Founded in Iași, in 1871, and reestablished in 1888, in Bucharest, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform, and demanding universal suffrage.
[4] This stance reputedly earned the publication an unusual status: anecdotes have it that Conservative leader Lascăr Catargiu would only read Adevărul while in the opposition, and that its columnist Albert Honigman was the first and for long time only journalist allowed into the upper class society at Casa Capșa restaurant.
[6] In April 1893, the Catargiu cabinet organized a clampdown on the newspaper: it arrested its editor Eduard Dioghenide (who was sentenced to a year in prison on charges of sedition) and, profiting from the non-emancipated status of Romanian Jews, it expelled its Jewish contributors I. Hussar and Carol Schulder.
A local first was established in June 1894, when Adevărul hosted the first foreign correspondence article received by a Romanian periodical: a telegram sent by the French socialist newspaperman Victor Jaclard, discussing the assassination of Sadi Carnot and the accession of Jean Casimir-Perier to the office of President.
[16] Working together, Mille, Beldiman, and Bacalbașa sought to coalesce the left-wing forces into a single league for universal suffrage, but Adevărul soon pulled out of the effort, accusing fellow militant Constantin Dobrescu-Argeș of having embezzled the funds put at his disposal.
[24] In return for the 1897 setback, the gazette began allocating space to serialized works of literature, including sketches by Caragiale (most of the writings later published as Momente și schițe), as well as The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, père.
[25] The following year however, a chronicler who used the pen name Gal praised the anti-academic independents' salon, supporting its members ștefan Luchian, Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești and Vermont (whose portraits it featured as illustrations for the texts, alongside a notorious caricature of C. I. Stăncescu by Nicolae Petrescu-Găină).
[15] It also began running its own publishing house, Editura Adevĕrul, noted early on for its editions of Constantin Mille's novels, Caragiale's sketches, and George Panu's memoirs of his time with the literary club Junimea.
[29] By 1906, Adevărul's attitude prompted historian Nicolae Iorga, leader of the antisemitic Democratic Nationalist Party, to accuse the newspaper of cultivating a "Jewish national sentiment" which, he claimed, had for its actual goal the destruction of Romania.
[30] In his Naționalism sau democrație ("Nationalism or Democracy") series of articles for Sămănătorul magazine (an ethno-nationalist organ published by Iorga), the Transylvanian-based thinker Aurel Popovici, who criticized the elites of Austria-Hungary on grounds that they were serving Jewish interests, alleged that the impact of Adevărul and Dimineața carried the same risk for Romania.
[6] During the latter showdowns, Adevărul also employed several literary and political personalities as its correspondents: the paper's future manager Iacob Rosenthal in Sofia, Serbian journalist Pera Taletov in Belgrade, Romanian writer Argentina Monteoru in Istanbul, and Prince Albert Gjika in Cetinje.
[43] Later the same month, as Romania joined the anti-Bulgarian coalition and her troops entered Southern Dobruja, Adevărul gave coverage to the spread of cholera among soldiers, accusing the Conservative executive headed by Titu Maiorescu of hiding its actual toll.
[46] According to historian Lucian Boia, this stance was partly explained by the Jewish origin of its panelists, who, as advocates of assimilation, wanted to identify with the Romanian cultural nationalism and irredenta; an exception was the Germanophile Brănișteanu, for a while marginalized within the group.
In addition to professional journalists Brănișteanu, Constantin Bacalbașa, Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște, they included respected novelist Mihail Sadoveanu and debuting essayist Petre Pandrea,[15] as well as the best-selling fiction author Cezar Petrescu, who was briefly a member of the editorial staff.
[85] In December 1930, leftist sociologist Mihai Ralea, one of the main figures in the Viața Românească circle, chose Adevărul as the venue for his essay Răzbunarea noțiunii de democrație ("Avenging the Notion of Democracy"), which condemned the then-popular theory that democratic regimes were inferior to totalitarian ones.
[98] According to the recollections of PCR activist Silviu Brucan, the Iron Guardists, who supported Universul, attacked distributors of Adevărul and Dimineața, prompting young communist and socialists to organize themselves into vigilante groups and fight back, which in turn led to a series of street battles.
Through the voices of Crainic, Alexandru Gregorian and N. Crevedia, the two extremist journals Porunca Vremii and Sfarmă-Piatră repeatedly targeted Sadoveanu with antisemitic and antimasonic epithets, accusing him of having become a tool for Jewish interests and, as leader of the Romanian Freemasonry, of promoting occult practices.
[70] Nichifor Crainic, who served as Minister of Propaganda under both the National Legionary State and Antonescu, took pride in his own campaign against "Judaism" in the press, and, speaking at the 1941 anniversary of his tribune Gândirea, referred to Goga's 1937 action against Adevărul and the others as a "splendid act of justice".
[106] According to one story, the palatial office formerly belonging to Adevărul was still at the center of a conflict between underground communists and the Guard: during the Legionary Rebellion of January 1941, the PCR attempted to set it on fire and then blame the arson on the fascists, but this plan was thwarted by press photographer Nicolae Ionescu.
[134] In addition to main editor Novăceanu, whose articles were congratulatory of "our miners",[23] journalists who praised the Mineriad include Sergiu Andon (future Conservative Party politician), Cristian Tudor Popescu and Corina Drăgotescu.
[136] According to Romanian-born historian Radu Ioanid, in 1990–1991 Adevărul and its opponent Dreptatea of the anti-FSN National Peasants' Party both "joined the anti-Semitic barrage" of the period, a trend he believes was instigated by the publications of Corneliu Vadim Tudor, Iosif Constantin Drăgan and Eugen Barbu (all of them affiliated with România Mare magazine).
[137] Ioanid singled out Adevărul and its collaborator Cristian Tudor Popescu, who, during the July 1991 commemoration of the Iași pogrom, attacked writer Elie Wiesel and other Holocaust researchers for having evidenced Ion Antonescu's complicity in extermination.
"[143] After the post-Revolution authorities announced their intention to join the European Union and accepted a monitoring process, the newspaper hosted the first in a long series of Euroskeptic pieces, which generally objected to outside intervention, particularly in the area of human rights, and were often signed by columnists Popescu and Bogdan Chireac.
[153] Romanian sociologist and political commentator Marian Petcu sees its enduring popularity as the consequence of a "head start", with Adevărul having inherited from Scînteia "the facilities, the subscribers, the raw materials, the headquarters, the superstructure, the network of local correspondents etc.
[141] Alongside Evenimentul Zilei and Pro Sport, Adevărul was also one of the first Romanian periodicals to take an interest in putting out an online edition and adopting innovations in web design, making its site the third most popular of its kind in 2002 (the year of its relaunch).
[156] In 2003, Popescu was a co-founder and, after România Liberă editor Petre Mihai Băcanu withdrew from the race, first president of the Romanian Press Club, a professional association whose mission was setting ethical standards in journalism.
[114] Suspicions arose that Tinu was being secretly financed in this effort by the Jordanian businessman Fathi Taher, already known for purchasing much advertisement space in Adevărul during the mid-1990s, and receiving additional support from PSD politician and entrepreneur Viorel Hrebenciuc.
[155] In one of his last Adevărul pieces, titled Atacul guzganului rozaliu ("The Attack of the Pink Rat"), Popescu accused Hrebenciuc of having imposed his control on the newspaper during the local elections of 2004, when he allegedly pressured journalists not to criticize the PSD Mayor of Bacău, Dumitru Sechelariu.
[164] A 2009 article in the rival newspaper Financiarul suggested that Adevărul was being neglected by Patriciu, who invested more in the holding (allegedly in hopes of undermining a trademark which he risked losing, while elevating the publications not affected by Iucinu's claim).
"[175] Another Cotidianul contributor, Costi Rogozanu, referred to the Adevărul message as "a strange manipulation" and "a dangerous invitation to carelessness", noting that Romanian society was becoming divided between openly partisan media outlets and venues that avoided all mention of politics.