Scarlat Callimachi

For the hospodar, seeScarlat Callimachi (hospodar).

Callimachi in December 1966

Scarlat CallimachiorCalimachi(Romanian pronunciation:[skarˈlatkaliˈmaci];nicknamedPrințul Roșu,"theRed Prince "; September 20, 1896 – June 2, 1975) was aRomanianjournalist, essayist,futuristpoet,trade unionist,andcommunistactivist, a member of theCallimachi familyofboyarandPhanariotelineage. He is not to be confused with his ancestor,hospodarScarlat Callimachi.

Biography

Born inBucharest,he lived for part of his childhood at the familymanorinBotoșani,where, at age 11, he witnessed first-hand the1907 peasants' uprisings(which, as he later admitted, contributed to hisleft-wingsympathies).As a youth, he readRussian anarchistbooks, while studying in Paris during World War I, joinedanarchistcircles.While travelling throughFinlandin 1917, Callimachi attended a public meeting at whichVladimir Leningave a speech, and consequently adoptedBolshevism.

After his return to Romania, Callimachi edited a short-lived magazine in Botoşani (1924–1925),and publishedAvant-gardepoems infree verse— inspired by the work ofRussian Futurists.With fellowmodernistsIon VineaandStephan Roll,he later issued theliterary magazinePunct.Callimachi was also theeditor-in-chiefof the magazine.He began working on communist and other leftist newspapers (includingClopotul,which he himself edited in his native town) while keeping a front as an employee of his relatives.

According to his own testimony, he joined the outlawedCommunist Party of Romania(PCdR, later PCR) in 1932,an allegiance which brought Callimachi into a relatively small, but dedicated, category of communist sympathisers ofupper classupbringing — it also includedN. D. Cocea(to whom Callimachi was a close collaborator) andLucrețiu Pătrășcanu.Nevertheless, at the same time, he was a nominal member of theNational Peasants' Party(PNȚ).He continued to criticize the PNȚ: the most virulent of his attacks on the cabinet ofAlexandru Vaida-Voevod— voiced soon after the authorities had repressed theGrivița strike of 1933— led to his arrest and sentencing.

Among PCR activists charged with establishing links with other groups (in accordance with thePopular FrontStalinistdoctrine), Callimachi, who had been a member ofAmicii URSSin 1934,was one of the leaders of the Democratic Bloc (Blocul Democratic), a PCR-created legal organization which in 1935 succeeded in forming a tight alliance withPetru Groza'sPloughmen's Front(the agreement was signed inȚebea).

In 1937, as thefascistIron Guardwas gaining unprecedented momentum and the secondary fascist movement around theNational Christian Partywas ascending to power, Callimachi decided to leave Romania and settled in France, but returned a year later, afterKingCarol IIacted against the Iron Guard and established a dictatorship around theNational Renaissance Front.In August 1940, as Carol engineered a crackdown on the left-wing opposition, he wasinternedinMiercurea-Ciuc.

Like Pătrășcanu, Callimachi was set free bySiguranța Statuluiunder theNational Legionary State,established by the Iron Guard later in the year (the regime, which had aligned itself withNazi Germany,was attempting to preserve a good relationship with the Soviet Union).He was again imprisoned byIon Antonescu'smilitary dictatorship in Romania,and again interned, as many other PCR members, inCaracal,and laterTârgu Jiu.

After World War II, he became a leader of the Singular Journalists' Trade Union, which had replaced the Union of Professional Journalists in October 1944 and had since become an instrument of the PCR-controlled government in controlling the press. He, with N. D. Cocea,Miron Constantinescu,andIon Pas,organized the expulsion and denouncement of journalists who professedanti-communism,and maintained this position after the proclamation of thePeople's Republic of Romaniain 1948,before moving on to become head of the Romanian-Russian Museum (Muzeul Româno-Rus), an institution created to highlight cultural and social links between Romania and the Soviet Union in accordance with theZhdanov Doctrine.The Museum was closed down in 1956, after theGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dejregime began rejecting Soviet influence.

He died in 1975, and was buried in the BucharestBellu Cemetery;he had refused the ostentatious funeral reserved for senior PCR members.

References

• (in Romanian)Ionuţ Chiva, Adrian Şchiop,"Boierii comunişti" (interview with Dimitrie Calimachi, the son of Scarlat Callimachi),inPrezent,November 21, 2006
• (in Romanian)Cristina Diac,"Comunism - Artiști și ziariști în febra epurărilor",inJurnalul Național,April 12, 2006
• Victor Frunză,Istoria stalinismului în România,Humanitas,Bucharest, 1990
• Dan Grigorescu,Istoria unei generaţii pierdute: expressioniștii,Editura Eminescu,Bucharest, 1980
• Ioan Lăcustă, "Strămoșii mei au fost răzeși" (interview with Scarlat Callimachi), published post-mortem inMagazin Istoric,Nr.9 (102), September 1975, p. 24-25
• (in Romanian)Stelian Tănase,"Belu Zilber",inRevista 22,Nr.700 (August 2003)