Paul Bujor

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Paul Bujor (July 20, 1862 – May 17, 1952) was a Romanian zoologist who specialized in animal morphology, as well as a writer and a socialist politician. Hailing from rural Galați County, he studied biology in Paris and Geneva, where he was attracted by left-wing ideas. Back in Romania, he was soon hired by the University of Iași, where he taught for forty years. Meanwhile, he was a short story writer active in the Poporanist movement, and served in both houses of the Romanian parliament.

Biography

Origins and scientific career

Born in Berești, Galați County, his father was a modest laborer.[1] Bujor attended primary school in Bârlad, followed by the town's Gheorghe Roșca Codreanu National College.[2] While living there, he was roommates with Alexandru Vlahuță, with whom he shared an enthusiasm for Mihai Eminescu's poetry.[1] In 1887, he began studying biology at the University of Paris.[2] In the French capital, he came into contact with left-wing ideas and joined a socialist circle.[1] Subsequently, he moved to Geneva for specialized courses in animal morphology,[2] under the guidance of Karl Vogt. While in Switzerland, he continued his engagement with socialism and attended lectures by Georgi Plekhanov.[1] He received a doctorate in natural sciences from the University of Geneva in 1891; the work described the larval stages of development in the brook lamprey.[2]

After a brief period of teaching at Bucharest,[2] where he also worked as an assistant in the physiology laboratory,[1] he was hired as a professor in the animal morphology department of the University of Iași, where he taught from 1896 until retiring in 1936.[2] While there, he laid the foundation for Iași's animal morphology collections; conducted research in descriptive and comparative morphology, as well as in hydrobiology and experimental zoology; and also organized the department's laboratory and museum.[2] He authored scientific articles in Romanian and in French.[1] Bujor conducted research into living organisms found in salt lakes and established the biological process whereby black mud is formed in Lake Techirghiol; his conclusions were widely accepted by other scientists. In 1948, when the new communist regime revamped the Romanian Academy, Bujor was elected an honorary member.[2]

Literary and political contributions

Bujor contributed to several literary magazines, including Arta, Curentul nou, Lupta, Noua revistă română, Revista literară și științifică (where he was editing secretary) and Sămănătorul. His sketches "Suflete chinuite" and "Măcar o lacrimă" appeared in Viața Românească, which he directed until 1907. His short stories were collected as Mi-a cântat cucu-n față (1910) and Îndurare (1938); his memoir was titled Amintiri de A. Vlahuță și I. L. Caragiale (1938).[1] Together with other adherents of Poporanism, including the tendency's leader Constantin Stere as well as Garabet Ibrăileanu and Spiridon Popescu, he entered the National Liberal Party in 1899, situating himself firmly on the left wing of the organization.[3] Together with Stere, he became co-director of the newly launched Poporanist magazine Viața Românească in March 1906, remaining until Ioan Cantacuzino took his place the following year.[4] During this period, he published the sketches "Suflete chinuite" and "Măcar o lacrimă" in its pages.[1]

He was elected to the Assembly of Deputies, and represented his university in the Senate from 1914 to 1916.[1] He emerged from the Workers' Party, which in February 1919 fused with the Peasants' Party,[5] where he was elected to a seat on the initial central committee of the enlarged organization.[6] In November 1919, he was elected the first president of the Senate following the creation of Greater Romania,[7] serving until March 1920.[8] In his speech thanking senators for electing him, Bujor asserted that "dawn shows itself from the East", a discreet allusion to the October Revolution that generated outrage among opposition members, particularly National Liberals and Progressive Conservatives who accused him of pro-Bolshevik sympathies.[9]

Bujor died in Bucharest.[2] Incinerated at Cenușa crematorium, his ashes were deposited near the mausoleum in Carol Park.[10]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Aurel Sasu (ed.), Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române, vol. I, p. 231. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. ISBN 973-697-758-7
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 (Romanian) Paul Bujor at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University site
  3. ↑ Z. Ornea, Țărănismul: studiu sociologic, p. 137. Bucharest: Editura Politică, 1969.
  4. ↑ Nicolae Iorga (ed. Valeriu Râpeanu, Sanda Râpeanu), O viață de om, vol. I, p. 249. Bucharest: Editura Minerva, 1981.
  5. ↑ Mircea Mușat, Ion Ardeleanu, România după Marea Unire, p. 95. Bucharest: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, 1986
  6. ↑ Scurtu, p. 34
  7. ↑ Gheorghe Sbârnă, Marea Unire în parlamentul României, p. 13. Suceava: Editura Cetatea de Scaun, 2007. ISBN 973-896-617-5
  8. ↑ Ion Alexandrescu, Enciclopedia de istorie a României, vol. II, p. 70. Bucharest: Editura Meronia, 2000. ISBN 973-820-000-8
  9. ↑ Scurtu, p. 50
  10. ↑ Marius Rotar, History of Modern Cremation in Romania, p. 313. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013. ISBN 978-1-4438-4542-7

References

  • Ioan Scurtu, Istoria Partidului Țărănesc (1918–1926). Bucharest: Editura Enciclopedică, 2002.
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