Romanian Army in 1877

The Ottoman provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia became autonomous following the Treaty of Adrianople 1829. In 1868 they united to form the nation of Romania which declared its independence at the outset of the Russo-Turkish War in May 1877. This article looks at the Romanian army which played an important part in the eventual Russian victory confirming Romania's independence at the Treaty of Berlin 1878.

OPERATIONS

A Romanian army of 32,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry and 84 guns, organised in 4 divisions was mobilised in May 1877. This freed the Russian army advancing through Romania for the invasion of Bulgaria. After the Russians crossed the Danube the Romanian 4th Division garrisoned Nikopolis.

Following the failure of Russian assaults at the 2nd Battle of Plevna, Prince Charles of Romania responded to Russian pleas for assistance by concentrating an army of 30,000 infantry, 4,500 cavalry and 126 guns at Plevna (see ORBAT). He was given nominal command of all forces at Plevna and the Romanian contingent was commanded by General Cernat.

At the 3rd Battle of Plevna the Romanian 4th Division (supported by the 3rd) captured the Grivitza Redoubt suffering 2,617 casualties. Poor co-ordination of the other assaults resulted in defeat for the allied army and siege operations began. Romanian infantry and artillery played a key role in the successful siege and their cavalry assisted in the investment to the west of Plevna.

After the fall of Plevna the Russian army crossed the Balkans and drove the Turkish army almost to the gates of Istanbul. The Romanian army was engaged in capturing the Turkish garrisons on the Danube and particularly distinguished itself at the Battle of Vidin 12/13 Jan. 1878.

ORGANISATION

There were two types of infantry regiments, Line and Dorobanz (territorial). Brigades usually had one Line and two Dorobanz regiments of two battalions each. In addition each division of two brigades had a rifle (chasseur) battalion and an artillery regiment of six, six gun batteries (5 field and 1 horse). Battalions numbered about 750 effectives in four companies.

Most line regiments were equipped with the excellent American Peabody rifle, although most Dorobanz regiments still had the Dreyse needle-gun. The artillery were equipped with the latest 4pdr and 9pdr Krupp steel guns.

The cavalry consisted of regular (Rossiori) hussar regiments and territorial (Calarashi) regiments. Each regiment had four squadrons of 125 men each.

Henri Marie Coanda - Romanian Inventor

In 1910, in the workshop of Gianni Caproni, he designed and built an aircraft known as the Coandă-1910, which he displayed publicly at the second International Aeronautic Salon in Paris that year. The plane used a 4-cylinder piston engine to power a rotary compressor which was intended to propel the craft by a combination of suction at the front and airflow out the rear instead of using a propeller.

Contemporary sources describe the Coandă-1910 as incapable of flight. Years later, after others had developed jet technology, Coandă started making claims that it was a motorjet, and that it actually flew. According to Charles Gibbs-Smith: "There was never any idea of injecting fuel; the machine never flew; it was never destroyed on test; and Flight noted that it was sold to a Monsieur Weyman." Gibbs-Smith continued, "The claim said that after a disastrous crash (which never happened) Coandă wished to begin a 'second aircraft', but 'his funds were exhausted.' Within a year he was ... exhibiting (in October 1911) a brand new propeller-driven machine at the Reims Concours Militaire..." Other aviation writers accepted Coandă's story of his flight tests with the Coandă-1910.

Constantin Brancusi - Romanian Sculptor

Constantin Brancusi, is a famous Romanian sculptor (b. 1876 Hobita-Pestisani, Gorj, Romania - d. 1957 Paris, France), one of the first great creators in the modern art. In 1894 he entered the Craftsmanships School in Craiova, to go then to the National Fine Arts School in Bucharest (1898-1902), where, for a short while, he studied with Professor Ion Georgescu and then with Vladimir C. Hegel. While a student, he sculpted the bust of Gheorghe Chitu, and a Head of expression and made several reproductions: the Ecorche (together with Dr. Gerota), Vitellius, Laocoon's head.

In 1902 he sculpted Georgescu-Gorjan's bust, and one year later he realised General Dr. Carol Davila's bust, which, in 1912, was to be located in the courtyard of the Bucharest Army's Hospital. In 1904, after going through Budapest, Vienna, Munich (to stay there for a while), and Switzerland, he would eventually arrive in Paris. In France, thanks to a grant received in 1905, he was able to enrol at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Antonin Mercie's class. In 1907 he was admitted for practicing at Rodin's studio. It would not be for long because, out of too much pride and self-confidence, he would leave Rodin's studio, to say of his master that he was a tree in the shadow of which no grass would grow. It was then that Brancusi carved Nicolae Darascu's portrait, Head of A Boy, Agony (1906), and the Prayer and Petre Stanescu's portrait, these latter being ordered as a tombstone at Buzau (1907).

From that time on he would be almost certain of what he was going to do. A delicate shaping, reacting to light, takes him away from the Impressionism -like effects (Rodin) to standing, in the context of just manifesting rationalistic trends such as Cubism, the trial of finding the essential, the non-perishable, the moment escapable elements. Creations such as Cumintenia pamantului/The Wisdom of the Earth, a first version of the Kiss (1907), Somnul/The Sleep (1908), Muza adormita/The Sleeping Muse (1909-1910), Pasarea maiastra (1910), Prometeu/Prometheus (1911), Domnisoara Pogany/Miss Pogany (the 1912-1933 series), Primul pas/The First Step (1913) point to his preferences for archaic art values, for the Black and Maori tribes' art.

It was about this time that he made friends with Amedeo Modigliani. Painter Henri Rousseau, one of his friends, prophesied when telling to Brancusi: ... You made the ancient be modern". His fame spread and success waited for him in New York. He travelled to the USA in 1913 for participating in the International Exhibition of Modern Art (see the Armory Show). Thanks to Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, he would be able to open at "Photo Secession Gallery" his first personal exhibition.

He would join the group exhibitions organized by the "Artistic Youth", the "Romanian Art", "Contimporanul", etc. Young artists would visit his Paris studio and work there: Irina Codreanu, Milita Petrascu, Constantin Antonovici, Isamu Noguchi, George Teodorescu. Brancusi was in search for those basic principles of form that cleared it off the superfluous aspects. Organic forms got simplified as primary forms and life genesis were meant (Principesa/The Princess X, 1916; Primul strigat/The First Cry, 1917; Nou nascutul/The Newly Born, 1920; Domnisoara Pogany/Miss Pogany, Leda, 1920; Inceputul lumii/The Dawn of the World, 1924). The "Birds in the Sky " creations signify the soaring to the above, the chance of transcending terrestrial existence. The gravity law would be broken, as Brancusi dematerialized the volumes by polishing them once and again. Some other time, as with the Endless Columns of the years 1918-1928, the soaring effect is suggested by the vertical arrangement of geometrical modules.

In 1933 Brancusi produced, on commission of Maharajah Yeswart Rao Holkar Bahadur, a sketch for a Temple of Meditation, never to be built. As the National League of Women in Targu Jiu wanted to dedicate a monument to the country's heroes who died in the first World War, they would invite Brancusi in Romania to realise it. So did the triptych made up of Masa tacerii/Table of Silence, Poarta sarutului/Kiss Gate and Coloana fara sfarsit/Endless Column - Brancusi's masterpiece, appear. The triptych reveals, as others of his works do, the true dimensions of the folk art and of the entire Romanian cultural heritage, which he brought in the turmoil of modern art. In appropriating the deep heart of reality, the folk artist is guided by an explicit solar principle determining his need for order and rationality.

Brancusi is one of the artists who highly and indubitably influenced the modern sculpture history by having a positive, constructive attitude, which his specific approach of the life events yielded. It was he who proposed- and the creators of the first half of the century realised it as being unique, and the uniqueness has never been doubted to our days- a decantation and a new pattern of spirituality and sensibi...