Nichifor Crainic | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Minister of National Propaganda | |
In office 4 July 1940 – 14 September 1940 | |
Prime Minister | Ion Gigurtu Ion Antonescu |
Preceded by | Teofil Sidorovici |
Succeeded by | Position temporarily suspended |
In office 27 January 1941 – 26 May 1941 | |
Prime Minister | Ion Antonescu |
Preceded by | Himself |
Succeeded by | Mihai Antonescu |
State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs | |
In office 14 September 1940 – 21 January 1941 | |
Prime Minister | Ion Antonescu |
Minister | Traian Brăileanu |
Co-Leader of the National Christian Party | |
In office 16 July 1935 – 10 February 1938 Serving with Octavian Goga & A. C. Cuza | |
Preceded by | Octavian Goga (as president of the National Agrarian Party) A. C. Cuza (as president of the National-Christian Defense League) |
Succeeded by | None (party banned under the 1938 Constitution) |
Personal details | |
Born | Bulbucata, Giurgiu County, Kingdom of Romania | December 22, 1889
Died | August 20, 1972 Mogoșoaia, Ilfov County, Socialist Republic of Romania | (aged 82)
Political party | National-Christian Defense League (before 1935) National Christian Party (1935–1938) |
Alma mater | University of Bucharest University of Vienna |
Occupation | Writer, Professor, Politician |
Profession | Theologian, Philosopher |
Part of a series on |
Fascism in Romania |
---|
![]() |
Part of a series on |
Antisemitism |
---|
![]() |
![]() |
Nichifor Crainic (Romanian pronunciation: [niˈcifor ˈkrajnik]; pseudonym of Ion Dobre [iˈon ˈdobre];[1] 22 December 1889, Bulbucata, Giurgiu County – 20 August 1972, Mogoșoaia) was a Romanian writer, editor, philosopher, poet and theologian famed for his traditionalist activities. Crainic was also a professor of theology at the Bucharest Theological Seminary and the Chișinău Faculty of Theology. He was an important racist ideologue,[2][3][4] and a far-right politician.[5] He was one of the main Romanian fascist[6] and antisemitic ideologues.[2][7][8][9][10]
The institute only lasted one year, but allowed Crainic to advance ideas such as anti-Masonry, anti-Semitism, and biological racism within an LANC-approved forum (Crainic, Ortodoxie 147).
Nae Ionescu considered ethnicity as "the formula of today's Romanian nationalism," while for Nichifor Crainic the "biological homogeneousness," the "historical identity" and the "blood and the soil" were the defining elements of the "ethnocratic state."
A prominent proponent of the concept of 'ethnic homogeneity' was the chauvinistic, xenophobic and pro-Nazi writer, politician, poet and professor of Theology Nichifor Crainic (1889-1972), author of "Orthodoxy and Ethnocracy" (Ortodoxie și etnocrație), published in 1938.
Clearly there were affinities between the eugenicists and thinkers, writers, and politicians on the extreme Right such as Nichifor Crainic, Nae Ionescu, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Octavian Goga, and A.C. Cuza.
Amongst those arrested for Duca's assassination were Nae Ionescu and Nichifor Crainic (a fascist ideologue, mediator between the NCP and the Iron Guards).
Die ideologischen Mentoren der "jungen Generation", Nae Ionescu und Nichifor Crainic, lieferten den Antisemiten (besonders der legionären Bewegung) ein theoretisches Gerüst für ihre Argumentation.
Volovici's study is a complementary one; it examines competently the role of the Romanian intelligentsia in the inter-war years in legitimizing anti-Semitic ideas and thus facilitating public acceptance of them. Octavian Goga and Nichifor Crainic were extreme examples and Volovici rightly highlights their deeds and writings.