Vasile Pogor

Who was Vasile Pogor?

Vasile V. Pogor was a Moldavian-born Romanian poet, philosopher, translator and liberal conservative politician, one of the founders of Junimea literary society. Raised in the aristocratic circle of Iaşi, and educated in the French Empire, he had a career in law. He was a civil servant during the United Principalities regime, held seats in the Assembly of Deputies, and, after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania, was Mayor of Iaşi City. Although he had a major role in creating the Conservative Party, by fusing together the various "White" political clubs and Masonic Lodges, Pogor was more loyal to the Junimist inner faction, and stood by it when it split with the other Conservatives.

The notoriously indolent and improvident Pogor had a preference for orality, and was sought after for his Voltairian wit. He left few written works, and many unfulfilled projects, but influenced Romanian literature as a cultural promoter, sponsor, and the first local expert on Charles Baudelaire. He was known to his Junimea colleagues as a one-man "contemporary library".

An irreligious evolutionist, and taking an interest in Buddhist studies, Pogor represented the Positivist cell at Junimea.