Constantin Stere

Constantin Stere
Constantin Stere in 1895
Personal details
Born	(1865-06-01)June 1, 1865 Horodiște, Bessarabia, Russian Empire (now Moldova)
Died	June 26, 1936(1936-06-26) (aged 71) Bucharest, Romania
Political party	Narodnaya Volya National Liberal Party Peasants' Party National Peasants' Party
Residence	Chișinău Iași Bucharest
Occupation	jurist
Religion	Romanian Orthodox

Constantin G. Stere or Constantin Sterea (Romanian; Russian: Константин Егорович Стере, Konstantin Yegorovich Stere or Константин Георгиевич Стере, Konstantin Georgiyevich Stere; also known under his pen name Șărcăleanu; June 1, 1865 – June 26, 1936) was a Romanian writer, jurist, politician, ideologue of the Poporanist trend, and, in March 1906, co-founder (together with Garabet Ibrăileanu and Paul Bujor — the latter was afterwards replaced by the physician Ioan Cantacuzino) of the literary magazine Viața Românească. One of the central figures of the Bessarabian intelligentsia at the time, Stere was a key actor during the Union of Bessarabia with Romania in 1918, and is associated with its legacy.

Constantin Stere was professor of Administrative and Constitutional law at the University of Iaşi, serving as its rector between 1913 and 1916. He is also remembered for his partly autobiographical novel În preajma revoluției (literal translation: "On the Eve of the Revolution" — in reference to the Russian Revolution of 1917).

He was born in Horodiște, Soroca County, to a family of boyar origins from Ciripcău, Bessarabia — which was part of the Russian Empire at the time. Stere was one of the three sons of an ethnic Romanian couple of Russian citizens: Gheorghe or Iorgu Stere (known as Yegor Stepanovich Stere, Егор Степанович Стере in Russian), a landowner whose family was originally from Botoșani County in the Romanian part of Moldavia, and Pulcheria (Пулкерия), a member of the impoverished gentry in Bessarabia. He spent most of his early years, until the age of eight, in Ciripcău, where the family manor was located.