The First World War also known as the
\nGreat War was a period in time when the world decided to get rid of
\nfrustrations in the most violent way. According to historians, roughly 10
\nmillion people were killed in action during the four years of armed conflict. A
\nlot was written about those years to depict the gruesome realities of war and a
\nmany inspired authors produced genuine literary gems, such as Camil Petrescu’s
\n‘The last night of Love, the First of War’ or the orthopedic doctor Ion
\nGhilamila’s research ‘The Work of Providing Assistance and Re-education to
\nRomania’s Disabled Veterans’. The most successful history book though was ‘A History
\nof the War for Greater Romania 1916-1919’, which was largely employed by all those
\nwho wrote about the Great War. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
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\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
A
\nsurprising detail about Kiritescu and his history book is the fact that the
\nauthor wasn’t actually a historian. He was born on September 3rd
\n1876 in Bucharest, where he also died on august 12th 1965 at the age
\nof 88. During his life, Kiritescu witnessed two major changes in people’s
\noutlook over the world, in 1918 and 1945. He was born and educated in a Romania
\nbuilt by its first monarch, Carol I of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in the second
\nhalf of the 19th century. He witnessed the birth of Greater Romania
\nunder its second king, Ferdinand I in 1918. And also saw the collapse of
\ndemocracy under the communist regime backed by the Soviet Union after 1945.
\nKiri\u021bescu was a zoologist with a PhD in natural science and teacher at the
\nfamous high-school in Bucharest Sf\u00e2ntu Sava. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
He
A
The teacher and economist Costin
Costin Kiritescu: The book first
The
Costin Kiritescu: I was working with
Constantin Kiri\u021bescu was a
(bill)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Constantin Kiritescu wrote one of the most comprehensive history books in Romania’s historiography<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":93684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[41851,45695,45696,45694,116464,36582,45697],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-170020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-constantin","tag-costin","tag-great","tag-kiritescu","tag-romania-en","tag-war","tag-zoology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nwas the man who paved the way for the study of serpents and reptiles in Romania.
\nHe wrote a volume on ‘Research over Romania’s Herpethological Fauna and discovered
\nan unknown species by that time, a serpent called Eryx jaculus or the javelin
\nsand boa, which lives around the city of Cernavoda on the banks of the Danube
\nriver. He also discovered the Danube newt (Triturus
\ndobrogicus<\/em>), which lives in Dobruja, south-eastern Romania. With a great
\npassion for history as a publicist, he wrote the portrait of several people and
\nplaces. He got involved with the country’s education system and represented
\nRomania at the Nations League, the ancestor of the present-day UNO. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nHistory of the War for Greater Romania 1916-1919 the book that made Constantin
\nKiritescu famous was published three times. The first edition was published in
\n1922 and 1923 shortly after the war, and the second between 1925-1927. The
\nlatest edition was printed in the year when communism collapsed in Romania, 1989.
\n<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nKiri\u021bescu was interviewed by Radio Romania in 1994 and he recollected the
\nsuccess his father’s book enjoyed. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nappeared in two volumes, but they needed a third edition and the book got
\nrevised, enlarged, updated and that time had three volumes. That proved the
\nperseverance of the author, who didn’t even go to war as he was disabled and
\nexempted from conscription. But with the connections he had and the huge amount
\nof reading that he had done, he managed to write this book, which is seemingly
\na reference one.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nthird edition appeared in 1989, the last year of the communist regime in
\nRomania, when censorship was very tough. Here is Costin Kiri\u021bescu at the
\nmicrophone again. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nthe Finance Ministry and a person from the Central Committee of the Romanian
\nCommunist Party who wanted to know if it was possible to have a third edition
\nof the aforementioned book contacted me. Of course I said yes, and that was the
\nbeginning of a real tragicomedy. Because after the dictator’s wife, Elena
\nCeausescu had learnt about this project of reediting the book, she called in the
\nsecretary in charge of the project and hit him in the head with the ink bottle.
\nAfter a series of delays and postponements, for one reason or another, the
\nthird edition of this book appeared in the autumn of 1989. The third edition was
\ncompleted and commented upon by my father. I was asked to remove a couple of
\nwords, which I wrote and somehow offended the communist party. That was all. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nteacher of zoology with a great passion for history who gave us one of the most
\nsuccessful history books in Romania’s historiography.<\/p>\n