader') was the title used officially by Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu during World War II, also occasionally used in official discourse to refer to Carol II and Nicolae Ceaușescu.
History
The word is derived from ...
''
Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu (; ; – 1 June 1946) was a Romanian military officer and Mareșal (Romania), marshal who presided over two successive Romania during World War II, wartime dictatorships as Prime Minister of Romania, Prime Minister and ''Conduc� ...
, for the identification of Moldovan families living east of the
Bug River
The Bug or Western Bug is a major river in Central Europe that flows through Belarus (border), Poland, and Ukraine, with a total length of .[Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...]
member
Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu
Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu (; 4 November 1900 – 17 April 1954) was a Romanian communist politician and leading member of the Communist Party of Romania (PCR), also noted for his activities as a lawyer, sociologist and economist. For a while, he ...
, to whom he had been recommended; Golopenția had been asked to support a change in regime, possibly by working within the
Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company
The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company (), informally referred to as Radio Romania (), is the public radio broadcaster in Romania. It operates FM broadcasting, FM and AM broadcasting, AM, and webcast, internet national and local radio channels. ...
. He accepted, and immediately after Antonescu's overthrow during the
August Coup
The 1991 Soviet coup attempt, also known as the August Coup, was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to Coup d'état, forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was President ...
, was included in the editing and distribution of ''
România Liberă
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to the east, and the Black Sea t ...
'', which published the new regime's first decrees.
By this time, Manuilă was a junior cabinet member and invited him to work as office director, but Golopenția flatly refused any further political involvement.
He set up ''Comunicări statistice'' publication, and between autumn 1945 and summer 1946, helped complete tens of documents demanded by the
Foreign Ministry
In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral re ...
's peace committee. In August–November 1946, he was at Paris, as a statistician of the Romanian delegation to the
peace conference
A peace conference is a diplomatic meeting where representatives of states, armies, or other warring parties converge to end hostilities by negotiation and signing and ratifying a peace treaty.
Significant international peace conferences in ...
,
[Daba, p. 4] a role he occupied upon Pătrășcanu's proposal.
Marginalization, downfall and legacy
After returning to Romania, Golopenția took over as director of the Statistics Institute, a position left vacant by Manuilă's resignation;
as such, he headed the 1948 census.
He remained there until that year's autumn, when he was dismissed by the authorities of the new
communist regime
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...
,
who were unwilling to accommodate his politically independent stance.
Over the course of the following year, working at home, he occasionally compiled documents at the request of the State Planning Committee;
this institution was headed by
Miron Constantinescu
Miron Constantinescu (13 December 1917 – 18 July 1974) was a Romanian communist politician, a leading member of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR, known as PMR for a period of his lifetime), as well as a Marxist sociologist, historian, academic ...
, who had previously undertaken monographic research on a Golopenția-led team.
He also worked on a textbook of Romanian statistical history, which he hoped would encompass all statistical data related to the history of the Romanians, as well as critical commentary.
He spent ample time in the
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy ( ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life.
According to its bylaws, the academy's ma ...
's library, but began to grow alarmed as the amount of work assigned dwindled.
He was placed under surveillance in October 1949: the
Securitate
The Department of State Security (), commonly known as the Securitate (, ), was the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. It was founded on 30 August 1948 from the '' Siguranța'' with help and direction from the Soviet MG ...
secret police had heard he was on friendly terms with Pătrășcanu, arrested the year before, and with the latter's entourage, especially
Bellu Zilber and a certain N. Betea whom Golopenția had hired as a statistician. In January 1950, he was arrested as a witness in the Pătrășcanu case. The investigators thought he could be useful in their quest to fabricate charges against Pătrășcanu, but Golopenția was a mere bystander. Their ties amounted to the following: he had helped Pătrășcanu assist communist detainees at
Caransebeș
Caransebeș (; ; , Hungarian pronunciation: ) is a city in Caraș-Severin County, part of the Banat region in southwestern Romania. One village, Jupa (), is administered by the city.
The city is located at the confluence of the Timiș River with ...
internment camp; lent a hand in announcing the 1944 coup on radio; received Pătrășcanu's proofs for his comments on a volume on philosophy he had written (which the latter largely ignored); was valued by him as a democratically minded intellectual; sent by him to Paris, perhaps at the suggestion of Zilber, whom Golopenția had first met in 1932-1934; and the two had held conversations while in France.
At first, he was made to give statements about Pătrășcanu, Zilber, the group of young statisticians with whom he worked east of the Bug, N. Betea and the Romanian emigrants he met in Paris (including
Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian History of religion, historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. One of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century and in ...
,
Emil Cioran
Emil Mihai Cioran (; ; ; 8 April 1911 – 20 June 1995) was a Romanian philosopher, aphorist and essayist, who published works in both Romanian and French. His work has been noted for its pervasive philosophical pessimism, style, and aphorism ...
, and
Mihai Șora
Mihai Șora (; 7 November 1916 – 25 February 2023) was a Romanian philosopher and essayist.
Career
After travelling back to Romania in 1948, Șora became a member of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) and was employed by the Ministry of For ...
). Nothing conclusive emerged, and the investigation moved on to another phase. In 1947, while Pătrășcanu was attending a conference in Brussels, Betea had asked Golopenția to write two letters of recommendation for western academics, as Pătrășcanu's circle had suggested he go into exile. Golopenția wrote two letters, not knowing their purpose. He was extensively questioned about this episode, and about another letter he had sent to Manuilă, by then in the United States, through an Italian diplomat in Bucharest. The three letters were bland and apolitical, but the investigators insisted he knew Pătrășcanu was planning on not returning to Romania, which he invariably denied. It was also charged that Betea, in semi-hiding, had asked Golopenția to tell Pătrășcanu to stay away from Romania. Eventually, he admitted knowing Pătrășcanu's plans, but denied sending him a message.
His denials persisted, but in March, he suddenly admitted to having written, the previous autumn, a manuscript containing suggestions for a future non-communist government and how the country should be reorganized. At that point, the questions shifted to his alleged hostile activity against the regime, and the document to which he confessed, a few pages in length, was found after an investigation. It counted on a war between the United States and the Soviet Union that would end in a ''
Pax Americana
''Pax Americana'' (Latin for , modeled after ''Pax Romana'' and ''Pax Britannica''), often identified with the " Long Peace", is a term applied to the concept of relative peace in the Western Hemisphere and later in the world after the end of ...
''. Then, in June, Golopenția's prison conditions underwent a rapid improvement: he was given writing paper, which he used to draft his memoirs and letters to his family, as well as to chief prosecutor Constantinescu. He asked for books to read, including ''
Das Kapital
''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (), also known as ''Capital'' or (), is the most significant work by Karl Marx and the cornerstone of Marxian economics, published in three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his ...
''. After a brief hiatus, the insistent interrogations resumed, until May 1951; these proved exhausting to the sickly Golopenția, who contracted a rapidly advancing case of tuberculosis.
Gravely ill, he was taken to the hospital of
Văcărești Prison
Văcărești Prison was a prison located in Bucharest, Romania.
The prison, situated in the southern part of the city, was established in 1865 within the former , where defendants found guilty of press offenses had been held since 1861. It was a ...
in August 1951, dying nearly a month later.
The physician who investigated his death noted that, although the case was hopeless, he should have been provided with antibiotics.
The following day, he was buried in
Jilava
Jilava is a commune in Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania, near Bucharest. It is composed of a single village, Jilava.
The name derives from a Romanian word of Slavic origin ( Bulgarian жилав ''žilav'' (tough), which passed into Romanian as ...
cemetery. He was survived by his widow and two children, and Dan. He was never tried or sentenced (Pătrășcanu's trial took place nearly three years later), and in 1968, following the latter's rehabilitation, Ștefania Golopenția asked the same for her husband. The following year, she received verbal confirmation of his rehabilitation.
[Daba, p. 5] She was beset by difficulties following his death, and compelled to teach in elementary schools in spite of her professional background; she died in 1978. The couple's daughter Sanda considered it her moral duty to shed light on her father's plight; to this end, she published his correspondence, part of his scientific work, and a nearly thousand-page collection of the statements he gave under interrogation, published in 2001 after three years of research.
In 2017, Golopenția was posthumously elected a member of the
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy ( ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life.
According to its bylaws, the academy's ma ...
.
[Membri aleși post-mortem]
at the Romanian Academy site
Notes
References
* Dumitru Daba
"Anton Golopenția (1909-1951)—in memoriam" in ''Almăjana'', nr. 1-2/2010, p. 3-5
* Sorin M. Rădulescu
"Ștefania Cristescu-Golopenția — O personalitate marcantă a sociologiei românești. (1908-1978)" in ''Revista română de sociologie'', year XXIV, nr. 3–4, p. 161–67, Bucharest, 2013
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golopentia, Anton
1909 births
1951 deaths
People from Caraș-Severin County
Romanian Austro-Hungarians
University of Bucharest alumni
Romanian sociologists
Romanian statisticians
Romanian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference of 1946
Romanian people who died in prison custody
Prisoners who died in Romanian detention
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis deaths in Romania
Prisoners who died in Securitate custody
Members of the Romanian Academy elected posthumously
Inmates of Văcărești Prison
Leipzig University alumni