Between Empire and Reform: Ştirbei’s Memorandum on the Administration of Wallachia in 1827
Öz
This article re-examines Barbu Ştirbei’s Mémoire sur le système administratif de la Valachie, written in French in December 1827 for the Russian Consulate General in Bucharest. Rather than reading the memorandum merely as a critique of corruption under late Phanariot rule, it interprets the text as a political instrument through which a Wallachian elite sought reform and greater autonomy between Ottoman authority and Russian support. Situated within the diplomatic context following the Treaty of Akkerman and on the eve of the Russo-Ottoman War of 1828-1829, the work argues that Ştirbei’s administrative critique linked internal modernization to Russia’s “civilizing” claims. Drawing on archival sources, it highlights the memorandum’s dual function as both a political manifesto and a plan for reform and repositions Ştirbei as a mediator in the transition toward the Regulamentul Organic order.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Kaynakça
- Archival Sources
- Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Voenno-Istoricheskii Arkhiv - RGVIA (Russian State Military Historical Archive), fond 846, opis’ 16, delo 943.
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