A Romanian hero
Posted December 29th, 2011 at 04:31 AM by Spatar
„I am nothing but a man taken by the people of the country, bitter and oppressed by the robbers to be their organizer in their endeavour of seeking justice.” (Tudor Vladimirescu)
When I was a 9 years old child the history of my people taught is school was a series of stories about great heroes. Some heroes and their stories were really cool (like the ones about Vlad the Impaler aka Dracula), other were plain dull (the ones about the underground Communists especially those happening before WW II).
I was interested in history and as far as I remember in those times I was not very fond of Tudor Vladimirescu. He was looking to me like a kind of a communist guy from the 19th century who led a peasant riot and that was it. I knew he was the guy on the 25 lei banknotes and that was it.
My next meeting with Tudor was when I was 15 years old and both the textbook and the teacher were offering more information. This time I was puzzled by the lack of “events” in the uprising. Basically it started on January 1821 and in May 1821 it was over. No battles at all, just an irresistible march towards Bucharest of his troops, and the occupation of the town in March and a two months rule. There were some scant mentions about the fact that he served in the Russian army between 1806 – 1812 war and the fact that the “Eterists” killed him. Who the hell were these people? I wondered myself. If they were Greeks, what were they doing in Romanian lands? If they were fighting the Turks, why did they murder Tudor? I was rather irritated by the fact that many things seemed to be hidden. A decent book on Romanian history seemed not to offer any more data
I start to understand things only years later when I had time for reading history again.
Some biographical data
He was born in Little Wallachia (region better known as Oltenia), around 1780 in a small noble family (barely distinguishable from the landed peasants) and, exceptionally (in those times) for a man not taking a Church career, he had a good education due to the fact that a landowner (boyar) noticed him. The same landowner would secure him the appointment as the head of local militia (vataf) in a mountainous district. During these years Tudor understood how to deal with both the boyars (the masters of the Wallachian principality) and with the peasants (the overwhelming majority of the population). He also accumulated considerable wealth. In 1806 at the beginning of the Russian – Turkish War Tudor, together with a large number of local soldiers (pandurs) joined the Russian Army. His service was compensated with the Order of Saint Vladimir 3rd class, the rank of lieutenant and the important status of Russian subject. This status gave him immunity of jurisdiction meaning that he could not be brought before a court in Wallachia or in the Ottoman Empire. In 1812 he returns in his native land and until 1821 is sitting and waiting for his time. The documents show that he wants the creation of a national army. Some sources claim he joined the secret society Philiki Eteria other that he had contacts with it, but there is definitely no document to prove either. What seem to be sure is that he was in close contact with the Romanian aristocracy also discontent with the general state of the country.
The general situation of Wallachia was dire to put it mildly. While autonomous in the Ottoman realm and governed by Christian rulers it was ruled by an oligarchy that ruthlessly exploited the peasants. The Princes, Orthodox Christians from Phanar (the Greek neighbourhood of Constantinople) were just thinking of extracting a maximum from the country before being removed by the Sultan.
Furthermore, the position between Russia, Austria and the Ottoman Empire assured that Wallachia (together with Moldova) would be if not a battlefield than at least collateral damage of these conflicts.
In 1821 the Phanariote lord (hospodar) of Wallachia dies. The local aristocracy forms a Governance Committee that assumes the interim leadership of the country; Tudor raises the peasants in his region and on 23 January launches his first Proclamation. Here Tudor speaks of the difficult situation of the country the greed of the leadership (including the Church leadership) and states for the first time in Romanian history the right to rebellion. The quasi biblical language and the force of expression assured him a place in the history of Romanian literature. Some stances of the Proclamation are still known by many Romanians. Tudor proves himself to be a man with political sense, by professing allegiance to the Sultan and by forbidding his followers to rob the private property of the citizens.
Meanwhile he writes a letter to the Sultan entitled “The requests of the Romanian people”. While the language is less poetic than the one of proclamation his content is strikingly modern. He asks for a meritocratic system of appointment of officials (in order to end the sale of the public offices), the creation of a national army paid by the state (as opposed to the system of mercenaries paid by the princes from the money extorted form the taxpayers) the reduction of the number of civil servants. Also, he asks for the reduction of taxes paid to the Church and for the limitation of the Phanariotes in administration and Church.
After establishing a base in his region he marches towards Bucharest. The Committee fears the movement of a largely peasant army well organized and under a competent military leadership. However Tudor continues his march and in the spring he enters Bucharest. In order to avoid battles with the Committee, Tudor negotiates his entry in the capital. He is greeted with enthusiasm and he is addressed as Lord Tudor. Together with the Committee he is governing Wallachia.
Meanwhile, the general situation was becoming more and more complicated. In February an irregular army led by Alexander Ypsilanti, former general in the Russian army and leader of the secret society Philiki Eteria, crosses from Russia to Moldova in order to start a general uprising of the people under the Ottoman domination. Ypsilanti was claiming that he has the support of Russia and he and his band were going to Greece in order to liberate it from the Ottomans. He had the support of the Phanariote lord of Moldova and definitely the deputy of Tudor, Dimitrie Macedonski was a member of the Eteria. The plan of Ypsilanti was to start a general uprising of the Christian populations in the Ottoman Empire that will determine a Russian intervention in their favour.
Ypsilanti marches towards the capital of Moldova, Iasi, he slaughters the Turks living there and continues his march towards Wallachia. This frightens the great boyars who take refuge in Russian and Austrian Empire and is too much for the Ottomans who see now two armies on their sphere of influence. Tudor took great pain to profess his loyalty towards the Sultan but he was still a Russian subject and Ypsilanti a former officer of the Russian army and was talking openly about overthrowing the Ottoman rule and the Russian support.
This was also considered as a challenge to the existing order by the third contender for influence in the area, Austria. In that year the he Laybach (Ljubljana today) Congress of the Holy Alliance was discussing the European situation. In this Congress the Czar Alexander formally condemns the two movements thus the Ottomans could suppress them without any fear of a new war with Russia (March 1821).
The Eterist army was in Wallachia. They could not hope to cross the Danube in the Ottoman Empire proper without Russian support and they could not retreat back to Russia.
With the Eterists now in Wallachia and with the great boyars either running or conspiring against him, Tudor has a hard time. Also, his tough stance on the discipline and the severe punishment of his people who are robbing the inhabitants of Bucharest begin to erode the support within his army. Many of his captains are conspiring with Ypsilanti against him.
When he hears about the Ottoman intervention in Walachia he decides to let Ypsilanti to rule part of the country and he is trying to retreat, with his army in Oltenia, where the local population stood by him, he had a series of strong points for resistance and he could count on the natural defenses of the region. However, Macedonski and the eterists kidnap him for trying to strike a deal with the Ottomans (never proved). He is secretly judged and executed in the end of May 1821. His burial place was never discovered. Allegedly his body was thrown into a fountain, but nothing is sure.
Without him, his army is slowly disintegrating. The Eterist army bravely fought the Ottoman Army in desperate battles in Wallachia (Dragasani) and Moldova, but was lacking any support from the Romanians and by the end of the year it was utterly defeated. Ypsilanti ran to Austria. He was imprisoned for some years until being released and dying in destitution in Vienna in 1828.
The Eterists and Ypsilanti while celebrated as Greek heroes were remembered by the Romanians with hatred and awe because of the senseless killing of Tudor and of the fact that they brought the Ottoman troops for five years on Romanian soil.
As for Tudor he may be considered as the man who brought the Principalities in the era of modernity. The first consequence was the removal of the hated Phanariote regime and the appointment of local lords to rule Walachia and Moldova. His action gave hope to the oppressed people of Wallachia, squeezed between the local aristocracy and the brutal foreign powers and established the idea that the people are entitled to revolt against oppressive rulers.
His tragic death deeply impressed the Romanians beyond Wallachia and in mid 19th century a folk poem “Tudor’s Dream” telling about the dream of Tudor being killed was recorded in Moldova. His action was also closely followed by the Romanians in the Austrian monarchy (a Romanian from Austria helped him with building fortifications in Bucharest).
His ideas will be taken over by a new generation of Romanian revolutionaries of similar middle class background in 1848 (one of the leaders of the revolution will be a soldier of his army, captain Magheru).
He started a process of national awakening that may be considered completed after 60 years from his death with the establishment of the Kingdom of Romania.
The only portrait we have was painted in 1873 by Theodor Aman. Aman himself was born in 1831 but the portrait is a reconstitution work being painted based on the testimonies of pandurs.
Unfortunately, after his death, starting with 1870’s (when his political program was being fulfilled and most of the contemporaries were passing away) almost every single Romanian party or political regime tried to exploit his figure trying to present him as a forerunner of their own. He even had the dubious distinction of being honoured in the same time (1930’s) by both Communist and the extreme right. All these created a kind of Tudor fatigue and after 1990 he is really fondly remembered especially in his own native region.
More about this however, in another post.
When I was a 9 years old child the history of my people taught is school was a series of stories about great heroes. Some heroes and their stories were really cool (like the ones about Vlad the Impaler aka Dracula), other were plain dull (the ones about the underground Communists especially those happening before WW II).
I was interested in history and as far as I remember in those times I was not very fond of Tudor Vladimirescu. He was looking to me like a kind of a communist guy from the 19th century who led a peasant riot and that was it. I knew he was the guy on the 25 lei banknotes and that was it.
My next meeting with Tudor was when I was 15 years old and both the textbook and the teacher were offering more information. This time I was puzzled by the lack of “events” in the uprising. Basically it started on January 1821 and in May 1821 it was over. No battles at all, just an irresistible march towards Bucharest of his troops, and the occupation of the town in March and a two months rule. There were some scant mentions about the fact that he served in the Russian army between 1806 – 1812 war and the fact that the “Eterists” killed him. Who the hell were these people? I wondered myself. If they were Greeks, what were they doing in Romanian lands? If they were fighting the Turks, why did they murder Tudor? I was rather irritated by the fact that many things seemed to be hidden. A decent book on Romanian history seemed not to offer any more data
I start to understand things only years later when I had time for reading history again.
Some biographical data
He was born in Little Wallachia (region better known as Oltenia), around 1780 in a small noble family (barely distinguishable from the landed peasants) and, exceptionally (in those times) for a man not taking a Church career, he had a good education due to the fact that a landowner (boyar) noticed him. The same landowner would secure him the appointment as the head of local militia (vataf) in a mountainous district. During these years Tudor understood how to deal with both the boyars (the masters of the Wallachian principality) and with the peasants (the overwhelming majority of the population). He also accumulated considerable wealth. In 1806 at the beginning of the Russian – Turkish War Tudor, together with a large number of local soldiers (pandurs) joined the Russian Army. His service was compensated with the Order of Saint Vladimir 3rd class, the rank of lieutenant and the important status of Russian subject. This status gave him immunity of jurisdiction meaning that he could not be brought before a court in Wallachia or in the Ottoman Empire. In 1812 he returns in his native land and until 1821 is sitting and waiting for his time. The documents show that he wants the creation of a national army. Some sources claim he joined the secret society Philiki Eteria other that he had contacts with it, but there is definitely no document to prove either. What seem to be sure is that he was in close contact with the Romanian aristocracy also discontent with the general state of the country.
The general situation of Wallachia was dire to put it mildly. While autonomous in the Ottoman realm and governed by Christian rulers it was ruled by an oligarchy that ruthlessly exploited the peasants. The Princes, Orthodox Christians from Phanar (the Greek neighbourhood of Constantinople) were just thinking of extracting a maximum from the country before being removed by the Sultan.
Furthermore, the position between Russia, Austria and the Ottoman Empire assured that Wallachia (together with Moldova) would be if not a battlefield than at least collateral damage of these conflicts.
In 1821 the Phanariote lord (hospodar) of Wallachia dies. The local aristocracy forms a Governance Committee that assumes the interim leadership of the country; Tudor raises the peasants in his region and on 23 January launches his first Proclamation. Here Tudor speaks of the difficult situation of the country the greed of the leadership (including the Church leadership) and states for the first time in Romanian history the right to rebellion. The quasi biblical language and the force of expression assured him a place in the history of Romanian literature. Some stances of the Proclamation are still known by many Romanians. Tudor proves himself to be a man with political sense, by professing allegiance to the Sultan and by forbidding his followers to rob the private property of the citizens.
Meanwhile he writes a letter to the Sultan entitled “The requests of the Romanian people”. While the language is less poetic than the one of proclamation his content is strikingly modern. He asks for a meritocratic system of appointment of officials (in order to end the sale of the public offices), the creation of a national army paid by the state (as opposed to the system of mercenaries paid by the princes from the money extorted form the taxpayers) the reduction of the number of civil servants. Also, he asks for the reduction of taxes paid to the Church and for the limitation of the Phanariotes in administration and Church.
After establishing a base in his region he marches towards Bucharest. The Committee fears the movement of a largely peasant army well organized and under a competent military leadership. However Tudor continues his march and in the spring he enters Bucharest. In order to avoid battles with the Committee, Tudor negotiates his entry in the capital. He is greeted with enthusiasm and he is addressed as Lord Tudor. Together with the Committee he is governing Wallachia.
Meanwhile, the general situation was becoming more and more complicated. In February an irregular army led by Alexander Ypsilanti, former general in the Russian army and leader of the secret society Philiki Eteria, crosses from Russia to Moldova in order to start a general uprising of the people under the Ottoman domination. Ypsilanti was claiming that he has the support of Russia and he and his band were going to Greece in order to liberate it from the Ottomans. He had the support of the Phanariote lord of Moldova and definitely the deputy of Tudor, Dimitrie Macedonski was a member of the Eteria. The plan of Ypsilanti was to start a general uprising of the Christian populations in the Ottoman Empire that will determine a Russian intervention in their favour.
Ypsilanti marches towards the capital of Moldova, Iasi, he slaughters the Turks living there and continues his march towards Wallachia. This frightens the great boyars who take refuge in Russian and Austrian Empire and is too much for the Ottomans who see now two armies on their sphere of influence. Tudor took great pain to profess his loyalty towards the Sultan but he was still a Russian subject and Ypsilanti a former officer of the Russian army and was talking openly about overthrowing the Ottoman rule and the Russian support.
This was also considered as a challenge to the existing order by the third contender for influence in the area, Austria. In that year the he Laybach (Ljubljana today) Congress of the Holy Alliance was discussing the European situation. In this Congress the Czar Alexander formally condemns the two movements thus the Ottomans could suppress them without any fear of a new war with Russia (March 1821).
The Eterist army was in Wallachia. They could not hope to cross the Danube in the Ottoman Empire proper without Russian support and they could not retreat back to Russia.
With the Eterists now in Wallachia and with the great boyars either running or conspiring against him, Tudor has a hard time. Also, his tough stance on the discipline and the severe punishment of his people who are robbing the inhabitants of Bucharest begin to erode the support within his army. Many of his captains are conspiring with Ypsilanti against him.
When he hears about the Ottoman intervention in Walachia he decides to let Ypsilanti to rule part of the country and he is trying to retreat, with his army in Oltenia, where the local population stood by him, he had a series of strong points for resistance and he could count on the natural defenses of the region. However, Macedonski and the eterists kidnap him for trying to strike a deal with the Ottomans (never proved). He is secretly judged and executed in the end of May 1821. His burial place was never discovered. Allegedly his body was thrown into a fountain, but nothing is sure.
Without him, his army is slowly disintegrating. The Eterist army bravely fought the Ottoman Army in desperate battles in Wallachia (Dragasani) and Moldova, but was lacking any support from the Romanians and by the end of the year it was utterly defeated. Ypsilanti ran to Austria. He was imprisoned for some years until being released and dying in destitution in Vienna in 1828.
The Eterists and Ypsilanti while celebrated as Greek heroes were remembered by the Romanians with hatred and awe because of the senseless killing of Tudor and of the fact that they brought the Ottoman troops for five years on Romanian soil.
As for Tudor he may be considered as the man who brought the Principalities in the era of modernity. The first consequence was the removal of the hated Phanariote regime and the appointment of local lords to rule Walachia and Moldova. His action gave hope to the oppressed people of Wallachia, squeezed between the local aristocracy and the brutal foreign powers and established the idea that the people are entitled to revolt against oppressive rulers.
His tragic death deeply impressed the Romanians beyond Wallachia and in mid 19th century a folk poem “Tudor’s Dream” telling about the dream of Tudor being killed was recorded in Moldova. His action was also closely followed by the Romanians in the Austrian monarchy (a Romanian from Austria helped him with building fortifications in Bucharest).
His ideas will be taken over by a new generation of Romanian revolutionaries of similar middle class background in 1848 (one of the leaders of the revolution will be a soldier of his army, captain Magheru).
He started a process of national awakening that may be considered completed after 60 years from his death with the establishment of the Kingdom of Romania.
The only portrait we have was painted in 1873 by Theodor Aman. Aman himself was born in 1831 but the portrait is a reconstitution work being painted based on the testimonies of pandurs.
Unfortunately, after his death, starting with 1870’s (when his political program was being fulfilled and most of the contemporaries were passing away) almost every single Romanian party or political regime tried to exploit his figure trying to present him as a forerunner of their own. He even had the dubious distinction of being honoured in the same time (1930’s) by both Communist and the extreme right. All these created a kind of Tudor fatigue and after 1990 he is really fondly remembered especially in his own native region.
More about this however, in another post.
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