{{Short description|Romanian writer}} '''Vasile Posteucă''' (10 September 1912, Unterstanestie, Siret district, Austria-Hungary – 6 December 1972,<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=1972-12-07 |title=Vasile Posteuca is Dead; Rumanian Poet in Exile |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/07/archives/vasile-posteuca-is-dead-rumanian-poet-in-exile.html |access-date=2025-06-18 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Chicago, Illinois, USA) was a Romanian poet and a member of the Iron Guard.

== In Romania == Posteucă was born in Unterstanestie, Bukovina (Romanian: Stăneștii de Jos; now Nyzhni Stanivtsi, Kitsman Raion, Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine). He completed his high school studies in Siret (1924–1931), followed by a degree in literature at the University of Cernăuți (1931–1936).

Posteucă began to publish poetry whilst still a university student, making his literary debut in ''Junimea Literară'', a literary magazine based in Cernăuți (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine) and edited by Ion I. Nistor. He also became involved in student politics, participating in the "Aboroasa" student union (serving as its president from 1934 to 1936) and later serving as vice-president of the Student Centre of Cernăuți (Centrul studențesc din Cernăuți), which was organised primarily around ultranationalist politics. He helped to organize the first Congress of Bukovinian Students (Congres al Studențimii Bucovinene, 1936). He was closely involved in organising the fascist Legionary Movement (or Iron Guard) in Bukovina, serving as "commandant" of Hotin County.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Cragg |first=Bronwyn |date=23 April 2024 |title=Letters from Exile: Canadian Media, the Romanian Diaspora, and the Legionary Movement |url=https://doi.org/10.3828/jrns.2024.4 |journal=Journal of Romanian Studies |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=54 |via=Liverpool University Press}}</ref> In the 1937 Romanian general elections, he ran as a candidate for the Iron Guard in Hotin.<ref>{{Cite news |date=20 December 1937 |title=Listele definitive ale candidaților pentru Cameră ai partidului "Totul pentru Țară" |work=Buna Vestire |pages=4}}</ref>

During the interwar period he collaborated with a number of far-right, nationalist, and literary publications, amongst them ''Iconar'' (directed by Mircea Streinul and Liviu Russu), ''Însemnări Sociologice'' (directed by Traian Brăileanu), ''Buna Vestire'' (directed by Mihail Manoilescu, later Dragoș Protopopescu and Toma Vlădescu), ''Falanga'', ''Glasul Bucovinei'',<ref>{{Cite news |last=Posteucă |first=Vasile |date=25 December 1932 |title=Lui Moș Crăciun |work=Glasul Bucovinei |pages=8}}</ref> ''Convorbiri literare'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Posteucă |first=Vasile |date=1 January 1941 |title=Strigăt. Bucovină. Ascultă! Motiv |journal=Convorbiri Literare |volume=1941 |issue=1 |pages=98–100}}</ref> and ''Cuvântul''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Posteucă |first=Vasile |date=28 October 1940 |title=Căpitanul și muncitorii |work=Cuvântul}}</ref>

Following the Legionnaires' Rebellion in January 1941, Posteucă and other Iron Guard members fled Romania to Germany. He was initially held in a camp in Rostock, later being interned in Buchenwald concentration camp.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=Legiunea în imagini. Albumele Traian Borobaru |publisher=Editura Mișcării Legionare |year=1977 |editor-last=Roșca |editor-first=Nicolae |location=Madrid}}</ref> In 1944 he was recruited by Horia Sima to a propaganda commission as part of the Romanian government-in-exile sponsored by the NSDAP and based in Vienna.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sima |first=Horia |title=Guvernul Național Român dela Viena |publisher=Editura Mișcării Legionare |year=1993 |location=Madrid |pages=78}}</ref>

== In exile == Posteucă immigrated to Canada, where he completed a Master of Arts in 1953 and his doctoral studies at the University of Toronto in 1962.<ref name=":1" /> He continued his associations with other exiled Iron Guard members, meeting with Canadian government officials and co-founding a Romanian Orthodox church in Toronto,<ref name=":1" /> and participating in Legionary gatherings in Detroit.<ref name=":2" /> He also contributed to a number of Romanian exile journals, including ''Destin'' (Madrid, Spain), ''Luceafărul'' (Paris, France), Dacia (Brazil), Arc (Montreal, Canada), ''Libertatea'' (Madrid), Cuvântul în exil (Freising, West Germany), and ''Revista Scriitorilor Români'' (Munich). He co-founded the journal ''Drum'' (1963–1972, Mexico) with Nicolae Petra.

In November 1966, he began working as a professor of language arts at Minnesota State University, Mankato.<ref name=":0" />

Posteucă was friends and kept correspondence with Mircea Eliade.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Eliade |first=Mircea |title=Journal III, 1970-1978 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |year=1989 |location=Chicago/London |pages=78–79}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=11 May 2007 |title=Documente Mircea Eliade. Prudența față de orice gest de ajutor frățesc |journal=România literară |volume=18 |issue=11 |pages=21}}</ref>

== Later life and death == Posteucă spent several years suffering from cancer,<ref name=":3" /> during which he was cared for by another former Iron Guardist, Dr. Alexander Ronnett.<ref name=":0" />

Posteucă led a highly publicised campaign to be naturalised as a United States citizen and for his daughter, Doina Vircol, to be allowed by the communist Romanian government to travel from Bucharest to Chicago, in order to meet her before his death. Doina, who had seen her father only once since 1941, succeeded in visiting him in November 1972.<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 November 1972 |title=Romanians will let dying poet see his daughter one last time |work=Toronto Star |pages=10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=24 November 1972 |title=Dying poet gets wish to see his daughter |work=Toronto Star |pages=35}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=7 December 1972 |title=Exiled poet dies after last wish fulfilled in U.S. |work=The Globe and Mail |location=Toronto |pages=W12}}</ref> Vasile Posteucă died shortly thereafter, on 6 December 1972, at the age of 60.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> He was buried in Jackson, Michigan.<ref name=":2" />

== Publications ==

* ''Carte de cântece românești'' (Madrid: R. Nieto, 1953) * ''Poeme fără țară'' (with N. S. Govora, Nicolae Novac) (Madrid: Editura "Carpații", 1954) * ''În marea și'n mormintele din noi'' (Madrid: Editura Revistei Drum, 1967) * ''Poeme din închisori'' (with Nicolae Novac) (Madrid: Editura Drum, 1970) * ''Desgroparea Căpitanului'' (Madrid: Editura Mișcării Legionare, 1977) * ''Icoane de dor. Poeme'' (Lugoj: Editura "Dacia Europa Noua", 1997)

== References == {{Reflist}} {{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Posteucă, Vasile}} Category:1912 births Category:1972 deaths Category:People from Chernivtsi Oblast Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:Chernivtsi University alumni Category:Romanian collaborators with Nazi Germany Category:Romanian fascists Category:20th-century Romanian poets Category:Romanian male poets Category:Members of the Iron Guard Category:20th-century Romanian journalists Category:20th-century Romanian male journalists Category:20th-century Romanian male writers Category:Romanian emigrants to Canada Category:Romanian expatriates in the United States Category:Romanian exiles