Petre P. Carp (; also known as Petrache Carp, Francized Pierre Carp, Ioana Pârvulescu, "O adresă high-life" , in România Literară, Nr. 25/2010 occasionally Comte Carpe;Evans-Gordon, pp.168, 191, 304 1837 – 19 June 1919) was a Romanian statesman, political scientist and culture critic, one of the major representatives of Romanian liberal conservatism, and twice the country's Prime Minister (1900–1901, 1910–1912). His youth was intertwined with the activity of the Junimea club, which he co-founded with critic Titu Maiorescu as a literary society, and then helped transform it into a political club. He left behind a budding career as Junimeas polemicist and cultural journalist, joining the state bureaucracy of the United Principalities, the Romanian diplomatic corps, and ultimately electoral politics. A speaker for aristocratic sentiment and the Romanian gentry, Carp helped create the Conservative Party from the various "White" conservative clubs (1880), but also led a Junimist dissident wing against the Conservative mainstream leaders Lascăr Catargiu and Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino. He was a contributor to the Junimea platform Convorbiri Literare, and founder of the newspapers Térra (1868) and Moldova (1915).
Widely seen as unyielding and trenchant in his public stance, and respected as an orator, P. P. Carp stood against the majority current in various political debates. His entire discourse was an alternative to the protectionist, antisemitic and populist tendencies of "Red" Romanian liberalism. Welcoming Westernization and free trade, his vision of development nonetheless rested on gradualism and criticized modern experiments in governance. The two Carp administrations are remembered for their fiscal reforms, their encouragement of foreign investments, and their attempted clampdown on political corruption.
A Germanophile and a Russophobe, Carp gathered consensus for steering the Kingdom of Romania into the Triple Alliance, but his external policy became entirely unpopular by the start of World War I. During that time, he was the only prominent public figure to demand a declaration of war against the Entente Powers. He came out of retirement during the German occupation of Romania, when he inspired fellow Conservative Lupu Kostaki to set up a collaborationist territorial government. This final project caused his fall into disgrace once the legitimate government regained control.
Biography
Early life and education Carp was a scion of the old boyar class in Moldavia: his family has attested roots going back to the 17th century, and believed by some to have originated in the Baltic region. Adriana Oprea-Popescu, "Omul potrivit la locul potrivit", in Jurnalul Național, December 12, 2005 The Carps were related to other noble houses, including the Cozadinis, the Racovițăs and the Kostakis. Nicolae Iorga, Studiĭ și documente privitoare la istoria românilor. Cărți domnești, zapise și documente. II: Prefață , Romanian Academy, Bucharest, 1882, pp.7–8 (online version at the University of Bucharest Unibuc CLASSICA ) They owned the manorial estate of Țibănești, formed over the centuries by the accumulation of yeomen farmland and still a lucrative business in their lifetime. Mihai Dim. Sturdza, "Junimea, societate secretă" , in Convorbiri Literare, June 2004 Carp's father, also known as Petre (Petru), was a Spatharios of the Princely Court, then Stolnic. Educated abroad during the earliest wave of Westernization, fascinated by Enlightenment ideals and the Carboneria, he took part in political agitation before the Moldavian Revolution of 1848. His wife, Petre P. Carp's mother, was Smaranda Radul, from the boyar branch of Dealu Mare. The couple had another son, who died at birth.
The future Conservative leader was born in the Moldavian capital of Iași. When he was still a young child, his father took him on his first trip out of Moldavia: they traveled by stagecoach through the Austrian Empire, and then to Prussia. In Berlin, Petre Jr enlisted at the bilingual Französisches Gymnasium, and lived in the house of its Huguenot headmaster, L'Hardy.Vianu, p.76 Young Carp received a classical education in literature, and was noted as a connoisseur of works by Homer, J. W. Goethe, and especially William Shakespeare. He took his Matura with the highest grade of his class, and then studied Law and Politics at the University of Bonn. Carp affiliated with a notorious student fraternity, the Corps Borussia. According to literary historian Tudor Vianu, this aristocratic influence Germanized his views and his public persona, from "the slightly aggressive ego" and the passion for dueling to the wearing of a monocle. It was in Bonn that Carp made his debut as an orator. On behalf of the student fraternities, Carp welcomed Jérôme, cousin of French Emperor Napoleon III, and was remarked by the visitor for his "clear" and intellectually honest political stance. Carp's future colleague, Moldavian Iacob Negruzzi, also briefly met him as a student, and first noticed in him the potential statesman.Vianu, p.7
Junimea creation
Carp was in Prussia when Moldavia merged with Wallachia to create the United Principalities (the first step to a unified Romania). He returned to Iași in autumn 1862, having just turned 25, and soon after dedicated himself to reanimating the city's intellectual scene. Carp embarked on a long friendship with the like-minded Titu Maiorescu. They shared an appreciation of Prussia and a German education, but joined hands with the Francophile Vasile Pogor; the three of them set up Junimea, originally a literary club with only some political ambitions. Lawyer Theodor Rosetti, considered the fourth founder, joined in 1863, followed in 1864 by Negruzzi. Although the society was always dominated by Francophiles, Carp and Maiorescu together exercised such authority that the Germanophile platform was never challenged from within.Boia (2010), pp.62–63
From its inception, the Junimea group supported dialogue over class divides. Theodor Rosetti's family, the Rosettis, were a famous political clan, and he was himself the brother-in-law of united Romania's first ruler, Domnitor Alexander John Cuza (wedded to Elena Rosetti). Petre Brașoveanu, "Cum era sa fie înlocuit Ferdinand cu Franz Joseph" , in Historia online edition; retrieved February 10, 2012Cristescu, p.64; Vianu, p.83 As philosopher Virgil Nemoianu notes, Rosetti and Carp were the highest-ranked boyars among the Junimist founders. Virgil Nemoianu, "Junimea: continuități și rețele internaționale" , in Convorbiri Literare, April 2010 Maiorescu was the only core member not to come from a wealthy family, and privately resented his aristocratic colleagues, Carp included, for their condescending behavior.Călinescu, pp.395, 399, 506 However, Carp also used his nobleman's upbringing to Maiorescu's advantage, when he promised to duel all those who would mention Maiorescu's alleged sexual misconduct. Andrei Oișteanu, "Din nou despre duelul la români" , in România Literară, Nr. 37/2005; Vianu, p.34
P. P. Carp's initial contribution to Junimist activities was as a man of letters. In a public reading at Maiorescu's home, the first such event in Junimea history, he introduced his own translation from Shakespeare's Macbeth, probably done from the English. Marina Cap Bun, "Caragiale și Shakespeare" , in Drama, Nr. 1-2/2005 Constantin Coroiu, "Junimea – cultură și politică", in Cultura, Nr. 257, January 2010 Silvia Craus, "Balurile Junimii" , in Ieșeanul, February 28, 2006Vianu, p.77 He kept a vivid interest in such work over the next years, translating Othello (printed under Junimea patronage in 1868), articles from the British cultural press, and the scientific travelogues of Alexander von Humboldt. Silvia Bocancea, "P.P. Carp. Cariera politică a unui conservator convins" , in Sfera Politicii, Nr. 153 He also lectured freely on literary or historical subjects, including "Ancient and Modern Tragedy" or "Three Caesars".Vianu, pp.76–77
The literary reunions attracted interest and became noisy banquets, the atmosphere of which is documented by Negruzzi's memoirs. He notes that Carp hardly ever consumed alcohol in public, but that, when he did, he was a sentimental drunk. Liviu Papuc, "Banchete junimiste" , in Convorbiri Literare, April 2010 The Junimea debates were lively and sprinkled with biting ad hominem. Young Carp casually addressed the audience with the insult gogomani ("dopes"), and it became a badge of pride for the oldest Junimists to have been identified as such.Vianu, pp.17–18 The inside joke was replicated among the more minor Junimists. They casually misspelled Carp's surname as Chirp (pretending to follow the obscure lexical theories of folklorist Ioan D. Caragiani); also, during one Junimea party, novelist Nicolae Gane staged a puppet show in which Carp and Maiorescu were the main characters. Liviu Papuc, "Păpușile Junimii" , in Convorbiri Literare, October 2008
1866 conspiracy and mission to France By 1865, Carp had all but abandoned the cultivation of literature, throwing his hat into politics: following Th. Rosetti's intercession, he became an auditor for Cuza's Council of State, leaving for Bucharest. The interval corresponded with the emergence of major political currents, formed around the two halves of a pro-Cuza "National Party": the "Red" camp, as an early manifestation of Romanian liberalism; the "Whites", as mainly proponents of traditional conservatism. Silvia Bocancea, "Tribulațiile unui partid de cadre. Partidul Conservator (1880)" , in Sfera Politicii, Nr. 162Stanomir, pp.46–54 More attracted to the "White" half of the spectrum, Carp became especially active in the national journals (Cugetarea, Revista Dunării), mainly as a critic of Romania's "Red" liberalism and of some emergent left-wing tendencies.
This was the time of Carp's first-ever polemic with the historian and "Red" ideologue Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu. Carp's 1865 piece, published in the local paper Cugetarea under the pen name P. Bătăușul ("P. the Bully"), attacked Hasdeu's biography of the medieval despot Ion Vodă cel Cumplit, and specifically its advocacy of absolute monarchy and populism.Boia (2000), pp.294–295; Ornea (1998), pp.297–298; Vianu, p.77 A year later, Carp was lending his pen to the Junimist satire of Hasdeu's historical method. In 1867, he also gave an exceptionally harsh review to Hasdeu's historical play, Răzvan și Vidra,Călinescu, p.440; Ornea (1998), pp.105–106, 298; Vianu, p.78 and attacked his historical research in the "White" review Gazeta de Iassi.Mihai Dim. Sturdza, "Junimea, societate secretă (II)" , in Convorbiri Literare, July 2004
As a defender of the parliamentary system, Carp disliked the authoritarian regime slowly introduced by the Domnitor. He and Pogor were the two anti-Cuzists of Junimea, whereas the other contributors remained neutral on the issue. In February 1866, Carp joined the political conspiracy which forced Alexander John Cuza into exile. Romania's Regents (the Princely Lieutenancy) appointed him their Intimate Secretary. He was also kept on as auditor pro bono. Carp soon rallied with the supporters of rule by a foreign dynasty, and, in Desbaterile gazette, advocated the dissolution of Parliament in preparation for the April plebiscite. When the list of candidates was narrowed down to Carol (Karl) of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Premier Ion Ghica sent Carp on his first diplomatic assignment, a secret mission to Napoleon III—Carp was to inquire about possible French objections to the enthronement of this Prussian prince, and recorded the Emperor's mild approval. Ghica and Carp, who were trying to contain a wave of separatist and anti-Prussian movements at home, registered a moral victory (made possible by the assistance of socialite Hortense Cornu, a personal friend of Napoleon's).