and detained until after Operation Barbarossa (the German invasion of the Soviet Union, to which Romania contributed as an Axis country; see Romania during World War II). Acterian, like other prisoners, was offered the choice of remaining in prison or joining the war effort as a soldier on the Eastern Front; he was declared missing during battles in the Kuban (see Kuban bridgehead), and was probably killed at that time. Legacy Despite the short period of time covered by his activities, Acterian has been hailed as an innovative director and author. Taking in view his many interests, as well as his "technical expertise and spiritual synthesis", Eliade defined him as a "Renaissance man". Writing in 1989, literary critic Constantin Măciucă deplored Acterian's political choices and his "occasional negative generalizations", but noted his merits in supporting a national specificity in Romanian dramaturgy. In a 1945 letter to literary historian Tudor Vianu, harshly critical of his generation's political choices, playwright Eugène Ionesco, who had witnessed first-hand the impact fascism had on his generation, blamed Acterian and Polihroniade's deaths on the original influence exercised over them by Nae Ionescu. The self-exiled Eliade remembered Acterian and Mihail Sebastian in a 1951 essay, which offered praise to both of them. Haig's diary, Cealaltă parte a vieții noastre ("The Other Side of Our Lives"), was published in 1989 by Arșavir Acterian. His frontline letters to Marietta Sadova are kept at the National Archives of Romania. Notes References Adrian Cioroianu, Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc, Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005 Mircea Handoca, [https://web.archive.org/web/20061106144320/http://autori.humanitas.ro/eliade/despre.php Convorbiri cu și despre Mircea Eliade], on Autori (Published authors) page of the Humanitas publishing house; retrieved August 1, 2007 Zigu Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, Editura Fundației Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995 Marta Petreu, "Generația '27 între Holocaust și Gulag" (I), in Revista 22'', Nr. 676, February 2003; retrieved August 1, 2007 Simion Tavitian, "Restituiri. Haig Acterian", in Biblion, Nr. 8/2003; retrieved August 1, 2007 External links Petre Țuțea - An encounter with Brâncuși a meeting and dialogue between Petre Țuțea, Constantin Brâncuși, and Haig Acterian Romanian essayists Romanian film directors Romanian journalists Romanian Land Forces personnel Romanian male poets Romanian theatre critics Romanian theatre directors Romanian travel writers Chairpersons of the National Theatre Bucharest Romanian communists Members of the Iron Guard 20th-century Romanian politicians People from Constanța University of Bucharest alumni Romanian people of Armenian descent Romanian