The secrets and mysteries of Avram Iancu. How a lawyer with no military experience managed to convince thousands of people to follow him
Avram Iancu was, without a doubt, one of the most romantic and at the same time heroic characters of the Romanian people. Although he was noticed on the stage of history only during the Revolution of 1848, through a special charisma he remained in the collective mind, although he was not a professional orator.
Avram Iancu PHOTO wikipedia
Avram Iancu is one of the most famous characters in Romanian history. He is also one of the most beloved popular heroes, with a special significance, especially in the Transylvania area. He was noticed meteorically in the history of the Romanians, but remained deeply rooted in the collective mentality. Its rise and ability to mobilize and organize large masses of people in a relatively short time remain a mystery of history. And this in the conditions in which Avram Iancu was not an orator by profession; on the contrary, he was considered a sober individual, not very talkative.
However, it is considered that his speeches, especially those in Campeni and Blaj, had a magical, incredible effect. Basically, a lawyer and office worker, without any military training, turned overnight into the leader that thousands of people blindly obeyed. What did Avram Iancu really say to the people? What were his secrets? Few could answer even today.
The lawyer from Târgu Mureș became a guerrilla commander in the mountains
The rise of Avram Iancu and his actual reconversion are one of the mysteries of Romanian history. Practically, at the time of the Revolution of 1848 in Hungary, Avram Iancu was a chancellery worker in Târgu Mureș. He was a lawyer by profession and had mostly been teaching. He had no military training and no military experience. We don't even know if Avram Iancu really knew how to handle a weapon. And here we mean guns, pistols or swords.
However, he accomplished what few military leaders of the era were capable of. That is, to become the undisputed leader of thousands of people, to make a whole people obey him blindly. He had the ability to organize whole masses of illiterate peasants into a highly orderly and efficient guerrilla army. And, I repeat, without any kind of military training. Moreover, he was the son of wealthy peasants, from a family of priests. His father was a regional judge and forester. So a man of Habsburg rule. Avram Iancu was educated, attending primary school, secondary school, high school and the Faculty of Law in Cluj. He became a lawyer and later worked at the imperial chancellery in Târgu Mureș. Avram Iancu was not a peasant serf like Horea or other rebels from the villages of the Apuseni Mountains. He was a bookish man with no military experience. However, overnight he became the captain of a guerrilla army.
Avram Iancu organized his army, made up mostly of peasants and miners from the Apuseni, in the form of popular militias, using a structure and terminology inspired by the Roman army. More precisely, it was about the “Auraria Gemina” Legion, concentrated around the town of Câmpeni. This “legion” had an impressive hierarchical structure, consisting of decurias, belts and tribunates. Avram Iancu was the “prefect”, meaning the supreme commander.
The lawyer from Târgu Mureș proved an extraordinary organizational spirit, managing, with great ingenuity, to establish an incredible logistics and military system. First of all, it had a system of quick mobilization of the troops, with the help of trumpets, ringing of bells and fires lit on the heights. Later, he equipped his fighters with weapons and artisanal equipment, converted from domestic tools, but also with rifles or cannons captured during the first battles. Avram Iancu compensated for the lack of modern weaponry and the small number of soldiers by his good knowledge and exploitation of the terrain, organizing effective ambushes against the Hungarian regular troops. But, most importantly, Avram Iancu managed to mobilize the entire community in an incredible way. Indeed, people were blindly listening to him. How did the lawyer manage to become a guerrilla captain in the Apuseni Mountains?
A man of special lineage and a son of the gods
Although he spent a lot of time studying, it is said that Avram Iancu was fundamentally connected to his birthplace. That is, of his village, Vidra de Sus, in Turda-Aries County. This made him known to the people of the area. Besides, she was related to Horea. Yes, the famous Nicola Ursu, one of the leaders of the uprising of 1787. More precisely, Horea was his grandfather's brother. That is precisely why the name and this lineage weighed heavily among the Transylvanian mots. In addition, it is said that he had a character that commanded respect. He was quiet, sober, and also bookish. And in that world of illiterate serfs, one of them who knew a book was highly respected, as one who overcame his condition, as one who succeeded and must be listened to, that he knows better, has an answer to the silent turmoil of the others.
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Avram Iancu in front of the peasants PHOTO wikipedia
“Abram was much listened to because he was the most resolute and enlightened of God in mind. He had a fierce nature, but he could easily control himself in all circumstances, thanks to his truly peasant temperance. His appearance was very sober. He rarely smiled. He had a serenity in his eyes and figure. His contemporaries remember him as “a young man with a tall and slender figure”, “the most distinguished personality, by culture and qualities among all Romanian chancellors”. If the other young people were more agitated, talking and writing, Avram Iancu was struggling inside his soul. It was enough to look at his rough figure, the sunken eyes looking at the fool, so that you could suspect the pain that was grinding him. In his soul the storm was bigger than outside”said professor Ionel Gomboș in “Avram Iancu – the prisoner of his wounded dignity” on “Dacoromania”.
There are also many testimonies that show that, whenever he had the opportunity, he returned to his native lands. But even so, why would he blindly follow the chancellery clerk from Târgu Mureș, even from Horea's family?
“Iancu was not an orator in the modern sense”
Some say that he actually managed to electrify the audience with his speeches. Although Avram Iancu was not an orator. In the sense that he did not give many speeches. And when he did, they were short and to the point, succinct. Moreover, although it is known that he spoke to the crowds in Câmpeni and Blaj, but also on other occasions, these short and concise speeches, which would have completely enchanted the crowd, are a mystery. Only fragments of these speeches or speeches attributed to Avram Iancu are known. The secret, Avram Iancu's contemporaries say, was the fact that the man from Vidra de Sus spoke in the common man's language.
No “snoring” speeches, loaded with philosophy and “popcorn” or sugary patriotism. On the contrary, he spoke clearly, concisely, briefly, in the understanding of serfs. Contemporaries spoke of a mysterious inspiration that possessed him before the people. “Iancu by no means hunted for popularity; he did not run after the people, but they were charmed by his personality, he ran to Iancu. Yes, Iancu was not an orator in the modern sense, he did not know what sophistry was, he very rarely spoke to the crowd. But it seems that we see him now before our eyes: whenever he spoke, the rays of a mysterious inspiration played in front of him, which even he could not understand. Therefore, in those moments it was impossible not to carry away the listeners”said George Bariţiu, historian, journalist and Transylvanian politician, contemporary with Avram Iancu.
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In addition, it was said about Avram Iancu that he had a special charisma. A fire in the eyes that magnetizes everyone. And it was like he was making you believe him and follow him blindly. “This Yank is an extraordinary man. He is a cold-blooded, talented man, but when he talks about the sufferings of his nation, he is fanatical, his eyes sparkle and you can see the torch of the revolution burning in them,” said Pál Vasvári, one of the Hungarian revolutionaries. Iosif Sterca Şuluţiu, friend and schoolmate of Avram Iancu, says the same about him.
“He was a boy full of spirit, but he had the singular character and temperament of the natives. He was thoughtful and short-spoken, but his heart was noble and sincere. I studied the Romanians from all four angles, but nowhere did I find such enthusiasm for the country and the nation as in the Romanians from the Apuseni Mountains”he says. Few head-to-tail speeches of Avram Iancu are known. Rather, they are fragments and short quotations. Moreover, it was said of him that he spoke concisely and decisively, in a way that people could understand.
“You earnestly demand the abolition of serfdom, because, working for nothing for ten hundred years in the lords' furrows, you also paid a hundred times for the land that gave you the food of life from day to day, all the more so because you paid for it in vain, because it was yours and for it the blood of your ancestors was shed… Let them all therefore seek to unite with the people, fearlessly declaring to the Hungarians that they will not rest until the Romanian nation is recognized by law and until it is represented in the diet, in order to be able to judge in what form and under what conditions to unite with Hungary”he specified at Blaj. He himself admitted that the revolution is not made with beautiful words and philosophy, but practically, quickly, concisely. “You will not be able to convince those tyrants with philosophical and humanitarian arguments, but with the lance of Horia”specified Avram Iancu.
