Dinicu Golescu sau o călătorie cu urmări
Dinicu Golescu or a Journey with Consequences

Summary/Abstract: Dinicu Golescu studied at the Greek Academy in Bucharest and came to hold significant positions in the state apparatus of Wallachia during his lifetime. He served successively as administrator, army commander, and great orator. Driven by the conviction of the necessity for “enlightenment,” he opened a school on his estate in Golești at his own expense—a school that could be attended by young people from all social categories. Together with Ion Heliade Rădulescu, he laid the foundations for the magazine “the Romanian Courier” and the “Literary Society” in Bucharest, endeavors characterized by the same Enlightenment spirit. Golescu vividly describes the bleak situation of the peasantry in Muntenia at the end of the Phanariot regime. The once camouflaging shelter against foreign invasions, the thatched cottage had now become primarily an underground refuge against the arbitrary fiscal agents of the ruling power. “Domnia” (The Rule) had turned into an immense business, and the bill was ultimately paid by the peasantry. The boyars had almost completely lost their old military qualities specific to any aristocracy worthy of the name, and its members vied in servility towards the Phanariot rulers and Ottoman overlords. Westernization and the national liberation movement were phenomena difficult to distinguish or separate until after 1859, or even 1866. It was believed that adopting a conservative position in those years meant opposing national emancipation from foreign rule (Turkish or Russian since 1829 in the Principalities) and the urgent improvement of the situation of the peasantry.

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