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{{Short description|Bessarabian general and politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Matei Donici
| image = Matei Donici.png
| image_upright = 1▼
▲|image_upright=1
| caption = Donici {{circa|1870}}
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1847|01|08|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Ivancea|Brănești]], [[Bessarabia Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date = {{dda|1921|09|26|1847|01|08|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Bender, Moldova|Tighina]], [[Kingdom of Romania]]
| body_discovered =
| death_cause =
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| footnotes =
}}
<!--No citations are required in the article lead per [[MOS:LEADCITE]], as long as the content is cited in the article body, as it should be. Do not add missing-citation tags like {{cn}} to the lead. If necessary, {{not verified in body}} can be used, or the content removed.-->'''Matei Donici''' ({{IPA-ro|maˈtej ˈdonitʃʲ}}; {{lang-ru|Матвей Степанович Донич|Matvey Stepanovich Donich}}; 8 January 1847 – 26 September 1921) was a [[Bessarabia]]n poet, [[Imperial Russian Army]] general, and politician. He was born at a time when his native region, as the eastern half of [[Moldavia]], had been taken over by the [[Russian Empire]] and organized into a [[Bessarabia Governorate]]; his family belonged to [[Boyars of Moldavia and Wallachia|Moldavian boyardom]], having managed to preserve its estates. Though seeking and obtaining integration within the [[Russian nobility]], the Donicis secretly cultivated [[Romanian nationalism]], which shaped Matei's own outlook on politics. In the late 1860s, after flunking out of the Russian education system, he spent some time in [[Odesa]] and at his Bessarabian manor, composing poetry which spoke of [[Moldovans]] as a subset of the [[Romanians]], and which included an all-out critique of [[Tsarist autocracy]]. ▼
▲
Donici tried to shun [[Russification]], but was eventually pushed into a military career, and as such forced to maintain discretion about his nationalist ideals—though he continued to network with members of the emerging Romanian movement, including in particular the landowner [[Vasile Stroescu]]. Graduating as a cavalry cadet in 1874, Donici saw action with the [[Royal Serbian Army]] in the [[Serbian–Ottoman Wars (1876–1878)|Serbian war of independence]], and was then drafted for the [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|Russo-Turkish War]]. Both conflicts also took him to the [[United Principalities]] (the core state of modern Romania), and allowed him to connect directly with mainstream [[Romanian literature]]. Receiving a head wound and permanent scar in the [[Battle of Shipka Pass]], he continued to advance through the ranks. He was called up as a cavalry general for the [[Russo-Japanese War]], but was captured by the [[Imperial Japanese Army]]. ▼
▲Donici tried to shun [[Russification]], but was eventually pushed into a military career, and as such forced to maintain discretion about his nationalist ideals—though he continued to network with members of the emerging Romanian movement, including in particular the landowner [[Vasile Stroescu]]. Graduating as a cavalry cadet in 1874, Donici saw action with the [[Royal Serbian Army]] in the [[Serbian–Ottoman Wars (1876–1878)|Serbian war of independence]], and was then drafted for the [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|Russo-Turkish War]]. Both conflicts also took him to the [[United Principalities]] (the core state of modern Romania), and allowed him to connect directly with mainstream [[Romanian literature]]. Receiving a head wound and permanent scar in the [[Battle of Shipka Pass]], he continued to advance through the ranks. He was called up as a cavalry
Donici was reactivated politically by the Romanian Bessarabian caucus during the [[February Revolution]] of 1917: already in his seventies, Donici was a founding member of the [[National Moldavian Party]] (PNM) in [[Chișinău]], and also affiliated with the [[Moldavian Progressive Party]] in [[Odesa]]. The final stages of World War I saw the [[union of Bessarabia with Romania]]; this effort was supported at an international level by his niece, Elena Donici. Donici himself was seen by the PNM ideologue [[Onisifor Ghibu]] as a rather incompetent and weak champion of the cause. He lived to see the union, but died shortly after at [[Bender, Moldova|Tighina]] as a subject of the [[Kingdom of Romania|Romanian Kingdom]].▼
▲Donici was reactivated politically by the Romanian Bessarabian caucus during the [[February Revolution]] of 1917: already in his seventies, Donici was a founding member of the [[National Moldavian Party]] (PNM) in [[Chișinău]], and also affiliated with the [[Moldavian Progressive Party]] in
===Origins and childhood===▼
The Donicis, whose most famous representative was the early-19th-century fabulist [[Alecu Donici]], were a clan of boyars from old Moldavia; they had risen into the aristocracy of the still-independent principality, though, according to by scholar [[Petre V. Haneș]], they ultimately originated from Romanian Orthodox parsons of the [[Metropolis of Moldavia and Bukovina|Moldavian Metropolis]].<ref>Haneș, p. 448</ref> Their first known patriarch, a "son of Done", had already established a presence in the eastern half (future Bessarabia, or [[Moldova]]), by marrying a daughter of [[Orhei]]'s ''[[Burgrave|Pârcălab]]''. On the basis of this and other matrimonial connections, by 1620 the Donicis had acquired major Bessarabian estates, including at [[Clișova]], [[Criuleni]], [[Hrușova]], [[Ișnovăț]], [[Jora de Mijloc|Lopatna]], [[Milești, Nisporeni|Milești]], [[Onișcani]], and [[Slobozia-Dușca]].<ref>Gherasim, p. 86</ref> Moldavia was eventually [[Treaty of Bucharest (1812)|segmented in 1812]], with the eastern half becoming Russia's [[Bessarabia Governorate]]. At the height of [[Russification]], the family continued to cultivate the Romanian vernacular. As noted by historian [[Ștefan Ciobanu]], Romanian was the language of choice on their tombstones in [[Rîșcani]] cemetery.<ref>Ciobanu, pp. 151, 252–253</ref> ▼
As early as 1814, ''[[Stolnic]]'' Matei Donici, who was the poet's grandfather,<ref>Ciobanu, p. 254; Gherasim, pp. 87–88</ref> had contributed to a letter of protest demanding Bessarabian self-government under a [[Sfatul boieresc|Boyar Divan]] and the [[Code of Justinian]].<ref>Constantin ''et al.'', pp. 86–87, 346–350</ref> After sustained efforts, he managed to obtain recognition for himself and his eight children as also belonging to [[Russian nobility]].<ref>Gherasim, pp. 86–88</ref> Ciobanu sees the Donicis as "one of the few boyar families to have preserved its national characteristics throughout that whole century of foreign dominion."<ref>Ciobanu, p. 253. See also Gherasim, p. 88</ref> Alecu himself left Bessarabia for [[Western Moldavia]], which, by the time of his death, had [[Union of Moldavia and Wallachia|merged into a Romanian nation-state]], the [[United Principalities]]. He was therefore a direct contributor to [[Romanian literature]]—as Ciobanu assesses, his contribution therein was specifically Bessarabian, but remained virtually unknown to Bessarabian readers, into the 20th century.<ref>Ciobanu, pp. 194–195, 253</ref>▼
▲The Donicis, whose most famous representative was the early-19th-century fabulist [[Alecu Donici]], were a clan of boyars from old Moldavia; they had risen into the aristocracy of the still-independent principality, though, according to
▲As early as 1814, ''[[Stolnic]]'' Matei Donici, who was the poet's grandfather,<ref>Ciobanu, p. 254; Gherasim, pp. 87–88</ref> had contributed to a letter of protest demanding Bessarabian self-government under a [[Sfatul boieresc|Boyar Divan]] and the [[Code of Justinian]].<ref>Constantin ''et al.'', pp. 86–87, 346–350</ref> After sustained efforts, he managed to obtain recognition for himself and his eight children as also belonging to [[Russian nobility]].<ref>Gherasim, pp. 86–88</ref> Ciobanu sees the Donicis as "one of the few boyar families to have preserved its national characteristics throughout that whole century of foreign dominion."<ref>Ciobanu, p. 253. See also Gherasim, p. 88</ref> Alecu himself left Bessarabia for [[Western Moldavia]], which, by the time of his death, had [[Union of Moldavia and Wallachia|merged into a Romanian nation-state]], the [[United Principalities]]. He was therefore a direct contributor to [[Romanian literature]]—as Ciobanu assesses, his
Matei Jr was born on 8 January 1847 (the precise date was published in the 2010s, upon the rediscovery of his birth certificate); he was baptized into the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] on 16 January.<ref>Gherasim, p. 88</ref> His birthplace is known to have been his family's secondary estate in [[Ivancea|Brănești]], [[Beletsky Uyezd]].<ref>Ciobanu, pp. 253–254</ref> The son of Ștefan and Ecaterina Donici, who were themselves recognized as Russian nobles only after 1850, he had a two younger brothers, Victor (born November 1850) and Vasile (January 1858), as well as a sister, Ana.<ref>Gherasim, pp. 87, 88</ref> Among the historiographers of [[Romanian nationalism]] in Bessarabia, [[Ion Pelivan]] argues that the future general must have been nurtured into the nationalist spirit during his early childhood—being a relative of landowners Gheorghe Donici and [[Nicolae Ștefan Casso]], both of whom deeply resented Russian rule.<ref>Constantin ''et al.'', p. 119</ref> ▼
▲Matei Jr was born on 8 January 1847 (the precise date was published in the 2010s, upon the rediscovery of his birth certificate); he was baptized into the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] on 16 January.<ref>Gherasim, p. 88</ref> His birthplace is known to have been his family's secondary estate in [[Ivancea|Brănești]], [[Beletsky Uyezd]].<ref>Ciobanu, pp. 253–254</ref> The son of Ștefan and Ecaterina Donici, who were themselves recognized as Russian nobles only after 1850, he had
Early biographical records, consulted by Ciobanu, inform that Matei first attended a high school in the regional capital of [[Chișinău]] (then ''Kishinev''), but also that he never graduated; he was then sent to a [[Tekhnikum|vocational school]] in [[Moscow]], but dropped out in 1868.<ref>Ciobanu, p. 254</ref> These sources contradict an account by Donici's Romanian friend, Ștefan Dan, who was persuaded that Donici had trained as a lawyer at [[Saint Petersburg State University]], and had planned to set up a practice in Kishinev.<ref>Dan, p. 3</ref> Another account, dismissed by historian Gheorghe Bezviconi as "frivolous", contends that in 1863 Casso mandated a sixteen-year-old Donici to make his way into the United Principalities and contact their ''[[Domnitor]]'', [[Alexandru Ioan Cuza]], allegedly to obtain Romanian support for an anti-Russian uprising in Bessarabia.<ref>Gheorghe Bezviconi, "Doi 'Junimiști' din Basarabia", in ''[[Convorbiri Literare]]'', Vol. LXXIV, Issues 11–12, November–December 1941, p. 1448. See also Constantin ''et al.'', pp. 274–276</ref>
In 1869, Donici was lodging with an uncle in [[Odesa]], before moving back to Brănești.<ref>Ciobanu, p. 254</ref> It was at this stage that he met the rich philanthropist [[Vasile Stroescu]], who was spearheading the effort to tone down Russification.<ref>Dan, p. 3</ref> This interval witnessed Donici's own documented turn toward Romanian nationalism and his debut as a poet. Donici's manuscript works, penned in the [[Romanian alphabet|Latinate alphabet]] (used in Western Moldavia, as opposed to the [[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet|Romanian Cyrillic]], still favored in Bessarabia), sometimes include self-referential clues that he consciously braved [[Tsarist autocracy]] and the risk of being deported to [[Siberia]] if the texts ever fell into the hands of competent authorities.<ref>Ciobanu, pp. 255–257</ref> One piece, written at Odesa in August 1869, includes his lament:
{{Verse translation|
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According to Dan, Donici was finally allowed to return to Kishinev, whereupon Stroescu took charge of his education, hiding him in his attic and forcing him to read and reread a text in Romanian, called ''Visul Maicii Domnului'', thus allowing him to relearn the language.<ref>Dan, pp. 3–4</ref> Later that year, Donici volunteered for service in [[Royal Serbian Army]], and saw action in the [[Serbian–Ottoman Wars (1876–1878)|Serbian war of independence]].<ref>Ciobanu, p. 254; Dan, pp. 3, 4</ref> He fought [[Battle of Šumatovac|at Aleksinac]], after which he recovered in the Romanian capital, [[Bucharest]]—where he stirred the curiosity of locals with his language abilities, contrasting his Russian uniform.<ref>Dan, p. 3</ref> Dan, who was among those introduced to him at the time, expanded his Romanian reading list, presenting him with works by [[Nicolae Bălcescu]], [[Dimitrie Bolintineanu]], and [[Ion Ghica]].<ref>Dan, p. 3</ref> Donici returned to the [[Balkans]] in 1877, when Russia and Romania [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|fought a war]] against the [[Ottoman Empire]] (doubling as a [[Romanian war of independence]]). He had the rank of ''[[Rittmaster|Rotmistr]]'' in a [[Dragoon]]s regiment, and took a shrapnel head wound during the [[Battle of Shipka Pass]]. By July 1877, he was recovering in Bucharest's [[Brâncovenesc Hospital]], under V. Ghica's care; he and Dan were reunited, discussing various cultural topics and consulting the poetry of [[Vasile Alecsandri]] (Donici kept the latter's book of [[Romanian folklore]] on his person, making sure that his Russian colleagues would never see it).<ref>Dan, pp. 3, 4</ref> Before returning to the front, Donici also visited the local art museum and attended premieres at the [[National Theater Bucharest]], seeing folk dances arranged by [[Gheorghe Moceanu]].<ref>Dan, p. 4</ref>
Advancing through the ranks to that of [[Colonel (Eastern Europe)|Colonel]], Donici remained marked with a large scar on his forehead.<ref name="ghibu10">[[Onisifor Ghibu]], "Documentele continuității. În vîltoarea revoluției rusești (VI)", in ''[[Vatra (Romanian magazine)|Vatra]]'', Vol. XXI, Issue 9, September 1991, p. 10</ref> He commanded the 55th Infantry Regiment, based in [[Podolsk]]. His final engagements came during the [[Russo-Japanese War]] of 1904–1905: he was captured in the [[Battle of Mukden]],<ref name="cписок">{{in lang|ru}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20220820144914/http://rgiadv.ru/rabota-s-polzovatelyami/obratnaya-svyaz/proekt-spisok-ofitserov-i/ ''Проект "Список офицеров и чиновников Российской империи, вернувшихся из плена во Владивосток после подписания русско-японского мира в октябре 1905 г. - январе 1906 г." (два года спустя)''], published by the Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East, 2022</ref> and
By April 1917, General Donici was presiding over sessions of the PNM Review Board, tasked with drafting a party platform. During these, he personally demanded the "widest autonomy" of Bessarabia with the future Russian state, asked for input from the [[Romanians in Ukraine|Romanian Ukrainian community]], and voted in favor of organizing a large-scale demonstration by Romanian nationalists in Odesa.<ref name="ghibu282">[[Onisifor Ghibu]], "Trei luni din viața Basarabiei", in ''[[Societatea de Mâine]]'', Vol. 1, Issue 13, July 1924, p. 282</ref> The group's ideologue, [[Onisifor Ghibu]], later remarked that Donici had shown up unexpectedly, and had accepted the others' offer to become provisional chairman. The move was ill-advised:
{|
!
!
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| {{lang|ro|Bun general o fi fost în război bătrânul general Donici, dar ca președinte n-a fost bun. Fără energie, fără știința de conducere a unei adunări, prezența lui era mai mult o piedică pentru decursul ședinței, decât un avantaj. Nu era în stare să conducă nimic, dar suflet avea cinstit, și frumos, și moldovenesc}}<ref name="ghibu10"/>
| That General Donici might have been a good wartime general, but as a president he failed us. He had no energy, no competence for chairing a meeting, his presence was mostly an obstacle on the meeting's course—not an advantage. He could not preside upon anything whatsoever, but he had an honest soul, a lovely soul, a Moldavian soul
|}
Donici lived to see the [[union of Bessarabia with Romania]] and the overall establishment of [[Greater Romania]], dying on 26 September 1921 at his new home in Tighina.<ref>Ciobanu, p. 254</ref>
==Notes==
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[[Category:1921 deaths]]
[[Category:Male poets from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Moldovan male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Romanian poets]]
[[Category:Moldovan poets]]
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