39 Facts About Nicolae Xenopol

Politically, Nicolae Xenopol moved away from conservatism and was embraced by the liberal current, serving as editor of two liberal newspapers: Romanul and Vointa Nationala.

Nicolae Xenopol had a successful career in electoral politics, which began within the National Liberal Party and later saw him joining the Conservative-Democratic Party.

Nicolae Xenopol was the author of two realistic novels criticizing the social environment of his day.

Late in his life, N Xenopol supported Romania's involvement in World War I alongside the Entente Powers.

Nicolae Xenopol died while carrying out his final mission, as Romania's first Ambassador to Japan.

The Nicolae Xenopol brothers were of foreign origins: their father, known locally as Dimitrie, was a British and Greek subject of the Protestant faith, who settled in the port of Galati and converted to Romanian Orthodoxy.

Nicolae Xenopol was born in the Moldavian capital, Iasi, as one of Dimitrie's six children: he had two brothers and three sisters.

Nicolae Xenopol worked during most of college, and, for a while, gave up, trying to enlist in the Romanian Land Forces, or concentrating on writing his novel Brazi si putregai.

Nicolae Xenopol made his debut as a novelist and a realist writer with the humorous work Pasurile unui american in Romania, serialized by Junimeas Convorbiri Literare journal from late 1879 to mid 1880.

Nicolae Xenopol was at the time involved with the newspaper Romanul, a mouthpiece of left-wing liberalism, and became its main editor.

Nicolae Xenopol called for Slavici's novels to be studied by other writers, and then be used in creating an urban-themed, fully modern, literature.

In short time, Nicolae Xenopol affiliated with the National Liberal Party, whereas Junimea had become an inner faction of the Conservative group.

Also then, Xenopol welcomed the Belgian visitor Emile Louis Victor de Laveleye, arranging him a meeting with C A Rosetti.

Nicolae Xenopol collected such articles, adding his own, into the brochure Contrazicerile d-lui T Maiorescu.

Nicolae Xenopol himself was still a passionate duelist, and, in one other instance, is said to have charged an adversary with a blade after their duel of pistols ended in a draw.

Nicolae Xenopol's conference, published as a booklet later in the year, was a satire of Romanian politics, and carried the title Hatirul.

Nicolae Xenopol married, in 1887, the daughter of Baicoianu, Prefect of Mehedinti County.

Still a PNL man, Nicolae Xenopol was first elected to the Assembly of Deputies during the 1895 suffrage, and preserved his seat for several mandates, before moving to a similar position in the Senate.

Nicolae Xenopol was a member of all successive Romanian legislatures until 1917.

In parallel, N Xenopol carried on with his cultural initiatives.

Nicolae Xenopol made his return to journalism in 1904, when he founded a French-language magazine, Le Mouvement Economique, directed by him until 1915.

In January 1908, Nicolae Xenopol affiliated with a Conservative splinter group, which became the Conservative-Democratic Party and had Take Ionescu for leader.

Also then, Nicolae Xenopol was made Officer of the French Republic's Legion of Honor.

In 1911, Nicolae Xenopol joined his brother Alexandru and fellow critic Mihail Dragomirescu in editing the journal Tara Noua.

Nicolae and Alexandru Xenopol were both involved in nationalistic agitation for the cause of Romanians in Transylvania and other regions of Austria-Hungary.

Nicolae Xenopol was supposed to testify as to whether Socor had been right to call Cuza a plagiarist, but he recused himself.

That year, after the PNL and the PCD toppled the Conservative-Junimist Premier Petre P Carp, and Maiorescu formed a governing alliance with Take Ionescu, Xenopol joined the administration.

Ionescu, Constantin Dissescu, Alexandru Badarau and Nicolae Xenopol, who took over the Ministry of Commerce, were the four PCD ministers in Maiorescu's cabinet.

The irregular character and the staff appointments by government were rather controversial, and Nicolae Xenopol's policies earned much criticism in the Romanian media of the 1910s.

In May 1913, Nicolae Xenopol visited the Kingdom of Italy, trying to increase the share of Italian investments in his country.

Nicolae Xenopol joined a trans-party irredentist group called Federatia Unionista, presided upon by his former Conservative enemy Nicolae Filipescu, with Ionescu as Vice President.

In 1916, Nicolae Xenopol returned to publishing with a French-language study, La Richesse de la Roumanie.

Nicolae Xenopol contended that the imports from Austria-Hungary had destroyed branches of the Romanian economy, such as the shoe-making industry, and that Germany had sabotaged the Romanian export of cattle; he argued that the Austrians were working to force Romania into becoming their vassal, as part of a Balkan Zollverein.

In 1917, as Romania made efforts to recover from a German invasion, Nicolae Xenopol was dispatched to the Empire of Japan.

Nicolae Xenopol was Romania's first Ambassador to Tokyo, but died there, only months after taking over his post.

Already as a Junimea participant, Nicolae Xenopol cut a liberal and rebellious figure.

Literary historian Tudor Vianu writes that, in his beginnings, Nicolae Xenopol was "a lyrical poet, swift in his rhymes".

Nicolae Xenopol noted that his was a satire of Romanian life, intended to show how "the disgusting reality" of Romania is perceived in advanced "bourgeois" societies.

Largely forgotten by the general public, Nicolae Xenopol was better remembered in professional circles: in 1929, he was dedicated a monograph, published by the Academy of Economic Studies, with contributions from Alexandru Averescu, Dimitrie Gusti, Take Ionescu, Mina Minovici, Gheorghe Tasca, Nicolae Vasilescu-Karpen, etc.