Vasile Pogor

Vasile Pogor

Vasile V. Pogor (Francized Basile Pogor; August 20, 1833 – March 20, 1906) was a Moldavian-born Romanian poet, philosopher, translator and liberal conservative politician, one of the founders of Junimea literary society. Raised in the aristocratic circle of Iaşi, and educated in the French Empire, he had a career in law. He was a civil servant during the United Principalities regime, held seats in the Assembly of Deputies, and, after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania, was Mayor of Iaşi City. Although he had a major role in creating the Conservative Party, by fusing together the various "White" political clubs and Masonic Lodges, Pogor was more loyal to the Junimist inner faction, and stood by it when it split with the other Conservatives.

The notoriously indolent and improvident Pogor had a preference for orality, and was sought after for his Voltairian wit. He left few written works, and many unfulfilled projects, but influenced Romanian literature as a cultural promoter, sponsor, and the first local expert on Charles Baudelaire. He was known to his Junimea colleagues as a one-man "contemporary library".

An irreligious evolutionist, and taking an interest in Buddhist studies, Pogor represented the Positivist cell at Junimea. He was also one of the first locals to study the work of Henry Thomas Buckle, integrating Bucklean concepts into Junimea's critique of nation building. He supported Romania's Westernization within a conservative framework, tempering nationalist presumptions and valuing a culturally pluralistic society.

Casa Pogor, his main residence, is closely associated with Junimist history. Although sold by its debt-stricken owner in 1901, it was revived in the 1970s as a literary history museum, theater venue and concert hall.