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Eugen Barbu (; 20 February 1924 – 7 September 1993) was a Romanian modern novelist, short story writer, journalist, and correspondent member of the Romanian Academy. The latter position was vehemently criticized by those who contended that he Plagiarism in his novel Incognito and for the Antisemitism campaigns he initiated in the newspapers Săptămâna and România Mare which he founded and led.Grigurcu; Martin; Tismăneanu, p.183, 225 He also founded, alongside his disciple Corneliu Vadim Tudor, the nationalist Greater Romania Party (PRM).Martin
His most famous writings are the novels Groapa (1957) and Principele (1969).Călin Barbu's prose, in which the influence of neorealism has been noted, drew comparison to the works of Mateiu Caragiale, Tudor Arghezi, and Curzio Malaparte.Iliescu It was however, considered unequal by several critics, who took into measure Barbu's preference for , as well as his fluctuating narrative style.Grigurcu; Iliescu
Barbu also wrote several film scripts,Călin; Iliescu some of which were for films starring his wife, the actress Marga Barbu (Florin Piersic's Mărgelatu series).
One of the few persons trusted with official criticism on both political and literary issues during the communist regime — under Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, and especially under Nicolae CeaușescuMartin; Tismăneanu, p.183, 225 — he was noted for his early writings in praise of Soviet Union achievements such as the Sputnik program,Grigurcu and his progressive move to a more nationalist tone as this became condoned (and later encouraged).Grigurcu; Martin He was also involved in the censorship apparatus, a position which, some have argued, he used indiscriminately against his literary rivals.Grigurcu; Ioanid
He was several times elected to the Great National Assembly,Grigurcu; Teodorescu & Mihai until the plagiarism scandal prevented him from being again proposed for the office.Teodorescu & Mihai In 1977, Barbu won the Herder Prize, which permitted him to offer his protégé Tudor a scholarship year in Vienna.
During the 1970s and '80s, he notably launched verbal attacks against Romanian intellectuals who had defected the country, as well as against writers who were critical of the regime"File dintr-un..."; Tismăneanu, p.225 (the latter included Paul Goma, whom, in 1977, he called "a non-entity").Ioanid
Barbu's polemic articles were often obscene in tone,Tismăneanu, p.225 and their message offered Ceauşescu a nationalist support which Vladimir Tismăneanu has identified as "Chauvinism". By 1980, Tudor's editorials in Săptămâna drew complaints from members of the Jewish-Romanian community;Savaliuc consequently, Barbu and Tudor came under the attention of the Securitate. According to Ziua, a Securitate file of the time reveals that the two had begun questioning the détente between Romania and the United States, contradicting official policy, and theorizing that the Most favored nation status, which Romania had just received, was actually harming the country (while arguing that data to prove this had been kept hidden by a Jewish plot).
Many attacks focused on Monica Lovinescu, who was broadcasting Anti-communism messages on Radio Free Europe — in one instance during 1987, Barbu used his column in Săptămâna to belittle the work of Eugen Lovinescu, a major literary critic who was Monica Lovinescu's father; this drew criticism from the Romanian Communist Party (of which Barbu was a member) and alarm from the Securitate, as it went against more restrained official guidelines regarding the works of Eugen Lovinescu."File dintr-un..."
In early 2005, eleven years after his death, the satirical magazine Academia Cațavencu uncovered and publicized a Securitate file which seems to indicate that Barbu had sexual encounters with underage girls, provided by Tudor and paid for their services.Popescu Tudor initially called on the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives to explain if the find was real, and received a positive answer. He later vehemently dismissed the allegations, indicating that virtually all of the girls' personal data was not found in census records, and that Anita Barton, the only one of them to have actually been found, was aged 19 at the time of her alleged meeting with Barbu.
He died in Bucharest in 1993 and was buried at Bellu Cemetery, on Writer's Alley, close to Mihai Eminescu's resting place. His wife, Marga Barbu, was buried next to him when she died in 2009.
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