Historical Evolution of Romania

The Middle Ages

Neacu's letter is the oldest surviving document written in Romanian.
Until the 14th century, small states (Romanian: voievodate) were spread across t
he territory of Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldova. The medieval principalities
Wallachia and Moldavia arose around that time in the area on the southern and ea
stern sides of the Carpathian Mountains.
Wallachia and Moldavia were both situated on important commercial routes often c
rossed by Polish, Saxon, Greek, Armenian, Genovese and Venetian merchants, conne
cting them well to the evolving culture of medieval Europe. Grigore Ureche's chr
onicle, Letopiseul ri Moldovei (The Chronicles of the land of Moldavia), covering th
e period from 1359 to 1594, is a very important source of information about life
, events and personalities in Moldavia. It is among the first non-religious Roma
nian literary texts; due to its size and the information that it contains it is,
probably, the most important Romanian document from the 17th century.
The first printed book, a prayer book in Slavonic, was produced in Wallachia in
1508 and the first book in Romanian, a catechism, was printed in Transylvania, i
n 1544.
At the end of the 17th and the beginning of 18th century, European humanism infl
uenced the works of Miron Costin and Ion Neculce, the Moldavian chroniclers who
continued Ureche's work. Constantin Brncoveanu, prince of Wallachia, was a great
patron of the arts and was a local Renaissance figure. During erban Cantacuzino's
reign the monks at the monastery of Snagov, near Bucharest published in 1688 th
e first translated and printed Romanian Bible (Biblia de la Bucureti - The Buchar
est Bible). The first successful attempts at written Romanian-language poetry we
re made in 1673 when Dosoftei, a Moldavian metropolitan in Iai, published a Roman
ian metrical psalter.
Dimitrie Cantemir, a Moldavian prince, was an important personality of the medie
val period in Moldavia. His interests included philosophy, history, music, lingu
istics, ethnography and geography, and the most important works containing infor
mation about the Romanian regions were Descriptio Moldaviae published in 1769 an
d Hronicul vechimii a romano-moldo-valahilor (roughly,Chronicle of the durabilit
y of Romans-Moldavians-Wallachians), the first critical history of Romania. His
works were also known in western Europe, as he authored writings in Latin: Descr
iptio Moldaviae (commissioned by the Academy of Berlin, the member of which he b
ecame in 1714) and Incrementa atque decrementa aulae othomanicae, which was prin
ted in English in 1734-1735 (second edition in 1756), in French (1743) and Germa
n (1745); the latter was a major reference work in European science and culture
until the 19th century.
Classical age[edit]
Tudor Vladimirescu, leader of the Wallachian uprising of 1821
Adolphe Billecoq, French consul in Bucharest, smoking a Narghile pipe
In Transylvania, although they formed the majority of the population, Romanians
were merely seen as a "tolerated nation" by the Austrian leadership of the provi
nce, and were not proportionally represented in political life and the Transylva
nian Diet. At the end of the 18th century an emancipation movement known as the
Transylvanian School (coala Ardelean) formed, which tried to emphasize that the Ro
manian people were of Roman origin, and also adopted the modern Latin-based Roma
nian alphabet (which eventually supplanted an earlier Cyrillic script). It also
accepted the leadership of the pope over the Romanian church of Transylvania, th
us forming the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church. In 1791, they issued a petition t
o Emperor Leopold II of Austria, named Supplex Libellus Valachorum based on the
French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, demanding equal poli
tical rights with the other ethnicities for the Romanians in Transylvania. This
movement, however leaned more towards westernization in general, when in fact th

e origin of the Romanian people is not only from the peoples of the former Roman
Empire, but also from the ancient Dacians, predating the arrival of the Romans,
not to mention that from around the 1600s to the 1800s Romanian culture was hea
vily influenced by Eastern influences as emphasized through the Ottomans, and th
e Phanariotes.
The end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century was marked in
Wallachia and Moldavia by the reigns of Phanariote Princes; thus the two princip
alities were heavily influenced by the Greek world. Greek schools appeared in th
e principalities and in 1818 the first Romanian School was founded in Bucharest
by Gheorghe Lazr and Ion Heliade Rdulescu. Anton Pann was a successful novelist, I
enchi Vcrescu wrote the first Romanian grammar and his nephew Iancu Vcrescu is conside
ed to be the first important Romanian poet. In 1821 an uprising in Wallachia (a
region of Romania) took place against Ottoman rule. This uprising was led by the
Romanian revolutionary and militia leader Tudor Vladimirescu.
The revolutionary year 1848 had its echoes in the Romanian principalities and in
Transylvania, and a new elite from the middle of the 19th century emerged from
the revolutions: Mihail Koglniceanu (writer, politician and the first prime minis
ter of Romania), Vasile Alecsandri (politician, playwright and poet), Andrei Mur
eanu (publicist and the writer of the current Romanian National Anthem) and Nicol
ae Blcescu (historian, writer and revolutionary).
Mihai Eminescu, national poet of Romania andMoldova
The union between Wallachia and Moldavia in 1859 brought a growing consolidation
of Romanian life and culture. Universities were opened in Iai and in Bucharestan
d the number of new cultural establishments grew significantly. The new prince f
rom 1866 and then King of Romania, Carol I was a devoted king, and he and his wi
fe Elisabeth were among the main patrons of arts. Of great impact in Romanian li
terature was the literary circle Junimea, founded by a group of people around th
e literary critic Titu Maiorescu in 1863. It published its cultural journal Conv
orbiri Literare where, among others, Mihai Eminescu, Romania's greatest poet, Io
n Creang, a storyteller of genius, and Ion Luca Caragiale, novelist and the Roman
ia's greatest playwright published most of their works. During the same period,N
icolae Grigorescu and tefan Luchian founded modern Romanian painting; composer Ci
prian Porumbescu was also from this time.
In Transylvania, the emancipation movement became better organised and in 1861 a
n important cultural organisation ASTRA (The Transylvanian Association for Roman
ian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People) was founded in Sibiu unde
r the close supervision of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Andrei aguna. It he
lped publish a great number of Romanian language books and newspapers, and betwe
en 1898 and 1904 it published a Romanian Encyclopedia. Among the greatest person
alities from this period are: the novelist and publicist Ioan Slavici, the prose
writer Panait Istrati, the poet and writer Barbu tefnescu Delavrancea, the poet a
nd publicist George Cobuc, the poet tefan Octavian Iosif, the historian and founde
r of Romanian press in Transylvania George Bariiu andBadea Cran, a simple peasant s
hepherd from Southern Transylvania who, through his actions became a symbol of t
he emancipation movement.
Golden age[edit]
The first half of the 20th century is regarded by many as the golden age of Roma
nian culture and it is the period when it reached its main level of internationa
l affirmation and a strong connection to the European cultural trends. The most
important artist who had a great influence on the world culture was the sculptor
Constantin Brncui (18761957), a central figure of the modern movement and a pionee
r of abstraction, an innovator of world sculpture by immersion in the primordial
sources of folk creation.
The relationship between traditional and Western European trends was a subject o
f heated polemics and outstanding personalities sustained the debates. The playw
right, expressionist poet and philosopher Lucian Blaga can be cited as a member
of the traditionalist group and the literary critic founder of the literary circ
le and cultural journal Sburtorul, Eugen Lovinescu, represents the so-called West

ernizing group, which sought to bring Romanian culture closer to Western Europea
n culture. Also, George Clinescu was a more complex writer who, among different l
iterary creations, produced the monumental "History of the Romanian literature,
from its origins till present day".
Brtianu and Magheru boulevards, Bucharest, late 1930s
The beginning of the 20th century was also a prolific period for Romanian prose,
with personalities such as the novelist Liviu Rebreanu, who described the strug
gles in the traditional society and the horrors of war, Mihail Sadoveanu, a writ
er of novels of epic proportions with inspiration from the medieval history of M
oldavia, andCamil Petrescu, a more modern writer distinguishing himself through
his analytical prose writing. In dramaturgy, Mihail Sebastian was an influential
writer and as the number of theaters grew also did the number of actors, Lucia
Sturdza Bulandra being an actress representative of this period.
Alongside the prominent poet George Toprceanu, a poet of an equal importance was
Tudor Arghezi who was the first to revolutionize the poetry in the last 50 years
. One should not neglect the poems of George Bacovia a symbolist poet of neurosi
s and despair and those of Ion Barbu a brilliant mathematician who wrote a serie
s of very successful cryptic poems. Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco, founders of
the Dadaist movement, were also of Romanian origin.
Also during the golden age came the epoch of Romanian philosophy with such figur
es as Mircea Vulcnescu, Dimitrie Gusti, Alexandru Dragomir, and Vasile Conta. The
period was dominated by the overwhelming personality of the historian and polit
ician Nicolae Iorga who, during his lifetime published over 1,250 books and wrot
e more than 25,000 articles. In music, the composers George Enescu and Constanti
n Dimitrescu and the pianist Dinu Lipatti became world famous. The number of imp
ortant Romanian painters also grew, and the most significant ones were: Nicolae
Tonitza, Camil Ressu, Francisc irato, Ignat Bednarik, Lucian Grigorescu and Theod
or Pallady. In medicine a great contribution to human society was the discovery
of insulin by the Romanian scientist Nicolae Paulescu. Gheorghe Marinescu was an
important neurologist and Victor Babe was one of the earliest bacteriologists. I
n mathematics Gheorghe ieica was one of Romania's greatest mathematicians, and als
o an important personality was the mathematician/poet Dan Barbilian.
Post-war period[edit]
In Romania, the so-called communist regime imposed heavy censorship on almost al
l elements of life and they used the cultural world as a means to better control
the population. The freedom of expression was constantly restricted in various
ways: the Sovietization period was an attempt at building up a new cultural iden
tity on the basis of socialist realism and lending legitimacy to the new order b
y rejecting traditional values. Two currents appeared: one that glorified the re
gime and another that tried to avoid censorship. The first is probably of no las
ting cultural value, but the second managed to create valuable works, successful
ly avoiding censorship and being very well received by the general public. From
this period the most outstanding personalities are those of: the writer Marin Pr
eda, the poets Nichita Stnescu and Marin Sorescu, and the literary critics Nicola
e Manolescu and Eugen Simion. Most dissidents who chose not to emigrate lived a
life closely watched by the regime, either in "house arrest" or in "forced domic
ile"; some chose to retreat to remote monasteries. Most of their work was publis
hed after the 1989 Revolution. Among the most notable examples are the philosoph
ers Constantin Noica, Petre uea and Nicolae Steinhardt.
There was a chasm between the official, communist culture and genuine culture. O
n the one hand, against the authorities intentions, the outstanding works were p
erceived as a realm of moral truths and the significant representatives of genui
ne cultural achievement were held in very high esteem by the public opinion. On
the other hand, the slogans disseminated nationwide through the forms of officia
l culture helped spread simplistic views, which were relatively successful among
some ranks of the population. The tension between these two directions can stil
l be perceived at the level of society as a whole.