UN MEMORIALIST TRANSILVÃNEAN MAI PUŢIN CUNOSCUT AL PRIMULUI RÃZBOI MONDIAL: CÃPITANUL ILIE STRICATU
A Less Known Transylvanian Memorialist of the First World War: Captain Ilie Stricatu

Summary/Abstract: Remarkable personality of the town of Sebeş, coming from a family of rich peasants, Ilie Stricatu was one of those characters that have identified themselves with the native town, playing an important role both as a teacher and a scholar as well as a mayor (during the period 1927-1930 and 1932-1938). Living the experience of the Great War, he provided us with a legacy consisting of memoirs of an exceptional value, totally unknown till our days (Pe cãrãrile destinului. Romanul unei vieţi trãite/On the paths of the destiny. The novel of a lived life, published in the year 1940) which completed the well-known notes belonging to the philosopher Lucian Blaga, the scholar-priest Sebastian Stanca and to the lieutenant-collonel Ioan Guţia, coming from Sebeş. Our study presents the internal conflicts of a young soldier of the Austro-Hungarian army, who has recently graduated from the Pedagogical Institute from Sibiu and who is forced to fight for a foreign cause. In addition to this, the study outlines his struggle to cross the Carpathian Mountains and to join his co-nationals from the Romanian Kingdom, his enrollment as a volunteer in the Romanian army, the experience of the Transylvanian campaign from the autumn of the year 1916, the experience as a prisoner, the contact with the camps of prisoners and also the moment of returning home and of meeting again his family. The complete war experience of captain Ilie Stricatu can be compared to Rafila (Firuca) Sãliştean’s experience, his future wife, originary from Sebeş, who has participated in the war as a medical nurse. The notes of captain Ilie Stricatu, conserved initially in a hand-written form, then published in the year 1940 represent an important source, we could even say foundamental for the involvement and the participation of the Romanians from Sebeş in the Great War. The representations, the emotions, the experiences of the author outline a part of the internal conflicts, of the chaos and of the passions generated by the outburst of the First World War, a conflict for which the humanity has not been prepared yet.

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