Prima Alba Iulia – „Manifestul” de la Darnița din 13/26 aprilie 1917
The First Alba Iulia – “The Manifesto” from Darnița of 13/26 April 1917

Summary/Abstract: The ‘manifesto’ which was voted on 13/26 April 1917 by Romanian volunteers who were imprisoned in Darnița was considered ‘the first Alba Iulia,’ meaning that it was the first important international manifestation of the Romanians in Transylvania and Bukovina, in which they proclaimed the need for unification of all the Romanian territories in the Austro-Hungarian Empire with the Kingdom of Romania. The statement was, in fact, a historical moment and a political act of incontestable value, because it set out the desire to see the unification of the territories inhabited by Romanians under the double monarchy with Romania. This study presents an event of great importance in the history of volunteering during the First World War and reflects the struggles of representatives of various nationalities in Austro-Hungary who were in Russian captivity. The Romanian prisoners in Russia had tight connections with former Czech, Pole and Slovak officers and soldiers in Russian camps. The idea of making a declaration came from the Romanian volunteers; the other minorities from the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were in the Russian territory at that time were not party to it. The Romanian prisoners in Russia were keen to make their contribution to the national unification movement by directly participating on the Romanian front rather than remain prisoners in Russia. In this regard, the Romanian volunteers were ready to go so far as to sacrifice their own lives to fulfil the national ideal. Their declaration in Darnița was followed by the arrival of a few battalions of Romanian volunteers who fought in the bitterly contested battles at Mărășești and Oituz in the summer of 1917. In this way, young Transylvanians and Bukovinians put into practice the objectives established in Darnița in the spring of 1917.

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