The uprising of 1821 was a social and political rebellion in
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...
, which was at the time a
tributary state
A tributary state is a term for a pre-modern state in a particular type of subordinate relationship to a more powerful state which involved the sending of a regular token of submission, or tribute, to the superior power (the suzerain). This tok ...
of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
. It originated as a movement against the
Phanariote administration, with backing from the more conservative
boyars
A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Kievan Rus', Bulgaria, Russia, Wallachia and Moldavia, and later Romania, Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. Boyars were s ...
, but mutated into an attempted removal of the boyar class. Though not directed against Ottoman rule, the revolt espoused an early version of
Romanian nationalism
Romanian nationalism is the nationalism which asserts that Romanians are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of Romanians. Its extremist variation is the Romanian ultranationalism.Aristotle KallisGenocide and Fascism: The Eliminationist Drive ...
, and is described by historians as the first major event of a national awakening. The revolutionary force was centered on a group of
Pandur irregulars, whose leader was
Tudor Vladimirescu
Tudor Vladimirescu (; c. 1780 – ) was a Romanian revolutionary hero, the leader of the Wallachian uprising of 1821 and of the Pandur militia. He is also known as Tudor din Vladimiri (''Tudor from Vladimiri'') or, occasionally, as Domnul Tudo ...
. Its nucleus was the Wallachian subregion of
Oltenia
Oltenia (, also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions, with the alternative Latin names ''Wallachia Minor'', ''Wallachia Alutana'', ''Wallachia Caesarea'' between 1718 and 1739) is a historical province and geographical region of Romania ...
, where Vladimirescu established his "Assembly of the People" in February.
From the beginning, Pandurs were joined by groups of
Arnauts and by veterans of the
Serbian Revolution
The Serbian Revolution ( sr, Српска револуција / ''Srpska revolucija'') was a national uprising and constitutional change in Serbia that took place between 1804 and 1835, during which this territory evolved from an Ottoman pro ...
. Although infused with
anti-Hellenism
Anti-Greek sentiment (also known as Hellenophobia ( el, ελληνοφοβία, translit=ellēnophobía), anti-Hellenism, ( el, ανθελληνισμός, translit=anthellinismós), mishellenism ( el, μισελληνισμός, translit=misell ...
, they collaborated with, and were infiltrated by, agents of the
Filiki Eteria
Filiki Eteria or Society of Friends ( el, Φιλικὴ Ἑταιρεία ''or'' ) was a secret organization founded in 1814 in Odessa, whose purpose was to overthrow the Ottoman rule of Greece and establish an independent Greek state. (''retr ...
. Vladimirescu also cooperated with the
Sacred Band of
Alexander Ypsilantis
Alexandros Ypsilantis ( el, Αλέξανδρος Υψηλάντης, Aléxandros Ypsilántis, ; ro, Alexandru Ipsilanti; russian: Александр Константинович Ипсиланти, Aleksandr Konstantinovich Ipsilanti; 12 Dece ...
, thereby contributing to the larger
war of Greek independence. In conjunction with Ypsilantis' troops coming in from
Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centra ...
, Vladimirescu managed to occupy
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...
in March. Vladimirescu agreed to split the country with Ypsilantis, preserving control over Oltenia, Bucharest, and the southern half of
Muntenia
Muntenia (, also known in English as Greater Wallachia) is a historical region of Romania, part of Wallachia (also, sometimes considered Wallachia proper, as ''Muntenia'', ''Țara Românească'', and the seldom used ''Valahia'' are synonyms in ...
. The Pandurs' relationship with the Sacred Band degenerated rapidly, upon revelations that the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
had not validated Ypsilantis' expedition, and also over Vladimirescu's attempts to quell Eterist violence. Many of the Arnauts openly or covertly supported Ypsilantis, while others endorsed an independent warlord,
Sava Fochianos
The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and fina ...
.
Vladimirescu secretly negotiated an entente with the Ottomans, who ultimately invaded Wallachia in late April. The Pandurs withdrew toward Oltenia, which put them at odds with the Sacred Band. Vladimirescu's brutality alienated his own troops; in turn, this rift allowed the Greek revolutionaries to arrest and execute Vladimirescu, unopposed. The Oltenians scattered, though some Pandurs formed pockets of resistance, led by captains such as
Dimitrie Macedonski and
Ioan Solomon. They suffered clear defeat in their confrontation with the
Ottoman Army
The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire.
Army
The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...
. In June, Ypsilantis' force and its remaining Pandur allies were routed
at Drăgășani. The uprising sparked a cycle of repressive terror, with a final episode in August, when Fochianos and his Arnauts were massacred in Bucharest.
The uprising of 1821 is widely seen as a failed or incomplete social revolution, with more far-reaching political and cultural implications. The Ottoman government registered its anti-Phanariote message, appointing an assimilated boyar,
Grigore IV Ghica, as
Prince of Wallachia
This is a list of rulers of Wallachia, from the first mention of a medieval polity situated between the Southern Carpathians and the Danube until the union with Moldavia in 1859, which led to the creation of Romania.
Notes
Dynastic rule is hard ...
. The ascent of nationalist boyars was enhanced during the
Russian occupation of 1828, and cemented by a new constitutional arrangement, ''
Regulamentul Organic
''Regulamentul Organic'' (, Organic Regulation; french: Règlement Organique; russian: Органический регламент, Organichesky reglament)The name also has plural versions in all languages concerned, referring to the dual na ...
''. During this interval, survivors of the uprising split between those who supported this conservative establishment and those who favored
liberal causes. The latter also helped preserve a heroic image of Vladimirescu, which was later also borrowed by agrarianists and left-wing activists.
Origins
Phanariote crisis
From the beginning of the 18th-century, Wallachia and
Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centra ...
(the
Danubian Principalities
The Danubian Principalities ( ro, Principatele Dunărene, sr, Дунавске кнежевине, translit=Dunavske kneževine) was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th ce ...
) had been placed by the
Sublime Porte
The Sublime Porte, also known as the Ottoman Porte or High Porte ( ota, باب عالی, Bāb-ı Ālī or ''Babıali'', from ar, باب, bāb, gate and , , ), was a synecdoche for the central government of the Ottoman Empire.
History
The nam ...
under a regime of indirect rule through
Phanariotes
Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Fanariots ( el, Φαναριώτες, ro, Fanarioți, tr, Fenerliler) were members of prominent Greek families in Phanar (Φανάρι, modern ''Fener''), the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople where the Ecumeni ...
. This cluster of Greek and
Hellenized families, and the associated
Greek diaspora
The Greek diaspora, also known as Omogenia ( el, Ομογένεια, Omogéneia), are the communities of Greeks living outside of Greece and Cyprus (excluding Northern Cyprus). Such places historically include Albania, North Macedonia, parts ...
, were conspicuously present at all levels of government. At a more generalized level, the Phanariote era emphasized tensions between the boyars, Phanariote or not, and the peasant class. Though released from serfdom, Wallachian peasants were still required to provide for the boyars in
corvée
Corvée () is a form of unpaid, forced labour, that is intermittent in nature lasting for limited periods of time: typically for only a certain number of days' work each year.
Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state for the purposes of ...
s and
tithe
A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more ...
s. Over the early 19th century, the rural economy was often paralyzed by peasant strikes, tax resistance, sabotage, or litigation. Additional pressures were created by Ottoman demands for the ''
haraç
Haraç ( hy, խարջ, kharj, mk, арач, arač, gr, χαράτσι, charatsi, sh-Cyrl-Latn, харач, harač) was a land tax levied on non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire.
''Haraç'' was developed from an earlier form of land taxation, '' ...
'' and other fiscal duties, which the Phanariotes fulfilled through
tax farming
Farming or tax-farming is a technique of financial management in which the management of a variable revenue stream is assigned by legal contract to a third party and the holder of the revenue stream receives fixed periodic rents from the contrac ...
. "Excessive fiscal policies, dictated by both the Ottoman demands and the short span of reigns" meant that Phanariotes treated the principalities as "an actual tenancy." The national budget for 1819 was 5.9 million
thaler
A thaler (; also taler, from german: Taler) is one of the large silver coins minted in the states and territories of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy during the Early Modern period. A ''thaler'' size silver coin has a diameter ...
, of which at least 2 million were taken by the
Sublime Porte
The Sublime Porte, also known as the Ottoman Porte or High Porte ( ota, باب عالی, Bāb-ı Ālī or ''Babıali'', from ar, باب, bāb, gate and , , ), was a synecdoche for the central government of the Ottoman Empire.
History
The nam ...
, 1.3 million went to the ruling family, and 2.4 supplied the bureaucracy. Although not at their highest historical level, Ottoman pressures had been steadily increasing since ca. 1800.
Tax payers were additionally constrained by those boyars who obtained tax privileges or exemptions for themselves and their families. In 1819, from 194,000 families subject to taxation, 76,000 had been wholly or partly exempted. Tax farmers, in particular the ''
Ispravnici'', acted in an increasingly predatory manner, and, in various cases, tortured peasants into paying more than their share. In the 1800s, a reformist Prince
Constantine Ypsilantis
Constantine Ypsilantis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Υψηλάντης ''Konstantinos Ypsilantis''; ro, Constantin Ipsilanti; 1760 – 24 June 1816), was the son of Alexander Ypsilantis, a key member of an important Phanariote family, G ...
sided with the peasants, cracking down on abuse and even threatening
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...
; this episode failed to address the causes, and abuses continued to be recorded into the 1810s. Under constant fiscal pressure, many villagers resorted to selling their labor to boyars or to peasant entrepreneurs. According to a report by the ''Ispravnic'' of
Gorj County, in 1819 migrant farmhands could barely cover their tax debt.
Under the Phanariote regime, the country had dissolved
her levy army—though a core force had briefly reemerged under
Nicholas Mavrogenes, who led a Wallachian peasant force into the
Austro-Turkish War of 1788. Especially visible in
Oltenia
Oltenia (, also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions, with the alternative Latin names ''Wallachia Minor'', ''Wallachia Alutana'', ''Wallachia Caesarea'' between 1718 and 1739) is a historical province and geographical region of Romania ...
, the
Pandurs traced their origins to the late 17th century, and had also functioned as a militia in 1718–1739, when Oltenia, or "
Banat of Craiova
The Banat of Craiova or Banat of Krajowa (german: Banat von Krajowa; ro, Banatul Craiovei), also known as Cisalutanian Wallachian Principality ( la, Principatus Valachiae Cisalutanae) and Imperial Wallachia (German: ''Kaiserliche Walachei''; La ...
", was a
Habsburg territory. At times, they had been self-sustaining, with a lifestyle that bordered on ''
hajduk
A hajduk ( hu, hajdúk, plural of ) is a type of irregular infantry found in Central and parts of Southeast Europe from the late 16th to mid 19th centuries. They have reputations ranging from bandits to freedom fighters depending on time ...
'' brigandage. The Phanariotes' hold on the country was put into question by turmoil during the
Napoleonic era
The Napoleonic era is a period in the history of France and Europe. It is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislativ ...
, which resulted in some additional rearmament. In 1802, the threat of an invasion by Ottoman secessionist
Osman Pazvantoğlu pushed
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...
into a panic. At its height, the mercenary
Sava Fochianos
The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and fina ...
and his
Arnauts denounced their contract and left the city defenseless. This embarrassment prompted Ypsilantis to form a small national contingent, comprising armed burghers and Pandurs who were trained by Western standards.
Although approved by the Ottomans, this new militia was secretly also a component of Ypsilantis' plan to shake off Ottoman suzerainty with help from the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
. By August 1806, his alliance with Russia had been exposed, and he was forced to leave into exile. The incident also sparked a six-year-long
Russo-Turkish War
The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histor ...
. During this period, the Wallachian Pandurs, including a young
Tudor Vladimirescu
Tudor Vladimirescu (; c. 1780 – ) was a Romanian revolutionary hero, the leader of the Wallachian uprising of 1821 and of the Pandur militia. He is also known as Tudor din Vladimiri (''Tudor from Vladimiri'') or, occasionally, as Domnul Tudo ...
, acted as a unit of the
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, Romanization of Russian, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the earl ...
. Under Russian occupation, the Greek–Wallachian rebel Nicolae Pangal issued several manifestos which, as noted by historian
Emil Vârtosu
Emil or Emile may refer to:
Literature
*''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
*''Emil and the Detective ...
, resembled later appeals by Vladimirescu.
Hostilities were eventually suspended by the
Treaty of Bucharest, hurried by Russia's need to
defend herself against the French; Ottoman rule in Wallachia and Moldavia was again consolidated with Russia focused on winning a
war in Central Europe. The new Phanariote Prince was
John Caradja, whose reign saw an upsurge in tax resistance and ''hajduk'' gang activity. In Bucharest, the epidemic known as
Caragea's plague
Caragea's plague ( ro, Ciuma lui Caragea) was a bubonic plague epidemic that occurred in Wallachia, mainly in Bucharest, in the years 1813 and 1814. It coincided with the rule of the Phanariote Prince Ioan Caragea.
Alleged source
As Caragea came ...
was an opportunity for marauding gangs of outlaws, who confused the authorities by dressing up as undertakers. Rebellious activity peaked in Oltenia, where ''hajduks'' were organized by
Iancu Jianu, a boyar's son, who frustrated all of Caradja's attempts at restoring order. However, the Pandurs were divided. In 1814, some joined a raid by pirates from
Ada Kaleh, storming through
Mehedinți County
Mehedinți County () is a county ( ro, județ) of Romania on the border with Serbia and Bulgaria. It is mostly located in the historical province of Oltenia, with one municipality ( Orșova) and three communes ( Dubova, Eșelnița, and Svinița) ...
and Gorj, though they later sought forgiveness from Vladimirescu. The latter had sided with the Caradja regime, but still intervened on their behalf.
Preparation
As a result of 1814 riots, tax privileges for the Pandurs were suspended, and they were demoted to the position of a militia assisting the ''Ispravnici''. In 1818, Caradja abandoned his throne and fled Wallachia, leaving
Sultan Mahmud II
Mahmud II ( ota, محمود ثانى, Maḥmûd-u s̠ânî, tr, II. Mahmud; 20 July 1785 – 1 July 1839) was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839.
His reign is recognized for the extensive administrative, ...
to appoint an elderly loyalist,
Alexandros Soutzos
Alexandros Soutzos (, , 1758 – January 18/19, 1821, Bucharest) was a Phanariote Greek who ruled as Prince of Moldavia (July 10, 1801 – October 1, 1802 and Prince of Wallachia (July 2, 1802 – August 30, 1802; August 24, 1806 – October 15, ...
. His decision also specified that only four Phanariote families would be eligible for the crowns of either Wallachia and Moldavia:
Callimachi
The House of Callimachi, Calimachi, or Kallimachi ( el, Καλλιμάχη, russian: Каллимаки, tr, Kalimakizade; originally ''Calmașul'' or ''Călmașu''), was a Phanariote family of mixed Moldavian (Romanian) and Greek origins. Origina ...
,
Mourouzis, and two lines of the
Soutzos
The House of Drakos-Soutzos or Soutsos ( el, Σούτσου, ro, Suțu or ) is a Greek Phanariote family originally from Chios, which grew into prominence and power in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) during the last centuries of Ottoman E ...
. Upon entering Bucharest, the new Prince inaugurated a regime of institutional abuse. In April 1819, the attempt to put pressure on the peasantry sparked a riot at
Islaz. In one especially controversial writ of 1820, Soutzos ruled that the city of
Târgoviște
Târgoviște (, alternatively spelled ''Tîrgoviște''; german: Tergowisch) is a city and county seat in Dâmbovița County, Romania. It is situated north-west of Bucharest, on the right bank of the Ialomița River.
Târgoviște was one of the ...
was not ''
mortmain
Mortmain () is the perpetual, inalienable ownership of real estate by a corporation or legal institution; the term is usually used in the context of its prohibition. Historically, the land owner usually would be the religious office of a church ...
'', and proclaimed it his family's property. This edict resulted sparked a burgher revolt, during which
cadastre
A cadastre or cadaster is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref>
Often it is represented graphically in a cad ...
officials were attacked and chased out of Târgoviște. Though he still favored the Arnauts, Soutzos revised anti-Pandur persecution, restoring their role in the army and placing them under the command of a Romanian,
Ioan Solomon. His tensions with the Arnauts resulted in a standoff with the mercenaries, who barricaded themselves inside
Sinaia Monastery
The Sinaia Monastery, located in Sinaia, in Prahova County, Romania, was founded by Prince Mihail Cantacuzino in 1695 and named after the great Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt. As of 2005, it is inhabited by 13 Christian Or ...
. However, Pandur Mihai Cioranu contends, Wallachia "swarmed with Greeks as never before", with every military commission set aside to serve "the Prince and his Greeks".
Soutzos' other conflict was with the lesser Phanariotes, who were now won over by
Greek nationalism
Greek nationalism (or Hellenic nationalism) refers to the nationalism of Greeks and Greek culture.. As an ideology, Greek nationalism originated and evolved in pre-modern times. It became a major political movement beginning in the 18th century, ...
. In 1820,
Alexander Ypsilantis
Alexandros Ypsilantis ( el, Αλέξανδρος Υψηλάντης, Aléxandros Ypsilántis, ; ro, Alexandru Ipsilanti; russian: Александр Константинович Ипсиланти, Aleksandr Konstantinovich Ipsilanti; 12 Dece ...
, son of Prince Constantine, united the various branches of the
Filiki Eteria
Filiki Eteria or Society of Friends ( el, Φιλικὴ Ἑταιρεία ''or'' ) was a secret organization founded in 1814 in Odessa, whose purpose was to overthrow the Ottoman rule of Greece and establish an independent Greek state. (''retr ...
, a Greek revolutionary organization, and began preparing a
massive anti-Ottoman revolt from the Russian port city of
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrat ...
. This society had already managed to enlist in its ranks some preeminent Wallachian boyars: allegedly, its first recruits included
Alecu Filipescu-Vulpea, joined later by
Grigore Brâncoveanu. According to one account, the Eterists also invited Soutzos to join the conspiracy, but he refused. He died suddenly on January 19, 1821, prompting speculation that he had been poisoned by Ypsilantis' partisans.
In Wallachia, Ypsilantis' cause had significant allies: the country's three main regents (or ''
Caimacami'')—Brâncoveanu,
Grigore Ghica,
Barbu Văcărescu—were all secretly members of the Eteria. They contacted Vladimirescu with a mission to revive the national army and align it with Ypsilantis' movement. However, other records suggest that Vladimirescu acted independently of the regents. He was located in Bucharest in November 1820, and was in direct contact with the Eterist leadership through various channels. Within two months, he had reportedly sealed a pact with two of Ypsilantis' agents,
Giorgakis Olympios and
Yiannis Pharmakis, who were also officers in Soutzos' Arnaut guard, and had borrowed 20,000 thaler from another Eterist,
Pavel Macedonski
Pavel (Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian and Macedonian: Павел, Czech, Slovene, Romanian: Pavel, Polish: Paweł, Ukrainian: Павло, Pavlo) is a male given name. It is a Slavic cognate of the name Paul (derived from the Greek Pavlos). Pa ...
, "to provide for the coming revolt." Nevertheless, according to historian Vasile Maciu, the convention between Vladimirescu and his Eterist colleagues survives only in an unreliable translation, which may be entirely fabricated.
[Maciu, p. 946] The Russian Consul in Wallachia, Alexander Pini, is viewed as a neutral player by scholar
Barbara Jelavich, but he too may have been involved on the Eterist side. This was attested by Pini's Moldavian secretary, Ștefan Scarlat Dăscălescu, who attributes the revolt initiative to "the leaders of the Greek revolution and Mr. Pini", and dismisses Vladimirescu as a "Russian creature". However, a letter from Tudor to Pini refutes any conscious cooperation between the two men.
According to information gathered by the Russian spy
Ivan Liprandi, Vladimirescu was also promised full adherence by the leading 77 boyars of the country, their pledge eventually issued as a formal writ and presented on their behalf by
Dinicu Golescu
Dinicu Golescu (usual rendition of Constantin Radovici Golescu; 7 February 1777 – 5 October 1830), a member of the Golescu family of boyars, was a Wallachian Romanian man of letters, mostly noted for his travel writings and journalism.
...
. Vladimirescu may have used this binding document as a collateral, allowing him to borrow 40,000 more thaler from
Matija Nenadović.
[Vianu & Iancovici, p. 79] Liprandi also notes that the Pandur leader was already in contact with
Ilarion Gheorghiadis Ilarion ( bg, Иларион, sr, Иларион, russian: Иларион, uk, Іларіон) is a variant of the Greek given name ''Hilarion'', found in Slavic and Romanian languages. It may refer to:
* Hilarion of Kiev or Ilarion (11th century ...
, the
Bishop of Argeș, who helped him define his international diplomacy. In the days before Soutzos' death, Vladimirescu had been spotted at
Pitești
Pitești () is a city in Romania, located on the river Argeș. The capital and largest city of Argeș County, it is an important commercial and industrial center, as well as the home of two universities. Pitești is situated in the historical re ...
, moving into Oltenia with some 40 Arnauts. He traveled under an innocuous pretext, claiming to be heading for his Gugiu estate in
Gorj County, to settle a land dispute.
Revolutionary ideology
National and social ideas
While various researchers agree that Vladimirescu and his Pandurs were motivated by a nationalist ideology, its outline and implications remain debated among scholars. Social historians
Ioan C. Filitti
Ioan Constantin Filitti (; first name also Ion; Francized ''Jean C. Filitti''; May 8, 1879 – September 21, 1945) was a Romanian historian, diplomat and conservative theorist, best remembered for his contribution to social history, legal history ...
and
Vlad Georgescu
Vlad Georgescu (October 20, 1937–November 13, 1988), was a Romanian historian and the director of the Romanian-language department of Radio Free Europe between 1983 and 1988.
Biography
Born in Bucharest, Georgescu studied history at the Uni ...
both argue that as a nationalist, Vladimirescu had short-term and long-term agendas: demands of recognition from the Porte, and for the restoration of ancient liberties, were only instrumental to a larger goal, which was national liberation with Russian assistance.
Nicolae Iorga views the Pandur leader as taking "one step forward" in the development of nationalist discourse, by introducing references to the
general will
In political philosophy, the general will (french: volonté générale) is the will of the people as a whole. The term was made famous by 18th-century Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Basic ideas
The phrase "general will", as Rousse ...
. Nicolae Liu also notes that the "pragmatic" rebel "made no reference to
natural rights
Some philosophers distinguish two types of rights, natural rights and legal rights.
* Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are ''universal'', '' fundamental'' an ...
, but tacitly included them as the basis of his revolutionary program"; this notion was an import from
Revolutionary France
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...
, along with the Pandurs' concept of the
people-in-arms. Sociolinguist Klaus Bochmann identifies the 1821 documents, including those issued "in the entourage of Tudor Vladimirescu" and those of his adversaries, as the first Romanian-language references to "patriotism"—and possibly as the first-ever records of a "political debate being carried out (mainly) in Romanian." He underscores the ideological influence of
Josephinism
Josephinism was the collective domestic policies of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (1765–1790). During the ten years in which Joseph was the sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy (1780–1790), he attempted to legislate a series of drastic refor ...
, noting that it came to Vladimirescu through his contacts with educator
Gheorghe Lazăr; other reports suggest that Vladimirescu was informed about the ideology of the
Transylvanian School
The Transylvanian School ( ro, Școala Ardeleană) was a cultural movement which was founded after part of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Habsburg-ruled Transylvania accepted the leadership of the pope and became the Greek-Catholic Church (). The ...
, having read
Petru Maior.
During the actual events of the uprising, Western sources began drawing parallels between Vladimirescu and historical peasant rebels, in particular
Wat Tyler
Wat Tyler (c. 1320/4 January 1341 – 15 June 1381) was a leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England. He led a group of rebels from Canterbury to London to oppose the institution of a poll tax and to demand economic and social reforms. Wh ...
and
Horea. Various authors propose that Vladimirescu and his men were not only nationalists, but also had a core interest in social revolution, seeing it as their mission to supplant or control boyardom. Thus, historian Gheorghe Potra describes Tudor's rising as primarily "anti-feudal", with a "national character" in that it also aimed to shake off "the Turkish yoke". As summarized by historian
Neagu Djuvara
Neagu Bunea Djuvara (; 18 August 1916 – 25 January 2018) was a Romanian historian, essayist, philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat.
Biography
Early life
A native of Bucharest, he was descended from an aristocratic Aromanian family ...
, the Pandur revolt was originally "set out against all the nation's plunderers", but then "became a peasants' revolt which did not separate 'good' and 'bad' boyars, locals from foreigners. Nevertheless, in order to reach his goal, Tudor had no choice but to reach an agreement with the 'nationalist' boyars
..as well as with Turkish power,
ndhe resorted, at a later stage, to making his revolution into a fundamentally anti-Phanariote one." Another ideological difference was that between Vladimirescu's
Russophilia
Russophilia (literally love of Russia or Russians) is admiration and fondness of Russia (including the era of the Soviet Union and/or the Russian Empire), Russian history and Russian culture. The antonym is Russophobia. In the 19th Century, ...
, a minority opinion, and the mounting
Russophobia of both upper- and middle-class nationalists.
Iorga proposes that Vladimirescu tried his best to establish a "democratic companionship" of Wallachians, hoping to draw a wedge between Romanian and Greek boyars. Among the left-wing scholars,
Andrei Oțetea argues that Vladimirescu slowly abandoned the peasant cause and fell into a "complete and humiliating subordination to the boyars." The rebels' anti-boyar discourse was mitigated by other factors. One was the issue of their leader's own social standing: though originating from a clan of Oltenian peasants, Vladimirescu had been accepted into the third-class boyardom, with the rank of ''
Sluger Sluger (plural ''slugeri''; , ; sometimes also sulger ) was a Historical Romanian ranks and titles, historical rank traditionally held by boyars in Moldavia and Wallachia, roughly corresponding to a sort of Intendant or Master of the Larder. It orig ...
''. Cultural historian
Răzvan Theodorescu argues that he, the rebel leader, actually belonged to a "rural bourgeoisie" which kept genealogies and had an "unexpected" taste for heraldry. Other scholars also make note of Vladimirescu's elitist tastes and habits, his refusal to sanction retribution against the boyars, and his crushing of peasant radicalism during his seizure in power. It is also probable that Vladimirescu intended to have himself recognized as Prince, as evidenced by his wearing a white ''
kalpak'', traditionally reserved for royalty. His subordinates often referred to him as ''Domnul Tudor'', which also indicated monarchic ambitions ''(see
Domnitor
''Domnitor'' (Romanian pl. ''Domnitori'') was the official title of the ruler of Romania between 1862 and 1881. It was usually translated as " prince" in other languages and less often as "grand duke". Derived from the Romanian word "''domn' ...
)''. The Italian press of his day viewed him as Wallachia's ''
Duce
( , ) is an Italian title, derived from the Latin word 'leader', and a cognate of ''duke''. National Fascist Party leader Benito Mussolini was identified by Fascists as ('The Leader') of the movement since the birth of the in 1919. In 19 ...
''.
Pro- and anti-Greek
Another fluctuating trait of Vladimirescu's revolt was his attitude toward
Greek nationalism
Greek nationalism (or Hellenic nationalism) refers to the nationalism of Greeks and Greek culture.. As an ideology, Greek nationalism originated and evolved in pre-modern times. It became a major political movement beginning in the 18th century, ...
. According to Iorga, Phanariote rule meant a "system of indissoluble elements", centered on
Hellenism and
Hellenization
Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in th ...
. Maciu further notes that Phanariote rulers had stunted Romanian nationalism and national awakening by popularizing an
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canoni ...
identity, common to Romanians and Greeks; this established a pattern of cooperation, pushing nationalists of various ethnicities into contact with each other. Overall, Vârtosu argues, the rebellion was not xenophobic, but protectionist: Vladimirescu favored the "uplift of the native people", but also addressed his to proclamation to a larger "human kin". His white-and-blue banner had both familiar symbols of Christian tradition, which "drenched
he message
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
in the theological coloring of religious faith", and verse which described the "Romanian Nation". In a
Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
context, Vladimirescu felt most sympathy toward the
Serbian Revolution
The Serbian Revolution ( sr, Српска револуција / ''Srpska revolucija'') was a national uprising and constitutional change in Serbia that took place between 1804 and 1835, during which this territory evolved from an Ottoman pro ...
, having had direct contacts with
Karađorđe
Đorđe Petrović ( sr-Cyrl, Ђорђе Петровић, ), better known by the sobriquet Karađorđe ( sr-Cyrl, Карађорђе, lit=Black George, ; – ), was a Serbian revolutionary who led the struggle for his country's indepen ...
, and ''
The Public Ledger'' even speculated that he was himself a Serb. Affiliates of the Pandur revolt also included
Naum Veqilharxhi, who published what may be the first manifesto of
Albanian nationalism
Albanian nationalism is a general grouping of nationalist ideas and concepts generated by ethnic Albanians that were first formed in the 19th century during the Albanian National Awakening ( sq, Rilindja). Albanian nationalism is also associated ...
.
In this setting, however, Vladimirescu "had no particular reason to hold the Phanariote
psilantisdear",
[Djuvara, p. 298] and the ideals of Orthodox universalism, "subordinating
omanianaspirations", were viewed with generalized suspicion. As historians note, Vladimirescu "would have liked to rid the country of both the Greeks and the Turks", viewing the former with "strong aversion", as the "agents of Turkish oppression in his country." Ottomanist
Kemal Karpat suggests that: "
nTurkish sources
..Vladimirescu's revolt is interpreted as a local uprising aimed chiefly at the protection of the local population against Greek exploitation"; a "long accepted version was that Vladimirescu rebelled against the Greeks without even being aware that
psilantis the Greek revolutionary, had risen against the Sultan in Russia." In contrast, Dăscălescu proposes that the rebellion was originally anti-Turkish and pro-Greek, but that Vladimirescu had no way of winning over Oltenians with that message. Moreover, Oțetea writes that the Pandur movement cannot be separated from the Eteria, who gave it "a chief, a program, a structure, the original impulse, tactics for propaganda and combat,
ndthe first means of achieving its goals". Oțetea also claims that Vladimirescu was indirectly influenced by the political vision of
Rigas Feraios
Rigas Feraios ( el, Ρήγας Φεραίος , sometimes ''Rhegas Pheraeos''; rup, Riga Fereu) or Velestinlis (Βελεστινλής , also transliterated ''Velestinles''); 1757 – 24 June 1798), born as Antonios Rigas Velestinlis ( el ...
, though this verdict remains disputed.
From the Eterist perspective, sending Vladimirescu to Oltenia was a cover-up for the Greek insurrection—a ruse that had been conceived by Olympios and merely approved by "Tudor Vladimirescu, his friend". Seen by some commentators, and probably by Ypsilantis himself, as an actual member of the Eteria, Vladimirescu endorsed the conspiracy in the belief that it had Russian support. However, in early 1821 the
Congress of Laibach
The Congress of Laibach was a conference of the allied sovereigns or their representatives, held in 1821 as part of the Congress System (the forerunner of the Concert of Europe) which was the decided attempt of the five Great Powers to settle inte ...
condemned the Greek revolution, imposing on
Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( e ...
Alexander I Alexander I may refer to:
* Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC
* Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus
* Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome
* Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...
that he withdraw all endorsement for Ypsilantis' movement. Ypsilantis prolonged his other alliance, with Vladimirescu, only by playing upon words, not revealing to him that Russia's support remained uncertain.
Vladimirescu's campaign
Onset
Vladimirescu made his first Oltenian stop at
Ocnele Mari, then moved in on the Gorj capital,
Târgu Jiu
Târgu Jiu () is the capital of Gorj County in the Oltenia region of Romania. It is situated on the Southern Sub-Carpathians, on the banks of the river Jiu. Eight localities are administered by the city: Bârsești, Drăgoieni, Iezureni, Polat ...
, where he stayed at the house of a tax farmer, Vasile Moangă (or Mongescu). His first action as a rebel was to arrest or take hostage the local ''Ispavnic'', Dinicu Otetelișanu, on January 21. On January 22, he and his Arnaut guard captured
Tismana Monastery, turning it into a rallying point and prison. A day later, at
Padeș, Vladimirescu issued a proclamation mixing social and patriotic slogans. It marked his ideological dissidence, proclaiming the right of peasants to "
meet evil with evil". Written in a "vigorously biblical style", it called into existence an "Assembly of the People", which was to "hit the snake on the head with a cane", ensuring that "good things come about". In a parallel letter to the Sultan, Vladimirescu also insisted that his was an anti-boyar, rather than anti-Ottoman, uprising. The response was positive on the Ottoman side.
Instead of preparing his submission to Ypsilantis, he then began his march on
Mehedinți County
Mehedinți County () is a county ( ro, județ) of Romania on the border with Serbia and Bulgaria. It is mostly located in the historical province of Oltenia, with one municipality ( Orșova) and three communes ( Dubova, Eșelnița, and Svinița) ...
, passing through
Broșteni,
Cerneți, and
Strehaia. By January 29, boyars and merchants evacuated Mehedinți; this movement was mirrored by a similar exodus from
Craiova
)
, official_name = Craiova
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = From left: Dolj County Prefecture • Constantin Mihail Palace • Bibescu Manor House • Carol I National College • Museum of Oltenia • University of Craiova
, i ...
, the Oltenian capital. Boyars who stayed behind surrendered to Vladimirescu and took an oath of allegiance, becoming known to the Pandurs as ''făgăduiți'' ("pledged ones"). Members of this category, though they enjoyed Vladimirescu's personal protection, signed secret letters of protest to the Sultan, calling for his intervention against the "brigands".
[Cernatoni, p. 44] In February, after Vladimirescu had conquered the town of
Motru
Motru () is a city in Romania, Gorj County. It is situated on the river Motru in western Oltenia. The county capital Târgu Jiu is located about 35 km northeast. The city administers eight villages: Dealu Pomilor, Horăști, Însurăței ...
, boyars still present in Craiova petitioned the Ottomans and Russians for help. Consul Pini approved their request to use force against Vladimirescu, but refused to commit Russian troops for that purpose.
Reassured by Pini, the regents began amassing an Arnaut resistance to the rebellion, with individual units led by Dumitrachi Bibescu, ''
Serdar''
Diamandi Djuvara, ''Deli-bașa'' Mihali, Pharmakis,
Hadži-Prodan
Prodan Gligorijević, known simply as Hadži-Prodan ( sr-cyr, Хаџи-Продан Глигоријевић; 1760 – 1825) was a Serbian ''voivode'' (military commander) in the First Serbian Uprising of the Serbian Revolution, then the Greek ...
, and
Ioan Solomon. Though there were violent clashes between the two sides at Motru, many of the loyalist troops voluntarily surrendered to the Pandurs, after parleying with Pandur agent
Dimitrie Macedonski. Faced with such insuburdionation, ''Caimacam'' Brâncoveanu reportedly maintained his calm and demanded to know Vladimirescu's grievances. Through his Macedonski associates, the rebel leader asked for a unification of boyar parties around his revolutionary goal, which included solving the peasant issue, and ordered them to disband the Arnaut corps. Meanwhile, the peasantry responded to the proclamation of Padeș by organizing into a string a small uprisings. Some happened in Pandur strongholds, as during Dumitru Gârbea's raid on
Baia de Aramă, while others took root in more distant villages, such as
Bârca
Bârca is a commune in Dolj County, Oltenia, Romania with a population of 4,500 people. It is composed of a single village, Bârca.
Natives
*Marin Ceaușu
Marin Ceaușu (15 August 1891–21 August 1954) was a Romanian brigadier-general durin ...
and
Radovanu
Radovanu is a commune in Călărași County, Muntenia, Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bul ...
.
[Gârleanu, p. 60] A Captain Ivanciu took control of Pitești and raided the surrounding villages. In other areas, there were highway robberies organized by Romanian peasants or
slaves of
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
origin. Such incidents happened in
Slănic,
Urziceni, or at
Nucet Monastery
Nucet (; hu, Diófás) is a town in Bihor County, western Transylvania, Romania. Its name means "walnut trees" both in Romanian and Hungarian. It administers two villages, Băița (''Rézbánya'') and Băița-Plai.
The uranium-producing Băiț ...
.
On February 4, the Pandurs were again camped in Gorj, at
Țânțăreni. Here, his army grew massively, to about 4,000 infantrymen and 500 horsemen. The Macedonskis recount that Vladimirescu was awaiting for the boyars to follow his orders and unite under his command, but that this demand was in fact unrealistic.
[Vianu & Iancovici, pp. 80–81] While waiting in Țânțăreni, Vladimirescu provided his response to the
Boyar Divan, whose leadership had asked not to engage in activity "harmful for the country". Vladimirescu presented himself as a "caretaker" of the state—one elected by the people to review the "awful tyranny" of boyars, but without toppling the regime.
A boyars' delegation, led by ''
Vornic'' Nicolae Văcărescu, traveled to Vladimirescu's camp on February 11. It asked of the Pandurs that they refrain from marching on Bucharest, and appealed to their patriotic sentiments. To this, Vladimirescu replied that his conception of the motherland was fundamentally different: "the people, and not the Coterie of plunderers" (or "robber class"). Though he thus restated his generic dislike for the boyars, Vladimirescu also reassured Văcărescu that he did not "wish any harm to this Coterie", and "even more so I want to complete and strengthen its privileges."
Army creation
Văcărescu was immediately replaced with Constantin Samurcaș, who was an Eterist agent, and favored bribing the Pandurs into submission. He offered Vladimirescu a pardon and a large tribute collected from the citizens of Craiova, allegedly sending Hadži-Prodan to Țânțăreni, with 90,000 thaler as a gift.
According to at least one account, Samurcaș also prepared Arnaut troops, under Solomon and Djuvara, for a surprise attack on Vladimirescu's quarters. Prodan himself recounted that had secret orders to kill Vladimirescu, but disobeyed and defected to the Pandur side. Contrarily, anti-Greek authors view Prodan as a double agent of the Eteria, infiltrated alongside Dimitrie Macedonski. In recounting this episode, Liprandi claims that Vladimirescu turned tables and unexpectedly handed Samurcaș a list of boyars and notabilities that he wanted executed. Names reportedly included
Dionisie Lupu,
Metropolitan of Wallachia.
[Vianu & Iancovici, p. 80] Meanwhile, ''Caimacam'' Văcărescu wrote to promise Vladimirescu 250,000 thaler as additional aid, but, according to Liprandi, also demanded that the Pandurs arrest and kill Samurcaș, the "enemy of
urcause".
The Pandurs had been joined by packs of Oltenian ''hajduks'', including the already famous
Iancu Jianu, and by a small selection of young boyars, including Ioan Urdăreanu and a group of scribes:
Petrache Poenaru
Petrache Poenaru (; 10 January 1799 – 2 October 1875) was a Romanian inventor of the Enlightenment era.
Poenaru, who had studied in Paris and Vienna and, later, completed his specialized studies in England, was a mathematician, physicist, eng ...
, Ioniță Dârzeanu, and Dumitrache Protopopescu. It remains uncertain whether
Gheorghe Magheru
General Gheorghe Magheru (; 1802, Bârzeiul de Gilort, Gorj County – 23 March 1880) was a Romanian revolutionary and soldier from Wallachia, and political ally of Nicolae Bălcescu.
A Pandur and radical conspirator
Magheru began his ...
, a scion of the boyar clan in
Albeni
Albeni is a commune in Gorj County, Oltenia, Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the ...
, was also a volunteer Pandur in 1821.
[I. D. Suciu, "Recenzii. Apostol Stan, Constantin Vlăduț, ''Gheorghe Magheru''", in ''Studii. Revistă de Istorie'', Vol. 23, Issue 6, 1970, p. 1248] Vladimirescu still persecuted exponents of the old regime, having tax farmer Pau Nicolicescu put to death at Strehaia. Nevertheless, he allowed other known exploiters, including Ghiță Cuțui, to join his rebel army.
It is statistically probable that more than half of his army captaincies were held by third-class boyars.
[Ciobotea & Osiac, p. 150]
The native Oltenian core was supplemented by Romanian peasants migrating from the
Principality of Transylvania, which was part of the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central- Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...
;
and from the
Silistra Eyalet (Ottoman
Dobruja
Dobruja or Dobrudja (; bg, Добруджа, Dobrudzha or ''Dobrudža''; ro, Dobrogea, or ; tr, Dobruca) is a historical region in the Balkans that has been divided since the 19th century between the territories of Bulgaria and Romania. I ...
). There were also massive arrivals of other Balkan ethnicities. The cavalry in particular was staffed by foreign volunteers, mainly Arnauts and
Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language.
The majority of Serbs live in their ...
. The command core had Greek, Serb,
Aromanian and
Bulgarian officers, whose primary loyalty was to the Eteria. They included Olympios, Pharmakis, Prodan, ''Serdar'' Djuvara, and Macedonski. The anonymous chronicle ''Istoria jăfuitorilor'' additionally notes that Vladimirescu's core units were staffed with veterans of Karađorđe's armies, including Pharmakis, Mihali, and
Tudor Ghencea; others who had served with
Ali Pasha of Ioannina
Ali Pasha of Ioannina (1740 – 24 January 1822), was an Albanian ruler who served as pasha of a large part of western Rumelia, the Ottoman Empire's European territories, which was referred to as the Pashalik of Yanina. His court was in Ioannina, ...
. European journals also recorded the recruitment of Greeks from
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
, and the presence of former officers from the ''
Grande Armée
''La Grande Armée'' (; ) was the main military component of the French Imperial Army commanded by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1804 to 1808, it won a series of military victories that allowed the French Empi ...
''.
Tensions between these figures and their Oltenian commander were visible in February, when Vladimirescu put a stop to Prodan and Macedonski's sacking of the Otetelișanu manor in
Benești. According to Liprandi, Olympios was always a liability in Vladimirescu's camp, manipulating both him and Ypsilantis for material gain. Olympios also tested Vladimirescu by rescuing and protecting a renegade Pandur, Grigore Cârjaliul, and by murdering some of the prisoners held at Tismana. Pharmakis, who commanded over his own cohort of "400
Albanians", also acted independently, shielding from persecutions the boyars Lăcusteanu. For his part, Vladimirescu protected
Dinicu Golescu
Dinicu Golescu (usual rendition of Constantin Radovici Golescu; 7 February 1777 – 5 October 1830), a member of the Golescu family of boyars, was a Wallachian Romanian man of letters, mostly noted for his travel writings and journalism.
...
and his family, ordering his troops to release
Iordache. The latter was then given a Pandur guard which escorted him to Transylvania.
On February 23, Bucharest went through another regime change. Brâncoveanu secretly left Bucharest and crossed into Transylvania, settling in the border city of
Corona (Brașov). His departure created another panic, stoked by the Arnauts. Olympios and Pharmakis returned to the capital and took control of its garrison, also raiding Târgoviște,
Găești
Găești () is a town in Dâmbovița County, Muntenia, Romania with a population of 12,767.
History
The name of the town comes from a family of nobles ( boyars) who owned most of the lands on which the town is now situated. Their name was G ...
, and
Băicoi
Băicoi () is a town in Prahova County, Romania, near the 45th parallel. Five localities are administered by the town: Dâmbu, Liliești, Schela, Tufeni, and Țintea. Over time, these have become neighborhoods of the town.[Scarlat Callimachi
Scarlat Callimachi or Calimachi (; nicknamed ''Prinţul Roşu'', "the Red
Prince"; September 20, 1896 – June 2, 1975) was a Romanian journalist, essayist, futurist poet, trade unionist, and communist activist, a member of the Callimachi fa ...]
, who refused to abandon Ottoman safety for his throne. Instead, Callimachi appointed a new triumvirate of ''Caimacami'', presided upon by
Stefan Bogoridi
Prince (''Knyaz'' or '' Bey'') Stefan Bogoridi (born Стойко Цонков Стойков, ''Stoyko Tsonkov Stoykov''; ; ; ; ; 1775 or 1780–August 1, 1859) was a high-ranking Ottoman statesman of Bulgarian origin, grandson of Sophro ...
. This interval also marked the return to Bucharest of
Sava Fochianos
The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and fina ...
, whom Callimachi had created a ''
Binbashi'' of his own Arnaut garrison.
In parallel, the Eterist uprising began with a revolt of the
Moldavian military forces
Moldavia had a military force for much of its history as an independent and, later, autonomous principality subject to the Ottoman Empire (14th century-1859).
Army Middle Ages
Under the reign of Stephen the Great, all farmers and villagers ha ...
in
Galați
Galați (, , ; also known by other alternative names) is the capital city of Galați County in the historical region of Western Moldavia, in eastern Romania. Galați is a port town on the Danube River. It has been the only port for the most pa ...
and a pogrom of the
local Turks, both staged by
Vasileios Karavias. Organized militarily as a "
Sacred Band", the Eterists occupied Moldavia in the last week of February, and issued manifestos calling on all
Ottoman Christians to join them. A military government was created in
Iași, under a General Pendidekas. This was the starting point of an exodus of locals from the country, with some pockets of anti-Eterist resistance. Overall, Moldavian boyars were shocked by Karavias' violence; the native population at large was anti-Greek by virtue of being anti-Phanariote, and only a few thousand Moldavians ever joined the Sacred Band.
Taking Bucharest
In Wallachia, the combined Pandur–Arnaut force also began moving on Bucharest, taking
Slătioara on March 4. Callimachi's regency also sought to coax Vladimirescu into submission, but he ignored the offer, and, instigated by the Macedonskis, prepared a Pandur conquest of Wallachia.
He then addressed the ''Caimacami'' a five-point ultimatum, which called for the removal of Phanariotes, the reestablishment of a levy army, tax relief, as well as 500,000 thaler for Vladimirescu's expenses. A document formulated as ''Cererile norodului românesc'' ("Demands of the Romanian People") also specified a
racial quota
Racial quotas in employment and education are numerical requirements for hiring, promoting, admitting and/or graduating members of a particular racial group. Racial quotas are often established as means of diminishing racial discrimination, ad ...
in assigning
boyar offices and titles, and more generically a
meritocracy
Meritocracy (''merit'', from Latin , and ''-cracy'', from Ancient Greek 'strength, power') is the notion of a political system in which economic goods and/or political power are vested in individual people based on talent, effort, and achie ...
. The main tax was kept, but reduced and divided into quarterly installments.
Numerical estimates of Vladimirescu's force vary significantly. Some authors count 8,000 soldiers (6,000 Oltenian infantrymen, 2,000 Balkan cavalry), while others advance the number to 10,000,
14,000, or 24,000. According to Cioranu, in all Vladimirescu's army comprised 20,000 men: of his 12,000 Pandurs, 6,000 had been left at forts in Oltenia, including troops under ''Serdar'' Djuvara, Solomon, and Moangă; 8,000 Arnauts "of various races", mostly Serbs from Karađorđe's army, of whom only 2,500 were available for combat. Vladimirescu himself claimed to have at least 12,000 men under arms, while conservative estimates lower that number to 4,000 or 5,000. These troops were also backed by a cell of artillery personnel. According to various counts, they had five to eight cannons, of which two were smaller in size.
The Pandurs' march came with a recruitment drive. For instance, Solomon's auxiliary force held Craiova, where they began signing up burghers.
[Cernatoni, p. 45] Pitești, which had strategic importance, was secured on March 7, and placed under Captain Simion Mehedințeanu. Pandur recruitment largely failed here, but the townsfolk pledged their material support. The hostile narrator of ''Istoria jăfuitorilor'' also claims that Vladimirescu was expected in Bucharest by a
fifth column
A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. According to Harris Mylonas and Scott Radnitz, "fifth columns" are “domestic actors who work to un ...
, comprising "vagabonds, foreigners, Serbian, Arnaut or Bulgarian thieves, and all those Bucharest panhandlers that we mockingly call ''crai''
ings. The breakdown of Phanariote power accelerated crossovers by the Arnauts, who were no longer receiving salaries from the treasury. Vladimirescu himself separated between loyal and disloyal Arnauts. At
Slatina, he had established a 40-men Serb "killing guard", possibly led by Chiriac Popescu. Its first mission was to assassinate Arnaut leaders who had engaged in looting.
On March 10, the rebels crossed the
Olt River
The Olt ( Romanian and Hungarian; german: Alt; la, Aluta or ', tr, Oltu, grc, Ἄλυτος ''Alytos'') is a river in Romania. It is long, and its basin area is . It is the longest river flowing exclusively through Romania. Its average disch ...
, marched through
Șerbănești and
Ciolănești
Ciolănești is a commune in Teleorman County, Muntenia, Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders ...
, then settled camp at
Vadu-Lat.
Ostensibly to "unite with Vladimirescu", the Sacred Band crossed the
Milcov into Wallachia, with Ypsilantis reassuring locals that he would maintain good governance in the places he occupied and would not tolerate any violence against them. Reportedly, Vladimirescu sent him letters asking him to withdraw, but these reached Ypsilantis when he was already in
Ploiești
Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest.
The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commun ...
. While camped there, the Sacred Band organized a military government, comprising Greeks and Wallachian Eterists. Going against Ypsilantis' earlier promises, it staged raids on civilians and multiple confiscations of property. As Cioranu notes, "Romanians never even wanted to hear
psilantis' proclamations let alone fight under his banner."
The unexpected double invasion alarmed the Divan. Most boyars refused to trust in Vladimirescu's assurances, and fled Bucharest for safety in Transylvania or the countryside, although Olympios and Pharmakis tried to intercept them at
Cotroceni and
Ciorogârla. A new regency took over, with Metropolitan Dionisie at its helm; ministers included
Alecu Filipescu-Vulpea, Fotachi Știrbei, and Grigore Băleanu. The main Pandur force took possession of
Bolintin on March 16, sending out patrols to take Cotroceni and
Colentina. At Bolintin, Vladimirescu issued his appeal to Bucharesters, informing them that they had nothing to fear once they took up his cause, the cause "of Christendom". He disavowed the exiled boyars, accusing them of having made common cause with the Phanariotes. A second proclamation on March 20 was a call to national unity, "for we are all parts of the same people".
[Cernatoni, p. 46] It showed his belief in
class collaboration, but also, again, his ambition to stand as a national leader, governing for the benefit of the dispossessed.
The Pandurs slowly approached Bucharest from the west. According to one oral tradition, Vladimirescu set up another camp in Cotroceni, his tent planted in the exact spot where physician
Carol Davila was later buried. On March 21, the rebel army finally marched into the Wallachian capital. The rebel column, followed by a mass of city-dwellers, walked through the borough later known as
Rahova
Rahova is a neighbourhood of southwest Bucharest, Romania, situated in Sector 5, west of Dâmboviţa River. It is named after the Bulgarian town ''Rahovo'' (today Oryahovo), site of a battle in the Romanian War of Independence.
The neighborh ...
. The procession was led on by an ensign with Vladimirescu's banner of white and blue; Vladimirescu himself held a loaf of bread, to signal prosperity. Upon reaching
Dealul Mitropoliei
Dealul Mitropoliei (, ''Metropolitanate Hill''), also called Dealul Patriarhiei (, ''Patriarchate Hill''), is a small hill in Bucharest, Romania and an important historic, cultural, architectural, religious and touristic point in the national capit ...
, he requisitioned the home of
Zoe Brâncoveanu, turning it into his temporary residence. He and his army were welcomed by Metropolitan Dionisie, who now expressed his "great joy". Those boyars still present in the city proclaimed Vladimirescu's movement to be "useful and redeeming for the people", recognizing him as governor and taking an oath to support him. By contrast, the Arnaut garrison, supporting Fochianos, occupied the
Metropolitan Church and
Radu Vodă Monastery, defying the Pandurs and shooting at them as they approached. The standoff was ended after friendly negotiations between Fochianos and Vladimirescu, resulting in a ceasefire; Fochianos recognized Vladimirescu's executive and judicial authority over Wallachia.
Conflict with Ypsilantis
Meanwhile, the Sacred Band, under Ypsilantis, had also reached the area, and remained camped outside the city. The two armies "observed each other, without merging into one another; the fundamental contradiction of
heiralliance was becoming more and more apparent".
The Eterists pressed on to be allowed entry into Bucharest, but Vladimirescu only offered them a deserted
Ghica family manor in Colentina, outside city limits.
Ypsilantis and his staff were allowed to visit the city, but found themselves ridiculed by anti-Greek locals, who called theirs an army of "pie-makers". On March 25, Ypsilantis and Vladimirescu had their first meeting. Though they immediately disliked each other, they agreed to a partition of Wallachia: Vladimirescu held on to Oltenia, Bucharest, and southern
Muntenia
Muntenia (, also known in English as Greater Wallachia) is a historical region of Romania, part of Wallachia (also, sometimes considered Wallachia proper, as ''Muntenia'', ''Țara Românească'', and the seldom used ''Valahia'' are synonyms in ...
(comprising the
Wallachian Plain
The Romanian Plain ( ro, Câmpia Română) is located in southern Romania and the easternmost tip of Serbia, where it is known as the Wallachian Plain ( sr, Vlaška nizija/Влашка низија). Part of the historical region of Wallachia, it ...
), while the Sacred Band moved into the Muntenian stretch of the
Southern Carpathians
The Southern Carpathians (also known as the Transylvanian Alps; ro, Carpații Meridionali ; hu, Déli-Kárpátok) are a group of mountain ranges located in southern Romania. They cover the part of the Carpathian Mountains located between the ...
. The meeting also gave the Pandurs a chance to observe Ypsilantis' army, which they found to be alarmingly small and under-prepared.
While the partition was ongoing, news came of Russia having denounced Ypsilantis, singled out as an enemy of the
Holy Alliance
The Holy Alliance (german: Heilige Allianz; russian: Священный союз, ''Svyashchennyy soyuz''; also called the Grand Alliance) was a coalition linking the monarchist great powers of Austria, Prussia, and Russia. It was created after ...
. As Liprandi reports, Vladimirescu privately asked Ypsilantis to complete his transit of Wallachia or withdraw to Moldavia. Ypsilantis hid this detail from his Wallachian contacts as he began taking pledges of support from the various Pandur captains. He also hid from them that the Sacred Band had been
anathemized by the
Orthodox Patriarch,
Gregory V
Gregory may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Gregory (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Gregory (surname), a surname
Places Australia
* Gregory, Queensland, a town in the Shire ...
.
On March 15, Pharmakis and his troops, quartered in
Lipscani, central Bucharest, broke with the Pandurs. A ceremony organized by actor
Costache Aristia consecrated their own army symbols, which echoed
Byzantine flags and insignia. As noted by Cioranu, "just about most foreigners who were under Tudor's banners" abandoned their posts in Oltenia and joined the Sacred Band. In the process, they "looted churches, houses, villages, boyars, merchants and everything they could lay hands on, leaving Christians naked
..and raping wives and girls in front of their husbands and fathers." The same Cioranu notes that the Sacred Band, though only numbering 7,000 men officially, could count then on support from at least 20,000 Greeks and allies. Vladimirescu was nevertheless able to prevent an alliance between Fochianos and Ypsilantis, reminding the former, who was effectively his hostage,
[Ionel Zănescu, Camelia Ene, "Palatul 'de la Colentina-Tei'", in '' Magazin Istoric'', May 2002, p. 54] of his pledge to the Divan. Together, they began policing the city to prevent Eterist looting. In the ''
mahalale'', the Pandurs formed a citizens' self-defense force which may have grouped thousands of Romanians and Romanies. Fochianos commanded the allegiances of 800 loyalist Arnauts and 1,000 armed
tanners. According to various reports, the anti-looting policy alienated some of the troops, with as many as 400 men leaving Vladimirescu's camp as a result.
The two armies remained "arrested on the spot",
and Vladimirescu began searching for an honorable retreat. On March 27, the boyars, instigated by him, produced a letter which informed foreign powers that the revolution only intended to restore "old privileges" and limit abuse.
[Cernatoni, p. 47] Vladimirescu also drafted and sent letters of
fealty
An oath of fealty, from the Latin ''fidelitas'' ( faithfulness), is a pledge of allegiance of one person to another.
Definition
In medieval Europe, the swearing of fealty took the form of an oath made by a vassal, or subordinate, to his lord. "F ...
to Mahmud II, limiting his demands to the restoration of
elective monarchy
An elective monarchy is a monarchy ruled by an elected monarch, in contrast to a hereditary monarchy in which the office is automatically passed down as a family inheritance. The manner of election, the nature of candidate qualifications, and t ...
in Wallachia; the Ottomans responded that there would be such negotiation lest he surrender his weapons.
At the time, the Eterist rear in Moldavia was being attacked by a pro-Ottoman, and Austrian-backed, guerrilla. Led by
Gavril Istrati
Gavril Istrati, or Istrate (died 1838), was a Moldavian boyar who mounted military resistance to the Filiki Eteria during the Greek War of Independence. Probably hailing from the yeomanry, he spent a while servicing the more powerful boyar Teodor ...
and flying
red flags, it managed to chase the Greeks out of
Botoșani. As argued by Iorga, this force stood for the "''other'' revolution" (Iorga's emphasis), "opposed, like Tudor's was, to the Greek revolution." On April 5, Vladimirescu acknowledged Moldavian interests, writing to his own Divan, on April 5, about the possibility of a common movement for justice.
During the final days of March, amid rumors of an Ottoman retaliation, Vladimirescu barricaded his Pandurs in
Cotroceni Monastery. The new fortifications were designed by the nationalist schoolteacher
Gheorghe Lazăr and built using convict labor. The Pandurs also set up lookout points in the Metropolitan Church and at Radu Vodă. On April 14, Vladimirescu inspired his boyars to draft an anti-Eterist proclamation, accusing Ypsilanti of being a dishonored guest in a "country that had received
imwith open arms."
The Metropolitan and the Divan also obtained special protection from Tudor, and were moved to a safer location in Belvedere Manor,
Ciurel. According to Liprandi, this was a move engineered by Filipescu-Vulpea, who planned the boyars' escape into Transylvania. Liprandi also reports that Vulpea exploited conflicts between Vladimirescu and Fochianos, presenting the latter as a mortal danger for the boyars as well. In fact, the boyars were able to survive Fochianos' attempted raid on Belvedere.
From his barracks in Târgoviște, Ypsilantis responded to Vladimirescu's allegations with a proclamation in which he declared his disappointment, and stated his intention of leaving Wallachia to engage the Ottomans in the Balkans. However, he also began organizing northern Muntenia as an Eterist domain, sacking Vladimirescu's supporters.
One report suggests that he also depleted Wallachian ammunition stores, taking away some 6,000
pounds (almost 3
tons) of gunpowder.
[Finlay, p. 129] Meanwhile, Vladimirescu had become more persistent in pursuing peace with the Ottomans. With the help of an Ottoman subject, Nuri Ağa, he circulated allegations that Ypsilantis and Callimachi were both conspirators, hinting that the Sultan could only ensure Wallachia's loyalty by removing the Phanariotes altogether. On April 18, Jianu and Constantin Borănescu were sent to
Silistra
Silistra ( bg, Силистра ; tr, Silistre; ro, Silistra) is a town in Northeastern Bulgaria. The town lies on the southern bank of the lower Danube river, and is also the part of the Romanian border where it stops following the Danube. Si ...
to parley with the Ottomans. The negotiations were inconclusive, as Wallachians refused to either surrender or take up arms against the Sacred Band. Jianu was arrested there by order of
Mehmed Selim Pasha
Mehmed Selim Pasha or Mehmed Selim Sırrı Pasha (1771 Bender, Moldova – 1831 Damascus, Ottoman Empire, nickname: "Benderli") was an Ottoman statesman. He was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. He ruled from 14 September 1824 to 24 October 1 ...
.
Downfall
Overall, Vladimirescu appeared hesitant. Nuri later revealed that he had prepared bribes for Vladimirescu to use on Ypsilantis' captains. This offer was shoved aside by Vladimirescu, who explained that he feared bribing treasonous men. In parallel, with a new proclamation from Cotroceni, Vladimirescu asserted that the Pandurs, Serbs and Bulgarians would stand together against Ottoman encroachment: "we must fire our rifles into Turkish flesh, should they invade." Vladimirescu also reacted to the encroachment by sending his own ''Ispravnici'' to
Rușii, where Callimachi's ''
Postelnic'', Constantin Negri, had attempted to set his base. On
Easter Sunday
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
, 600 Ottoman soldiers stormed into Rușii, executing 30 Pandurs along with 170 civilians. A Serbian outlaw, known as Ghiță Haidicul, punished such an incursion on March 21, capturing and maiming some 40 Turks. Vladimirescu no longer intervened when the
Bashi-bazouk
A bashi-bazouk ( ota, باشی بوزوق , , , roughly "leaderless" or "disorderly") was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman army, raised in times of war. The army chiefly recruited Albanians and Circassians as bashi-bazouks, but recruits ...
s took
Călărași, which they began fortifying in preparation for a larger invasion. His revolt was nevertheless influential south of the
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , ...
, in the
Sanjak of Nicopolis. The Bulgarians here rose up in arms, but were put down by the
Ottoman Army
The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire.
Army
The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...
. Violent persecution against them was curbed, but later mutated into specific actions against
Nicopolitan Catholics.
During the last days of April, the Ottoman Army made its coordinated push into Wallachia, with 20,000 to 32,000 soldiers—half of whom headed straight for Moldavia. The other 10,000 or 14,000 were split into two columns: one, placed under
Dervish Mehmed Pasha and Ioan Rogobete, entered Oltenia at
Calafat
Calafat () is a city in Dolj County, southern Romania, in the region of Oltenia. It lies on the river Danube, opposite the Bulgarian city of Vidin, to which it is linked by the Calafat-Vidin Bridge, opened in 2013. After the destruction of the br ...
; the other, led by
Mehmed Selim Pasha
Mehmed Selim Pasha or Mehmed Selim Sırrı Pasha (1771 Bender, Moldova – 1831 Damascus, Ottoman Empire, nickname: "Benderli") was an Ottoman statesman. He was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. He ruled from 14 September 1824 to 24 October 1 ...
and Kara Feiz Ali, set out of Călărași into Muntenia. Of the easternmost force, a regiment under Yusuf Berkofcali entered
Brăila
Brăila (, also , ) is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County. The ''Sud-Est'' Regional Development Agency is located in Brăila.
According to the 2011 Romanian census there were 180,302 pe ...
en route to Moldavia, where they set fire to Galați and massacred its population. This invasion force consisted of 5,500 infantry and 500 cavalry, assisted by 1,000
Zaporozhian Cossacks
The Zaporozhian Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossack Army, Zaporozhian Host, (, or uk, Військо Запорізьке, translit=Viisko Zaporizke, translit-std=ungegn, label=none) or simply Zaporozhians ( uk, Запорожці, translit=Zaporoz ...
of the
Danubian Sich
The Danubian Sich ( uk, Задунайська Сiч, translit=Zadunaiska Sich) was an organization of the part of former Zaporozhian Cossacks who settled in the territory of the Ottoman Empire (the Danube Delta, hence the name) after their pre ...
;
Hilmi Ibrahim Pasha Hilmi ( ar, حلمي) is a masculine Arabic given name, it may refer to:
*Hilmi Esat Bayındırlı (born 1962), Turkish*American para-skier
*Hilmi Güler (born 1946), Turkish politician and metallurgical engineer
*Hilmi İşgüzar (born 1929), Turk ...
also sailed to the region with some 40
Ottoman river vessels. During their subsequent invasion of
Putna County, Berkofcali reportedly isolated some other remnants of Vladimirescu's army.
On May 14–15, the Ottomans held
Copăceni and
Cățelu, in sight of Bucharest. A ''
firman
A firman ( fa, , translit=farmân; ), at the constitutional level, was a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state. During various periods they were collected and applied as traditional bodies of law. The word firman com ...
'' of the Porte announced that its armies would seek to administer justice, separating "the exploited from exploiters"; it commended Fochianos and Negri for their loyalism, assigning them to govern over Bucharest "until the peoples are as pacified as they have been in the old day." This document described Vladimirescu as a loyalist who demanded "pity and justice", whereas Ypsilantis was dismissed as an "outcast". Both Nuri and an Ottoman general, ''
Kethüda
( ota, كدخدا), often corrupted to or in daily speech, was an Ottoman Turkish title meaning "steward, deputy, lieutenant". It derives from the Persian word ("master of a household", later "chieftain, headman").
The term originated in me ...
'' Kara Ahmed, presented new offers for cooperation with the Pandurs, including promises that they would introduce a "settlement that is more favorable to the peasants". Although praised by the ''firman'', Fochianos made a belated show of his conversion of the Eterist cause, parading through Bucharest under a "freedom banner", probably the same one flown by Aristia. Reportedly, Fochainos boasted his ability to "incite all of
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Mac ...
through his agents and his influence on that bellicose nation."
According to one interpretation, Vladimirescu still considered resisting militarily, but was suspicious of Fochianos, and abandoned this plan in favor of a full retreat. He sent his acolytes Mihali and Ghencea to meet Ypsilantis and Pharmakis at
Mărgineni Monastery Mărgineni may refer to one of several places in Romania:
* Mărgineni, Bacău
Mărgineni ( hu, Marzsinén) is a commune in Bacău County, Western Moldavia, Romania. It is composed of eight villages: Barați (''Barát''), Luncani (''Lunkány''), M ...
, reportedly in order to synchronize resistance. Cioranu argues that this was merely a pretext to spy on the Sacred Band. Over those days, the two rival armies, Greek and Wallachian, had already begun moving across Wallachia and toward their respective Carpathian strongholds: Vladimirescu's set course for Oltenia, while Ypsilantis moved into northern Muntenia. The retreat also saw military exercises which tested the troops' resilience and readiness for combat. In one reported incident, Vladimirescu staged an Ottoman attack, ordering some of his soldiers to dress up in Turkish uniforms. Order and morale waned among the Pandurs, prompting Vladimirescu to mete out punishments that were marked by "cruelty." He may have killed as many as 30 of his own soldiers, some of them by his own hand.
The retreat also infuriated the Sacred Band. According to one account, Ypsilantis sent Fochianos in pursuit of the Wallachian column. Other versions suggest that Fochianos, still in contact with the Porte, expected to "play the two sides against each other and then side with the winner", or "an opportunity of making the prince
psilantisprisoner".
Olympios also followed the Pandurs and, upon reaching them, demanded that Vladimirescu return to fight for Bucharest. During a subsequent standoff on the banks of
Cârcinov
The Cârcinov is a left tributary of the river Argeș (river), Argeș in Romania. It discharges into the Argeș near Topoloveni. , Vladimirescu agreed to hold deescalation talks. Terror against his own troops had peaked during the Pandurs' passage through
Argeș County
Argeș County () is a county (''județ'') of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Pitești.
Demographics
On 20 October 2011, it had a population of 612,431 and the population density was 89/km2.
* Romanians – 97%
* Roma (Gypsie ...
. At
Golești, Vladimirescu ordered the hanging of Ioan Urdăreanu, as punishment for the desertion of four Pandur captains. This incident reportedly caused distress, greatly diminishing Pandur support for their leader. According to the scribe Dârzeanu, Olympios and Pharmakis used the negotiations at Golești, which resulted in a renewed pact with the Sacred Band, to approach Pandur malcontents and probe their commitments.
Vladimirescu also fell out with the Macedonskis, who claimed to have stumbled upon proof that he had embezzled 1 million thaler, and announced that they would surrender him to the Divan for trial. On May 21, Ypsilantis' agents marched into the camp and seized Vladimirescu, confident that none of his soldiers would resist them. Cioranu recalls that the Eterists displayed Vladimirescu's correspondence with the Porte, prompting the Pandurs to rally behind Prodan and Macedonski, identified as their new commanders. They allegedly told them that Olympios would personally handle Vladimirescu's surrender to the Divan. The prisoner was instead taken to the Sacred Band headquarters at Târgoviște, where he was tortured, shot, cut into pieces, and disposed of.
Aftermath
In the immediate aftermath, the Pandurs scattered, with most reentering civilian life; of those who refused to do so, some joined Ypsilantis' force, while others rallied with
Anastasie Mihaloglu to form an independent revolutionary force. D. Macedonski, who traveled to Oltenia but remained in contact with the Eterists, was allegedly misinformed by his allies that Vladimirescu was still alive, but exiled. Pandur forces also included some 800 defectors from Golești, under
Ioan Oarcă, and Solomon's troops, which had by then withdrawn to
Țânțăreni. News of Vladimirescu's capture interrupted Poenaru and
Ilarion Gheorghiadis Ilarion ( bg, Иларион, sr, Иларион, russian: Иларион, uk, Іларіон) is a variant of the Greek given name ''Hilarion'', found in Slavic and Romanian languages. It may refer to:
* Hilarion of Kiev or Ilarion (11th century ...
from their diplomatic mission to the Holy Alliance, which pleaded for direct protection from Eterist "cruelty". Having just crossed the border into Transylvania, they opted not to return.
Other Pandur sympathizers followed suit. They include poet
Iancu Văcărescu, who took with him a sabre that he claimed had been Vladimirescu's. This influx alarmed Transylvanian authorities, who feared that Pandurs would incite revolution among the
Grenz infantry and the serfs of
Hunyad County
Hunyad (today mainly Hunedoara) was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary, of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and of the Principality of Transylvania. Its territory is now in Romania in Transylvania. The capital of the co ...
. At
Szúliget, several peasants, including the elderly Adam Bedia, were imprisoned for having prepared and armed themselves in expectation of "Tudor's men". Chancellor
Sámuel Teleki ordered the
Military Border reinforced, and began sending back refugees; the boyars of Corona were deported further inland. However, both Macedonski and Prodan were able to break through the cordon, disguised as merchants.
Meanwhile, all of Bucharest had surrendered to Kara Ahmed. Known in Romanian as ''Chehaia'', he was much feared and disliked by the Wallachians, having tolerated massacres and rapes. In cultural terms, his arrival meant a return to sartorial traditionalism:
Western fashion, which had been popular with the young boyars, became politically suspect; society in both Wallachia and Moldavia returned to the standards of
Ottoman clothing
Ottoman clothing or Ottoman fashion is the style and design of clothing worn during the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman period
While the Palace and its court dressed lavishly, the common people were only concerned with covering themselves. Starting ...
. The Danubian Sich also participated in Bucharest's occupation, with ''
Kosh'' Nikifor Beluha organizing the plunder. Beluha returned to
Dunavets with a "large bounty", including a church bell. Once evacuated, Târgoviște also surrendered to the Zaporozhian Cossacks, but was not spared large-scale destruction. A legion of some 3,000 soldiers, under Kara Feiz, went in pursuit of the Pandurs, taking Craiova and setting fire to Slatina.
On May 26, at
Zăvideni, Mihaloglu, ''Serdar'' Djuvara and Solomon were surprised by Kara Feiz. The troops scattered, with most surrendering to the Austrians in Transylvania. Solomon himself would spend six years in Austrian jails. During that interval, the nationalist boyars and bishops, including Dionisie, also escaped into Transylvania. Remaining in the country, Fochianos had turned against Ypsilantis, again pledging himself to Callimachi. He then assisted the invasion force, helping to identify and capture revolutionary sympathizers—including Djuvara, who surrendered at
Cozia Monastery
Cozia Monastery, erected close to Călimănești by Mircea the Elder in 1388 and housing his tomb, is one of the most valuable monuments of national medieval art and architecture in Romania.
History
The name of the monastery is of Cuman origin and ...
and was then executed.
Both rival revolutionary armies were crushed in June–August 1821: Ypsilantis' was routed
at Drăgășani; the independent Pandurs were massacred while resisting in northern Oltenia. Repression came with extreme violence: Ioan Dobrescu, the last Wallachian chronicler, reports that "even the mountains stank" from dead bodies. "A large number of dead bodies" were recovered by locals from Colentina manor, while others had been discarded in the marshes of
Tei.
A regrouped Eterist contingent, led by Pharmakis and Olympios, held out at
Secu Monastery in Moldavia; Olympios reportedly detonated himself during the siege, while Pharmakis was taken prisoner and decapitated. Reportedly, only two Eterists who had fought at Secu were still alive in 1828. In July, the Ottomans ambushed Ghiță Haiducul and Vladimirescu's brother Papa, then impaled them.
On August 6, the Ottomans liquidated their nominal ally Fochianos, and all his Arnauts, having first lured them back to Bucharest. Ottoman terror was finally curbed by the Austrian Empire, who threatened with invasion upon being informed that victims of repression included Austrian subjects. On March 14, 1822, the Holy Alliance issued a final warning, which prompted the Sultan to recall his troops.
Historical consequences
Phanariote demise
Despite being met with violent repression, the Eterist ideal remained planted in the Balkans, and, after a decade of fighting, Greek nationalists managed to establish the
Kingdom of Greece
The Kingdom of Greece ( grc, label=Katharevousa, Greek, Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος ) was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constant ...
. The Wallachian revolt had generally more delayed and less conspicuous results. Sociologist
Dimitrie Drăghicescu
Dimitrie Drăghicescu (or Dumitru Drăghicescu) (1875–1945) was a Romanian politician, sociologist, diplomat and writer.
Dimitrie Drăghicescu was born on 4 May 1875 in the village of Zăvoieni, Vâlcea County, Romania. After finishing grammar ...
was particularly dismissive of the 1821 movement, viewing it as a sample of Romanian "passivity": "
twas so unlike a real, courageous, revolution; it can be reduced to a rally of no consequence." According to Djuvara, Vladimirescu failed because "the time had not yet come for what he intended to accomplish": "he never managed to entice the peasant mass of the villages, where his message never penetrated the way it should have.
..The class he could have relied on—and to which he did not himself belong—, that of traders and artisans, the barely nascent bourgeoisie, was not at that junction structured enough to represent a political force."
[Djuvara, p. 300]
Vârtosu also describes the Pandurs were a "first generation of democracy", but a "sacrificial generation"—"there was little ideological preparation in the Country". Similarly, Potra notes that the "revolutionary movement of 1821" was actually hailed by Bucharesters as an opportunity for "national liberation", "but could not have achieved this." Instead, "this first revolution, which opened the way for a line of struggles
..for the independence and freedom of the Romanian nation, has violently shaken up the feudal order, contributing to the demise of the Phanariote regime." Maciu contrarily believes that Vladimirescu's movement could have in fact brought about "bourgeois rule" and the
capitalist mode of production, but that it never took off as an actual revolution.
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
once categorized the 1821 events as a "national insurrection" rather than "peasants' revolt". As Maciu concludes, this acknowledges that the revolt was carefully planned, but fell short of stating a bourgeois objective.
Vladimirescu endured in the symbolic realm, a hero of
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, r ...
and
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...
, "a legend
..which will serve to nurture the builders of modern Romania."
As poet
Ion Heliade Rădulescu
Ion Heliade Rădulescu or Ion Heliade (also known as ''Eliade'' or ''Eliade Rădulescu''; ; January 6, 1802 – April 27, 1872) was a Wallachian, later Romanian academic, Romantic and Classicist poet, essayist, memoirist, short story writ ...
argued, the Pandurs had managed to take Wallachia out of her "somnolence" and "degeneracy". In its immediate aftermath, however, the revolt sparked mainly negative commentary. A cluster of chroniclers, boyar and conservative, still dominated the literary scene. They include Dobrescu,
Alecu Beldiman
Alecu Beldiman, common rendition of Alexandru Beldiman ( Romanian Cyrillic: AлєѯaндрȢ Бєлдимaн), also known as Alecul or Aleco Beldiman (1760 – ca. January 1826), was a Moldavian statesman, translator and poet, one of the forerunne ...
,
Naum Râmniceanu, and
Zilot Românul, all of whom disliked Vladimirescu. A noted exception to this rule was the Aromanian patriot
Toma Gheorghe Peșacov Toma or TOMA may refer to:
Places
*Toma, Burkina Faso, a town in Nayala province
*Toma Department, a department in Nayala province
*Toma, Banwa, Burkina Faso, a town
* Tōma, Hokkaidō, Japan, a town
**Tōma Station, its railway station
*Toma, a t ...
. Though he probably never approved of Vladimirescu's social discourse,
Dinicu Golescu
Dinicu Golescu (usual rendition of Constantin Radovici Golescu; 7 February 1777 – 5 October 1830), a member of the Golescu family of boyars, was a Wallachian Romanian man of letters, mostly noted for his travel writings and journalism.
...
subdued his criticism, and expressed his own concerns about the
corvée
Corvée () is a form of unpaid, forced labour, that is intermittent in nature lasting for limited periods of time: typically for only a certain number of days' work each year.
Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state for the purposes of ...
system. Through its parallel depiction in folklore, the Pandur rising was transposed into foreign literature: some of the first ballads about Vladimirescu or Fochianos were collected in the
Bessarabia Governorate
The Bessarabia Governorate (, ) was a part of the Russian Empire from 1812 to 1917. Initially known as Bessarabia Oblast (Бессарабская область, ''Bessarabskaya oblast'') as well as, following 1871, a governorate, it included ...
by
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
(who was enthusiastic about the revolt, as early as February 1821), and reused as literary sources by
Alexander Veltman. Semiotician
Juri Lotman argues that Pushkin wanted to weave the Wallachian revolt into a planned sequel to ''
Eugene Onegin
''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Евгений Оне́гин, ромáн в стихáх, p=jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ɐˈnʲeɡʲɪn, r=Yevgeniy Onegin, roman v stikhakh) is a novel in verse written by A ...
''.
The revolt had sent out signals to the Ottoman government, and produced relevant policy changes. One of the early signs of change came just months after its suppression, when the Divan restored Târgoviște to its citizens, and the "cartel of the four
rincelyfamilies" was formally annulled. In July 1822, after having heard a new set of boyar complaints which had Russian and Austrian backing, the Sultan put an end to the Phanariote regime, appointing
Grigore IV Ghica (the former ''Caimacam'' of 1821) and
Ioan Sturdza as "native" Princes of Wallachia and Moldavia, respectively. Trying to appease Russia, in 1826 the Ottoman Empire also signed the
Akkerman Convention, which set commercial freedoms for Wallachians and the Moldavians, and allowed the Divans to elect their Princes for seven-year terms. The new regimes set a standard of
Westernization
Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby Society, societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as Manufacturing, industry, technology, science, educ ...
and cultural
Francophilia
A Francophile, also known as Gallophile, is a person who has a strong affinity towards any or all of the French language, French history, French culture and/or French people. That affinity may include France itself or its history, language, cuisin ...
, giving impetus to the
National Party and the
local Freemasonry. Prince Ghica, having recovered his Colentina manor, rebuilt it as a
Neoclassical palace, in line with the Westernized preferences of his subjects.
Pandur revival
According to Jelavich, repressive measures against the Romanian peasantry remained subdued: "although villages were disarmed and attempts were made to collect the taxes and labor obligations that were due from the period of the rebellion, the entire matter was handled with relative moderation." Overall, however, the Vladimirescu revolt and the Sacred Band contributed to the "tangible degradation" of Wallachia's economy, which was only enhanced by the "terrible plundering" of Ottoman occupation. ''
Le Moniteur Universel'' reported that "everything in the countryside has been destroyed; what Greek revolutionaries could not accomplish, the Ottoman vanguard did." A
monetary crisis
A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and man ...
, sparked by the events of 1821 and cemented by the recovery of boyar privilege, affected both principalities for an entire decade.
Troubles continued under Ghica, including raids by Arnauts hiding in Transylvania and a number of riots. In 1826 Simion Mehedințeanu attempted a new uprising at
Padeș; he was defeated and hanged. Despite Ottoman concessions, Wallachia and Moldavia fell to a new
Russian occupation in 1828–1829. During this phase, the Pandurs were revived by Governor
Pavel Kiselyov and Costache Ghica, who created new units throughout Muntenia. The Divan, fearful of rebellion, reduced the number of Oltenian recruits, while Muntenians simply kept away. Liprandi commanded his own Russian unit in the campaign, giving employment to many Arnauts who had lived the previous seven years as marauding outlaws. This time saw the rise of a new Pandur commandant,
Gheorghe Magheru
General Gheorghe Magheru (; 1802, Bârzeiul de Gilort, Gorj County – 23 March 1880) was a Romanian revolutionary and soldier from Wallachia, and political ally of Nicolae Bălcescu.
A Pandur and radical conspirator
Magheru began his ...
. After policing Oltenia, he saw action again at
Șișești, repelling 3,000 Ottomans with a force of 450 Pandurs.
The Russian regime was extended by a new constitutional arrangement, ''
Regulamentul Organic
''Regulamentul Organic'' (, Organic Regulation; french: Règlement Organique; russian: Органический регламент, Organichesky reglament)The name also has plural versions in all languages concerned, referring to the dual na ...
'', which made the two countries Russian-controlled territories under Ottoman suzerainty. The corresponding
Treaty of Adrianople enhanced commercial freedoms, and is credited as the birth certificate of Romanian capitalism, with its modern middle class and a new standard of living. The full reestablishment of Wallachia's professional military under Russian command was, according to Potra, also a means to perpetuate a "strong revolutionary tradition" that included the Pandur unrest. The new system continued to be perceived as oppressive by the peasants, giving rise to various attempted revolts, particularly in Oltenia. In the 1830s, Gorj and
Dolj witnessed peasant rioters shouting slogans such as "Tudor has come back to life!" A veteran of 1821, Nicolae Groază, reverted to a life of crime. This "last Romanian ''hajduk''", captured and tried in 1838, defended himself by noting that he followed in the footsteps of Vladimirescu, Pharmakis, and Solomon.
During this interval, Vladimirescu associate Poenaru became organizer of Wallachian education. Although he had abandoned his youthful radicalism, Poenaru encouraged research into the revolt, as well as artistic homages to Vladimirescu. The Pandurs' colors may also have inspired political symbolism adopted the "native" rulers. Vladimirescu's banner, though blue-and-white, had blue-yellow-red
tassels; a memory of this color scheme may have inspired the adoption of
Wallachian ensigns and
Romanian tricolors, possibly through an intermediary flag designed in Craiova by Magheru's daughter Maria Alexandrina. In Moldavia, as early as 1843, historian
Mihail Kogălniceanu
Mihail Kogălniceanu (; also known as Mihail Cogâlniceanu, Michel de Kogalnitchan; September 6, 1817 – July 1, 1891) was a Romanian liberal statesman, lawyer, historian and publicist; he became Prime Minister of Romania on October 11, 186 ...
praised Vladimirescu for having "raised the national flag" to demand "a national government, founded on a liberal charter."
Later echoes
Tensions between nationalists and the Russian protectors, first evidenced with the 1842 ouster of Wallachian Prince
Alexandru II Ghica
Alexandru Dimitrie Ghica (1 May 1796 – January 1862), a member of the Ghica family, was Prince of Wallachia from April 1834 to 7 October 1842 and later caimacam (regent) from July 1856 to October 1858.
Family
He was son of Demetriu Ghic ...
, were enhanced by anti-Russian conspiracies. Before the full-scale
Wallachian Revolution of 1848
The Wallachian Revolution of 1848 was a Romanian liberal and nationalist uprising in the Principality of Wallachia. Part of the Revolutions of 1848, and closely connected with the unsuccessful revolt in the Principality of Moldavia, it sough ...
, one such revolutionary fraternity united Dimitrie Macedonski with the young
liberal boyars
Mitică Filipescu
Mitică () is a fictional character who appears in several sketch stories by Romanian writer Ion Luca Caragiale. The character's name is a common hypocoristic form of ''Dumitru'' or ''Dimitrie'' ( Romanian for ''Demetrius''). He is one of the b ...
and
Nicolae Bălcescu. The period also saw the uprising glorified in poetry by
Cezar Bolliac and
Alexandru Pelimon
Alexandru is the Romanian form of the name Alexander. Common diminutives are Alecu, Alex, and Sandu.
Origin
Etymologically, the name is derived from the Greek "Αλέξανδρος" (Aléxandros), meaning "defending men" or "protector of men" ...
, then explored in adventure novels by
Constantin Boerescu,
Dimitrie Bolintineanu, and
Nicolae Filimon. The uprising and its impact on the
Reformed Church
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
missionaries are also retold in a short story by
Mór Jókai, from first-hand reports by
Károly Sükei
Károly is a very common Hungarian male given name. It is also sometimes found as a Hungarian surname. The origin of this name is the Turkic languages, Turkic Karul, which means hawk. Nowadays Károly is considered the equivalent of English Karl or ...
. This revival of interest was contrasted by conservative views. Poet and essayist
Grigore Alexandrescu
Grigore Alexandrescu (; 22 February 1810, Târgovişte – 25 November 1885 in Bucharest) was a nineteenth-century Romanian poet and translator noted for his fables with political undertones.
He founded a periodical, ''Albina Româneasc ...
viewed Vladimirescu as "nearsighted and cruel", while
Grigore Lăcusteanu Grigore, the equivalent of Gregory, is a Romanian-language first name. It may refer to:
*Grigore Alexandrescu (1810–1885), Romanian poet and translator
* Grigore Antipa (1866–1944), Romanian Darwinist biologist, ichthyologist, ecologist, ocean ...
defined the uprising as a "first attempt to murder Romanian aristocracy, so that the nobodies and the churls may take its place". Solomon, though he had served Vladimirescu and remained a Pandur commander, also turned conservative during the 1840s.
Eventually, the ''Regulamentul'' regime was ended by the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included t ...
, which also opened the way for the creation of a Romanian state from the
union of Moldavia and Wallachia
The unification of Moldavia and Wallachia ( ro, Unirea Moldovei și Țării Românești), also known as the unification of the Romanian Principalities ( ro, Unirea Principatelor Române, link=no) or as the Little Union ( ro, Mica Unire, link=no) ...
. Iancu Vladimirescu, who was Papa's posthumous son and Tudor's nephew, was integrated by the new administration, serving minor functions in Gorj. According to Djuvara, during this process "nationalist" boyars imposed on historiography a narrative that obscured Vladimirescu's views on class conflict, preserving a memory of the revolution as only an anti-Phanariote and nativist phenomenon. The social dimension of 1821 was again revisited in the 1860s by egalitarian liberals such as
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu ( 26 February 1838 – ) was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history.
Life
He was born Tadeu Hâjdeu in Cristineștii Hotinului (now Kerstentsi in Chernivtsi O ...
, who directed
Constantin D. Aricescu to write a new history of the revolt.
This populist trend was continued following the proclamation of a
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...
. The original rebel flag, preserved by the Cacalațeanu family, was recovered in 1882 and assigned to the
Romanian Land Forces
The Romanian Land Forces ( ro, Forțele Terestre Române) is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the La ...
by Hasdeu. In the 1890s,
Constantin Dobrescu-Argeș
Constantin I. Dobrescu, better known as Dobrescu-Argeș (June 28, 1856 – December 10, 1903), was a Romanian peasant activist and politician, also noted as a teacher, journalist, and jurist. Active from his native Mușătești, in Argeș Count ...
, the agrarian leader and Pandur descendant, made reference to the Vladimirescu revolt as a precursor to his own movement. In 1913,
Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci
Gheorghe Munteanu Murgoci (July 20, 1872 – March 5, 1925) was a renowned Romanian geologist, founder of the South-Eastern European Studies Institute in Bucharest. In 1923, he was elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy.
Munte ...
founded a youth organization called Pandurs, later merged into
Romania's Scouts. During the
World War I occupation of Oltenia,
Victor Popescu
Victor Popescu (1886–1970) was an officer in the Romanian army and a guerrilla warrior during the World War I occupation of Romania.
Early life
He was born in Valea cu Apă - Fărcășești, Gorj, the son of school teacher Dumitru Popescu ...
set up partisan units directly modeled on the 1821 rebels. Vladimirescu was also recovered by the pantheon of
Greater Romania
The term Greater Romania ( ro, România Mare) usually refers to the borders of the Kingdom of Romania in the interwar period, achieved after the Great Union. It also refers to a pan-nationalist idea.
As a concept, its main goal is the creatio ...
, one of the "warrior heroes" depicted in the
Romanian Atheneum.
Several authors revisited the events during the interwar, with topical plays being written by Iorga and
Ion Peretz
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conven ...
. As nationalists, the 1821 Pandurs also had cult status in fascist propaganda put out by the
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard ( ro, Garda de Fier) was a Romanian militant revolutionary fascist movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel Michael () or the Legionnaire Movement (). It was strong ...
during the 1930s and '40s, and lent their name to a paramilitary subgroup of the
Romanian Front. This symbolism was challenged from the left by the
Radical Peasants' Party, who mustered thousands of Pandur reenactors for its Gorj rally in May 1936; the underground
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
, meanwhile, cultivated Vladimirescu's legendary status as an exponent of the "popular masses". During World War II, Romania fought as an ally of
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
.
Prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
held by the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
were then coaxed into forming a
Tudor Vladimirescu Division, which also helped communize the Land Forces.
With the imposition of a
communist state
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the Ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet U ...
, the Pandurs came to be seen as revolutionary precursors, and also as figures of anti-Western sentiment. Communist Romanian and
Soviet historiography
Soviet historiography is the methodology of history studies by historians in the Soviet Union (USSR). In the USSR, the study of history was marked by restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Soviet historiography ...
glossed over differences between Ypsilantis and Vladimirescu, depicting both as Russian-inspired liberators of the Balkans. In his pseudohistorical articles of 1952–1954, Solomon Știrbu alleged that Vladimirescu's revolution had been sparked by the
Decembrist movement, and had been ultimately defeated by "agents of the English bourgeoisie". During
De-Stalinization, Oțetea received political approval to curb this trend, though his own conclusions were soon challenged by other exponents of
Marxist historiography
Marxist historiography, or historical materialist historiography, is an influential school of historiography. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography include the centrality of social class, social relations of production in class-divided s ...
, including
David Prodan
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
.
Vladimirescu was still perceived as mainly a social revolutionary, but maintained a hero's status throughout the regime's latter
nationalist phase. In 1966,
Nicolae Ceaușescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He w ...
established an
Order of Tudor Vladimirescu, as Communist Romania's third most important distinction. During this interval, the revolt was reconstructed in film, with ''
Tudor''. Viewed at the time as a significant achievement in Romanian historical cinema, it was also the lifetime role for the lead,
Emanoil Petruț. Despite Oțetea's stated objections, screenwriter
Mihnea Gheorghiu Mihnea is a Romanian-language masculine given name that may refer to:
* Mihnea cel Rău
* Mihnea Turcitul
* Mihnea III
* Mihnea Chioveanu
* Mihnea Motoc
* Mihnea-Ion Năstase
*Mihnea Popa
Mihnea Popa (born 11 August 1973) is a Romanian-American m ...
downplayed all connections between Vladimirescu and the Eteria, and elevated his historical stature. The film provided a venue for criticism of Russia, but also depicted Vladimirescu as an early champion of
nationalization
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to priv ...
. During the 1970s, following a revival of historical fiction, the revolt was a subject matter for Paul A. Georgescu, with a critically acclaimed novel, also named ''Tudor''. Later film productions dealing with the events include the 1981
Ostern ''
Iancu Jianu, haiducul Iancu may refer to:
Surname
*Andrei Iancu (born 1968), American engineer and intellectual property attorney
*Aurel Iancu (born 1928), Romanian economist, member of the Romanian Academy
*Avram Iancu (1824–1872), Transylvanian Romanian revolutionar ...
'', which also modifies the historical narrative to endorse the regime's theses.
By the 1980s, the scholarly bibliography on the revolt of 1821 had become "enormous". Following the
anti-communist revolution of 1989, Vladimirescu was preserved as a political symbol by some of the nationalist groups, including the
Greater Romania Party
The Greater Romania Party ( ro, Partidul România Mare, PRM) is a Romanian nationalist political party. Founded in May 1991 by Eugen Barbu and Corneliu Vadim Tudor, it was led by the latter from that point until his death in September 2015. Th ...
. Others perceived his revolt as the symbol of an Oltenian specificity. On March 21, 2017, marking the 196th anniversary of Bucharest's taking by the Pandurs, the
Chamber of Deputies of Romania
); – Committee for Industries and Services ( ro, Comisia pentru industrii și servicii); – Committee for Transport and Infrastructure ( ro, Comisia pentru transporturi și infrastructură); – Committee for Agriculture, Forestry, Food Indu ...
passed a law to celebrate the occasion annually, as the
Oltenia Day
Oltenia Day ( ro, Ziua Olteniei) is a public holiday of Romania celebrated every 21 March that commemorates the entry into Bucharest on 21 March 1821 of the Romanian revolutionary Tudor Vladimirescu, who started the Wallachian uprising of 1821 ...
. It had been previously accepted by the
Senate of Romania
) is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 136 seats (before the 2016 Romanian legislative election the total number of elected representatives was 176), to which members are elected by direct popular vote using party-li ...
on November 1, 2016 and promulgated by the
President of Romania
The president of Romania ( ro, Președintele României) is the head of state of Romania. Following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, the president is directly elected by a two-round system and serves for five years. An indiv ...
Klaus Iohannis
Klaus Werner Iohannis (; ; also spelled Johannis; born 13 June 1959) is a Romanian politician, physicist and former teacher who has been serving as the president of Romania since 2014. He became leader of the National Liberal Party (Romania), Na ...
on April 13, 2017, making it official.
[''Ziua Olteniei'']
Agerpres
AGERPRES () is the national news agency of Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the ...
, March 21, 2020
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallachian Uprising of 1821
19th-century rebellions
Greek War of Independence
Conflicts in 1821
1821 in Romania
1821 in the Ottoman Empire
1820s in Wallachia
1820s in Bulgaria
19th century in Moldavia
Oltenia
Peasant revolts
Mutinies
Riots and civil disorder in Romania
Rebellions in Romania
Rebellions against the Ottoman Empire
Wars involving the Ottoman Empire
Wars involving the Habsburg Monarchy
Phanariotes
Greeks in Romania
Albanians in Romania
Bulgaria–Romania relations
Romania–Serbia relations
Serbian Revolution
History of Transylvania (1683–1848)
Zaporozhian Host
Revolution-based civil wars
Romanian nationalism
Persecution of Greeks in the Ottoman Empire
Anti-immigration politics in Europe