Corina Teodor
în vol. Trasee și convergențe culturale și naționale în România Mare. Provincii, identități, destine, coord. Maria Tătar-Dan, Nicolae Enciu, Corina Teodor, Giordano Altarozzi, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Mega, 2026, ISBN: 978-630-372-121-7, pp. 125-160.

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Chronicle of a Failure: Historian Silviu Dragomir in the Parliamentary Elections of 1923

Historian Silviu Dragomir, one of the prominent professors at the University of Cluj during the interwar period, has drawn researchers’ attention, especially in recent decades, through substantial studies and analyses dedicated to him, and his most well-known works have been republished. As his life underwent major changes after the integration of Transylvania into the Romanian Kingdom, we considered this 1923 biographical fragment an interesting case study for our collaboration project with Moldova. While the academic and scientific activity of Silviu Dragomir is well documented, his political activity has attracted less scholarly interest. Therefore, the present study deals with a political episode: his candidacy for a seat in the Romanian Parliament in the 1923 partial elections. Running on the lists of the Romanian National Party, of which he had been a member since before the Great Union, he was defeated by his rival candidate, a member of the National Liberal Party. The study explores the preparations for the elections, Dragomir’s relations with other political leaders, especially with Iuliu Maniu and Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, as reflected through various, often contradictory, accounts of the political press, the voting process and the altercations between the two sides, as well as the consequences of this defeat for his subsequent political decisions.

Keywords: Silviu Dragomir; parliamentary elections; Romanian National Party; Cluj University academics; political life of interwar Romania

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