Romanians are not the first and not the last nation that is very attached to myths and alternative history. Universal fictional stories date back to ancient times. Why do they cling so strongly to a large stratum of the population today, well, a serious question mark appears here.

It was to answer such a question that I invited the historian Mihai-Florin Hasan, a professor at the Orthodox College “Metropolitan Mykolay Kolan” in Cluj-Napoca, to the HotNews studio. I asked him to explain what are the biggest myths related to the history of Romanians, how they spread and how they became so present in the collective consciousness today. Moreover, let’s dismantle, where appropriate, the historical falsehood, let’s emphasize the one that is, in fact, reality.

The subject is extremely vast, so I could mention only a few of these myths and made-up stories. How the outlaw phenomenon appeared, who achieved the first unification of the Romanian countries, when mercenary armies appeared on the territory of Romania, what was the greatest defeat of the Islamic army against the Christian army, how much truth is there in the accounts of the thousands of Turks impaled by Vlad Shepes, whether Romania is a state with a Masonic origin, etc., all these are questions that our guest tried to answer. You can find out what he said to all this by watching the video.

The main ideas discussed:

• The biggest myths related to the history of Romanians are those that appeared in the second half of the 19th century, from the period of Romanticism, and which, unfortunately, continue in one form or another to this day. These are mainly alternative or fictional stories about the beginnings of Wallachia or Moldova, about the role of Romanians in world history and regional history.
• The bandits were originally military units, mainly recruited by the Hungarian regime. This first happened in the early 16th century, and then they spread. Robbers were recruited, as a rule, from the Hungarian pushat and from the Serbs. Most formed light cavalry troops, which were mainly advanced reconnaissance and pursuit elements in short skirmishes.
• Of all the robbers, of all these social uprooters, about whom each of us once read, I think that the only one who crossed the threshold of an anti-hero was the Siberian Buyor, who robbed in Yassy on the street. late 18th century, early 19th century, and who was executed around 1810, by hanging in front of the Galata Monastery.
• Mercenary troops in Romanian lands do not appear with Mykhailo Khorobry. Mircea the Elder probably also used mercenaries. So, since the end of the 14th century, mercenary units were present on the territory of Romanian lands, not necessarily in such large numbers as in the era of Mihai and Radu Sherban, but they were definitely present.
• Baba Nowac was executed in Cluj as the leader of mercenary gangs. When Mihai stopped paying him, he went to the service of General Basta. Basta was the one who sent the famous letter to Baba Novac, in which he was summoned to Cluj, where he accused him of collaborating with the Ottomans, and there he was handed over to the Sejm.
• The Battle of Vaslui (1475) was, if the published figures are to be believed, one of the greatest defeats of Islam, in terms of the number of soldiers lost, against a Christian army. But as an idea that changed history, we cannot say that it was important. If we talk about the battles in which, say, Islam was stopped, the most important would be the battles of Lepanto (1571), Vienna (1529) and, again, Vienna (1683). In my opinion, these three battles represent the greatest defeat of Islam in its westward expansion.
• The image of thousands of Turks impaled by Vlad Shepesh, this forest of ears of corn, is not a myth, it is reality. As for the various Venetian, Florentine, Milanese, etc. reports that say it, it must have been somewhere around 3km at the shortest distance it traveled. The highest estimate is 8 km. It’s hard for me to say how many characters were staked, but definitely more than a few thousand.
• I believe that the greatest personality in terms of political vision and scale remains Nicolae Belcescu. He was and remains, from my point of view, the greatest personality of modern Romania.
• Romania was, however, a state with a Masonic component. But all states that appear in the middle or at the end of the 19th century are states that had, let’s say, a Masonic component. Let’s not forget that almost all of the founding fathers of the United States were Freemasons. We cannot deny that some people hold certain beliefs that they found very useful in that period and are just as useful today.