[8] It was also around this time that he became acquainted with progressive, utopian socialist, and Darwinist ideas (notably reading the works of Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Alexander Herzen, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mikhail Bakunin, Ferdinand Lassalle, and Peter Lavrovich Lavrov).

[25] While in prison, Stere, who was beginning to distance himself from socialism and proletarian internationalism, argued in front of authorities that mention of his change in attitude was supposed to be kept by the court when passing the verdict.

[37] Stere's break with Marxism led him to attempt persuading the newly created Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party (PSDMR) to amend its proletariat-focused policies,[38] and, in 1893, to found the student society Datoria ("The Duty"), which preserved the Narodnik focus on educating peasants.

[41] After debuting as a journalist for the liberal-inspired Evenimentul in 1893 (and engaging in public debates with the socialist press),[42] Stere also sent substantial contribution to Adevărul, a tribune of various left-wing trends that was being published in Bucharest under the direction of Anton Bacalbașa.

[47] This exchange of replies soon involved the former socialist Eduard Dioghenide, who attacked Evenimentul Literar with Antisemitic language, contending that Stere was "an employee of the little kikes" and had "lost his soul to the Jews".

[54] In 1897, Stere obtained a licensure with a thesis on legal entity and individualism, one which drew criticism from the influential Conservative-inspired group Junimea, on the assumption that it had been partly inspired by Marx.

Mârzescu, who were gathering supporters at a time when the PNL cabinet of Dimitrie Sturdza looked set to lose the general elections of 1899 to a strong coalition of Conservatives and former Liberals such as Petre S. Aurelian, proposed to Stere that he become a city councilor in Iași, and he accepted.

[61] Eventually, Stere entered the PNL as a left-wing radical and populist, supporting an original tactic that blended a Narodnik focus on the peasantry with a weariness towards capitalism and industrialisation.

[71] Stere observed changes occurring in the developed world at the turn of the 19th century, and concluded that industrialization of backward countries was also being blocked by colonialism and the prosperity it had brought to the British Empire and the United States.

[76] This came after the Conservative opposition voiced allegations that socialist clubs in the countryside were inciting laborers to revolt (an accusation which threatened to decrease the popularity of the Dimitrie Sturdza cabinet).

[80] At the time, he relied on what he interpreted as Ion I. C. Brătianu's promise that a PNL cabinet was going to enforce both universal suffrage and land reform, and hoped to exercise an influence on the party's Left.

[81] With Pherekyde, Petre Poni, Toma Stelian and Spiru Haret, Stere was soon involved in public protests against the successive Conservative cabinets of Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino and Petre P. Carp — provoked by the Hallier Affair — involving a French firm which used its government connections to regain a public works contract in the port of Constanța, although it had failed to respect its obligations[82] —, and the "Law on spirits" (or "law on țuica") — which established homebrewing tax, engendering violence in the countryside.

[88] Stere sided with Brătianu and Vasile Lascăr in 1904, at a time when the two confronted Sturdza and resigned from their government offices, provoking the cabinet's fall (and Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino's reinstatement as Premier).

[89] In his later years, Stere argued that he had foreseen Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War and the string of social problems Russia experienced, and that he had sent the General Staff of the Romanian Army a memorandum on the matter.

[92] They arrived at a time of conflict, when Black Hundreds activity was gaining momentum and peasant pressures in the countryside were meeting with resistance from reactionary politicians such as Vladimir Purishkevich and Pavel Krushevan.

[95] Stere himself first returned to Romania in early 1906, and immediately left on a trip to Austro-Hungarian-ruled Transylvania, where he met with the poet and activist Octavian Goga in Sibiu, as well as with other prominent ethnic Romanians, becoming in time an unofficial envoy of the PNL in the region.

[102] Alongside other followers of Brătianu (including Garabet Ibrăileanu), Stere began campaigning in favor of dismissing the Conservative cabinet of Premier Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino, at a time when the latter also faced Take Ionescu's dissidence.

[103] This coincided with the outbreak of the 1907 Peasants' Revolt, which managed to bring down the cabinet after Ionescu agreed to support the Dimitrie Sturdza's return to power, as a means to ensure a response to the troubles.

[104] Like many other "generous ones", Stere was integrated in the new administration, and became a prefect of Iași County; instead of calling in the Romanian Army to pacify the area, he interfered in landowner-peasant relations to ensure better conditions for the latter, thus causing alarm in the Conservative camp.

Mârzescu, Stere resigned his position in April and was replaced with Gheorghe Kernbach, preparing to run in the legislative election of that year — for the 2nd Electoral College in Iași; he won the seat in late May.

[110] Following the creation of Take Ionescu's Conservative-Democratic Party (PCD), the PNL launched accusations that the new group was financed by the leaseholder Mochi Fischer (whose property in Flămânzi had seen the outbreak of the 1907 revolt); in reaction, the PCD newspaper Opinia, representing the views of Alexandru Bădărău, accused Stere of having failed to protect the interests of his clients in the Bessarabian zemstvo — Stere challenged the article's author Gheorghe Lascăr, former mayor of Iași, to a duel on Copou Hill, during which Lascăr was defeated and injured (March 11, 1908).

[111] Calling for an amnesty in respect to peasant rebels, Stere was initially silent on the new legislation (which, without questioning traditional landed property, allowed room for communal ownership), and was mostly absent from Chamber sessions.

[112] He nevertheless authored several studies in which he condemned the state of affairs in Romanian agriculture, concluding one of them with a Latin verdict, paraphrasing Pliny the Elder, Latifundia perdidere Romaniam ("The great estates have ruined Romania").

[120] Largely absent from the political scene during 1909-1910, Constantin Stere nevertheless aided the PNL, fallen from power in December 1910, to reach an agreement with the Conservative-Democrats over opposition to the Petre P. Carp cabinet, by improving his relations with Alexandru Bădărău.

[126] During the electoral campaign, reelected leader of the Liberal club, he was again attacked by Evenimentul, and, having taken part in denouncing A. C. Cuza for plagiarism, clashed with his supporters (who briefly occupied the PNL headquarters in Iași in May).

[127] In 1916, Stere strongly supported Romania's alliance with the Central Powers, arguing in favor of a policy focused on Bessarabia's recovery and against what he saw as Russian expansionism[128] - ultimately, this led him to split with the pro-Entente PNL upon the outbreak of World War I.

[128] The socialist Ioan Nădejde commented on the fact that Stere had become rivals with members of the Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party who had joined the PNL in 1899, and especially with their leader Vasile Morțun.

[123] He joined his voice to a diverse intellectual opposition which also included the Conservative Party's Petre P. Carp and Alexandru Marghiloman, the left-leaning writers Tudor Arghezi, Dimitrie D. Pătrășcanu, and Gala Galaction, as well as the revolutionary socialist Christian Rakovsky.

[141] General Henry Cihoschi, the Minister of Defense, was publicly criticized in parliament for not siding with his subordinates, and had to resign on April 4; Maniu appeared to support Stere's ousting.

[145] Stere's original ideas on economic development and Marxist topics were subject to censorship in Communist Romania; although works on him were published after the establishment of Nicolae Ceaușescu's rule, they generally avoided presenting and quoting his writings.