DIPLOMATIC AND MILITARY AGENTS OF THE POLISH EMIGRATION IN THE ROMANIAN PRINCIPALITIES (1833–1849)

Abstract

Before the 1848–1849 revolution, the Romanian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, under Turkish suzerainty and Russian protectorate, hosted a significant number of Poles belonging to both factions of the Polish Great Emigration, Adam Czartoryski’s circle and the democrats. The names and activity of the Poles emigrated in the Romanian Lands during the Peoples’ Spring are less known than those of the Polish Great Emigration in France and England. The study brings to light the diplomatic involvement (1833–1849) of leading characters among the Polish monarchists sent by Czartoryski and Michał Czajkowski in the Romanian national movement promoted by Ion Câmpineanu (1838), as well as their bounds and military support offered to Nicolae Bălcescu and other revolutionaries from Wallachia (1848). Special attention is paid to the activity unfolded by Polish democrats in Moldavia, in order to prepare and trigger an uprising in neighbouring Galicia (1846, 1848). Led by Faustyn Filanowicz, Teofil Wiśniowski, Ioan Loga, the democrats’ main accomplishment was the establishment of the Polish South Legion (1842), with operational basis in Grozeşti (Oituz) and military deployment in southern Moldavia and north-eastern Wallachia (1848). The study case of the Polish emigration in the Romanian Principalities between 1833–1849 reveals useful conclusions regarding the organization of the universal revolution, a phenomenon of world interest for nineteenth century history.

Keywords

• polish great emigration, polish diplomatic and military agents, romanian principalities of wallachia and moldavia, revolutions of 1830–1831, 1846, 1848–1849