page_title: Radu D. Rosetti
section_title: World War I and 1920s scandals
hierarchical_section_title: Radu D. Rosetti / Biography / World War I and 1920s scandals
caption_attribution_description: English: Crematorium in Tineretului Park, Bucharest, RomaniaRomână: Crematoriul din Parcul Tineretului, București, România This is a photo of a historic monument in București, classified with number B-II-a-A-21028
context_page_description: Radu D. Rosetti or Rossetti was a Romanian poet, playwright, and short story writer, also distinguished as an attorney and activist. The son of playwright-aristocrat Dimitrie Rosetti-Max and nephew of Titu Maiorescu, he had a troubled and rebellious youth, but kept company with senior literary figures such as Ion Luca Caragiale. Graduating from the University of Bucharest at age 26, he was already a successful poet of neoromantic sensibilities, a published translator of plays and novels, and also famous for his unhappy marriage to the literary critic Elena Bacaloglu. He then switched to writing social-themed plays and stories of his professional life, earning a high profile as a defender of left-wing causes. From ca. 1913, Rosetti was also the public face of cremation activism, engaged in public polemics with the Romanian Orthodox Church.
  Although an artillery officer stationed in Chitila, Rosetti was mostly active during World War I as a patriotic orator and propagandist, later returning to his work at the Ilfov County bar association. During the interwar, he maintained contact with both the socialists and the "cremationists", but grew more conservative and passeistic.
context_section_description: Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, with Romania still neutral territory, the Francophile Rosetti campaigned for Romania to join the Entente Powers, and tackled the issue during debates at the Romanian Writers' Society. However, he earned recognition for his court defense of Hasan Tahsin, would-be assassin of the pro-Entente campaigners Noel and Charles Buxton. In the end, Romania joined the Entente, and Rosetti was called under arms. Unexpectedly, he was moved to a horse artillery unit, but was shielded from active service by General Alexandru Averescu, and only assigned to give patriotic speeches to his troops on the front line. During the subsequent siege of Bucharest, Rosetti was at Periș with the staff of Constantin Prezan—Ion G. Duca, who joined him there, recalled that he "made himself look important". The Army headquarters eventually withdrew to Iași, with Rosetti assigned to write for the military propaganda magazine, România.
  Rosetti eventually returned to Bucharest following the November 1918 Armistice. In 1919, he and Mille were part of a defense team that represented the leadership of the Socialist Party of Romania, tried for their role in a general strike of the previous December. He was an independent candidate for the Ilfov seat in the Assembly in the election of November 1919, but only took 5,234 votes.
  In the early 1920s, Rosetti returned as a contributor to newspapers and magazines throughout Greater Romania, including Dimineața, Îndreptarea, Rampa, Universul, Viața Romînească, Ziarul Științelor și Călătoriilor, Cele Trei Crișuri, Di Granda, Foaia Tinerimii, Ilustrația, Izbânda, Lumea Copiilor, Lumea Ilustrată, Poetul, Sănătatea, Săptămâna Muncii Intelectuale și Artistice, and Viața Studențească. By 1930, his work was also featured in Omul Liber, Basarabia, Brazda, Ecoul, Propilee Literare, Revista Politică, and Revista Subofițerilor. He also published translations in Orizontul, as well as legal literature in Curierul Judiciar, Revista Penală, and later in Palatul de Justiție and Poliția Modernă. In 1923, he rallied with the left-leaning League of Human Rights, founded by Constantin Costa-Foru and Vasile Stroescu. In March, alongside the forensic scientist Mina Minovici and the politician Grigore Trancu-Iași, he founded Nirvana Society (later Cenușa, "The Ash"), which operated the Bucharest Crematorium. However, when his wife died in 1926, she was conventionally buried at Bellu cemetery.
  In December 1923, he also returned at the Atheneum to advocate cremation, and boasted 6,000 new recruits, although his interest in the matter continued to fuel ridicule and provided subject matter to the epigrammatist N. Crevedia. It was also met with protests from Orthodox leaders such as Iuliu Scriban and Dumitru Popescu-Moșoaia, who noted, in public disputations with Rosetti, that Nirvana was channeling public funds; however, most clergymen were by then passively reconciled with the practice. A more serious challenge came from religious-right newspapers such as Curentul, Cuvântul, and Glasul Monahilor, who backed priest Marin C. Ionescu, sued for slander by Minovici. Rosetti was the latter's lawyer, himself accused by the Orthodox lobby of consciously lying to promote his client's interests.
caption: The Bucharest Crematorium, set up by Rosetti and his fellow "cremationists"
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