Tradiție și modă în uniformele militare românești 1830-1920
Tradition and fashion in military uniforms of Modern Romania 1830-1920

Summary/Abstract: Like civilian dress, military uniforms change under the shifting impact of sartorial trends dominating certain historical periods. In Romania's case, these trends emanated mainly from the home territories of the Great Powers of the day. Thus, Romanian military uniforms developed chiefly under Russian influence between 1830 and 1849, and under French influence between 1850 and 1873. After this date, military dress acquired its more or less stable national character. After WW1, a British touch became noticeable in the cut and colours of Romanian uniforms, especially in the officers' undress and campaign attire. Naturally, there were other influences, notably an Austrian one in the Hussar-like uniforms of the mounted gendarmes in Moldavia (1860-1864) and a Prussian one in the Pickelhaube helmets of both pedestrian and mounted gendarmes of 1868. The latter remained the specific headgear of the Royal Escort Regiment up to King Michael's forced abdication in 1947. A British influence was also noticeable in the navy uniform, although the full dress cocked hat was not pointed like its British counterpart, but shorter and with uneven sides, after the French model. The length and cut of tunics were also in line with general trends in fashion. In Romania, from 1830 to 1873, land troops - with the exception of mounted troops - wore a type of tunic ('surtuc', 'mondir'), which reached down to just above the knee. In 1830, the Organic Regulations, the constitutional arrangements sponsored by the Russian occupation army after the Russo-Turkish war of 1827¬ 1828, stipulated the reorganisation of the Romanian army, henceforward called 'Militia'. The soldiers' uniform was in Russian style, comprising a shako (a cylindrical headgear made of cardboard covered in black lambskin), a single- breasted tunic ('mondir') of dark blue coarse cloth and grey trousers. The pipings were in the national colour, yellow for Wallachia and red for Moldavia. Officers wore gold braids on their shoulders and embroidered sleeves. Because they felt that Russian officers of equivalent or of lower rank did not show them the consideration due to peers, the Romanians complained to General Pavel Kisèleff who, as a result, granted them the right to wear epaulettes like those worn by the Tzar's troops. The epaulettes in Romanian uniforms were adopted on 22 August 1831. This is important in dating the portraits lithographed by Constantin Lecca of commanders of the Wallachian and Moldavian Militia to a later period, as they all wear epaulettes after the Russian model. In the beginning, in order to attract men into the army, military ranks were equal to the boyar title the incumbent had in civilian life, and many young men responded to the lure of this privileged status

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