Russia and the Rumanian national cause, 1858-1859 (Indiana University publications. Slavic and...

book: Russia and the Rumanian national cause, 1858-1859 (Indiana University publications. Slavic and East European ... | Barbara Jelavich

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Russia and the Rum...

	Russia and the Rumanian national cause, 1858-1859 (Indiana University publications. Slavic and East European ... Barbara Jelavich, 1959 - 169 pages average customer review:based on 1 review
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interesting, but for the specialist only

This short and well-written study uses Russian archives to follow the course of Russian foreign policy towards the Romanian Principalities in a single year: 1859, the year of the "double election" of Alexander Cuza as hospodar of both Wallachia and Moldavia, the first step toward Romanian national union. The interests of Russian foreign minister Gorchakov and envoy Giers in the fate of a large territory adjacent to Russia were complicated and in the end overwhelmed by two other Russian interests: the need to placate France in the hostile, post-Crimean world, and the need to stand tall on behalf of Orthodoxy, even if that meant antagonizing the Romanians. This second factor was behind the dispute over the "Dedicated Monastaries", which controlled fully one quarter of the land of Wallachia and one third of Moldavia, but which paid no taxes, were under no Romanian state control, and sent their revenues to the foreign "holy places" to which they were "dedicated". Jelavich tells her story well, letting the documents speak for themselves and providing useful discussion and interpretation. Interested readers will want to consult two other useful sources on Romanian developments in the 19th century: Radu Florescu's "The Struggle Against Russia in the Romanian Principalities, 1821-1854," and Paul Michelson's "Romanian Politics 1859-1871: From Prince Cuza to Prince Carol." Some of the emotion behind the Russian national view is expressed in Dostoevsky's fascinating "Writer's Diary."

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