Dumitru Theodor Neculuță
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Dumitru Theodor Neculuță (also known as Neculiță and Dumitru a Ciubotăriții; – October 17, 1904) was a
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 poet, socialist activist, and artisan shoemaker. Born to a poor family in
Western Moldavia Western Moldavia (, ''Moldova de Apus'', or , also known as Moldavia, is the core historic and geographical part of the former Principality of Moldavia situated in eastern and north-eastern Romania. Until its union with Wallachia in 1878, the P ...
, he was not allowed to pursue his passion for music, and worked from an early age. These circumstances instilled him with a desire to combat the established social order of the
Romanian Kingdom The Kingdom of Romania () was a constitutional monarchy that existed from with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian royal family), until 1947 with the abdication of King Michael I an ...
, driving him into left-wing politics. His interest in music was replaced with a poetic calling: stylistically, Neculuță followed a tradition upheld by
Mihai Eminescu Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanians, Romanian Romanticism, Romantic poet, novelist, and journalist from Moldavia, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Emin ...
and
George Coșbuc George Coșbuc (; 20 September 1866 – 9 May 1918) was a Romanian poet, translator, teacher, and journalist, best remembered for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life, its many travails but also its occasions for joy. In 19 ...
, which he infused with the tenets of
Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
and his own experience of acute poverty. He wrote for many decades, but was only published from 1894. In parallel, he established his profile as a "poet-activist" for the Social Democratic Workers' Party and its more radically progressive faction, spending his final years as a co-chair of the ''
România Muncitoare ''România Muncitoare'' ("Working Romania" or "Laborer Romania") was a socialist newspaper, published in Bucharest, Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Eur ...
'' in
Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
. After his unexpected death at age 45, Neculuță enjoyed a cult following in socialist culture in both the Romanian Kingdom and neighboring
Austria-Hungary 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#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
. He had shared inspiration and themes with George Bacovia, and was a direct influence on Mihail Cruceanu and Cristian Sârbu. During the interwar, he was celebrated by the legal
Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...
and Socialist Laborites, as well as by the underground
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 ...
; his cultivation sometimes drew suspicion from Romania's right-wing governments. Public gatherings were held at his commemoration date in October, including one in 1924, which ended with a roundup by
Romanian Police The Romanian Police (, , ) is the national police force and main civil law enforcement agency in Romania. It is subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and it is led by a General Inspector with the rank of Secretary of State. Duties T ...
. Socialist circles upheld Neculuță as a forerunner of "
proletarian literature Proletarian literature refers here to the literature created by left-wing writers mainly for the class-conscious proletariat. Though the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' states that because it "is essentially an intended device of revolution", it is t ...
", but he was largely regarded as a minor author in more official contexts. This contrast was overturned in the late 1930s, when Neculuță was openly celebrated by the
National Renaissance Front The National Renaissance Front (, FRN; also translated as ''Front of National Regeneration'', ''Front of National Rebirth'', ''Front of National Resurrection'', or ''Front of National Renaissance'') was a Romanian political party created by King Ca ...
; it was also resumed in full after 1948, when the
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 ...
took over, making Neculuță a posthumous 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 ...
. The move, as well as his inclusion in literary textbooks, were contested by various regime critics, who regarded them as incoherent or distasteful. The regime itself scaled down such promotion from the 1960s, returning Neculuță to a more modest position in its literary pantheon. The literary community remains divided between those who regard Neculuță as a genuine poet, who was overvalued for political reasons, and those who dismiss him as mediocre and argue that his reputation was entirely fabricated.


Biography


Beginnings

As noted by philologist Katalin Kese, Neculuță was born shortly after the 1859 unification between
Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...
and
Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...
.Kese, p. 229 A native of
Târgu Frumos Târgu Frumos (also spelled ''Tîrgu Frumos'', sometimes ''Târgul / Tîrgul Frumos''), ) is a town in Iași County, Western Moldavia, Romania. Eleven villages were administered by the town until 2004, when they were split off to form Balș, Cos ...
in Moldavia, his parents were Toader Neculuță and Zamfira a Ciubotăriții. Some sources suggest that they were both poor peasants,"Informații. Comemorarea poetului socialist Neculuță", in '' Tribuna'', Issue 217/1911, p. 7Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', Vol. II, p. 193. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. G. Spina, "Dumitru Neculuță", in ''Opinia'', October 10, 1924, p. 1 though, according to biographer Mihu Dragomir, this is an erroneous information originating with Neculuță's confidant, Alecu Constantinescu, who misunderstood references to his friend's more distant rural background. Mihu Dragomir, "La centenarul lui D. Th. Neculuță. Contribuții", in ''
Gazeta Literară Gazeta may refer to: Newspapers Albanian language * Gazeta 55, daily newspaper * Gazeta Express, a Kosovo newspaper published in Pristina * Gazeta Rilindja Demokratike, daily newspaper * Gazeta Shqip, daily newspaper * Gazeta Sot, a daily newsp ...
'', Vol. VI, Issue 41, October 1959, p. 6
Records of the period show that Toader was in fact a shoemaker. A similar confusion surrounds the issue of Dumitru's original surname, with some sources noting that he was first registered with his
matronymic A matronymic is a personal name or a parental name based on the given name of one's mother, grandmother, or any female ancestor. It is the female equivalent of a patronymic. Around the world, matronymic surnames are far less common than patrony ...
, ''a Ciubotăriții'' or ''Aciubotăriții'', literally "of the cobbler's wife". Essayist Florentin Popescu suggests that "Neculuță" can be viewed as a pen name, favored over "a Ciubotăriții" for stylistic reasons. Popescu also notes that this choice was unusual, since his original surname "made it blatantly clear that he had a very 'healthy' roletarianorigin". Dragomir, who originally credited this claim, withdrew it in 1959, upon discovering that the poet was in fact known from birth as either Neculuță or Neculiță. During his earliest years with his father in Târgu Frumos, Dumitru probably picked up a hostility toward organized religion. This was argued by Dragomir, who recounts that Toader Neculuță made a point of not going to confession in his local Orthodox church after 1864: "If we note that back then D. Neculuță was a five-year-old, we can easily conclude that, in his parental home, the child had not been pressured into respecting bourgeois institutions." The boy was passionate about music and had hopes of becoming a violinist; the circumstances of his birth made it impossible that he would afford tuition, and instead he was pushed to earn a living from age ten, working as a shoemaker's apprentice. His formal education was limited to two grades of primary school. His father dead, and raised by his mother in "great poverty", he ran away to seek his fortune in the former Moldavian capital,
Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...
.Kiss, p. 4 Journalist G. Spina also notes that Neculuță spent time wandering through the
Eastern Carpathians Divisions of the Carpathians are a categorization of the Carpathian mountains system. Below is a detailed overview of the major subdivisions and ranges of the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathians are a "subsystem" of a bigger Alps-Himalaya Sy ...
, and also that he was for a while a tutor, "paid by the hour", for schoolchildren in Iași's slums. He was working in Iași around the time when Romanian poetry was being revolutionized by Eminescu; Neculuță's first-ever works were
pastiche A pastiche () is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking ...
s from Eminescu, with similar borrowings from
Romanian folklore The folklore of Romania is the collection of traditions of the Romanians. A feature of Romanian culture is the special relationship between folklore and the learned culture, determined by two factors. First, the rural character of the Romania ...
.Deșliu, pp. 59–60 Neculuță was drawn into radical politics from an early age—at some point, he confessed to Constantinescu that "I was born a revolutionary; I feel within me the hatred of so many generations of proletarians". Proudly self-taught, he was familiarized with the work of
Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
, but also kept up with non-political literature. Uninterested in the Symbolist movement, he read from Eminescu and the classics of poetry—including
Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
,
Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
, and
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
; he also knew the prose of realists such as
Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...
and
Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...
.Deșliu, p. 60 His friend A. Costin recalled in 1905 that Neculuță would spend his Christmas savings on books and plain bread, mocking party-goers; Neculuță also reportedly complained whenever he had to sell parts of his personal library, noting that "everything in today's society goes against men who seek to enlighten themselves!"Deșliu, pp. 60–61 He made his debut in print in 1894, when ''Icoana Vremii'' magazine took up some of his writings, which he signed as "D. Niculescu". As Deșliu notes, the poet most of all feared living in an unheated room; this theme permeates his verse, wherein the chimney flame "celebrated as if a loved and longed-for human being". His works were generally inspired by Eminescu and
George Coșbuc George Coșbuc (; 20 September 1866 – 9 May 1918) was a Romanian poet, translator, teacher, and journalist, best remembered for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life, its many travails but also its occasions for joy. In 19 ...
, but, as communist poet
Dan Deșliu Dan Deșliu (August 31, 1927 – September 4, 1992) was a Romanian poet. Born in Bucharest, his parents were Ștefan Deșliu, an accountant at the Bulandra Theatre company and later administrator of the Workers' Theatre, and his wife Elena ( ...
writes, they also had distinct echoes from
left-liberal Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited g ...
and socialist poets— Cezar Bolliac, Dimitrie Bolintineanu,
Traian Demetrescu Traian Rafael Radu Demetrescu (; also known under his pen name Tradem or, occasionally, as Traian Demetrescu-Tradem; December 5, 1866 – April 17, 1896) was a Romanian poet, novelist and literary critic, considered one of the first symbolist auth ...
, and
Alexandru Vlahuță Alexandru Vlahuță (; 5 September 1858 – 19 November 1919) was a Romanian writer. His best known work is '' România pitorească'', an overview of Romania's landscape in the form of a travelogue. He was also the main editor of ''Sămănătoru ...
. As noted in the 2004 biographical dictionary of Romanian writers, they reach at least the average quality of contemporary verses, and along with discussing then-current themes (suffering brought about by love, melancholy, vibrations before nature), they bring new elements such as comradeship with those who suffer and an urging toward revolution and belief in the future. His more contemplative poems describe the conflict between the quiet beauty of rural landscapes and the inner turmoil of proletarians who witness them. Neculuță was impressed with the plight of all lower strata, producing some poems specifically about the sufferings of peasants or the
Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...
underclass. However, he remains primarily important for his ability to convey industrial strife. While acknowledging the "gaucherie" of various such compositions, Deșliu highlights their overall primordialism in a Marxist setting: "Before Neculuță's time—and even for a long time after him—the most gifted poets of social rebellion worked with vague terms, with generalized and imprecise notions: people, justice, liberty, truth etc. The grounded, class-based position, only makes its first appearance in verse by D. Th. Neculuță". Hungarian Romanian poet Jenő Kiss, who translated some of Neculuță's poems, highlights the same notion: "the great majority of Romanian progressive poets had generally talked about the sufferings of 'the people', but by the people they mainly meant the poor peasantry. Others often said proletariat, but meant ''
Lumpenproletariat In Marxist philosophy, Marxist theory, the ''Lumpenproletariat'' (; ) is the underclass devoid of class consciousness. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels coined the word in the 1840s and used it to refer to the unthinking lower strata of society expl ...
''. In Neculuță's poems, the voices of class-conscious urban and industrial workers are unmistakably heard. .. econdenses the tragedy of proletarians selling their labor power into the mood of those waiting for a job opportunity in front of the factory. Despite this, there is no trace of romantic anti-capitalism in his poetry. The factory and the machine are not enemies of Neculuță and his colleagues. Work and the workplace are 'sacred', the machine is a diligent friend."Kiss, p. 5 Kiss further describes Neculuță as stylistically accomplished: "the most difficult and demanding verse forms, primarily the
sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...
, but also other, complicated stanza formulas, right up to the tune of folk songs. With verse forms that required yfull mastery of the language, selective and abundant rhyme here and there, flawless rhythm, brevity, thoughtfulness."


Later life

Moving to
Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
, the national capital, "toward the turn of the century", Neculuță joined the newly formed Social Democratic Workers' Party of Romania (PSDMR), becoming its "poet-activist". Journalist Leontin Iliescu, who met him upon his arrival, recalls that Neculuță only had 4 lei on him, all of which he spent on a ticket to see Jan Kubelík play; that night, he bunked with a friend, the sculptor Filip Marin.Leontin Iliescu, "Carnetul nostru. Amintiri despre poetul proletarilor: Th. D. Neculuță", in ''
Universul ''Universul'' was a mass-circulation newspaper in Romania. It existed from 1884 to 1953, and was run by Stelian Popescu from 1914 to 1943 (with a two-year break during World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 No ...
'', June 2, 1947, p. 1
He tried again to change profession by applying for the
Music Conservatory A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger i ...
. According to Kiss, he was simply rejected; Spina, however, notes that he was "for a short while, a Conservatory student." After this failure, he "lived the life of a poor shoemaker in Bucharest, working ten to fourteen hours a day in the shop. Neculuță's most precious hours are spent in this aimless prison-like work. with no perspectives." Such conditions undermined his family life: he was married to a Bucharest woman, but divorced her after six years, thereafter dedicating himself entirely to political work, "one of the most educated and consistent fighters of the Romanian proletariat." The socialist movement's historiographer, Constantin Titel Petrescu, places Neculuță at Bucharest's Sotir Hall, the socialist club, in or shortly after 1895—noting that he was one of two "poet-cobblers" that the PSDMR could count as its own—the other one was Arghir Parua. Dragomir identifies him as ''D. Azur'', the author of an 1895 piece taken up by the illustrated supplement of ''
Adevărul (; meaning "The Truth", formerly spelled ''Adevĕrul'') is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in Iași, in 1871, and reestablished in 1888, in Bucharest, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Kingd ...
'' daily. During the antisemitic agitation of November 1897, Neculuță took the side of Romanian Jewish victims. His ''La un vandalism antisemit'' ("Regarding an Act of Antisemitic Vandalism") appeared in a single-issue socialist paper, known either as ''Vă Înfrățiți, Noroade!'' ("Come Together as One, Peoples!")Deșliu, p. 61 or ''Jos Vandalii!'' ("Down with the Vandals!"). According to Iliescu, his poetry in favor of world fraternity was not unlike works by
Sully Prudhomme René François Armand "Sully" Prudhomme (; 16 March 1839 – 6 September 1907) was a French poet and essayist. He was the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901. Born in Paris, Prudhomme originally studied to be an engineer, bu ...
—though, he adds, Neculuță could not have been acquainted with Prudhomme's verse. Overall, Neculuță remained loyal to the Marxist faction led by I. C. Frimu following an 1899 split in the movement—a "revolutionary appeal" he published that year, called ''Spre țărmul dreptății'' ("Toward the Shores of Justice"), implicitly condemned PSDMR centrists (known as the "generous ones"). By 1901, he and fellow shoemaker Valerian Prescurea were among the most active members of ''Munca'' society, which, from its offices on Bucharest's Vamei Street, supported the PSDMR's reestablishment, recruiting intellectuals such as C. Z. Buzdugan and Iosif Nădejde. In ''Icoana Vremii'', Neculuță also published two prose pieces which later critics describe as being without particular artistic value, as well as several articles that put forth his credo of a politically engaged poet. His work also appeared in '' Lumea Nouă'', ''
România Muncitoare ''România Muncitoare'' ("Working Romania" or "Laborer Romania") was a socialist newspaper, published in Bucharest, Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Eur ...
'', and ''
Viitorul Social ''Viitorul'' ("The Future") was a daily newspaper published in the Kingdom of Romania, out of Bucharest, as a central organ of the National Liberal Party (PNL). It was formed just months after peasants' revolt of March 1907, being originally li ...
''. One of Neculuță's final assignments, from 1902, was as co-chair of the ''România Muncitoare'' club, alongside Constantinescu and Frimu. Around that time, he also taught the adolescent Gheorghe Ene Filipescu to read; Filipescu would later advance politically as a high-ranking member of the
Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...
. In or around 1904, Neculuță hosted in Bucharest George Bacovia, the younger socialist poet, with whom he attended the
May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...
celebrations at Dacia Hall. Critic Cornel Regman proposes that there was a crossover of themes and stylistic choices between the two writers—though Neculuță remained Eminescu-like, and Bacovia took up Symbolism. He believes that Neculuță "foreran Bacovia with a number of intuitions, however incomplete these might have been." Cornel Regman, "Neculuță și Bacovia", in '' Luceafărul'', Vol. VI, Issue 25, December 1963, p. 4 Shared elements include a "grave internal melody", the "unmitigated pain of experience", and "crude", quasi-
Imagist Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized literary modernism, modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has bee ...
, depictions of ravens and crows, or insistence on the metaphoric qualities of metals such as lead (for both poets) and zinc (favored by Neculuță). Despite this sharing themes in the authors' non-political poems, Regman finds it unlikely that Bacovia's militant verse was ever directly influenced by Neculuță. This is largely because Bacovia "assimilates through transfiguration." "Impoverished and lamented by the proletariat as a whole",Petrescu, p. 160 the poet died at his one-room home on Bucharest's Ștefan cel Mare Highway shortly after his 46th birthday (on October 17, 1904, in New Style dates). Though writer Constantin Țoiu recalled in 1997 that Neculuță had died of lung disease in Colentina Hospital, Constantin Țoiu, "Prepeleac. Nu mai sus de sanda", 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 ...
'', Issue 36/1997, p. 18
he had in fact suffered a fatal heart attack. According to Kiss, his cardiac condition was owed to physical exhaustion from "continuous strenuous work". An inventory carried out on the day of Neculuță's death records that he only owned an iron bed and mattress, a table, a coat hanger, a coffer filled with books, one shirt, plates, and some other items. His definitive manuscript, which he kept under the mattress, went unreported. The funeral cortege, comprising workers, was initially scheduled to walk down
Calea Victoriei Calea Victoriei (''Victory Avenue'') is a major avenue in central Bucharest. Situated in Sector 1, and having a length of , it leads from (which runs parallel to the Dâmbovița River) to the north and then northwest up to Piața Victoriei, w ...
, and thus parade in front of the Royal Mansion.
Romanian Police The Romanian Police (, , ) is the national police force and main civil law enforcement agency in Romania. It is subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and it is led by a General Inspector with the rank of Secretary of State. Duties T ...
intervened to stop this from occurring, and also confiscated red flags carried by participants. Ion Pas, "Dintr-o ''Carte despre vremuri multe'' (fragmente)", in '' Viața Romînească'', Vol. XV, Issue 1, January 1962, p. 27 Two hundred
black ribbon A black ribbon is a symbol of remembrance or mourning. It is often worn or put on a public display to express consolation. Sign of mourning Similar to a black armband, the black ribbon is a public display of grief. Individuals or organizations ...
s were distributed instead. This count was reported to Frimu, who openly rejoiced: "Well then, that there's two hundred friends of our cause! So then, we're growing, we're getting stronger! The future is ours!" Neculuță was buried in
Bellu Cemetery Șerban Vodă Cemetery (commonly known as Bellu Cemetery) is the largest and most famous cemetery in Bucharest, Romania. It is located on a plot of land donated to the local administration by Baron Barbu Bellu. It has been in use since 1858. T ...
, originally in a crypt designed by Filip Marin.L. I. (Leontin Iliescu), "Cântarea biruinții. Versurile unui muncitor poet", in ''
Universul ''Universul'' was a mass-circulation newspaper in Romania. It existed from 1884 to 1953, and was run by Stelian Popescu from 1914 to 1943 (with a two-year break during World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 No ...
'', May 4, 1942, p. 5
Marin was later buried in that same spot, alongside his friend.


Posterity


Early commemorations

Neculuță's only book appeared posthumously in 1907 as ''Spre țărmul dreptății''; reportedly, its editor was Constantinescu. It was still in print shortly after the peasants' revolt of 1907. According to a
Gendarmerie A gendarmerie () is a paramilitary or military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (). In France and so ...
report, during the subsequent clampdown socialists made efforts to reach out to peasants with their propaganda. In March 1908, a
Gorj County Gorj County () is a county () of Romania, in Oltenia, with its capital city at Târgu Jiu. ''Gorj'' comes from the Slavic ''Gornji'' Jiu (“upper Jiu”), in contrast with Dolnji (“lower Jiu”). Demographics At the 2011 census, the count ...
activist was held in custody for distributing Neculuță's poems, alongside pamphlets by
Christian Rakovsky Christian Georgiyevich Rakovsky ( – September 11, 1941), Bulgarian name Krastyo Georgiev Rakovski, born Krastyo Georgiev Stanchov, was a Bulgarian-born socialist Professional revolutionaries, revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet Un ...
, Toma Dragu, and
Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later s ...
. Neculuță's volume was also circulated in
Austria-Hungary 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#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
by the
Social Democratic Party of Hungary The Social Democratic Party of Hungary (, , MSZDP) is a social democracy, social democratic list of political parties in Hungary, political party in Hungary. Historically, the party was dissolved during Government of National Unity (Hungary), the ...
and its Romanian section, which recommended it as "not
o be O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), ...
left out of any enlightened worker's personal library". In October 1911, Arad's socialist club commemorated Neculuță with public readings from his work. The meeting was attended by poet Sándor Csizmadia, who expressed his belief in
proletarian internationalism Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is the perception of all proletarian revolutions as being part of a single global class struggle rather than separate localized events. It is based on the theory th ...
as a cultural bridge between Romanians and Hungarians. A reprint of ''Spre țărmul'', curated by
Barbu Lăzăreanu Barbu Lăzăreanu (born Avram Lazarovici,Valentin Chifor, "Lăzăreanu Barbu", in Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', Vol. I, pp. 839–840. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. or Bercu Leizerovici,Constantin Ior ...
,Deșliu, p. 67 appeared in 1919. According to Petrescu, Neculuță's other contribution was in rekindling socialist agitation after the "generous ones" had split the movement. Overall, he notes, "Neculuță failed to achieve his definitive accomplishment as a poet, since the hurdles of his existence never gave him time to follow the path of an artist." The young writer-typographer Ion Pas, who was inducted by the socialist movement "just seven years after Neculuță's death", recalled that Vasile Anagnoste, who had "worked with him in the same shop", instructed younger workers to "maintain his cult." In 1925, the communist novelist Panait Istrati, who had achieved international fame, paid homage to Neculuță as a precursor:
the Romanian labor movement has had its poet, a man called Neculuță, the soul of a man who should have lived with other horizons, and in another time, in order to express all of what he felt. ..Neculuță lived in some shack, unknown to all, yet, had they brought him Paris on a platter, he would not have been surprised: he'd have accepted it as his rightful belonging!
In a 1926 piece on the standards of Romanian "
proletarian literature Proletarian literature refers here to the literature created by left-wing writers mainly for the class-conscious proletariat. Though the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' states that because it "is essentially an intended device of revolution", it is t ...
", Ion Mehedințeanu argued that "bourgeois criticism" had both Neculuță and his younger colleague,
Ion Păun-Pincio Ion Păun-Pincio (born Ion Păun; August 17, 1868–December 31, 1894) was a Romanian poet. Born in Mihăileni, Botoșani County, his parents were deputy prefect Alexandru Păun and his wife Maria (''née'' Cozmiță). He attended high school ...
, "buried in the tomb of silence". As he notes: "Shoemaker Neculuță's poetry volume is the shrieking anguish of a prostrating and obscured class. His eyes set on the shores of justice, he awakens the proletariat to the coming age." Deșliu similarly claims that "bourgeois criticism and historiography ..weaved around Neculuță's work that familiar conspiracy of silence", leaving socialist gatherings as the only venue which still cultivated his verse. He argues that this underground fame helped to establish a style of radical poetry, including anonymous interwar hymns by Communist-Party militants. Some other works of this nature had known authors: as one of the Communist Party founders, Mihail Cruceanu wrote "poetry in the manner of lyrical cobbler Theodor Neculuță". Paul Niculescu-Mizil, later a Party eminence, recalled that in his 1930s childhood he "loved Neculuță, a socialist poet", which contributed to his political choices. On the 20th commemoration of Neculuță's death on October 7, 1924, a "great number of workers and intellectuals" visited the socialist club on Brezoianu Street to pay homage; police agents reportedly encircled the hall, and only allowed attendees to leave at midnight. Spina noted that "a few workers, who have gathered to commemorate the death of their only bard, were dispersed as if a conspiratorial terrorist assembly." Democracy activist Dem. I. Dobrescu regarded the event as a pseudo-legal ban on "legal socialism", at a time when Neculuță's poems "are printed and are allowed to be printed." The 24th commemoration in 1928 was marked by a workers' pilgrimage at Bellu, though reportedly no writers were invited. A similar event in 1930 was hosted by the Socialist Workers Party of Romania, with Anagnoste conferencing "on the poet's life and work." Between these two events, in December 1929, the Romanian Railways workers' club in
Pașcani Pașcani () is a city in Iași County in the Western Moldavia region of Romania, on the Siret river. , it has a population of 30,766. Five villages are administered by the city: Blăgești, Boșteni, Gâstești, Lunca, and Sodomeni. The city der ...
was established, and took its name from Neculuță. By the mid 1930s, the poet was gaining recognition from the authorities themselves. In November 1935, they allowed communists held in
Jilava Prison Jilava Prison () is a prison located in Jilava, a village south of Bucharest, Romania. History The prison began as Fort 13, part of the fortifications of Bucharest built in the 1870s and 1880s. It served as an arms deposit and garrison until 1 ...
to mark October Revolution Day with a small festivity, which included recitations from Neculuță's poems. Neculuță was also afforded attention by the
National Renaissance Front The National Renaissance Front (, FRN; also translated as ''Front of National Regeneration'', ''Front of National Rebirth'', ''Front of National Resurrection'', or ''Front of National Renaissance'') was a Romanian political party created by King Ca ...
regime of 1938–1940, which reclaimed him for its brand of
corporate statism Corporate statism or state corporatism, referred to as corporativism by the Italian fascism, fascists, is a political culture and a form of corporatism the proponents of which claim or believe that corporate group (sociology), corporate groups sho ...
. Its official magazine, '' Muncă și Voe Bună'', reported that this "poet-cobbler" had lived during an era of slavery, and praised him for his take on the social landscape of ca. 1900. Under the regime of
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 ...
, critics discovered the patriotic poetry of another proletarian, Leonte Dumitrescu, whom they likened to Neculuță. In that context, Iliescu argued that Neculuță had been "quickly and unjustly forgotten." Also a shoemaker and poet, Cristian Sârbu braved Antonescu's censors by titling one of his volumes as ''D. Th. Neculuță''. Shortly after the coup of August 1944, the General Confederation of Labor issued a volume of "labor poetry", which included Neculuță's ''Cor de robi'' ("A Slaves' Choir"). It earned attention from poet
Camil Baltazar Camil Baltazar (; pen name of Leibu Goldenstein or Leopold Goldstein; August 25, 1902 in FocșaniAccording to some sources, he was born in Moara, Putna County. – April 27, 1977 in Bucharest) was a Romanian-Jewish poet A poet is a per ...
, who called the piece "vigorous" and "predictive".


Official status and downgrading

In October 1948, when it revamped 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 ...
, 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 ...
selected Neculuță as a post-mortem member. The proposal was submitted on behalf of the academicians by novelist
Mihail Sadoveanu Mihail Sadoveanu (; occasionally referred to as Mihai Sadoveanu; 5 November 1880 – 19 October 1961) was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and political figure, who twice served as acting President of Romania, head of st ...
. Also that year, a street in Vatra Luminoasă, a workers' section of Bucharest, was renamed after Neculuță, having earlier been named for Ioan S. Nenițescu. By 1949, the Bucharest People's Council had mandated Al. Gheorghiu Pogonești, a children's writer, with running a Neculuță Literary Circle. Regulars included Gheorghe Achiței, Alexandru Andrițoiu, and
Fănuș Neagu Ștefan Vasile "Fănuș" Neagu (5 April 1932 – 24 May 2011) was a Romanian novelist, playwright, journalist, and occasional film actor. Born to a peasant family in the Bărăgan Plain, he drew inspiration from that environment throughout his li ...
. The brewery of Iași was also named after the poet. These gestures inaugurated what the Communist Party newspaper, ''
Scînteia ''Scînteia'' ( Romanian for "The Spark") was the name of two newspapers edited by Communist groups at different intervals in Romanian history. The title is a homage to the Russian language paper '' Iskra''. It was known as ''Scânteia'' until ...
'', described as a "work to restore the cultural treasure of the past", which included "bringing out to light the work of our first worker-poet". A monograph on Neculuță, written "in the spirit of the times", was completed and published in 1950 by Ion Vitner, a dentist turned literary critic. In it, Vitner proposed that Neculuță had outranked Eminescu when it came to poetic abilities in depicting the "bitter fate of an individual within the bourgeois and landowning society." Also according to Vitner, the value of Neculuță's work rested in his using traditionalist themes from Eminescu, Coșbuc, and
Alexandru Vlahuță Alexandru Vlahuță (; 5 September 1858 – 19 November 1919) was a Romanian writer. His best known work is '' România pitorească'', an overview of Romania's landscape in the form of a travelogue. He was also the main editor of ''Sămănătoru ...
, crafting them into a "weapon of war against the inimical ideology of the bourgeoisie". The arrest and prosecution of poet Ion Negoițescu entailed an analysis of his contribution, with one
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 ...
officer proposing that Negoițescu's 1947 anthology of Romanian poetry was a ''
corpus delicti (Latin for "body of the crime"; plural: ), in Western law, is the principle that a crime must be proven to have occurred before a person could be convicted of having committed that crime. For example, a person cannot be tried for larceny unle ...
''—among the reasons cited was its failure to sample Neculuță's work. In the early 1950s, samples of Neculuță's poetry were included in the Romanian high-school curriculum, initially as "provisional theses". The 50-year commemoration of Neculuță's death was marked by the
Writers' Union of Romania The Writers' Union of Romania (), founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova. The Writers' Union of Romania was created by the communist regime by takin ...
with an official ceremony: Dragomir gave a lecture, while Demostene Botez and Ioanichie Olteanu read out from ''Spre țărmul''. The following year, critic George Ivașcu wrote about Neculuță's inclusion in the high school curriculum as an "act of justice toward a writer of working-class origin and—precisely for that reason—chased out of all bourgeois schoolbooks." At that moment in Romanian history, which came with the embrace of socialist realism, official publishing houses put out editions of his works, some of which ran at 100,000 copies. In 1955, Kiss rendered ''Spre țărmul'' in Hungarian; the same year, Endre Pálffy published a bio-bibliographic study of Neculuță in ''Filológiai Közlöny'', specifically aimed at readers in the
Hungarian People's Republic The Hungarian People's Republic (HPR) was a landlocked country in Central Europe from its formation on 20 August 1949 until the establishment of the current Hungary, Republic of Hungary on 23 October 1989. It was a professed Communist_state# ...
. Sample translations from Neculuță were included in Romanian poetry anthologies such as Mario de Micheli's ''Antologia della poesia romena'' (1961) and
Alain Bosquet Alain Bosquet, born Anatoliy Bisk () (28 March 1919 – 17 March 1998), was a French poet. Life In 1925, his family moved to Brussels and he studied at the Université libre de Bruxelles, then at the Sorbonne. He fought in the Belgian army in ...
's ''Anthologie de la poésie roumaine'' (1968). The Eminescu–Neculuță comparison, which downgraded the former, came to be seen as controversial, including in Marxist circles. It was criticized as early as April 1958 by a Marxist literary man, Ovid Crohmălniceanu, who opined that only "vulgar sociologism" could account for such views. Neculuță's cultivation was fully curbed in the mid-1960s, with the advent of
national communism National communism is a term describing various forms in which Marxism–Leninism and socialism has been adopted and/or implemented by leaders in different countries using aspects of nationalism or national identity to form a policy independent ...
. As noted by critic Tudor Opriș, it saw the "reduction to their normal dimensions of writers whom
Proletkult Proletkult ( rus, Пролетку́льт, p=prəlʲɪtˈkulʲt), a portmanteau of the Russian words "proletarskaya kultura" ( proletarian culture), was an experimental Soviet artistic institution that arose in conjunction with the Russian Revol ...
apologetics had hypertrophied"—Neculuță and Vlahuță, but also Bolliac and Alexandru Toma. Reportedly, the last piece to include Neculuță within the "commandeered and colonized canon" was put out by Emil Boldan in 1961. In his comparative study of Neculuță and Bacovia, put out in 1963, Regman defended Neculuță's status as a poet, arguing that his work had genuine aesthetic value beyond Vitner's "simplified" take. Țoiu believes that Neculuță's posthumous downfall mainly happened because the new communist leader,
Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ;  – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...
, loathed poems which reminded him of his own shoemaker's training. In 1984, literary scholar Al. Dobrescu argued that poets such as Neculuță and Panait Cerna only had "informative value", and that students could be excused for not memorizing their works, whereas "it is mandatory that they be trained to read any poem by Eminescu". Also that year, critic Serafim Duicu praised socialist doyen
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (born Solomon Katz; 21 May 1855 – 7 May 1920) was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and journalist. He was also an entrepreneur in the city of Ploiești. Constantin Dobroge ...
for not having endorsed "modest" Neculuță's elevation to the literary canon. During the later stages of Romanian communism, several authors thanked the regime for having restored balance in assessing
Romanian literature Romanian literature () is the entirety of literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language or by any authors native to Romania. Early Romanian literature inc ...
—specifically referring to Neculuță as a bad model. This was the case with Elena Tacciu, who spoke about Neculuță as having been propped up by a "tyranny of dogmatic schemas", and with Ion Cristoiu, who noted that writers were better if inspired by a "great tradition", and not by Neculuță. He was still honored in ''Scînteia'' as one of the earliest Romanian authors to have embraced the social, "with their still-modest means". In November 1989, journalist H. Lerea noted that "the first artisan-poet asan innocent victim of overbidding during the dogmatic period". Following the anti-communist rebellion of December, Neculuță and other socialist writers underwent further reassessment, with literary historian
Matei Călinescu Matei Alexe Călinescu (June 15, 1934 – June 24, 2009) was a Romanian literary critic and professor of comparative literature at Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. Biography Călinescu was born in ...
calling the previous trend "aberrant": "in poetry, for instance, alongside Eminescu, and at some point even above him, they worked to establish the reputation of the 'cobbler-poet' D. Th. Neculuță as a proletarian classic". In November 1990,
Brașov Brașov (, , ; , also ''Brasau''; ; ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the county seat (i.e. administrative centre) of Brașov County. According to the 2021 Romanian census, ...
's Poet Neculuță Alley was renamed after Stephan Ludwig Roth. Revisiting Neculuță's poetry after hearing it recited by his barber, Țoiu commented that he was primarily a "decent shoemaker" and "unfortunate people's bard", who never warranted "the sort of revulsion, of aversion, that I felt toward the dictator." In early 2008, the poet's name resurfaced in a satirical computer quiz game mocking
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Adrian Năstase Adrian Năstase (; born 22 June 1950) is a Romanian jurist, academic/professor, blogger, and former politician who served as the prime minister of Romania from December 2000 to December 2004. He competed in the 2004 Romanian presidential elect ...
for his supposed
Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...
origin. Users were asked to pick from several public figures, of whom Neculuță, rather than Năstase, was the only Romanian."Ki (nem) roma?", in ''Székely Hírmondó'', Vol. XIII, Issue 11, March 2008, p. 27


Notes


References

*
Dan Deșliu Dan Deșliu (August 31, 1927 – September 4, 1992) was a Romanian poet. Born in Bucharest, his parents were Ștefan Deșliu, an accountant at the Bulandra Theatre company and later administrator of the Workers' Theatre, and his wife Elena ( ...
, "D. Th. Neculuță, primul poet muncitor din literatura romînă. Cu prilejul aniversării a 100 de ani de la naștere", in ''Lupta de Clasă'', Vol. XL, Issue 1, January 1960, pp. 59–67. *I. Felea, "Acțiuni de organizare și de luptă ale mișcării muncitorești din Romînia în anii 1900—1904", in ''Anale de Istorie'', Vol. IX, Issue 3, 1963, pp. 157–171. *Katalin Kese, "In memoriam. Pálffy Endre, a román kultúra közvetítője", in ''Revista Conviețuirea/Együttélés'', Vol. 9, Issues 1–4, 2005, pp. 227–239. *Jenő Kiss, "A műfordító emlékeiből. A proletár költő — és késői utódja", in ''Utunk'', Vol. XXXVIII, Issue 49, December 1983, pp. 4–5. * Constantin Titel Petrescu, ''Socialismul în România. 1835 – 6 septembrie 1940''. Bucharest: Dacia Traiana, . y.*Andrei Răzvan Voinea, Irina Calotă, ''Locuințe pentru muncitori și funcționari. Casa Construcțiilor și parcelarea Vatra Luminoasă (1930—1949)''. Bucharest: Asociația Studio Zona, 2021. {{DEFAULTSORT:Neculuta, Dumitru 1859 births 1904 deaths 19th-century Romanian poets 20th-century Romanian poets Romanian male poets Marxist poets Adevărul writers Proletarian literature writers in the Kingdom of Romania Sonneteers Romanian propagandists Romanian socialists Shoemakers Members of the Romanian Academy elected posthumously People from Târgu Frumos People from the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia Burials at Bellu Cemetery