General count Pavel D. Kisselev and the organic regulation in the Danubian principalities

Abstract

The Russian czars —emperors— of the nineteenth century were described
by professor Arthur J. May as autocrats. Some historians consider the reign
of Emperor Nicholas I as a dark period in Russian history and the Nicholas
System as a rival to the Metternich System in their policy of ruthless repression.
The liberal reforms carried out by General Count Pavel D. Kisselev in the
Danubian principalities was a great achievement. This paper tries to reveal some interesting details given by Kisselev’s Russian biograpfaet-A. P. Zalblotskii - Desiatovskii in his two-volume work GrafP. D. Kisselev i ego vremia [= Count P. D. Kisselev and his time], published in St. Petersburg in 1882. Although an aristocrat himself, Kisselev criticized the abuses of his own social class and protected the basic human rights of the oppressed peasants of his time. In parallel to the Organic Regulation — first Romanian constitution— Kisselev greatly contributed to the modernization, even westernization of the Danubian Principalities. According to the great Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga, the Organic Regulation, introduced in Wallachia and Moldavia, possibly paved the way to the eventual political union of these principalities into the Kingdom of
Romania in 1881. In addition, Kisselev also supported the idea that the
Danube should become the natural boundary of the Russian Empire. Facts established by critical evaluation of all available evidence, synthesize
a thorough study of this great man of nineteenth century Eastern Europe.