George Ion Diamandy or Diamandi, first name also Gheorghe or Georges (February 27, 1867 – December 27, 1917), was a Romanian politician, dramatist, social scientist, and archeologist. Although a rich landowner of aristocratic background, he was one of the pioneers of revolutionary socialism in France and Romania, obtaining international fame as founder of L'Ère Nouvelle magazine. He was an early affiliate of the Romanian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, but grew disenchanted with its radical policies, and, as a member of its "generous youth" faction, played a major part in dissolving it. With other members of this reformist group, he joined the National Liberal Party, serving as one of its representatives in Chamber.
Affected by heart disease from childhood, Diamandy had to maintain a low profile in politics, but was a vocal marginal within the National Liberal establishment. From 1910, he invested his energy in literature and cultural activism, chairing the National Theatre Bucharest and later the Romanian Writers' Society. He was pushed back to the forefront during the early stages World War I, when he supported an alliance with the Entente Powers. He advised Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu on the matter and was sent on diplomatic missions to the West, helping to cement France's trust for Romania. He fought in the ill-fated campaign of 1916, and withdrew to Iași, retaking his seat in Chamber.
During his final years, Diamandy became an advocate of democratic socialism, founding the Iași-based Labor Party and seeking the friendship of Russian Esers. The October Revolution caught him in Russia, but he escaped by way of Arkhangelsk, and died at sea while attempting to reach France.
George Diamandy was the brother and collaborator of diplomat Constantin I. Diamandy, and the posthumous grandfather of writer Oana Orlea. He is largely forgotten as a dramatist, but endures in cultural memory for his controversial politics and his overall eccentricity.
Biography
Early life George Diamandy, the son of landowner Ion "Iancu" Diamandy and Cleopatra Catargiu, was born in Idrici, Vaslui County,Călinescu, p. 657 or, by his own admission, in Bârlad.Diamandy, p. 69 Several sources, including Diamandy's own account, give his birth date as February 27, 1867 Florin Faifer, "Moșierul" , in Convorbiri Literare, April 2002 (George Călinescu, the literary historian, has October 27). His brother, Constantin "Costică", was born in 1870. Constantin and George also had a sister, Margareta, later married Popovici-Tașcă.
The Diamandys, of Greek origins, Mihai Sorin Rădulescu, "Diplomație și scris: familia Diamandy", in Ziarul Financiar, February 23, 2007 had made a slow climb into the aristocracy of Moldavia and, later, the Kingdom of Romania. One branch of the family, who used the name variant Emandi, produced diplomat Theodor Emandi. Iancu rose to high office, serving in Parliament and as Prefect of Tutova County.Butnaru I, p. 135 His wife Cleopatra belonged to the higher realms of the boyar aristocracy, and according to politician-memoirist Constantin Argetoianu, had passed her "pride" and "airs" to both her sons.
George, who always spoke Romanian with a thick and archaic Moldavian accent,Livescu, p. 130; Massoff, pp. 320–321 was first enlisted in school at Bârlad. However, having been infected with malaria, he had to spend much of his childhood taking seaside cures in France. He then returned to study at the United Institutes High School in Iași, where he notably put out a clandestine student magazine, Culbecul ("The Snail").Baiculescu et al., p. 779; Călinescu, p. 657 As noted by Călinescu, he was "absent-minded and rebellious." According to his own account, he was "mediocre", but "read extensively outside the curriculum". He disliked the school and claimed that it gave him rheumatism and heart problems.
His life course was changed by his discovery of socialism and proletarian internationalism, and he soon became their avid promoter. His brother had entirely different opinions in this respect, calling socialism "a farce".Gorovei, p. 152 George and his best friend Arthur Gorovei founded their own Socialist Club, which only lasted a few days.Gorovei, p. 151 Diamandy also published political articles in the review Contemporanul (the first one in 1887), following up with similar contributions to Munca and Raicu Ionescu-Rion's Critica Socială.Diamandy, p. 69; Petrescu, pp. 80–81, 90–91 He neglected his schoolwork and, in his own words, passed his Baccalaureate "more than anything because the professors were generous".
Diamandy also developed a passion for archeology, enjoying in particular the books of Gabriel de Mortillet and Theodor Mommsen.Gorovei, pp. 151, 153 He camped out with Nicolae Beldiceanu in Cucuteni, where he helped on the inventory of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture.Călinescu, p. 657; Gorovei, pp. 44–45, 48, 152–153 Diamandy was also a member of the Bârlad National Romanian Committee, which gathered funds and artifacts for the Romanian delegation to the 1889 Exposition Universelle.Georges Bibesco, Exposition universelle 1889. La Roumanie avant-pendant-après, Imprimerie Typographique J. Kugelmann, Paris, 1890, pp. 370, 385 He was working on a novel in the manner of Émile Zola, which, according to Gorovei, was over-detailed and boring.Gorovei, p. 153
Upon graduation, Diamandy volunteered for service in the Romanian Land Forces, spending a year and a half as an artillery man. Disliked because of his pranks ("which I for one found spirited"), he was moved to the 7th Artillery Regiment in Călărași, and, because once there he complained about the mistreatment of regulars by the officers, spent several months in the disciplinary barracks.Diamandy, pp. 69–70 He notes: "Just as I was ending my term as a volunteer, the captain, having learned that I had donned a civilian's outfit for a private party, ordered me in lockdown.—Lockdown meant no stove and no windows, so that's how I ended up with pneumonia."Diamandy, p. 70
L'Ère Nouvelle Diamandy went on to study Law at the University of Paris, but did very poorly, and was only granted half of his license; he completed the rest at Caen University. He pursued other scholarly interests, becoming a corresponding member of the Société Anthropologique. He published notices on Cucuteni, as well as studies on Bulgarian handicrafts and a sketch of Romanian anthropological criminology. Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris, IV° Série. Tome 1, 1890, pp. 406–408, 964–970 (republished by ) He also completed, in 1891, the historical demography tract Dépopulation et repeuplement de la France ("The Depopulation and Repopulation of France").Tamara Teodorescu, Rodica Fochi, Florența Sădeanu, Liana Miclescu, Lucreția Angheluță, Bibliografia românească modernă (1831–1918). Vol. II: D–K, Editura științifică și enciclopedică, Bucharest, 1986, p. 84. In parallel, he resumed his work in political journalism, with articles published in Le Journal, La Petite République, La Justice, Le Socialiste, and L'Art Social.
Taking over for the Romanian "revolutionary socialist" cell founded by Mircea and Vintilă Rosetti,Constantin Petculescu, "Lupta revoluționară și democratică a studențimii române. Tineri demni de tinerețea lor", in Magazin Istoric, June 1975, p. 36 he joined the "internationalist revolutionary student group" of the Latin Quarter, presided upon by Alexandre Zévaès. He was one of its delegates to the 1891 International Socialist Labor Congress in Brussels.Livet, pp. 567–568 According to his own account, he presided over the Congress proceedings. In December of that year, Diamandy sided with Zévaès' moderate leadership against the radical revolutionary minority.Livet, p. 566 The next year, in May, having been elected President of the student group, he was also delegated to the socialist feminist congress, where he obtained a nominal submission of socialist women to the program of a future internationalist party.Charles Sowerwine, Sisters or Citizens?: Women and Socialism in France since 1876, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1982, pp. 68–69. He and fellow Romanian expatriate Emil Racoviță were present at the Socialist and Labor Congress, convened at Zürich in 1893.
On July 1, 1893,Călinescu, p. 657; Derfler, p. 169; Livet, p. 583 Diamandy published the first issue of a "monthly for scientific socialism",Voisin, p. 405 L'Ère Nouvelle ("The New Era"). It viewed itself as both a literary and a sociological review: dedicated to promoting literary naturalism and historical materialism, openly provoking the reading public to explore the work of Zola, it attacked the "reactionary" critics. It also proudly called itself "eclectic".Voisin, p. 405. See also Derfler, p. 169; Livet, p. 583 L'Ère Nouvelle hosted articles by Marxist thinkers from the various countries of Europe: primarily Friedrich Engels and Paul Lafargue, but also Georgi Plekhanov, Clara Zetkin, Karl Kautsky, Jean Jaurès, Gabriel Deville, and Jules Guesde. Its regular contributors included Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, the Romanian Marxist doyen, Duc-Quercy, the French strike organizer, with the additional presence of Racoviță, Zévaès, Victor Jaclard, Alexandre Millerand, Adolphe Tabarant, Ilya Rubanovich, and Ioan Nădejde; Leó Frankel was the editorial secretary.Livet, p. 583. See also Diamandy, p. 70, Petrescu, pp. 80, 89
Also featured in the review, Georges Sorel was a senior syndicalist with Marxist leanings, not affiliated with either Guesde's French Workers' Party (POF) or Millerand's smaller socialist circle. Diamandy and Lafargue encouraged him to extend his forays into critical social history. Madeleine Rebérioux, "Notes critiques. Début du XXe siècle: socialistes et syndicalistes français", in Annales, Nr. 5/1964, pp. 986, 989–990 (republished by ); Sternhell, pp. 68–69 According to Sorel's own claim, his presence there was only made possible when non-revolutionary French socialists like Millerand had decided to boycott L'Ère Nouvelle.Sternhell, p. 69
Diamandy's magazine was poorly reviewed by the sociological establishment: writing for the Revue Internationale de Sociologie, André Voisin censured its "violence" and its "quite glaring partiality", but noted that some of the sociological pieces were "at the very least moderate in form".Voisin, p. 406 Sorel himself recalled: "G. Diamandy [...] was at the time a ferociously orthodox Marxist [...]. He spent more time in the taverns of Montmartre than at University. He was a jolly good chap, entirely unreliable. I kept seeing him after that time, he was still in Mortmartre, and seemingly heading toward alcoholism."Sorel, pp. 165–166 Reportedly, Diamandy was pulling pranks and farces on his socialist colleagues, even during their public functions.Gorovei, pp. 153–155
However, the publication itself had a significant, if indirect, impact on the French Left. Diamandy proudly noted that it was "France's first Marxist magazine". As historian Leslie Derfler writes, it was "the first theoretical journal in France" and an answer to Die Neue Zeit; for Sorel's disciples, it also signified a turn toward a "more authentic" and "Latin" Marxism.Derfler, pp. 169–170 As Sorel himself indicated a while after, this meant a split with orthodox Marxism, for the sake of "renewal".Sternhell, pp. 72–73 Diamandy unwittingly enticed the conflicts between Sorel and the POF when he wrote in L'Ère Nouvelle that, according to Guesde, one need not have read Marx to become a Marxist.Sternhell, p. 72
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