Hajduks (outlaws) in Moldavia of modern era
Hajduks (outlaws) in Moldavia of modern era

Summary/Abstract: This article proposes a controversial topic in the history of Romanians, given the fact that between robbers and hajduks most often could not be made a definite delimitation. The “robbers with weapons” for the authorities were thieves, without distinction. The commoner was the one who made immortals some of these robbers by songs, stories, ballads, and transformed them into legendary hajduks. The outlawry appeared in the Southeast European area in the Middle Ages, the hajduk from here being a social vigilante, but also a fighter for national ideals, such as Baba Novac, Codreanu or Ştefan Bujor and Iancu Jianu. Also, in the modern era, there were robbers in Moldavia and the popular tradition shows that there were hajduks as well. We focused on three legendary figures, our incursion going back even beyond 1900: Ion Pietraru, Ion Florea, Pantelimon Toader. The sources are not only those created by the commoner, but also literature, press of the time, old books, studies and articles and archival documents. Two of them ended in tragic death, the last one, Pantelimon, was involved in a resounding trial and returned to the life of householder. But he was not the last hajduk in Moldavia as the famous Niculiţă, Coroi or Balta followed him and many of the fighters in the anti-communist resistance took the name of hajduks.

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