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. Activities Rise to fame Reportedly born as Gheorghe Lăzărescu in 1892, the future activist belonged to the musicians' tribe of the Romani community, or Lăutari; one report of 1934 suggests that he was still an outstanding performer. While sometimes introduced as "Mr. Lăzurică the lawyer", he had in fact graduated from the Higher Commercial School of Bucharest, and, by 1933, was running his own forestry warehouse in that same city. As reported by Romanian writer Cezar Petrescu, he was originally dismissive of his ethnicity, being the "son of people who had forgotten their origin." He was drafted into the campaign of World War I, and saw action at Topraisar in Northern Dobruja. Wounded and left for dead in the trenches, "he was lifted and dragged out of there by the Țambalagiu Gypsy Ioniță Gheorghe, and it was then and there, under machine-gun fire, that he swore he would dedicate his life for the salvation of his breed." In a 1934 speech calling on "public figures of Gypsy origin to stick to their race", he advanced the claim that there were "more than two hundred thousand" Romani civil servants, listing "a large number of high-ranking officials, military officers and other well-known intellectuals, who, having held good positions, are now called Romanians". Lăzurică's main activity was as a journalist, published by both Universul and Adevărul, though he also contributed verse—in 1936, Az Est newspaper called him "an excellent Gypsy poet". Described by a Dreptatea columnist as a "remarkably talented raconteur", he wrote and published a number of "Roma historical novels". Lăzurică still used Romanian, but now expressed his pride at having Romani heritage, and some time after 1930 changed his name to the hyphenated form, with Lăzurică sounding more like his Romani vernacular (as reported by sociologist Ion Duminică, this was originally a nickname used by his Romani grandfather). Gheorghe also married a Czechoslovakian Romani, Marta. Little is known about her background, other than her ethnic origin, her claim to fluency in 5 languages, and her qualification as a stenographer. Lăzurică's life and career coincided with