Procesul Memorandului, mitingurile de protest și prima zi a dezbaterilor
The Memorandum Trial, the Protest Rallies and the First Day of Debates

Summary/Abstract: The Memorandum marked the culmination of the struggle for national emancipation of the Romanians in Transylvania in the 19th century. The whole movement brought the Romanian problem to Europe's attention. The Memorandum was a petition signed by the leaders of the Romanians in Transylvania and addressed in 1892 to the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph. The petition presented the consequences of the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian dualism and included the main demands of the Transylvanian Romanians, among which the recognition of political and confessional rights. The Memorandum Trial is one of the most discussed episodes in the entire Memorandum movement. Members of the Executive Committee of the Romanian National Party were sent to trial. The trial took place in Cluj, between April 25 and May 7, 1894, and ended with the conviction of 14 Memorandum leaders. From the very first days, the spirit in which the whole process would take place became manifest: on the one hand, the judges were instructed that the statements and minutes be made in Hungarian, contrary to Law No. 44 of 1868, which guaranteed the use of the mother tongue in court; on the other hand, most of the defendants demanded the application of the law, giving fervent patriotic speeches and making strong pleas for the dignity of the Romanians. From the very beginning, Dr. Vasile Lucaciu adopted a firm attitude, refusing to answer in Hungarian or through the translator and challenging the entire Court of Jurors. Although the members of the Memorandum movement benefited from domestic and international support throughout the trial, in the end they were convicted for conspiracy against the Austro-Hungarian state. As a result of the Memorandum Trial, the issue of Transylvania was discussed more intensely in political and scientific societies and in the European press. In this article we have tried to reconstruct the atmosphere created before the start of the trial and the debates on the first day.

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