Nicolae Balcescu
Nicolae Bălcescu {1819-1852) was a Romanian historian, writer, and revolutionary.
Born in Bucharest to a family of low nobility, he used the maiden surname of his mother, whow was originally from Bălceşti, Vālcea, in place of his father's name, Petrescu.
As a boy, Bălcescu studied at the Saint Sava College, beginning in 1832, and was a passionate student of history. At the age of 19, he joined the army, and in 1840, participated in plot against landowner D. Filipescu. The conspiracy was discovered, and Bălcescu was incarcerated in the Mărgineni Monastery where he stayed for two years.
Upon his release, he, with Ion Ghica and Christian Tell, formed a secret organisation called Frăţia (Brotherhood). In order to further study history, Bălcescu went to France and Italy and was editor of a magazine entitled Magazin istoric pentru Dacia (History Magazine for Dacia), which first appeared in 1844.
Following popular uprisings in France in 1844, Bălcescu was inspired to return to Bucharest to participate there in the June 11th revolution. He was, for just two days, both Minister and Secretary of State of the provisional government put in place by the revolutionaries. As part of the liberal faction, he was for the appropriation of land by peasants and universal suffrage.
Bălcescu was arrested on September 13 of that year by the authorities of the Ottoman Empire who had stifled the revolution. He then managed to escape and left for Transylvania from where he was then expelled by Hapsburg authorities.
By 1849, Bălcescu was in Budapest to negotiate an agreement between Romania and Hungarian revolutionaries, but after this agreement was signed, the Hungarian revolution was overthrown.
As an historian, Bălcescu's greatest work was Romānii supt Mihai-Voievod Viteazul, which he wrote in exile in 1849, later published by Alexandru Odobescu.
He died in Palermo of tuberculosis at 33 years of age.
Categories: 1819 births | 1852 deaths | Romanian politicians | Romanian writers