Iorgu Iordan

 ( 1888 Births ) 

A Poporanism who had joined the circle formed around Viața Românească, Iordan engaged in politics during 1918, and was active, alongside Paul Bujor, Constantin Ion Parhon, Octav Băncilă, Ioan Borcea, and Nicolae Costăchescu, in the short-lived Laborer Party ( Partidul Muncitor).Bozgan, p.321, 326 Iordan followed it into the merger with the Peasants' Party (PȚ), and, after 1926, sat on the Left of the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ, created as the union between the PȚ and the Romanian National Party).Bozgan, p.321

Four years later, he quit the PNȚ for unknown reasons, and was subsequently active in marginal Anti-fascism political groupings connected with the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), encouraged by the Comintern as an effect of the Popular Front doctrine.Bozgan, p.321-322 He contributed to the leftist press, took part, alongside Petre Constantinescu-Iași and Ion Niculi, in forming the Amicii URSS ("Friends of the Soviet Union") society, and was believed by the far right to be a communist.Bozgan, p.322-323 In 1933, he was engaged in the transformation of the Teachers' Association into a trade union (during a congress in Chișinău).Bozgan, p.324, 326

He was a staunch adversary of the Fascism Iron Guard, and supported Rector Traian Bratu in his confrontation with the latter.Bozgan, p.324-325, 326 When the Guard came to power in 1940 ( see National Legionary State), Iordan was subject to an inquiry, which decided in favor of his early retirement; he was reinstated in 1941, when the government was replaced at the end of the Legionary Rebellion,Bozgan, p.323-325 and, despite later claims that he was an active opponent, kept a low profile during Ion Antonescu's dictatorship ( see Romania during World War II).Bozgan, p.325, 327

After Romania's withdrawal from the Axis Powers and the start of Soviet occupation in late 1944, he joined the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSD), which was falling under PCR control.Bozgan, p.324, 327, 328 He supported the eventual merger of the PSD and the PCR, and was a member of the latter after 1947,Bozgan, p.327 and affiliated with the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union.

Iordan was appointed ambassador to the Soviet Union in August 1945 – during a period when left-leaning became the predilect candidates for the diplomatic corps.Betea; Bozgan, p.329 He resigned in 1947, a gesture which coincided with moves by the PCR to have diplomatic offices placed under tighter political control.Betea

Before his appointment to Moscow, Iordan was placed at the head of committees which were overseeing the purging of real or alleged pro-Nazi Germany from educational institutions; although he faced criticism over his initial PSD affiliation (which was attributed to "his low ideological level at the time"),Constantin Balmuș, in Bozgan, p.327 following the establishment of a communist regime in 1947–1948, he was engaged in a campaign to uncover and take measures against political opponents and critics of totalitarianism.Bozgan, p.325, 328

In 1946, he moved to Bucharest, and was dean of the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Letters and Philosophy (1947–1948; 1956–1957), as well as rector (1957–1958).Bozgan, p.320-321 His appointment in the capital, together with those of Andrei Oțetea and Constantin Balmuș, was in itself a measure to combat the presence of Anti-communism inside the university's structure.Bozgan, p.332 At the same time, Iordan's admission to the academy (like those of Gala Galaction, Victor Eftimiu, Alexandru Rosetti, and Ion Agârbiceanu) was compensation for the massive purge inside the institution.Frunză, p.374

Among those whose career was affected a result of Iordan's verdicts was the writer Paul Goma (expelled from the Literature Institute for, among others, having questioned the scientific value of Moldovenism and the status of Russian language as the foreign language of choice in Romanian schools).Rădulescu After briefly serving as head of the National Theater Iași (in 1945, during the time when it had taken refuge in Sibiu), Iordan was also present on the board of Editura Cartea Rusă, which published works of Russian literature.Bozgan, p.328-329

In 1955, following Ion Nestor and Eugenia Zaharia's thesis regarding the Romanian specificity of the 9th–11th century Dridu culture ( see Origin of the Romanians), he was appointed head of Comisia pentru studierea formării poporului român ("Committee for the Study of the Romanian People's Formation"), which signified an early move against the Stalinism rhetoric encouraged during the previous years, and an official rejection of Mihail Roller's views on the role of the Slavic peoples in Romanian ethnogenesis.Madgearu Iordan himself supported the view that Romanians had been formed both north and south of the Danube.Boia, p.126

Iordan is buried at Bellu Cemetery, in Bucharest.

• Rumanische Toponomastik, Bonn & Leipzig, Kurt Schroeder Verlag, 1924.
• Istoria literaturii italiene, Iași, Universitatea din Iași, 1928.
• Introducere în studiul limbilor romanice. Evoluția și starea actuală a lingvisticii romanice, Iași, Institutul de Filologie Română, 1932.
• Gramatica limbii române, Bucharest, 1937 (2 nd ed. 1946).
• Limba română actuală. O gramatică a „greșelilor” , Iași, Institutul de Arte Grafice „Alexandru A. Terek”, 1943 (2 nd ed. 1947).
• Stilistica limbii române, Bucharest, Institutul de Linguistică Română, 1944 (2 nd ed. 1975).
• Lingvistica romanică. Evoluție. Curente. Metode, Bucharest, Editura Academiei, 1962 (2 nd ed. 1970).
• Toponimia românească, Bucharest, Editura Academiei, 1963.
• Istoria limbii literare spaniole, Bucharest, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică, 1963.
• Introducere în lingvistica romanică, Bucharest, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică, 1965 (in collaboration with Maria Manoliu).
• Structura morfologică a limbii române contemporane, Bucharest, Editura Științifică, 1967 (in collaboration with Valeria Guțu Romalo, Alexandru Niculescu).
• Scrieri alese, Bucharest, Editura Academiei, 1968.
• Alexandru I. Philippide, Bucharest, Editura Științifică, 1969.
• Crestomație romanică, vol. I-III, Bucharest, Editura Academiei, 1962-1974 (co-ordination).
• Memorii, vol. I-III, Bucharest, Editura Eminescu, 1976–1979.
• Limba română contemporană, Bucharest, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică, 1978 (in collaboration with Vladimir Robu).
• Dicționar al numelor de familie românești, Bucharest, Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, 1983.
• Istoria limbii române (Pe-nțelesul tuturora), Bucharest, Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, 1983.
• Manual de linguistica romanica, Madrid, Gredos, 1989 (in collaboration with Maria Manoliu, Manuel Alvar).

• Lavinia Betea, "Moscova sau Londra?" ("Moscow or London?"), in Jurnalul Național, April 18, 2006
• Lucian Boia, History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness, Central European University Press, 2001
• Ovidiu Bozgan, "Traiectorii universitare: de la stânga interbelică la comunism" ("University Trajectories: from Interwar Left to Communism"), in Lucian Boia, ed., Miturile comunismului românesc ("The Myths of Romanian Communism"), Editura Nemira, Bucharest, 1998, p. 309-335
• Victor Frunză, Istoria stalinismului în România, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1990
• , Cultura Dridu și evoluția poziției României în lagărul socialist ("The Dridu Culture and the Evolution of Romania's Position inside the Socialist Camp")
• Zigu Ornea, Viața lui C. Stere, Vol. I, Cartea Românească, Bucharest, 1989
• Mihai Rădulescu, Patimile după Paul Goma ("The Calvary According to Paul Goma")