“We believe and see too clearly that today and tomorrow a giant element wants to lay a hand on us and on you, which will drown us in a short time, so that only traces of our existence will remain. Both sides see that we are threatened with danger and still close, but we cannot understand each other. We do not know for what reason the letter, or simply superbia, twists its sword between us and you so that even in the hour of agony we cannot speak close.’

From a letter from Avram Janka to Colonel Joseph Simonfi, July 1849.

As the national holiday “December 1” approaches, I always think that, despite the enormous social and geopolitical tension accumulated at the beginning of the 20th century, only partially extinguished in the “Great War”, it still happened for Romanians a miracle ” of the Great Union”. So I finished writing about Josephinism and the revolt of Horace[1], and now about Avram Yanka. But I don’t want to predict.

“In his decisions regarding the problems of the Romanian people in Transylvania“historian Zoltan Toth wrote[2], “The court and the municipal authorities have always had in mind the compensatory role that this very large but backward population can play (at the beginning of the 18th century,) in relation to the rebellious Hungarian Protestant element”[3].

In the same way, Toth explains, the Orthodox Serbs (settled in southern Hungary) were also used by the Viennese court, but they still enjoyed imperial privileges, unlike the Transylvanian Romanians, who had the misfortune of being a nation tolerated in the principalities, according to the pact “Unio trium nationum”, concluded in Kapalna in September 1437 between the Hungarians, Saxons and Szeklers – a pact that, unfortunately, was confirmed by the “Diploma of Leopoldin I” (1691).

Unification, i.e. the unification of part of the Transylvanian Romanian Orthodox cult with the Catholic Church, began to offer Romanians another perspective of equality (which the Second Diploma of Leopoldina of 1701 could have strengthened, had it been implemented), as did Joseph II’s Edicts of Religious Toleration (1782) and abolition of serfdom (1785), if they had been applied literally, the emancipation of the Romanian nation from Transylvania would have become a reality in the early 19th century. century. But it didn’t happen like that…

TRANSYLVANIA FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY

The provinces where the Romanians were the majority in the mid-19th century and were incorporated into the Austrian Empire were what was then called the Grand Duchy of Transylvania, to which were added the Banat, Crisana and Maramures, the three known as “Partium”. “, which were included in Hungary. In 1850, the results of a census conducted in the Grand Duchy of Transylvania showed the following: 1,225,619 Romanians (59.4%), 536,843 Hungarians (26%), 192,270 Germans (9.3%), 78,884 Gypsies (3, 8%), 15,606 Jews (0.7%), 7,687 Armenians (0.4%), etc.

The first half of the 19th century Austrian imperial absolutism, approved by Chancellor Clemens Wenzel von Metternich, did not offer much freedom of opinion and assertion not only to the Romanians, who still remained in a position of inferiority in Transylvanian society, but not even to the representatives of the states: Hungarians, Saxons and Szeklers . The Diet, for example, was restored only in 1834, after 23 years of official inactivity.

In the Transylvanian Sejm, in which there were almost no Romanians, the majority of Hungarians opposed the Vienna court and wanted to create a single state – the Kingdom of Hungary – separated from the rule of the Habsburgs together with the Hungarian Principality.

All this time, the Romanians remained true to their immediate ideal — to liberate themselves and join the ranks of privileged nations. The Greek Catholic bishops Ioan Lemeni and the Orthodox Vasile Moga continued to send petitions on this matter to the imperial court in Vienna (1834, 1837, 1842), demanding the fulfillment of the promises of 1701 and 1782.

The year 1842 was a year of trials, because the Transylvanian Sejm, populated mainly by Hungarians, put forward for the imperial signature a draft law according to which Hungarian would become the official language in the province. The bill and the rise of Hungarian nationalism in Transylvania also began to annoy the Saxons[4]pastor Stephan Ludwig Roth gives a polemical answer to the legislators in the Diet, as well as a call for intervention by the imperial authorities[5]:

“The gentlemen from the Cluj Sejm want the office language to be born, and now they are glad that the child was born. There is no need to declare the language as the official language of the country. Because we already had the language Country. It is not a German language, but it is also not a Hungarian language, but a Wallachian language. No matter how much we, the peoples represented in the Diet, squirm, we cannot change anything. Such is the reality.”

Ultimately, King Ferdinand I of Austria rejected the draft law on the official language in the institutions of the Principality of Transylvania in the form approved by the Sejm in February 1848. It should also be noted that in 1847 the Sejm revised the text of the law. the law of 1842, and also approved a new edition, which placed the German language alongside Hungarian during the publication of legal texts and no longer regulated the obligation to switch from German to Hungarian education or to write church records in Hungarian.

Apparently, the Romanian language continued to be despised by the privileged nations. But the most weighty in the eyes of Transylvanian Romanians was the new law on forestry, approved by the Diet in 1847, which set new tasks for serfs and serfs, mostly Romanians.

CHANCELLOR AVRAM YANKA SEES AND UNDERSTANDS PREABINE

On March 15, 1848, a popular uprising broke out in Pest, which marked the beginning of the Hungarian Revolution. Ten days later, in Tirgu Mures, the Hungarian and Romanian “chancellors” meet and sign a memorandum (prepared on March 22) with demands to the emperor in Vienna. Avram Janku participated in the meeting together with Papiou Hilarian and Samuel Porutsiou.

Papiou Hilarian said at the meeting: “As a Romanian, I sign the petition on the condition that, in the event of the achievement of the rights and equality of the people, all nations of different languages ​​in Transylvania and Hungary will be assured of their national existence and their native language, and that liberation from serfdom will be achieved without any monetary reward, because the peasants paid enough…”.

And Samuel Porutsya took the floor: “…let’s not pretend that we are all only Hungarians… Why would God even be Hungarian? We swear by the God of nations!” The observations of both were not taken into account, and the text of the memorandum did not include their point of view. The Hungarian chancellor (Urhazy) replied to Poruc: “Your honor, fellow citizen Poruc, now you are a Hungarian!”[6] Avram Janku could not have a different opinion than that of his colleagues, and apparently the attitude of his Hungarian colleagues upset him very much.

Silviu Dragomir wrote: “Avram Janku was probably one of the young people who fought particularly hard during these outbreaks of violence. He shows full understanding of the aspirations of the Hungarian people and believes that it is in the interests of both nations to reach a fair agreement. .. His deep conviction was that in Transylvania and Hungary the Hungarians cannot ensure their existence and future without the Romanians, but neither can the Romanians without the Hungarians.”.

On March 24-25, 1848, Simeon Bernucciu wrote a manifesto called “Provocation”.[7]through which he openly opposes the ideas of the Hungarian revolutionaries about the unification of Hungary with Transylvania:

“Hungarians are calling Transylvanians to unite, Cluj declared with great solemnity that it wants to unite; the Szeklers will do the same, perhaps only the Saxons will not want to. But what will the Romanians do? the question is their life hangs or the death of Romanians This is where all Romanians should open their eyes that now is the time when they will get everything if they use it well and if they use it badly they will lose it all and what is left they will lose their nationality and everything with it.(…)

Until then, we Romanians do not want to talk about this union with you Hungarians, until the Romanian nation is restored to the dignity of the politics that you Hungarians, Szeklers and Saxons have deprived it of. You have done with our people as you wished, you have given in your permits that the Romanians, the oldest nation of Transylvania, only suffer, you have removed them from all the highest positions to this day.

You kept all the fattest ones for yourself, if a Romanian was put in a detention center, you forced him to leave his law to renounce his mother who gave birth to him, they bent him – and because of his nation, which kept him in school with their sweat on your own . It is enough, I do not want to count your sins any further, so that we do not violate their memory of this wonderful triumph of the nations, which was made by God, the lord of the nations, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Today the sweet word of will is heard in all cities, and tomorrow it will be heard in all villages. Today is the day of the resurrection of the nations of the dead! (…)

The Hungarians said the other day: teach us the language, then we will give you rights. Listen, brothers, twisted thoughts! Who authorized them to consolidate language or union rights. Do not believe them, I want to deceive you; answer them, proclaim the Romanian nation, leave it in the Sejm of Transylvania, through representatives elected by Romanians according to the number of our nation, leave Romanians in counties, districts, places, and then we will speak as a nation and you as a nation.

Once again, brothers! Without a nation and a republic, there is only an accursed despotism; the abolition of serfdom, the Romanian nation as a Romanian nation, a national congress in which, first of all, they will understand about their acquisition. No more, no less – this is the first, others will be added; without it even heaven is hell. Cursed forever be any Romanian who dares to enter into any union, until the Romanian nation is proclaimed as a nation that has received sensu politico. Therefore, the Romanian people will not want to know, only if the nation is accepted and serfdom is erased, then we will rest and take care of everyone. Long live the Romanian nation!”

In April 1848, Aron Pumnul prepared an appeal for a great national assembly in Blazh. On Fomin Sunday (April 30), the first meeting takes place, which sets the date of the Great Meeting on May 15, 1848, determining the place on the Square of Freedom Blazh. On the appointed day, Avram Janku arrives in Blazh, for the meeting, at the head of ten thousand mots, organized into groups and led like military formations. The crowd is amazed and cheers them on.

In Blaža, the Romanian nation declares itself independent, and the Diet is asked not to put to a vote the proposal for the union of Transylvania with Hungary, until the Romanians are represented according to their weight, and the Romanian delegates take part in the debate. As is known, the Blazh Proclamation was not accepted by the Hungarian majority, and on May 29, 1848, the Diet voted for the unification of Transylvania and Hungary.

The attitude of the Transylvanian Hungarians, the disdain for the ideals and rights of the majority of Romanians, will create a national split, as a result of which, in a little more than a year, Vienna will gain, and Budapest in part, and Romanians – again you can lose more. Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro