Aspecte ale domniei lui Alexandru Ioan Cuza în opera istoricului Alexandru Lapedatu
Aspects of Alexandru Ioan Cuza’s reign in the works written by historian Alexandru Lapedatu

Summary/Abstract: Historian Alexandru Lapedatu took a very special interest in the personality and epoch of the first voivode of the United Principalities of Romania, Alexandru Ioan Cuza. They became the master’s preferred research subjects, especially towards the end of his scientific career. Lapedatu therefore presented a series of studies upon Cuza’s life and reign during the debates of the Romanian Academy that were held between 1930 and 1946. The historian considered these works stages for the carrying out of a large-dimension synthesis that he intended to write. The abovementioned studies represented a compulsory bibliographic content for the study of the period of Romanians’ history between 1859 and 1866 by tackling various aspects of Cuza’s reign: Great Powers intervention in the political life of the young Romanian state, the Reform policy carried out by Cuza, the reasons for Barbu Catargiu’s assassination, the support offered to Serbians’, Poles’ and Magyars’ fight, the controversy about the forced abdication etc. The studies also presented other first-rank personalities of the epoch in parallels. They were political people who made possible both the recognition of the Romanian ruler’s double election by the Great Powers, and the series of reforms that propelled the new state among the realities of the modern world in the middle of the 19th century: Mihail Kogălniceanu, Barbu Catargiu, Costache Negri etc. Historian Alexandru Lapedatu’s main project was that of carrying out an ample monograph about Cuza’s reign since he was attracted by his personality and the special significance of his reign upon the formation process of the Romanian nation and modern Romania. The ill-fated history of the 5th decade of the last century and particularly the Romanian state entrance into the Soviet influence area represented an obstacle against the setting into practice of this important historiographical project. The historian went under unjust censorship for this reason, and paid with his life and liberty for his options later on.

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