Russophilia and Madness in Nineteenth-Century Romania: The Case of Michel Anagnosti. (1st April 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Taki, Victor
• Is Part Of: Journal of Romanian studies. Volume 4:Number 1(2022)
• Page Start: 7
• Page End: 36
• Publication Date: 2022-04-01
• Subjects: Eastern Question -- Russian Empire -- Fortyeighters -- intellectual dissidence; Romania; History; Romanians; Civilization; 949.8
• DOI: 10.3828/romanian.2022.3
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2627-5325

Abstract

Abstract : This article examines the political writings of Michel Anagnosti, a French-educated Wallachian intellectual and publicist who came of age during the period of Russian hegemony in the Romanian principalities in the 1830s. Although Anagnosti was at first critical of Russian policies, the subsequent evolution of his political views placed him increasingly at odds with the "Fortyeighters"—the participants of the 1848 revolution in Wallachia that was suppressed by the Ottomans on Russia's insistence. Whereas modern Romanian nationalism crystallized during the 1840s and the 1850s under distinctly anti-Russian slogans, Anagnosti evolved in the opposite direction and became an exponent of pro-Russian attitudes in the Romanian press of the 1860s and 1870s. Anagnosti's unorthodox perspectives contrasted with the ideology of the "Fortyeighters" to the point of earning him the reputation of a madman and explaining his posthumous oblivion. An examination of Anagnosti's oeuvre not only sheds light on a neglected figure of the Romanian intellectual life of the nineteenth century, but also provides an insight into the process of constructing the political mainstream in an emergent nation-state by associating critical and unorthodox perspectives with unreason.