The Republic of Ploieşti (Romanian: Republica de la Ploieşti) was a revolt against the Romanian monarchy in the city of Ploieşti, Romania, on the day of 8 August 1870.

Background

Romanian Liberal radicals of Ploieşti were against the Romanian Monarchy and desired a Republic, the main argument being that this would cease the intrigues, which were very common in Wallachia royal court, especially before 1866, when a foreign (German) prince was brought.

The leader of the Ploieşti Liberal was the Captain Alexandru Candiano-Popescu, who, in 1867 as the owner of "Perseverenţa" newspaper was arrested and his newspaper shut down. The same thing happened in 1870, when he was arrested for publishing some articles in the "Democraţia" newspaper.

The conspiracy

On 8 August 1870, two secret meetings of the Liberals were organized and Candiano-Popescu announced that he has information from Bucharest, that the Monarchy would be overthrown the next night and that all major cities are preparing would revolt and a Romanian Republic would be announced. He also assured them that the Republican movement had the support of major European powers and as such there would be no foreign invasion. Candiano-Popescu also announced that he would be the new prefect, that Stan Popescu would be the new Chief of the Ploieşti Police and a role was assigned for each of the plotters.

During that night everything went as planned: the chief of the Police and the Prefect were arrested, the telegraph station was occupied by Comiano and Guţă Antonescu and Candiano-Popescu occupied the firehouse, wearing his Captain uniform "to look like he's having more authority".

Toward the morning, Candiano-Popescu, armed with a revolver and with the help of other about 40-50 persons captured the oficiant of the government, Grigore Iorgulescu. He was put under strict supervision, however, a couple of hours later, the guardians were already drunk and Iorgulescu made a phone call to Bucharest, where he asked what was the situation there. The answer was that everything was calm and there was nothing uncommon. He then called the Romanian Prime Minister, Manolache Costache Epureanu and told him what happened in Ploieşti.

Meanwhile, the plotters, who occupied the post office, sent a telegram to Bucharest, announcing that Prefect Candiano got the allegience of the Ploiesti Civilian Administration and the Military.

In the evening of 9 August, soldiers of Bucharest arrived in Ploieşti train station and arrested the new "administration", most of which declared that they were not actually revolting, they thought it was just a party.

Ending

Thirty-six of the leaders of the movement were accused of "revolt against the government". Also, many other leaders of the Liberals were arrested, beings suspected of being part of this conspiracy, including Ion Brătianu, Nicolae Golescu, Bogdan Petriceicu-Hasdeu and Nicolae Creţulescu. The trials of the civilians who took part in the revolt were eventually moved to Târgovişte and on 17 October 1870 they were found not guilty.

References

• Republica de la Ploieşti; site of Primaria Municipiului Ploieşti, accessed 21 March 2005