Elena A. Bacaloglu, also known as Bakaloglu, Bacaloglu-Densusianu, Bacaloglu-Densușeanu etc. (Francized Hélène Bacaloglu; December 19, 1878 – 1947 or 1949), was a Romanian journalist, literary critic, novelist and fascist militant. Her career in letters produced an introduction to the work of Maurice Maeterlinck (1903), several other critical essays, and two novels. She married and divorced writer Radu D. Rosetti, then Ovid Densusianu, the Symbolist poet and literary theorist.
Bacaloglu lived most of her later life in the Kingdom of Italy, where she affiliated with the literary and political circles. Her subsequent work included campaigns for Pan-Latinism and Romanian irredentism. This second career peaked upon the close of World War I, when Bacaloglu became involved with Italian fascism. Introduced to Benito Mussolini and Benedetto Croce, she helped transplant fascism on Romanian soil. Her National Italo-Romanian Cultural and Economic Movement was a minor and heterodox political party, but managed to earn attention with its advocacy of political violence.
This classical Romanian fascist movement merged into the more powerful National Romanian Fascio, then reconstructed itself under Bacalogu's own leadership. It survived the troubles of 1923, but was disbanded by government order in 1925, and was entirely eclipsed by the Iron Guard. Shunned by Mussolini, Bacaloglu lived her final decades in relative obscurity, enmeshed in political intrigues. Her fascist ideas were taken up by some in her family, including her brother Sandi and her son Ovid O. Densusianu.
Biography
Early life and literary debut The Bacaloglus, whose name is the Turkish for "grocer's son" (var. Bakkaloğlu),Alexandru Graur, Nume de persoane, Editura științifică, Bucharest, 1965, p.31. were a family of social and political importance, descending from the Bulgaro-Romanian Ion D. H. Bacaloglu, a recipient of the Order of Saint Stanislaus.Gheorghe G. Bezviconi, Necropola Capitalei, Nicolae Iorga Institute of History, Bucharest, 1972, p.58 Elena's ancestors were first mentioned in Bucharest about 1826, having settled in Wallachia as foreign nationals, and set up business as land speculators.George Potra, Documente privitoare la istoria orașului București (1800–1848), Editura Academiei, Bucharest, 1975, p.38, 247–248, 325–326, 525–526 Elena's father was Bucharest civil administrator Alexandru Bacaloglu (1845–1915), related to scientist Emanoil Bacaloglu. He was married to Sofia G. Izvoreanu (1854–1942). Alexandru and Sofia's children, other than Elena, were: Constantin (1871–1942), a University of Iași physician; Victor (1872–1945), an engineer, writer and journalist; and George (Gheorghe) Bacaloglu, an artillery officer and literary man.Babeș, p.12. Vital dates in Onofrei et al., p.239, 242 Another brother, lawyer Alexandru "Sandi" Bacaloglu, was less known until a 1923 incident propelled him into the public arena.Vestul României, Nr. 32/1923, p.3, 4
Elena was born in Bucharest on December 19, 1878.Calangiu et al., p.xxi Compared to other Romanian women of the fin de siècle, and even to some men, she was highly educated, taking her diplomas at the University of Bucharest Faculty of Letters and the Collège de France.Nastasă (2010), p.51, 117, 133–134, 310. See also Calangiu et al., p.xxi Her study interests were French culture, art history, and philosophy. Nicolae Scurtu, "Note despre prozatoarea Elena Bacaloglu" , in România Literară, Nr. 22/2015 It was in Paris (where she was chaperoned by Constantin Bacaloglu) that she met Ovid Densusianu, her future lover.Nastasă (2010), p.133–134 However, her first marriage was to Radu D. Rosetti, who was to become a highly successful lawyer and a minor neoromantic poet.Călinescu, p.593 Reportedly, she fell "madly in love", and convinced her reluctant parents to approve of him."Diverse. Din Capitală. Drama din strada Lucacĭ", in Epoca, June 18, 1898, p.2 They were engaged on December 19, 1896, and had their religious wedding in January of the next year, with politician Nicolae Filipescu as godfather."Ultime informațiuni", in Epoca, December 24, 1896, p.3 They had a daughter together.
The marriage did not last: by 1897, unable to make ends meet, Rosetti deserted his wife and daughter, who moved back into Alexandru Bacaloglu's home. In June 1898, she attempted suicide by shooting herself in the chest, and was saved by an emergency intervention on her right lung. The Rosetti–Bacaloglu divorce was registered in 1899.Nastasă (2010), p.51 On August 7, 1902,Calangiu et al., p.xxxv; Nastasă (2010), p.134 Elena married Ovid Densusianu, who was fast becoming the theoretician of Romanian Symbolism. Historian Lucian Nastasă describes theirs as an odd union. Elena was "extremely beautiful"; Ovid, much less educated than his wife, was also "short and limp".Nastasă (2010), p.50–51 They had a son, Ovid Jr (or Ovid O. Densusianu), born in March or April 1904.Calangiu et al., p.xxxviMaria Șveț, "Ovid-Aron Densușianu", in Calendar Național 2004: Anul Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt, National Library of Moldova, Chișinău, 2004, p.110.
Bacaloglu's editorial debut was in 1903, when Editura Socec published her monograph Despre simbolizm și Maeterlinck ("On Symbolism and Maeterlinck").Calangiu et al., p.xxi, xxxvi; Mitchievici, p.130–133; Onofrei et al., p.243 Together with the essays of Alexandru Bibescu (1893) and Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan (1908), it constitutes an early Romanian attempt to define the limits of Symbolism, Decadence and modernity. In Bacaloglu's interpretation, Symbolism and Decadentism were the two sides of a coin: while the Decadents gave voice to the late-19th-century "degeneration" of the Latin race, the Symbolists epitomized the Latin "revival", a triumph of mysteries and metaphysics. Straddling these two eras were Maeterlinck's Hothouses, which she was the first to discuss from a Romanian perspective.Mitchievici, p.131–133, 135 According to literary historian Angelo Mitchievici, Despre simbolizm tackles the literary critic's perspective as a "participatory-impressionistic formula, not lacking in refinement".Mitchievici, p.132
In 1906, Bacaloglu also published her psychological novel, În luptă ("In Combat"), followed in 1908 by another novelistic work, Două torțe ("Two Torches").Calangiu et al., p.xxi; Onofrei et al., p.243 Her writing was poorly reviewed by the literary chronicler at Viața Românească, who argued that În luptă was impossible to read through.P. N., "Recenzii. Elena Bacaloglu, În luptă", in Viața Românească, Nr. 4/1906, p.175–176 The book was presented to the Romanian Academy as a candidate for the annual literary prize, but was rejected with objections regarding Bacaloglu's "tortured" writing technique and her poor grasp of literary Romanian."Secțiunea literară. Premiul Năsturel", in Analele Academiei Române. Seria II, Vol. XXIX, 1906–1907, p.251, 266–267 Other magazines, including Noua Revistă RomânăElena Bacaloglu, "Vis și realitate", in Noua Revistă Română, Nr. 9/1908, p.129–137 and Convorbiri Critice,"Revista Revistelor", in Noua Revistă Română, Nr. 6/1909, p.306 hosted samples of her literary work.
Relocation to Italy Meanwhile, Bacaloglu had separated from Densusianu, divorcing him in 1904.Calangiu et al., p.xxxv; Nastasă (2010), p.57, 117, 275 Having traveled through much of Western Europe, she spent most of her time in Italy, writing articles for Il Giornale d'Italia, Madame, and the political magazine L'Idea Nazionale.Sallusto, p.174 For a few months in 1908, she had an affair with the poet-playwright Salvatore Di Giacomo, whose Assunta Spina she translated for Convorbiri Critice (August 1909). She later married a third time, to an Italian.Payne, p.135
In the early 1910s, Bacaloglu was living in Rome, where, in September 1912, she published a monograph about the love affair between Romanian poet Gheorghe Asachi and his Italian muse, Bianca Milesi.Calangiu et al., p.xxi; Călinescu, p.983; Onofrei et al., p.242–243 A recipient of the Bene Merenti medal, granted by the Romanian King Carol I,Burcea (2005), p.101 she translated into French the prose work of his consort, Carmen Sylva."Transeuntes literarios", in La Gaceta Literaria, Nr. 46/1928, p.4 She also represented Romania at the Castel Sant'Angelo National Exhibit, and, as "Hélène Bacaloglu", gave French-language conferences about Di Giacomo. During the period, she came into conflict with Romanian antiquarian Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș. Mandated by the Romanian government, Tzigara replaced Bacaloglu at the National Exhibit's Romanian Committee. He described Bacaloglu as an illegitimate, self-appointed, representative, and noted that the Italian press also mistrusted her abilities.Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș, Memorii. II: 1910–1918, Grai și Suflet – Cultura Națională, Bucharest, 1999, p.9. Bacaloglu presented her own version of the events in a protest to the curators, later published as a brochure."Memento", in Noua Revistă Română, Nr. 23/1912, p.356; Onofrei et al., p.243
Her conferences on Di Giacomo were received with more sympathy: Alberto Cappelletti gave them a good review in Il Giorno, and E. Console republished them as a fascicle, but all such collaborations ended abruptly when her collaborators became dissatisfied with her character and the quality of her prose.Sallusto, p.174–175 She still continued to be held in esteem by her Romanian peers and, in 1912, was voted into their Romanian Writers' Society.
Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Bacaloglu turned to political activism and interventionism, campaigning for still-neutral Romania to join the Entente Powers, and supporting the annexation of Romanian-inhabited Transylvania. To this goal, she published in Bucharest the Italian-language essay Per la Grande Rumania ("For Greater Romania") and the French-language Preuves d'amour. Conférences patriotiques ("Proofs of Love. Patriotic Conferences"). In Bacaloglu's activity, irredentism blended with the cause of Pan-Latinism. She joined the Pan-Latin association Latina Gens, which welcomed in members of all "Latin" nations and looked forward to a "Latin federation" of states.Tomi, p.280–282 Working for this organization, she became close to Italian General Luigi Cadorna, described by Romanian officials as her "protector", "2a tornata di venerdì 16 giugno 1922. Interrogazioni e interpellanza", in Atti Parlamentari. Legislatura XXVI: CXXVII, p.6329 and Foreign Minister Sidney Sonnino.
Her efforts to popularize the Romanian cause among the troops fighting on the northern Italian front were interrupted in October 1917 by the Battle of Caporetto, which Italy lost, forcing Bacaloglu to take refuge in Genoa. She subsequently played a part in creating the "Romanian Legion in Italy". Grouping Romanians from Transylvania and Italian sympathizers, this military formation fought the Central Powers in Italy. However, Bacalogu and Latina Gens were not invited at the Legion's founding ceremony, held at Cittaducale in June 1918.Tomi, p.281–282
According to Victor Babeș, the Transylvanian doctor and publicist, Elena Bacaloglu was "the great propagandist of Romanianism abroad, and especially so in Italy".Babeș, p.12 The cause of "Greater Romania" fascinated two of Bacaloglu's three brothers: Victor, the author of patriotic plays,Onofrei et al., p.242 created one of the first all-Romanian newspapers in Bessarabia; George fought with distinction during the war of 1916, fulfilled several diplomatic missions, and was later a Prefect of Bihor County, Transylvania.Babeș, p.12–13 Elena, Constantin and Victor were all correspondents for George Bacaloglu's cultural review, Cele Trei Crișuri, well into the 1930s.Ileana-Stanca Desa, Elena Ioana Mălușanu, Cornelia Luminița Radu, Iliana Sulică, Publicațiile periodice românești (ziare, gazete, reviste). Vol. V, 1: Catalog alfabetic 1931–1935, Editura Academiei, Bucharest, 2009, p.261.
Fascist experiment