1.
Romanian Television
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Televiziunea Română, more commonly referred to as TVR, is the short name for Societatea Românǎ de Televiziune, or SRTV—Romanian public television. It operates five channels, TVR1, TVR2, TVR3, TVRi and TVR HD, along with six regional studios in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Timișoara, Craiova, of the regional studios of TVR only TVR Cluj broadcasts independently all over Transylvania. The other broadcast usually at the time on TVR2 and sometimes on TVR1. TVR1 has a national coverage of 99. 8% and TVR2 has 91% coverage—all of the other channels. Even though it not have the largest audience, it offers a wider variety of services, including webcasts. TVR is often slammed for being politicised and for being based on a hybrid financing system, drawing from the budget, a special TV tax. Civil society pressures to achieve depoliticisation of TVR have not yet been fruitful, TVR was established in 1956, in Bucharest and had its first broadcast on 31 December from a little building on Molière Street no.2. TVR moved in 1969 to a new building, the specially built television center on Dorobanților Avenue, a second channel, TVR2, was created in 1968. From 1966 to 1980, TVR had an open program policy, many films, serials, cartoons and other programs from the US and Western Europe were broadcast on the two main channels. In 1983, TVR introduced color television, although the rest of the Eastern Bloc countries adopted the Soviet-backed SECAM system, TVR chose to implement the PAL system. During the Revolution of December 1989, TVR was an important focal point of the events, rebels occupied the TVR building, in the afternoon of 22 December and announced that the Ceaușescus had fled. TVR changed its name to Televiziunea Română Liberă, Free Romanian Television, on 17 February 1990, TVR2 resumed broadcasting and TVRL became TVR1. But TVR would remain an instrument in the hands of the newly created National Salvation Front. FSN used TVRL, by far the most widely penetrating information source at that time in Romania, to protesters who were demanding a Communist-free government. This culminated with the June 1990 riots in central Bucharest, crushed by the miners called in by president Ion Iliescu, after the riots ended, Iliescu was shown on TV congratulating the miners for restoring law and order. A little while later, following protests from civil society, TVRL abandoned the L, after 1990, lacking any strategy, TVR fell into a deep crisis of identity. TVR changed its identity several times without any particular reason, on 1 January 1993, TVR, as a part of Radioteleviziunea Româna, was admitted as a full active member of the European Broadcasting Union. In 1995, TVRi was launched on 1 December, Great Union Day, in 1998, TVR International was renamed TV Romania International, with a completely different identity
2.
Voting
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Voting is a method for a group such as a meeting or an electorate to make a decision or express an opinion, usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holders of high office by voting, residents of a place represented by an elected official are called constituents, and those constituents who cast a ballot for their chosen candidate are called voters. In a democracy, a government is chosen by voting in an election, in a representative democracy voting is the method by which the electorate appoints its representatives in its government. In a direct democracy, voting is the method by which the electorate directly make decisions, turn bills into laws, a secret ballot has come to be the practice to prevent voters from being intimidated and to protect their political privacy. Voting usually takes place at a station, it is voluntary in some countries, compulsory in others. Different voting systems use different types of votes, a Plurality voting system does not require the winner to achieve a vote majority, or more than fifty percent of the total votes cast. In a voting system uses a single vote per race. A side effect of a vote per race is vote splitting, which tends to elect candidates that do not support centrism. An alternative to a system is approval voting. To understand why a vote per race tends to favor less centric candidates. If five marbles are assigned names and are placed up for election, the reason is that the three green marbles will split the votes of those who prefer green. In fact, in analogy, the only way that a green marble is likely to win is if more than sixty percent of the voters prefer green. If the experiment is repeated with other colors, the color that is in the majority will still rarely win, in other words, from a purely mathematical perspective, a single-vote system tends to favor a winner that is different from the majority. A development on the single system is to have two-round elections. The winner must receive a majority, which is more than half, if subsequent votes must be used, often a candidate, the one with the fewest votes or anyone who wants to move their support to another candidate, is removed from the ballot. An alternative to the Two-round voting system is the single round instant-runoff voting system as used in elections in Australia, Ireland. Voters rank each candidate in order of preference, votes are distributed to each candidate according to the preferences allocated. If no single candidate has 50% or more votes than the candidate with the least votes is excluded, the process repeating itself until a candidate has 50% or more votes
3.
Romanian language
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Romanian is a Romance language spoken by around 24 million people as a native language, primarily in Romania and Moldova, and by another 4 million people as a second language. It has official status in Romania and the Republic of Moldova and it is one of the official languages of the European Union and the Latin Union. Romanian is a part of the Balkan-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin separated from the Western Romance during the 5th–8th centuries. To distinguish it within that group in comparative linguistics it is called Daco-Romanian as opposed to its closest relatives, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian, and Istro-Romanian. Eastern Romance languages, like the branches of Romance languages, descend from Vulgar Latin. These vestiges of military usage are unique to Romanian in its language family. s. o, sat village, șes plain, a supune, tindă veranda, țară homeland a. s. o. This linguistic evidence challenges the Roeslerian theory, the vestiges from sermo castrensis particularize the Romanian language in the neolatin area, together with its isolated history. e. With Rom. māgurā and Alb. magulë etc, the Roman Empire withdrew from Dacia in 271–272 AD, leaving it to the Goths. The history of Eastern Romance between the 3rd century and the development of Proto-Romanian by the 10th century, when the area came under the influence of the Byzantine Empire, is unknown. It is a matter of debate whether Proto-Romanian developed among Romanized people who were left behind in Dacia by the Roman withdrawal or among Latin-speakers in the Balkans south of the Danube, during the Middle Ages, Romanian became influenced by the Slavic languages and to some degree by Greek. Romanian remains unattested throughout the Middle Ages, and only enters the record in the early 16th century. The use of the denomination Romanian for our language and use of the demonym Romanians for speakers of this language predates the foundation of the modern Romanian state. In 1534, Tranquillo Andronico notes, Valachi nunc se Romanos vocant, francesco della Valle writes in 1532 that Romanians are calling themselves Romans in their own language, and he subsequently quotes the expression, Știi Românește. After travelling through Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania Ferrante Capecci accounts in 1575 that the population of these regions call themselves românești. Pierre Lescalopier writes in 1574 that those who live in Moldavia, Wallachia, the Transylvanian Saxon Johann Lebel writes in 1542 that Vlachi se numeau între ei Romuini and the Polish chronicler Stanislaw Orzechowski notes in 1554 that în limba lor walachii se numesc romini. In Palia de la Orăștie stands written «, că văzum cum toate limbile au și înfluresc întru cuvintele slăvite a lui Dumnezeu numai noi românii pre limbă nu avem. și le-au dăruit voo fraților români. », nevertheless, the oldest extant document written in Romanian remains Neacșus letter and was written using Cyrillic letters. There are no records of any documents written in Romanian from before 1521
4.
Stephen III of Moldavia
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Stephen III of Moldavia, known as Stephen the Great was voivode of Moldavia from 1457 to 1504. He was the son and co-ruler of Bogdan II of Moldavia who was murdered in 1451, Stephen fled to Hungary, and later to Wallachia. With the support of Vlad the Impaler, Voivode of Wallachia, he returned to Moldavia, Teoctist I, Metropolitan of Moldavia, anointed him prince. Stephen continued to pay a tribute to the Ottoman Empire. He broke into Poland and prevented Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland, from supporting Peter Aaron, Stephen decided to recapture Chilia, an important port on the Danube, which brought him into conflict with Hungary and Wallachia. He besieged the town during the Ottoman invasion of Wallachia in 1462, two years later, he captured the town. He promised support to the leaders of the Three Nations of Transylvania against Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, Corvinus invaded Moldavia, but Stephen defeated him in the Battle of Baia. Peter Aaron broke into Moldavia with Hungarian support in December 1470, Peter Aaron and the boyars who had supported him were executed. He restored the old fortresses and erected new ones, which improved the system of Moldavia. The Ottomans expansion threatened the Moldavian ports in the region of the Black Sea, Stephen stopped paying tribute to the Ottoman sultan in 1473. Stephen defeated a large Ottoman army in the Battle of Vaslui in 1475, in 1476, the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, routed him in the Battle of Valea Albă, but the lack of provisions and the outbreak of a plague forced the Ottomans to withdraw from Moldavia. Taking advantage of a truce with Matthias Corvinus, the Ottomans captured Chilia, Corvinus granted two Transylvanian estates to Stephen to compensate him for the loss of the two ports. Stephen paid homage to Casimir IV of Poland who promised to him to regain Chilia and Cetatea Albă. From 1486, Stephen again paid a tribute to the Ottomans. During the following years, dozens of churches and monasteries were built in Moldavia. Casimir IVs successor, John I Albert, wanted to grant Moldavia to his brother, Sigismund. John Albert broke into Moldavia in 1497, but Stephen and his Hungarian and Ottoman allies routed the Polish army in the Battle of the Cosmin Forest. Stephen again tried to recapture Chilia and Cetatea Albă, but he had to acknowledge the loss of the two ports to the Ottomans in 1503, during his last years, his son and co-ruler, Bogdan III, played an active role in the government
5.
Stephen the Great
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Stephen III of Moldavia, known as Stephen the Great was voivode of Moldavia from 1457 to 1504. He was the son and co-ruler of Bogdan II of Moldavia who was murdered in 1451, Stephen fled to Hungary, and later to Wallachia. With the support of Vlad the Impaler, Voivode of Wallachia, he returned to Moldavia, Teoctist I, Metropolitan of Moldavia, anointed him prince. Stephen continued to pay a tribute to the Ottoman Empire. He broke into Poland and prevented Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland, from supporting Peter Aaron, Stephen decided to recapture Chilia, an important port on the Danube, which brought him into conflict with Hungary and Wallachia. He besieged the town during the Ottoman invasion of Wallachia in 1462, two years later, he captured the town. He promised support to the leaders of the Three Nations of Transylvania against Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, Corvinus invaded Moldavia, but Stephen defeated him in the Battle of Baia. Peter Aaron broke into Moldavia with Hungarian support in December 1470, Peter Aaron and the boyars who had supported him were executed. He restored the old fortresses and erected new ones, which improved the system of Moldavia. The Ottomans expansion threatened the Moldavian ports in the region of the Black Sea, Stephen stopped paying tribute to the Ottoman sultan in 1473. Stephen defeated a large Ottoman army in the Battle of Vaslui in 1475, in 1476, the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, routed him in the Battle of Valea Albă, but the lack of provisions and the outbreak of a plague forced the Ottomans to withdraw from Moldavia. Taking advantage of a truce with Matthias Corvinus, the Ottomans captured Chilia, Corvinus granted two Transylvanian estates to Stephen to compensate him for the loss of the two ports. Stephen paid homage to Casimir IV of Poland who promised to him to regain Chilia and Cetatea Albă. From 1486, Stephen again paid a tribute to the Ottomans. During the following years, dozens of churches and monasteries were built in Moldavia. Casimir IVs successor, John I Albert, wanted to grant Moldavia to his brother, Sigismund. John Albert broke into Moldavia in 1497, but Stephen and his Hungarian and Ottoman allies routed the Polish army in the Battle of the Cosmin Forest. Stephen again tried to recapture Chilia and Cetatea Albă, but he had to acknowledge the loss of the two ports to the Ottomans in 1503, during his last years, his son and co-ruler, Bogdan III, played an active role in the government
6.
Carol I of Romania
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Carol I, born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was the ruler of Romania from 1866 to 1914. He was elected Ruling Prince of the Romanian United Principalities on 20 April 1866 after the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup détat, in May 1877, he proclaimed Romania an independent and sovereign nation. The defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War secured Romanian independence and he was proclaimed King of Romania on 26 March 1881. He was the first ruler of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen dynasty, which ruled the country until the proclamation of a republic in 1947, during his reign, Carol I personally led Romanian troops during the Russo-Turkish War and assumed command of the Russo/Romanian army during the siege of Plevna. The country achieved internationally recognized independence via the Treaty of Berlin,1878 and he married Princess Elisabeth of Wied in Neuwied on 15 November 1869. They only had one daughter, Maria, who died at the age of three, Carol never produced a male heir, leaving his elder brother Leopold next in line to the throne. In October 1880 Leopold renounced his right of succession in favour of his son William, who in turn surrendered his claim six years later in favour of his younger brother, after finishing his elementary studies, Karl entered the Cadet School in Münster. In 1857 he was attending the courses of the Artillery School in Berlin, up to 1866, when he accepted the crown of Romania, he was a Prussian officer. He took part in the Second Schleswig War, including the assault of the Fredericia citadel and Dybbøl, an experience which would be very useful to him later in the Russo-Turkish war. Although he was frail and not very tall, prince Karl was reported to be the perfect soldier, healthy and disciplined. He was familiar with several European languages and his family was closely related to the Bonaparte family, they enjoyed very good relations with Napoleon III of France. The former Domnitor of united Romania, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, had expelled from the country by the leading noblemen. Cuzas double election, both in Wallachia and in Moldavia) had been the basis on which the Romanian Principalities unification was recognized by the European powers, with him gone, the country was in danger of disintegration. As Romanian politicians searched for a successor, Napoleon suggested Karl, napoleons recommendation weighed heavily with Romanian politicians of the time, since Romania was strongly influenced by French culture. Another factor was Karls blood relation to the ruling Prussian family, ion Brătianu was the Romanian politician who was sent to negotiate with Karl and his family the possibility of installing him on the Romanian throne. Due to the conflict between Prussia and the Austrian Empire, Karl travelled incognito by railroad from Düsseldorf to Baziaș. He received there a Swiss passport from a Swiss public clerk, friend of his family, from Baziaș he travelled by boat to Turnu Severin, as there was no railroad to Romania. As he crossed the border onto Romanian soil, he was met by Brătianu and he was elected Domnitor on 20 April
7.
Mihai Eminescu
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Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an member of the Junimea literary society and worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul. His poetry was first published when he was 16 and he went to Vienna to study when he was 19. The poets Manuscripts, containing 46 volumes and approximately 14,000 pages, were offered by Titu Maiorescu as a gift to the Romanian Academy during the meeting that was held on 25 January 1902, notable works include Luceafărul, Odă în metru antic, and the five Letters. In his poems he frequently used metaphysical, mythological and historical subjects and his father was Gheorghe Eminovici from Călinești, a Moldavian village in Suceava county, Bucovina, which was then part of the Austrian Empire. He crossed the border into Moldavia, settling in Ipotești, near the town of Botoșani and he married Raluca Iurașcu, an heiress of an old aristocratic Moldavian family. The date of his birth was confirmed by the elder sister, Aglae Drogli. Mihail or Mihai was born in Botoșani, Moldavia and he spent his early childhood in Botoșani and Ipotești, in his parents family home. From 1858 to 1866 he attended school in Cernăuți and he finished 4th grade as the 5th of 82 students, after which he attended two years of gymnasium. The first evidence of Eminescu as a writer is in 1866, on 25 February his poem De-aș avea was published in Iosif Vulcans literary magazine Familia in Pest. This began a series of published poems. Also, it was Iosif Vulcan, who disliked the Slavic source suffix -ici of the poets last name. In 1867, he joined Iorgu Caragiales troupe as a clerk and prompter, both of these were among the leading Romanian theatrical troupes of their day, the latter including Matei Millo and Fanny Tardini-Vlădicescu. He soon settled in Bucharest, where at the end of November he became a clerk, throughout this period, he continued to write and publish poems. He also paid his rent by translating hundreds of pages of a book by Heinrich Theodor Rotscher, also at this time he began his novel Geniu pustiu, published posthumously in 1904 in an unfinished form. On 1 April 1869, he was one of the co-founders of the Orient literary circle, whose interests included the gathering of Romanian folklore, on 29 June, various members of the Orient group were commissioned to go to different provinces. That summer, he quite by chance ran into his brother Iorgu, an officer, in Cișmigiu Gardens. Still in summer 1869, he left Pascalys troupe and traveled to Cernăuţi and he renewed ties to his family, his father promised him a regular allowance to pursue studies in Vienna in the fall
8.
Michael the Brave
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Michael the Brave was the Prince of Wallachia, Prince of Moldavia and de facto ruler of Transylvania. He is considered one of Romanias greatest national heroes and he is seen by the Romanian historiography as the first author of Romanian unity and his rule over Wallachia began in the autumn of 1593. Two years later, war with the Ottomans began, a conflict in which the Prince fought the Battle of Călugăreni, the war continued until a peace finally emerged in January 1597, but this lasted for only a year and a half. Peace was again reached in late 1599, when Michael was unable to continue the war due to lack of support from his allies, in 1599, Michael won the Battle of Şelimbăr and soon entered Alba Iulia, becoming the imperial governor of Transylvania. A few months later, Michaels troops invaded Moldavia and reached its capital, the Moldavian leader Ieremia Movilă fled to Poland and Michael was declared Prince of Moldavia. Michael kept the control of all three provinces for less than a year before the nobles of Transylvania and certain boyars in Moldavia and Wallachia rose against him in a series of revolts. Thereafter, Michael allied with the Imperial General Giorgio Basta and defeated an uprising of the Hungarian nobility at Gurăslău in Transylvania, immediately after this victory, Rudolf ordered the assassination of Michael, an action carried out on 9 August 1601 by Bastas men. Michael was born under the name of Pătraşcu. In 1601, during a stay in Prague, he was portrayed by the painter Aegidius Sadeler, who mentioned on the portrait the words aetatis XLIII, Very little is known about his childhood and early years as an adult. His mother was Theodora Kantakouzene, a member of the Kantakouzenoi, a noble family present in Wallachia and Moldavia, the latter had him swear before 12 boyars that he was not of princely descent. Still, in May 1593 conflict did break out between Alexandru and Michael, who was forced to flee to Transylvania and he was accompanied by his half-brother Radu Florescu, Radu Buzescu and several other supporters. He was supported by the English ambassador in the Ottoman capital, Edward Barton, Michael was invested Prince by Sultan Murad III in September 1593 and started his effective rule on 11 October. He was considered a traitor as he had forced to purchase the title of Domnitor. Not long after Michael became Prince of Wallachia, he turned against the Ottoman Empire, Mihai continued his attacks deep within the Ottoman Empire, taking the forts of Nicopolis, Ribnic, and Chilia and even reaching as far as Adrianople. In 1595, Sigismund Báthory staged a plot and had Aaron the Tyrant, voivode of Moldavia. Ştefan Răzvan arrested Aron on charges of treason on the night of 24 April and sent him to the Transylvanian capital at Alba Iulia with his family, Aron would die poisoned by the end of May in the castle of Vinc. Sigismund was forced to justify his actions before the European powers, later on, in the same city of Alba Iulia, Wallachian boyars signed a treaty with Sigismund on Michaels behalf. According to the treaty, a council of 12 great boyars was to take part alongside the voivode in the rule of the country
9.
Richard Wurmbrand
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Richard Wurmbrand was a Romanian Christian minister of Jewish descent. In 1948, having become a Christian 10 years before, he dared to say that Communism. As a result, he experienced imprisonment and torture by the then Communist regime of Romania, after serving five years of a second prison sentence, he was ransomed for $10,000. His colleagues in Romania urged him to leave the country and work for freedom from a location less personally dangerous. He wrote more than 18 books, the most widely known being Tortured for Christ, variations of his works have been translated into more than 60 languages. He founded the international organization Voice of the Martyrs, which continues to aid Christians around the world who are persecuted for their faith, Richard Wurmbrand, the youngest of four boys, was born in 1909 in Bucharest in a Jewish family. He lived with his family in Istanbul for a short while, his father died when he was 9, as an adolescent, he was sent to study Marxism in Moscow, but returned clandestinely the following year. Pursued by Siguranţa Statului, he was arrested and held in Doftana prison, when returning to his mother country, Wurmbrand was already an important Comintern agent, leader and coordinator directly paid from Moscow. Like other Romanian communists he was arrested several times, then sentenced and released again and he married Sabina Oster on October 26,1936. Wurmbrand and his wife converted to Christianity in 1938 due to the witness of Christian Wolfkes, Wurmbrand was ordained twice – first as an Anglican, then, after World War II, as a Lutheran minister. In 1944, when the Soviet Union occupied Romania as the first step to establishing a communist regime, Wurmbrand began a ministry to his Romanian countrymen, when the government attempted to control churches, he immediately began an underground ministry to his people. Richard is remembered for his courage in standing up in a gathering of church leaders and he was arrested on February 29,1948, while on his way to church services. Wurmbrand, who passed through the facilities of Craiova, Gherla, the Danube–Black Sea Canal, Văcăreşti prison, Malmaison, Cluj. This confinement was in a twelve feet underground, with no lights or windows. There was no sound because even the guards wore felt on the soles of their shoes and he later recounted that he maintained his sanity by sleeping during the day, staying awake at night, and exercising his mind and soul by composing and then delivering a sermon each night. Due to his memory, he was able to recall more than 350 of those, a selection of which he included in his book With God in Solitary Confinement. During part of time, he communicated with other inmates by tapping out Morse code on the wall. In this way he continued to be sunlight to fellow inmates rather than dwell on the lack of physical light, Wurmbrand was released from his first imprisonment in 1956, after eight and a half years
10.
Ion Antonescu
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Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier and authoritarian politician who, as the Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, presided over two successive wartime dictatorships. After the war, he was convicted of war crimes and executed and he was a military attaché to France and later Chief of the General Staff, briefly serving as Defense Minister in the National Christian cabinet of Octavian Goga. During the late 1930s, his political stance brought him conflict with King Carol II. Antonescu nevertheless rose to prominence during the political crisis of 1940, and established the National Legionary State. After entering Romania into an alliance with Nazi Germany and the Axis and ensuring Adolf Hitlers confidence, in addition to leadership of the executive, he assumed the offices of Foreign Affairs and Defense Minister. Soon after Romania joined the Axis in Operation Barbarossa, recovering Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, after a brief detention in the Soviet Union, the deposed Conducător was handed back to Romania, where he was tried by a special Peoples Tribunal and executed. This was part of a series of trials that also passed sentences on his various associates, while these groups elevated Antonescu to the status of hero, his involvement in the Holocaust was officially reasserted and condemned following the 2003 Wiesel Commission report. Born in the town of Pitești, north-west of the capital Bucharest and he was especially close to his mother, Lița Baranga, who survived his death. His father, an officer, wanted Ion to follow in his footsteps. During his childhood, his father divorced his mother to marry a woman who was a Jewish convert to Orthodoxy, after graduation, in 1904, Antonescu joined the Romanian Army with the rank of Second Lieutenant. He spent the two years attending courses at the Special Cavalry Section in Târgoviște. Reportedly, Antonescu was a zealous and goal-setting student, upset by the pace of promotions. In time, the reputation of being a tough and ruthless commander, together with his reddish hair, Antonescu also developed a reputation for questioning his commanders and for appealing over their heads whenever he felt they were wrong. During the repression of the 1907 peasants revolt, he headed a unit in Covurlui County. In addition to restricting peasant protests, Antonescus unit subdued socialist activities in Galați port and his handling of the situation earned him praise from King Carol I, who sent Crown Prince Ferdinand to congratulate him in front of the whole garrison. The following year, Antonescu was promoted to Lieutenant, and, in 1913, during the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria, Antonescu served as a staff officer in the First Cavalry Division in Dobruja. After 1916, when the Kingdom of Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, bulgarian and Imperial German armies decisively defeated their ill-equipped and poorly defended Romanian adversaries in the Battle of Turtucaia on and advanced into Dobruja. When enemy troops crossed the mountains from Transylvania into Wallachia, Antonescu was ordered to design a plan for Bucharest
11.
Mircea Eliade
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Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was an interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day. His theory that hierophanies form the basis of religion, splitting the experience of reality into sacred and profane space. His literary works belong to the fantastic and autobiographical genres, Early in his life, Eliade was a journalist and essayist, a disciple of Romanian far-right philosopher and journalist Nae Ionescu, and a member of the literary society Criterion. In the 1940s, he served as cultural attaché to the United Kingdom, several times during the late 1930s, Eliade publicly expressed his support for the Iron Guard, a fascist and antisemitic political organization. His political involvement at the time, as well as his far right connections, were frequently criticised after World War II. Noted for his vast erudition, Eliade had fluent command of five languages and he was elected a posthumous member of the Romanian Academy. Born in Bucharest, he was the son of Romanian Land Forces officer Gheorghe Eliade, an Orthodox believer, Gheorghe Eliade registered his sons birth four days before the actual date, to coincide with the liturgical calendar feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. Mircea Eliade had a sister, Corina, the mother of semiologist Sorin Alexandrescu, Eliade kept a particularly fond memory of his childhood and, later in life, wrote about the impact various unusual episodes and encounters had on his mind. He described this stage in his life as marked by an unrepeatable epiphany, I would slip into it as into a fragment of time devoid of duration—without beginning, middle, or end. During my last years of lycée, when I struggled with profound attacks of melancholy, but even though the beatitude was the same, it was now impossible to bear because it aggravated my sadness too much. By this time I knew the world to which the room belonged was a world forever lost. Robert Ellwood, a professor of religion who did his studies under Mircea Eliade, saw this type of nostalgia as one of the most characteristic themes in Eliades life. After completing his education at the school on Mântuleasa Street, Eliade attended the Spiru Haret National College in the same class as Arșavir Acterian, Haig Acterian. Among his other colleagues was future philosopher Constantin Noica and Noicas friend, growing up, he aimed to find and record what he believed was the common source of all religious traditions. The young Eliades interest in exercise and adventure led him to pursue mountaineering and sailing. With a group of friends, he designed and sailed a boat on the Danube, in order to cultivate his willpower, he would force himself to swallow insects and only slept four to five hours a night. At one point, Eliade was failing four subjects, among which was the study of the Romanian language, instead, he became interested in natural science and chemistry, as well as the occult, and wrote short pieces on entomological subjects
12.
Alexandru Ioan Cuza
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Alexandru Ioan Cuza was Prince of Moldavia, Prince of Wallachia, and later Domnitor of the Romanian Principalities. He was a prominent figure of the Revolution of 1848 in Moldavia and he initiated a series of reforms that contributed to the modernization of Romanian society and of state structures. Born in Bârlad, Cuza belonged to the boyar class in Moldavia, being the son of Ispravnic Ioan Cuza and his wife Sultana. Alexander received an urbane European education, becoming an officer in the Moldavian Army and he married Elena Rosetti in 1844. In 1848, known as the year of European revolutions, Moldavia and Wallachia fell into revolt, the Moldavian unrest was quickly suppressed, but in Wallachia the revolutionaries took power and governed during the summer. Returned during the reign of Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica, he became Moldavias minister of war in 1858 representing also Galați in the ad hoc Divan at Iași. Cuza was acting freely under the guarantees of the European Powers in the eve of the Crimean War for a recognition of the Prince of Moldavia, Cuza was a prominent speaker in the debates and strongly advocated the union of Moldavia and Walachia. In default of a prince, he was nominated as a candidate in both principalities by the pro-unionist Partida Națională. Cuza was finally elected as Prince of Moldavia on 17 January 1859 and, after street pressure changed the vote in Bucharest, also Prince of Wallachia and he received the firman from the Sultan on 2 December 1861 during a visit to Istanbul. He was recipient of the Order of Medjidie, Order of Osmanieh, Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, although he and his wife Elena Rosetti had no children, she raised as her own children his two sons from his mistress Elena Maria Catargiu-Obrenović, Alexandru Al. Thus Cuza achieved a de facto union of the two principalities, the union was formally declared three years later, on 5 February 1862, the new country bearing the name of Romania, with Bucharest as its capital city. Thus, he was regarded as the embodiment of a unified Romania. His first measure addressed a need for increasing the resources and revenues available to the state. Cuza got his parliaments backing to expropriate these lands, state revenues thereby increased without adding any domestic tax burden. The land reform, liberating peasants from the last corvées, freeing their movements, in attempting to create a solid support base among the peasants, Cuza soon found himself in conflict with the group of Conservatives. A liberal bill granting peasants title to the land they worked was defeated, then the Conservatives responded with a bill that ended all peasant dues and responsibilities, but gave landlords title to all the land. Cuza vetoed it, then held a plebiscite to alter the Paris Convention and his plan to establish universal manhood suffrage, together with the power of the Domnitor to rule by decree, passed by a vote of 682,621 to 1,307. He consequently governed the country under the provisions of Statutul dezvoltător al Convenției de la Paris, with his new plenary powers, Cuza then promulgated the Agrarian Law of 1863
13.
Vlad the Impaler
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Vlad III, known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula, was voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death. He was the son of Vlad Dracul, who became the ruler of Wallachia in 1436. Vlad and his brother, Radu, were held as hostages in the Ottoman Empire from 1442 to secure their fathers loyalty. Vlads father and eldest brother, Mircea, were murdered after John Hunyadi, Regent-Governor of Hungary, Hunyadi installed Vlads second cousin, Vladislav II, as the new voivode. Hunyadi launched a campaign against the Ottomans in the autumn of 1448. Vlad broke into Wallachia with Ottoman support in October, but Vladislav returned, Vlad went to Moldavia in 1449 or 1450, and later to Hungary. He invaded Wallachia with Hungarian support in 1456, Vlad began a purge among the Wallachian boyars to strengthen his position. He came into conflict with the Transylvanian Saxons, who supported his opponents, Dan and Basarab Laiotă, Vlad plundered the Saxon villages, taking the captured people to Wallachia where he had them impaled. Peace was only restored in 1460, the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, ordered Vlad to pay homage to him personally, but Vlad had the sultans two envoys captured and impaled. In February 1462, he broke into Ottoman territory, massacring tens of thousands of Turks, Mehmed launched a campaign against Wallachia to replace Vlad with Vlads younger brother, Radu. Vlad attempted to capture the sultan at Târgovişte during the night of 16–17 June 1462, the sultan and the main Ottoman army left Wallachia, but more and more Wallachians deserted to Radu. Vlad went to Transylvania to seek assistance from Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, in late 1462, Vlad was held in captivity in Visegrád from 1463 to 1475. During this period, anecdotes about his cruelty started to spread in Germany and he was released at the request of Stephen III of Moldavia in the summer of 1475. He fought in Corvinuss army against the Ottomans in Bosnia in early 1476, Hungarian and Moldavian troops helped him to force Basarab Laiotă to flee from Wallachia in November. Basarab returned with Ottoman support before the end of the year, Vlad was murdered before 10 January 1477. Books describing Vlads cruel acts were among the first bestsellers in the German-speaking territories, Vlads reputation for cruelty and his patronymic gave rise to the name of the vampire Count Dracula in Bram Stokers 1897 novel Dracula. The expression Dracula, which is now known as the name of a vampire, was for centuries known as the sobriquet of a ruler of Wallachia. Diplomatic reports and popular stories referred to him as Dracula, Dracuglia and he himself signed his two letters as Dragulya or Drakulya in the late 1470s
14.
Gigi Becali
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George Becali is a controversial Romanian politician and businessman, mostly known for his ownership of the Steaua Bucureşti football club. He was a Member of the European Parliament between June 2009 and December 2012 and a Member of the Romanian Parliament since December 2012 up until his conviction in May 2013, during childhood and adolescence, Becali was a supporter of the Steaua Bucharest football club. His cousins Victor Becali and Ioan Becali are football agents involved in Romanian football mainly for Dinamo Bucharest, in 1994, he married Luminiţa,11 years younger than him, they have three daughters, Teodora, Alexandra and Cristina. The deal consisted in Becali giving the army a 21.5 ha plot in Ştefăneştii de Jos in exchange for a 20.9 ha plot in Băneasa-Pipera, as the real estate prices skyrocketed in the capital, he sold the land to some companies which built residential areas. Also, the Army was not legally allowed to give away the Pipera plot, the affair was investigated in 2006 by the National Anticorruption Directorate. In July 2007, the NAD started to investigate a transaction between Becali and the daughter of Defence Minister Victor Babiuc, involving land in Pipera which was sold for $300/sqm. Becali joined the General Shareholders Council of the Steaua Bucureşti football team at the end of the 1990s, step by step, he tried to eliminate other possible candidates and gather all the Clubs shares. He obtained 51% of the shares on 6 February 2003 and he bought another 15% toward the end of the year 2003, on October 17,2005, his entire fortune was impounded by the National Fiscal Authority for debts totaling US$11,000,000. However, Becali sued the ANAF and won the trial, and he was however able to avoid paying the taxes by transferring the assets of Steaua to a newly formed company, AFC Steaua Bucureşti, allowing the old association to go bankrupt. As of 2007, Becali detains no official link to the club, Becali denied the story, claiming that he received the painting from an admirer. Becali announced in 2008 that he intends to open his own bank, named Becali Bank, intended to be used only by millionaires, nevertheless, the Administration Council of the National Bank of Romania rejected the plan of creation without giving a public reason. In reply to this decision, Becali named Mugur Isărescu, the governor of the National Bank, a buffoon, a frustrated and envious person and announced that he intends to sue him. At the 2000 Romanian legislative election, Becali was a candidate of the League of Italian Communities in Romania for the seat in the Chamber of Deputies reserved for the Italian minority and he received 16,266 votes countrywide, of which 7,677 in Ilfov County. Nevertheless, he lost to Ileana Stana-Ionescu, who got only 2,943 votes in one constituency and he has led the New Generation – Christian Democrat Party since January 2004, being its candidate in the 2004 presidential election, receiving 1. 77% of votes cast. In his 2004 electoral campaign, Becali used clips of the Mihai Viteazul movie, amzas daughter, Oana Pellea, sued Becali for using Amza Pelleas image without permission and won 35,000 RON in damages. He often had disputes with Corneliu Vadim Tudor, another extremist politician and these disputes, usually consisted of exchanges of insults between the two. He had another dispute with Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu whom he named a cockroach-politician, in December 2006, he promised that his party would generate a Cultural revolution in Romania. At the elections for the European Parliament, held in November 2007, his party obtained 4. 86% of the popular vote, the same happened in the December 2008 elections, which came as a surprise to many people
15.
Gheorghe Hagi
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Gheorghe Gică Hagi is a former Romanian professional footballer, considered one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe during the 1980s and 1990s and the greatest Romanian footballer of all time. Galatasaray fans called him Comandante and Romanians call him Regele, nicknamed The Maradona of the Carpathians, Hagi is considered a hero in his homeland. He was named Romanian Footballer of the Year seven times, and is regarded as one of the best football players of his generation, as a creative advanced playmaker, he was renowned for his dribbling, technique, vision, passing and finishing. Hagi played for the Romanian national team in three World Cups in 1990,1994 and 1998, as well as in three European Football Championships in 1984,1996 and 2000. He won a total of 125 caps for Romania, ranked second after Dorinel Munteanu, in November 2003, to celebrate UEFAs Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of Romania by the Romanian Football Federation as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years. In 2004, he was named by Pelé as one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at a FIFA Awards Ceremony, Hagi is one of the few footballers to have played for both Spanish rival clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona. In 2009, Hagi founded Romanian club Viitorul Constanța and he is currently both owner and chairman of the club. Hagi also established the Gheorghe Hagi football academy, one of the biggest football academies in Southeastern Europe and his son Ianis is also a footballer. Hagi was born in Săcele, Romania, from an ethnic Aromanian family, in 1982 he returned to Constanța, but one year later, aged 18, he was prepared to make the step to a top team. He was originally directed to Universitatea Craiova, but chose Sportul Studențesc of Bucharest instead, in late 1987 Hagi transferred to the Romanian team Steaua București as the team prepared for their European Super Cup final against Dynamo Kyiv. The original contract was for one only, the final. However, after winning the trophy, where Hagi scored the goal of the game, Steaua did not want to release him back to Sportul Studențesc. During his Steaua years, Hagi played 97 Liga I games and he and the team reached the European Cup semi-final in 1988 and the final in the following year, while Hagi finished as one of the competitions top scorers in the former edition of the tournament. Hagi and Steaua were the champions of Romania in 1987,1988 and 1989 and his strong performances had him linked with Arrigo Sacchis A. C. Milan and FC Bayern Munich but Nicolae Ceaușescus communist government rejected any offer. After the 1990 World Cup, he was signed by Real Madrid, the La Liga side paid $4.3 million to Steaua București for him. Hagi played two seasons with Real Madrid and then was sold to Brescia, Hagi started the season 1992–1993 with Brescia but in the first season the club was relegated to Serie B, in the next season Hagi helped Brescia Calcio win Serie B and get promoted to Serie A. After performing memorably during the 1994 World Cup, Hagi was signed by Barcelona, after two years at FC Barcelona, Hagi signed for Galatasaray. At Galatasaray, he was successful and highly popular among the Turkish supporters
16.
Ion Luca Caragiale
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Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian, later Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist. His work, spanning four decades, covers the ground between Neoclassicism, Realism, and Naturalism, building on a synthesis of foreign and local influences. Although few in number, Caragiales plays constitute the most accomplished expression of Romanian theater and they include the comedies O noapte furtunoasă, Conu Leonida faţă cu reacţiunea, O scrisoare pierdută, and the tragedy Năpasta. In many cases, his creations were first published in one of several magazines he edited—Claponul, Moftul Român, Vatra, Ion Luca Caragiale was interested in the politics of the Romanian Kingdom, and oscillated between the liberal current and conservatism. He came to clash with National Liberal leaders such as Dimitrie Sturdza and Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, as a result of these conflicts, the most prominent of Caragiales critics barred his access to the cultural establishment for several decades. During the 1890s, Caragiale rallied with the movement of George Panu. Ion Luca was the nephew of Costache and Iorgu Caragiale, who were major figures of mid-19th century Romanian theater and his sons Mateiu and Luca were both modernist writers. Ion Lucas father, who originated from the Ottoman capital of Istanbul. Known to locals as Luca Caragiali, he built a reputation as a lawyer and judge in Ploieşti, and married Ecaterina. Her maiden name was given as Alexovici or as Karaboa and she is known to have been Greek herself, and, according to historian Lucian Nastasă, some of her relatives were Hungarian members of the Tabay family. The Caragiali couple also had a daughter, named Lenci, Luca Caragiali had himself performed with his brothers during his youth, before opting to settle down. All three had stood criticism for not taking part in the Wallachian Revolution, and defended themselves through a brochure printed in 1848, the brothers Caragiali had two sisters, Ecaterina and Anastasia. Especially in his old age, the writer emphasized his familys humble background, on one occasion, he defined the landscape of his youth as the quagmires of Ploieşti. Ion Luca Caragiale was discreet about his origin for the larger part of his life. In parallel, his foreign roots came to the attention of his adversaries, as his relations with Caragiale degenerated into hostility, Mihai Eminescu is known to have referred to his former friend as that Greek swindler. Aware of such treatment, the writer considered all references to his lineage to be insults, on several occasions, he preferred to indicate that he was of obscure birth. Nevertheless, as literary critic Tudor Vianu noted, Caragiales outlook on life was explicitly Balkanic and Oriental, a similar opinion was expressed by Paul Zarifopol, who speculated that Caragiales conservative mindset was possibly owed to the lazyness of one true Oriental. In contrast, critic Garabet Ibrăileanu proposed that Caragiales Wallachian origin was of importance, serving to explain his political choices
17.
Nicolae Iorga
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Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party, he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and his activity also included the transformation of Vălenii de Munte town into a cultural and academic center. In parallel with his contributions, Nicolae Iorga was a prominent right-of-center activist. From Marxist beginnings, he switched sides and became a disciple of the Junimea movement. He was an adversary of the dominant National Liberals, later involved with the opposition Romanian National Party, late in his life, Iorga opposed the radically fascist Iron Guard, and, after much oscillation, came to endorse its rival King Carol II. He remained an independent voice of opposition after the Guard inaugurated its own National Legionary dictatorship, Nicolae Iorga was a native of Botoșani, and is generally believed to have been born on January 17,1871. His father Nicu Iorga and mother Zulnia belonged to the Romanian Orthodox Church, the name Arghiropol notwithstanding, my maternal grandfather from a family that moved in. from Bessarabia. Elsewhere, however, he acknowledged that the Arghiropols were possibly Byzantine Greeks, Iorga credited the five-generation-boyar status, received from his fathers side, and the old boyar roots of his mother, with having turned him into a political man. His parallel claim of being related to families such as the Cantacuzinos. In 1876, aged thirty-seven or thirty-eight, Nicu Sr and his history teacher, a refugee Pole, sparked his interest in research and his lifelong Polonophilia. He credited the 19th century polymath Mihail Kogălniceanu, whose works he had first been reading as a child, the adolescent was already fluent in French, Italian, Latin and Greek, later referring to Greek studies as the most refined form of human reasoning. By age seventeen, Iorga was becoming more rebellious, seeing himself confined in the National Colleges ugly and disgusting boarding school, he defied its rules and was suspended a second time, losing scholarship privileges. Before readmission, he decided not to back on his familys financial support. Again expelled for reading during a lesson, Iorga still graduated in the top first prize category. In 1888, Nicolae Iorga passed his examination for the University of Iași Faculty of Letters. Hailed as a star by the local press and deemed a wonder of a man by his teacher A. D. Xenopol. Three academics formally brought Iorga to the attention of the Education Ministry, the interval witnessed Iorgas brief affiliation with Junimea, a literary club with conservative leanings, whose informal leader was literary and political theorist Titu Maiorescu. In 1890, literary critic Ștefan Vârgolici and cultural promoter Iacob Negruzzi published Iorgas essay on poet Veronica Micle in the Junimist tribune Convorbiri Literare and this period saw his debut as a socialist poet and critic
18.
George Enescu
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George Enescu, known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, and teacher. He is regarded by many as Romanias most important musician, Enescu was born in Romania, in the village of Liveni, in Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood, a child prodigy, Enescu began experimenting with composing at an early age. Several, mostly very short pieces survive, all of them for violin, the earliest work of significant length bears the title Pămînt românesc, and is inscribed opus for piano and violin by George Enescu, Romanian composer, aged five years and a quarter. Shortly thereafter, his father presented him to the professor and composer Eduard Caudella. On 5 October 1888, at the age of seven, he became the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied with Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr. Robert Fuchs, and Sigismund Bachrich. He was the person ever admitted to this university by a dispensation of age, after only Fritz Kreisler. In 1891, the ten-year-old Enescu gave a concert at the Court of Vienna. Joseph Hellmesberger, Sr. one of his teachers and the director of the Vienna Conservatory, hosted Enescu at his home and he graduated before his 13th birthday, earning the silver medal. In his Viennese concerts young Enescu played works by Brahms, Sarasate, in 1895 he went to Paris to continue his studies. He studied violin with Martin Pierre Marsick, harmony with André Gedalge, Enescu then studied from 1895 to 1899 at the Conservatoire de Paris. André Gedalge said that he was the one who truly had ideas. On 6 February 1898, at the age of only 16, George Enescu presented in Paris his first mature work, Poema Română, played by the Colonne Orchestra and conducted by Édouard Colonne. Many of Enescus works were influenced by Romanian folk music, his most popular compositions being the two Romanian Rhapsodies, the opera Œdipe, and the suites for orchestra and he also wrote five symphonies, a symphonic poem Vox maris, and much chamber music. A young Ravi Shankar recalled in the 1960s how Enescu, who had developed a deep interest in Oriental music, rehearsed with Shankars brother Uday Shankar and his musicians. Around the same time, Enescu took the young Yehudi Menuhin to the Colonial Exhibition in Paris and it was in America, in the 1920s, that Enescu was first persuaded to make recordings as a violinist. He also appeared as a conductor with many American orchestras, in 1932, Enescu was elected a titular member of the Romanian Academy. In 1935, he conducted the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris and Yehudi Menuhin in Mozarts Violin Concerto No.3 in G major and he also conducted the New York Philharmonic between 1937 and 1938
19.
Gregorian Bivolaru
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Gregorian Bivolaru also known as Magnus Aurolsson and nicknamed Grieg, Grig or, by the press, Guru is a spiritual teacher and the founder of the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute. In 2005, the Supreme Court of Sweden agreed to grant political refugee status to Bivolaru in response to his claims of persecution by Romanian authorities. On 14 June 2013, the High Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania definitively sentenced Gregorian Bivolaru to 6 years in prison, without suspension, furthermore, he was acquitted for all the other charges against him. He began practicing yoga at the age of 17, during the communist regime Gregorian Bivolaru was permanently kept under observation by the Department of State Security, because he was practicing and teaching yoga. He was jailed twice and forcefully hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, in 2012 two courts acknowledged that Gregorian Bivolaru was sentenced and jailed for political reasons during the communist regime. On 17 April 1984, he was arrested for the conspiracy against Nicolae Ceaușescu, after weeks of torture he escaped from the Securitate imprisonment. He was captured a few days afterwards, then tried only on the charges of escaping from prison, in 1989 he was arrested again, although charges were never made against him. We have to mention here that despite the risk of opposing a despotic order, Dr. Leonard Hriscu, in Romania, yoga was forbidden in 1982, in connection with the “Transcendental Meditation scandal”, whose victim Gregorian Bivolaru was also. Yoga was illegal in Romania until December 1989, the time of Romanian Revolution, after it, Gregorian Bivolaru founded the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute. MISA has been founded as an association, by judicial decision on January 23,1990. It has a socio-professional, philosophical and educative character, aiming to increase the level of people by spreading the yoga knowledge. MISA included lectures on related disciplines such as Kashmirian philosophy and Ayurveda, the yoga courses were first held in Bucharest but quickly spread all over the country. It has all the characteristics of a cult, one truth, one leader, Gregorian Bivolaru was an honorary member of European Yoga Council until April 2008, when he was expelled from it and from all affiliated branches. According to The Times of India, MISA currently operates under different names in different countries and it is Natha in Denmark and Portugal, Tara in the US and UK and Satya in India. Gregorian Bivolaru has been victim of two attempts on his life. Police abuses where recorded in 1997 by 2 major human rights organizations, APADOR-CH, on 18 March 2004 the authorities - prosecutors, police, gendarmes, secret services - started an unprecedented intimidation campaign documented by the APADOR-CH and reported by the IHF2004 report. He was then taken to Bucharest, the Bucharest Court, had issued an arrest warrant for 29 days on the name of Gregorian Bivolaru, but under another accusation, an alleged sexual relations with a minor. After two days of investigations, the Appeal Court from Bucharest disposed setting Gregorian Bivolaru free, although the decision had been taken at 17.00, he was set free only at 23
20.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
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The Legionnaires traditionally referred to Codreanu as Căpitanul, and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death. Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of World War I as an anticommunist, Cuza and Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the Iaşi Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Following Codreanus instructions, the Legion carried out assassinations of politicians it viewed as corrupt, including Prime Minister Ion G. Duca, simultaneously, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu advocated Romanias adherence to a military and political alliance with Nazi Germany. He was succeeded as leader by Horia Sima, in 1940, under the National Legionary State proclaimed by the Iron Guard, his killing served as the basis for violent retribution. Corneliu Zelea Codreanus views influenced the modern far-right, Corneliu Codreanu was born in Huşi to Elizabeth and Ion Zelea Codreanu son of Neculai born Zelinski. His father, a teacher, would become a political figure within his sons movement. A native of Bukovina in Austria-Hungary, Ion had originally been known as Zelinski, his wife and she was born to Marița Sârghi and Carol Brauner who had Bavarian origins. His paternal great-grandfather, Simion Zelea was a descendant from a family of peasants from the village Igești in the province of Bukovina. When Bukovina was under Polish administration, he was forced by authorities to change his name from Zelea to Zelinski, later in 1902, Ion Zelea Codreanu changed his name from Zelinski to his forefathers name, Zelea. Despite some statements according to which Ion Zelea Codreanu was originally a Slav of Ukrainian or Polish origin, thus, Codreanu the elder associated with antisemitic figures such as University of Iaşi professor A. C. Historian Ilarion Ţiu describes this as an attempt to offend and libel Codreanu, too young for conscription in 1916, when Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, Corneliu nonetheless tried his best to enlist and fight in the subsequent campaign. His education at the school in Bacău ended in the same year as Romanias direct involvement in the war. In this context, the easternmost region of Bessarabia, which united with Romania in 1918, was believed by Codreanu and others to be especially prone to Bolshevik influence. Codreanu inherited his fathers antisemitism, but connected it with anticommunism, in the belief that Jews were, among other things, Codreanus hero from his childhood until the end of his life was Stephen the Great. One awestruck female follower wrote, The Captain came from a world of Good, a medieval knight, a martyr and a hero. Codreanus female followers consistently praised him as a romantic, noble white knight figure who had come to save Romania. Codreanu studied law in Iași, where he began his political career, like his father, he became close to A. C. Codreanus fear of Bolshevik insurrection led to his efforts to address industrial workers himself, historian Adrian Cioroianu defined the early Codreanu as a quasi-demagogue agitator
21.
Nicolae Titulescu
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Nicolae Titulescu was a well-known Romanian diplomat, at various times government minister, finance and foreign minister, and for two terms President of the General Assembly of the League of Nations. Nicolae Titulescu was born in Craiova, the son of a solicitor and he passed through his childhood at his fathers estate in Titulești, Olt County. Upon graduating with honours in 1900 from the Carol I High School in Craiova, he studied law in Paris, in 1905, Titulescu returned to Romania as a professor of law at the University of Iași, and in 1907 he moved to Bucharest. Following the Romanian elections of 1912, he became a parliamentarian with the Conservative-Democrat Party led by Take Ionescu, from 1927 to 1928, Titulescu was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Beginning in 1921, Titulescu functioned as the permanent representative of Romania to the League of Nations in Geneva and he was chosen twice to be the president of that organization. In 1935, Titulescu was elected a member of the Romanian Academy. He jumped to his feet and shouted, To the door with the savages, later in 1936, King Carol II removed Titulescu from all official positions, asking him to leave the country. Settling first in Switzerland, he moved to France. He returned to Romania in November 1937, partly through the efforts of Iuliu Maniu, in 1937, Titulescu again left Romania and took refuge in France. At Cannes, he denounced the Romanian Fascist regime, in 1941, Nicolae Titulescu died in Cannes following a long illness. In his will, he asked to be buried in Romania, in 1989, after the fall of the communist Romanian government during the Romanian Revolution, Titulescus request became possible
22.
Ferdinand I of Romania
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Ferdinand I, nicknamed Intregitorul, was King of Romania from 10 October 1914 until his death in 1927. Born in Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany, the Roman Catholic Prince Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, the name was later shortened simply to Hohenzollern after the extinction of the Hohenzollern-Hechingen branch in 1869. The princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen had ruled the principality until 1850, when it was annexed to Prussia, in 1889, the Romanian parliament recognized Ferdinand as a prince of Romania. For agreeing to this, Ferdinand was excommunicated from the Catholic Church, the neighboring Emperor Francis Joseph, monarch of Austria-Hungary and as such, ruler of Transylvania, was Ferdinands grandmothers first cousin. Ferdinand, a stranger in his new home, started to get close to one of Queen Elisabeths ladies in waiting. Elisabeth, very close to Elena herself, encouraged the romance, the affair caused a sort of dynastic crisis, in 1891. Marie and Ferdinand were third cousins in descent from Franz Frederick Anton, Maries paternal grandparents were Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Her maternal grandparents were Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse, the marriage produced 3 sons, Carol, Nicholas and Mircea and 3 daughters, Elisabeta, Maria and Ileana. The marriage was unhappy and the two youngest children, Ileana and Mircea, are generally acknowledged to have been sired by Maries long-time lover. Ferdinand succeeded his uncle on the death as King of Romania on 10 October 1914. He was the 1, 174th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Austria in 1909, thus he gained the nickname the Loyal, respecting his oath when sworn in before the Romanian Parliament in 1914, I will reign as a good Romanian. As a consequence of this betrayal toward his German roots, Kaiser Wilhelm II had Ferdinands name erased from the Hohenzollern House register. Despite the setbacks after the entry into war, when Dobruja and Wallachia were occupied by the Central Powers, Romania fought in 1917, when the Bolsheviks sued for peace in 1918, Romania was surrounded by the Central Powers and forced to conclude the Treaty of Bucharest,1918. However, Ferdinand refused to sign the treaty, when the Allied forces advanced on the Thessaloniki front, they knocked Bulgaria out of the war, and Ferdinand ordered the re-mobilization of the Romanian Army. Romania re-entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente, the outcome of Romanias war effort was the union of Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania in 1918. A new period of Romanian history began on the day of the Union of Transylvania with Romania and this period would eventually come to an end with the international treaties that led up to World War II. These ceded parts of Romania to its neighbors, as such, they are widely seen as an attempt to provoke the country into taking sides and joining the war. Domestic political life during his reign was dominated by the conservative National Liberal party led by the brothers Ion, the acquisition of Transylvania ironically enlarged the electoral base of the opposition, whose principal parties united in January 1925 – October 1926 to form the National Peasant Party
23.
Michael I of Romania
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Michael I reigned as King of Romania from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and again from 6 September 1940 until his abdication on 30 December 1947. Shortly after his birth, Michaels father Prince Carol had become involved in a relationship with Magda Lupescu. In 1925, Carol was eventually pressured to renounce his rights to the throne, in 1927, Michael ascended the throne following the death of his grandfather, Ferdinand I. As he was still a minor, a council was instituted which composed of his uncle, Prince Nicholas, the Patriarch Miron Cristea. The council proved to be ineffective and in 1930, Carol returned to Romania, as a result, Michael returned to being heir apparent to the throne and was given the additional title of Grand Voievod of Alba-Iulia. Carol II was deposed in 1940, and Michael once again became king, under the government led by the military dictator Ion Antonescu, Romania became aligned with Nazi Germany. In 1944, Michael participated in a coup against Antonescu, appointed Constantin Sănătescu as his replacement, in March 1945, political pressures forced Michael to appoint a pro-Soviet government headed by Petru Groza. From August 1945 to January 1946, Michael went on a strike and unsuccessfully tried to oppose Grozas Communist-controlled government by refusing to sign. In November, Michael attended the wedding of his cousins, the future Queen Elizabeth II, shortly thereafter, on the morning of 30 December 1947, Groza requested a meeting with Michael where he was forced to abdicate. Michael was forced into exile, confiscated of his properties, and he married Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma in 1948 with whom he had five daughters and eventually settled in Switzerland. Nicolae Ceaușescus communist dictatorship collapsed in 1989 and the following year Michael attempted to return to Romania only to be arrested and forced to leave upon arrival. In 1992, Michael was allowed to visit Romania for Easter where he was greeted by huge crowds, alarmed by Michaels popularity, the government refused to allow Michael further visits. In 1997, after Iliescus defeat by Emil Constantinescu, Michaels citizenship was restored, several confiscated properties, such as Elisabeta Palace, were eventually returned to his family. He is the last surviving monarch or other head of state from the Interwar period, although often called the last surviving head of state from World War II, this ignores the childhood reigns of King Simeon II of Bulgaria and the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. Michael was born at Foișor Castle, Sinaia, Romania, the son of Carol II of Romania and he was born as the grandson of then-reigning King Ferdinand I of Romania. When Carol eloped with his mistress Elena Magda Lupescu and renounced his rights to the throne in December 1925, Michael succeeded to the throne of Romania upon Ferdinands death in July 1927. A regency, which included his uncle, Prince Nicolae, Patriarch Miron Cristea, and the countrys Chief Justice functioned on behalf of the 5-year-old Michael, when he succeeded Ferdinand in 1927. In November 1939, Michael joined the Romanian Senate, as the 1938 Constitution guaranteed him a seat there upon reaching the age of eighteen
24.
Decebalus
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Decebalus was the last king of Dacia. He is famous for fighting three wars, with varying success, against the Roman Empire under two emperors, after raiding across the Danube, he defeated a Roman invasion in the reign of Domitian, securing a period of independence during which Decebalus consolidated his rule. When Trajan came to power, his armies invaded Dacia to weaken its threat to Roman border territory and he remained in power as a client king, but continued to assert his independence, leading to a final and overwhelming Roman invasion in 105. Trajan reduced the Dacian capital Sarmizegetusa in 106, absorbing Dacia into the Empire, Decebalus committed suicide to avoid capture. After the death of Great King Burebista, Dacia split into four, then five, nothing is known about Decebalus youth or background. Decebalus appears to have risen to prominence in the court of the Dacian king Duras, an ancient Dacian pot bearing the words “Decebalus per Scorilo” led to the suggestion that this might mean Decebalus son of Scorilo. According to Lucian Boia this suggestion was originally a scholarly joke and it has been suggested that Scorilo may be identical to the Coryllus or Scorillus identified by Jordanes as a Dacian king prior to Duras. Duras may have been Decebalus uncle, having taken over the throne by right on his brothers death. In 85 the Dacian army began minor raids upon the heavily fortified Roman province of Moesia, in 86 King Duras ordered a more vigorous attack south into Moesia. Roman sources refer to the attack being led by Diurpaneus, many authors have taken this person to be Duras himself, and refer to him as Duras-Diurpaneus. Other scholars argue that Duras and Diurpaneus are different individuals, or that Diurpaneus is identical to Decebalus, recent sources take the view that Diurpaneus is most likely Decebalus. The Dacians defeated and killed Oppius Sabinus, the governor of Moesia, Domitian took command to deal with the problem himself, arriving with his general, prefect of the Praetorian Guards, Cornelius Fuscus. Domitian pushed back the Dacians from Moesia, then returned to Rome to celebrate a Triumph, Fuscus advanced into Dacia, but his four or five legions suffered a major defeat when ambushed by the forces of Decebalus. Two Roman legions were ambushed and defeated at a pass the Romans called Tapae. Fuscus was killed, and Decebalus was crowned king after the aging Duras abdicated, Dio Cassius described Decebalus as follows, Fuscus was replaced by Tettius Julianus. In 88 Julianus commanded another Roman army under Domitian against the Dacians, needing the troops in Moesia, Domitian agreed to peace terms with Decebalus. He agreed to pay large sums in tribute to the Dacians for maintaining peace. Decebalus sent his brother Diegis to Rome to accept a diadem from the Emperor, Decebalus victory greatly increased his prestige
25.
Nicolae Paulescu
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Nicolae Constantin Paulescu was a Romanian physiologist, professor of medicine, and politician, most famous for discovering insulin, who worked on pancreine. The pancreine was an extract of bovine pancreas in salted water, after which some impurites were removed with hydrochloric acid, Paulescu was also, with A. C. Cuza, co-founder of the National Christian Union and later, of the National-Christian Defense League in Romania, born in Bucharest, he was the first of four children of father Costache Paulescu and mother Maria Paulescu. He displayed remarkable abilities as early as his first school years and he also had a particular gift for drawing and music and special inclinations towards natural sciences, such as physics and chemistry. He graduated from the Mihai Viteazul High School in Bucharest, in 1888, in the autumn of 1888, Paulescu left for Paris, where he enrolled in medical school. In 1897 he graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree, and was appointed as assistant surgeon at the Notre-Dame du Perpétuel-Secours Hospital. Vincent de Paul Hospital in Bucharest, in 1916, he succeeded in developing an aqueous pancreatic extract which, when injected into a diabetic dog, proved to have a normalizing effect on blood sugar levels. Shortly after completing the experiments, he was called to service in the Romanian army, after World War I, he resumed his research. The influence of the time elapsed from the intravenous injection into a diabetic animal. The effect of the pancreatic extract injected into an animal by way of the blood. Paulescu then secured the patent rights for his method of manufacturing pancreine on 10 April 1922 from the Romanian Ministry of Industry, Kleiner in an article published in 1919 in Journal of Biological Chemistry. Using his procedure, Kleiner had been able to demonstrate significant reductions in the concentration of blood, an unsuccessful attempt had been made on January 11,1922, and a successful administration followed on January 25,1922. The Toronto team felt confident in the purity of their insulin and injected it intravenously into the patient, clearing up his glycosuria and ketonuria, Paulescus 1921 papers mentioned that the extract caused toxic side effects on dogs, which made it unusable in humans. Therefore, when he tested his pancreatic extract on humans on February 25,1922, the patients seemed to show some reduction in glycosuria. This apparent success emboldened him to inject his extract intravenously into a patient on March 24. A blood sugar level of zero should have placed the patient into a diabetic coma, but he made no mention of this effect in any of his papers. In contrast, the Toronto team had known for months that dogs could be placed into a diabetic coma by an overdose of insulin, so they prepared orange juice. After Banting and Macleod were awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, however, his claims to priority cannot be sustained
26.
Iuliu Maniu
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Iuliu Maniu was a Romanian politician. Maniu was born to an ethnic Romanian family in Szilágybadacsony, Austria-Hungary, his parents were Ioan Maniu and Clara Maniu. He finished the Calvinist College in Zalău in 1890, and studied Law at the Franz Joseph University, then at the University of Budapest and that of Vienna, being awarded the doctorate in 1896. Maniu joined the Romanian National Party of Transylvania and Banat, became a member of its collective leadership body in 1897 and he settled in Blaj, and served as lawyer for the Greek Catholic Church. Maniu was influenced by the activity of Simion Bărnuțiu, an uncle of his father. On December 2, Maniu became head of Transylvanias Directory Council - a position equivalent to interim governorship, after the creation of Greater Romania, the PNR formed the government in Bucharest—a cabinet led by Al. Vaida-Voevod and allied with Ion Mihalaches Peasants Party and it entered in competition with one of the traditional parties of the Romanian Kingdom, the National Liberal Party, and with its leader Ion I. C. Brătianu, when the Peasants Party deadlocked the Parliament of Romania with calls for a land reform. Consequently, Maniu refused to attend King Ferdinands Crowning ceremony as King of Greater Romania, despite its success in elections, the PNȚ was blocked out of government by the Royal Prerogative of King Ferdinand. Maniu publicly protested, and attempted to organize a march on Bucharest as a public show of support modeled on the Alba Iulia assembly. Talks with Carol were ended abruptly after the Romanian authorities called on the United Kingdom to expel the Prince from its territory, the PNȚ first came to power in November 1928, after both King Ferdinand and Brătianu had died. In 1930, Maniu manoeuvered against the Constitution, and, together with Gheorghe Mironescu, brought about Carols return, however, Carol did not respect the terms of his agreement with Maniu, refusing to resume his marriage to Queen Elena. Maniu resigned for the third and final time on 13 January 1933, the country moved towards an authoritarian regime formed around Carol and prompted by the rapid growth of the fascist Iron Guard. In 1937, Maniu agreed to sign a pact with the Iron Guards Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. The PNȚ survived in semi-clandestinity and, after Antonescu purged the Guard, subsequently, Maniu was a prominent supporter of the Western Allies and one of the main adversaries of growing Soviet influence in Romania. His party became the target of PCR hostility. PNȚ supporters and Communists engaged in street fights in February 1945. The PNȚ finished a distant second in the November 1946 general election with 33 seats, later, historian Petre Ţurlea reviewed a confidential Communist Party report about the election
27.
Iuliu Hossu
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Iuliu Hossu was a Romanian Greek-Catholic bishop of the Cluj-Gherla Diocese and later cardinal and victim of the Communist regime. Pope Paul VI elevated Hossu to the rank of cardinal in pectore in 1969 but did not publish his appointment until 1973 and he was arrested by the Communist authorities on 28 October 1948. From 1950 to 1955 he was detained as political prisoner at Sighet prison and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest and died in 1970. He is considered to have died in hatred of his faith and he is referred to as a Servant of God. Iuliu Hossu was born on 30 January 1885 in Milaș in Austria-Hungary to Ioan Hossu, Hossu studied at the seminary of Cluj and later at the seminary of Budapest. He also studied at the University of Vienna in Austria and later at the Pontifical Urbanian Athenaeum in Rome, where he was to obtain doctorates in philosophy in 1906 and he was ordained to the priesthood on 27 March 1910 by Vasile Hossu, his uncle. He completed further studies for a year from 1910 to 1911 and served in the capacity of an archivist, Pope Benedict XV appointed him as the Bishop of Gherla on April 21,1917 and he received his episcopal consecration on 4 December 1917. Hossu was named an Assistant at the Pontifical Throne on 16 September 1936 and he also was the Apostolic Administrator of Oradea Mare from 1941 until 1947 when appointed as such by Pope Pius XII. For his opposition to the government he was forced to flee his diocese on 28 October 1948 but was arrested and he was confined at Jilava, Drogoslavele, Sighet, and Gherla from 1948 to 1964. He was relocated to a monastery near Bucharest from that point until 1970, on 28 April 1969 he was created as a cardinal but Pope Paul VI reserved Hossu in pectore. His elevation into the cardinalate was announced on 5 March 1973 after Hossus death, Hossu died on 28 May 1970 at 9, 00am at Coletina Hospital in Bucharest with Bishop Alexandru Todea at his side. He was buried in Bucharest, his last words recorded as being, My struggle ends, on 7 December 1982, his remains were exhumed and transferred. The beatification process - which conferred the title Servant of God upon him - commenced with the declaration of nihil obstat to the cause on 28 January 1997. The diocesan process delved into his life by collecting documentation and testimonies, and was formally validated by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on 18 February 2011
28.
Emil Cioran
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Emil Cioran was a Romanian philosopher and essayist, who published works in both Romanian and French. Cioran was born in Resinár, Szeben County, which was part of Austria-Hungary at the time and his work has been noted for its pervasive philosophical pessimism, and frequently engaged with issues of suffering, decay, and nihilism. Among his best known works are On the Heights of Despair, Ciorans first French book, A Short History of Decay, was awarded the prestigious Rivarol Prize in 1950. The Latin Quarter of Paris was his permanent residence and he lived much of his life in isolation with his partner Simone Boué, Cioran was born in Resinár, Szeben County, which was part of Austria-Hungary at the time. His father, Emilian Cioran, was an orthodox priest, while his mother, Elvira, was originally from Veneția de Jos, Future Romanian philosopher Constantin Noica and future Romanian thinker Petre Țuțea, became his closest academic colleagues as all studied under Tudor Vianu and Nae Ionescu. Cioran, Eliade, and Țuțea became supporters of the ideas of Nae Ionescu, deemed Trăirism, Cioran had a good command of German. His early studies revolved around Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer, and he became an agnostic, taking as an axiom the inconvenience of existence. Ciorans graduation thesis was on Henri Bergson whom he later rejected, in 1933, he received a scholarship to the University of Berlin, where he came into contact with Klages and Nicolai Hartmann. Cioran’s first book, On the Heights of Despair, was published in Romania in 1934 and it was awarded the Commission’s Prize and the Young Writers Prize for one of the best books written by an unpublished young writer. Successively, The Book of Delusions, The Transfiguration of Romania, Cioran revised The Transfiguration of Romania heavily in its second edition released in the 1990s, eliminating numerous passages he considered extremist or pretentious and stupid. Marta Petreus An Infamous Past, E. M. Cioran and his early call for modernization was, however, hard to reconcile with the traditionalism of the Iron Guard. In 1934, he wrote, I find that in Romania the sole fertile, creative, and invigorating nationalism can only be one which does not just dismiss tradition, but also denies and defeats it. Disapproval of what he viewed as specifically Romanian traits had been present in his works, after coming back from Berlin, Cioran taught philosophy at the Andrei Șaguna high school in Brașov for a year. In 1937, he left for Paris with a scholarship from the French Institute of Bucharest, after a short stay in his home country, Cioran never returned again. He later renounced not only his support for the Iron Guard, but also their nationalist ideas, in 1940, he started writing The Passionate Handbook, and finished it by 1945. It was to be the last book that he would write in Romanian, although not the last to deal with pessimism and misanthropy through delicate, from this point on Cioran only published books in French. In 1949 his first French book, A Short History of Decay, was published by Gallimard and was awarded the Rivarol Prize in 1950, later on, Cioran refused every literary prize with which he was presented. The Latin Quarter of Paris became Cioran’s permanent residence and he lived most of his life in isolation, avoiding the public
29.
Avram Iancu
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Avram Iancu was a Transylvanian Romanian lawyer who played an important role in the local chapter of the Austrian Empire Revolutions of 1848–1849. He was especially active in the Țara Moților region and the Apuseni Mountains, the rallying of peasants around him, as well as the allegiance he paid to the Habsburg got him the moniker Crăișorul Munților. Avram Iancu was born in Vidra de Sus, Transylvania, then part of the Austrian Empire into a family of peasants that had been emancipated from serfdom and his father was Alisandru Iancu and his mother was Maria Gligor. He had one brother, Ion, who became a priest. Avram Iancus grandfather was Gheorghe Iancu, who had seven children, girls - Sântioana, Maria, Zamfira and Ana, boys - Alisandru, Avram, little is known today about Avram Iancus childhood. It is known, by tradition, that he had a typical moț character, joyful and witty and he played well the leaf, alphorn, flute. Avram Iancu attended primary school in his village, in the Târsa hamlet, after a while, he was sent by his parents at the school in Neagra village. Further, he attended the school from Câmpeni, Alba county and he graduated the Câmpeni school at age 13. After this, he went to school in Zlatna, where he studied in a Hungarian school, in the Latin language and his teachers were Iozephus Stanken, Gregorius Iakabus and Ludovicus Kovács. He studied humanities from 1841, in the Piarist College of Cluj, Avram Iancu became a law clerk in Târgu Mureș, and it was there that he learned about the events of March 1848 of Vienna and Pest. In the Apuseni mountains, he started rallying peasants in Câmpeni, the protests he organized were recognized as peaceful by the authorities, but nevertheless worried them. In Blaj both opted for the main, radical wing of the movement, centered on Alexandru Papiu Ilarian, the group opposed the Hungarian revolutionary option of uniting Transylvania and Hungary. It got into conflict with the minority wing around Greek-Catholic Bishop Ioan Lemeni, while the union was carried of on May 30,1848, the majority of Romanian activists looked towards Vienna and Emperor Ferdinand, sharing the cause of the Transylvanian Saxons. Things became heated after July 11, when Hungary declared its independence, austria started to open itself to the Romanian demands, while bloody conflicts ensued between the Hungarian nobles and their Romanian serfs. The last Assembly in Blaj saw the Habsburg governor, Anton Freiherr von Puchner, on September 27, the lynching of Austrian plenipotentiary Count Lemberg by a Pest crowd cut off any dialogue between the two centers. Yet they did not declare themselves hostile to the creation of Romanian administrative offices within Transylvania. The territory was organized in prefecturi, with Avram Iancu and Buteanu as two prefects in the Apuseni, Iancus prefecture, the Auraria Gemina, became the most important one as it took over from bordering areas that were never really fully organized. In the same month, the efforts were put to a halt
30.
Burebista
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Burebista was a Thracian king of the Getae and Dacian tribes from 82/61 BC to 44 BC. He was the first king who unified the tribes of the Dacian kingdom. The Dacian kingdom comprises the area located between the Danube, Tisza and Dniester rivers and covering modern day Romania. In the 7th and 6th Centuries BC it became home to the Thracian peoples, including Getae, from the 4th century to the middle of the 2nd century BC the Dacian peoples were influenced by La Tène Celts who brought new technologies with them into Dacia. Sometime in the 2nd century BC, however, the Dacians expelled the Celts from their lands, Dacians often warred with the Getae, however, the relative isolation of the Dacian peoples located around the Carpathian mountains allowed them to survive and even to thrive. By the 1st century BC, the Dacians had become the dominant tribe, as king Burebista pursued both reform and conquest. His second in command, Deceneus, was responsible for the development of religious, creating a caste of priests, brought about sobriety into the Dacian kingdom, and unified the tribes. During this time Burebista built a system of citadels throughout the Orăştie Mountains and these citadels were of a Greek military architecture. Their function was to secure the obedience of the Dacian peoples internally, from 61 BC onwards, Burebista pursued a series of conquests that expanded the Dacian kingdom. The tribes of the Boii and Taurisci were destroyed early in his campaigns, further pursuing the conquest of the Bastarnae and he led raids throughout Thrace, Macedonia and Illyria. In 61 BC he may also have involved in the Battle of Histria. From 55 BC, the Greek cities on coast of the Black Sea were conquered one after another and these campaigns inevitably culminated in conflict with Rome in 48 BC when Burebista gave his support to Pompey. In turn this made him an enemy to Caesar who became determined to start a campaign against Dacia and this plan fell through in 44 BC when he was assassinated. Soon after, Burebista himself was assassinated in a plot by the tribal aristocracy, after Burebistas death, the empire he had created dissolved into smaller kingdoms. From the reign of Tiberius to Domitian, Dacian activity was reduced into a defensive state, the Romans abandoned plans of mounting an invasion against Dacia. In 86 AD, however, the king Decebalus successfully re-united the Dacian kingdom under his control, Domitian planned a hasty invasion against the Dacians which ended in disaster. A second invasion later brought peace between Rome and Dacia for nearly a decade, until in 98 AD Trajan became emperor, Trajan also pursued two conquests of Dacia, the first in 101–102 AD which concluded in a Roman victory. Decebalus was forced to agree to terms of peace, but
31.
Marie of Romania
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Princess Marie of Edinburgh, more commonly known as Marie of Romania, was the last Queen consort of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinand I. Born into the British royal family, she was titled Princess Marie of Edinburgh at birth and her parents were Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. Maries early years were spent in Kent, Malta and Coburg, after refusing a proposal from her cousin, the future King George V, she was chosen as the future wife of Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania, the heir apparent of King Carol I, in 1892. Marie was Crown Princess between 1893 and 1914, and became popular with the Romanian people. After the outbreak of World War I, Marie urged Ferdinand to ally himself with the Triple Entente and declare war on Germany, during the early stages of fighting, Bucharest was occupied by the Central Powers and Marie, Ferdinand and their five children took refuge in Moldavia. There, she and her three daughters acted as nurses in hospitals, caring for soldiers who were wounded or afflicted by cholera. On 1 December 1918, the province of Transylvania, following Bessarabia and Bukovina, Marie, now Queen consort of Greater Romania, attended the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, where she campaigned for international recognition of the enlarged Romania. In 1922, she and Ferdinand were crowned in a cathedral in the ancient city of Alba Iulia, in an elaborate ceremony which mirrored their status as queen. As queen, she was popular, both in Romania and abroad. In 1926, Marie and two of her children undertook a tour of the United States. They were received enthusiastically by the people and visited several cities before returning to Romania, there, Marie found that Ferdinand was gravely ill and he died a few months later. Now queen dowager, Marie refused to be part of the council which reigned over the country under the minority of her grandson. In 1930, Maries eldest son Carol, who had waived his rights to succession, deposed his son and usurped the throne and he removed Marie from the political scene and strived to crush her popularity. As a result, Marie moved away from Bucharest and spent the rest of her either in the countryside. In 1937, she became ill with cirrhosis and died the following year, following Romanias transition to a Socialist Republic, the monarchy was excoriated by communist officials. In the years preceding the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Maries popularity recovered, Marie is primarily remembered for her work as a nurse, but is also known for her extensive writing, including her critically acclaimed autobiography. She was born at her parents residence, Eastwell Manor in Kent, on 29 October 1875 and her birth was celebrated by firing the Park and Tower guns. She was named Marie Alexandra Victoria, after her mother and grandmothers, the Duke of Edinburgh wrote that his daughter promises to be as fine a child as her brother and gives every evidence of finely developed lungs and did so before she was fairly in the world
32.
Corneliu Coposu
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Corneliu Coposu was a conservative Romanian politician. Cornel Coposu was born in Nagyderzsida, Szilágy County in that time in Austria-Hungary to the Romanian Greek-Catholic archpriest Valentin Coposu, corneliu had four sisters, Cornelia, Doina, Flavia Bălescu, and Rodica. After studying Law and Economy at the University of Cluj, he engaged in politics with the PNRs direct successor, the National Peasants Party. He became private secretary of Iuliu Maniu, the leader of the PNR and PNŢ and he was also active in organizing the party as the main opposition to the Communist Party and the Petru Groza cabinet before the 1946 general election. He was imprisoned without trial for nine years, as all charges brought against him were dismissed due to lack of evidence, in 1956, Coposu was sentenced to life imprisonment for betrayal of the working class and crime against social reforms. In the 1990s, during debates over the number of victims of the Communist regime between 1947 and 1964, Coposu spoke of 282,000 arrests and 190,000 deaths in custody. After his release, Coposu started work as a worker on various construction sites. His wife Arlette was also prosecuted in 1950 during a rigged espionage trial, on 22 December 1989, he and Ion Raţiu issued a manifesto that confirmed the PNŢs entry into legality, under the name Christian-Democratic National Peasants Party. For the rest of his life, Coposu was the voice of the opposition to the National Salvation Front. He successfully grouped various organizations into the Romanian Democratic Convention, of which he was the leader between 1991 and 1993 and he was elected to the Senate of Romania in the 1992 general election. In 1995, the government of France granted him the Grand Officier de la Légion dHonneur during a ceremony in Bucharest, a staunch monarchist who supported reinstating Mihai I as King of Romania, Coposu nevertheless personally promoted Emil Constantinescu as the CDRs candidate for the presidential office. He died in Bucharest while undergoing treatment for lung cancer, some 100,000 people attended his funeral three days later. He was buried in the Catholic section of Bellu cemetery, one of the main thoroughfares in the capital now bears his name. A bust of Coposu now stands next to Kretzulescu Church, in Revolution Square, in a 2006 poll conducted by Romanian Television to identify the greatest Romanians of all time, Coposu came in 39th. Distrugerea ţărănimii, in Jurnalul Naţional Adrian Cioroianu, Pe umerii lui Marx
33.
Aurel Vlaicu
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Aurel Vlaicu was a Romanian engineer, inventor, airplane constructor and early pilot. Aurel Vlaicu was born in the village of Binţinţi near Geoagiu in Transylvania, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and he attended a Calvinist high school in Orăştie and took his Baccalaureate in Sibiu in 1902. He was a school colleague of Petru Groza, and in Sibiu became friends with Octavian Goga. Vlaicu furthered his studies at Technical University of Budapest and Technische Hochschule München in Germany, between 1907 and 1908 Vlaicu served in the Austro-Hungarian Navy, and on September 1,1908 he took an engineers position with the Opel car factory in Rüsselsheim. Vlaicu left Opel in March 1909 and returned to Binţinţi, where, together with his brother, Ion, on November 1,1909 he began the construction of his first powered airplane, the A. Vlaicu Nr. I at the Army Arsenal in Bucharest with funding from the Romanian Ministry of War, I flew for the first time on June 17,1910 over Cotroceni airfield. The construction of A. Vlaicu Nr. II was started in December 1910 on a budget of 16,000 lei, between 23 and 30 June 1912 Vlaicu competed with it at the International Flight Week in Aspern-Vienna, against 42 other aviators, including Roland Garros. Vlaicu won prizes totaling 7,500 Austro-Hungarian krone for precision landing, projectile throwing, on this occasion, he was issued the FAI pilot license number 52. On return from Aspern he flew demonstration flights throughout Transylvania, III was a two-seat monoplane having a fully cowled 80 hp Gnome Gamma engine. Built on contract for the Marconi Company for experiments with aerial radio and it was completed by his friends and several short test flights were made during 1914 by military pilot Petre Macavei. Further tests were hindered by the unusual controls, during his short career, Aurel Vlaicu designed and built one glider and three airplanes of his own design. He perfected his design on rubber powered models he began experimenting with while a student in Munich. They employ tricycle-landing gears with independent trailing arm suspension, had brakes on the rear wheel and his airplanes lacked ailerons, relying on just rudder and elevators for control, via a steering wheel mounted on a tiller. The wheel controlled the elevators while sideways motion of the tiller controlled the rudder, the wheel could be temporarily locked with the help of two dowels. The low center of gravity provided by the wing allowed for the lateral stability that this type of control system requires. Aurel Vlaicu died on September 13,1913 near Câmpina, on the outskirts of Bănești commune while attempting to be the first to fly across the Carpathian Mountains in his now aged A. Vlaicu Nr. He was expected to participate in the ASTRA festivities in Orăștie and he was buried in Bellu cemetery, in Bucharest and was posthumously elected to the Romanian Academy in 1948. The cause of Vlaicus crash remains unsolved, vlacus friends Giovanni Magnani and Constantin Silisteanu dismissed claims of sabotage, the two being among the first to inspect the wreckage as they were following him in an automobile
34.
Iosif Trifa
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Iosif Trifa was a Romanian Orthodox priest and evangelist. He was also the uncle of Valerian Trifa, Trifa placed on the 100 greatest Romanians list. Iosif Trifa was born in the family of Dimitrie and Ana Trifa, from the village Certege and he is the 4th son of a total of 6. He was baptised on 6 March 1888, when he was 7 years old, in 1895, he starts elementary school in his village, and in 1900 starts gymnasium in Beius. Later on, he studies theology in Sibiu, in 1910 he is named a confessional teacher in the town of Vidra de Sus. Vidra de Sus is the current town of Avram Iancu, Alba, in 1911 he marries Iuliana Iancu, niece to the hero Avram Iancu. In the same year he is made priest in Vidra, in 1912 his first child, a girl, Olimpia, is born, but she dies the following year. In 1914 his second child, a boy this time - Titus Gheorghe, is born and this year also coincides with the start of the first World War I, and Ardealul passes under Austro-Hungarian occupation. In 1916, his child is born, a boy. This child is the one who survives. In 1918, his child, a girl Augustina is born. World War I ends, but the Spanish flu endemic kills both his wife Iuliana, and his daughter Augustina and he is left only with his son, Tit, who at the time is three years old
35.
Corneliu Vadim Tudor
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Corneliu Vadim Tudor was the leader of the Greater Romania Party, poet, writer, journalist and a Member of the European Parliament. He was a Romanian Senator from 1992 to 2008 and he was born and died in Bucharest. As a political figure, he was known for having strong nationalist views. He was most commonly referred to as Vadim, which was a name he selected for himself, Tudor was born in Bucharest on 28 November 1949 into a working-class family, his father being a tailor. In his youth being an admirer of the French film director Roger Vadim, in 1971, he received a degree in sociology from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Bucharest, and in 1975, he studied at the School for Reserve Officers in Bucharest. With the help of his mentor, Herder Prize winner Eugen Barbu, he obtained a scholarship and he served as senator from 1992–2008. For the first time since 1990, after the election of 30 November 2008, he, on 25 September 2001, Tudor renounced his parliamentary immunity from prosecution. Wiesel said he was returning the honor because he could not accept being placed on the level as Tudor. According to the conservative newspaper Ziua, Tudors Steaua României appointment was revoked by Romanian president Traian Băsescu in May 2007, Tudor consequently announced that he would sue Traian Băsescu for abuse of power. As a poet he made his debut in May 1965 at the radio station with a poem read in the George Calinescu literary circle. Tudor was married with two children and he died of a heart attack on 14 September 2015 in his native Bucharest. In June 1990, Tudor and Eugen Barbu founded the nationalist weekly magazine România Mare – begun as a magazine favorable to the policies of the government, latter evidence affirmed that the release of the Greater Romania was helped by the left-wing administration in Bucharest. In 1991, they founded the Greater Romania Party, the platform of which Time magazine described as a mixture of anti-Semitism, racism. Some statements and articles by Tudor and his colleagues can be described as ultra-nationalist, anti-Hungarian, anti-Roma, România Mare has been sued for libel with stunning frequency, often for Tudors own writings. Between 1993 and 1996, his party supported the leftist governmental coalition, Tudors and his partys change from national communism to ultranationalism took place after 1996. This allegation only served to increase his popularity, in the first round of the Romanian presidential elections on 26 November 2000, Tudor finished second with 28% of the vote. However, nearly all other parties backed Ion Iliescu in the 11 December runoff, Tudor supported Romanias entry into the European Union and sustained its presence in NATO. In 2003, Tudor claimed to have changed his views on Jews, many publicly questioned the sincerity and motivations of this change, viewing it simply as a political ploy
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