Eugen Constant

Eugen Constant (né Constantinescu; 25 October 1890 – 27 February 1975) was a Craiova-based Romanian writer, labor organizer, and political activist. Born into relative poverty, he was trained as an accountant and worked for long as a teacher in trade schools. He was called up under arms during World War I, making his debut as a poet at Iași, in 1917. His early works alternated between displays of Romanian nationalism and themes borrowed from the Symbolists; he was often seen, by both contemporaries and later reviewers, as a minor, indigestible poet, and his one social novel, published in 1935, was similarly panned. Eugen's output, like that of his brothers Paul and Savin, largely illustrated the author's leftist convictions and tropes, showing influences from Marxism; during the 1920s and into the Great Depression, he was in permanent contact with the Romanian Communist Party, which directed his contributions in trade unionism. He took a public stand in defense of workers and activists during the Grivița Strike of 1933, his propaganda leading to his near-prosecution by the Romanian monarchy.

Despite stints with his brother Paul in Sibiu, where he founded two literary magazines, and after making failed attempts to take up work in Bucharest, Eugen Constant remained attached to Craiova. He was affiliated with local journals, including Năzuința and Radical, before creating his own, Condeiul, publishing it until after the break of World War II. His socialism apparently toned down during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and he revived his nationalism; possibly sympathetic to the Iron Guard, he was kept on by Ion Antonescu's dictatorship, serving as a factory leader of the state-run leisure service. He turned back toward socialism immediately after anti-fascist coup of August 1944, joining the newly established Union of Patriots, and endorsing the communists' mounting control of Romanian society. The communist regime granted him favors, especially during his old age. His contributions to proletarian literature were generally considered as not up to the aesthetic standard, despite his enthusiastic support for communist policies.