Vasile Pogor

Vasile V. Pogor
Born	August 20, 1833 (1833-08-20) Iași, Moldavia
Died	March 20, 1906(1906-03-20) (aged 72) Bucium-Iași, Kingdom of Romania
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western Eastern
School	Junimea, Evolutionism, Positivism, Environmental determinism, Liberal conservatism, Freethought
Main interests	philosophy of history, Romanian philosophy, Buddhist studies
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Vasile V. Pogor (Cyrillic: Вaciлe Пoгop; Francized Basile Pogor; August 20, 1833 – March 20, 1906) was a Moldavian, later Romanian poet, philosopher, translator and liberal conservative politician, one of the founders of Junimea literary society. Raised among the boyar nobility of Iași, he was the son of a similarly named poet-polemicist and translator. Vasile Jr was educated in the French Empire, and had his first career in law. He became a civil servant during the United Principalities regime, though he split with its leadership on matters of tax policy, making his fortune as a conspirator in the "monstrous coalition" coup of February 1866. He held seats and commissions in the Assembly of Deputies. In forming Junimea, alongside Titu Maiorescu and others, Pogor sought to counter the intellectual supremacy of Romantic nationalism and "Red" liberalism, by introducing a critical approach to nation-building. He supported Romania's Westernization within a conservative framework, tempering nationalist presumptions and valuing a culturally pluralistic society. Early on, he participated in the Junimist effort to diversify cultural influences, producing two separate translations of Faust I (at least one of which was in collaboration with Nicolai Skelitti).

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. He also represented the Positivist cell at Junimea. An irreligious evolutionist, and a reader of Arthur Schopenhauer's work, he eventually came to embrace Buddhism; this stance resulted in his promoting Buddhist studies and Eastern philosophy in general. He also stood out as one of the first locals to study the work of Henry Thomas Buckle, integrating Bucklean concepts into Junimea's ideology. 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".

After the proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania, Pogor served several terms as Mayor of Iași City; as such, he helped establish Iași National Theatre, and experimented with the Romanianization of urban culture. His final decades were spent away from the national scene, although he still took on assignments in the Conservative and Junimist chapters of Iași County. Casa Pogor, his main residence, is closely associated with Junimist history. Although sold by its debt-stricken owner in 1901, it was revived in the 1970s as a literary history museum, theater venue and concert hall. Married to the Russian aristocrat Elena Hartingh, Pogor left an illegitimate son, Vasile Panopol.