Russia on the Danube

Empire, Elites, and Reform in Moldavia and Wallachia, 1812-1834
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-963-386-382-4
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press

Buch, Englisch, 388 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 714 g

Reihe: Historical Studies in Eastern Europe and Eurasia - CEU Press

One of the goals of Russia's Eastern policy was to turn Moldavia and Wallachia, the two Romanian principalities north of the Danube, from Ottoman vassals into a controllable buffer zone and a springboard for future military operations against Constantinople. Russia on the Danube describes the divergent interests and uneasy cooperation between the Russian officials and the Moldavian and Wallachian nobility in a key period between 1812 and 1834. Victor Taki’s meticulous examination of the plans and memoranda composed by Russian administrators and the Romanian elite underlines the crucial consequences of this encounter. The Moldavian and Wallachian nobility used the Russian-Ottoman rivalry in order to preserve and expand their traditional autonomy. The comprehensive institutional reforms born out of their interaction with the tsar’s officials consolidated territorial statehood on the lower Danube, providing the building blocks of a nation state.

The main conclusion of the book is that although Russian policy was driven by self-interest, and despite the Russophobia among a great part of the Romanian intellectuals, this turbulent period significantly contributed to the emergence, several decades later, of modern Romania.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Taki, Victor

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments, Introduction, Chapter I. Early Encounters, Chapter II. Challenges of Empire-Building in a Revolutionary Age, Chapter III. The Uprisings of 1821 and Their Impact, Chapter IV. From Akkerman (1826) to Adrianople (1829, Chapter V. Organic Statutes and Russia's Eastern Policy, Chapter VI. A Well-Ordered Police State on the Danube, Chapter VII. Russian Policies in Moldavia and Wallachia After 1834, Annex 1: Boyar Ranks of Moldavia in 1829, Annex 2: Boyar Ranks of Wallachia in 1829, Glossary, Bibliography, Index

Über Autor(innen)

Victor Taki is Sessional lecturer at Concordia University of Edmonton. His first book Tsar and Sultan: Russian Encounters with the Ottoman Empire was published by IB Tauris. His research interests include Imperial Russia’s Balkan entanglements and the intellectual history of the eighteenth and the nineteenth century.