Independenţa României: Documente, Vol. 1: Documente şi Presă Internă. by Ştefan Hurmuzache; Independenţa României: Documente, Vol. 2, Part 1: Corespondenţă Diplomatică Străină, 1853-1877. Mai. by Vasile Arimia; Independenţa României: Documente, Vol. 2, Part 2-a: Corespondenţă Diplomatică Străină, 1877 Mai-1878 Decembrie. by Vasile Arimia; Independenţa României: Documente, Vol. 3: Presă Străină. by Ştefan Hurmuzache Review by: Barbara Jelavich Slavic Review, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Jun., 1980), pp. 345-346 Published by: Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2496839 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 04:49 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. . Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Slavic Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.248.111 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 04:49:36 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/stable/2496839?origin=JSTOR-pdf http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp Reviews 345 Rumanian political and military leaders have also shown themselves to be past masters at employing a wide variety of more active tactics to broaden their field of permissible action. In addition to maintaining their rigid domestic policies, Ceausescu and his colleagues have very cleverly balanced unpalatable, but quiet, diplomatic moves against well-publicized tactical concessions; they have constructed a web of outside ties with the West and the Third World; and they have lost no opportunity to press their own legal interpretation of sovereignty. The workings of each of these defenses are carefully delineated by Braun in the context of the various crisis points in Ru- manian-Soviet relations since 1965. Throughout, the book delivers precisely what its title advertises, and it will undoubtedly prove to be a useful contribution to East European studies. Nonetheless, it would be incomplete to close a review of the work without a fleeting expression of regret that the author did not see fit to consider, even in the form of questions, certain of the wider implications of the policies he has dissected. To what end, after all, does the autonomous foreign policy of Rumania tend? Its leaders have chosen foreign independence and domestic toeing of the line, while Hungary, for example, has trodden the path of exterior conformity and internal efforts at economic and social reform. Are there not some measures by which to judge the relative costs and benefits of these choices for the society concerned ? VICTORIA BROWN University of Washington INDEPENDENTA ROMANIEI: DOCUMENTE, vol. 1: DOCUMENTE SI PRESA INTERNA. Stefan Hurmuzache, gen. ed. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste Romania, 1977. lii, 420 pp. Illus. Lei 33. INDEPENDENTA ROMANIEI: DOCUMENTE, vol. 2, part 1: CORESPON- DENTA DIPLOMATICA STRAINA, 1853-1877 MAI. Vasile' Arirnia, gen. ed. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste Romania, 1977. lxiv, 428 pp. Illus. Lei 34. INDEPENDENTA ROMANIEI: DOCUMENTE, vol. 2, part 2-a: CORESPON- DENTA DIPLOMATICA STRAINA, 1877 MAI-1878 DECEMBRIE. Vasile Arimia, gen. ed. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste Romania, 1977. liv, 381 pp. Illus. Lei 30. INDEPENDENTA ROMANIEI: DO(UMENTE, vol. 3: PRESA STRAINA. 5tefan Hurmuzache, gen. ed. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste Romania, 1977. liv, 338 pp. Illus. Lei 29. The centennial of the major event in modern Rumanian national history occurred in May 1977. On May 9/22, 1877, the Rumanian National Assembly declared the country independent from Ottoman suzerainty, an act which was formally approved by Prince Charles I on the following day. To commemorate this anniversary, a number of publica- tions, both popular and scholarly, have appeared in Rumania. The works are devoted either to the diplomatic crisis of 1875-78 or to the general question of the formation of the Rumanian state and the defense of its independence and sovereignty until the present, a theme with obvious culrrent implications. The most significant of these publications ale the four books under review. They are of importance not only for general European diplomatic history, but also for present-day Soviet-Rumanian rela- tions. The documents presented in this collection are a supplement to those printed in the nine-volume Documente privind istoria Romanniei: Rdzboiul pentru independenta, published in the mid-1950s under the editorship of Mihail Roller, a series which em- phasized internal developments and military affairs but which had certain deficiencies in its coverage of diplomatic events whch can be best understood within the context of the issues at stake in the period. This content downloaded from 91.229.248.111 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 04:49:36 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp 346 Slavic Review In 1877, Rumania wvas, for all practical purposes, an independent state. Neverthe- less, the few weak links which subordinated the government to Constantinople were intensely resented by the ruler and most politically conscious Rumanians. The inter- national situation in 1877, particularly the Russian preparations for war with the Otto- man Empire, offered an opportuinity to end this condition. There were, however, dan- gers in a policy of cooperation with Russia. Rumanian leaders feared that if Russia once again sent an army into the Balkans, it would take back the three districts of southern Bessarabia ceded to Moldavia in 1856 and would reestablish the political control which it had held over the principalities from 1828 to 1854. Nevertheless, in April 1877 the Rumanian government signed an agreement with Russia, which was designed to protect its territorial integrity and political independence, and eventually joined in the fighting. With the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish armistice in January 1878 and the Treaty of San Stefano in March of that year, the Rumanian statesmen's worst fears were confirmed: Russia reannexed the Bessarabian territory, and the Russian army encamped in Rumania appeared ready to take over the country. In the Treaty of Berlin of July 1878, Rumania did indeed lose the Bessarabian districts, but the apprehension over Russian political influence was allayed. Two major issues in Rumanian foreign relations were thus involved in this period: Bessarabia and Rumanian political independence from Russian domination. During the spring of 1878, a major crisis occurred in the relations of the two countries, with the question of Bessarabia at the center of the discussion. These problems are not re- flected in the Roller collection, which ends in March 1878, when the tension began to build. Bessarabia is rarely mentioned and then usually as a geographical expression. In contrast, the volumes under review, as well as other studies of this period which have appeared in connection with the centennial, discuss the question in a balanced man- ner. They are in no sense provocative or anti-Russian, but they reflect the events of the period. A third question, concerning the extent and value of Rumanian military participation in the war, is also a controversial issue. Whereas tsarist Russian and Soviet publications have consistently belittled the Rumanian role, Rumanian works have sought to make their efforts represent a true "war of national liberation." The volumes under review cover three separate themes. The first, entitled Docu- ments and Home Press, contains material written primarily by Rumanian officials and army officers about the war period. Some diplomatic correspondence is included, for example, letters exchanged between Prince Charles and Grand Duke Nicholas, who was in command of the Russian army, and between the Rumanian agent in Vienna, Ion Balaceanu, and the foreign minister, Mihail Kogalniceanu. The second volume, published in two parts, is devoted to diplomatic history and consists of documents from the major European archives, including West German, French, Italian, Serbian, Bel- gian, and American archives, but not Russian. The majority of these are reports of the agents assigned to Bucharest. The first part covers the years from 1853 to May 1877. The second deals with the period through December 1878 and records the Rumanian fear of a Russian takeover and the loss of southern Bessarabia. The final volume is a collection of extracts from the foreign press on the events. The accounts are uniformly laudatory of Rumanian military prowess and serve to bolster the Rumanian position on the significance of their military achievements. The introductory essays in the three sections are written by Traian Lungu and Dan Berindei. Each volume also contains a list and short summary in English of the contents of the documents, which are published in their original languages with Ru- manian translations inserted when necessary. The collection might well be read to- gether with another book, published at the same time, The Independence of Rumaania, edited by Professor Stefan Pascu and consisting of essays by thirty-six historians, a work which covers the formation of the modern Rumanian state and emphasizes the same issues of independence and national unity. BARBARA JELAVICH Indiana University This content downloaded from 91.229.248.111 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 04:49:36 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp Article Contents p. 345 p. 346 Issue Table of Contents Slavic Review, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Jun., 1980), pp. 195-368 Front Matter Soviet Penal Policy, 1917-1934: A Reinterpretation [pp. 195-217] Representation of Positions on the CPSU Politburo [pp. 218-238] Transience, Residential Persistence, and Mobility in Moscow and St. Petersburg, 1900-1914 [pp. 239-254] Kazem-Bek and the Young Russians' Revolution [pp. 255-268] Idealism and Decadence in Russian Symbolist Poetry [pp. 269-280] Notes and Comment A Note on the Text of the Igor Tale [pp. 281-285] Stalin and the Making of a New Elite: A Comment [pp. 286-289] Reply [pp. 290-291] Review Essay Structural History and Yugoslav Marxism [pp. 292-296] Reviews Review: untitled [pp. 297-301] Review: untitled [pp. 301-302] Review: untitled [pp. 302-303] Review: untitled [pp. 303-304] Review: untitled [pp. 304-305] Review: untitled [pp. 306-307] Review: untitled [pp. 307-308] Review: untitled [pp. 308-309] Review: untitled [pp. 309-311] Review: untitled [pp. 311-312] Review: untitled [pp. 312-313] Review: untitled [pp. 313-314] Review: untitled [pp. 314-315] Review: untitled [pp. 315-316] Review: untitled [pp. 316-317] Review: untitled [pp. 317] Review: untitled [pp. 318] Review: untitled [pp. 318-319] Review: untitled [pp. 319-320] Review: untitled [pp. 320-321] Review: untitled [pp. 321-322] Review: untitled [pp. 322-323] Review: untitled [pp. 323-324] Review: untitled [pp. 324-326] Review: untitled [pp. 326] Review: untitled [pp. 327] Review: untitled [pp. 327-328] Review: untitled [pp. 328-329] Review: untitled [pp. 329-330] Review: untitled [pp. 330-331] Review: untitled [pp. 331-332] Review: untitled [pp. 332] Review: untitled [pp. 333] Review: untitled [pp. 333-334] Review: untitled [pp. 335] Review: untitled [pp. 335-336] Review: untitled [pp. 336-337] Review: untitled [pp. 337] Review: untitled [pp. 338] Review: untitled [pp. 338-339] Review: untitled [pp. 339-340] Review: untitled [pp. 341-342] Review: untitled [pp. 342-343] Review: untitled [pp. 343-344] Review: untitled [pp. 344-345] Review: untitled [pp. 345-346] Review: untitled [pp. 347-348] Review: untitled [pp. 349] Review: untitled [pp. 349-350] Review: untitled [pp. 351] Review: untitled [pp. 351-352] Review: untitled [pp. 352-354] Review: untitled [pp. 354-355] Review: untitled [pp. 355] Review: untitled [pp. 356] Review: untitled [pp. 356-357] Review: untitled [pp. 357-358] Review: untitled [pp. 358-359] Review: untitled [pp. 359] Review: untitled [pp. 360] Symposia [pp. 360-361] News of the Profession [pp. 362-364] Books Received [pp. 365-368] Back Matter