Vladimir Cavarnali

Vladimir Cavarnali
Cavarnali at Săptămîna Poeziei festival, October 1963
Born	(1910-08-10)10 August 1910 Bolgrad, Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	20 July 1966(1966-07-20) (aged 55) Bucharest, Socialist Republic of Romania
Resting place	Bellu Cemetery
Occupation	Journalist editor schoolteacher politician
Period	1927–1966
Genre	Lyric poetry biography political poetry children's literature
Literary movement	Modernist literature Proletarian literature Viața Basarabiei Symbolism Expressionism Futurism

Vladimir or Vlad Cavarnali (also known as Cavarnalli or Kavarnali; Bulgarian: Владимир Каварнали; 10 August 1910 – 20 July 1966) was a Bessarabian-born Romanian poet, journalist, editor, and political figure. Though his ethnic background was Bessarabian Bulgarian and Gagauz, he embraced Romanian nationalism and would not approve of separation between the Romanian and Bessarabian literary traditions. In his twenties, he debuted in politics with the National Liberal Party, before switching to the dissident fascist Crusade of Romanianism, and then to the far-right Romanian Front. By contrast, Cavarnali's poetic work was heavily indebted to the influence of Russian Symbolism, and especially to Sergei Yesenin—whose proletarian style he closely mirrored, after removing most of its political connotations. He was also a translator of Russian and more generally Slavic literature, earning praise for his version of Maxim Gorky's Mother.

Though he won the Romanian Royal Foundations' prize in 1934, Cavarnali was a divisive figure—particularly after embracing avant-garde aesthetics in his second (and final) volume, put out in 1939. He was still praised for his work as a cultural animator in his native town of Bolgrad, and especially for the unexpectedly high standards of his own literary journal, Moldavia. His career there was cut short by the Soviet Union's invasion of Bessarabia; Cavarnali may have spent the years 1940–1941 in dire conditions at Chișinău, and was apprently rescued when Bessarabia was retaken by Romania. He and his younger sister Ecaterina, herself a poet, eventually moved to Bucharest. As the war progressed, Cavarnali embraced left-wing and pro-Soviet views, and was eventually recovered as a poet and translator by the Soviet occupation forces, the Union of Communist Youth, and the Writers' Union of Romania; he was also an author and promoter of children's literature. The Romanian communist regime employed Cavarnali as a magazine editor and civil servant, but excluding him from the Workers' Party upon an ideological review in March 1950. He died in relative obscurity at the age of 55, and was survived by Ecaterina, wife of the communist playwright Mihail Davidoglu.