Gheorghe A. Lăzăreanu-Lăzurică or George Lăzurică, also known as Lăzărescu-Lăzurică or Lăzărică (1892 – ?), was a leader of the Romani (Gypsy) community in Romania, also remembered for his support of Romania's interwar far-right. Originally a musician and formally trained entrepreneur from an assimilated background, he became conscious about his ethnic roots while serving with the Romanian Land Forces in World War I. A pioneer of Romani-themed literature, he became active within the General Association of Gypsies in Romania in 1933, but broke away that same year to establish the (eventually more powerful) General Union of Roma in Romania. From September 1933 to May 1934, Lăzurică was also a "Voivode of the Gypsies", recognized as such by various local tribes. He and his followers came to resent ethnic designation as "Gypsies", and pleaded for the usage of "Romanies", first proposed to them by Nicolae Constantin Batzaria. Lăzurică himself tried to introduce the term Zgripți as a reference to the people's legendary ancestors. Though credited with inventing Romani political symbolism and noted for invoking a worldwide tribal identity, Lăzurică and his followers abstained from Romani nationalist activism, preferring to focus on social reform, and accepted some measure of integration with mainstream Romanian society. The General Union cooperated with the Romanian Orthodox Church, spreading Christianity among nomads whom it helped to settle, and competing for baptisms with the Romanian Greek Catholics. From 1933, Lăzurică blended his Romani identity with Romanian nationalism, and finally with fascism: he campaigned for the National Agrarian Party and maintained contacts with the Iron Guard, while allegedly imitating Adolf Hitler in his public persona. He was sidelined by the General Union in 1934, after a violent conflict during which he was forced to deny his belonging to the Romani ethnicity. Lăzurică soon recanted and involved himself in other projects, with reports suggesting that he was planning a research trip to the British Raj, or that he declared himself "President" of the Romanian Romanies. He still attempted to rally support for his politics, and in 1937 became leader of the Citizens' Association of Roma in Romania. This new group was more explicitly far-right, antisemitic, and assimilationist, viewing the Romanians and Romanies as people of a "shared destiny", equally threatened by foreigners; there followed an extended polemic with other Romanies, and with Romanian left-wingers, which included Lăzurică was the victim of a death hoax. By 1938, the Association was openly supporting the fascist National Christian Party, of which Lăzurică himself became a member. In the final known stages of his career, Lăzurică became a critic of Orthodoxy, reporting on its previous slave-owning practices and drawing suspicion that he had converted to Catholicism. Upon the start of World War II, he suggested colonizing Romanies on Romania's borders. (en)
Gheorghe A. Lăzăreanu-Lăzurică or George Lăzurică, also known as Lăzărescu-Lăzurică or Lăzărică (1892 – ?), was a leader of the Romani (Gypsy) community in Romania, also remembered for his support of Romania's interwar far-right. Originally a musician and formally trained entrepreneur from an assimilated background, he became conscious about his ethnic roots while serving with the Romanian Land Forces in World War I. A pioneer of Romani-themed literature, he became active within the General Association of Gypsies in Romania in 1933, but broke away that same year to establish the (eventually more powerful) General Union of Roma in Romania. From September 1933 to May 1934, Lăzurică was also a "Voivode of the Gypsies", recognized as such by various local tribes. He and his followers came to r (en)