The Ancient History in National Ideas of Romanian Intellectuals in Interwar Period

Abstract

In the complex of ideas of Eastern European thinkers of the first half of the 20th century, a special place was occupied by ancient history. To solve the problems of legitimation and the formation of the Romanian national ideology, images and ideas of Greco-Roman Antiquity and the history of the ancient Balkan ethnic groups were widely involved in the intellectual tradition. The article examines their influence on the Romanian national idea within the framework of the literary, philosophico-mystical, and historical heritage of the late 1910s – early 1940s. The connections of these thinkers with the Romanian «Legionnaire movement» are shown. Also particular interest are the analysis of the development of the idea of Dacianism as an idea of the Romanian ethnic identity, the archaeological research of V. Parvan and the reception of the myth of Zamolksis, which was embodied in the Romanian national myth under the influence of rethinking by L. Blaga and M. Eliade. Also, in the article it was considered how the ancient images and myths reflected in the Western European continental philosophy of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, influenced the interwar Romanian intellectual tradition.

Acknowledgements: The work was prepared with the support of a grant from the National Research University «BelSU» for the creation and development of youth studios of scientific and innovative creativity (order of the Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education NRU «BelSU» No. 992-OD dated August 22, 2022). Studio «Citadel» Khronos»; project «From ancient history to new nations: ethnos, nation, nationalism in the past and present» (scientific director of the studio, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Prof. N.N. Bolgov).