Context Often seen as the leading author of his generation, and generally viewed as one of the most representative Romanian writers, Mihail Sadoveanu was also believed to be a first-class story-teller, and received praise especially for his
nature writing and his depictions of rural landscapes. An exceptionally prolific author by Romanian standards, he published over a hundred individual volumes (120 according to the American magazine
Time). Critic
Ovid Crohmălniceanu describes their activity, altogether focused on depicting the rural world but diverging in bias, as one sign that the Romanian interwar itself was exceptionally effervescent, while Romanian-born American historian of literature
Marcel Cornis-Pope sees Sadoveanu and Rebreanu as their country's "two most important novelists of the first half of the twentieth century". In 1944,
Tudor Vianu spoke of Sadoveanu as "the most significant writer Romanians [presently] have, the first among his equals." While underlining his originality in the context of
Romanian literature and among the writers standing for "the national tendency" (as opposed to the more
cosmopolitan modernists), George Călinescu also noted that, through several of his stories and novels, Sadoveanu echoed the style of his predecessors and contemporaries
Ion Luca Caragiale,
Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești,
Emil Gârleanu,
Demostene Botez,
Otilia Cazimir,
Calistrat Hogaș,
I. A. Bassarabescu and
Ionel Teodoreanu. Also included among the "national tendency" writers, Gârleanu was for long seen as Sadoveanu's counterpart, and even, Călinescu writes, "undeservedly upstaged" him. Cornis-Pope also writes that Sadoveanu's epic is a continuation of "the national narrative" explored earlier by
Nicolae Filimon,
Ioan Slavici and
Duiliu Zamfirescu, In his youth, Sadoveanu also admired and collected the works of
N. D. Popescu-Popnedea, a prolific and successful author of
almanacs,
historical novels and
adventure novels. In Vianu's assessment, Sadoveanu's work signified an artistic revolution within the local Realist school, comparable to the adoption of
perspective by the visual artists of the
Renaissance. Mihail Sadoveanu's interest in the rural world and his views on tradition were subjects of debate among the modernists. The modernist doyen
Eugen Lovinescu, who envisaged an urban literature in tune with European tendencies, was one of Sadoveanu's most notorious critics. However, Sadoveanu was well received by Lovinescu's adversaries within the modernist camp:
Perpessicius and
Contimporanul editor
Ion Vinea, the latter of whom, in search for literary authenticity, believed in bridging the gap between the
avant-garde and
folk culture. This opinion was shared by Swedish literary historian
Tom Sandqvist, who sees Sadoveanu's main point of contact with modernism was his interest in the
pagan elements and occasional
absurdist streaks of local folklore. In the larger dispute about national specificity, and partly in response to Vinea's claim, modernist poet and essayist
Benjamin Fondane argued that, as a sign
Romanian culture was tributary to those it had come into contact with, "Sadoveanu's soul can be easily reduced to the
Slavic soul".
Characteristics Sadoveanu's personality and experience played a major part in shaping his literary style. After his 1901 marriage, Mihail Sadoveanu adopted what Călinescu deemed "
patriarchal" lifestyle. Recognized, like his
epigramist colleague
Păstorel Teodoreanu, as a man of refined culinary tastes, Sadoveanu cherished
Romanian cuisine and
Romanian wine. The lifestyle choices were akin to his literary interests: alongside the secluded and rudimentary existence of his main characters (connected by Călinescu with the writer's supposed longing for "regressions to the patriarchal times"), Sadoveanu's work is noted for its imagery of primitive abundance, and in particular for its lavish depictions of ritualistic feasts, hunting parties and fishing trips. Călinescu opined that the value of such descriptions within individual narratives grew with time, and that the author, once he had discarded
lyricism, used them as "a means for the senses to enjoy the fleshes and the forms that nature offers man." He added that Sadoveanu's
aesthetics could be said to recall the
art of the Golden Age in
Holland: "One could almost say that Sadoveanu rebuilds in present day Moldavia [...] the Holland of wine jugs and kitchen tables covered in venison and fish." The traditionalist
Garabet Ibrăileanu, referring to Sadoveanu's poetic nature writing, even declared it to have "surpassed nature." At the other end, the modernist Eugen Lovinescu specifically objected to Sadoveanu's depiction of a primordial landscape, arguing that, despite adopting Realism, his rival was indebted to
Romanticism and
subjectivity. Lovinescu's attitude, critic
Ion Simuț notes, was partly justified by the fact that Sadoveanu never truly parted with the traditionalism of
Sămănătorul. Unlike Lovinescu, Vianu saw these traits as "not at all detrimental to the balance of [Sadoveanu's] art." Seen by literary critic
Ioan Stanomir as marked by "volubility", and thus contrasting with his famously taciturn and seemingly embittered nature, the form of
Romanian used by Mihail Sadoveanu, particularly in his
historical novels, was noted for both its use of
archaisms and the inventive approach to the
Romanian lexis. Often borrowing plot lines and means of expression from medieval and early modern Moldavian chroniclers such as
Ion Neculce and
Miron Costin, the author creatively intercalates several
local dialects and registers of speech, moving away from a mere imitation of the historical language. Generally
third-person narratives, his books often make little or no dialectal difference between the speech used by the story-teller and the character's voices. According to Călinescu, Sadoveanu displays "an enormous capacity of authentic speech", similar to that of Caragiale and
Ion Creangă. Building on observations made by several critics, who generally praised the poetic qualities of Sadoveanu's prose, Crohmălniceanu spoke in detail about the Moldavian novelist's role in reshaping the
literary language. This particular contribution was first described early in the 20th century, when Sadoveanu was acclaimed by
Titu Maiorescu for having adapted his writing style to the social environment and the circumstances of his narratives. Vianu however notes that Sadoveanu's late writings tend to leave more room for
neologisms, mostly present in those parts where the narrator's voice takes distance from the plot. Another unifying element in Sadoveanu's creation is his recourse to literary types. As early as 1904, Maiorescu praised the young raconteur for accurately depicting characters in everyday life and settings. Tudor Vianu stressed that, unlike most of his Realist predecessors, Sadoveanu introduced an overtly sympathetic view of the peasant character, as "a higher type of human, a heroic human". He added: "Simple, in the sense that they are moved by a few devices [which] coincide with the fundamental instincts of mankind, [they] are, in general, mysterious." In this line, Sadoveanu also creates images of folk sages, whose views on life are of a
Humanist nature, and often depicted in contrast with the
rationalist tenets of
Western culture. Commenting on this aspect, Sadoveanu's friend
George Topîrceanu believed that Sadoveanu's work transcended the "more intellectual [and] more artificial" notion of "types", and that "he creates [...] humans." The main topic of his subsequent work, Sandqvist argues, was "an archaic world where the farmers and the landlords were free men with equal rights" (or, according to Simuț, "a
utopia of archaic heroism"). while Topîrceanu spoke of "the paradoxical discovery that [Sadoveanu] is our greatest poet since Eminescu." Mihail Sadoveanu also shaped his traditionalist views on literature by investigating
Romanian folklore, which he recommended as a source of inspiration to his fellow writers during his 1923 speech at the
Romanian Academy. The prose piece
Năluca ("The Apparition") centers on the conjugal conflict between two old people, both of whom attempt to hide the shame of their past. George Călinescu notes that, particularly in
Năluca, Sadoveanu begins to explore the staple technique of his literary contributions, which involves "suggesting the smolder of passions [through] a contemplative breath in which he evokes a static element: landscapes or set pieces from nature." For Călinescu, this choice of style brought "damaging effects" on Sadoveanu's writings, and made
Dureri înăbușite "perhaps the poorest" of his collections of stories. the indentured laborer in
Sluga ("The Servant") is unable to take revenge on his cruel employer at the right moment; in
Doi feciori ("Two Sons"), a boyar comes to feel affection for his illegitimate son, whom he has nonetheless reduced to a lowly condition. He did however reproach the writer "a certain monotony", arguing that Sadoveanu came to use such techniques in virtually all his later works. At times, they confront the morals of barely literate people with the stern authorities: a peasant obstinately believes that the
1859 union between
Wallachia and Moldavia was meant to ensure the supremacy of his class; a young lower-class woman becomes the love interest of a boyar but chooses a life of freedom; and a Rom deserts from the Army after being told to bathe. In
La noi, la Viișoara ("At Our Place in Viișoara"), the life of an old man degenerates into bigotry and avarice, to the point where he makes his wife starve to death. Sadoveanu's positive portrayal of
hajduks as fundamentally honest
outlaws standing up to
feudal injustice, replicates stereotypes found in
Romanian folklore, and is mostly present in some of the stories through (sometimes recurrent) heroic characters: Vasile the Great, Cozma Răcoare, Liță Florea etc. In the piece titled
Bordeenii (roughly, "The Mud-hut Dwellers"), he shows eccentrics and
misanthropes presided upon by the dark figure of Sandu Faliboga, brigands who flee all public authority and whom commentators have likened to
settlers of the Americas. Lepădatu, an unwanted child, speaks for the entire group: "What could I do [...] wherever there are big fairs and lots of people? I'd have a better time with the cattle; it is with them that I have grown up and with them that I get along." Romanticizing the obscure events of
early medieval history in
Vremuri de bejenie ("Roving Times", 1907), Sadoveanu sketches the improvised self-defense of a refugee community, their last stand against nomadic
Tatars. In reference to the stories in this series, Călinescu stresses that Sadoveanu's main interest is in depicting men and women cut away from civilization, who view the elements of
Westernization with nothing more than "wonderment": "Sadoveanu's literature is the highest expression of the savage instinct." In later works, the critic believed, Sadoveanu moved away from depicting isolation as the escape of primitives into their manageable world, but as "the refinement of souls whom civilization has upset." Some of the early stories, Crohmălniceanu argues, do follow the moralizing
Sămănătorist pattern, but part with it when they refuse to present the countryside in "
idyllic" fashion, or when they adopt a specific "mythical realism". Sadoveanu began his career as a novelist with more in-depth explorations into subjects present in his stories and novellas. At the time, Crohmălniceanu stresses, he was being influenced by the naturalism of Caragiale (minus the comedic effect), and by his own experience growing up in characteristically underdeveloped Moldavian cities and
târguri (somewhat similar to the aesthetic of boredom, adopted in poetry by
George Bacovia,
Demostene Botez or
Benjamin Fondane). Among his first works of the kind is
Floare ofilită ("Wizened Flower"), where a simple girl, Tincuța, marries a provincial civil servant, and finds herself deeply unhappy and unable to enrich her life on any level. Tincuța, seen by Călinescu as one of Sadoveanu's "savage" characters, only maintains urban refinement when persuading her husband to return for supper, A rather similar plot is built for
Însemnările lui Neculai Manea ("The Recordings of Neculai Manea"), where the eponymous character, an educated peasant, experiences two unhappy romantic affairs before successfully courting a married woman who, although grossly uncultured, makes him happy. Călinescu noted that such novels were "usually less valuable than direct accounts", and deemed
Însemnările lui Neculai Manea "without literary interest"; Praised by its commentators, the short novel
Haia Sanis (1908) shows the eponymous character, a
Jewish woman who throws herself into the arms of a local
Gentile, although she knows him to be a seducer. Călinescu, who wrote with admiration about how the subject dissimulated pathos into "technical indifference", notes that the erotic rage motivating Haia has drawn "well justified" comparisons with
Jean Racine's tragedy
Phèdre. Crohmălniceanu believes
Haia Sanis to be "perhaps [Sadoveanu's] best novella", particularly since the "wild beauty" Haia has to overcome at once
antisemitism,
endogamy and shame, before dying "in terrible pain" during a botched
abortion. Sadoveanu's work of the time also includes
Balta liniștii ("Tranquillity Pond"), where Alexandrina, pushed into an
arranged marriage, has a belated and sad revelation of true love. In other sketch stories, such as
O zi ca altele ("A Day like Any Other") or
Câinele ("The Dog"), Sadoveanu follows Caragiale's close study of suburban banality.
Hanu Ancuței, Șoimii and Neamul Șoimăreștilor , taking its inspiration from 17th century Cossack raids The novella
Hanu Ancuței ("Ancuța's Inn"), described by George Călinescu as a "masterpiece of the jovial idyllicism and barbarian subtlety", is a
frame story in the line of
medieval allegories such as
Giovanni Boccaccio's
Decameron and
Geoffrey Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales. It retells the stories of travelers meeting in the eponymous inn. Much of the story deals with statements of culinary tastes and shared recipes, as well as with the overall contrast between civilization and rudimentary ways: in one episode of the book, a merchant arriving from the
Leipzig Trade Fair bemuses the other protagonists when he explains the more frugal ways and the technical innovations of
Western Europe. Sadoveanu applied the same narrative technique in his
Soarele în baltă ("The Sun in the Waterhole"), which, Călinescu argues, displays "a trickier style." focuses on early events in Nicoară's life, building on the story according to which he and his brother Alexandru were the brothers of Prince
Ioan Vodă cel Cumplit, whose execution by the
Ottomans they tried to avenge. The text also follows their attempt to seize and kill
Ieremia Golia, a boyar whose alleged betrayal had led to Prince Ioan's capture, and whose daughter Ilinca becomes the brothers' prisoner. Călinescu described
Șoimii novel as "still awkward", noting that Sadoveanu was only beginning to experiment with the genre. In Călinescu's view, the novel is "somewhat more consistent from an epic perspective", but fails to respect the conventions of the
adventure novel it sets out to replicate.
Zodia Cancerului and Nunta Domniței Ruxandra Zodia Cancerului, Sadoveanu's later historical novel, is set late in the 17th century, during the third rule of Moldavian Prince
Gheorghe Duca, and is seen by Călinescu as "of a superior artistic level." ends with Alecu's defeat and killing on Duca's orders. In the background, the story depicts the visit of an
Abbé de Marenne, a
Roman Catholic priest and French envoy, who meets and befriends Ruset. Their encounter is another opportunity for Sadoveanu to show the amiable but incomplete exchange between the mentalities of
Western and
Eastern Europe. In various episodes of the novel, de Marenne shows himself perplexed by the omnipresent wilderness of underpopulated Moldavia, and in particular by the abundance of resources this provides. In one paragraph, seen by George Călinescu as a key to the book, Sadoveanu writes: "[De Marenne's] curious eye was permanently satisfied. Here was a desolation of solitudes, one that his friends in France could not even guess existed, no matter how much imagination they had been gifted with; for at the antipode of civilization one occasionally finds such things that have remained unchanged from the onset of creation, preserving their mysterious beauty." The narrative then focuses on the
Battle of Finta and the siege of
Suceava, through which a
Wallachian-
Transylvanian force repelled the Moldo-Cossack forces and, turning the tide, entered deep into Moldavia and placed
Gheorghe Ștefan on the throne. Sadoveanu also invents a love story between Ruxandra and the boyar Bogdan, whose rivalry with Tymofiy ends in the latter's killing. In both
Zodia Cancerului and
Nunta Domniței Ruxandra, the author took significant liberties with the historical facts. In addition to Tymofiy's death at the hands of Bogdan, the latter narrative used invented or incorrect names for some of the personages, and portrays the muscular, mustachioed, Gheorghe Ștefan as thin and bearded; likewise, in
Zodia Cancerului, Sadoveanu invents the character Guido Celesti, who stands in for the actual
Franciscan leader of Duca's Iași, Bariona da Monte Rotondo. In the first volume, titled
Ucenicia lui Ionuț ("Ionuț's Apprenticeship"), the eponymous Jderi brothers, allies of Stephen and friends of his son Alexandru, fight off the enemies of their lord on several occasions. In what is the start of a
Bildungsroman, the youngest Jder, Ionuț Păr-Negru, consumed by love for Lady Nasta, who was kidnapped by
Tatars. He goes to her rescue, only to find out that she had preferred suicide to a life of slavery. Călinescu, who believed the volumes show Sadoveanu's move to the consecrated elements of adventure novels, called them "remarkable", but stressed that the narrative could render "the feeling of stumbling, of a languishing flow", and that the
dénouement was "rather depressing". The second book in the series (
Izvorul alb, "The White Water Spring") intertwines the life of the Jderi brothers with that of Stephen's family: the ruler weds the
Byzantine princess
Mary of Mangop, while Simion Jder falls for Marușca, who is supposedly Stephen's illegitimate daughter. The major episodes in the narrative are Marușca's kidnapping by a boyar, her captivity in
Jagiellon Poland, and her rescue at the hands of the Jderi. The 1942 conclusion of the cycle,
Oamenii Măriei-sale ("His Lordship's Men"), the brothers are shown defending their ancestral rights and their lord against the Ottoman invader and ambivalent boyars, and crushing the former at the
Battle of Vaslui. The
Jderi books, again set to the background of primitivism and natural abundance, also feature episodes of intense horror. These, Călinescu proposes, are willingly depicted "with an indolent complacency", as if to underline that the slow pace and monumental scale of history give little importance to personal tragedies. a secondary character, claiming
precognition, prepares his own funeral. For the 1925
Venea o moară pe Siret..., Sadoveanu received much critical acclaim. The boyar Alexandru Filotti falls in love with a miller's daughter, Anuța, whom he educates and introduces to high society. The beautiful young lady is also courted by Filotti's son Costi and by the peasant Vasile Brebu—in the end, overwhelmed by jealousy, Brebu kills the object of his affection. George Călinescu writes that the good reception was not fully deserved, claiming that the novel is "colorless", that it was merely based on the writer's early stories, and that it failed in its goal of depicting "crumbling boyardom". Written in just 30 days on the basis of previous drafts, Vitoria's sheer determination is the central aspect of the volume. Călinescu, who ranks the book among Sadoveanu's best, praises its "remarkable artistry" and "unforgettable dialogues", but nonetheless writes that Lipan's "detective-like" search and a "stubbornness" are weak points in the narrative. Crohmălniceanu declares
Baltagul one of the "capital works" in world literature, proposing that, on its own, it manages to reconstruct "an entire shepherding civilization"; Cornis-Pope, who rates the book as "Sadoveanu's masterpiece", also notes that it "restated the theme of crime and punishment". also attention for its sympathetic depiction of the
Hutsuls, a
minority Slavic-speaking population, as an ancient tribe threatened by
cultural assimilation. Sadoveanu's other travelogues include the
reportage Oameni și locuri ("People and Places") and an account of his trips into
Bessarabia (
Drumuri basarabene, "Bessarabian Roads"). Călinescu saw the text as a "fantastic vision of the entire aquatic universe", merging a form of
pessimism similar to
Arthur Schopenhauer's with a "calm
kief" (
cannabis-induced torpor), and as such illustrating "the great joy of participating in the transformations of matter, of eating and allowing oneself to be eaten." One of Sadoveanu's main conclusions is that Holland lacks in "true and lively wonders". a book about the
Second Balkan War (
44 de zile în Bulgaria, "44 Days in
Bulgaria"), and the account of years in primary school,
Domnu Trandafir. Despite his temptation for destroying all raw personal notes, Sadoveanu wrote and kept a large number of diaries, which were never published in his lifetime. The home of mysterious Asiatic peoples, Sadoveanu's Scythia is notably the background to his novels
Uvar and
Nopțile de Sânziene. The former shows its eponymous character, a
Yakut, exposed to the scrutiny of a
Russian officer. According to Tudor Vianu, the 1933
fantasy novel
Creanga de aur ("The Golden Bow") takes partial inspiration from
Byzantine literature, and is evidence of a form of
Humanism found in
Eastern philosophy.
Marcel Cornis-Pope places it among Sadoveanu's "mythic-poetic narratives that explored the
ontology and symbolics of history." The writer himself acknowledged that the
esoteric nature of the book was inspired by his own affiliation to the
Freemasonry, whose symbolism it partly reflected. and, as "the last
Deceneus", is a treasurer of ancient secret sciences mastered by the
Dacians and the
Ancient Egyptians. The novel is often interpreted as Sadoveanu's perspective on the Dacian contribution to
Romanian culture. Sadoveanu's series of minor novels and stories of the interwar years also comprises a set of usually urban-themed writings, which, Călinescu argues, resemble the works of
Honoré de Balzac, but develop into "regressive" texts with "a lyrical intrigue". Sadoveanu depicts the cultured but bored boyar Lai Cantacuzin and his growing affection for a modest young woman, Daria Mazu. In
Cazul Eugeniței Costea ("The Case of Eugenița Costea"), a civil servant kills himself to avoid prosecution, and his end is replicated by that of his daughter, brought to despair by her stepfather's character and by her mother's irrational jealousy.
Demonul tinereții ("The Demon of Youth"), believed by Călinescu to be "the most charming" in this series, has for its protagonist Natanail, a university dropout who has developed a morbid fear of women since losing the love of his life, and who lives in seclusion as a monk. Written in 1938, the short story
Ochi de urs ("Bear's Eye") introduces its hero Culi Ursake, the toughened hunter, into a bizarre scenery that seems to mock a human's understanding. During the period, Mihail Sadoveanu also wrote
children's literature. His most significant pieces in this field are
Dumbrava minunată ("The Enchanted Grove", 1926),
Măria-sa Puiul Pădurii ("His Highness the Forest Boy", 1931), and a collection of stories adapted from
Persian literature (
Divanul persian, "The Persian
Divan", 1940).
Măria-sa Puiul Pădurii is itself an adaptation of the
Geneviève de Brabant story, considered "somewhat highbrow" by George Călinescu, In 1909, Sadoveanu also published adapted version of two ancient writings: the
Alexander Romance (as
Alexandria) and ''
Aesop's Fables (as Esopia
). His 1921 book Cocostârcul albastru
("The Blue Crane") is a series of short stories with lyrical themes. Among his early writings are two biographical novels which retell historical events from the source, Viața lui Ștefan cel Mare
("The Life of Stephen the Great") and Lacrimile ieromonahului Veniamin'' ("The Tears of Veniamin the
Hieromonk"), both of which, Călinescu objected, lacked in originality. In contrast, his choice of themes changed, a transition which reflected political imperatives. At the end of the process, literary historian
Ana Selejan argues, Sadoveanu became the most influential prose author among Romanian Socialist realists, equaled only by the younger
Petru Dumitriu. Historian Bogdan Ivașcu writes that Sadoveanu's affiliation with "
proletarian culture" and "its masquerade", like that of
Tudor Arghezi and George Călinescu, although it may have been intended to rally "prestige and depth" to Socialist realism, only succeeded in bring their late works to the level of "
propaganda and agitation materials." In contrast to these retrospective assessments, communist literary critics and cultural promoters of the 1950s regularly described Sadoveanu as the model to follow, both before and after
Georgy Malenkov's views on culture were adopted as the norm. In his
Lumina vine de la Răsărit, the writer built on the opposition between light and darkness, identifying the former with Soviet policies and the latter with
capitalism. Sadoveanu thus spoke of "the dragon of my own doubts" being vanquished by "the Sun of the East". Historian
Adrian Cioroianu notes that this literary
antithesis came to be widely used by various Romanian authors who rallied with
Stalinism during the late 1940s, citing among these
Cezar Petrescu and the former
avant-garde writer
Sașa Pană. He also notes that such imagery, accompanied by portrayals of Soviet joy and abundance, replicated an ancient "structure of myth", adapting it to a new ideology on the basis of "what could be imagined, not of what could be believed."
Ioan Stanomir writes that Sadoveanu and his fellow ARLUS members use a discourse recalling the theme of a
religious conversion, analogous to that of
Paul the Apostle (
see Road to Damascus), and critic
Cornel Ungureanu stresses that Sadoveanu's texts of the period frequently quote the
Bible. In one of these accounts, he details his encounter with
Lysenkoist agronomist
Nikolay Tsistsin, and claims to have tasted bread made from a brand of
wheat which yielded 4,000
kilograms of grain per
hectare. In a later memoir, Sadoveanu depicted his existence and the destiny of his country as improved by the
communist system, and gave accounts of his renewed journeys in the countryside, where he claimed to have witnessed a "spiritual splendor" supported by "the practice of the new times". He would follow up with hundreds of articles on various subjects, published by the communist press, Upon its publication, the
political novel Mitrea Cocor, which depicts the hardships and eventual triumph of its eponymous peasant protagonist, was officially described as the first Socialist realist writing in local literature, and as a turning point in literary history. Often compared to
Dan Deșliu's ideologized poem
Lazăr de la Rusca, it is remembered as a controversial epic dictated by ideological requirements, and argued to have been written with assistance from several other authors. it was rated by literary critics
Dan C. Mihăilescu and
Luminița Marcu both as one of "the most harmful books in Romanian literature", and by historian
Ioan Lăcustă as "a propaganda writing, a failure from a literary point of view". A praise of
collectivization policies that some critics believe was a testimony that Sadoveanu was submitting himself and imposing his public to
brainwashing, Noted among the latter is Olimbiada, a female soothsayer and healer through whose words Sadoveanu again dispenses his own perspective on human existence. The focus of the narrative is also changed: from the avenger of his brother's death in
Șoimii, the pretender becomes a purveyor of folk identity, aiming to reestablish the Moldavia of Stephen the Great's times. Praised early on by Dumitriu, who believed it was proof of "artistic excellence",
Nicoară Potcoavă is itself seen as a source for communist-inspired political messages. According to Cornel Ungureanu, this explains why it highlights the brotherhood between Cossacks and Moldavians, supposedly replicating the official view on Soviet-Romanian relations. Victor Frunză also notes that, although Sadoveanu returned to old subjects, he "no longer rises to the level he had reached before the war." In essence, Ungureanu argues, the new style that of "reportage and plain information, adapted to orders coming from above". In one such instance, censors of
Baltagul removed a character's claim that "the Russian" was by nature "the drunkest of them all, [...] a worthy beggar and singer at the fairs." ==Politics==