The French Revolution in Bucharest

The French Revolution was the most important process of the 18th century, leading to the most extensive transformation of European societies to date

România Internațional, 17.12.2018, 13:48

Nothing that had prior been fixed in European culture and civilisation remained untouched by the effects of 1789, from mentalities and social structures to utopian programmes and mobilisation for real political projects. From a geographical, mental, political and economic point of view, the Romanian principalities were in the Oriental space controlled by the Ottoman Empire. The 18th century is known in Romanian history books as the “Phanariote century”. “Phanariote” comes from the Phanar district in Constantinople inhabited by Greeks from among whom were recruited the future holders of the highest offices in the Romanian principalities, Moldavia, with its capital in Iasi, and Wallachia, with its capital in Bucharest. Towards the end of the 18th century, the modern ideas born in the West slowly began to make their way to the East, where they were adapted to the local aspirations. Although it was not connected to the West by social, economic, political and religious threads, the Romanian world resonated to what was taking place in France in cultural terms.

The historian Georgeta Filiti says culture was able to achieve in Bucharest what no other types of knowledge were able to: “The influence of the French Revolution was felt in Bucharest. It was a favourable climate and innovating ideas began to reach it. It must be said that the Phanariote rulers were educated people. When we can speak of someone who translated Moliere, who read Voltaire, who wrote a treaty against smoking, who had in his library manuscripts even the king of France wanted for himself, we can speak of a certain cultural climate. This person was Mavrocordat. A revolution, or its ideas, cannot happen in an opaque space where people are not receptive to it.”

The French Revolution in Bucharest was not by a long shot similar to what it really was. It may be described more likely as the unrest of the elites and was connected to a number of very special people.

Georgeta Filiti: “On the other hand, we must be aware that it all remained at the level of the elites, it was not a general phenomenon that permeated all social classes. What linked them was a very interesting figure of the Balkans called Rigas Velestinlis. Some say he was Aromanian as he came from Velestino, near Volos, which I visited and which is very similar to a Romanian village. The Greeks also claim him, and rightly so. But his whole life took place here in Wallachia, and his work is linked to the Romanian world.”

The expansion of the French modernity in Europe is a result of the revolutionary spirit. Republican France was effervescent and disseminated its humanist ideas everywhere. To the East, on the periphery of the Ottoman Empire, the French diplomats found an area ready to adopt their country’s ideals.

Georgeta Filiti: “The French influence came through different channels: the manifestos of the French revolutionaries, people who came from that area and diplomats. After the wars between the Russians, the Turks and the Austrians that had ravaged the Romanian principalities, the Austrians and the Russians opened consulates here. The French were also trying to have a diplomatic presence here. It happened that the French diplomats who worked in Bucharest were revolutionaries themselves. There’s effervescence in this sense. These people, such as Claude-Emile Gaudin and Carra Saint Cyr engaged with the boyar and merchant classes. French merchants such as Hortolan, who opened the first universal store in Bucharest, arrived here as early as 1798. The ideas of the French revolution expressed in the slogan liberty, equality and fraternity also took root here, raising hopes that what had happened in France could also happen here.”

18th century Romanians, although open to what was new, to the generous ideas and programs of the French Revolution, were nevertheless on Europe’s periphery and could not have the same aspirations as the citizens of the Hexagon.

However, the French revolutionary ideas were adjusted to the local conditions, as Georgeta Filiti highlighted: “Obviously, besides moments of enthusiasm and the toppling of the monarchy, there followed terror and other horrible things. In Wallachia, voices were being heard speaking of a revolt of Christian peoples against the Ottoman domination. Coming back to that very interesting character, Rigas, who was a princely secretary and a sort of bailiff for matters concerning the nobility, drew up a Constitution, one for all the peoples in the Balkan area, without mentioning the role of each party. The central point was salvation from the Ottoman rule. His life ended tragically, as he was surrendered by the Austrians to the Ottoman ruler in Belgrade, who strangled him in the Kalemegdan fortress in 1798. There were few conspirators and the Society of Friends was one of them. It was a beginning for Eteria, based in Odessa, which managed to actually do something in 1821. Those secret societies remained as they were, secret, but they created a state of mind that was also inspired by the French Revolution.”

The French Revolution in Bucharest was the expression of a renewal that Romanian society was invited to undergo in late 18th century. Its inarticulate response was yet to come, 50 years later, in 1848. (Translated by Cristina Mateescu and Mihaela Ignatescu)