Nichifor Crainic (; pseudonym of Ion Dobre ; 22 December 1889, Bulbucata,

Giurgiu County Giurgiu () is a county (''județ'') of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Giurgiu. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 265,494 and the population density was . * Romanians – over 96% * Roman ...

– 20 August 1972,

Mogoșoaia Mogoșoaia is a commune in the west of Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania, composed of a single village, Mogoșoaia. In late 17th century, Constantin Brâncoveanu bought land here, and, between 1698 and 1702, he built the Mogoșoaia Palace. Nati ...

) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n writer, editor, philosopher, poet and

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

famed for his traditionalist activities. Crainic was also a professor of theology at the

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north o ...

Theological Seminary and the

Chișinău Chișinău ( , , ), also known as Kishinev (russian: Кишинёв, r=Kishinjóv ), is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial center, and is located in the middle of the ...

Faculty of Theology. He was an important

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

ideologue, and a

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

politician. He was one of the main Romanian

fascist Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...

and

antisemite Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

ideologues. Crainic was a contributor of poetry to the modernist magazine ''

Gândirea ''Gândirea'' ("The Thinking"), known during its early years as ''Gândirea Literară - Artistică - Socială'' ("The Literary - Artistic - Social Thinking"), was a Romanian literary, political and art magazine. Overview Founded by Cezar Pe ...

''. After become disenfranchised with the publication's progressive views, rather than disassociate with the magazine he became increasingly intertwined in leadership positions in order to de-modernize it. At the end of a series of intellectual sparings within the publication itself, Crainic managed to wrest control of the magazine and institute a sea-change in editorial character supporting mystical Orthodoxy. He developed an ideology given the name ''Gândirism'' (from ''gând'' – "thought"), a

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

and neo- Orthodox Christian social and cultural trend. He edited the ''

'' magazine, and collaborated with numerous other publications such as '' Ramuri'', '' România Nouă'', ''

Cuvântul ''Cuvântul'' (, meaning "The Word") was a daily newspaper, published by philosopher Nae Ionescu in Bucharest, Romania, from 1926 to 1934, and again in 1938. It was primarily noted for progressively adopting a far right and fascist agenda, and ...

'', and ''

Sfarmă-Piatră (; literally "Stone-Crusher" or "Rock-Breaker", named after one of the '' Uriași'' characters in Romanian folklore) was an antisemitic daily, monthly and later weekly newspaper, published in Romania during the late 1930s and early 1940s. One in ...

''. He was also the editor in chief of the newspaper '' Calendarul''. Nichifor Crainic became a leading pro-Fascist figure in the political turmoil of the late 1930s, openly praising Mussolini and Hitler. He was an ideologue of antisemitism, although his prejudice was a defense of the

Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

rather than a vision of racial hierarchies. His beliefs were a major influence on the

Iron Guard The Iron Guard ( ro, Garda de Fier) was a Romanian militant revolutionary fascist movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel Michael () or the Legionnaire Movement (). It was stron ...

legionary movement, although Crainic viewed himself as a supporter of the legionnaires' rival

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

Carol II Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. The eldest son of Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I in 1914. He was the first of th ...

. In a 1938 essay, he theoretised the "'' ethnocratic state''" as applied to Romania:Crainic, ''Programul statului etnocratic'' apud A fulfillment of ethnocracy was to be achieved through the means of a monarch-led corporatist system: In 1940 he was elected a member of the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) 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 byl ...

. He studied theology at the Seminary in Bucharest, and received his Ph.D. diploma from the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hi ...

. He was appointed Minister of Propaganda for the

Ion Antonescu Ion Antonescu (; ; – 1 June 1946) was a Romanian military officer and marshal who presided over two successive wartime dictatorships as Prime Minister and ''Conducător'' during most of World War II. A Romanian Army career officer who mad ...

regime. After the Soviet army defeated the Germans and occupied Romania, Crainic went into hiding. A trial was conducted in his absence and he was found guilty of crimes against the people. He was eventually caught and imprisoned by the Romanian authorities in 1947, and spent 15 years in Văcăreşti and

Aiud Aiud (; la, Brucla, hu, Nagyenyed, Hungarian pronunciation: ; german: Straßburg am Mieresch) is a city located in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. The city's population is 22,876. It has the status of municipality and is the 2nd-largest c ...

prisons. He was expelled from the Academy by the Communist regime. Between 1962 and 1968 he was the editor of the Communist propaganda magazine '' Glasul Patriei'' ("The Voice of the Fatherland")—a magazine published in Romania by the Romanian Communist regime but sold only abroad, which they used as a tool to try to influence the Romanian intellectual émigrés to be patriotic and not work against the Communist Romania.

Notes

References

*Roland Clark (2012)
Nationalism and orthodoxy: Nichifor Crainic and the political culture of the extreme right in 1930s Romania
Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, 40:1, 107-126 *Peter F. Sugar, ''Eastern European Nationalism in the Twentieth Century'', University Press of America, 1995 (includes transcript of Crainic's essay)
The Report of the International Committee for the Study of Holocaust in Romania (on the Romanian Presidency site)
- a review of the several Anti-Semitic doctrines, including Crainic's, that contributed to genocide of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europ ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Crainic, Nichifor 1889 births 1972 deaths People from Giurgiu County Members of the Romanian Cabinet Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church National-Christian Defense League politicians National Christian Party politicians Gândirea Titular members of the Romanian Academy Romanian essayists Romanian fascists Romanian magazine editors Romanian magazine founders Romanian newspaper editors Romanian newspaper founders 20th-century Romanian poets Romanian male poets 20th-century essayists Eastern Orthodoxy and far-right politics 20th-century Romanian male writers University of Vienna alumni People detained by the Securitate Inmates of Aiud prison 20th-century Romanian philosophers Antisemitism in Romania Christian fascists Securitate informants