Radu Rosetti (Francized Rodolphe Rosetti; September 14, 1853 – February 12, 1926) was a Moldavian, later Romanian, politician, historian, and novelist, father of General Radu R. Rosetti, and a prominent member of the Rosetti family. From beginnings in traditionalist conservatism, he adopted progressive agrarian stances, and experimented with modernizing his estate in Căiuți. A Moldavian regionalist sitting on the left of the Conservative Party, he collaborated more or less formally with the National Liberal opposition during his tenure as prefect of Roman, Brăila, and Bacău. Also serving two terms in the Assembly of Deputies and briefly employed as general director of prisons, Rosetti adopted an anti-elitist and reformist discourse. This pitted him against Conservative chiefs such as Nicolae Filipescu and Titu Maiorescu, but he was protected by Lascăr Catargiu and, later, by Petre P. Carp. Rosetti was financially ruined by his poor investments in the grain trade, and, from 1898, withdrew to secondary jobs in the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Although he lacked a formal training, he was a treasured polyglot, and achieved his notoriety as a scholar and social critic. His early studies focused on Moldavia's legal and social history, but later took up more politically charged themes. A mild antisemite and adversary of Jewish emancipation, Rosetti then turned to criticizing his own class and its manorialism, constructing an influential paradigm in progressive historiography. Welcomed into the ranks of left-wing Poporanism by 1906, he proposed a radical land reform and prophesied the peasants' revolt of 1907. The early stages of World War I, with Romania maintaining neutrality, saw Rosetti campaigning for the Central Powers. He advised against any alliance with the Russian Empire, being fearful of Pan-Slavism and supportive of the Romanian claims in Bessarabia. He was disappointed when the country sided with Russia, and remained behind in Bucharest when it was occupied by the Central Powers; with Carp and other Conservatives, he organized a collaborationist bureaucracy, and served in it as Ephor of the Civilian Hospitals. Such choices contrasted those of his son, who became a war hero. Reunited with him in postwar Greater Romania, Rosetti still pursued his literary career, receiving accolades for his final works as a memoirist and raconteur. One of his "Moldavian tales" was adapted for the screen by his son-in-law, Victor Beldiman.
Biography
Youth and early affiliations The future historian was born in Iași, in the since-demolished palace built by Grigore Alexandru Ghica—Prince of Moldavia in 1854–1856, and Radu's maternal grandfather. On his paternal side, he belonged to the boyar Rosetti family, which included Antonie Ruset, who was Moldavian Prince-regnant from 1675 to 1678. Contrary to family legend, he was not descended directly from Prince Antonie, but rather from Antonie's brother, Cupar Constantin. The scholar's great-grandfather was Lascarache Ruset and his grandfather was Logothete Răducanu Ruset (1762–1838). The latter's career had peaked during the Russian invasion of 1806, when, according to Ivan Liprandi, he showed himself to be "simple but honest [and] beloved by all". In 1809, he produced a legal defense against the settlement of Russians in Moldavia, and on this basis secured his own deed to Covasna. During the Greek War of Independence, which was partly fought on Moldavian soil, he helped Gavril Istrati organize a guerilla movement against the Sacred Band. Upon the war's end, he also took over land owned by the proscribed Moruzi family, but sent them a share of the revenue; Alexandru Constantin Moruzi became his son-in-law. Rosetti's father, the administrator Răducanu Ruset the Younger, studied philosophy at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. His mother Aglae Ghica was Ruset's second wife. Famous for her physical beauty, she had trained as an artist in Vienna, and, upon her return, became an ardent Romanian nationalist. Her husband had initially been an especially "savage" exponent of Moldavian liberal radicalism. Răducanu Jr began his political career in 1839, as Ispravnic of Iași County, then briefly served as head of the administration in the Upper Country (1843). He became a close friend and sponsor of Costache Negri, with whom he organized an 1847 protest against Prince Mihail Sturdza; that year, he also adhered to a boyar project for the creation of a commercial bank. Although he evolved into a conservative, he always felt solidarity with his tenant farmers, and demanded the abolition of corvées. Răducanu and his brother Lascăr then took part in the abortive revolution of 1848, and were briefly deported to Danube Vilayet—alongside Alexandru Ioan Cuza and their brother-in-law Moruzi. Returning once Grigore Alexandru took the Moldavian throne, Răducanu served as Moldavian Vornic in 1852, when he oversaw the early stages of a project to publish a full corpus of the state archives. In 1855, he was Logothete, or head of Moldavia's Justice Department. As a government member, he acquiesced to the Russian re-annexation of southern Bessarabia, allowing the entire Bessarabian region to be confirmed as lost by Moldavia. This led nationalist Vasile Alecsandri to include him in a group of "venomous scoundrels", who had betrayed their country. During reduced-Moldavia's merger with neighboring Wallachia into the United Principalities, Lascăr endorsed the progressive National Party, while Răducanu became one of the leaders of a conservative faction in Moldavia's assembly, caucusing with former separatists.
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