Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Seria Istorie, Anul XIX, Nr. 2 (26)/2014, pp.

157-172

The Memory of the Romanian Elites

Dr. Filip-Lucian Iorga

Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Romanian Academy

The Romanian nobility does not look like Western aristocracies. We call the
Romanian nobles “boyars” and they usually have no nobility titles like “dukes”, “counts”,
“barons” etc., except for those few families that have received, along history, titles from
foreign monarchs (the Holy Emperor, the King of Poland, the Russian Tsar). But, even
though there were no titles, the Romanian “boyars” constituted an influent nobility. The
greatest and oldest families preceded the formation of the medieval Romanian
principalities, Wallachia and Moldavia. They had huge estates and they had a role in
electing the ruler, among the descendants of the Basarab (in Wallachia) and
Bogdan/Muşat (in Moldavia) dynasties and in choosing the foreign alliances of the
principalities. The smaller families served in the armies, at the court and had smaller
estates (some of them, the “moşneni” and “răzeşi” worked their own lands, much alike
the Polish “aristocratic proletariat”). During the centuries, the rulers have imposed a
system of boyar ranks and, gradually, only those families which obtained official
functions at the court were considered “boyars”. In the XVIII th century, a great number of
Greek families from Constantinople were integrated into the Romanian nobility. At the
middle of the XIXth century, the boyars themselves, who controlled the politics of the
country (even though Wallachia and Moldavia and then, later, after 1859, Romania,
belonged to the Ottoman Empire, until 1877) managed to obtain the abolition of boyar
ranks and privileges. But, of course, Romanian nobility didn’t disappear. The
descendants of the boyar families kept their strong influence over Romania’s politics,
economy and culture until World War II. The old boyar families integrate, gradually, at
the end of the XIXth century and the beginning of the XXth century, the newcomers, the
“nouveaux riches”, the wealthy bourgeoisie, but also part of the intellectual bourgeoisie
(professors, officers, lawyers, writers, artists). Everybody (or almost everybody) follows
in Romania, until the communist regime, the social and cultural pattern of the former
boyars. They had been, in the history of Romania, the landowners, the richest people in
the country, the cultivated people (most of the medieval chronicles and of the first literary
works are written by boyars). They built churches and schools, they brought the French
culture, the revolutionary ideas, they built Western institutions and they pleaded for
Romania’s adjustment to the Western world.
After the forced abdication of King Michael I, on the 30 th of December 1947, the
communist regime opened its political prisons to the descendants of the former Romanian
elites. The last pieces of land were confiscated from the boyars, many of their houses
were destroyed, historical and cultural treasures (books, family documents, old furniture)
were burned, destroyed or confiscated. One of the main enemies of the communist
regime was the “exploiting class” (“clasa exploatatoare”), therefore the bourgeois and the
landowners (“burghezo-moşierimea”). Many descendants of the Romanian noble families
were jailed, many of them died in prison, such as Constantin I. C. (Dinu) Brătianu (the
leader of the National Liberal Party), Gheorghe Brătianu (historian), George Manu

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(physicist), Mircea Vulcănescu (philosopher), Mons. Prince Vladimir Ghika (catholic
priest), Constantin Argetoianu (conservative politician and writer), Dumitru Burilleanu
(former governor of the National Bank), Ion Cămărăşescu, Radu Portocală, Henri
Cihoski, Ion Gigurtu, Ioan Mihail Racoviţă and many others.
Among the nobles who were jailed and survived, we can cite: Prince Alexandru
Ghica, Radu Budişteanu, Gheorghe Flondor, Constantin Noica, Alexandru Paleologu,
Barbu Brezianu, Gheorghe Boldur-Lăţescu, Mihai Dim. Sturdza, Marioana Cantacuzino,
Simina Mezincescu, Dumitru Lecca, Radu Negrescu-Suţu etc.
Immediately after World War II and especially after the abdication of King
Michael, hundreds of descendants of the old Romanian families went into exile: in
France, Germany, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia,
even South America or Australia. There was “the first exile”, the personalities, the
politicians, the wealthy people, the officers who tried to organize the Romanian political
exile. Then, there were the heroes who managed to escape from Romania during the
fifties. Later, in the sixties and seventies, the communist regime started to “sell” the
relatives of the exiled elites to their families. Finally, during the eighties, there was a final
“wave”, this time an exile which also had strong economical motivations.
At this hour, unfortunately, there is no complete inventory of the Romanian boyar
(noble) families, or of their true descendants who live nowadays in Romania or abroad.
The Memory of the Romanian Elites project was born out of my curiosity for the past and
from a certain need to save those fragments that are threatened to disappear. It also
originates from my older interest for the history of Moldavian and Wallachian boyars, for
genealogies and for life stories. Since high-school, I have had a true passion for those
stories that can clarify History. I meet people, I listen to their stories and I try to figure
out a “bigger picture” out of their individual biographies.
During the communist regime, Genealogy was dismissed as a “reactionary”
discipline and the boyars were eliminated from the official history. They were the
“exploiting class”, the “landowner beasts”.
After 1989, the boyars were “admitted” again into History. It is not complicated
to offer strong reasons in favor of a detailed research dedicated to the boyar families, to
the Romanian nobility: for centuries, they have been the only political class of the
country; they have been landowners and warriors, statesmen and diplomats, they gave us
our first cultivated people, our first revolutionaries and our first reactionaries. It is evident
why the study of Romanian nobility’s past is essential for the understanding of our
historical evolution. In the last years, many memoirs and diaries written by members of
the old Romanian elites were published. Some biographies, books of conversations and a
few genealogy books were also written. The “Sever Zotta” Institute for Genealogy and
Heraldry tries to increase public awareness on genealogy and family history. Prince
Mihai Dim. Sturdza started to publish his huge encyclopedia of the boyar families, the
first attempt, since the end of the 19th century, to bring together in one work the large
majority of the Romanian boyar families (up to this moment, two volumes were released,
containing the names beginning with the letters A and B).
But has the Romanian society managed to reintegrate also the contemporary
descendants of the boyar families or of the grand bourgeoisie? Besides a handful of
gentlemen, well known by the public and labeled as “the last boyars”, we don’t know
much about the descendants of old Romanian elites. I remember a book called Amurgul
nobililor (The Twilight of the Nobles): it contained interesting interviews with

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descendants of boyar families, but it portrayed them as “the last nobles”. This formula
irritated a lot Alexandru Paleologu, who had been labeled himself, against his will, as one
of the “last boyars”.
More recently, talking and writing about Romanian nobility seems to become
more and more fashionable. But, unfortunately, there is still much confusion, lack of
information and prejudice, especially when it comes to contemporary descendants.
This is why I wanted to listen to the voices of these silent descendants and I wrote
a questionnaire dedicated to them. I had the example of Jacques and Mona Ozouf, who
started, in 1961, to use a questionnaire in order to obtain information from a great number
of French elementary teachers from public schools, who had started their careers before
1914. They published, in 1992, their synthesis La République des instituteurs. And,
closer to my own research topic, there was the project of Eric Mension-Rigau, a French
historian, professor at Paris IV Sorbonne University, who wrote a questionnaire dedicated
to the descendants of French aristocracy and who used the answers in order to write
several books about the education, the family memory and the sociability of the French
aristocracy. I found, in my turn, the Romanian case very interesting, especially because
of its recent experience with a totalitarian regime and I wrote a questionnaire addressed to
the descendants of the Romanian families which can be defined as “noble”, “grand-
bourgeois” or “intellectual dynasties”, the “nobles et notables”.
This method gives us access to information that was rarely written, to family
archives, to those memories considered sometimes irrelevant but which are essential for
the history of a given society.
Before starting such a research, a historian needs to admit that he will also need
the instruments of the anthropologist and of the sociologist, that he will use history
books, genealogical trees, but also oral history, literature, linguistics, even paintings or
photos.
There is also a need to eliminate from the start several clichés:
1) Even though the Moldavian and Wallachian boyars did not belong, generally, to the
Western structure of aristocratic titles, that does not mean that Romanian boyars are “less
noble” than the Western aristocrats. The differences are, of course, very significant, but
the boyars represent, undoubtedly, the Romanian nobility;
2) The boyar privileges were eliminated in 1858, but the boyar families did not disappear.
They continued to be very influential in the country’s politics and in the cultural and
social life, until World War I and even between the two World Wars;
3) Many of the descendants of boyar families died in the communists prisons or went into
exile. Most of those who survived in Romania lost their social status and much of their
family memory and group identity. Things happened like this, but these families did not
vanish completely. Many of them survived and continue to detain elements of noble
memory and identity that cannot be ignored just for the sake of an imaginary historical
uniformity.
The first variant of my questionnaire was longer (almost 200 questions) and was
addressed exclusively to the descendants of boyar families. After two years, using the
feed-back I received from my first correspondents, I produced a revised and abridged
version of the questionnaire. And I addressed it not only to the descendants of boyar
families, but also to the descendants of those categories that have been genealogically
tied to the boyars, since the 19th century, and that have followed the social and cultural
patterns created by the boyars (the grand bourgeois, the intellectual “dynasties” etc.).

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 This final version, “The Memory of the Romanian Elites”, contains questions
about ancestry, genealogy and family memory transmission, about education, social life
and cultural choices, about symbolic objects, country estates and manors, about religious
and moral values, political opinions and life during communism (or during exile), about
daily life, self-perception and the perceptions about “the others” (see Annex I).
Since 2009, I sent around 300 questionnaires, in Romania and abroad and I
received, up to this moment, more than 100 answers. In the archive of the project, I have
more than 30 written answers and more than 300 hours of recorded interviews. I also
received an important number of unpublished diaries, memoirs, family books,
photographs, genealogies etc.
It was not at all easy to identify the right correspondents. Unfortunately, we do
not have what French, for example, do: an association of the noble families (like the
Association de la Noblesse Française) or a periodical publication that contains the
addresses of a great number of nobles (like the Bottin mondain). I relied on genealogies,
on published historical information, but also on personal recommendations. In fact, this
last method is the best way to get in touch and to meet people that are, usually, very
discreet (some of my correspondents ask me to use their answers, but not to mention their
names in my future analysis).
The first outcome of this project is thus creating an archive based on the answers
to the questionnaire and on the photocopies or originals received from private family
archives. The number of those individuals who were born and educated in noble or grand
bourgeois families before communism and who lived for some years a “boyar” life is
decreasing rapidly. In few years, there will be no memories left about many of the aspects
that interest us. I feel it is a duty to collect these memories, while they are still accessible.
Many family archives are also in great danger to disappear: it is urgent to save them or, at
least, to save the information through photocopies.
After collecting information, I will concentrate on a broad qualitative analysis, in
order to verify the information, and then to identify those elements that are recurrent in
the answers to my questionnaire, in order to find what is sociologically relevant in these
answers, what are those elements, those values that assure distinction for nobles and
grand bourgeois (from family memory to gestures or language). It will also be possible to
analyze the evolution of these elements and values (I already have answers from two
different generations of a same family). Another point of interest of the research is the
fact that this project is dedicated to a social elite that was confronted with a communist
dictatorship, with permanent exile and with almost total loss of family fortunes.

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 ANNEX I

The Memory of the Romanian Elites

QUESTIONNAIRE
Author: Filip-Lucian Iorga

Name and surname:

Date and place of birth:

I. Family:
1.1. Information about father’s family:
- specify the place of origin of the family.
- are there legends connected to the founding of the family or to distant ancestors for which there is no documentary
attestation?
- what is the age of your family for which documentary evidence can be provided?
- what has been the social and political status of your family, throughout various historical periods?
- mention the historic characters that come from your father’s family.
- do you own a family tree? If so, has it already been published or is it still unpublished? In case it was published,
mention the bibliographical source; if not, enclose a photocopy of it to the current questionnaire.
- if there is no such family tree, try to sketch it yourself, on the basis of the data available, without insisting on
informational deficiencies; this family tree should include, as much as possible, the names of the ancestors, their
date of birth, the death date, perhaps the social rank and profession as well. In other words, try to use any
genealogical information that you can find within your family.
- mention the kinship relations by marriage that exist within your father’s family.
1.2. information about mother’s family.
- the same questions as for chapter 1.1.
1.3. Paternal grandparents: name and surname, biographical journey.
1.4. Maternal grandparents: name and surname, biographical journey.
1.5. Father: name and surname, biographical journey.
1.6. Mother: name and surname, biographical journey.
1.7. Brothers, sisters: names and surnames, biographical journeys.
1.8. Where did you spend your childhood and youth?
1.9. What qualities or drawbacks (physical, intellectual, temperamental) do you think you have genetically inherited
from your ancestors?

II. Family identity and memory transmission:

2.1. What kind of identity was most important to your family: national, religious, ethnic or group identity
(belonging to an old and influent family)?
2.2. Have you been brought up in a spirit of reverence for your family’s past? If so, what were the methods by
which you were familiarized with the history of your own family: elder relatives’ accounts, historiographical works,
literary works, family documents, photograhs, etc.?
2.3. Was there in your family’s house (or in the countryside mansion) a collection of family portraits? If so, provide
a description of these. Have you seen many photos of your ancestors?
2.4. During family discussions, were references to the ancestors’ glorious past, to their dignity and courage
frequently recurrent?
2.5. During conversations engaged with people that do not belong to the boyars’ social category, have you often
referred to your family’s past?
2.6. Did your family keep family documents (letters, diplomas, estate documents etc.)? If so, which were the most
important and which were valued the most by your family?

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2.7. Did your family keep family objects that had symbolic value and which were passed down from one generation
to another (jewels, furniture, cutlery, dishes)? If so, provide a description of the latter.
2.8. Has the name of your family ever been passed down intergenerationally via women as well?
2.9. To what extent did you feel, during your childhood and your teenage years, that you belonged to a specific
social group? Illustrate this feeling of membership.
2.10. Did your family have a family tree? If so, was it “alive” (were recent dates, births, deaths, marriages,
periodically added to it)?
2.11. Does your family have a coat of arms? If so, how old is it, when did it appear for the first time, when was it
clearly configured in terms of heraldry and how was it used (did it appear on objects or on documents etc.)? If
possible, provide a description of the emblem and enclose, should it be the case, a photocopy of it.
2.12. Did the communists confiscate or destroy a significant part of your family’s documents and objects? If so,
when and under what circumstances?
2.13. To what extent do you side with members of other European aristocratic elites? What do you consider to be
the similarities and the differences between you and them?

III. Early childhood:

3.1. Were you born at home or in a medical institution (public or private)?
3.2. Did you have a nanny? What was her name; how about her background?

IV. Home education:

4.1. The role of your grandparents in your education.
4.2. The role of your mother in your education.
4.3. The role of your father in your education.
4.4. The role of women (aunts, cousins) in your education.
4.5. Did you have a fräulein or a miss (governess)? What was her name, how old was she, what country did she
come from, what about her social background and her studies, how did she reach your parents’ entourage, what was
her role in your education and what was the relationship between you and her (mention signs of affection, of respect
or submission etc.)?
4.6. Did you have a private tutor? Did you study at home during your primary school years with him/her? What was
his/her name, how old was he/she, what was his/her social background, what about his/her studies, how did he/she
reach your parents’ entourage, what was his/her role in your education and what was the relationship between you
and him/her (mention signs of affection, of respect or submission etc.)?
4.7. How important do you consider the early childhood years to be? How important were politeness rules and
etiquette to your parents? Can you remember some particular circumstances?
4.8. Did your family provide you with a personalized vision of history, by stories about the role played by your
ancestors? If so, what was the nature of these accounts? Mention which of the following events or historical periods
were most recurrent in family conversations and which particular ancestors were invoked:
- the age of the creation of Romanian principalities Wallachia and Moldavia.
- the heroic resistance of Moldavian and Wallachian princes against invaders (Mircea the Old, Alexander the Good,
Stephen the Great, Vlad the Impaler, Michael the Brave).
- the age of scholarly and constructing voivodes (Matei Basarab, Vasile Lupu, Dimitrie Cantemir, Constantin
Brâncoveanu).
- the Phanariote epoch.
- the 1848 Revolution.
- the Unification of the Principalities in 1859.
- Prince Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen accessing the throne in 1866.
- the War of Independence, 1877-1878.
- First World War.
- others (mention them).

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4.9. As a child, did you feel that your family duties blended with the duties towards your country; likewise, by your
name and by your membership to an old family, did you feel that you had a greater duty towards the community
than other children?

V. Institutionalized education:
5.1. Did you attend nursery school? If so, describe the atmosphere, the staff and the colleagues.
5.2. Did you attend primary school?
5.3. What were the institutions where you attended secondary school and high school? Evoke the atmosphere (name
of the institution, location), the teaching staff, your colleagues.
5.4. Did the family get involved in the choice of your school/college?
5.5. Did the family get involved in the choice of your subsequent career?
5.6. What are your academic studies? What university did you attend and what was your field of study?
5.7. Did you decide to follow a family tradition (attending the same college or the same faculty as your father, your
mother or any other ancestor)?
5.8. Did your ancestors study abroad (where and when)? Did you do the same or did you plan to do it?
5.9 Did family or school play a higher role in your education?

VI. Daily life

6.1. Was there a meal protocol which was observed (courses served in a particular order, guests served in a
particular order as well)?
6.2. What did you usually eat for:
- breakfast
- lunch
- five o’clock tea
- dinner
- any other snack.
6.3. Did you play often with children of your age? What social milieux did the children you played with come
from?

VII. Cultural conventions

7.1. Did your family own a library? How many volumes did it contain roughly speaking? What were the authors,
the fields, the epochs and the languages that were mainly represented?
7.2. Was there a scholarly tradition in your family?
7.3. When did you start reading and what was your first book? Did you start reading of your own initiative or did
somebody else hand the book over to you?
7.4. Was your family’s library confiscated or destroyed during the communist regime? If so, under what
circumstances?
7.5.What are the foreign languages that you learned during your childhood and your adolescence?
7.6. Did members of your family speak a foreign language when communicating among themselves?
7.7. Was French considered in your family as the main language of communication or was it used only on special
occasions?
7.8. Did your parents often speak a foreign language when addressing you?
7.9. Was your childhood marked by the French culture?
7.10. Was your childhood marked by the language, the culture and the traditions of another country (for example,
Germany, England, Italy etc.)? If so, what country and who was the person by whom this influence was exerted?
7.11. Was there a musical instrument in your house (a piano, a violin etc.)? Did you learn how to play a musical
instrument as a child?
7.12. Did your family own an arts collection? If so, what did it include (paintings, sculptures, graphics etc.)?
7.13. Did you take dancing classes as a young man/woman? If so, who was your tutor and what type of dance did
you mostly learn?

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VIII. The home
8.1. What was the town where your family lived? What about the neighbourhood?
8.2. What type of home did you have (a villa, a family house with a garden, a flat in a villa, a flat in a block of
flats)?
8.3. What kind of furniture was there in your house? Was it designed in the same style everywhere?
8.4. Did you have old furniture in your house, passed down from one generation to another? If so, can you tell us
some stories about these items of furniture?
8.5. Was your family home nationalized by the communists? If so, where were you forced to move?

IX. The mansion and the estate

9.1. Did your family own one or more estates?
9.2. Were the mansion and the house a family inheritance or had they been recently bought?
9.3. Be so kind as to present historical events or legends connected to your family’s mansion/estate.
9.4. How many floors and rooms did your mansion have? What was its architectural style? What was its furniture
like?
9.5. What was the regular agenda during the holidays spent on the countryside estate?
9.6. What was your relation with the peasants in the village where your mansion and estate were located? Did you
often meet them or talk to them? Did you sometimes join their feasts?
9.7. Did your family contribute to the increase in the living and educational standards in the village where your
estate was located, by the building of a school, a health centre or by other charity works?
9.8. Did your family administer the estate by themselves or did they resort to a hired administrator (bailiff)? In the
latter case, what was the relation with the bailiff, on the one hand, and what was the relation between the
administrator and the peasants, on the other hand?
9.9. Did the men in your family have any knowledge about agriculture?
9.10. Were the mansion and the estate confiscated/vandalized during the communist regime?
9.11. Did you try to renovate the mansion, after 1989, and to revive life on the estate?

X. The serving personnel

10.1. Did you have serving personnel in your house, as a child and a teenager? If so, how many were they in all?
10.2. How did members of the serving personnel address you?
10.3. Did your family provide financial support for staff members, on certain occasions (marriage, birth or death in
the family)? Give examples, where the case may be.

XI. The parlour

11.1. Did your family often organize special dinners with numerous guests, balls, dancing parties, musical
evenings? If so, provide some examples of such events you attended.
11.2. Did you meet in your parents’ house personalities of the political, public and cultural life? Who were they,
what were the relations between them and members of your family and how did you interact with them?

XII. The financial situation

12.1. What was your parents’ attitude towards money?
12.2. Was wealth a fundamental value in the world where you were brought up or was it rather a useful instrument?
12.3. What was the attitude of ancient boyar families towards the newly rich elite? Was there a real antagonism
between the boyars and the bourgeoisie or did the boyars rapidly integrate those bourgeois who adopted the
conventions, the values and the life style which were typical of the boyars’ social class?
12.4. What was the general view on impoverished boyar families, who were forced by poverty to lead a modest life,
in spite of their belonging, at a certain moment, to the social elite?

XIII. Friendship and sociability

13.1. Were your first playmates and comrades part of the larger family (cousins etc.)? Did your first playmates and
comrades belong to the same social category as you did?

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13.2. Did the family get involved in the choice of your circle of friends?

XIV. Family life

14.1. Was marriage considered more of a personal option or rather as an option of the whole family?
14.2. Did your family try to get involved in the choice of your partner?
14.3. How did your family regard the absence of inheritors?

XV. Holidays and free time

15.1. Where did you spend your holidays?
15.2. What sports did you practice? Did you have your own horses?
15.3. Have you ever taken part in a hunting party? If so, describe one such session. Was there any hunting tradition
in your family? What was the game that was most preferred? Can you remember any cherished hunting rifle or any
favourite chasing dog?

XVI. Faith and church

16.1. What religion/confession have you embraced? Who took care of your religious education? Was there in your
family a model of piety that you followed?
16.2. As a child and a teenager, how did you celebrate the major religious events:
- Easter.
- Christmas.
- St. Nicholas.
- others (mention them).
16.3. Does your family own a tomb vault? How did your family envision and how do you yourself envision the
ancestors’ tombs?
16.4. Has your family built, throughout history, churches or chapels? If so, when and where?

XVII. Ethics
17.1. Was the education you received based on a rigid ethical system or rather on a liberal one?
17.2. What were the prevailing nuances of the moral system along whose ligns you were educated:
- Christian morality;
- Victorian morality;
- the code of honour;
- the sense of duty;
- the patriotism;
- others (mention them).
17.3. Is the concept of “word of honour” important for you?

XVIII. The army

18.1. Do you have in your family models of courage, heroism or a long military tradition?
18.2. Did you fight in WW2? If so, what was the evolution of your military career?

XIX. Historical events that influenced your life

19.1. Which of the following historical events influenced your biographical trajectory most and why?
- First World War.
- the Great Unification, the period of Greater Romania.
- the disappearance of the large estates, following the agrarian reform of king Ferdinand I.
- the start of the Second World War.
- the victory of the Allies upon Nazi Germany.
- the invasion of the country by the Soviet troops.
- the forced abdication of H.M. King Michael I and his banishment; the proclamation of the Popular Republic.
- the nationalization process and the collectivization of agriculture.

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- the communist repression of the 50s, the arrestation of members of the Romanian society elites. Were you a
political prisoner or were you persecuted during the communist regime? If so, mention places of detention and the
pressure methods exerted upon you, etc.
- the evolution of Ceauşescu’s tyrannical regime, the attempt to imitate the North-Korean pattern, the gradual
deterioration of the economic and social situation in Romania.
- the events of December 1989. Did Romania confront with a revolution or a coup d’état?
- Romania joins NATO and the European Union.
19.2. What were the doctrines and the politicians (Romanian or foreign) who influenced you most and that you most
appreciated?
19.3. Are you a monarchist or a republican? Motivate your option. What was your family’s attitude towards
monarchy and the Romanian royal family?
Note: Mention any other historical events that influenced your life.

XX. Job
20.1. Have you had a job/ any kind of professional activity throughout your life? If so, what was it?
20.2. Did the installation of the communist regime represent a rupture in your career? Were you forced to abandon
your vocation and re-orientate professionally?

XXI. Offspring and memory

21.1. Do you have children and grandchildren? If so, how many do you have, what are their names, what studies
have they made and in what fields do they activate? Whom have they married?
21.2. Have you told your offspring about the family history and about the importance of perpetuating its memory?
Have you shown them the family tree?
21.3. Do you intend to leave your descendants family photos, documents and objects?
21.4. Have you kept a diary? Do you intend to write your memories? If so, do you intend to publish them
sometime?
21.5. Have you written a history of your family? Have you supported the writing or the publication of a work
devoted to your family’s history? Did you set up a foundation that should deal with the perpetuation of your family
name?
21.6. What is your descendants’ attitude towards the history of their own family? Do they talk about their ancestors?
Are they interested in finding out more? Does their past influence their daily decisions in any way?
21.7. In your opinion, what differentiates nowadays the boyars’ and grand bourgeois’ descendants from the
offspring of families without a representative past?
21.8. Do you think that the spirit of the boyar families can survive in the absence of any material means which could
sustain signs of distinction? In other words, does poverty automatically cancel family memory and boyar distinction
or are there also other factors that ensure the latter?
21.9. Have you ever thought, in case you have just female offspring, that your girls should preserve their historical
name even after marriage?
21.10. What role do you think the descendants of the old elites still play nowadays? Can they still represent a
cultural and moral model?
21.11. In the case of descendants of old families gone in exile and who live outside Romania, you are kindly asked
to describe the context of your departure from the country, the degree of social integration into the coutry of
adoption, whether you still keep in touch with Romania, if your offspring still speak Romanian and if they are still
interested in any way in their national and family origins.

This paper is supported by the Sectorial Operational Programme Human Resources Development (SOP HRD), financed
from the European Social Fund and by the Romanian Government under the contract number SOP
HRD/159/1.5/S/136077

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Selected Bibliography (the main works used during the creation of the questionnaire
and, later, for choosing the recipients, the contemporary descendants of Romanian
nobility and grand bourgeoisie)

Bezviconi, Gheorghe G., Boierimea Moldovei dintre Prut şi Nistru [The Moldavian
Boyars from Bessarabia], Bucureşti, Editura Tritonic, 2004.
Bourdieu, Pierre, La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement, f.l., Les Éditions de
Minuit, 2007.
Cannadine, David, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, New York, Vintage
Books, 1999.
Cernovodeanu, Dan, Evoluţia armeriilor Ţărilor Române de la apariţia lor şi până în
zilele noastre (sec. XIII-XX) [The Evolution of Romanian Coats of Arms, from the
Origins until Now, XIIIth-XXth Centuries], Brăila, Muzeul Brăilei, Editura Istros,
2005.
Ciobotea, Dinică, Istoria moşnenilor. Vol. 1, Partea I (1829-1912) [The History of the
Wallachian ‘Moşneni’], Craiova, EUC, Editura Universitaria, 1999.
Coenen-Huther, Jacques, Sociologia elitelor [Sociology of the Elites], Iaşi, Editura
Polirom, 2007.
Djuvara, Neagu, Ce au fost boierii mari în Ţara Românească? Saga Grădiştenilor
(secolele XVI-XX) [What Did the Grand Boyars Represent in Wallachia? The
Grădişteanu Saga (XVIth-XXth Centuries], Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2011.
Dragu Dimitriu, Victoria, Poveşti ale Domnilor din Bucureşti [Stories of the Gentlemen
from Bucharest], Bucureşti, Editura Vremea, 2005.
Giurescu, Constantin, Despre boieri şi despre rumâni [About Boyars and about Serfs],
Bucureşti, Editura Compania, 2008.
Ion, Narcis Dorin, Residences and Families of the Nobility in Romania, f.l., Institutul
Cultural Român, 2007.
Iorga, Filip-Lucian, Strămoşi pe alese. Călătorie în imaginarul genealogic al boierimii
române [Choosing Your Ancestors. A Journey in the Genealogical Imaginary of the
Romanian Boyars], Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2013.
Lecca, Octav-George, Familiile boiereşti române (după izvoare autentice) [The
Romanian Boyar Families], cu adnotări, completări şi desene de Mateiu Caragiale,
Bucureşti, Libra, Muzeul Literaturii Române, fără an.
Lecca, Octav-George, Genealogia a 100 de case din Ţara Românească şi Moldova [The
Genealogies of 100 Wallachian and Moldavian Boyar Houses], Bucureşti, 1911.
Martin-Fugier, Anne, La vie élégante ou la formation du Tout-Paris (1815-1848), Paris,
Fayard, 1990.
Mension-Rigau, Eric, Aristocrates et grands bourgeois. Éducation, traditions, valeurs,
Perrin, 1997.
Mension-Rigau, Eric, L’enfance au château. L’Éducation familiale des élites françaises
au XXe siècle, Éditions Rivages-Payot, 1990.
Mousnier, Roland, Les hiérarchies sociales de 1450 à nos jours, Paris, Presses
Universitaires de France, 1969.
Ormesson, Jean d’, Au plaisir de Dieu, Paris, Editions Gallimard, 1974.
Platon, Alexandru-Florin, Geneza burgheziei în principatele române (a doua jumătate a
secolului al XVIII-lea – prima jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea). Preliminariile unei
istorii [The Birth of the Bourgeoisie in the Romanian Principalities (the Second Half

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 of the XVIIIth Century – the First Half of the XIXth Century. Preliminaries for a
History], Iaşi, Editura Universităţii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, 2013.
Platon, Gheorghe, Alexandru-Florin Platon, Boierimea din Moldova în secolul al XIX-
lea. Context european, evoluţie socială şi politică [The Moldavian Boyar Class
during the XIXth Century. European Context, Social and Political Evolution],
Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 1995.
Rădulescu, Mihai Sorin, Elita liberală românească 1866-1900 [The Romanian Liberal
Elite, 1866-1900], Bucureşti, Editura ALL, 1998.
Rădulescu, Mihai Sorin, Genealogia românească. Istoric şi bibliografie [The Romanian
Genealogy. History and Bibliography], Brăila, Muzeul Brăilei, Editura Istros, 2000.
Rosetti, Radu, Amintiri. Ce am auzit de la alţii. Din copilărie. Din prima tinereţe
[Souvenirs. What I Heard From the Others. From My Childhood. From My Youth],
Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2013.
Rostás, Zoltán, Secolul coanei Lizica. Convorbiri din anii 1985-1986 cu Elisabeta
Odobescu-Goga. Jurnalul din perioada 1916-1918 [Lady Lizica’s Century.
Conversations from 1985-1986 with Elisabeta Odobescu-Goga. The Diary of 1916-
1918], Bucureşti, Editura Paideia, 2004.
Sion, Costandin, Arhondologia Moldovei. Amintiri şi note contimporane. Boierii
moldoveni [The Moldavian Archontology. Souvenirs and Contemporary Notes. The
Moldavian Boyars], Text ales şi stabilit, glosar şi indice de Rodica Rotaru, Prefaţă de
Mircea Anghelescu, Postfaţă, note şi comentarii de Ştefan S. Gorovei, Bucureşti,
Editura Minerva, 1973.
Sturdza, Mihai Dim., Familiile boiereşti din Moldova şi Ţara Românească. Enciclopedie
istorică, genealogică şi biografică [The Boyar Families from Moldavia and
Wallachia. Historical, Genealogical and Biographical Encyclopaedia], vol. I, A-Bog,
Bucureşti, Editura Simetria, 2004; vol. II, Boian – Buzescu, Bucureşti, Editura
Simetria, 2011; vol. III, Cantacuzino, Bucureşti, Editura Simetria, 2014.
Sturdza, Mihail Dimitri, Grandes familles de Grèce, d’Albanie et de Constantinople.
Dictionnaire historique et généalogique, 2e édition revue et augmentée, Paris, Chez
l’auteur, 1999.
Tudorovici, Doina, Amurgul nobililor [The Twilight of Nobles], f.l., Editura PRO, 1998.
Ungureanu, Mihai-Răzvan (întocmită de), Marea Arhondologie a boierilor Moldovei
(1835-1856) [The Great Archontology of the Moldavian Boyars (1835-1856)], Iaşi,
Editura Universităţii „Al. I. Cuza”, 1997.

- The Ghika family internet site: www.ghika.net

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