Early life Gala Galaction was born in the village of
Didești,
Teleorman County, the son of a wealthy peasant and a priest's daughter. His father had traveled throughout the
Balkans on business, and had settled in Didești as an
estate lessee. After completing his primary studies in his native village and in
Roșiorii de Vede (1888–1890), Galaction went on to study at the
Saint Sava National College in
Bucharest (1890–1898), and, after a period of studying philosophy at the
University of Bucharest, took a degree in Theology at
Czernowitz University (now Chernivtsi University in
Ukraine). During his studies, he began to take an interest in literature, and was briefly influenced by the ideas of
Sâr Péladan, a French
occultist and poet. Galaction made his literary debut in 1900 with the
novella Moara lui Călifar ("Călifar's mill"), a sinister story on the subject of demonic temptation. His growing interest in Orthodoxy led him to abandon literature for the following ten years. After returning to writing, in 1914 his volume of collected stories,
La Vulturi! ("To the vultures!") was awarded the
Romanian Academy prize.
Early 1900s activism Having spent his early years a disciple of the
Marxist philosopher
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, he became associated with
Poporanism (an interwar
left-wing nationalist political current) and, like his close friend
N. D. Cocea,
socialism. These tendencies established him as a leading figure on the Romanian left. According to literary critic
Tudor Vianu, writing in the communist era: "The attraction towards socialism during Galaction's youth was always confessed and never was disavowed, although his religious outlook on life, formulated through the influence of his family and his immediate environment, led him to see socialists as
fellow travellers rather than comrades in battle." Noted for his criticism of the violent repression of the
Romanian Peasants' Revolt in 1907, Galaction soon became an active journalist. With the help of author
Tudor Arghezi, he edited the journals
Cronica and
Spicul, which appeared during
World War I (between 1915 and 1918). Like Arghezi, he displayed sympathy for the
Central Powers, and collaborated with the authorities in Bucharest under
German occupation. Eventually, Galaction would welcome the new political mood established by the
Russian Revolution, including the increasing visibility of Romania's
Socialist Party and a series of
labour strikes in 1918–1919: "We witnessed with our own eyes how
the old worlds are crumbling and how the new ones are born. And it seems to me that the spectacle is at its most interesting as seen from our little Romanian island. [...] The power of the many, let loose all around us, is rising, is fretting, is roaring and is looking for a new balance. Let us not delude ourselves by thinking we could ever see it return to its previous mould. It would be absurd." Around the same time, he became an enthusiastic advocate of the local labour movement. A public meeting of factory workers left a lasting impression on him: "Out of the smouldering and mud-covered suburbs, out of the humid and suffocating basements, out of the thousands of too-small cells, where the
proletarian bee distills the honey of
capitalist drones, out of all places high and low, the working people had come in black flocks in order to increase, standing shoulder to shoulder, the
phalanx of socialist demands." Soon after the First World War, Galaction befriended
Nicolae Tonitza, a painter and illustrator of socialist newspapers, who would design the cover of Galaction's collection of essays
O lume nouă ("A new world") and would paint his portrait (titled "The Man of a New World"). In his memoirs, the art collector
Krikor Zambaccian described the portrait: "[...] that hallucinatory portrait [...]. On a background of intense blue is profiled the
mage-like figure of the writer Galaction; on the most distant plane emerge the silhouettes of industries, and rise the chimneys of factories." During the
interwar period, Galaction was also the author of several studies, articles and commentaries on the New Testament, as well as completing a celebrated translation of
William Shakespeare's
The Merchant of Venice. He contributed regularly to the literary magazine
Viața Românească and to the newspaper
Adevărul. He also contributed to the political-literary journal
Sămănătorul, but was on exceptionally bad terms with the latter's founder,
Nicolae Iorga. In 1936, Galaction was denounced for "
communist activities" and alleged links with the
Communist International (Comintern), which he dismissed as
slander. Upon the
invasion of Poland and subsequent outbreak of
World War II, Galaction wrote: "The war has begun.
Hitler, the monster or the
demigod, the lever of destiny or the Devil's puppet, has again raised the banner of death amid the borders of peoples. Is he the forerunner and the prophet of better times, or the
strix of downfalls and irremediable disasters? Are the Germans fighting for a better future, or for the
narthex of
barbarity and for the death of Europe? This is yet another pathetic scrutiny!
Christian peoples turn their backs on
the Calvary, disavow the laws of their upbringing and mock the
Nine Joys! The
de-Christianized Germans and the
Roman Catholic Poles are equally vainglorious and lacking in Christian spirit."
1940s The fall of Carol's rule and the establishment of the Iron Guard's
National Legionary State saw Galaction's retreat from public life, which continued after the
Legionnaires' Rebellion (the attempted coup which signalled the fall of the Iron Guard) and the onset of
Ion Antonescu's Nazi-aligned dictatorship. In 1944, after the overthrow of Antonescu during the
August 23 coup, which saw Romania switch sides from
the Axis and to
the Allies, Galaction expressed his enthusiasm: "The long-awaited hour has arrived during a night when our hearts were being extinguished by fear and our houses were falling apart... It has arrived after traveling a long way, passing amongst ruins, tombs, and smoke-covered towers... It is here!... Become an epoch, become a century, you long-awaited hour!" Soon after, Galaction began collaborating with the
Romanian Communist Party and its various front organizations. In 1947, he replaced the far-right
Nichifor Crainic as a member of the
Romanian Academy, and was elected vice-president of the
Writers' Union in the same year. Galaction was himself purged from the Academy later in the same year, but readmitted as an honorary member in 1948. Decorated several times, he was also elected to the
Parliament of Romania (1946–1948), and to its successor, the
Great National Assembly (1948–1952).
Final years One of the last causes he was involved in was the
peace movement, with the intention of helping in the creation of a "supreme
areopagus of peace" in the context of the
Cold War. He was bedridden for the final years of his life due to a
stroke; this probably accounted for the scarcity in criticism aimed at him during the
Zhdanovist campaign in Romania. Selections from his diary were published two decades after his death, during the
Nicolae Ceaușescu era. Newer editions contain the previously-
censored discourse of an embittered Galaction, who had become heavily critical of
Stalinism, while reviewing his own beliefs in an "
Evangelical and cloud-like" socialism. Galaction was also noted for the support he gave to
Constantin Galeriu, who later became a celebrated priest and theologian. Galeriu, who had been one of Galaction's favourite students, was rescued by the latter in 1952 after he was arrested and imprisoned at the
Danube-Black Sea Canal. Galaction successfully called on
Prime Minister Petru Groza to intervene in his favour. ==Personal life==