One Moscow historian’s view on the Relations of the Danube Principalities with the Ottoman Empire and with Russia
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. II [XVII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
The work by L.E. Semionova entitled „The Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. The end of the 14th and beginning of the 19th centuries. (Sketches of the history of foreign policy). Moscow, 2006” is on the list of books relating to the history of the Danube principalities recently published in Russia. The book contains sketches written by the author at different times.
One of the larger sketches is dedicated to the problem of „capitulation” and relations of the Danube Principalities with the Ottoman Empire.
The author proceeds from the biased opinion that Muslim canons forbid to sign Capitulation agreements conferring rights and privileges. Based on this opinion, the author of the book simply ignores abundant sources which testify to the existence of such documents concerning the Danube Principalities as well as other countries, though the author states that she used all the known sources.
Attempt of the author made to solve the question about the Origin of Capitulation based on unpublished sources of the 18th c. from the Russian archives was doomed to failure beforehand, inasmuch „capitulations” practically appear at the same time as Islam.
In fact, the author tried to establish the appearance of the forged „capitulation” texts relating to the Danube Principalities. However her arguments that these texts couldn’t appear before or after the Focsani Congress are unconvincing. And the general conclusion that these texts were drawn up in the last decades of the 18th century is known as early as the beginning of the 20th century.
Several sketches of the book are dedicated to the relations of the Danube Principalities with Russia in the 17th and beginning of the 19th centuries. Trying to cover the question of the formation of the pro-Russian orientation of the local boyars, especially in Moldavia, L.E. Semionova follows some of the Soviet authors of the 50ies of the 20th. As a matter of fact, material produced by the author was compared with other sources that testify to the most likely “pro-Christian” orientation of the Moldavian politicians and their assurances to form part of Russia or be under its patronage relate to tactics and strategy. Their true intentions lied in preservation of their State system and abolition of the Ottoman suzerainty. The book also contains a number of contradictory conclusions and factual mistakes.
Proceeding from the foregoing, unfortunately the book published in 2006 does not reflect the contemporary scientific opinion on the many subjects under discussion. That’s why this book can’t serve as a valuable basis for further scientific research.
The item is the lower part of a leg of a festive table made of white and gray marble. In the upper part, it has a protrusion, similar to a Doric capital, on the horizontal platform of which a square recess is engraved, designed to fix the second part of the leg (upper). The lower part of the leg is made in an anthropomorphic style, and, in our opinion, there are two variants of identifying the depicted character...
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The item is the lower part of a leg of a festive table made of white and gray marble. In the upper part, it has a protrusion, similar to a Doric capital, on the horizontal platform of which a square recess is engraved, designed to fix the second part of the leg (upper). The lower part of the leg is made in an anthropomorphic style, and, in our opinion, there are two variants of identifying the depicted character. The first involves the image of the head of the young Heracles (Heracles - Ἡρακλῆς) (beardless), the most favorite hero of antiquity, wearing on his head the skin of the Nemean lion - Λέων της Νεμέας, a vicious monster from Greek mythology who lived in Nemea and was eventually killed by Heracles. The first labor of Heracles, of the twelve set by King Eurystheus (his cousin), was to kill the Nemean lion and bring his skin to the king. It is also known from Greek mythology that the lion of Nemea took the form of a beautiful woman in order to seduce the inhabitants of neighboring villages, who wanted to save the girl from danger. Upon entering the cave, a man saw the woman, who usually pretended to be wounded, and rushed to help her. When he approached her, the woman turned into a lion and killed him. Then the lion devoured the man, giving his bones to Hades - ᾍδης, the god of Hell, who lived in the kingdom of shadows. The second version of the anthropomorphic image interpretation suggests Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia in the second half of the 4th century BC, one of the most famous heroes of the Greek world, who sometimes is depicted as Hercules - wearing a lion's skin. Some researchers consider the custom of wearing the skin of a slain lion a sign of royal power. The word βασιλεύς itself, translated from ancient Greek, means "walking the path of the lion", that is, the king. This title was held by the Greek kings from the Homeric period, and later, starting from the 7th century AD - by the Byzantine emperors.
