In his classic study “The Problem of Generations” from 1928, the German sociologist Karl Mannheim attempted to theoretically grasp the generational sense of belonging. Mannheim believed that “communities of experience” determined certain facets of an individual's behavior and thinking. Young men born around the turn of the century constituted one of those imagined communities in which the turning point of the First World War and the associated collective experiences became manifest. Romania had its own Young Generation, a dazzling bunch of philosophers, writers, and political activists who left an indelible mark on the country's cultural and political life. This cohort tied in well with fascism's obsession with youth, both in Romania and in other countries, where slogans like “Macht Platz, ihr Alten” or “Largo ai giovani” (make room for young people) were chanted by brown and black shirts.
Cristina A. Bejan's monograph takes the reader right into this politically vibrant era in Romania by providing a richly detailed history of the so-called Criterion Association. This short-lived cultural group was composed of mainly young, male philosophers, writers, and artists and emerged as a spiritual rallying-point for the Bucharest-based Young Generation. Philosophers such as Emil Cioran and Constantin Noica were just as much associated with Criterion as was the historian of religion and fiction writer Mircea Eliade, the dramatist Eugène Ionesco (Eugen Ionescu), or the novelist Mihail Sebastian. This loose collective of friends thus resembled other intellectual circles at the beginning of the twentieth century, such as the Bloomsbury group or the Warsaw generation, portrayed by Marci Shore in Caviar and Ashes (2006). Criterion's philosophical underpinnings were significantly shaped by their patron-saint, Nae Ionescu, who applied the notion of experience and Lebensphilosophie (philosophy of life) to Romanian conditions and introduced his disciples to ethnonationalism and antisemitism. Between 1932 and 1935, Criterion organized a series of symposia on contemporary Romanian culture and on quite disparate personalities such as Benito Mussolini, Vladimir Lenin, or André Gide. For a short period of time this intellectual salon became a place for free, democratic debate, but its protagonists were soon torn apart by antagonizing ideological stances which gradually infested Romania's public life in the course of the 1930s. While few of the main personae remained fervent democrats or committed to the communist cause (such as the group's founder Petru Comarnescu), the majority of Criterionists progressively adhered to the fascist Legionary Movement.
Biographies drive Bejan's narrative and the middle chapters offer many insights into the major characters’ personal backgrounds, friendships, enmities, and political positions. These chapters are not always page-turners, however. Readers unfamiliar with Romanian cultural history may get lost in the maze of numerous names and personae and their relationships with one another. Nevertheless, Bejan aptly situates Criterion within the main historical events both in Romania and Europe.
Having outlined the book's contribution to the history of ideas in Romania, it is worth mentioning what the book does not do: despite what the title suggests, Bejan does not provide a history of fascism. Rather, based largely on contemporary cultural debates, archival records, and secondary literature, it closely follows the association's rise and fall and the controversial debates that emerged after 1989 around some of its central characters. This, then, is a meticulous and impressive reconstruction that brings to light the fascinating and sometimes contradictory features of this small artistic and intellectual elite in interwar Bucharest. Since Bejan is essentially interested in shedding light on Criterion's key figures, the Legionary Movement receives only little attention. Accordingly, some of the attempts to dialogue with works on comparative fascism appear fragmentary. Roger Griffin's interpretation of fascism has remained contested until today, contrary to what the author claims, and alternative approaches are not taken into consideration. There are also some inadequacies in classifying the various regimes between 1938 and 1944, for example, when the rule of King Carol II, Horia Sima’s Legionaries, and Marshall Antonescu's military dictatorship are lumped together into a single category of fascist dictatorships (xvii). But apart from these quibbles, Intellectuals and Fascism in Interwar Romania provides a well-researched study of interwar intellectual discourses, which will be especially valuable for English-speaking readers unfamiliar with previous Romanian publications on this topic.
