Russia on the Danube: Empire, Elites, and Reform in Moldavia and Wallachia, 1812–1834(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.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter I. Early Encounters Russian-Ottoman Confrontation and the Establishment of the Phanariote Regime The Peace of Kuchuk-Kainarji and Russian Protectorate Russian Occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1806–1812 Church Policies under Russian Occupation Chapter II. Challenges of Empire-Building in a Revolutionary Age The "Greek Project" of Ioannis Kapodistrias The Bessarabian Experiment of Alexander I Russia's Eastern Policy and Stroganov's Mission Kapodistrias, Alexander I, and the Greek Rebellion Chapter III. The Uprisings of 1821 and Their Impact 1821 and the Anti-Greek Sentiment in Moldavia and Wallachia Tensions Among the Boyars and Their Projects of Reform Moldavian Boyar Radicals and Conservatives The Convention of Akkerman Chapter IV. From Akkerman (1826) to Adrianople (1829) The Russian Empire and the Elites of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1826-28 The War of 1828–29 and the Russian Occupation of the Principalities The Genesis of the Reform Agenda Ministerial Instructions and the Formation of the Committees of Reform The Peace of Adrianople Chapter V. Organic Statutes and Russia's Eastern Policy Boyar Opposition to the Organic Statutes The Affair of Sion and Its Consequences The Adoption of the Organic Statutes by the Assemblies of Revision Kiselev's Vision of the Principalities and Russia's Eastern Policy Chapter VI. A Well-Ordered Police State on the Danube Plague Epidemics and the Creation of the Danubian Quarantine The Creation of Militia and Police Reform Fiscal Reform and Peasant Obligations Administrative and Judiciary Reform Foreign Subjects, Dedicated Monasteries, and Censorship Chapter VII. Russian Policies in Moldavia and Wallachia After 1834 Russia and the Problem of Unification of the Principalities Political Tensions in Moldavia and Wallachia in the Late 1830s A Cordon Sanitaire for the Empire? The Limits of Hegemony Conclusion Annex 1: Boyar Ranks of Moldavia in 1829 Annex 2: Boyar Ranks of Wallachia in 1829 Glossary Bibliography Index

About the Author :
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.

Review :
"Victor Takis gut strukturierte und detailreiche Monographie nimmt die russisch-imperiale Expansionspolitik entlang der Donau in den Fokus, um sich mit deren Zielen, Auswirkungen und letztendlich Grenzen auseinanderzusetzen. Es ist eine große Stärke dieses Buches, die ungleichen Beziehungen zwischen dem Russländischen Reich und den Donaufürstentümern als einen mehrschichtigen und wiederholten Transformationen unterliegenden Austausch darzustellen. Von der gescheiterten Pruth-Kampagne Peters I. bis zur ersten rumänischen Unabhängigkeit 1859 wandelte sich die Rolle des Zarenreiches vom Schützer der Orthodoxie zum Befürworter einer Reformagenda, die das russische Protektorat institutionell verankern sollte." "Russia on the Danube will open new horizons for the study of the Danubian principalities, Russian and Ottoman empires and the era of revolutions where transition from empire to nation-state took place. By going beyond nationalist tropes and perspectives that construct the Russian Empire as essentially expansionist and autocratic but also by highlighting the lack of communication, and perhaps lack of studies, among Ottomanist and Russianist historiography, Victor Taki made an invaluable contribution." http://www.sehepunkte.de/2022/09/36801.html "Recent literature shows that, after several decades of contemptuous neglect, diplomacy and the Eastern Question are back. Victor Taki represents an admirable contributor to this trend, just as the case of Moldavia and Wallachia make it difficult if not impossible to posit clear distinctions between Russia’s internal and foreign policy. Russia on the Danube nicely demonstrates that the empire’s history sometimes unfolded beyond the country’s formally established borders. We still have not yet fully grasped the implications of this fact." "The book represents the first comprehensive scientific analysis of the Russian Empire’s deliberate policy and mission in the vassal Ottoman principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Russia on the Danube makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the period and provides new insight into what happened during the period in Moldavia and Wallachia—this is an important publication that fills a gap. I highly recommend this interesting, well-deserved, and professionally and effectively well-written book to scholars." https://doi.org/10.5325/hiperboreea.10.1.0111