Talk:Viața Basarabiei

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

This article can be easily expanded with Romanian-language sources, which determine its contextual importance: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17] (these are all articles in mainstream Romanian and Moldovan literary journals). I have already touched the subject myself in the article Sămănătorul.

Granted, this is now a very, very poorly conceived article, but I believe I can help it become a nice little one in my next edits. Give me a day or two. Dahn (talk) 03:46, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

It seems to be overly focused on the authors' lives "outside" of the newspaper, while neglecting its modern aspects, such as how it's doing now. Otherwise it looks well-sourced and fairly NPOV, hehe. --Illythr (talk) 17:06, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

Well, I tried to give some coverage to the "what happened to..." when it came to some of the main figures associated with the newspaper (something I also did in other articles (see the aforementioned Sămănătorul). And the lives of its authors outside the journal (that is, after they ended their contribution) presently takes up just two paragraphs - note how the sources themselves mention these aspects in connection to the magazine's history. I combed the net ever which way trying to find more on the magazine and how it's doing now, but (and maybe this is because I'm incompetent) I simply couldn't find much more than what's in the article as we speak.

In any case, I originally got interested in this article not just because it crosses paths with my main interest now (the Symbolist trends in Romania), but also because it is a fascinating reminder of how complex even a small society can be. The history of Bessarabian disappointment with Romania/the Romanians, and the xenophobic avatar here, is interesting to me because it shows that there is always more to a story (that is, more than the quirky politics of one Constantin Stere, which were already familiar to me). And, quite frankly, Costenco's theories about ethnicity are refreshing because they should debunk the notion that Moldovenism was purely a Soviet-produced phenomenon. Maybe his was a marginal voice (though, judging by the magazine's contextual importance, it prolly was not); but even so, it should cut away some of the blind slogans we keep getting around this issue, and bring some facts to the table. Don't get me wrong: what Costenco said looks grotesque to me as well, but so does the racialism characteristic of some movements on the unionist side.

("Bourgeois orientation" - gotta love the lingo.) Dahn (talk) 02:16, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Strike out some of the above: I managed to expand the final section. How's this? Dahn (talk) 19:04, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Looks fine to me. Was just about to suggest to DYK it, heh. --Illythr (talk) 23:09, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Some other stuff

• The name was also equivalent in translation to those of non-Romanian Bessarabian papers: the Russian-language Besarabskaya Zhizn (published around 1917) and the Yiddish Das Besaraber Leben (1918-1940) - were these two just different-language editions of Viaţa or completely different newspapers?
• Nicolai Costenco: was he an Ukranian or Romanian? If the former, his name should probably be transliterated as Nikolai Kostenko, if the latter then Nicolae Costenco.
• Wonder where Dalderj gets all these stamps... --Illythr (talk) 23:26, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Regarding Costenco: We should use the name he used himself, i.e. name he used to sign articles in this magazine. Take People's Commissar Frunze, whose name in the Romanian/Moldovan language allegedly was Frunză, yet nobody uses that. Moreover, Wikipedia shouldn't play with people's national identification, especially when the subject's self-identification has changed in time, as this article suggests was Costenco's case. Anonimu (talk) 00:15, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

That would be best, if available. Still, "double translations" of names (e.g. Shcherbachov->Serbaciov;) tend to hamper consistency, although this particular case this does seem unlikely. --Illythr (talk) 00:52, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

• The source seems to indicate they were completely different newspapers (from the 1907, 1930 and 1932 papers alike). I know, it appears there really wasn't much imagination to spare among newspapermen in that day and age.
• I couldn't tell what nationality he was (that is, considered himself to be), but apparently this name of his was in use for most of his life, ending in 1993 or something. For all the fluctuations, he seems to have embraced Romanian culture as his own (he was sent to camp for having denied that Romanian and Moldovan are separate language, and stated - quote from memory - that he felt he missed Romanian language). Incidentally, there's also the "more Romanian" version "Nicolae Costenco", but this is quite rarely used and probably politicized. I also don't think Costenco's name is likely to pop up on wikipedia under other versions, so I'm with Anonimu here. Btw: the parallels I can think of here are the likes of Ivan Patzaichin, primarily known to the world through the Ro transliteration (-ish, the mysterious "tz" considered).
• I don't know, and it's just one of the mysteries... Dahn (talk) 10:43, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

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