He was born
Tadeu Hâjdeu in Cristineștii Hotinului (now
Kerstentsi in
Chernivtsi Oblast,
Ukraine), northern
Bessarabia, at the time part of
Imperial Russia. After studying law at the
University of
Kharkiv, he fought as a Russian
hussar in the
Crimean War. In 1858, he settled in
Iași as a high school teacher and librarian. In 1865, Hasdeu published a
monograph on
Ioan Vodă the Terrible, renaming him for the first time
cel Viteaz—"the Brave". The portrayal of this violent, short rule as a glorious moment (and of Ioan himself as a reformer) drew criticism from the
Junimea society, a conflict which was to follow Hasdeu for the rest of his life. Still, Hasdeu's version of Ioan's character and his anti-
boyar actions were to be reclaimed as a founding myth by
Communist Romania. In 1863, Hasdeu again moved his residence, from Iași to
Bucharest; he began editing the
satirical magazine
Aghiuță, which ceased publication the following year.
Scientific works In Romania, Hasdeu started work on the
Arhiva historică a României (1865–1867), the first history work to use sources in
Slavonic and
Romanian. He also published the 1870 philological review
Columna lui Traian, the best at the time in Romania. With the work
Cuvente dân Batrâni (2 volumes, 1878–1881), he was the first to contribute to the history of apocryphal literature in Romania. His
Istoria critică a Românilor (1875), though incomplete, marks the beginning of critical investigation into the history of Romania. Hasdeu edited the ancient
Psalter of Coresi of 1577 (
Psaltirea lui Coresi, 1881). His
Etymologicum magnum Romaniae (1886) was the beginning of an encyclopaedic dictionary of the Romanian language, though he never covered letters after
B. While the completed parts of the work do aim to be exhaustive, and are remarkably detailed, many of its entries reflect more of Hasdeu's own vision than historical facts (in one famous entry, he claims to be able to trace
Basarab I's ancestry in a direct line to the
Dacian rulers, with Dacia as a developed state that would have had, at times, dominated the
Roman Empire—to the point where the single ruling family would have given Rome a large number of emperors). Hasdeu got involved in the dispute over the
Latin origin of the Romanian language. Being challenged by numerous arguments which pointed to the central position occupied by words of
Slavic origin in the
Romanian language, Hasdeu developed an influential verdict, deemed ''the theory of words' circulation''. The conclusion he reached was that Slavic words were never as widely used as Latin ones, with usage giving the language its character. In 1876, he was appointed head of the
State Archives in
Bucharest, and in 1878 professor of philology at the
University of Bucharest. In 1877, Hasdeu was elected as a titular member of the
Romanian Academy, and in 1883 he became a foreign member of the
Russian Academy of Sciences.
Other activities Hasdeu was a politician often at odds with the Romanian establishment. For example, he was placed under arrest for a nine-day interval after Captain Alexandru Candiano-Popescu's "
Republic of Ploiești" conspiracy (1870). Although he had been a staunch defender of the deposed
Alexandru Ioan Cuza, he eventually backed the movement against him (led by
Mihail Kogălniceanu), and was not opposed to the new
Domnitor (future
King of Romania)
Carol I. However, Hasdeu was a
Liberal Party activist (he was elected to Parliament on its list for two non-consecutive terms), and close to its most radical, republican wing—the one led by
C. A. Rosetti. As the republican experiment coincided with worsened relations between
Prime Minister Ion Brătianu and Carol, all Liberal Party members became suspect of involvement. Together with several Party leaders, Hasdeu was tried and acquitted. ==Last years and death==