Constantin Mille

Constantin Mille
Constantin Mille ca. 1899
Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania
In office 1899–1903
Constituency	Teleorman County
In office 1907–1911
Constituency	Teleorman County
Personal details
Born	(1861-12-21)December 21, 1861 Iaşi, Romania
Died	February 20, 1927(1927-02-20) (aged 65)
Political party	independent
Residence	Bucharest, Romania
Occupation	journalist, lawyer, novelist, poet

Constantin Mille (Romanian pronunciation: [konstanˈtin ˈmile]; December 21, 1861 – February 20, 1927) was a Romanian journalist, novelist, poet, lawyer, and socialist militant, as well as a prominent human rights activist. A Marxist for much of his life, Mille was noted for his vocal support of peasant emancipation, for his early involvement with the Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party (PSDMR), and his presence at the head of several magazines, culminating in his association with the moderate left-wing newspapers Adevărul and Dimineaţa. After serving as an independent member of the Chamber of Deputies for one mandate (1899-1903), he aligned his views with those of Take Ionescu, and became a supporter of Romania's entry into World War I alongside the Entente Powers. In addition to his political career, Mille was the author of two autobiographical novels (Dinu Millian, 1884, and O viaţă, 1914).

Born in Iaşi, he later indicated, in his Dinu Millian (written on the model set by Jules Vallès), that his childhood had been a tragic one, with his father suffering from a mental disorder and his mother falling severely ill. Also according to his testimony, Mille spent much of his childhood and early youth in a boarding school.

He attended the local university's Faculty of Law in autumn 1878, and became associated with other socialists, including the Russian-born Nicolae Russel, a physician and noted militant, as well as the locals Alexandru Bădărău, and the brothers Ioan and Gheorghe Nădejde. Mille also began his association with the Iaşi-based socialist magazine Contemporanul, which carried a polemic with the established literary society Junimea, and authored his first poems, collected in a "red notebook". Among his debut works was an 1882 poem honoring Vasile Conta, the materialist philosopher who had died in the same year.