Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea

While the idea did exist before Dobrogeanu-Gherea, opposed Narodist thought and anarchists within Romania, which was to have a crucial contribution to the emergence of Poporanism (although his group and the Poporanists became political adversaries after the latter joined the National Liberal Party and began using antisemitic slogans).

Dobrogeanu-Gherea had a lifelong friendship with Ion Luca Caragiale, giving an interpretation of his works through parallels established with writers of his generation in other cultures.

The two exchanged letters for a large part of their lives: while never a socialist, Caragiale admired Dobrogenu-Gherea's attitudes and used his critique of Romanian society in the writing of his work 1907.

Alongside small-scale works on dialectical materialism, Dobrogeanu-Gherea published his most debated volume, the 1910 Neoiobăgia (Studiu economico-sociologic al problemei noastre agrare) ["Neo-Serfdom (A Social and Economical Study of Our Land Issue)"].

The work argued that Romania was trapped in feudalism, with the minimum of capitalist vehicles present only to ensure an easier exploitation of the peasantry by the social élite.