The Organic Regulations and the Revolution of 1848

After the Russo-Turkish war of 1828–1829 and the Treaty of Adrianople, the Romanian Principalities were occupied by the Russian army, led by General Pavel Kiselyov, who was appointed president of the Divans. In this period the Organic Regulations were drawn up, put into effect in Wallachia in 1831 and in Moldavia in 1832. They served as the first modern constitutions of the Principalities, although they kept the privileges of the boyars. They established the separation of powers in the state, princes appointed for life and general assemblies made up of boyars, which prepared the way for a modern political life.

The Regulations also brought important reforms: the reorganization of the national army, the creation of a modern administration, the abolition of internal customs duties, and the development of trade and schools. The State Archives were created and the postal system was improved. The capitals were modernized, with streets, lighting and a theatre. Nevertheless, the peasants’ obligations to the boyars increased, because the Regulations legalized the corvée and compulsory labour, while the privileges of the great boyars were maintained. Social discontent continued, and young people educated abroad began to demand deeper changes.

A new generation of intellectuals, trained in Paris, brought liberal and national ideas: Nicolae Bălcescu, Ion Brătianu, C. A. Rosetti, Mihail Kogălniceanu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Vasile Alecsandri, Avram Iancu and Simion Bărnuțiu. They founded secret societies, such as the “Brotherhood” (1843), and prepared the revolution. Their ideas were liberty, equality, peasant landownership and national unity. Across Europe, 1848 was a year of revolution, and the Romanians took part in this wave, in each of the three provinces, with similar programmes.

In Wallachia the revolution broke out on 9/21 June 1848 at Islaz, in Teleorman, where Ion Heliade Rădulescu read the Proclamation of Islaz, a programme in 22 points: administrative independence, freedom of the press, equality of rights, land grants to the peasants, abolition of the corvée and a national guard. A provisional government was formed, with Heliade, Bălcescu, Rosetti and Brătianu. The Ottoman army entered Bucharest on 13 September, after the fighting on Spirii Hill, where the firefighters resisted heroically. The revolution was defeated, and its leaders took the road of exile.

In Moldavia the movement was quickly suppressed by Prince Mihail Sturdza, but Kogălniceanu formulated the “Demands of the National Party in Moldavia”. In Transylvania there was the great Assembly of Blaj, on the “Field of Liberty”, on 3/15 May 1848, attended by more than 40,000 Romanians. Simion Bărnuțiu delivered a memorable speech, and the assembly rejected the union of Transylvania with Hungary. Avram Iancu led the struggle of the Moți of the Apuseni Mountains. Although the revolutions were defeated, they left a legacy of national liberty and unity, which would be realized in the decades that followed.