page_title: Zamfir Arbore
section_title: Senator and political suspect
hierarchical_section_title: Zamfir Arbore / Biography / Senator and political suspect
caption_attribution_description: English: Portretul lui Zamfir Arbore ("Portrait of Zamfir Arbore"), charcoal on paper. Arbore (Arbure), the anarchist scholar, was father of Bulighin's colleague Nina Arbore.
context_page_description: Zamfir Constantin Arbore was a Bukovinan-born Romanian political activist originally active in the Russian Empire, also known for his work as an amateur historian, geographer and ethnographer. Arbore debuted in left-wing politics from early in life, gained an intimate knowledge of the Russian revolutionary milieu, and participated in both nihilist and Narodnik conspiracies. Self-exiled to Switzerland, he became a member of the International Workingmen's Association. Arbore was mostly active as an international anarchist and a disciple of Mikhail Bakunin, but eventually parted with the latter to create his independent group, the Revolutionary Community. He was subsequently close to the anarchist geographer Élisée Reclus, who became his new mentor.
  Arbore settled in Romania after 1877, and, abandoning anarchism altogether, committed himself to the more moderate cause of socialism. His campaign against Russian despotism also led him to champion the cause of freedom for Bessarabia region, to which he was personally tied by his family history.
context_section_description: After the unexpected German defeat of November 1918 brought a moral victory for Romanian Ententists and the return of Ententist forces in government, Arbore withstood scrutiny as an alleged collaborator with the enemy. In this context, he rallied with a new radical force, the Peasants' Party, and ran for political office in what was by then Greater Romania. During the November 1919 election, he presented himself as a Senate candidate for Chișinău, Bessarabia, and was elected. His new political credo was outlined in his Senate speech of December 27, 1918, which focused on proposals to change the 1866 constitutional regime and amend the prewar tradition of centralized government, while also outlining his main defense against suspicions of collaborationism. His daughter Ecaterina was rendered a suspect by her Socialist Party of Romania militancy. She further antagonized the public when, as a Communist Party of Romania founder, she supported the self-determination of Bessarabia and its separation from Romania, in line with Comintern policies. After being arrested several times, she made her may into the Soviet state. Dumitru Arbore also joined the Communist Party, was kept under surveillance by the authorities for hosting conspirative sessions at his home in Prahova County, but remained in Romania, where he died in an October 1921 accident.
  Arbore lost his Senate seat when Parliament was dissolved by King Ferdinand I; he soon after left the Peasants' Party, pushed into opposition, and was reelected to the Senate as a People's Party candidate in the summer 1920 election. Late in 1920, he was co-founder and secretary of the Socialist Peasants' Party, together with playwright Ion Peretz, publicist Ioan Pangal, abbot Iuliu Scriban etc.
  Withdrawn from national politics, Arbore again focused on his journalist's activity and was at the forefront of Romanian Freemasonry. His membership in the local subsidiary of the Grand Orient de France was confirmed in December 1922 by Mihail Noradunghian, and he was recognized as a Rank 33 Mason, Worshipful Master of Human Rights Lodge (located in Bucharest). On April 23, 1923, Arbore was elected Grand Master of a major Romanian Scottish Rite branch, the Grand Lodge (Grand Master for life after 1930), and was the Grand Orator for Romania within the Supreme Scottish Rite Council from 1929. These promotions were scrutinized by the anti-Masonic far right: in a public conference, Nicolae Paulescu of the National-Christian Defense League called Arbore the Grand Master of a "Kike-Romanian Masonic group".
  His own far left inclinations were by then contrasting with his civil service positions, which he maintained even as his daughter Ecaterina was becoming a persona non grata. In 1923, Arbore published a new installment of his memoirs, as În temnițele rusești ("In the Russian Dungeons"). In March 1924, he replaced Vasile Ghenzul as editorial director of Furnica ("The Ant"). The cooperativist and agrarian bimonthly was published in Bessarabia, and printed a Russian-language supplement. He was still a contributor to the central leftist press: in December 1926, Adevărul published his piece about the Serbian politician Nikola Pašić, defunct leader of the People's Radical Party. During this interval, Ecaterina tried to return to Romania. According to the opinion of journalist Victor Frunză, she was trying to hide her growing disillusionment with communism under the pretext that she needed to take care of her ailing father. The Romanian authorities did not allow her entry into the country, and she was forced back. Zamfir and his wife had earlier adopted Dumitru's young child, Zamfir Dumitru Arbore.
caption: Arbore in the 1920s, as drawn by Nadia Bulighin
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