Vasile Conta (; ; November 15, 1845 – April 21, 1882) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n 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 Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

in 1868. Beneficiary of a fellowship, he went to study in 1871 in Belgium, first in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, 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. In 1873, he started attending the meetings of the Junimea literary society, where he gave lectures. In 1877, Conta was elected deputy in the Romanian Parliament, and in 1880 he was briefly Minister of Public Instruction and Religious Affairs in the Ion C. Brătianu government. In 1881, he resigned his faculty position at the University of Iași and was elected a member of the

Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case; they only interpret the relevant law. In this, they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In ...

. On the occasion of the

Congress of Berlin At the Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878), the major European powers revised the territorial and political terms imposed by the Russian Empire on the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of San Stefano (March 1878), which had ended the Rus ...

in 1878, he took a stand against the seizure by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

of the three counties of Southern Bessarabia. He died in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

and was buried at Eternitatea Cemetery in Iași. A high school in Târgu Neamț, as well as streets in

Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

Craiova Craiova (, also , ) is the largest city in southwestern Romania, List of Romanian cities, the seventh largest city in the country and the capital of Dolj County, situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia. It i ...

, Iași, and Sector 1 of Bucharest are named after him.

Antisemitism

Conta was the true founder of the Romanian ideological antisemitism. 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.

References

1845 births 1882 deaths People from Neamț County Romanian people of Armenian descent Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) alumni Academic staff of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Romanian philosophers Romanian male poets Romanian socialists 19th-century Romanian poets 19th-century Romanian male writers Ministers of education of Romania Ministers of culture of Romania Antisemitism in Romania Burials at Eternitatea cemetery Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania) National Liberal Party (Romania) politicians {{Romania-bio-stub