Victor Taki. <i>Russia on the Danube: Empire, Elites, and Reform in Moldavia and Wallachia, 1812–1834</i>

Although Victor Taki’s first book, Tsar and Sultan: Russian Encounters with the Ottoman Empire (based on his postdoctoral research at the University of Alberta), was published by I. B. Tauris in 2016, Russia on the Danube is based on the author’s earlier PhD thesis (supervised by Alfred J. Rieber in 2002–2007). This volume includes some of the author’s previous publications from 2008,1 2013,2 and 2015,3 although for the current book, they have been revised and developed.For the Russian Empire, Wallachia and Moldavia were important gateways to the Balkans. The author explores Russia’s Balkan entanglements from the perspective of the history of empire and nationalism. The book represents the first comprehensive scientific analysis of the Russian Empire’s deliberate policy and mission in the vassal Ottoman principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia; it also delineates their political modernization and institutional and systematic transformation in the early nineteenth century, along with the intervention of Russian tsarist officials and their role in the sociopolitical transformations. The monograph begins with a beautiful description of the political relations between Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary. The introduction is very well written and includes detailed resources from both Romanian and Russian historiography; the author positions Russia as a champion of Orthodox Christians, emphasizing the extent and instruments of Russian “soft power,” and draws a big picture regarding Russian aims in Transylvania, Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, and Scandinavia in the early nineteenth century. The book is divided into seven chapters in a well-organized manner, and the author presents evidence and uses broad sources to support his thesis sufficiently.As mentioned, parts of Chapter 1 are based on Taki’s article first published in The Carl Beck Papers. The role of the principalities in Ottoman bureaucracy and foreign policy is one of the most significant points here. But in the introduction and first two chapters, there is little information about the Ottoman management system in the principalities in the late eighteenth century and before the Règlement Organique (Organic Statutes); however, in order to understand the Ottoman-Russian struggle for influence in the principalities and the adoption of the Organic Statutes, scholars need to read about the Ottoman management approach and methods in Moldavia and Wallachia. The discussion in Chapter 3 on the uprisings and their impact sheds important new light on and provides information about how they played a significant role in the formulation of the principalities. Taki thoroughly analyzes the factors and reasons that affected the political tension and interaction between Russian policymakers and Romanian elites during these elaborations and the adoption of the Organic Statutes in Chapter 5. What is more important is that he discusses the political conjuncture by including lots of archival resources, writings, and petitions, especially between Minchaki, Mirkovich, Orlov, Nesselrode, and Kiselev, from the late 1820s and the early 1830s.In Chapter 4, the author begins with an overview of the discursive construction and deals with the policy of systematic, hierarchical management of the Russian occupation of Moldova and Wallachia on the eve of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829. Although the book title aims to cover between 1812 and 1834, the author also gives detailed information about the early period of Russian policies on the Balkans in the introduction and about the unification of Moldavia and Wallachia after 1834 in the last chapter. What is missing from the general picture, however, is the Ottoman Empire’s relations with the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia; there are many resources with which to explore this relationship, but Taki does not assign special attention to this important issue.Taki uses an impressive array of primary sources from the Russian Archives (especially those from the Archive of the Foreign Policy of Imperial Russia [AVPRI], the Russian State Historical Archive [RGIA], and the Russian State Military Historical Archive [RGVIA]), the National Archive of the Republic of Moldova, and other archives; however, the author has not done as thorough a job in perusing Ottoman archival documents, chronicles, and other secondary sources related to this topic. Considering the long period after the author’s PhD study that underlines the research outlined in this book, it is somewhat surprising that its archival base has not grown to survey sufficient collections from the Ottoman archives. For example, the author uses secondary references to the Hatt-i Sheriff of 1802, published by the Ottoman Empire to guarantee the rights and privileges of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, which is quite significant for this topic, as a reference in many places but does not refer to this document in its original form and translation. On the other hand, the glossary keyword list, which includes twenty-seven terms specifically used to identify the boyars and other officers’ ranks, missions, and related issues, is highly useful for readers, and the two appendices are well presented and give important information about the boyar ranks of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1829, making the book attractive not only to researchers but also to the general public. Some terms about boyar ranks in the appendices also could have been added and described in the glossary part.One of the greatest strengths of this book is its ability to strike a balance to achieve a degree of objectivity that is lacking in a great deal of the scholarship on the Balkans. The book stands as a testament to the beauty and complexity of this historically contested and politically significant region. Another contribution of this book is the stunning variety of firsthand documents and footnotes that support the text. The book will be of interest not only to Russian and Ottoman-area specialists and comparative political scientists but also to historians working on the policies of empires. It should be essential reading not just for historians but for anyone who wants to further their understanding of that elusive concept: the official mind in tsarist Russia. Russia on the Danube makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the period and provides new insight into what happened during the period in Moldavia and Wallachia—this is an important publication that fills a gap. I highly recommend this interesting, well-deserved, and professionally and effectively well-written book to scholars. The best audience for this book is among budding graduate students, researchers, specialists, and the general reader alike.

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