Rascoala: the Last Peasant's Revolt
In early 1907 the peasants of Romania rose up against feudal laws, wealthy landowners and the agents who kept them living in penury and servitude. Markus Bauer discusses the legacy of an 'unbelievable bloodbath'.
On February 21st, 1907 around 200 peasants gathered in front of the town hall in Flaminzi in the district of Botosani, north-eastern Romania. The farming season had begun and they were due to start cultivation. They had come to negotiate their leasing contracts with local official, Gheorghe Constantinescu, who administered the land of Mochi Fischer, one of the tenant agents (arendasi) and intermediaries of the Romanian landowner Prince Mihalache Dimitrie Sturdza, a relative of the later prime minister Sturdza. Like a large proportion of the arendasi in Moldavia, Fischer was a well-off Jewish immigrant, a factor which would later play a part in the full-scale revolt this incident ignited.
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