Ilie Bărbulescu (linguist)

Ilie Bărbulescu (December 3, 1873 – June 5, 1945) was a Romanian linguist and philologist who specialized in the Slavic languages, also noted as a political journalist and Conservative Party cadre.

Bărbulescu was nevertheless a controversial figure, deeply involved in academic rivalries, and taking up unpopular political stances—especially during World War I, when, contrary to his background in Slavistics, he took up "Germanophilia", rooting for the Central Powers.

Bărbulescu returned to his research, for which he was rewarded with a membership in the Czech Society; he was nevertheless defeated in his bid to become a full member of the Romanian Academy, attributing this failure to political resentments and a Masonic conspiracy.

As seen by historian Radu Mârza, he was ambitious and vain, desirous of academic promotion, and determined to eclipse his former professor, Ioan Bogdan, who held a similar post at Bucharest.

In his 1905 brochure, Românii față de sârbi și Bulgari, mai ales cu privire la chestie macedo-română ("The Romanians vis-à-vis the Serbs and Bulgarians, with Special Reference to the Macedo-Romanian Issue"), he suggested that Bulgarian propaganda was working "shrewdly" against the Kingdom of Serbia—Bulgaria, he assessed, made claims that did not hold, and confounded Westerners regarding the opportunistic nature of her intentions in Macedonia.

[12] On September 15, Bărbulescu appeared alongside Constantin Stere and Paul Bujor at a university rally which hoped to gather support for the Entente Powers.

These contributions, written in a characteristically pedantic style, show him as a believer in the survival of Austria's ruling house, who advised Bukovinians and Transylvania to seek autonomy rather than unification with Romania; a war against the Central Powers, he argued, would mean destruction for the Romanian state.

[14] "Entirely tactless",[15] Bărbulescu also stated the contentious claim that Austrian citizens studying in Romania were "cowards" who had fled active service and were seeking to "grow fat" in the still-neutral country.

[17] In April, ahead of the Romanian surrender, and with the rump country headed by Alexandru Marghiloman, Bărbulescu and Constantin Meissner were editing the Conservative newspaper Iașiul.

By March, the pro-Entente camp, led by Orest Tafrali, had resumed control of the Faculty, and was reviewing Bărbulescu's activities, to ascertain whether or not they constituted treason.

[23] With Philippide, Dimitrie Gusti, Traian Bratu, Garabet Ibrăileanu and Ion Petrovici, he signed a letter of protest against attempts to curb freedom of thought, and warned about the dangers of "anarchy".

[25] Tafrali then focused on getting Bărbulescu banned from teaching, but his attempts were blocked by other academics, including the moderate Germanophiles (Gusti, Philippide, Bratu, Ibrăileanu).

[1] As noted by the memorist Ioan Dafin, Bărbulescu was again unable to build on his predecessors' work, turning Arhiva into his "personal review", albeit one of "cultural prestige".

[27] However, he revisited and defended his wartime activity in the 1932 polemic Câteva pagini de istorie contemporană ("A Few Pages of Contemporary History")—as noted by historian Lucian Boia, this "detailed and erudite" text only cemented his colleagues' enmity toward him.

[32] A member of the Czech Society of Sciences (1929), and correspondent of the Slavic Institute in Prague (1931),[1] he was proposed again for full membership of the academy in 1936, this time by Ștefan Ciobanu.

[33] He retired from teaching in 1938, officially because he had reached the age limit, but in fact due to maneuvers by a group of professors centered around Sadoveanu's associate Iorgu Iordan.