Viitorul ("The Future") was a daily newspaper published in the Kingdom of Romania, out of Bucharest, as a central organ of the National Liberal Party (PNL). It was formed just months after peasants' revolt of March 1907, being originally linked to the more left-wing, social-minded, factions within Romanian liberalism. Its reformism openly challenged the Conservative Party; its embrace of Romanian nationalism and its promise to enact an extensive land reform made it an ally of the Poporanists, some of whom became Viitorul contributors. The journal championed the cause of unity between Romanians across political borders, being particularly interested in those of Transylvania and Austria-Hungary at large. Though its editorial staff included Jews such as Henric Streitman, the newspaper's first edition (1907–1916) often vented the antisemitic feelings of its political contributors. In cultural terms, it championed modernism, welcoming in a group of Symbolists and avant-garde writers.
While the PNL itself appeared hesitant during the early stages of World War I, Viitorul was generally supportive of the Entente Powers. Its editorial line had to be toned down by Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu; the Central Powers also attempted to buy influence in the country, including by paying off some of Viitoruls journalists. The newspaper was celebratory when Romania joined the Entente in August 1916, supporting the subsequent Romanian expedition in Transylvania. This effort proved abortive, and the newspaper went down once Romania itself was overran by the Central Powers. It reemerged in November 1918, after the Entente had regained regional control, and thereafter campaigned for Romania's recognition as a co-belligerent—and for the prosecution of Romanians who had collaborated with the German Empire. The subsequent two years brought the unification with Transylvania and the consolidation of Greater Romania; though Viitorul saluted this victory of the nationalist cause, it also came to resent the emergence of regional and regionalist challenges to the PNL's monopoly on power.
During the interwar, which saw the adoption of universal male suffrage and the realization of land reform, Viitorul abandoned its leftist credentials, rallying to a more right-wing platform drafted by Vintilă Brătianu. In this new incarnation, it backed economic nationalism and hard-line anti-communism, but moderated its antisemitism to where it favored Jewish emancipation (also embarking on an extensive polemic with far-right antisemitic agitators). It reacted with alarm when the National Peasants' Party, which in 1928 became the PNL's main competitor, expressed discreet support for the deposed Crown Prince Carol, but ultimately accepted Carol's return as King of Romania. The Carlist monarchy also cooperated with the Viitorul team, making one of the newspaper's founders, Ion G. Duca, the country's prime minister in 1933. By then, the PNL was also being dragged into a conflict with the fascist Iron Guard—resulting in Duca's assassination just weeks into his office. During the next four years, Viitorul was disputed between two PNL factions: one led by Dinu Brătianu, the other by Gheorghe Tătărescu.
The newspaper approved of Carol's repression of the Iron Guard, but was reluctant about embracing the increasingly authoritarian tenets of Carlism. Though the constitution of 1938 formally banned the PNL, both it and Viitorul continued to function; the Brătianu faction managed to obtain full control of the paper in April of that year, but it and all other PNL assets were confiscated by the National Renaissance Front in December. Viitorul was only reestablished in September 1944, days after a successful anti-fascist coup, which saw the PNL returning into legality. Edited by Mihail Fărcășanu, it was increasingly confrontational toward the Romanian Communist Party, which, in the late 1940s, was steadily encroaching on multiparty democracy. The communists sabotaged its printing; it was banned by the Allied Commission in February 1945, after putting out a mysterious message which seemed to be encoded. Briefly relaunched in January 1946, it only survived to February. Pursued by the authorities, Fărcășanu escaped the country later in 1946, months before the proclamation of a communized republic.
First decade Reformist-modernist beginnings The paper was established on 18 November 1907, and published its first series to 21 November 1916 (initially as a "morning paper", down to 1910).Farcaș & Safta, p. 771 Journalist Constantin Poenaru observes that the name was indicative of PNL organs, with many Viitorul papers published in provincial towns "long before the official paper of Bucharest."Poenaru, p. 198 As later acknowledged by its last editor-in-chief, Fărcășanu, it owed its existence to both the embarrassment caused by the major peasants' revolt of March and to the PNL's sweep in the general elections of June. It therefore considered itself a "fresh new daily", centered on popularizing the party's reformist agenda, taken up in print by one of the kingdom's younger politicians, Ion G. Duca.Petcu, p. 143 Literary historian Al. Raicu suggests that it was overall a voice from the "left-liberal faction" of the PNL.Al. Raicu, "75 de ani de la înființarea Societății Scriitorilor Români", in Almanah Luceafărul, 1983, p. 21
Viitoruls founding directors, other than Duca, were Constantin Alimănișteanu and Constantin Banu; editors included Ion Minulescu, Virgil Caraivan, Alexandru Anestin and Nicolae Baboianu, with Iosif Iser as the staff cartoonist and portraitist.Farcaș & Safta, pp. 771–772 Though a political sheet defending the PNL's take on public affairs (mainly through regular contributions by Banu and Duca), this first edition of Viitorul was also marginally significant in Romanian literature, hosting poetry by Minulescu, Dumitru Constantinescu-Teleormăneanu, Mihail Cruceanu, Dimitrie Drăghicescu, Ion Foti, Cincinat Pavelescu, I. U. Soricu, Claudia Millian, Dimitrie Anghel and Ștefan Octavian Iosif (the latter two under the shared signature of "A. Mirea").Farcaș & Safta, p. 772 A rural schoolteacher, Vasile Demetrius, debuted here with verse, but then switched to prose fragments, since these paid better.Virgiliu Monda, Viață și vis, pp. 313–314. Bucharest: Cartea Românească, 1986 A supply of artistic prose was handled by various talents, including N. Pora, with Caraivan, Drăghicescu, Petre Locusteanu and Vasile Savel providing either theoretical essays or literary chronicles.
From its first issues, Viitorul covered the cultural and social innovations of the period. On 9 December 1909, it featured the first journalistic reference to football in Romania, though the attached image showed a rugby football match.Ion Munteanu, "Sportul românesc la începutul veacului", in Almanahul Sportul, 1978, p. 182 Through Caraivan, it backed efforts for unionization in the writers' profession, which ultimately resulted in the establishment of a Romanian Writers' Society. Minulescu bridged his duties as editorial secretary with his intense promotion of the Symbolist movement. His articles in the paper featured celebrations of Futurism, with ample notes on the poetry of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, as well as introductions to earlier works by Arthur Rimbaud and Lautréamont.Cernat, pp. 26, 87 As argued by the literary scholar Paul Cernat, the Viitorul offices were for a while home to the more modernist side of the Symbolist counterculture, which was already influenced not just by Rimbaud and the Futurists, but also by Walt Whitman and Maxim Gorky.Cernat, pp. 25–27
Duca and Banu made repeated efforts to recruit the novelist Gala Galaction as a permanent collaborator, though he only ever allowed them to publish one of his short stories, "Soleima".Gala Galaction, "Amintiri despre Constantin Banu", in Curentul, 10 September 1942, p. 2 From early 1912, the staff was joined by actor Alexandru Mavrodi (or "Alex Fronda"), who was at once a theatrical columnist, political chronicler, and regional correspondent for Western Moldavia; in parallel, he and Carol Steinberg ran one of Romania's first avant-garde publications, Fronda.Geo Șerban, "Inedit. La Iași, antecedente în circuitul românesc al avangardismului", in Observator Cultural, Issue 1001, January 2020, p. 18 According to the playwright and memoirist Victor Eftimiu, he was excellent as a manager, and came to run the newspaper even as Banu was still credited as a main editor.Victor Eftimiu, "Popasuri. Al. Mavrodi. Din noul volum Amintiri și polemici", in Timpul, 27 September 1942, p. 2 The post-Symbolist Tudor Arghezi was also briefly affiliated with Viitorul, but left after a conflict with Banu. In his later articles, he argued that Banu had chosen to surround himself with intriguers and petty figures.Arghezi, pp. 157–158, 162–163, 172, 174, 177–178, 180 According to Arghezi's accounts, Banu's nepotism resulted in Soricu's sacking, at a time when the latter was also paying for the upkeep of his impoverished mother.Arghezi, p. 180
Nationalism on the left In the political landscape of the 1900s and 1910s, Viitorul channeled support for Romanian nationalism, at a time when many Romanians, as subjects of Austria-Hungary (primarily in Transylvania and the Duchy of Bukovina) and the Russian Empire (Bessarabia Governorate), had been left outside the Romanian state. In January 1908, its Transylvanian reporter interviewed Emil Babeș, who wanted Romanians to live as subjects of the Hungarian Crown rather than seek a more complete political emancipation. In its coverage of this project, Viitorul concluded that Babeș had "no political significance"."Impăcarea maghiaro-română. — Convorbire cu dl Emil Babeș", in Tribuna, Issue 2/1908, p. 4 By mid-1909, however, the newspaper was expressing admiration for Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian heir presumptive, since he had approached his Romanian subjects' demands with "a sense of justice and a kind heart."Vartan Arachelian, "Asasinatul de la Saraievo (IV). Duminică 15/23 iunie, ora 11", in Flacăra, Vol. XXVIII, Issue 44, November 1979, p. 23 After renewed agitation in favor of Romanian causes, it was banned at the border by the Hungarian authorities in November 1909. The issue was covered with derision in the more right-wing journal, Neamul Românesc, which argued that the Hungarian government had little reason to ban a cosmopolitan paper of "anonymous Symbolists", whose editorial team included the Romanian Jewish intellectual Henric Streitman and "his coreligionists"."Independența de apreciări a Ardelenilor", Issue 127/1909, p. 2163 Some three months later, Viitorul publicized Simion Mândrescu and Moise Grozea's new political club, which aimed to coagulate the various nationalist groups into a structured movement.Vasile Netea, "Lupta emigrației transilvane pentru desăvîrșirea unității de stat a României", in Studii. Revistă de Istorie, Vol. 21, Issue 6, 1968, p. 1148