Russia on the Danube : empire, elites, and reform in Moldavia and Wallachia, 1812-1834 / Victor Taki

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 The First Russian Projects of Administrative Reform in the Principalities. Chapter II: Challenges of Empire-Building in a Post-Revolutionary Age The "Greek Project" of Ioannis Kapodistrias The Bessarabian Experiment of Alexander I Russia's Eastern Policy and Stroganov's Mission Russia's Involvement into Internal Administration of the Principalities Kapodistrias, Alexander I and the Greek Rebellion. Chapter III: The Uprisings of 1821 and Their Impact Eighteen Twenty-One and the Anti-Greek Sentiment in Moldavia and Wallachia Tensions Among the Boyars and Their Projects of Reform Moldavian Boyar Radicals and ConservativesThe Convention of Akkerman Chapter IV: From Akkerman to Adrianople Russian Empire and the Elites of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1826-1828 The War of 1828-1829 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 AdrianopleChapter V: Organic Statutes and Russia's Eastern PolicyBoyar Opposition to the Organic Statutes The Affiar of Sion and Its ConsequencesThe Adoption of the Organic Statutes by the Assemblies of Revision Kiselev's Vision of the Principalities and Russia's Eastern Policy Chapter VI: 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 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 Moldavia and Wallachia During the 1840s: A Sanitary Cordon for Empire? The Limits of Hegemony Conclusion Glossary Annex 1: Boyar Ranks of Moldavia in 1829 Annex 2: Boyar Ranks of Wallachia in 1829 Bibliography

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.