Portraits of Young Socialists: Moral Standing and Socializing Places
Portraits of Young Socialists: Moral Standing and Socializing Places

Summary/Abstract: The legend of the dissident intellectual surrounds the Romanian socialists of the last quarter of the 19th century. Young men called “nihilists” would break all social taboos, would protest against the legitimacy of the era’s corrupt political institutions, and would dispute religious ethics, the monarchy’s hierarchical authority, social inequality and the claimed reputation of the university. In various socialists’ or former socialists’ memoirs, they are deemed new social apostles, with the coming of the Hereafter replaced by the imminent occurrence of the revolution, which, by the collective approach of resources, will set in motion a more harmonious and equalitarian society. Unlike the restrictive bourgeois ethics, their (self) description is romantic and legendary. The attempt in this study is to create a generic portrait of the socialist intellectual toward the end of the 19th century, focusing on his/her exterior and moral standing, but also on the specifically socializing places of the socialists.

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