Vasile Conta Explained

Vasile Conta (in Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan pronounced as /vaˈsile ˈkonta/; Armenian: Վասիլե Գրիգորեիի Կոնտա (Գոնտա); November 15, 1845 – April 21, 1882) was a Romanian philosopher, poet, and politician.

The son of a priest, he was born in Ghindăoani, a village in Bălțătești commune, Neamț County. He attended primary school in Târgu Neamț (where he was a classmate of Ion Creangă), and graduated from the Academia Mihăileană in Iași in 1868. Beneficiary of a fellowship, he went to study in 1871 in Belgium, first in Antwerp, and then at the Free University of Bruxelles, from which he graduated with a law degree in 1872. Upon returning to Romania, he was appointed professor at the University of Iași's Law School.[1]

He died in Bucharest and was buried at Eternitatea Cemetery in Iași. A street in Sector 1 of Bucharest is named after him.

Antisemitism

Conta was the true founder of the Romanian ideological antisemitism.[2] His criteria were no longer those of a socioeconomic nature; they were derived from the "nationalities principle," nationalities as units of race and religion, forming the basis of existence of a state and a homogenous nation.[3]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Vasile Conta. ro. uaic.ro. Alexandru Ioan Cuza University. June 22, 2023.
  2. Book: Volovici , Leon . 1991. Nationalist Ideology and Antisemitism: The Case of Romanian Intellectuals in the 1930s. Pergamon Press. 0-08-041024-3.
  3. Book: Conta , Vasile . 1914. Opere complecte.