The Annals of "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati. Fascicle XIX: History

Studying ottoman karamürsel vessels. The sources and the need for a different approach

Cristian Nicolae Apetrei — 2024-07-08

The amount of knowledge we have aboutcaramoussals can be regarded as insufficient, as long as there is no agreement among scholars even on the naval architecture of these sailcrafts. As Ottoman sources have failed to advance research in this field, more attention should be paid to sources from Christian Europe. This paper investigates the existing sources, both Ottoman and Christian, and how historians have approached them so far, in order to assess if there is more to learn from them. Firstly, the paper concludes that there are two assumptions responsible for the inability of scholars to reach consensus: 1) that the term karamürsel is the name given to a single type of vessel; 2) that the available sources reflect contradictory and mutually exclusive information. Secondly, it refutes these presumptions as unfounded, and instead postulates as a methodological premise the following certainty: the information discussed here is complementary in nature, since it complements each other. The main argument employed here is provided by a Florentine manuscript containing drawings of vessels calledcaramussali, which have different characteristics. It can be inferred from this that the term karamürsel was not applied to a single type of vessel, but was used to designate simultaneously different types of vessels. This new approach to sources opens up several research opportunities, which the author insists on at the end of his paper.

Starea materială a clerului de mir din Ţara Românească în secolele xv-xvii

Liviu Luca — 2024-07-08

Not all the secular clergies had the same material condition. There were significant differences between the clergies from the rural area and those from the urban area. The secular clergies didn’t receive any payment nor monthly remuneration, and they had to earn their living through their own work. Those from village earned their living by practicing agriculture, gardening, cropping grapevine and fruit trees, animal breeding, beekeeping and so on. The clergies who didn’t own land, or the parishes that didn’t have land properties, had to work on the boyar estates. The documents show us that many secular clergies managed to buy land properties. Those who managed to purchase land properties, were ministers in the villages of the wealthy peasants and those from urban area. The situation was not equal among the priests from the rural area because some of them could only buy fields, whereas the others could get estates. The clergies from the urban area bought land properties, especially in the suburban areas, then, they also had the chance to buy estates in the villages. The secular clergies couldn’t buy land properties, they had to learn and practice different crafts such as: building wooden churches, church painting, wood carving, calligraphy, bookbinding, printing and so on.

Beyond the Russian Empire’s cordon sanitaire. Economic activities in the Danube Delta (1830S–1850S)

Andrei Emilciuc — 2024-07-08

This paper examines how the sanitary separation of the St. George Island from the rest of the Russian Empire influenced the development of the town Sulina, the main settlement established on this island, and the creation of a distinct territorial identity. To this end, I have corroborated archival documentary sources from the archival fund ‘Chancellery of the Governor of Bessarabia’, held at the National Archive of the Republic of Moldova, with other types of narrative accounts, be they authored by travelers, sailors, merchants or soldiers who visited Sulina during that period. The paper will thus determine how the sanitary isolation of the St. George Island manifested itself, then it will analyse the lucrative opportunities that attracted new inhabitants to Sulina and examine how, despite harsh living conditions, Sulina came to be regarded as an ‘American Eden’.

Modificări legislative aduse de Pravilniceasca Condică şi Legiuirea Caragea în procedurile hotarnice din Ţara Românească

Ovidiu Dumitru — 2024-07-08

This paper describes the evolution of land demarcation procedures as provided in Pravilniceasca Condică and the Legiuirea Caragea, at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century in Wallachia. The text also touches on agrarian reforms and the activities of boyars involved in estate demarcation, as well as the rules and procedures regarding land demarcation towards the end of the Phanariot period. Agrarian reforms led to an intensification of land measurements and delimitations. The legal norms adopted in the field of delimitation documents gradually covered aspects related to the procedures of topographic surveys in the field of the measurements and the elaboration of delimitation registers.

Reprezentanţi consulari austrieci şi belgieni în oraşe din Ţara Românească (1849 – 1936)

Ionel Constantin Mitea — 2024-07-08

For the reference period, Austria and Belgium have registered an intense dynamic of consular representation in Bucharest and other important cities in the Romanian region, as an expression of a pronounced geopolitical and economic interest in the strategic opportunities offered by our space. The beginning of the sustained Austrian consular interest in the Romanian Country region is recorded in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest, starting in 1849, and a similar interest in Belgium is evident from 1870. The consular representation efforts complemented those of the foreign shipping companies that were active in Romanian ports from the third decade of the 19th century until the second decade of the 20th century. The two Western powers set up consular offices of various ranks (vice-consulates, consulates, consulates general and honorary consular offices) in Bucharest and five other important cities in the region of Wallachia (Brăila, Craiova, Giurgiu, Ploiești and Turnu-Severin). Three of the cities, which have benefited from Austrian and Belgian consular representation, are important ports on the Danube. In the Romanian cities, Austrian and Belgian consular representatives with a rich experience in the diplomatic field worked, some of them being members of the noble families of their countries of origin. We also note the policy of rotating consular representatives between the offices operating in Romanian cities, stating the principle of good knowledge of all their realities. In the geopolitical and military context of the outbreak of the First World War, Austria restricted its consular activity in the Romanian provincial towns, the Belgian consular presence being also recorded in the interwar period.

Biserica ortodoxă din Basarabia şi participarea acesteia la jubileele imperiale în perioada 1911-1913

Ion Gumnenîi — 2024-07-08

In our communication, we propose to reflect a less researched aspect - the one with reference to the involvement of the Orthodox Church in Bessarabia in that trend that engulfed the Russian Empire, that of jubilee mania, triggered at the beginning of the 20th century. Our attention was also drawn to the fact that the Church Institution, in fact, is involved in the organization of jubilees, which have a secular character, on the one hand, and on the other, the attempts of this institution to become, in fact, the main organizer of the events , even if these did not have a religious tone, obviously taking into account the fact that the Orthodox Church still represented the dominant religion and a first pillar in the triad of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, People through which the Russian Empire tried to represent itself. We will try to analyse a series of jubilees, on the indicated segment, and the role played by the Church, such as those related to 50 years since the abolition of Serbia, 100 years since the incorporation of Bessarabia into the Russian Empire, 100 years since the victory of the Russian armies over Napoleon's armies or the inauguration of the monument to Alexander I, shortly before the start of the First World War, obviously highlighting the 100-year anniversary of the incorporation of Bessarabia into the Russian Empire.

Spitalul din Târgu-Neamţ, de la înfiinţarea sa şi până în timpul Primului Război Mondial

Elena-Diana Spiridon — 2024-07-08

This article presents some aspects regarding the contribution of the monasteries from Neamț county to Romania’s involvement in the First World War. The historical evolution of Neamț Monastery’s hospital from Târgu Neamț and its contribution during the First World War represents a lesser-known page of history.

Operaţiuni militare române pentru controlul retragerii trupelor bolşevice spre Rusia (nov. 1917-mar. 1918)

Paul Aelenei — 2024-07-08

After the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian army on Romanian territory disintegrated and began its retreat home. A large part of the Russian soldiers, who in the meantime had become Bolsheviks, escaped from the control of their commanders, and, on their way to the Dniester, began to commit a series of crimes against the population and civil institutions, namely destruction, robbery, rape and even murders. Sometimes they attacked military depots or seized trains on which they boarded and headed for the border to Russia. Other times they entered into armed conflict with the Romanian troops who were trying to ensure the protection of the population and the guarding of strategic objectives. To put an end to this anarchic situation, the Romanian army took a series of measures that led to the neutralization of the Bolshevik groups and taking control of the disorganized, retreating troops.

The “Romanian operation” of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR in Odesa Oblast in 1937-1938: technology, target groups, scope

Oleh Bazhan — 2024-07-08

The article examines the repressive campaign of the Great Terror period in Odesa Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR that went down in history under the name of the “Romanian operation” of the NKVD. Based on the documents from the Branch State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine, the features and intensity of the terrorist actions in the south of Ukraine are highlighted, the technology of “extraction” of the non-national element from the Soviet society, and the nature of the accusations against citizens of foreign origin are analyzed.

Legaţia franceză din Bucureşti şi rezistenţa gaullistă

Cristina Preutu — 2024-07-08

The German occupation and the establishment of the Pétain regime were not well received by most of the French population. Many of the diplomats who officially worked for the Vichy regime supported the French resistance. The present study analyses, based on unpublished documents, the way in which the French diplomats from Bucharest collaborated with the resistance movement led by Charles de Gaulle.

Grupul de la Samarina: istoria unor patrioţi aromâni

Silviu B. Moldovan — 2024-07-08

During the Second World War, the leaders of the Aromanian population in the Balkans intensified their efforts to affirm their national identity and create an Aromanian state. After 1944, some of the Aromanian patriots took refuge in Romania and came to the attention of the new communist authorities. The study reconstructs, based on unpublished documents, the way in which the Romanian authorities pursued, arrested, investigated and sentenced these Aromanians whom the governments before 1944 supported.

Istorie şi ucronie

Ivan Ivlampie — 2024-07-08

The principle underlying the reconstruction of history "as things happened", dominant for centuries in historiography, derives its legitimacy from the need to clearly circumscribe the object of research, from the need to assume a deontological norm of the researcher regarding the respect of scientific objectivity and, last but not least, of the subordination of science History of some reasonable pragmatic functions: epistemological, explanatory; moral, shaping human behavior. Beyond this principle, History as a science knows slips, being ideologically subordinated to imperialist, nationalist, class interests. In recent historiography, a new principle "what would have happened if?" of counterfactual history. Analyzing the force vectors of this new history, we will seek to explore how the writing of history, according to the two historiographies, is reflected in the learning of history as a school discipline.

Reflecţii pe marginea cărţii lui Cyril Hovorun: Ortodoxii politice. Ereziile unei biserici aservite

George Enache — 2024-07-08

The study starts from Cyril Hovorun's book: Political Orthodoxies: The Unorthodoxies of the Church Coerced and analyzes several concepts present in the book: "Political Orthodoxies", "Unorthodoxies", "Heresies", "Church Coerced", "civil religion", "political religion", "ideology", "conservatism", "fundamentalism", etc.
Once these concepts are clarified, it is shown that Hovorun does not define some concepts well, in many situations it is confusing, and the work presents many shortcomings from the point of view of historical documentation. The situation is even more complicated in the case of the Romanian translation, which subtly tries to criticize the Orthodox Church from a Protestant perspective, by manipulating some concepts.
At the end, the study proposes a new grid for understanding the relations between Orthodoxy, ideology and political power in the contemporary era.

Melek Fetisleam, Mișcarea națională tătară din România în perioada interbelică, Editura C.N.S.A.S., București

Nicoleta-Oana Giucă — 2024-07-08

Concepută ca o teză de doctorat, lucrarea pe care o aducem în atenție reprezintă rezultatul a șapte ani de cercetare asiduă în arhive, pentru colectarea informațiilor primare, urmați de un proces laborios de analiză și sintetizare a acestora, apoi de redactare a unui text științific inedit. Interesul nostru pentru o astfel de cercetare este sporit de faptul că este un teren puțin cunoscut și de dorința de a înțelege rădăcinile, istoria și năzuințele poporului tătar, dar și importanța peninsulei Crimeea în contextul internațional prezent.