Conferences

At the age of 100, Neagu Djuvara speaks about what he has been doing in the last century

10 years ago, Neagu Djuvara was launching the new series of Conferences at the National Theatre, reviving, at the initiative of Ion Caramitru, a long NTB tradition, of highly cultural value.

After three conferences held throughout a decade, Neagu Djuvara, at the incredible age of 100, shall open on 2 October 2016, 11.00 a.m., at the Studio Hall, a new season of the National Theatre Conferences.

As Andrei Pleșu was writing, Neagu Djuvara „detonates - without frivolity – the idea that the science of the historian must be bitter, rigid, and only attractive to a few stiff colleagues”. Especially because of that, his writings enjoy significant republications and editions, and his interviews, filled with charm, humour or irony are enjoyed and intensely disseminated in the virtual space or by word of mouth.  

Born in full World War, Neagu Djuvara saw the light of day on 18 August 1916, in Bucharest, in an aristocratic family of Aromanian origin, which gave the world many a politician, diplomat and university professor. Historian, diplomat, philosopher, journalist and novelist, Neagu Djuvara obtains his bachelor’s degree at the Sorbonne (History, 1937) and the PhD in Law (Paris, 1940). He participates in the Bessarabia and Transnistria campaign (June–November 1941) and is injured near Odessa. Admitted by contest at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1943, he is sent as diplomatic courier to Stockholm on the morning of 23 August 1944, in connection with the peace negotiations with the USSR. In Stockholm, he activates as legation secretary until September 1947, when the Communists also take over the Foreign Affairs. He stays in exile, militating until 1961, in diverse diaspora organisations. In 1961, he leaves for the Republic of Niger, where he shall spend 23 years as diplomatic and legal advisor of the Nigerian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and simultaneously, professor for International Law and Economic History at the University of Niamey. In 1972, he obtains the state PhD at the Sorbonne with a thesis on the philosophy of history. As of 1984, he is Secretary General of the Maison Roumaine in Paris, until 1990, when he returns to the homeland. He is a Honorary Member of the „A.D. Xenopol“ Historical Institute of Iaşi and the „N. Iorga“ Historical Institute of Bucharest.

The titles of the three conferences held by Neagu Djuvara at the National Theatre of Bucharest are: The 77 Years War; A Brief Experience with the Western Espionage Services; Neagu Djuvara: Actor and Poetry Performer.

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Especially concerned with the philosophy of history and Romanian history, Neagu Djuvara signed several groundbreaking works: Le droit roumain en matière de nationalité (Romanian Law in Terms of Nationality - PhD thesis); Civilisations et lois historiques. Essai d’étude comparée des civilisations (book awarded by the French Academy and translated into Romanian under the title Civilisations and Historical Patterns. A Comparative Study of Civilisations); Le pays roumain entre Orient et Occident. Les Principautés danubiennes dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle (Romanian, Between East and West. The Romanian Lands at the Beginning of the 19th Century); A Short History of the Romanians Narrated for the Youth; How Was the Romanian People Born?; Mircea the Elder and Battles with the Turks; From Vlad the Impaler to Dracula the Vampire; Georges Milesco’s Notes (novel); Ill-Famed Recollections and Stories; Recollections from Exile (French version: Bucarest–Paris–Niamey et retour ou Souvenirs de 42 ans d’exil (1948–1990); Is There a Truthful History?; Thocomerius–Negru Vodă, A Baron of Cuman Origin at the Beginnings of Wallachia; The Seventy-Seven Years War (1914–1991) and the Premises of American Hegemony. Essay on History-Politology; What Were the „Great Boyars“ in Wallachia? The Grădişteni Saga (XVI–XX Century); Answer to my Critics and the Enemies of Negru Vodă; The Mystery of the Stockholm Telegram from 23 August 1944 and Some Almost Unbelievable Details Around Our Dramatic Capitulation; A Brief Illustrated History of Romanians (translated into English).

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu