Mihail Kogălniceanu

Mihail Kogălniceanu (; also known as Mihail Cogâlniceanu, Michel de Kogalnitchan; September 6, 1817 – July 1, 1891) was a Romanian liberal statesman, lawyer, historian and publicist; he became Prime Minister of Romania on October 11, 1863, after the 1859 union of the Danubian Principalities under ''Domnitor'' Alexandru Ioan Cuza, and later served as Foreign Minister under Carol I. He was several times Interior Minister under Cuza and Carol. A polymath, Kogălniceanu was one of the most influential Romanian intellectuals of his generation. Siding with the moderate liberal current for most of his lifetime, he began his political career as a collaborator of Prince Mihail Sturdza, while serving as head of the Iași Theater and issuing several publications together with the poet Vasile Alecsandri and the activist Ion Ghica. After editing the highly influential magazine ''Dacia Literară'' and serving as a professor at '' Academia Mihăileană'', Kogălniceanu came into conflict with the authorities over his Romantic nationalist inaugural speech of 1843. He was the ideologue of the abortive 1848 Moldavian revolution, authoring its main document, ''Dorințele partidei naționale din Moldova''.

Following the Crimean War (1853–1856), with Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica, Kogălniceanu was responsible for drafting legislation to abolish Roma slavery. Together with Alecsandri, he edited the unionist magazine '' Steaua Dunării'', played a prominent part during the elections for the ad hoc Divan, and successfully promoted Cuza, his lifelong friend, to the throne. Kogălniceanu advanced legislation to revoke traditional ranks and titles, and to secularize the property of monasteries. His efforts at land reform resulted in a censure vote, leading Cuza to enforce them through a ''coup d'état'' in May 1864. However, Kogălniceanu resigned in 1865, following his own conflicts with the monarch.

A decade after, he helped create the National Liberal Party, before playing an important part in Romania's decision to enter the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878—a choice which consecrated her independence. He was also instrumental in the acquisition, and later colonization, of Northern Dobruja region. During his final years, he was a prominent member and one-time President of the Romanian Academy, and briefly served as Romanian representative to France.

Biography

Early life

Born in Iași, he belonged to the Kogălniceanu family of Moldavian boyars, being the son of ''Vornic'' Ilie Kogălniceanu, and the great-grandson of Constantin Kogălniceanu (noted for having signed his name to a 1749 document issued by Prince Constantine Mavrocordatos, through which serfdom was disestablished in Moldavia). Mihail's mother, Catinca née Stavilla (or Stavillă), was, according to Kogălniceanu's own words, " roma Romanian family in Bessarabia".Gorovei, p.6 The author took pride in noting that "my family has never searched its origins in foreign countries or peoples". Nevertheless, in a speech he gave shortly before his death, Kogălniceanu commented that Catinca Stavilla had been the descendant of "a Genoese family, settled for centuries in the Genoese colony of Cetatea Albă (Akerman), whence it then scattered throughout Bessarabia". Mihail Kogălniceanu
''Dezrobirea țiganilor, ștergerea privilegiilor boierești, emanciparea țăranilor''
(wikisource)

During Milhail Kogălniceanu's lifetime, there was confusion regarding his exact birth year, with several sources erroneously indicating it as 1806; in his speech to the Romanian Academy, he acknowledged this, and gave his exact birth date as present in a register kept by his father. It was also then that he mentioned his godmother was Marghioala Calimach, a Callimachi boyaress who married into the Sturdza family, and was the mother of Mihail Sturdza (Kogălniceanu's would-be protector and foe).

Kogălniceanu was educated at Trei Ierarhi monastery in Iași, before being tutored by Gherman Vida, a monk who belonged to the Transylvanian School, and who was an associate of Gheorghe Șincai. He completed his primary education in Miroslava, where he attended the Cuénim boarding school.Anineanu, p.62; Gorovei, p.9; Maciu, p.66 It was during this early period that he first met the poet Vasile Alecsandri (they studied under both Vida and Cuénim), Costache Negri and Cuza."Mihail Kogălniceanu"
, in th

, at the Ohio University; retrieved November 29, 2011 At the time, Kogălniceanu became a passionate student of history, beginning his investigations into old Moldavian chronicles.Gorovei, p.9

With support from Prince Sturdza, Kogălniceanu continued his studies abroad, originally in the French city of Lunéville (where he was cared for by Sturdza's former tutor, the ''abbé'' Lhommé), and later at the University of Berlin. Nicolae Iorga
''Histoire des relations entre la France et les Roumains''
(wikisource)
''La Monarchie de juillet et les Roumains''
/ref> Among his colleagues was the future philosopher Grigore Sturdza, son of the Moldavian monarch. His stay in Lunéville was cut short by the intervention of Russian officials, who were supervising Moldavia under the provisions of the ''Regulamentul Organic'' regime, and who believed that, through the influence of Lhommé (a participant in the French Revolution), students were being infused with rebellious ideas; all Moldavian students, including Sturdza's sons and other noblemen, were withdrawn from the school in late 1835, and reassigned to Prussian education institutions.

File:Ilie Kogalniceanu.jpg, Ilie Kogălniceanu
File:Catinca Stavilla.jpg, Catinca Stavilla
File:Kogalniceanu youth.jpg, Mihail Kogălniceanu in cadet uniform at age 18

In Berlin

During his period in Berlin, he came in contact with and was greatly influenced by Friedrich Carl von Savigny, Alexander von Humboldt, Eduard Gans, and especially Professor Leopold von Ranke,Vianu, Vol.II, p.273-277 whose ideas on the necessity for politicians to be acquainted with historical science he readily adopted. In pages he dedicated to the influence exercised by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel on Romanian thought, Tudor Vianu noted that certain Hegelian-related principles were a common attribute of the Berlin faculty during Kogălniceanu's stay. He commented that, in later years, the politician adopted views which resonated with those of Hegel, most notably the principle that legislation needed to adapt to the individual spirit of nations.

Kogălniceanu later noted with pride that he had been the first of Ranke's Romanian students, and claimed that, in conversations with Humboldt, he was the first person to use the modern equivalents French-language of the words "Romanian" and "Romania" (''roumain'' and ''Roumanie'')—replacing the references to "Moldavia(n)" and " Wallachia(n)", as well as the antiquated versions used before him by the intellectual Gheorghe Asachi; historian Nicolae Iorga also noted the part Kogălniceanu played in popularizing these references as the standard ones.

Kogălniceanu was also introduced to Frederica, Duchess of Cumberland, and became relatively close to her son George of Cumberland and Teviotdale, the future ruler of Hanover. Initially hosted by a community of the Huguenot diaspora, he later became the guest of a Calvinist pastor named Jonas, in whose residence he witnessed gatherings of activists in favor of German unification (''see Burschenschaft''). According to his own recollections, his group of Moldavians was kept under close watch by Alexandru Sturdza, who, in addition, enlisted Kogălniceanu's help in writing his work ''Études historiques, chrétiennes et morales'' ("Historical, Christian and Moral Studies"). During summer trips to the Pomeranian town of Heringsdorf, he met the novelist Willibald Alexis, whom he befriended, and who, as Kogălniceanu recalled, lectured him on the land reform carried out by Prussian King Frederick William III. Later, Kogălniceanu studied the effects of reform when on visit to Alt Schwerin, and saw the possibility for replicating its results in his native country.

Greatly expanding his familiarity with historical and social subjects, Kogălniceanu also began work on his first volumes: a pioneering study on the Romani people and the French-language ''Histoire de la Valachie, de la Moldavie et des Valaques transdanubiens'' ("A History of Wallachia, Moldavia, and of Transdanubian Vlachs", the first volume in a synthesis of Romanian history), both of which were first published in 1837 inside the German Confederation. He was becoming repulsed by the existence of Roma slavery in his country, and in his study, cited the example of active abolitionists in Western countries.

In addition, he authored a series of studies on Romanian literature. He signed these first works with a Francized version of his name, ''Michel de Kogalnitchan'' ("Michael of Kogalnitchan"), which was slightly erroneous (it used the partitive case twice: once in the French particle "de", and a second time in the Romanian-based suffix "-an").

Raising the suspicions of Prince Sturdza after it became apparent that he sided with the reform-minded youth of his day in opposition to the ''Regulamentul Organic'' regime, Kogălniceanu was prevented from completing his doctorate, and instead returned to Iași, where he became a princely adjutant in 1838.

In opposition to Prince Sturdza

Over the following decade, he published a large number of works, including essays and articles, his first editions of the Moldavian chroniclers, as well as other books and articles, while founding a succession of short-lived periodicals: ''Alăuta Românească'' (1838), ''Foaea Sătească a Prințipatului Moldovei'' (1839), ''Dacia Literară'' (1840), ''Arhiva Românească'' (1840), ''Calendar pentru Poporul Românesc'' (1842), ''Propășirea'' (renamed ''Foaie Științifică și Literară'', 1843), and several almanacs. In 1844, as a Moldavian law freed some slaves in Orthodox Church property, his articles announced a great triumph for "humanity" and "new ideas".

Both ''Dacia Literară'' and ''Foaie Științifică'', which he edited together with Alecsandri, Ion Ghica, and Petre Balș, were suppressed by Moldavian authorities, who considered them suspect. Together with Costache Negruzzi, he printed all of Dimitrie Cantemir's works available at the time, and, in time, acquired his own printing press, which planned to issue the complete editions of Moldavian chronicles, including those of Miron Costin and Grigore Ureche (after many disruptions associated with his political choices, the project was fulfilled in 1852). In this context, Kogălniceanu and Negruzzi sought to Westernize the Moldavian public, with interest ranging as far as Romanian culinary tastes: the almanacs published by them featured gourmet-themed aphorisms and recipes meant to educate local folk about the refinement and richness of European cuisine

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