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{{short description|20th-century Romanian journalist and activist (1880 - 1949)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = Nicolae Dumitru (N. D.) Cocea
| image            = Cocea 1930s.JPG
| caption          = Late 1930s photograph of Cocea
| pseudonym        = Nely
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1880|11|29|mf=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Bârlad]], [[Romania]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1949|2|1|1880|11|29|mf=y}}
| death_place      = [[Sighișoara]]
| occupation       = journalist, critic, novelist, politician, activist, lawyer
| nationality      = Romanian
| period           = ca. 1898 – 1949
| genre            = [[satire]], [[parody]], [[essay]], [[prose poetry]], [[erotic literature]], [[political novel]], [[travel writing]]
| movement         = [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]], [[Literary naturalism|Naturalism]], [[Modernist literature|Modernism]]
| website          =
}}
'''N. D. Cocea''' (common rendition of '''Nicolae Dumitru Cocea''', {{IPA|ro|nikoˈla.e duˈmitru ˈkot͡ʃe̯a}}, also known as '''Niculae''', '''Niculici''' or '''Nicu Cocea'''; November 29, 1880 – February 1, 1949) was a Romanian journalist, novelist, critic and [[left-wing]] political activist, known as a major but controversial figure in the field of political [[satire]]. The founder of many newspapers and magazines, including ''[[Viața Socială]]'', ''[[Rampa (Romanian magazine)|Rampa]]'', ''[[Facla]]'' and ''[[Chemarea]]'', collaborating with writer friends such as [[Tudor Arghezi]], [[Gala Galaction]] and [[Ion Vinea]], he fostered and directed the development of early [[modernist literature]] in Romania. Cocea later made his name as a [[Republicanism|republican]] and [[Anticlericalism|anticlerical]] agitator, was arrested as an instigator during the [[1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt|1907 peasant revolt]], and played a leading role in regrouping the scattered [[Socialism|socialist]] clubs. His allegiances however switched between parties: during [[World War I]], he supported the [[Allies of World War I|Entente Powers]] and, as a personal witness of the [[October Revolution]], the government of [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]], before returning home as a [[Communism|communist]].
During the [[interwar period]], Cocea was elected to [[Parliament of Romania|Romanian Parliament]] as an independent socialist, campaigned for the outlawed [[Romanian Communist Party]], and found his press banned by the authorities on several occasions. In 1923, he was found guilty of ''[[lèse majesté]]''. Cocea, although kept under constant surveillance, was rumored to have been an opportunistic double dealer, and his personal life was a matter of public scandal. His novels, the vast majority of which are samples of [[erotic literature]], fueled innuendo about his sexual exploits, which also resulted in his sentencing for [[statutory rape]]. After [[World War II]], Cocea was again close to the Communist Party and, from 1948, rose to prominence as an official writer for the [[Communist Romania|communist regime]].
For a while the son-in-law of journalist [[Constantin Mille]], N. D. Cocea was from a theatrical family: his daughters [[Dina Cocea|Dina]] and [[Tantzi Cocea|Tantzi]], like his sister [[Alice Cocéa|Alice]] before them, were acclaimed actresses. Another daughter, [[Ioana-Maria Cocea]], is a noted sculptor.
==Biography==
===Early years===
Born in [[Bârlad]], Cocea claimed lineage from the lesser [[Boyars of Wallachia and Moldavia|boyar]] aristocracy of [[Moldavia]].<ref>Călinescu, p. 919; Camboulives, p. 183</ref><ref name="msraristocratia">Mihai Sorin Rădulescu, "Despre aristocrația românească în timpul regimului comunist", in [[Lucian Boia]] (ed.), ''Miturile comunismului românesc'', [[Editura Nemira]], Bucharest, 1998, p. 352.  {{ISBN|973-569-209-0}}</ref><ref name="stamoral1">[[Stelian Tănase]], [http://www.sferapoliticii.ro/sfera/136/art11-arhiva.html "N.D. Cocea, un boier amoral/N.D. Cocea, an Immoral Boyar" (I)], in ''[[Sfera Politicii]]'', Nr. 136</ref> His father, Dumitru Cocea, was a [[Romanian Land Forces]] officer, who would reach the rank of General.<ref name="stamoral1"/><ref name="mdsalice">{{in lang|ro}} [[Mihai Dim. Sturdza]], [http://www.revista22.ro/alice-cocea-9653.html "Alice Cocea"], in ''[[Revista 22]]'', Nr. 1087, January 2011</ref><ref name="ssscandaluri">{{in lang|ro}} Simina Stan, [http://www.jurnalul.ro/special/special/scandalurile-familiei-cocea-567192.html "Scandalurile familiei Cocea"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110207024852/http://www.jurnalul.ro/special/special/scandalurile-familiei-cocea-567192.html |date=February 7, 2011 }}, in ''[[Jurnalul Național]]'', February 5, 2011</ref><ref>Călinescu, p. 919; Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 18</ref> The Coceas descended from an 18th-century [[Albanians of Romania|Albanian Moldavian]] ''[[Serdar (Ottoman rank)|Serdar]]'' Gheorghe Cocea,<ref name="gc919">Călinescu, p. 919</ref> but claimed lineage from a 16th-century soldier in the armies of [[Michael the Brave]].<ref name="ssscandaluri"/> Nicolae's mother, Cleopatra, was a published author and a journalist.<ref name="stamoral1"/> She hailed from a family of [[yeomen]] (''răzeși'')<ref name="gc919"/> or landowners, and her artistic education helped shape his cultural tastes from early childhood.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 18</ref> Although he made his name as a writer and journalist, his most ardent wish was to become an actor.<ref name="ssscandaluri"/>
Nicolae attended primary school in his native town, and had a hectic adolescence, determined by his father's successive postings.<ref name="gc919"/> He is known to have first been enlisted at the National High School of [[Iași]].<ref name="cp-c220">Popescu-Cadem, p. 220</ref> During the late 1890s, young Cocea was in [[Bucharest]], attending the [[Saint Sava National College]], becoming close friends with two other students and future writers: one was Galaction, the other was [[Vasile Demetrius]]. Another Saint Sava student, [[Ion G. Duca]] (the [[Prime Minister of Romania]] in 1933), was occasionally present among them, but political differences drew them apart with time.<ref name="zogalaction">{{in lang|ro}} [[Z. Ornea]], [http://www.romlit.ro/ediia_galaction "Ediția Galaction"], in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 47/2001</ref> Despite oral tradition, Arghezi, who joined the Cocea group around the same time, may not have been a Saint Sava student at all: according to literary historian C. Popescu-Cadem, there is no record of him ever attending that institution.<ref>Popescu-Cadem, pp. 219–222</ref> Cocea's own education was vague. He flunked out after the 3rd and 7th grades, was transferred to [[Ploiești]], then returned to Saint Sava only to pass reexamination.<ref name="cp-c220"/>
Cocea and his Saint Sava friends were already leftists who attended the public lectures of senior [[Socialism|socialist]] leader [[Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea]].<ref name="tv280">Vianu, p. 280</ref> According to literary historian [[Tudor Vianu]], the four youths, including the "restless, daring and ingenious" Cocea, were mounting an independent protest against "[[bourgeois]]" values.<ref>Vianu, pp. 279–280</ref> They literary taste favored [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]], [[Parnassianism]] and [[literary naturalism]], which they saw as modern shields against traditionalist culture.<ref name="tv280"/> Inspired by the works of [[Charles Baudelaire]],<ref>Vianu, pp. 280–281; Pastia, p. 290</ref> they soon joined efforts with the [[Symbolist movement in Romania|Romanian Symbolist movement]]. All members of the group visited with the Symbolist doyen [[Alexandru Macedonski]],<ref name="tv280"/> although Cocea the writer was first discovered by Symbolist academic [[Ovid Densusianu]] and his ''[[Vieața Nouă]]'' review.<ref>Crohmălniceanu, p. 194</ref>
As his personal note, Cocea rebelled against paternal and institutional authority. Under the pen name ''Nely'', he published the defiantly erotic novel ''Poet-Poetă'' (1898, with a preface by Galaction), that resulted in his near-definitive expulsion from public high school.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 18. See also Călinescu, pp. 919, 1026</ref> Around the same time, Galaction married Cocea's cousin Zoe Marcou, a laicized [[Romanian Orthodox Church|Romanian Orthodox]] nun; she would inspire him to become an Orthodox priest.<ref name="zogalaction"/>
Around 1900, Cocea, who had already graduated in Romanian Law,<ref name="stamoral2">{{in lang|ro}} [[Stelian Tănase]], [http://www.sferapoliticii.ro/sfera/137/art11-arhiva.html "N.D. Cocea, un boier amoral" (II)], in ''[[Sfera Politicii]]'', Nr. 137</ref> was in France, undergoing specialization at the [[University of Paris]]. At this stage in life, he was probably acquainted with the French roots of Romanian [[Liberalism and radicalism in Romania|radical liberalism]], which infused his left-wing outlook.<ref>Camboulives, p. 183; Mitchievici, p. 127. See also Călinescu, p. 919</ref> A sympathizer of the [[Dreyfus affair|Dreyfusards]], he was also becoming interested in the various projects to transform the [[Kingdom of Romania]] into a republic,<ref name="bc184">Camboulives, p. 184</ref> in marked contrast to his father's ardent [[monarchism]].<ref name="ssscandaluri"/> He witnessed first-hand the progress of [[trade union]]ism in France, and had personal interviews with writer [[Anatole France]] and sculptor [[Auguste Rodin]].<ref name="pc29">Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 29</ref> The family's French connections were preserved by the writer's siblings. Cocea's sister [[Alice Cocéa|Alice]], the future comedian, was born in [[Sinaia]], where Dumitru Cocea was stationed in 1899, and also settled in France at a later date.<ref name="mdsalice"/> She was joined there by Cocea's younger sister, Florica.<ref name="mdsalice"/>
Upon his return to Romania, Cocea was for a while employed as [[justice of the peace]],<ref>Camboulives, pp. 183–184</ref> but was later virtually inactive as a lawyer.<ref name="stamoral2"/> Instead, he began frequenting the Romanian socialist milieu. He was at the time married to Florica Mille, daughter of [[Constantin Mille]]. Her father was founder of ''[[Adevărul]]'' daily and co-founder of the [[Romanian Social-Democratic Workers' Party|Social-Democratic Workers' Party]] (PSDMR). This was another break with the Cocea family tradition: allegedly, General Dumitru Cocea had once ordered his troops to devastate the ''Adevărul'' offices.<ref>Petrescu, p. 109</ref>
Florica was born from Mille's first marriage, which ended in divorce, and had a sister, Margareta, married into the Messerschmitt family of German industrialists.<ref>Călinescu, pp. 549, 919</ref> Through Mille, Cocea became related to another Moldavian boyar family, the Tăutus.<ref name="msraristocratia"/> Cocea's marriage, which resulted in the 1912 birth of [[Dina Cocea]], was troubled and ended in divorce.<ref name="ssscandaluri"/>
===Socialist clubs and 1907 revolt===
Like some of the veteran socialists ([[Garabet Ibrăileanu]], [[Henric Sanielevici]], the ''[[România Muncitoare]]'' group), the young journalist made repeated attempts to revive and reunite the socialist clubs, left in disarray by the 1899 dissolution of the PSDMR.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 29, 133–134, 140. See also Cioroianu, p. 135</ref> Cocea, with Arghezi, Demetrius and Galaction, stood out for marrying this political ideal with the artistic credo of Symbolism. This unusual vision was preserved in the magazine the three published together during 1904, ''Linia Dreaptă'' ("The Straight Line").<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 29. See also Călinescu, pp. 678, 682, 808; Vianu, p. 478</ref> In 1905, Arghezi left for Switzerland and entrusted Cocea with his collection of rare books. Cocea is said to have lost it, an event which marked the first of several disagreements between them.<ref>Anghel, p. 45</ref>
With the [[1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt|March 1907 peasant uprising]], N. D. Cocea's profile in political journalism was boosted. He is the probable source of a much circulated canard, taken up by ''Adevărul'', according to which Romanian authorities had killed 11,000 or more peasant insurgents.<ref name="stamoral1"/><ref name="cm1907">{{in lang|ro}} [[Cătălin Mihuleac]], [http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/MIHULEACapr7.html " '1907' și '1989' – două mari manipulări prin presă"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080123144043/http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/MIHULEACapr7.html|date=January 23, 2008}}, in ''[[Convorbiri Literare]]'', April 2007</ref> Cocea himself eventually settled for a death toll of 12,000, claiming that, "had the peasants' bodies been lined up and down on [[Calea Victoriei]]", [[King of Romania|Romanian King]] [[Carol I of Romania|Carol I of Hohenzollern]] could have walked over to [[Dealul Mitropoliei]] "on a soft rug of peasant flesh".<ref name="cm1907"/>
During the actual events, N. D. Cocea was mainly active on the lower course of the [[Danube]], recognized by other socialists as "one of the leaders of the [workers'] movement" in [[Brăila]].<ref name="ctp184">Petrescu, p. 184</ref> His regional daily, ''Dezrobirea'' ("The Emancipation"), was probably paid for by a local banker, Alphonse (or Alfons) Nachtigal.<ref name="stamoral2"/> Drawing official suspicion as a republican paper,<ref name="stamoral2"/> it became noted for fueling revolt regionally. After the ''România Muncitoare'' circle organized a socialist rally in Brăila, ''Dezrobirea''{{'}}s entire staff was arrested on orders from Prefect [[Nicolae T. Faranga]], who also confiscated most of the printed issues (although some 1,000 were still freely distributed among the intrigued peasants).<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.obiectivbr.ro/component/content/article/58-arhiva/11239-Braila%20fierbea%20inca%20din%201899.html "Brăila fierbea încă din 1899"], in ''[[Obiectiv-Vocea Brăilei]]'', March 20, 2007</ref> Cocea was eventually tried as an instigator, and sentenced to a term in prison.<ref>Cernat, p. 29; Mitchievici, p. 127; Petrescu, p. 201</ref>
Upon his release, Cocea moved back to Bucharest, where he became a socialist orator, a ''România Muncitoare'' editor, and a correspondent of the workers' journal ''Viitorul Social''.<ref name="ctp184"/> He was one of the Romanian delegates to the [[International Socialist Congress, Stuttgart 1907|International Socialist Congress]], hosted by the [[Second International]] in [[Stuttgart]].<ref>Călinescu, p. 919; Camboulives, p. 184; Petrescu, pp. 202–203, 215, 411–412</ref> It was there that Russian socialist opinion leader [[Vladimir Lenin]] publicized a thesis according to which the Romanian revolt and the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]] were similar, in both character and impact.<ref name="cm1907"/> Back in Romania, Cocea was resuming his contacts with Dobrogeanu-Gherea, who was by then all but withdrawn from active socialist politics. As Cocea later wrote, the veteran leader confessed to him that he was being brought down by acute [[insomnia]].<ref>I. Felea, "Gherea și alții despre Gherea", in ''[[Magazin Istoric]]'', December 1971, p. 52</ref>
The young activist was blending his socialism with a critic's interest in [[modern art]] and [[experimental literature]]. Literary historian [[Paul Cernat]] argues that, like Symbolist poet [[N. Davidescu]], Cocea spent the 1900–1920 period disseminating [[modernist literature]] "on all fronts".<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 22</ref> He made his name as an art critic by 1908, when, like Arghezi, he defended the Romanian [[Post-Impressionism|post-Impressionist]] art club, whose members were being marginalized by the ''[[Tinerimea Artistică]]'' society; he also saluted [[Iosif Iser]]'s international post-Impressionist exhibit.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 46–47</ref> Within a series of articles in ''Pagini Libere'' journal, Cocea also explained his divorce with Symbolism and [[Art Nouveau]], concluding that they represented "the cosmopolitan class of sloth and of universal [[parasitism (social offense)|parasitism]]".<ref>Mitchievici, pp. 100–101</ref> The following year, Cocea was assigned the art column of ''[[Noua Revistă Română]]'', an eclectic journal put out by Romanian thinker [[Constantin Rădulescu-Motru]]. While there, he militated in favor of modernized art, urging artists to destroy "antiquated artistic formulas" and to subvert "the laws of nature".<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 8</ref>
===''Viața Socială''===
According to Cocea's future friend and foe [[Pamfil Șeicaru]], 1910 was the time year Cocea, with [[Christian Rakovsky]], [[Ecaterina Arbore]], [[I. C. Frimu]] and [[Ilie Moscovici]], was in the "chief of staff" of the newly created [[Social Democratic Party of Romania (1910–18)|Social Democratic Party of Romania]].<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.curierulnational.ro/Specializat/2003-06-14/Social-democratia+romaneasca+fata+in+fata+cu+traditiile+ei "Social-democrația românească față în față cu tradițiile ei"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928072138/http://www.curierulnational.ro/Specializat/2003-06-14/Social-democratia+romaneasca+fata+in+fata+cu+traditiile+ei |date=September 28, 2011 }}, in ''[[Curierul Național]]'', June 14, 2003</ref> Cocea was additionally a member of the party's Social Studies Circle, furnishing its library and organizing its Kalinderu Church offices.<ref>Petrescu, pp. 218–219</ref>
In February 1910, Cocea and Arghezi set up a new periodical, ''[[Viața Socială]]''. The magazine, which received contributions from Dobrogeanu-Gherea, militated for [[universal suffrage]], [[social equality]] and [[Land reform in Romania|land reform]], while informing readers about world socialism.<ref>Vianu, p. 479</ref> It enlisted collaborations from a number of [[anti-establishment]] journalists, from [[Agrarianism|agrarian]] militant [[Vasile Kogălniceanu]] and socialist physician [[Tatiana Grigorovici]] to writers [[Ion Minulescu]], [[Lucia Demetrius]] or [[Constantin Graur]], and republished contributions from some of Europe's known social critics: [[Eduard Bernstein]], [[Rinaldo Rigola]], [[Vsevolod Garshin]], [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Jean Jaurès]], [[Emile Vandervelde]], [[Hubert Lagardelle]]<ref name="stamoral2"/> and [[Gustave Hervé]].<ref>Mitchievici, p. 99</ref> Other contributors were Arbore, Davidescu, V. Demetrius, [[Traian Demetrescu]], [[Sofia Nădejde]], [[Vasile Savel]] and [[Avram Steuerman-Rodion]].<ref>Mitchievici, pp. 99, 126–127, 432</ref>
Culturally, this moment saw Cocea and his friends coordinating the transition from Symbolism to the early 20th-century avant-garde.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 23, 29–32</ref> This move was also accelerated by art critic [[Theodor Cornel]], who was for while a staff writer for Cocea's publication.<ref>[[Dan Grigorescu]], ''Istoria unei generații pierdute: expresioniștii'', [[Editura Eminescu]], Bucharest, 1980, p. 430. {{OCLC|7463753}}</ref> In his first ''Viața Socială'' editorial, Cocea himself deemed Arghezi "the most revolutionary poet" of the period.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 30; Michael H. Impey, "A Polemical Interpretation of Tudor Arghezi's 'Testament' ", in [[Keith Hitchins]] (ed.), ''Rumanian Studies. Vol. IV: 1976–1979'', [[Brill Publishers]], Leiden, 1979, p. 196.  {{ISBN|90-04-06003-0}}. See also Vianu, pp. 479–480</ref> However, his unilateral decision to publish Arghezi's "Evening Prayer", as an example of poetic rebellion,<ref>Vianu, pp. 479–480</ref> greatly enraged the expatriated author.<ref>Anghel, p. 47</ref> They resumed their friendship only after Arghezi returned from his Swiss sojourn, and Cocea, with Galaction, [[Dumitru Karnabatt]] and various others, frequented the salon formed in Arghezi's Bucharest home.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Vasile Man, [http://www.revista-studii-uvvg.ro/files/revista_V_2.pdf "Repere argheziene"], in the [[Vasile Goldiș West University of Arad]] ''Studii de Știință și Cultură'', Nr. 2 (17), June 2009, p. 67</ref> Cocea was also witness when Arghezi wedded his long-term lover, Constanța Zissu (December 1912); the register describes him as "a journalist by profession, living at Polonă Street, 1."<ref>Popescu-Cadem, pp. 226–227</ref>
Through Galaction's interventions, ''Viața Socială'' maintained links with the more mainstream and home-grown current on Romania's leftist scene, [[Poporanism]], as well as with the post-socialist magazine of Iași, ''[[Viața Românească]]''.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 8, 30, 34. See also Călinescu, p. 678</ref> It also published several poems by the young Poporanist [[George Topîrceanu]].<ref>Mitchievici, p. 99; [[Al. Săndulescu]], chronological table and notes to [[George Topîrceanu]], ''Scrieri'', Vols. I, [[Editura Minerva]], Bucharest, 1983, pp. XX, 307–308. {{OCLC|10998949}}</ref> Also in Iași, the ''Viața Socială'' circle acquired a number of young disciples, involved in editing ''Fronda'' and ''Absolutio'' magazines: [[Isac Ludo]], [[Eugen Relgis]] etc.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 55–57</ref>
Still, traditionalist critic [[Ilarie Chendi]] notes, ''Viața Socială'' as a whole failed, because the Symbolist and post-Symbolist contributors were not ardent socialists, and because no "notable poets or prose writers" could be found among the socialists.<ref name="icvieata">{{in lang|ro}} [[Ilarie Chendi]], [http://documente.bcucluj.ro/web/bibdigit/periodice/luceafarul/1912/BCUCLUJ_FP_280091_1912_011_003.pdf "Vieața literară în 1911 (o privire generală)"], in ''[[Luceafărul (magazine)|Luceafărul]]'', Nr. 3/1912, p. 63 (digitized by the [[Babeș-Bolyai University]] [http://documente.bcucluj.ro/ Transsylvanica Online Library])</ref> The same was observed in 1913 by critic Gheorghe Savul, who suggested that ''Viața Socială'' took on Symbolists such as Davidescu for opportunistic reasons, since they also had an anti-bourgeois axe to grind, but that there was little else to unite its contributors.<ref>Mitchievici, pp. 126–127</ref>
Cocea was by then frequenting the [[Anarchism|anarchist]] boyar [[Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești]], an art patron, cultural innovator and personal friend of Arghezi.<ref name="pc39">Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 39</ref> In 1911, he visited Italy together with Lagardelle, the French [[Syndicalism|Syndicalist]] militant, and personally met with liberal theorists [[Benedetto Croce]] and [[Guglielmo Ferrero]], as well as with Syndicalist [[Arturo Labriola]] and fellow journalist [[Giuseppe Prezzolini]].<ref name="gc919"/> His [[Travel writing|travel account]], which includes [[essay]]s on art and civilization, was published the same year, as ''Spre Roma'' ("Toward Rome").<ref>Călinescu, pp. 919, 1026</ref>
===''Rampa'' and ''Facla'' (first edition)===
Back in Romania, Cocea launched ''[[Rampa (Romanian magazine)|Rampa]]'', a theatrical review originally published as a daily. His partner in this venture was a veteran of theatrical life, [[Alexandru Davila]].<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Vera Molea, [http://www.bibliotecametropolitana.ro/Uploads/martie2009.pdf "Alexandru Davila și revolta studențească din 13 martie 1906"], in the Mihail Sadoveanu City Library ''Biblioteca Bucureștilor'', Nr. 3/2009, p. 9</ref> Cocea also set up the independent socialist newspaper ''[[Facla]]''. The latter, identified as Romania's first socialist and satirical magazine by Arghezi himself,<ref name="marcs205">Anghel & Sfetea, p. 205</ref> was soon joined by the 18-year-old poet [[Ion Vinea]], as literary columnist and campaigner for post-Symbolist literature,<ref name="isclasici">{{in lang|ro}} [[Ion Simuț]], [http://www.romlit.ro/patrimoniul_clasicilor_de_izbelite "Patrimoniul clasicilor de izbeliște?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804110843/http://www.romlit.ro/patrimoniul_clasicilor_de_izbelite|date=August 4, 2012}}, in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 33/2005</ref><ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 30, 61–70, 74, 92–93, 140</ref> with painters Iser<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 30; {{in lang|ro}} Boris Marian, [http://www.romanianjewish.org/db/pdf/nr252_253/pagina16.pdf "Un mare pictor: Iosif Iser"], in ''[[Realitatea Evreiască]]'', Nr. 252–253 (1052–1053), May 2006, p. 16</ref> and [[Camil Ressu]]<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Alina Ciufu, [http://www.telegrafonline.ro/pdf/pagini/1200866400/cultura.pdf "Picturile lui Camil Ressu, la Muzeul de Artă"], in ''[[Telegraf Constanța]]'', January 21, 2008, p. 7</ref> as illustrators. The other noted contributors to Cocea's publications were [[Toma Dragu]], [[Saniel Grossman]],<ref name="marcs205"/> [[George Diamandy]],<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Florin Faifer]], [http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/FAIFERap.html "Moșierul"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140522193812/http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/FAIFERap.html|date=May 22, 2014}}, in ''[[Convorbiri Literare]]'', April 2002</ref> [[Camil Petrescu]]<ref>Vianu, p. 315</ref> and [[avant-garde]] critic [[Poldi Chapier]], whose 1912 article for ''Rampa'' chronicled the international success of [[Futurism]].<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 90</ref> Also featured were poems and translations by the post-Symbolist [[H. Bonciu]].<ref>Călinescu, p. 900</ref> Cocea's own contributions include the chronicle of a play by [[Henry Bataille]]<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Dan Grigorescu]], [http://www.curierulnational.ro/Opinii/2004-03-13/Cultura+cotidiana "Cultura cotidiană"], in ''[[Curierul Național]]'', March 13, 2004</ref> and a salute to the "invincible spirit" of the [[5 October 1910 revolution|Portuguese republican revolution]].<ref>Ion Babici, "Octombrie 1910. Portugalia se proclamă republică", in ''[[Magazin Istoric]]'', October 1975, p. 40</ref>
Alongside renewed attacks on Romania's cultural traditionalism, Cocea and Arghezi initiated a lengthy campaign in favor of universal suffrage.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 30</ref> Their articles and headlines were often [[Sensationalism|sensationalist]] and provoking, again focusing on Carol I, Romania's aging King. They often referred to the monarch as ''Ploșnița'' ("The Tick"), ''Gheșeftarul'' ("The Shop-Keeper") or ''Neamțul'' ("The Kraut").<ref name="gpproces">{{in lang|ro}} G. Pienescu, [http://www.romlit.ro/un_proces_care_nu_a_avut_loc_dect_pe_hrtie "Un proces care nu a avut loc decât pe hârtie"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728051005/http://www.romlit.ro/un_proces_care_nu_a_avut_loc_dect_pe_hrtie |date=July 28, 2011 }}, in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 24/2006</ref> ''Facla'', with media support from ''Adevărul'' and the Romanian anarchist milieus, was taunting the authorities by staging its own mock trial for ''[[lèse majesté]]''.<ref name="gpproces"/> ''Facla''{{'}}s [[anticlericalism]], specifically aimed at the Orthodox Church, formed part of a larger scandal, which had earlier seen Arghezi giving up his [[hierodeacon]]'s frock.<ref>Anghel & Sfetea, pp. 205–206</ref> The ardent [[antimilitarism]] of Cocea's ''Facla'' articles, in particular his mockery of General [[Grigore C. Crăiniceanu]] and his sons, had similar results: the journalist was handed a preemptive and dishonorable [[military discharge]].<ref>Constantinescu, July 1971, p. 21</ref>
Culturally, ''Facla'' was a leading adversary of traditionalist literature and of the [[Nationalism|nationalist]] periodicals which supported it. Its attack was concentrated on ''[[Drum Drept]]'' and ''[[Convorbiri Critice]]'' magazines (the focus of Vinea's articles)<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 63, 65</ref> and on [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] historian [[Nicolae Iorga]], who had earlier dismissed ''Facla'' as a venue for [[History of the Jews in Romania|Jewish Romanian]] interests.<ref>Anghel & Sfetea, p. 210; {{in lang|ro}} Minodora Sălcudean, [http://www.revista-studii-uvvg.ro/files/revista_V_2.pdf "Discursul public arghezian. Strategii polemice în ''Scrisoarea deschisă''"], in the [[Vasile Goldiș West University of Arad]] ''Studii de Știință și Cultură'', Nr. 2 (17), June 2009, p. 26, 28</ref> ''Facla'' also inaugurated the conflict between Cocea and the ''Viața Românească'' Poporanists. As a socialist, Cocea attacked the Poporanists for supporting artistic nationalism, and then for courting the mainstream [[National Liberal Party (Romania, 1875)|National Liberal Party]].<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 30, 147</ref>
Cocea unsuccessfully presented himself as a Social Democratic candidate in the [[1912 Romanian general election|elections of 1912]], the first ones in Romania to be contested by an independent socialist party.<ref>Petrescu, p. 206</ref> However, he soon broke off from the party, and came to be considered a representative of the "bourgeois press" by his former socialist colleagues. One of them, [[Constantin Titel Petrescu]], informs that Cocea "could not live by the party discipline".<ref>Petrescu, pp. 257–258</ref>
===World War I, October Revolution and ''Chemarea''===
At an early stage in [[World War I]], public opinion in neutral Romania was divided between the [[Allies of World War I|Entente Powers]] and the [[Central Powers]], both of which held Romanian [[irredenta]]. In this context, the [[Francophile]] Cocea manifested himself as an outspoken partisan of Romania's alliance with the Entente.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 30; Camboulives, p. 184</ref> There followed a split between Cocea and his erstwhile partners Arghezi, Galaction and Bogdan-Pitești. The latter three were committed [[Germanophile]]s who proceeded to publish their own review, ''Cronica''.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 23, 39–45, 98. See also Vianu, pp. 482–483</ref> ''[[Chemarea]]'', a mainly political magazine published by Ion Vinea in 1915, stood between the two groups, but was probably managed by Cocea, who allegedly came up with its name (lit. "the calling").<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 23</ref> Cocea's friendship with Arghezi had again soured to the point of mutual hatred. In ''Facla'', Cocea made thinly veiled comments about the poet's mother, an unmarried woman, and suggested that the ''Cronica'' staff "still lives on the morsels left over from Bogdan-Pitești's feasts".<ref>Popescu-Cadem, p. 217</ref>
When the [[Romania during World War I|1916–17 Campaign]] turned into a defensive war, N. D. Cocea joined the government and Land Forces on their retreat to [[Western Moldavia]]. Reunited with Vinea, he helped publish a daily named ''Deșteptarea'' ("The Awakening"), flirting with the Germanophiles and [[Zimmerwald Conference|Zimmerwald neutralists]], hotly criticizing the Ententist and National Liberal establishment.<ref name="gsfrondistul">{{in lang|ro}} [[Geo Șerban]], [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/Un-profil-Jacques-Frondistul*articleID_6309-articles_details.html "Un profil: Jacques Frondistul"], in ''[[Observator Cultural]]'', Nr. 144, November 2002</ref><ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 98–99</ref> However, he remained an outspoken critic of those public figures whom he perceived as German hirelings, including politician [[Alexandru Marghiloman]] and ''Arena'' newspaperman [[Alfred Hefter-Hidalgo]].<ref name="gsfrondistul"/> As was later acknowledged by Vinea, Cocea and his ''Deșteptarea'' colleagues had formed a conspiratorial "revolutionary republican committee".<ref name="ivdumitriu">{{in lang|ro}} [[Ion Vartic]], [http://www.romlit.ro/petru_dumitriu_i_negrul_su_ii "Petru Dumitriu și 'negrul' său" (II)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311231641/http://www.romlit.ro/petru_dumitriu_i_negrul_su_ii|date=March 11, 2012}}, in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 16/2005</ref> Both of them were also affiliated with a wing of the [[Freemasonry in Romania|Romanian Freemasonry]].<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Fabian Anton, [http://193.26.10.83/pdf/Ararat%2007%202007.pdf "Armenii în masoneria românească"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110704024332/http://193.26.10.83/pdf/Ararat%2007%202007.pdf |date=July 4, 2011 }}, in ''Ararat'', Nr. 7/2007, p. 6</ref><ref name="msmessage">Marcel Shapira, [http://www.masonicforum.ro/archive/en/nr20/schapira.html "Message"], in the National Grand Lodge of Romania ''Masonic Forum Magazine'', Winter 2005</ref>
A while after, Cocea made his way in the [[Russian Provisional Government|Russian Republic]], Romania's Entente ally, and settled in [[Petrograd]]. His activities there included putting out the [[French-language]] magazine, ''L'Entente'' ("The Entente"), which was financed by his old rivals, the Romanian National Liberals.<ref>Rusu Abrudeanu, pp. 119–120; See also Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 30</ref> As a resident of [[Hotel Astoria (Saint Petersburg)|Hotel Astoria]],<ref>Baciu, p. 7</ref> he witnessed first-hand the [[October Revolution]], and became a passionate supporter of the [[Bolshevik]] cause. He later claimed to have been present, on Revolution day, in the [[Petrograd Soviet]] hall, hearing the victorious speech of Bolshevik leader [[Vladimir Lenin]],<ref>Baciu, pp. 6, 8</ref> and to have later attended the second [[All-Russian Congress of Soviets]].<ref name="vf147">Frunză, p. 147</ref><ref name="mseisenstein">{{in lang|ro}} Marius Șopterean, [http://www.revistatribuna.ro/doc_db_site/tribuna/tribuna84.pdf "1001 de filme și nopți. 13: Eisenstein"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002143043/http://www.revistatribuna.ro/doc_db_site/tribuna/tribuna84.pdf|date=October 2, 2011}}, in ''[[Tribuna (Romania)|Tribuna]]'', Nr. 84/2006, p. 35</ref> As a representative of the International Association for Information of the Labor Press of America, France, and [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Great Britain]], Cocea exchanged notes with Lenin. He interviewed Lenin about the Bolsheviks' goals, assuring him that his replies would be published verbatim.<ref>Baciu, p. 7; [[Vladimir Lenin]], ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/nov/10b.htm To: The International Association for Information of the Labour Press of America, France, and Great Britain]'', at the [[Marxists Internet Archive]] (retrieved February 14, 2011)</ref>
By the end of the year, Cocea had returned to Moldavia. Under his direction (December 1917 to February 1918), ''Deșteptarea'' became a new edition of ''Chemarea''. It was often issued with large blank spaces, showing interventions by military censors.<ref name="gsfrondistul"/> The gazette managed to publish a letter of protest, signed by poet [[Benjamin Fondane]], expressing a hope that Arghezi would not be prosecuted as a traitor.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 139</ref> After advertising its "radical socialist" agenda, ''Chemarea'' was promptly shut down by the [[Alexandru Averescu]] cabinet.<ref name="pc99">Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 99</ref> For this and other reasons, Cocea would later refer to Averescu as the organizer of "[[White Terror (Russia)|White Terror]]" in Romania.<ref name="icaug41">Constantinescu, August 1971, p. 41</ref>
Cocea was a strong critic of Romania's [[Treaty of Bucharest (1918)|separate armistice with Germany]],<ref name="gsfrondistul"/> and consequently listed as a ''[[persona non grata]]'' by the Central Powers.<ref>Rusu Abrudeanu, pp. 368–371</ref> In August 1918, he launched ''Depeșa'' ("The Dispatch"), later published as a third edition of ''Chemarea''. A new presence on these two periodicals was writer [[Jacques G. Costin]], who produced several political pieces (including a renewed denunciation of Hefter-Hidalgo) and later the musical chronicle.<ref name="gsfrondistul"/><ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 188</ref> Its other staff writers were young men who later built career in the political press, both left- and right-wing: Vinea, [[Demostene Botez]], [[Alexandru Busuioceanu]], [[Cezar Petrescu]], [[Pamfil Șeicaru]]<ref name="gsfrondistul"/> and [[Adrian Maniu]].<ref name="stamoral2"/> They took care of the newspaper when Cocea left Iași on a short visit to [[Bessarabia]], a former Russian province that was in the process of [[Union of Bessarabia with Romania|uniting with Romania]].<ref name="gsfrondistul"/>
Victorious in its lengthy conflict with Hefter's ''Arena'', ''Chemarea'' eventually relocated to Bucharest, but suffered from the nationwide paper shortage.<ref name="gsfrondistul"/> Cocea supported the [[Socialist Party of Romania]] (PS) through the leftist riots of December 1918, and, when the PS leadership was arrested, sat on the defense team, alongside Mille and Dragu.<ref>Petrescu, pp. 320–321</ref>
''Chemarea'' survived until November 1, 1919—when its lampoon of Romanian King [[Ferdinand I of Romania|Ferdinand I]] prompted the intervention of military censors.<ref name="pc99"/> On November 2, shortly before the [[1919 Romanian general election|general election day]], Cocea profited from the temporary suspension of censorship to reissue the same paper, subsequently renamed ''Chemarea Roșie'' ("The Red Call"), then ''Facla'', ''Torța'' ("The Torch"), ''Clopotul'' ("The Bell") and again ''Chemarea'' (changes which were supposed to keep censors always a step behind Cocea).<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 99, 132, 140, 188</ref> These publications were attempts to revive and radicalize the socialist literary press, that had virtually succumbed in Romania after the demise of ''Facla''{{'}}s first edition. A [[Marxism|Marxist]] literary critic, [[Ovid Crohmălniceanu]], proposes that Cocea's renewed offensive missed the mark, lacking "a clear enough vision".<ref>Crohmălniceanu, pp. 144–145</ref>
===Parliamentary mandate===
Cocea was elected to the [[Chamber of Deputies of Romania|Lower Chamber]] during the race of November 1919 (reelected during the [[1920 Romanian general election|race of May 1920]]). He represented a non-partisan [[electoral list]] for Bucharest (the Citizen's List), whose other two candidates, physician [[Nicolae L. Lupu]] and lawyer [[Constantin Costa-Foru]], also won seats.<ref>Constantinescu, July 1971, p. 20</ref> Although officially an independent, he rallied with the PS in the chamber minority group led by [[Gheorghe Cristescu]] and [[Ilie Moscovici]].<ref>Filipescu, pp. 67–69. See also Constantinescu, ''passim''</ref> Cocea's mandate was immediately contested by his National Liberal adversaries. They sought to invalidate his candidature, citing a law which prevented those with a military discharge from running in elections. The National Liberal motion was however defeated when Cocea, who presented himself as a political victim, earned unexpected support from the [[Romanian National Party]] and the [[Democratic Nationalist Party (Romania)|Democratic Nationalist Party]].<ref>Constantinescu, July 1971, pp. 21–22</ref>
In opposition to the [[People's Party (interwar Romania)|People's Party]] and the [[anti-communist]] consensus, Cocea spoke positively in [[Parliament of Romania|Parliament]] about [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]], arguing that the Bolshevik foreign policy had saved the whole of civilization, and citing favorable statements made by the returning war prisoners.<ref>Filipescu, pp. 67–68, 71, 73</ref> His theory was that the [[Comintern]] was a legitimate successor of the [[First International]]. The notion was contested by another socialist deputy, Dragu—early signs of a schism between the Cominternist socialist-communists and those who followed the [[International Working Union of Socialist Parties|Vienna International]].<ref>Filipescu, pp. 69–70</ref> In one of his addresses to the Chamber (July 28, 1920), Cocea presented a vision of socialism that was neither "unilateral" nor "narrow", but suited to the needs of "all peoples and all times", and quoted from ''[[The Internationale]]''.<ref>Potop, p. 42</ref> Cocea's rhetoric, equating the October Revolution with the [[Virgin birth of Jesus|birth of Christ]] and glorifying the [[Slavic soul]], was ridiculed from the benches as "Russian mysticism".<ref>Filipescu, p. 68</ref>
For a while, Cocea's sympathy turned toward the rising [[Peasants' Party (Romania)|Peasants' Party]]. This Poporanist group, which reacted against National Liberal politics and sought peace with the socialists and the Soviets, was called "civilized and [[Westernization|Westernized]]" by the socialist journalist.<ref>Filipescu, p. 71</ref> Nevertheless, Cocea was becoming disappointed by the [[parliamentary system]] of [[Greater Romania]]. He argued that Parliament itself should be replaced with a [[Technocracy|technocratic]] body, elected by a radical form of [[universal suffrage]],<ref>Filipescu, p. 69</ref> and clamored his belief that "in short while, [...] Romania will be socialist."<ref name="icaug41"/>
In August 1920, Cocea voted in favor of [[Grigore Trancu-Iași]]'s labor law, although he found it unsatisfactory—his stated belief was that the law's inequities would spark a "[[social revolution]]".<ref>Filipescu, p. 75</ref> There followed the [[1920 Romanian general strike|October 1920 general strike]], that was condoned and supported by Cocea and the writers at ''Chemarea''.<ref>Ion Iacoș, "Contribuții privind greva generală din octombrie 1920", in ''Studii. Revistă de Istorie'', Nr. 6/1970, pp. 1077, 1078, 1079, 1087</ref> During December, following a [[state of siege]], Cocea and Lupu were behind parliamentary efforts to investigate the alleged murder of socialist activist [[Herșcu Aroneanu]] by People's Party authorities.<ref>Constantinescu, August 1971, pp. 42–43</ref>
When, in early 1921, Cristescu and the other socialist-communists set up the [[Romanian Communist Party]] (PCR), Cocea became an outside sympathizer of their cause, protesting against their imprisonment and prosecution in the [[Dealul Spirii Trial]].<ref>Constantinescu, September 1971, pp. 70–71; Potop, pp. 42–43</ref> In May and June of that year, when chamber was assessing the case of Moscovici's seat, left vacant by his sentencing after the strike, Cocea asked for it to be filled by [[Constantin Popovici (politician)|Constantin Popovici]]; Popovici, next on the electoral list, was himself under arrest.<ref>Constantinescu, September 1971, p. 70</ref> His speech about "government terror" ended in a heated dispute with People's Party deputies Berlescu (whom Cocea called a descendant of [[Roma minority in Romania|Romani]] [[Slavery in Romania|slaves]]) and Alexandru Oteteleșeanu.<ref>Constantinescu, September 1971, pp. 70–71</ref> Shortly before the [[1921 Romanian general election|1921 election]], Cocea labeled [[Conservative-Democratic Party|Conservative-Democratic]] leader [[Take Ionescu]], the [[Prime Minister of Romania|Prime Minister]]-designate, as a pawn of King Ferdinand and his "[[camarilla]]".<ref>Constantinescu, September 1971, p. 71</ref> Early in 1922, Cocea also joined [[Dem. I. Dobrescu]] and other lawyers on the Dealul Spirii Trial defense team.<ref>Ciorianu, p. 29</ref>
===''Facla'' revival and 1923 trial===
[[File:Cum sunt decapitați regii cari se împotrivesc voinței poporului..., Facla 24 martie 1923.jpg|thumb|270px|''[[Facla]]'' of March 24, 1923, published with the warning ''Cum sunt decapitați regii cari se împotrivesc voinței poporului...'' ("How they decapitate kings who oppose the people's wishes...") alongside the [[execution of Louis XVI]]]]
In 1920, ''Chemarea'' came to its end, and Cocea began putting out another edition of ''Facla'' weekly.<ref name="pc99"/> The newspaper acquired offices in the Frascatti Hotel (later the "Savoy" branch of [[Constantin Tănase Revue Theater]]), redecorated by artist [[Marcel Janco]].<ref name="sc46-47">Callimachi, pp. 46–47</ref> According to political scientist [[Stelian Tănase]], this enterprise was secretly financed by Soviet Russia as external [[agitprop]]: notes kept by ''[[Siguranța Statului]]'' intelligence agency suggest that Cocea was a regular guest at the [[Russian Ambassador to Romania|Russian mission in Romania]].<ref name="stamoral1"/>
Cocea's disciple, Ion Vinea, went on to publish the magazine ''[[Contimporanul]]'', originally as a socialist tribune, but later as a modernist forum.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 131–145, 220; Crohmălniceanu, p. 59</ref> Cocea was an occasional contributor to this venue, but was separated from its [[avant-garde]] staff writers, having a less rebellious writing style and a more structured political vision.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 140, 194; Crohmălniceanu, p. 65</ref> In exchange, Vinea was an occasional contributor to ''Facla'', whenever ''Contimporanul'' met financial difficulties;<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 135, 140, 212</ref> he was also the editorial director from 1925 to 1926 (the year when ''Facla'' again closed down).<ref name="isclasici"/><ref name="isserviciul">{{in lang|ro}} [[Ion Simuț]], [http://www.romlit.ro/un_poet_n_serviciul_gazetriei "Un poet în serviciul gazetăriei"], in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 34/2005</ref> Vinea's own political articles were noted for their critique of National Liberal policies, portraying liberal Romania as a [[Brătianu family]] dictatorship and campaigning in favor of the socialist groups.<ref name="isserviciul"/><ref name="pcrisipitor">{{in lang|ro}} [[Paul Cernat]], [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/Publicistica-unui-constructivist-risipitor*articleID_9408-articles_details.html "Publicistica unui constructivist risipitor"], in ''[[Observator Cultural]]'', Nr. 191, October 2003</ref> Around 1924, the ''Facla'' group was also joined by "Red Prince" [[Scarlat Callimachi]], a modernist promoter and communist militant,<ref name="sc46-47"/> by aspiring critic [[Șerban Cioculescu]],<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Al. Săndulescu]], [http://www.romlit.ro/mnctorulde_cri "Mâncătorul de cărți"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226212452/http://www.romlit.ro/mnctorulde_cri|date=February 26, 2012}}, in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 11/2008</ref> and by the [[Zionism|Zionist]] opinion maker [[A. A. Luca]].<ref name="lbdioptr">{{in lang|ro}} [[Liviu Bordaș]], [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/Altfel-despre-dioptriile-lui-Mircea-Eliade-%28II%29*articleID_21235-articles_details.html "Altfel despre dioptriile lui Mircea Eliade" (II)], in ''[[Observator Cultural]]'', Nr. 461, February 2009</ref> Cocea was at the time the animator of cultural debates at [[Terasa Oteteleșanu]], where he introduced the young novelist and journalist [[I. Peltz]].<ref name="aspeltz">{{in lang|ro}} [[Al. Săndulescu]], [http://www.romlit.ro/i._peltz_memorialist "I. Peltz memorialist"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326201552/http://www.romlit.ro/i._peltz_memorialist|date=March 26, 2012}}, in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 35/2004</ref><ref>{{in lang|ro}} Simona Vasilache, [http://www.romlit.ro/cu_voi.. "Cu voi..."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804110916/http://www.romlit.ro/cu_voi.. |date=August 4, 2012 }}, in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 27/2006</ref>
The early 1920s also witnessed N. D. Cocea's involvement in various other civic and cultural campaigns. He became, in 1922, a member of the Romanian [[Friends of Nature]], a socialist-inspired [[environmental organization]], and, the following year, joined Dem I. Dobrescu in creating the League for Human Rights.<ref name="ac135">Cioroianu, p. 135</ref> He was among the regular guests at [[International Red Aid]] "literary tea parties", described by historian [[Adrian Cioroianu]] as "one of those schemes the communists employed in collecting money for their comrades in prison".<ref name="ac135"/> With Fondane, director [[Armand Pascal]] and various others, Cocea also participated in creating ''Insula'', an actors' working group. It was supposed to revolutionize [[Theatre of Romania|Romanian theater]], but disappeared after only a few months of existence (February 1923).<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 271–273</ref> Cocea compensated by giving moral support to the Jewish modernist [[Vilna Troupe]], which relocated to Bucharest in 1924.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 277</ref> Also that year Cocea published a new book, ''Ignoranță'' ("Ignorance").<ref name="gc1026">Călinescu, p. 1026</ref>
After the adoption by a National Liberal legislature of Romania's [[1923 Constitution of Romania|1923 Constitution]], Cocea joined up with the angrier ranks of political opposition. He soon publicized a claim that King Ferdinand and his favorite minister, Brătianu, had together given legal foundations to a [[plutocracy]].<ref name="pc140">Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 140</ref> He was taken to court and lost, being sentenced for ''[[lèse majesté]]''.<ref name="stamoral1"/><ref name="stamoral2"/><ref name="pc140"/> Reputedly, the authorities also confiscated samples of Cocea's anticlerical fiction works, but these were recovered and published by ''Contimporanul'' in 1925.<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 169</ref> Through the voice of Vinea, ''Contimporanul'' also protested the sentencing, claiming that Cocea was a persecuted man, his career "a spectacle of modern dramatism".<ref name="pc140"/> The trial attracted significant attention among the Romanian youth, which divided itself into monarchists and republicans.<ref name="lbdioptr"/>
Cocea's conduct was the topic of controversy throughout the early 1920s: in 1922, Cocea's influential modernist rival, the literary theorist [[Eugen Lovinescu]], bitterly attacked him, Arghezi and Bogdan-Pitești for their wartime conduct.<ref name="pc39"/> Noted for its [[Xenophobia|xenophobic]] attacks on ''Contimporanul''{{'}}s editors,<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', p. 207</ref> the nationalist review ''[[Țara Noastră]]'' openly celebrated Cocea's arrest. An unsigned note in that paper announced that Cocea had been imprisoned "for the least of his crimes", and called to mind that Cocea had been lampooning its editor, [[Octavian Goga]].<ref name="tninsemnari">{{in lang|ro}} [http://dspace.bcucluj.ro/bitstream/123456789/9738/1/BCUCLUJ_FP_451581_1923_004_041.pdf "Însemnări"], in ''[[Țara Noastră]]'', Nr. 41/1923, p. 1326 (digitized by the [[Babeș-Bolyai University]] [http://documente.bcucluj.ro/ Transsylvanica Online Library])</ref> The antisemitic publicist [[Ion Gorun|Alexandru Hodoș]] designated Cocea's supporters at ''Adevărul'' and ''[[Cuvântul Liber (1924)|Cuvântul Liber]]'' with the title of "[[Shabbos goy]]im", describing Cocea as a habitual prankster, a renegade of the socialist cause, and a dishonorable man.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Ion Gorun|Alexandru Hodoș]], [http://dspace.bcucluj.ro/bitstream/123456789/9755/1/BCUCLUJ_FP_451581_1924_005_030.pdf "Adulatori și pamfletari"], in ''[[Țara Noastră]]'', Nr. 30/1924, pp. 942–944 (digitized by the [[Babeș-Bolyai University]] [http://documente.bcucluj.ro/ Transsylvanica Online Library])</ref>
Cocea served his sentence of one year and a half at [[Craiova]] penitentiary, and paid the 10,000 [[Romanian leu|lei]] fine.<ref name="stamoral1"/><ref name="stamoral2"/> He was afterward involved in communist agitation, speaking at PCR rallies in [[Câmpina]] (1925), [[Soroca]] and [[Otaci]] (during the [[1931 Romanian general election|electoral campaign of 1931]]).<ref name="stamoral2"/> The PCR underground's leaders were often Cocea's guests at Frascatti.<ref>Callimachi, p. 47</ref> His modernist supporters did not follow his lead. By 1929, Vinea and ''Contimporanul'' were toning down their own socialist agenda, cooperating instead with the moderate [[National Peasants' Party]], and even drawing suspicion from the left that they had become sympathetic to [[fascism]].<ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 169–179, 229–244</ref> Generally a critic of the National Peasantists,<ref name="gc919"/> Cocea quit a resurfacing ''Facla'' in 1930, leaving Vinea in charge (the latter was editor of that newspaper until its 1940 disestablishment).<ref name="isclasici"/><ref name="isserviciul"/>
===1930s novels and ''Era Nouă''===
Over the next few years, N. D. Cocea is believed to have been largely inactive in the political press.<ref name="pastia289">Pastia, p. 289</ref> Instead, he made his return to fiction. In 1931, his novel ''Vinul de viață lungă'' ("The Wine of a Long Life") was released under contract with [[Editura Cultura Națională]].<ref name="gc1026"/> Its received much acclaim, unmatched by Cocea's later works in the genre, which critics often found unpalatable for their [[Erotic literature|erotic content]].<ref>Camboulives, p. 184. See also Călinescu, p. 919; Pastia, ''passim''</ref> Cocea's erotic series includes: ''Fecior de slugă'' ("The Son of the Servant"), published in 1933 by Cultura Națională; ''Pentr-un petec de negreață'' ("Over a Black Patch", also known as ''Andrei Vaia''), 1934, [[Editura Librăriei Leon Alcaly|Alcaly Publishers]]; and ''Nea Nae'' ("Uncle Nae"), 1935, Alcaly.<ref name="gc1026"/>
In 1934, Cocea joined a group known as ''[[Amicii URSS]]'', formed on the basis of a PCR initiative and formally seeking to normalize Romania's relations with the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>Callimachi, p .49; Cioroianu, pp. 114–115, 135</ref> In November of that year, ''[[Siguranța Statului]]'' was reporting that Cocea and Callimachi, together with [[Petre Constantinescu-Iași]], were going to establish in Bucharest a "far left platform" with a "pronounced [[Philosemitism|Semitic]] tendency"; known as ''Ideea Socială'' ("The Social Idea"), it was supposedly part of the ''[[Adevărul]]''-''[[Dimineața]]'' network.<ref name="stprintul">{{in lang|ro}} [[Stelian Tănase]], [http://www.sferapoliticii.ro/sfera/135/art07-arhiva.html " 'Prințul Roșu' "], in ''[[Sfera Politicii]]'', Nr. 135</ref> The period also brought Cocea's brief and uneventful marriage with Lila Stănescu. She was in reality the lover of PCR activist [[Ion Gheorghe Maurer]], whom the journalist continued to view as his friend.<ref name="ssscandaluri"/>
In 1936, the year when he married his long-time lover Gina Manolescu-Strunga,<ref name="ssscandaluri"/><ref name="gc919"/> Cocea again returned to the forefront of Romania's left-wing press, launching the theoretical magazine ''Era Nouă'' ("New Era"). Also a front for the PCR, replacing the banned ''[[Bluze Albastre]]'' of communist writer [[Alexandru Sahia]], ''Era Nouă'' was itself shut down by the authorities in 1937.<ref>Crohmălniceanu, pp. 151–152</ref> It had published only two issues. In one of its internal memos, ''Siguranța Statului'' reviewed the first of these as inoffensively "academic", the second as "agitatorial".<ref name="stamoral2"/> ''Siguranța'' agents also noted that Cocea, with Dobrescu and Callimachi, was making efforts to assist the PCR activists tried in [[Chișinău]], and trying to obtain further support from the left-wing National Peasantists ([[Virgil Madgearu]], [[Grigore Iunian]]).<ref name="stprintul"/>
''Era Nouă''{{'}}s main contributors were young communist essayists such as Sahia, [[Miron Radu Paraschivescu]], [[Ștefan Voicu]] and [[Silvian Iosifescu]], but the magazine also published avant-garde authors with [[Marxism|Marxist]] sensibilities: [[Ion Călugăru]], [[Stephan Roll]], [[Virgil Teodorescu]], [[Dolfi Trost]]<ref>Crohmălniceanu, pp. 152–156</ref> and [[Paul Păun]].<ref name="viionescu">{{in lang|ro}} [[Virgil Ierunca]], [http://www.memoria.ro/marturii/domenii/diverse/diagonale_-_amintiri_despre_ghita_ionescu/1178/ "Diagonale – Amintiri despre Ghiță Ionescu"], at the [http://www.memoria.ro/ Memoria Digital Library]; retrieved July 17, 2014</ref> They were joined by communist polemicists [[Ghiță Ionescu]] and [[Belu Zilber]].<ref name="viionescu"/> In its first issue, ''Era Nouă'' prophesied that the [[Crisis (Marxian)|general crisis]] of [[capitalism]] was evident in the rapid decay of "its culture and ideology", leaving the [[proletariat]] in a position to reinterpret mainstream culture "on the large basis offered by [[dialectical materialism]]".<ref>Crohmălniceanu, p. 152. See also Ornea, p. 38</ref> According to cultural historian [[Zigu Ornea]], such pronouncements, soon taken up by the entire communist press, were in reality a form of left-wing [[totalitarianism]], and therefore equivalent to the internal logic of fascism.<ref>Ornea, pp. 37–41</ref>
===''Reporter'' magazine and tensions with the PCR===
Cocea was reputedly pondering the relaunch of ''Chemarea'' as a communist newspaper, supposedly with [[Ștefan Foriș]], the ex-convict head of PCR Agitprop, as its manager, and Paraschivescu, Voicu, as well as other [[Union of Communist Youth|Communist Youth]] activists, as co-editors.<ref name="stamoral2"/> ''Siguranța'' men had it that Cocea shocked his communist partners by informing them that ''Chemarea'' was to be a "[[Centrism|centrist]]" platform, with no known communist on its staff.<ref name="stamoral2"/> However, the senior socialist remained active in proximity to the PCR over the next year. In May 1937, he caught ''Siguranța''{{'}}s attention as a would-be collaborator to Callimachi's [[anti-fascist]] review ''Munca'' ("The Labor"). Making overtures toward the National Peasantist left-wingers, ''Munca'' also received contributions from poets [[Mihail Cruceanu]] and [[Sandu Tudor]], from sociologist [[Mihai Ralea]] and journalist [[Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște]], and from writer-director [[Sandu Eliad]].<ref name="stprintul"/> In summer 1937, the moderate left-wing ''[[Azi (Romanian newspaper)|Azi]]'' daily published Cocea's renewed criticism of censorship, part of a series of a collective reply to the [[far right]]'s moralistic discourse.<ref>Ornea, p. 455</ref>
Cocea was again mandated by the PCR to lead ''Reporter'' weekly, beginning with its November 1937 issue. The periodical, already in existence for five years, was making efforts to reach the apolitical public.<ref>Crohmălniceanu, pp. 152, 156</ref> In an editorial for ''Reporter'', Cocea made comments similar to the ''Era Nouă'' program, with a more pronounced satirical tone and allusions to fascism: "however massive the stupidity of dictatorial rules, man's intelligence, honesty in convictions [and] the fervor of the masses will in the end topple them. [...] The greedy [[satrap]]s, the leeward adventurers have come to tumble down, one on top of the other."<ref>Crohmălniceanu, p. 156</ref>
''Reporter''{{'}}s agenda was generically anti-fascist: campaigning for the [[Second Spanish Republic|Republican side]] in the [[Spanish Civil War]], it lampooned [[Benito Mussolini]] and [[Adolf Hitler]], and repeatedly attacked the [[Iron Guard]] or other Romanian fascist groups.<ref>Crohmălniceanu, pp. 156–158</ref> Its political panelists included, alongside Voicu, Paraschivescu and Călugăru, the future communist historian [[Ion Popescu-Puțuri]], reporter [[Aurel Baranga]],<ref>Crohmălniceanu, pp. 157–159</ref> and anti-fascist poet [[Gherasim Luca]].<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Ioana Pârvulescu]], [http://www.romlit.ro/engels_i_lautramont "Engels și Lautréamont"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804110941/http://www.romlit.ro/engels_i_lautramont |date=August 4, 2012 }}, in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 34/2003</ref> Other members of the ''Reporter'' circle, whose contacts with Cocea were closely investigated by the authorities, included a diverse gathering of PCR figures: Foriș, Trost, Marxist sociologist [[Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu]], unionist [[Ilie Pintilie]]<ref name="stamoral1"/> and the [[Bessarabia]]n poet [[Emilian Bucov]].<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Serafim Saka]], [http://www.sud-est.md/numere/20080915/article_8/ "Atunci – Partidul; acum – gașca"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721123307/http://www.sud-est.md/numere/20080915/article_8/ |date=July 21, 2011 }}, in ''[[Revista Sud-Est]]'', Nr.3/2008</ref> ''Reporter'' also published the militant poems of [[Demostene Botez]], [[Liviu Deleanu]] and [[Al. Șahighian]], and samples of international left-leaning literature ([[Ilya Ehrenburg]], [[André Malraux]], [[Nikolai Ostrovsky]]).<ref>Crohmălniceanu, p. 158</ref> The maverick dramatist [[Mihail Sebastian]] was, for a while, ''Reporter''{{'}}s literary chronicler.<ref>Crohmălniceanu, p. 159</ref>
Only two months after Cocea took over, ''Reporter'' was banned by state censorship, suspected of "communist tendencies" and of publishing "alarmist articles."<ref name="stamoral1"/> The sincerity of Cocea's political credo was by then coming into question: the maverick communist [[Petre Pandrea]] alleged that Cocea was infiltrated into the party ranks by ''Siguranța Statului''.<ref name="aspeltz"/> Stelian Tănase also describes Cocea as a [[double agent]], notoriously close to ''Siguranța'' director [[Mihail Moruzov]] (his Bucharest neighbor), trafficking in information from the communist movement and the court of [[Carol II of Romania|Carol II]], but still advising PCR Agitprop.<ref name="stamoral1"/> Cocea was nevertheless being closely watched by the ''Siguranța'' Detective Corps. It kept notes on his meetings with French press correspondents, with Spanish Republican diplomats and with disgraced [[History of the Jews in Romania|Jewish Romanian]] journalists such as [[Jacques G. Costin]].<ref name="stamoral1"/> According to these documents, Cocea discussed political matters with the opponents of Carol II, including National Peasantist [[Iuliu Maniu]] and communist sympathizer [[Petru Groza]].<ref name="stamoral1"/> He is known to have had great sympathy for Maniu, despite their political differences.<ref name="mpîntâlniri">{{in lang|ro}} Marin Pop, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140714162339/http://www.caietesilvane.ro/indexcs.php?cmd=articol&idart=1954 "Întâlniri secrete între Iuliu Maniu, Nicolae D. Cocea și Mihail Ralea (1942–1944)"], in ''Caiete Silvane'', Nr. 2/2013</ref>
===World War II===
A 1939 entry in Cocea's own diary admits that the "unexpected" [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact|Non-Aggression Treaty]] between the Soviets and [[Nazi Germany]] was the source of "doubting" and "bitterness" among left-wing Romanians, but scolds his old friend [[Nicolae L. Lupu]] for having then lost faith in socialism.<ref name="giflupu">{{in lang|ro}} Gheorghe I. Florescu, [http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/FLORESCUdec6.html "Un socialist sui-generis: dr. N. Lupu"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317061344/http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/FLORESCUdec6.html |date=March 17, 2012 }}, in ''[[Convorbiri Literare]]'', December 2006</ref> At times, he was openly critical of [[Joseph Stalin]] and his [[Stalin's cult of personality|personality cult]], writing about the "sickening smoke of official Soviet incense", and joking about the various feats attributed to Stalin.<ref>Otu, p. 21</ref> In contrast to his earlier political stances, Cocea was, by 1938, a member of the National Liberal Party, probably because a new wave of repression had led the PCR to implode.<ref name="vf147, 213-214">Frunză, pp. 147, 213–214</ref> He was registered with the National Liberals until after Carol II's [[National Renaissance Front]] dictatorship pushed them into semi-clandestinity, and still enjoyed a privileged relationship with them during [[World War II]].<ref name="vf147, 213-214"/>
Cocea was inactive during the war, when Romania was allied with the [[Axis Powers]] and under a [[Romania during World War II|succession of dictatorial regimes]]. Around 1939, he was separated from his wife Gina, following a series of disagreements in the family.<ref name="stamoral1"/><ref name="ssscandaluri"/> Inhabiting a private villa in the [[Transylvania]]n town of [[Sighișoara]], he kept diaries which offer insight into his various political dealings. During the [[Winter War]], he sided with the Soviet Union, noting that Stalin had pragmatic grounds for wanting to secure his borders. However, he viewed [[Background of the Winter War|Soviet provocations]] as "redolent of Nazism", and concluded that the war would impose new "problems of conscience" on all "good-faith people."<ref>Otu, p. 20</ref> The fascist [[National Legionary State|National Legionary regime]] continued to keep track on Cocea's movements during 1940, alarmed by rumors that he had been operating a clandestine [[printing press]], but was unable to determine whether he was still a communist.<ref name="stamoral1"/> Cocea's actress sister [[Alice Cocéa|Alice]], who was living in [[German occupation of France during World War II|Nazi-occupied France]], was taking a different path: she and her manager, Robert Capgras, had a friendly relationship with the Germans and were later deemed [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaborators with the enemy]].<ref name="mdsalice"/><ref>Kenneth Krauss, ''The Drama of Fallen France: Reading'' La comédie sans Tickets, [[State University of New York Press]], Albany, 2004, p. 8.  {{ISBN|0-7914-5953-5}}</ref>
From 1941, the Nazi-aligned regime of ''[[Conducător]]'' [[Ion Antonescu]] ordered Romania's participation in the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|war against the Soviet Union]]. Cocea was active in the informal opposition to Antonescu, approaching his old friends in the mainstream political parties. As early as January 1942, Cocea met with the National Peasantist leadership, probing its attitude toward the Soviet Union and the Romanian communists. Like them, Cocea was positively impressed that the PCR was turning into a "patriotic" party and going back on its pro-German stance.<ref name="mpîntâlniri"/> Around 1944, Cocea resumed contacts with the since-revived PCR. In June, ''Siguranța'' reported that he was rounding up support for communist sympathizer [[Mihai Ralea]] and his underground [[Socialist Peasants' Party]].<ref name="stprintul"/> He later served as the communists' liaison with the National Liberal Party wing of [[Gheorghe Tătărescu]] (later, the [[National Liberal Party-Tătărescu]]). Cocea's intervention contributed to a strategic alliance between the communists and the various other parties, within a coalition which overthrew Antonescu (''see [[King Michael's Coup]]'').<ref name="vf147"/>
===Communist honors===
[[File:Bellu 130222 77.jpg|thumb|Grave at [[Bellu Cemetery]]]]
In September 1944, Cocea was elected vice president of the [[Romanian Writers' Society]], which was in the process of expelling writers associated with the wartime regimes.<ref name="vdssr">{{in lang|ro}} Victor Durnea, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120218133843/http://www.romaniaculturala.ro/articol.php?cod=9830 "Societatea scriitorilor români"], in ''[[Dacia Literară]]'', Nr. 2/2008</ref><ref name="cv79">Cristian Vasile, ''Literatura și artele în România comunistă. 1948–1953'', [[Humanitas publishing house|Humanitas]], Bucharest, 2010, p. 79.  {{ISBN|978-973-50-2773-5}}</ref> He personally proposed for some 50 "valuable writers", from [[Maria Banuș]] and [[Ury Benador]] to [[Radu Tudoran]] and [[Gheorghe Zane]], including many of his left-wing friends, to be admitted into the Society (only 20 of them were eventually received).<ref name="vdssr"/> The following month, he participated with Callimachi in the creation of a formally unified [[Union of Professional Journalists in Romania|Journalists' Trade Union]]. Split between PCR and National Peasantist lobbies, it was created around the conjectural goal of purging the Romanian press of fascist influences.<ref>Frunză, pp. 254–255</ref> The Union was originally presided by a Committee comprising Cocea, Callimachi, [[Nicolae Carandino]], [[Miron Constantinescu]], [[George Ivașcu]], [[Eugen Jebeleanu]], [[Octav Livezeanu]], [[George Macovescu]], [[Nicolae Moraru]], [[Ion Pas]], [[Grigore Preoteasa]], [[Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște]], [[Alfons Vogel]] and several others.<ref>Frunză, p. 255</ref> In May 1945, Cocea represented the Writers' Society at the funeral of his ''Reporter'' colleague [[Mihail Sebastian]], who had been killed in a road accident.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.romanianjewish.org/db/pdf/nr275_276/speciala3.pdf "Din registrul 'faptelor diverse' în 'dosarele istoriei' "], in ''[[Realitatea Evreiască]]'', Nr. 275–276 (1075–1076), May 2007, p. III</ref>
The [[Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union]] (ARLUS), which offered a good reception to [[Soviet occupation of Romania|Soviet occupation forces]], counted N. D. and Dina Cocea among its earliest members (although they were probably not among its founders); in December 1944, father and daughter were co-opted on the ARLUS Leadership Committee.<ref>Cioroianu, pp. 120, 124</ref> The ARLUS Press Section, headed by Teodorescu-Braniște, had Cocea as one of its first vice presidents, serving alongside Ion Pas.<ref name="ac135"/> Around 1946, Cocea approached Arghezi with a PCR offer to become a paid communist writer. According to his own classified report for the party, he was unable to persuade his former friend to join him in this cause.<ref name="stamoral1"/> Cocea's various efforts still earned praise from official poet [[Mihai Beniuc]], who included his colleague among the writers most active in disseminating communist principles after August 1944.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Cassian Maria Spiridon]], [http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/TATAoct3.html "Un congres al scriitorilor" (I)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317061358/http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/TATAoct3.html|date=March 17, 2012}}, in ''[[Convorbiri Literare]]'', October 2003</ref> According to Tănase, Cocea "offered himself to the Soviet occupier, with the same [[amoralism]] and cynicism that have been following him through life."<ref name="stamoral1"/>
Between 1944 and 1946,<ref name="bc184"/> Cocea was also editor and publisher of ''Victoria'' ("Victory") daily. Although nominally independent, this paper was a tribune for the PCR, supporting the policies of [[communization]], and popularizing [[Stalinism]].<ref>Frunză, pp. 214, 245</ref><ref name="ppgmemento">{{in lang|ro}} Petru Popescu Gogan, [http://revista.memoria.ro/?location=view_article&id=351 "Memento!"], in ''Revista Memoria'', Nr. 28</ref> It fostered a new generation of journalists and activists, among them [[Vera Călin]],<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Geo Șerban]], introductory note to [[Vera Călin]], [http://www.romlit.ro/frnturi_de_via_opiuni_cuvinte "Frânturi de viață, opțiuni, cuvinte"], in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 31/2005</ref> [[B. Elvin]],<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Geo Șerban]], [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/De-pe-un-pisc-al-confirmarilor*articleID_18194-articles_details.html "De pe un pisc al confirmărilor"], in ''[[Observator Cultural]]'', Nr. 386, August 2007</ref> [[George Mărgărit]]<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Iulian Marcel Ciubotaru, [http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/CIUBOTARUsep11.htm "Un document de arhivă inedit: autobiografia poetului George Mărgărit"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111082826/http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/CIUBOTARUsep11.htm |date=November 11, 2011 }}, in ''[[Convorbiri Literare]]'', September 2011</ref> and [[Marius Mircu]].<ref>{{in lang|ro}} B. Mehr, [http://www.romanianjewish.org/db/pdf/nr302_303/pagina23.pdf "Marius Mircu ne-a părăsit înainte de a împlini un secol de viață"], in ''[[Realitatea Evreiască]]'', Nr. 302–303 (1102–1103), September 2008, p. 23</ref> Other ''Victoria'' contributors, including Iosifescu, [[Constantin Balmuș]], the avant-garde writers [[Radu Boureanu]] and [[Geo Dumitrescu]], wrote articles which condemned the various traditional seats of learning and the [[Romanian Academy]], as "[[reactionary]]", while naming the senior far right supporters in culture (from [[Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești]] and [[D. Caracostea]] to [[P. P. Panaitescu]] and [[Ion Petrovici]]).<ref name="ppgmemento"/>
On March 31, 1945, Cocea replaced the disgraced Carandino as inspector-general of the Romanian theaters, and began introducing [[Censorship in Communist Romania|communist censorship]].<ref>Catalan, pp. 187, 188, 190</ref> In September 1947, a few months before the [[Communist Romania|Romanian communist regime]] officially took over, Cocea was reelected to the Writers' Society Leadership Committee.<ref name="vdssr"/> Together with Ion Pas, the [[Ministry of Culture and National Patrimony|Minister of Arts]], he introduced legislation that severely curtailed the Romanian dramatic repertoire. It was largely impractical, causing an uproar in the theatrical community, and leading to Cocea's demotion in December 1947.<ref>Catalan, pp. 190–191</ref>
On January 9, 1948, Cocea was made vice president of the reformed Writers' Society (later [[Writers' Union of Romania]]), alongside Galaction, [[Gábor Gaál]] and [[Al. Șahighian]] ([[Zaharia Stancu]] was the president, [[Ion Călugăru]] the general secretary).<ref name="cv79"/> He died the next year, on 1 February 1949,<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 February 1949 |title=Moartea lui N. D. Cocea |url=https://adt.arcanum.com/en/view/Adeverul_1949_02 |access-date=23 February 2024 |work=Adevĕrul |pages=4}}</ref> at his home in Sighișoara, shortly after a spiritual crisis had brought him back into the [[Romanian Orthodox Church]].<ref name="gc919"/>
==Personal life and family==
Cocea's marriages and relationships resulted in four children: [[Tantzi Cocea|Tantzi]], [[Dina Cocea|Dina]], Radu and [[Ioana-Maria Cocea|Ioana-Maria]] (also known as Maria Cocea).<ref name="ssscandaluri"/> Florica Mille, who was his first wife, left him for his many affairs with younger women, even though, Dina Cocea recalls, she was forever fascinated by his intellect.<ref name="ssscandaluri"/> After the 1920 divorce, Cocea is said to have lived with a Maria<ref name="stamoral1"/> or Zoe Grigorescu.<ref name="gc919"/> Tantzi, who was born to him from this relationship (1909),<ref name="stamoral1"/> was the first wife of Liviu Ciulley (father of the award-winning filmmaker [[Liviu Ciulei]]).<ref>Gheorghe Florescu, ''Confesiunile unui cafegiu'', [[Humanitas publishing house|Humanitas]], Bucharest, 2008, p. 228. {{ISBN|978-973-50-2208-2}}</ref> The writer's second marriage, to Lila Stănescu, was allegedly one [[Marriage of convenience|of convenience]],<ref name="ssscandaluri"/> and he was at the time still in a physical relationship with Gina Manolescu-Strunga, the reason for his [[statutory rape]] trial. Their affair continued even after Gina married art critic [[Petru Comarnescu]], and she was carrying Cocea's child when that marriage was annulled.<ref name="ssscandaluri"/><ref>{{in lang|ro}} Lucian Nastasă, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110817224044/http://history-cluj.ro/Istorie/cercet/Nastasa/IntelectualiiSiPromovarea.pdf ''Intelectualii și promovarea socială (pentru o morfologie a câmpului universitar)''], Editura Nereamia Napocae, Cluj-Napoca, 2003; [[e-book]] version at the [[Romanian Academy]]'s George Bariț Institute of History, pp. 117, 138–139</ref><ref name="ascomarnescu">{{in lang|ro}} Andrei Stavilă, [http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/STAVILAian5.html "Eveniment: Jurnalul lui Petru Comarnescu"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227054436/http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/STAVILAian5.html |date=February 27, 2012 }}, in ''[[Convorbiri Literare]]'', January 2005</ref>
The daughter, Ioana-Maria, was later recognized by Cocea, and earned her artistic reputation as a sculptor;<ref name="msraristocratia"/> through her mother, she was related to the [[Ghica family]] and to the banker Iosif Pincas.<ref name="ssscandaluri"/> Like Comarnescu before him, Cocea became disenchanted with Gina and was repelled by her public persona: his diaries contain sarcastic comments on her supposed lack of principles and naïveté, calling her ''Gina Balamuc'' ("Madhouse Gina").<ref name="ssscandaluri"/> After parting with Cocea, Gina was married to communist journalist [[Ghiță Ionescu]] (later known as an [[anti-communist]] academic, relocated to England).<ref name="ssscandaluri"/> In the 1940s, while in Sighișoara, Cocea had as a mistress Ioana Mosora, who was more than 40 years his junior.<ref name="stamoral1"/><ref name="ssscandaluri"/><ref name="gc919"/> One of his final projects was to educate Ioana, the daughter of impoverished peasants,<ref name="stamoral1"/><ref name="ssscandaluri"/> on art and literary history.<ref name="gc919"/>
According to literary historian [[George Călinescu]], Cocea was only devoted to "the cause of the proletariat" in his public life: "in his most intimate life, an aristocrat, worshiping the established order and the supreme factor."<ref name="gc919"/> The [[Anticlericalism|anticlerical]] journalist was always troubled by the matters of belief and organized religion. In ''Spre Roma'', Cocea confesses about having piously knelt in front of [[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s ''[[The Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci)|Last Supper]]'', and about finding the arguments of [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] preachers to be almost irresistible.<ref name="gc919"/> Cocea was still active in the [[Freemasonry in Romania|Romanian Freemasonry]]: he stood by the dissident Masons who pledged allegiance to [[Masonic Lodge Officers|Grand Masters]] [[George Valentin Bibescu]] and [[Grigore C. Grigoriu]]; from 1945, he was himself a Deputy Grand Master.<ref name="msmessage"/> Reputedly, it was him who advised Grigoriu and [[Mihail Noradunghian]] to send this [[Masonic Lodge]] into "sleep", as a means to preempt [[Suppression of Freemasonry|communist suppression]].<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.evz.ro/detalii/stiri/masonii-din-romania-pro-sau-contra-intereselor-nationale-603879.html "Masonii din România – PRO sau CONTRA intereselor naționale"], in ''[[Evenimentul Zilei]]'', February 13, 1998</ref> In old age, he rediscovered Romanian Orthodoxy. He made arrangements for his parents to be reburied in Sighișoara, recognized all his illegitimate children, and, on his death bed, demanded to be buried with an [[Christian burial|Orthodox service]] performed by his old friend Galaction.<ref name="gc919"/>
Beyond public cultivation, the Cocea–Galaction–Arghezi collaboration was tinged by malice and unresolved conflict. Cocea himself divulged Arghezi's private anti-communism in his 1946 report to the PCR overseers, recording that Arghezi rejected recruitment offers with sarcasm and pride.<ref name="stamoral1"/> Arghezi's own private notes, and some of his published lampoons, contain some biting remarks about Cocea's communist career.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Radu Bogdan, [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/Alte-capricii-de-poet*articleID_3024-articles_details.html "Alte capricii de poet"], in ''[[Observator Cultural]]'', Nr. 121, June 2002</ref><ref name="stegalact">{{in lang|ro}} [[Stelian Tănase]], [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/Pe-tatal-meu-denuntul-nu-l-a-afectat-cu-nimic-era-intotdeauna-bine-dispus.-Dialog-cu-Elena-Galaction*articleID_12785-articles_details.html " 'Pe tatăl meu denunțul nu l-a afectat cu nimic, era întotdeauna bine dispus'. Dialog cu Elena Galaction"], in ''[[Observator Cultural]]'', Nr. 260, March 2005</ref> In a 2005 interview, Galaction's daughter Elena also stated that her father had only remained in contact with Cocea because of Cocea's kinship with Zoe Marcou-Galaction; the family, she claimed, mistrusted and feared Cocea, whom Zoe herself likened to the devil, but whose conversation skills they all found irresistibly entertaining.<ref name="stegalact"/>
==Literary work==
===Satirist===
In George Călinescu's definition, Cocea was "more of a [[Yellow journalism|yellow journalist]] than a talented one".<ref name="gc919"/> Reviewing ''Fecior de slugă'' for ''[[Gând Românesc]]'' magazine in October 1933, cultural journalist C. Pastia sarcastically commented that Cocea's lampoons had "taught boys how to curse", in which action he identified the Cocea's lifelong objective.<ref name="pastia289"/> Similar assessments were later passed by other authors and researchers. [[Paul Cernat]] described Cocea the pamphleteer as "feared" and "vitriolic",<ref name="pc29"/> while [[Stelian Tănase]] summarized his writing as "sharp, polemical and vulgar".<ref name="stamoral1"/> Likewise, critic [[Mihai Zamfir (literary critic)|Mihai Zamfir]] calls Cocea's [[Republicanism|republican]] pamphlets "filthy", accusing them of promoting, together with the "stupid little poems" of the much older [[Alexandru Vlahuță]], a distorted image of the Romanian monarchy.<ref name="mzstapini">{{in lang|ro}} [[Mihai Zamfir (literary critic)|Mihai Zamfir]], [http://www.romlit.ro/stpni_i_supui "Stăpîni și supuși"], in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 5/2006</ref> Stelian Tănase also notes that Cocea resorted in [[blackmail]], just like his ex-pupil turned rival [[Pamfil Șeicaru]], but that he was less interested than Șeicaru in accumulating fortunes.<ref name="stamoral1"/> Cocea himself was vexed by Șeicaru's style. In his definition, it was the literary equivalent of "[[postilion]] curses".<ref name="nmmoralitati"/>
The harsh pronouncements on Cocea's journalistic contributions are nuanced or contradicted by other writers and critics. [[Scarlat Callimachi]] spoke of his comrade, the "feared polemicist", as in reality "a good man" of "amazing generosity", and, stylistically, "a poet": "Even in his most violent articles one finds glimpses of true poetry."<ref name="sc46-47"/> The latter trait, Callimachi assessed, survived no matter how hard Cocea trained himself to repress it.<ref name="sc46">Callimachi, p. 46</ref> Cocea's skill was emphasized by his foe, Comarnescu, who believed Cocea to be a "semi-failure" as an intellectual, but also a "joker" of genius.<ref name="ascomarnescu"/> According to Pastia: "no one in [[Literature of Romania|Romanian literature]] has ever speculated [[paradox]] with as much courage and talent."<ref name="pastia289"/> Writing in 1936, the young ''[[Facla]]'' essayist [[Eugène Ionesco]] (later a world-famous playwright), listed Cocea and Arghezi among the "peaks" of an older generation, as Romania's two "greatest lampoonists".<ref>[[Eugène Ionesco]], [http://www.plural-magazine.com/article_on-the-generation-in-shambles-1936.html "On the Generation in Shambles, 1936"], in the [[Romanian Cultural Institute]]'s ''[http://www.plural-magazine.com/ Plural Magazine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321152817/http://www.plural-magazine.com/ |date=March 21, 2012 }}'', Nr. 29/2007</ref> Various other authors have also seen in Cocea a founding figure of the more satirical and politically aware side of modern [[Romanian humor]].<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Radu Cosașu]], [http://www.dilemaveche.ro/sectiune/la-centru-si-la-margine/articol/blestemul-telegramelor-havas "Blestemul telegramelor Havas"], in ''[[Dilema Veche]]'', Nr. 194, October 2007; Mihaela Mureșan, [http://www.studia.ubbcluj.ro/download/pdf/355.pdf "Pamfletul ca text jurnalistic inedit"], in the [[Babeș-Bolyai University]]'s ''Ephemerides'', Nr. 1/2008, pp. 112, 115; Ion Vasile Șerban, [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/Pamfletul-intre-fond-si-forma*articleID_3739-articles_details.html "Pamfletul între fond și formă"], in ''[[Observator Cultural]]'', Nr. 50, February 2001; Val Talpalaru, [http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/PRESAiul10.html "ComPresa Revistelor"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317061448/http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/PRESAiul10.html|date=March 17, 2012}}, in ''[[Convorbiri Literare]]'', July 2010</ref>
===''Poet-Poetă''===
Cocea's youthful debut with ''Poet-Poetă'' was his homage to [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolist]] [[prose poetry]], colored with a strongly erotic tinge. According to George Călinescu, the book, "vehemently [[Priapism|priapic]] and monotonous in its excess", borrows its tone from [[Alexandru Macedonski]], its titillating subject from [[Pierre Louÿs]], and its plot from [[Mihai Eminescu]] (the novel ''Cezara'').<ref name="gc919"/> The protagonists of ''Poet-Poetă'', Iulius and Ersilia, living on love and desire, discover each other's bodies and then the joy of dying of one's own volition, hurling themselves off a precipice.<ref name="gc919"/> Writing in 1911, [[Ilarie Chendi]] noted that the book was Cocea's first known blunder, speculating that literary failure had relegated Cocea to the promotion of other, more talented, Symbolists.<ref name="icvieata"/>
Călinescu sees the positive aspect of ''Poet-Poetă'' in its "delicate description" of the human form (Ersilia's hair, for instance, is ''stofă fără preț'', "priceless fabric").<ref name="gc919"/> Fellow literary historian and critic [[Ștefan Cazimir]] has included Cocea's work among the Symbolist novels directly influenced by [[Vienna Secession]] art and the Secessionists' feminization of nature.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Ștefan Cazimir]], [http://www.romlit.ro/secesionismul_n_literatura_romn_vi "Secesionismul în literatura română" (VI)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804111002/http://www.romlit.ro/secesionismul_n_literatura_romn_vi|date=August 4, 2012}}, in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 13–14/1999</ref> Such traits also stand out in Galaction's biblical preface, a new ''[[Song of Songs]]'': "Ersilia's eyes are as green as the depths of the ponds at [[Heshbon]]; and her breasts like twin does grazing among the lilies."<ref name="gc919"/> These interventions were held against Galaction by literary historian [[Eugen Lovinescu]] (an outspoken adversary of the ''Viața Socială'' writers): "A militant Orthodox, [Galaction] prefaced in his youth novels which defile all things sacred".<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Ion Simuț]], [http://www.romlit.ro/istoria_unei_antipatii__e._lovinescu_i_gala_galaction "Istoria unei antipatii – E. Lovinescu și Gala Galaction"], in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 47/2004</ref>
In 1908, when he castigated both Symbolism and "perverted eroticism", Cocea left a detailed list of authors he considered "degenerate" and "bourgeois": [[Gabriele d'Annunzio]], [[Alexandre Dumas, fils|Dumas-fils]], [[Maurice Maeterlinck]], [[Anna de Noailles]], [[Georges Ohnet]], [[Marcel Prévost]], and [[Oscar Wilde]].<ref>Mitchievici, p. 101</ref> According to literary historian [[Angelo Mitchievici]], the substance of such "class-based criticism" was equivalent to the [[biological determinism]] of Cocea's nationalist adversaries, announcing the absolutes of fascism ("[[degenerate art]]") and communism (the [[Zhdanov Doctrine]]).<ref>Mitchievici, p. 102</ref>
===''Vinul de viață lungă''===
''Vinul de viață lungă'' is considered by some to be Cocea's main work as a novelist.<ref name="bc179">Camboulives, p. 179</ref> The main character, Manole Arcaș, is, like Cocea himself, a Moldavian boyar. Successive episodes in the book reveal his complex worldview: Arcaș is an [[Atheism|atheist]] with modernist sensibilities, a lover of nature, and a [[utopian socialist]] who has been turning his estate into a [[Intentional community|commune]].<ref>Camboulives, pp. 179–182</ref> Having reached a venerable age, he slowly reveals the secret of his longevity in conversations with the much younger judge: after decades of experimentation, the Arcaș estate produces a special sort of [[Moldavian wine]]; the grapes were [[Pressed (wine)|pressed]] by Manole and a [[Roma minority in Romania|Romani (Gypsy)]] girl, in the course of their love-making.<ref>Călinescu, p. 919; Camboulives, p. 182</ref> The object of Arcaș' [[Sexual fetishism|olfactory fetish]], the girl has died a tragic death, inspiring Manole to take up the winery project as a sort of symbolic rebirth.<ref>Călinescu, p. 919; Camboulives, pp. 182–183</ref>
With its aesthetics and its tone, ''Vinul de viață lungă'' is an unusual sample of militant literature, contrasting with the work of socialist or [[Poporanism|Poporanist]] writers from Cocea's lifetime. French historian Bernard Camboulives notes that Cocea made a point of reacting against Poporanists' call to preserve "Romanian specificity".<ref name="bc179"/> Similarly, George Călinescu notes that the Poporanist setting is given an original twist in Cocea's novel, with the erotic interludes.<ref name="gc919"/> As Callimachi writes, the book is a rare moment in which Cocea the poet vanquished Cocea the journalist,<ref name="sc46"/> while Camboulives sees in it "a eulogy to life, to love, to the senses and to the most elevated thoughts".<ref>Camboulives, p. 183</ref> In Călinescu's more skeptical interpretation, it merely stands for "a journalistic narrative, with the stylistic decency of well-read men", its author being less than a "creator", its dialogues just "chatter".<ref name="gc919"/>
===''Fecior de slugă'', ''Pentr-un petec...'', ''Nea Nae''===
''Fecior de slugă'', the first of Cocea's [[political novel]]s, takes its artistic inspiration from the ''[[fin de siècle]]'' novelist [[Duiliu Zamfirescu]], creator of the social climbing prototype [[Dinu Păturică]].<ref>Călinescu, p. 919; Pastia, p. 289</ref> Cocea's Dinu is Tănase Bojogeanu, the "son of the servant" referred to in the book's title. As a child, he is shown competing in school with Nelu Azan, the daydreaming aristocrat, profiting from Azan's generosity and overtaking him in many respects.<ref>Călinescu, p. 919; Pastia, pp. 289–290</ref> However, while Nelu preserves ideals which lead him into the communist movement, Tănase, the corrupt clerk, rises through the ranks to become King's Commissioner.<ref name="gc919"/> The two are pitted against each other, their ideological conflict made worse when Bojogeanu sells a young female communist into [[sexual slavery]].<ref name="gc919"/>
Present throughout the work are masked portrayals of Cocea's political allies and adversaries. Pastia, who described such cameos as both cartoonish and interesting, identified [[Alexandru Averescu]], [[Ion I. C. Brătianu]], [[Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea]], [[I. C. Frimu]], [[Dumitru Iliescu-Turtucaia]], [[Take Ionescu]], [[Nicolae Iorga]] and some others.<ref>Pastia, pp. 289, 290</ref> Pastia also suggests that the central theme (Bojogeanu as the [[bourgeois]] suffocating ancient boyardom) is conventional and ultimately irrelevant: "That may well be, and we agree that our morals may tolerate the decay of the Azans and the ascent of the Bojogeanus. But this did not a novel make. An issue of ''Facla'' would have sufficed."<ref name="pastia290">Pastia, p. 290</ref> Călinescu spoke with displeasure about ''Fecior de slugă'' as an illustration of Cocea's "strident, violent style, excessively vulgar and of a sexuality that is never redeemed by a hint of whatever is eternally human."<ref name="gc919"/> Pastia however found that Cocea wrote his book with noticeable talent "in rendering that which is vulgar", a Romanian answer to [[Charles Baudelaire]]'s ''[[Les Fleurs du mal]]''.<ref name="pastia290"/>
''Pentr-un petec de negreață'', with its name borrowed from peri-urban [[Romanian folklore]],<ref name="ammundus"/> shows its male protagonist Andrei Vaia alternating between dreams of [[free love]] in the countryside and the adulation of Bucharest as a hotspot of erotic pursuits. Of the adventures depicted, some are believed to have been modeled on Cocea's own sexual exploits.<ref name="stamoral1"/><ref name="ammundus"/> A pivotal moment in the novel shows Andrei discovering that his Bucharest lover, Mira, is cheating on him with the hunchback Bergher, who has purchased her attentions with stockings and silk.<ref name="ammundus"/> Through Vaia's monologues, the book gives Cocea's views about the female psyche and bodily needs, the supposedly eternal insecurity of men, and the mystery of female orgasm.<ref name="ammundus"/> ''Pentr-un petec...'' doubled as a barely disguised satire of the interwar political class, in this case specifically directed at the [[National Peasants' Party]]—according to Călinescu, this was Cocea's selling tactic, as were its advertised depictions of "fornication" and "sexual abnormalities", or its licentious quotation from the [[Book of Proverbs]].<ref name="gc919"/>
In ''Nea Nae'', the eponymous protagonist is a boorish and thick potentate, always on the hunt for "beastly erotic pleasures" (Călinescu), sometimes accompanied by thinly disguised political figures of the interwar.<ref name="gc919"/> Călinescu was especially critical of Nae's speech patterns, caricatured "without the gifts of the [[picturesque]]".<ref name="gc919"/>
==Legacy==
Cocea greatly influenced the journalistic style of young Ion Vinea<ref name="isserviciul"/><ref name="pcrisipitor"/><ref>Cernat, ''Avangarda'', pp. 63, 98, 107, 130, 132, 133–134, 140, 220</ref> and Scarlat Callimachi.<ref name="sc46-47"/> In addition to his presence in the memoirs or diaries of his friends and enemies, Cocea is the republican revolutionist in ''Cronică de familie'' ("Family Chronicle"), by the communist writer [[Petru Dumitriu]]—a text allegedly plagiarized from Vinea's unpublished works.<ref name="ivdumitriu"/> Among the better-known visual portrayals of Cocea is a 1928 ink drawing by [[Marcel Janco]].<ref>[https://www.europeana.eu/portal/record/05812/0B465782A754869FF277BE56050C2B79CED2B15B.html ''Portretul scriitorului N.D. Cocea''], [[Europeana]] entry; retrieved February 21, 2011</ref>
Some of N. D. Cocea's writings enjoyed a good standing throughout [[Communist Romania|Romania's communist period]]. During the early 1960s, official textbooks described him as one of those who covered the gap between 19th-century [[Literary realism|Realism]] and [[Socialist realism in Romania|Romanian Socialist Realism]].<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Ion Simuț]], [http://www.romlit.ro/canonul_literar_proletcultist_ii "Canonul literar proletcultist" (II)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110228032657/http://www.romlit.ro/canonul_literar_proletcultist_ii|date=February 28, 2011}}, in ''[[România Literară]]'', Nr. 28/2008</ref> In particular, the communist regime overplayed Cocea's criticism of the Romanian monarchy, glorifying him as someone who had undermined the credibility of [[Michael I of Romania|Michael I]] and his predecessors.<ref name="gpproces"/><ref name="mzstapini"/> In one instance, communist historiography even claimed that Cocea and Arghezi had served time for their 1912 anti-monarchy campaign, taking ''Facla'' lampoons at face value.<ref name="gpproces"/>
Cocea's World War II diaries were passed on to his relatives in Switzerland, and have not been published except for the short fragments hosted in the 1960s by two Romanian reviews: ''[[Magazin Istoric]]''<ref name="stamoral1"/><ref name="otu20–1">Otu, pp. 20–21</ref> and ''[[Secolul XX]]''.<ref name="mseisenstein"/> The former only featured redacted portions, [[Censorship in Communist Romania|communist censors]] cut out Cocea's critique of Soviet foreign policy, which were rendered sensitive by the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|recent intervention in Czechoslovakia]], and also excised his thoughts on the Stalin cult.<ref name="otu20–1"/> In 1970, an edition of Cocea's ''Jurnal'' ("Diary") was issued by the PCR's [[Editura Politică]].<ref name="giflupu"/> A previously unknown novel by Cocea was signaled in the late 1970s, and was noted for its virulent attacks on [[Pamfil Șeicaru]].<ref name="nmmoralitati"/>
Cocea's literature and political controversy were also publicized outside Romania. From his refuge in [[Francoist Spain]], Șeicaru made public his decades-long polemic with Cocea. His repeated talk about Cocea's immorality prompted literary historian [[Nicolae Manolescu]] to note a paradox: "It is somewhat strange to see accusations of immorality being launched by people who, beyond their talent [...], do not even possess the most basic moral sense. The mere fact that the pamphlets they hurl at each other, like hogwash, have morality as their stake (never their own, always the other's), should make one think."<ref name="nmmoralitati"/> A [[French-language]] translation of ''Vinul de viață lungă'' was published by Jean de Palacio (''Le Vin de longue vie'', Le Serpent à Plumes, 2000).<ref>Camboulives, pp. 183, 374</ref> According to Romanian literary critic [[Mircea Iorgulescu]], the positive reception of such works in France "would probably astound the Romanian literary environment, for whom Cocea hardly even exists."<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Mircea Iorgulescu]], [http://www.cuvantul.ro/articol/?artID=5&nr=338 "Literatura română văzută de la Paris"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719184625/http://www.cuvantul.ro/articol/?artID=5&nr=338|date=July 19, 2011}}, in ''[[Cuvântul (literary magazine)|Cuvântul]]'', Nr. 338, August 2005</ref>
Streets named after Cocea exist in Bucharest, Sighișoara, [[Brașov]], [[Oradea]], [[Sibiu]] and [[Timișoara]]. His residence in Sighișoara is preserved by the local authorities as a "memorial house".<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [http://adrcentru.ro/Document_Files/turismul%20cultural_2ttj6s.pdf ''Regiunea 7 Centru: Turismul cultural''], [[Centru (development region)|Centru]] Agency for Regional Development, p. 9; retrieved February 21, 2011</ref> The same city is home to the N. D. Cocea Literary Club, established 1979.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Vasile V. Luca, [http://www.cuvantul-liber.ro/articol.asp?ID=46421 "Cenaclul N.D Cocea-Anotimpuri, la ceas aniversar. Lansare de carte"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006103508/http://www.cuvantul-liber.ro/articol.asp?ID=46421|date=October 6, 2011}}, in ''[[Cuvântul Liber (Târgu Mureș)|Cuvântul Liber]]'', November 27, 2009</ref>
==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==References==
*{{in lang|ro}} Mirel Anghel, [http://www.revista-studii-uvvg.ro/files/revista_VI_2.pdf "Plecarea lui Tudor Arghezi în Elveția"], in the [[Vasile Goldiș West University of Arad]] ''Studii de Știință și Cultură'', Nr. 2 (17), June 2009, pp.&nbsp;44–49
*{{in lang|ro}} Mirel Anghel, Roxana-Corina Sfetea, [http://www.revista-studii-uvvg.ro/files/revista_VI_2.pdf "Spiritul polemic arghezian"], in ''Studii de Știință și Cultură'', Nr. 2 (21), June 2010
*Alexandru Baciu, "Revoluția din Octombrie văzută de N. D. Cocea", in ''[[Magazin Istoric]]'', October 1968, pp.&nbsp;6–8
*[[George Călinescu]], ''Istoria literaturii române de la origini pînă în prezent'', [[Editura Minerva]], Bucharest, 1986
*[[Scarlat Callimachi]], "Scrisori către un prieten", in ''Magazin Istoric'', September 1970, pp.&nbsp;42–49
*Bernard Camboulives, ''La Roumanie littéraire'', Éditions Le Manuscrit, Paris, 2005.  {{ISBN|2-7481-6120-3}}
*Gabriel Catalan, "Teatrul și muzica din România în primii ani de comunism (I)", in ''Revista Arhivelor'', Nr. 1/2009, pp.&nbsp;187–203
*[[Paul Cernat]], ''Avangarda românească și complexul periferiei: primul val'', [[Cartea Românească]], Bucharest, 2007.  {{ISBN|978-973-23-1911-6}}
*[[Adrian Cioroianu]], ''{{lang|ro|Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc}}'', [[Editura Curtea Veche]], Bucharest, 2005. {{ISBN|973-669-175-6}}
*Ion Constantinescu, "Din însemnările unui fost reporter parlamentar", in ''Magazin Istoric'': July 1971, pp.&nbsp;20–26; August 1971, pp.&nbsp;37–43; September 1971, pp.&nbsp;66–71
*[[Ovid Crohmălniceanu]], ''Literatura română între cele două războaie mondiale'', Vol. I, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1972.  {{OCLC|490001217}}
*{{in lang|ro}} Radu Filipescu, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110818172913/http://istorie.uab.ro/publicatii/colectia_auash/annales_10/studii/5%20radu_filipescu.pdf "Partidele parlamentare și problema comunismului (1919–1924)"], in the [[1 Decembrie 1918 University, Alba Iulia|December 1 University of Alba Iulia]] ''Annales Universitatis Apulensis, Series Historica'', 10/I, 2006, pp.&nbsp;67–83
*Victor Frunză, ''Istoria stalinismului în România'', [[Humanitas publishing house|Humanitas]], Bucharest, 1990.  {{ISBN|973-28-0177-8}}
*[[Angelo Mitchievici]], ''Decadență și decadentism în contextul modernității românești și europene'', Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2011.  {{ISBN|978-606-588-133-4}}
*[[Z. Ornea]], ''Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească'', [[Editura Fundației Culturale Române]], Bucharest, 1995. {{ISBN|973-9155-43-X}}
*Petre Otu, "''Magazin Istoric'' cenzurat", in ''Magazin Istoric'', April 2019, pp.&nbsp;19–22
*{{in lang|ro}} C. Pastia, [http://documente.bcucluj.ro/web/bibdigit/periodice/gandromanesc/1933/BCUCLUJ_FP_BALP73_1933_001_006.pdf "Mișcarea culturală. Cărți. N. D. Cocea, ''Fecior de slugă''"], in ''[[Gând Românesc]]'', Nr. 6/1933, pp.&nbsp;289–290 (digitized by the [[Babeș-Bolyai University]] [http://documente.bcucluj.ro/ Transsylvanica Online Library])
*[[Constantin Titel Petrescu]], ''Socialismul în România. 1835 – 6 septembrie 1940'', Dacia Traiana, Bucharest, [n. y.]
*C. Popescu-Cadem, ''Document în replică'', Mihail Sadoveanu City Library, Bucharest, 2007.  {{ISBN|978-973-8369-21-4}}
*Valeria Potop, "Primii deputați comuniști în Parlamentul României", in ''Magazin Istoric'', July 1970, p.&nbsp;39–43
*[[Ion Rusu Abrudeanu]], ''Pacostea Rusească. Note istorice, impresii, documente și scrisori'', [[Editura Socec]], Bucharest, 1920
*[[Tudor Vianu]], ''Scriitori români'', Vol. III, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1971.  {{OCLC|7431692}}
{{Authority control}}
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