Scarlat or Scarlatŭ Turnavitu (transitional Cyrillic: Скapлat Тȣpнaвitȣ;"Anȣnцatopȣл Pomъn de Бȣкȣpeщtĭ din 23 Ceпtemвpie пȣблiкъ ȣpmъtoapeлe: Дeпȣtaцiĭ Tȣtȣлop Дictpiкtȣpiлop Aлeшĭ Пentpȣ Дiвanȣл Aд-Xoк", in Gazeta de Moldavia, Issue 77/1857, p. 307 also known as Turnavitul and Charles Tournavito or Tournavitou; November 30, 1876) was a Wallachian, later Romanian, schoolteacher, politician, and jurist. He was born into a prosperous family with origins in the high-ranking boyardom, either in his father's village of Budișteni, Muscel County, or in nearby Pitești, Argeș County. During his youth, Wallachia and neighboring Moldavia were Romanian-inhabited tributary states of the Ottoman Empire, with a set of conservative laws imposed in the 1820s, as Regulamentul Organic. Turnavitu and two of his three brothers, Ștefan and Demostene, represented the liberal and nationalist opposition, whose principles they assimilated during their early education in Golești and Bucharest. They endured as lifelong associates of the Golescu family, whose younger members guided their political ascent. During the 1830s and early '40s, Scarlat traveled the country as a reformer, taking charge of primary schools and pioneering teacher education in Giurgiu, Buzău, and finally Craiova.
Turnavitu emerged as an organizer of a successful Wallachian liberal revolution in June 1848, when he created Craiova's National Guard and was sent as that city's envoy to Bucharest. In Pitești, the Turnavitus staged public burnings of Regulamentul and the register of boyar ranks. During an interval of anarchy in late June, Scarlat was present at the standoff between revolutionary supporters and the conservative Wallachian military forces, and afterwards convinced Neofit II Geanoglu, the Wallachian Metropolitan Bishop, not to take over as national governor. The consolidated revolutionary government, comprising his Golescu friends, made him Prefect of Râmnicu Sărat County, where he stifled counterrevolutionary movements, while following with alarm the Russian Empire's takeover of Moldavia. He tried to generate armed resistance, including as the Imperial Russian Army stormed into Wallachia, but was advised to the contrary by his superiors, and was ultimately captured by the Russians in Focșani.
The deposed Prefect was held in Văcărești Prison, where he was reunited with Ștefan Turnavitu. While the latter recanted and was eventually pardoned, Scarlat became known and admired for his defiance. The post-revolutionary Wallachian Prince, Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei, tried to obtain clemency for him from his Ottoman overlords, and, even though he failed in this effort, he made sure to relax his prison regimen. Upon ending his six-year sentence, Turnavitu was hired by Știrbei as a judge in Argeș. Știrbei's successor, Caimacam Alexandru II Ghica, promoted him back into the boyardom, as a Serdar in 1857. By then, Turnavitu had joined the National Party, promoting the cause of Moldo–Wallachian unionism. He became a representative of Argeș's peasants in the ad hoc Divan after winning elections in September 1857.
Turnavitu was then sent to the Elective Assembly of 1859—thus contributing directly to the establishment of an embryonic Romanian state, the United Principalities. Initially a centrist partisan of Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza, who served for a short while as a prosecutor, he became a tax resister, and was tried as such by Cuza's regime. He returned to politics after Cuza's ouster in 1866, serving for a while in the Assembly of Deputies, where he embraced left-wing nationalism and helped shape an outstandingly restrictive Romanian nationality law. Despite his opposition to bicameralism, his final offices included a seat in the Senate of Romania; he also moved from a position which endorsed Carol of Hohenzollern for the throne of Romania, to excusing the "Republic of Ploiești" conspirators and joining their National Liberal Party. He died in relative poverty, after prolonged disease, and remained a hero-like figure in liberal historiography; his memory was revived in the mid-20th-century by historical novelist Camil Petrescu, who depicted him as a slightly ridiculous figure, caught up in the events of 1848.
Biography Early life and teaching career Scarlat was the second born of five children; brothers Ștefan, Demostene (or Dimostene), and Pashale, sisters Zinca and Lina. They were all born to Gligore and Tinca Turnavitu of Budișteni, which was then located in Wallachia's Muscel County, and is now part of south-central Argeș.Cristocea, pp. 284–286 The name "Turnavitu" suggests a link to the Ottoman Bulgarian city of Veliko Tarnovo, with an added Greek genitive.Alexandru Graur, Nume de persoane, p. 84. Bucharest: Editura științifică, 1965. However, the 1838 census records the exceptionally wealthy Gligore as an ethnic Romanian and a squire (fecior de neam), meaning he could trace his lineage to the highest-ranking boyars, and enjoyed boyar privilege.Cristocea, pp. 284–285 In an 1876 obituary, C. A. Rosetti, who claimed Scarlat Turnavitu for his own brand of radical liberalism, contrarily argued that he "had been born a poor man, and has left us as a poor man."Rosetti (1876), p. 1081
The future revolutionary's year of birth is sometimes given as 1816,Lăcusteanu & Crutzescu, p. 274 though historian Octavian Ungureanu notes that he was already aged thirty-five in 1848.Octavian Ungureanu, "Revoluționari argeșeni de la 1848 — Frații Turnavitu", in Argeș, Vol. XXIII, Issue 4, April 1988, p. 6 Scarlat himself reported that he was fifty in July 1863;"Imposite ilegale înaintea justiției", in Suplimentul la Romanulŭ, July 28, 1863, pp. 1–2 in the census, his father reported him as born in 1818.Cristocea, p. 285 Writing in 1988, Ungureanu argued that Scarlat and two of his brothers (excluding Pashale) were all natives of a since-dilapidated house at No 25 Brâncoveanu Street, in Pitești. Folk tradition regarded this building as having once been the summer home of Wallachian Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu, for whom the street was named. The claim was dismissed by architectural historian Eugenia Greceanu, who believes that it was erected as an inn during the 18th century, then redecorated in neoclassical style by its 19th-century occupants.Greceanu, pp. 29–31, 112, 149–150, 153 The area had an obscure history, but, as Greceanu proposes based on toponymic evidence, it could have functioned as a market for the powerful tanners' guild.Greceanu, pp. 79, 87, 89
Ungureanu notes that one of the Turnavitu boys, Ștefan, was aged 28 in 1848, when he was also married—his godmother was Ana Racoviță, daughter of the local boyar and intellectual, Dinicu Golescu. Scarlat, Ștefan and Demostene are reliably attested as students of the school in Golești, the Golescus' eponymous estate, where teachers included known liberals such as Aaron Florian and Ion Heliade Rădulescu. Scarlat went on to study at Saint Sava College in the Wallachian capital, Bucharest. Despite being in a class with future distinguished intellectuals such as Nicolae Bălcescu and Ion Ghica, he earned special distinction, and by 1832 was one of the top students.Dumitru Huțanu, "Noi aspecte privind anul revoluționar 1848 la Focșani", in Milcovul, May 3, 1973, p. 2 Rosetti recalls seeing the Turnavitu brothers around 1835, when Scarlat would purchase the food they shared using money he earned as a tutor. While Ștefan embraced a career in commercial law,Brătescu & Cernovodeanu, p. 155 his elder took up teaching. Beginning on September 1, 1837, he was assigned to a school in the southern town of Giurgiu, as one of the few professionals employed in Vlașca County. He was upset by the absenteeism of other teachers, and also witnessed his school being heavily damaged in the earthquake of January 1838. Alexandru Biro, "Contribuții la istoria învățământului din zona Bolintinului. Începuturile școlii din Căscioarele", in Sud. Revistă Editată de Asociația pentru Cultură și Tradiție Istorică Bolintineanu, Vol. XVII, Issues 6–7, June–July 2014, p. 12 Around 1838 he received an inspection from the ruling Prince, Alexandru II Ghica. According to one record of this encounter, the monarch could not convince one of the students to scribble down letters of the alphabet as a demonstration, until Turnavitu stared-down the boy into submission; this amused Ghica, who reportedly quipped: nu poate un vodă, ce poate să facă un dascăl! ("a voivode can't hope to achieve what a teacher will!")."Felurimi", in Foaia Poporului, Issue 19/1904, p. 246
Turnavitu managed to obtain higher rates of enrollment in teaching in 1839, when he was allowed to train peasants as substitute teachers, whose efforts he rewarded in food supplies (bucate); he was still unable to fill most positions, especially after villagers discovered that they were expected to supply the food themselves. On May 20, 1842, he presented his superiors with a proposal that all titled boyars in any locality be assigned to carry out inspections on all schools in their jurisdiction—the measure is known to have been adopted by at least some schools, in Brăila County.G. D. Iscru, "Probleme, propuneri și inițiative școlare în Țara Românească în ajunul Revoluției din 1848", in Buridava. Studii și Materiale, Vol. 3, 1979, p. 91 That year, Turnavitu was removed from his post and sent to the northeastern town of Buzău. According to a protest by his former peasant-students, who pleaded with Prince Ghica that he be returned to Giurgiu, he had lost his position because of intrigues by "our enemies", including a number of "publicans" and "tenant farmers". In 1845, Turnavitu was headmaster of Buzău's princely school, and also organized the training of local teachers. He was visited in October 1846 by the new Prince, Gheorghe Bibescu. Relu Stoica, "Un clăcaș buzoian în Divanul ad-hoc al Țării Românești", in Renașterea Buzoiană. Almanah 2011, p. 44
Revolutionary rise
Later in the 1840s, Turnavitu was moving between schools in Buzău and Craiova—though he continued to reside midway between these towns, at Pitești; he was rewarded by advancement into the boyardom, with the rank of Pitar. The liberal revolution against Bibescu, which began in June 1848 at Islaz and spread to Bucharest, caught Scarlat in Craiova, as "a teacher in these parts". As recalled by poet Alexandru Pelimon, the "people of Craiova were organized as a national guard" by him, and he was subsequently their deputy to Bucharest, where he was to pledge support for the revolutionary government.Pelimon, pp. 101, 168–169 The revolutionary message was taken to Pitești by a group of young radicals, including the Turnavitus alongside Toma Furduescu, Ion J. Mihăescu, Andrei Pretorian, and Ilie Trifonescu; this group issued revolutionary proclamations, also producing a full-sized Romanian tricolor and cockades of the same color scheme. The brothers pledged themselves to assist Nicolae Simonide and Furduescu, whom the revolutionary committees of Bucharest had installed as county leaders, and whose local government was located in the Turnavitu home. Ștefan was tasked by this new leadership with coordinating propaganda activities, and is described in some records as the county commissioner. At Pitești, he and Demostene organized a ceremony in which the conservative, Russian-approved, constitution, known as Regulamentul Organic, was publicly destroyed. Scarlat also took part in this, and personally set fire to the register of ranks, thereby annulling his own status as Pitar.