ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

144Tudor Nedelceavisibly fading before the menace of the war” 35 , seeing the imminence of the war inBalkans, Eminescu reproached, fairly, to the Romanian authorities that they didn’tconcluded firm treaties with the Tsarist Empire, regarding the passing of theRussian army towards our country, in order to prevent any tentative, coming fromthe part of the great eastern neighbor, of taking advantage from the lack ofdetermination of small country leaders. Unfortunately, this worry proved true,after the war came to light the well known corruption affair from whichbeneficiated the businessmen Mihălescu and Warszawski, which financially gotprofit from the passing of the Russian army towards Romania, in the prejudice ofthe Romanian state. This affair was materialised into a long trial, closely inquiredby the journalist from “Curierul de Iaşi”.Must be noticed the fact that Eminescu was fully aware that the end ofthe war was decided according to some dirty affairs, and, in private, wasprepared the Europe’s post-war configuration: “The secret motives and intimateagreements between the Powers aren’t visible to the public and only the futurehistorian will be able to extract from the archives the real picture of the events,in which the official comedy will unveil to him in its plenitude: a play with roleslearned by heart, in which the actors doesn’t believe, although when playingthey have the ability to identify themselves with the characters and to give to theaudience the illusion that they believe the things they say” 36 .Watching closely the way the war from the Balkans is carried on, inpermanent rubrics such “The Oriental War”, “Romania and the Orient’squestion”, “From the Battle field”, in the two newspapers, which he actuallydirected, “Curierul de Iaşi” and “Timpul”, he didn’t overlook neither thedeplorable endowment of our army, compared with the Russian one: “TheRussians that leave for war are all well dressed, wearing a sheepskin coat and athick mantle and strong shoes; in the case of our soldiers the things they wearcan hardly be considered clothes, more likely they represent a paraphrase fornakedness” 37 .Although he isn’t a historian in the professional meaning, Eminescuinvolved himself in the revealing of the European chancellery’s side scenes,regarding this war, not only a Balkan one but also European, regarding also itsdevelopment and the results, bad and unjust for the Romanian people, amongwhich the loss of Basarabia and Bucovina, people that obtained theirindependence on the battle field. On the other hand, Russia, being one of theGreat Powers involved in this war, by its “movements” depended the destiny ofRomania, couldn’t escape from the judicious politic and diplomatic analyses ofour great writer. And maybe is not by chance the fact that the poet didn’t wrote asingle lyric about the war from 1877-1878, considering it dramatic and notp. 3.35 [“The events are precipitating …”], in “Curierul de Iaşi”, 10, nr. 40, 15 th April 1877,36 Ibidem.37 Dorobantii, in “Timpul”, 3, nr. 293, 30 th December 1877, p. 3.