Zamfir Constantin Arbore (; born Zamfir Ralli, , Zemfiriyi Konstantinovich Arborye-Ralli; also known as Zamfir Arbure, Zamfir Rally, Zemphiri Ralli and Aivaza;Felea (1971), p. 9 14 November 1848 – 2 or 3 April 1933) was a Bukovinian-born Romanian political activist originally active in the Russian Empire, also known for his work as an amateur historian, geographer and ethnographer. Arbore debuted in left-wing politics from early in life, gained an intimate knowledge of the Russian revolutionary milieu, and participated in both nihilist and Narodnik conspiracies. Self-exiled to Switzerland, he became a member of the International Workingmen's Association. Arbore was mostly active as an international anarchist and a disciple of Mikhail Bakunin, but eventually parted with the latter to create his independent group, the Revolutionary Community. He was subsequently close to the anarchist geographer Élisée Reclus, who became his new mentor.
Arbore settled in Romania after 1877, and, abandoning anarchism altogether, committed himself to the more moderate cause of socialism. His campaign against Russian despotism also led him to champion the cause of freedom for Bessarabia region, to which he was personally tied by his family history. These commitments resulted in Arbore's outside support for the Russian Revolution of 1905, when he and Petru Cazacu founded the Swiss-based Basarabia newspaper. Arbore had by then earned academic credentials with his detailed works on Bessarabian geography, and, as a cultural journalist, cultivated relationships with socialist and National Liberal activists. He was also notoriously the friend of poet Mihai Eminescu in the 1880s, and worked closely with writer Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu during the 1890s.
During World War I, Zamfir Arbore provoked controversy when he supported a Romanian alliance with the Central Powers, justified in his opinion by a need to liberate Bessarabia. Despite this, and although he publicly welcomed the October Revolution, Arbore was reintegrated into the political scene of Greater Romania, serving two terms in Senate. Before his death in 1933, he was drawn into agrarian and cooperativist politics, and was successively a member of the Peasants' Party and the People's Party. Arbore was survived by his two daughters, both of them famous in their own right: Ecaterina was a communist politician and physician; Nina a modern artist.
Biography
Origins and early life
Zamfir Ralli was the scion of boyar aristocracy from the principality of Moldavia: his paternal grandfather Zamfirache Ralli was an ennobled Greek merchant, married into the local Romanian elite; Zamfir's mother was an ethnic Ukrainian.Boia, p. 143, 144. Zamfirache Ralli's name mentioned in Felea (1971), p. 8 Although cosmopolitan, the future activist always prioritized his Romanian roots, changing his birth name to Arbore (var. Arbure) in the belief that his Romanian ancestors had inherited the name and boyar status from the ancient Arbore family.Boia, p. 143 Armand Goșu, "Despre boieri, fără prejudecăți" , in Revista 22, Nr. 778, February 2005 Zamfirache's son Constantin, the friend of poet Alexander Pushkin, was reputedly adopted by Dimitrie Arbore.Felea (1971), p. 8 He also inherited the Ralli family mansion, a Bessarabian manorial estate in Dolna, which in the 1820s had served as the Pushkin's vacation house. "Zamfir Arbore" , biographical entry at the United National Grand Lodge of Romania ; retrieved 1 February 2011
The subsequent genealogical claim traced the family history back to the late 15th century, with Hetman Luca Arbore. It also made Zamfir a distant relative of various members of Romanian socialist environment, including Vasile Morțun and Izabela Sadoveanu. Alexandra Andrei, "Omul și arta. Izabela Sadoveanu", in Timpul de Gorj, Nr. 8 (416), 22–28 February 2008 The claim's reliability divides modern researchers. While historian of journalism Victor Frunză sees Arbore as descending "from an ancient family of local boyars",Frunză, p. 48 academic Lucian Boia describes Zamfir Arbore as being tied to the historical Arbores by "a rather thin line". Boia also notes that Arbore's "revised past" and arbitrary interpretation of his own background may have been opportunistic, leaving Arbore free to gravitate between conflicting national identities and rendering his radical discourse more palatable for all cultural contexts.Boia, p. 144 According to political scientist Armand Goșu, Arbore had effectively "stolen" his grandmother's maiden name, reviving an otherwise extinct boyar line.
Although mostly active in Bessarabia, Arbore was actually a native of Chernowitz (), the administrative center of Bukovina within the Austrian Empire (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine).Maria Lidia, Martin Veith, "Memoirs of an Anarchist in Romania. Zamfir C. Arbure (Ralli)" , in KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library, No. 57, March 2009 He later moved into Bessarabia (the Russian-ruled Bessarabian Governorate), attending school in Kishinev (Chișinău), before moving to another school in Nikolayev. During his troubled youth, Arbore-Ralli underwent medical training in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, but was more involved within the revolutionary, nihilist and pan-Russian anarchist underground, with the goal of subverting Tsarist autocracy.Boia, p. 143. See also Felea (1971), p. 8 His political sympathies also connected him with the Narodnik movement, which he joined at the same time as other young Bessarabian intellectuals (Victor Crăsescu, Axinte Frunză, Constantin Stere, Nicolae Zubcu-Codreanu) who saw a link between their nationalist struggle and the agrarian cause of Russian Narodniks Leonid Cemortan, "Drama intelectualilor basarabeni de stînga" , in Revista Sud-Est, Nr. 3/2000 Henri H. Stahl, "Capitolul VII. Curentul gândirii socialiste" , in Gânditori și curente de istorie socială românească , e-book version at the University of Bucharest Faculty of Sociology; retrieved 1 February 2011 (he is believed to have been personally acquainted with the agrarian theorist and Narodnik father figure Alexander Herzen).
In Switzerland
The subversive activities brought Zamfir to the attention of Tsarist authorities, particularly after his involvement in Sergey Nechayev's nihilist conspiracy of 1869.Societatea de Mâine (May 1933), p. 93. See also Billington, p. 397, 398, 620; Ulam, p. 152, 177; Woodcock, p. 343 Unable to finish his studies, Arbore was singled out for arrest, and according to his own account, since placed under doubt, even served time as a political prisoner in the Peter and Paul Fortress and in Siberia.Societatea de Mâine (May 1933), p. 93; Felea (1971), p. 8 George Stanca, "Surse de documentare la Pamfil Șeicaru. Studiu de caz: eseul Relațiile româno-ruse" , in the Babeș-Bolyai University's Ephemerides, Nr. 2/2010, p. 94 "Atentatul dela Dobrițin. Părerea unui bărbat competent" , in Românul (Arad), Nr. 40/1914, p. 6 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University Transsylvanica Online Library ) Eventually, he made his way to Switzerland, where he contacted international anarchist figures such as Mikhail Bakunin and Élisée Reclus.Boia, p. 143; Felea (1971), p. 8-9, 10 Arbore corresponded with the latter for a significant period, sharing his interest in social geography.Felea (1971), p. 9, 10. See also Register of the Nicolaevsky Collection, Series No. 183, p. 141 His complex relationship with radical exiles also resulted in contacts with anarcho-communist theorist Peter KropotkinRegister of the Nicolaevsky Collection, Series No. 183, p. 140; Series No. 212, p. 159 and the Bulgarian anarchist sympathizer Hristo Botev.Christu, p. 17-18, 20; Felea (1971), p. 10 He was also, with philosopher Vasile Conta, one of the few intellectuals with a Romanian background to affiliate directly with the International Workingmen's Association (First International), which regrouped the various Marxist and anarchist communities of Europe.Keith Hitchins, "Rumania", in Marcel van der Linden, Jürgen Rojahn, The Formation of Labour Movements, 1870-1914: an International Perspective, Brill Publishers, Leiden, 1990, p. 374. In tandem, Arbore was active within Bakunin's Revolutionary Brotherhood, and, according to anarchist historian George Woodcock, one of the "most influential" among the Russian propagators of Bakuninism;Woodcock, p. 343 political historian James H. Billington also refers to "Zemfiry Ralli" as "Bakunin's principal editor".Billington, p. 397
Arbore's beliefs led him to join the Jura federation, an anarchist cell within the First International, and to become initiated into Freemasonry (1872). He became strongly opposed to Bakunin's marginalization during the First International's Hague Congress, and signed his name (Z. Ralli) to a letter of protest, alongside Nikolay Ogarev.Michel Mervaud, Socialisme et liberté: la pensée et l'action de Nicolas Ogarev (1813-1877), University of Rouen & Institut des Études Slaves, Roen, 1984, p. 531. Also in 1872, Arbore also helped draft the German-language pamphlet which documented Bakunin's condemnation of Nechayev: Ist Netshaejeff ein politischer Verbrecher oder nicht? ("Is Nechayev a Political Felon, or Is He Not?").Register of the Nicolaevsky Collection, Series No. 161, p. 129 With Bakunin and Errico Malatesta, he was personally involved in the anarchist agitation sweeping Restoration Spain during the 1870s: he personally helped translate Bakunin's letter to the Iberian anarchists, but their hopes of inciting a new revolution were unsuccessful; progressively after that moment, Arbore and Bakunin grew estranged from one another. According to Woodcock, the reason behind this "personal" rather than ideological conflict was Bakunin's "tactless" support for Arbore's adversary Mikhail Sanzhin, leading Arbore and his partners, the "young Bakuninists", to establish the Revolutionary Community organization. The reasons and objectives of this group, whose other members were Vladimir Holstein, Alexander Oelsnitz and Nikolai Ivanovich Zhukovsky, were outlined in a letter to Jura anarchist James Guillaume.Register of the Nicolaevsky Collection, Series No. 183, p. 141
Moving from Zurich to Geneva, and known primarily as Ralli, Arbore ran a socialist publishing house, through which he helped popularize the political manifestos of anarchism, as well as his own history of the Paris Commune.Felea (1971), p. 8-9 He was among those who established, in 1875, the Genevan Russian-language newspaper Rabotnik ("The Worker"), which bridged the "young Bakuninist" faction with the Eser Party of Vera Figner and Reclus' St. Imier International.Woodcock, p. 343-344. See also Register of the Nicolaevsky Collection, Series No. 183, p. 139 One of his colleagues there, future astronomer Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov, recalled that Arbore was actively involved in redacting news arriving from Russia, manipulating them for dramatic effect and political conformity.Ulam, p. 256 In 1875, he also wrote and published the anarchist tract Sytye i golodnye ("The Sated and the Hungry"), as well as an appeal to Ukrainian peasants in the Russian Empire.Register of the Nicolaevsky Collection, Series No. 161, p. 129; Series No. 183, p. 141
The Swiss period was the start of his new family life. Arbore was by then married, to the Russian Ecaterina Hardina.Gheorghe G. Bezviconi, Necropola Capitalei, Nicolae Iorga Institute of History, Bucharest, 1972, p. 53Vladislav I. Grosul, "Emigrație rusă în România", in Magazin Istoric, April 2011, p. 49 The dowry she brought helped maintain his new publishing venture. His eldest child was daughter Ecaterina Arbore-Ralli, the future communist, feminist and militant physician, born on 11 November 1873, at Bex.Felea (1971), p. 11 His son Dumitru (Mitică) was born on 11 January 1877, in Geneva.Felea (1971), p. 13
Relocation to Romania