Vlad the Impaler or Count Dracula {1431-1476} is viewed in Romania and Moldova as a hero who fought against the invading Turks. This is what I found when I worked in schools in Moldova from 1992-1994 and visited Romania. He still remains something of a folklore hero applauded as 'a cruel but just ruler.'
But “StreetSense” has come across a legend where this ruler attempted to enforce his 'final solution to the homeless' by rounding up every one of them, along with the poor and the lame , treating them to a feast in a mansion and then mass murdering them by setting fire to the locked mansion.
It was a mystery as to why 18 year old Violetta had not been enrolled into Kishinev State University in the Republic of Moldova. After all, her English appeared impeccable. She told me that to enter the Faculty of Linguistics it was mandatory to pass an exam in Romanian history. This entailed learning by heart all the names and dates of princes and their times. She found this very boring and 'impossible.' One had to prove they were well-informed about history.
I found it odd that some history courses could make a fascinating topic so dull!
The second great puzzle which many foreign visitors encounter if they visit local schools is why a tyrant such as Vlad the Impaler, or Count Dracula, is viewed as a great hero. His portrait is even among a list of Romanian princes on posters put up on some school walls. School students have to learn his name and the period of his reign by heart. He is largely viewed as a very cruel but just ruler who fought against the Turks. They view him as a brave warrior and ruler. You can even find huge statues of him throughout Romania as well as his restored castles.
The 19th century Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu wrote a verse calling for Vlad to return and sweep away all the corrupt elements in Romania by exterminating them. 'Return to us again, great Vlad and rule again; divide the people up into two types: madmen and no-gooders, put them into two dungeons and strongly lock them up and burn them , as in a stove.' A candidate for president in Romania, in 2004, praised Vlad for his hard law and order stance against corruption !
Vlad the Impaler is hardly the only tyrant to be eulogized and his virtues extoled. In Russia, Ivan the Terrible is often viewed as a progressive ruler and in Britain there exist apologists for Richard the 3rd who they believe was a just king whose reputation was ruined by 'a black legend' spread by William Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More.
Apologists for Vlad the Impaler claim he was a defender of the poor who offered them positions at court, ensured the rich and powerful were not above justice, reduced tax for the poor, and confiscated land from the estates and redistributed it to the poor. He was one of the courageous princes who stood up to the invading Turks while other princes compromised and procrastinated. Vlad introduced law and order to his kingdom.
A famous story tells of how he put a golden cup on a table in the town center which nobody dared to steal. Another story goes that an Italian merchant who stayed at his home was ordered to leave all his possessions outside. Those possessions were stolen but later returned to the merchant. The merchant discovered that a gold coin had been added. He told Vlad this and Vlad replied, "It is just as well you told me that or I would have you put to death for stealing."
Many apologists state that the German sources exaggerated and embellished their stories. They made their tales tantalizing and lurid in order to sell more prints. So many aspects of those stories were invented. But we just have too many reports and sources which confirm such a dark reputation. And you can't deny the validity of all your primary historical sources.
Historical sources and chronicles don't portray Vlad in a flattering light. Vlad the Impaler did not just kill many invading Turks but perhaps by one estimate 20 % of his own subjects. Many of those subjects were not murdered for violating the law but on a capricious whim should he not like them. He did not just murder but slowly tortured his victims.
There are other stories about the count’s violent actions. For example, there is the case where 50 German boys who arrived in his kingdom to learn the local language were blinded. Vlad met a man whose clothes seemed badly stitched up. He then had his wife impaled for alleged 'laziness.'
Vlad the Impaler was hardly a friend of the homeless, the poor, and beggars. He despised and denigrated them because he thought they were lazy—and guilty of using sympathy to fleece money from people.
According to the German sources, Vlad is viewed as a bloodthirsty tyrant who would impale his victims in a forest and largely and casually sit down to have a meal. He dipped his bread in the blood of his victims then ate it. This story might explain how he came to be associated with vampires.
In contrast, many Russian reports claim he was an able and competent ruler. They tend to admire him.
It is interesting to note that some Romanians express indignation when foreigners call Vlad the Impaler a vampire. They say this does him an injustice. In fact, comparing him to a vampire actually humanizes him. On the contrary, it does his reputation too much justice and poor vampires an injustice!
Compared to the real historical figure, Dracula by Bram Stoker comes across as a hospitable, warm and not cruel gentleman. He doesn't seek to torture you but only seeks your blood to live on. If you study the folklore of vampires in the Balkans, you 'll find that the role of vampires was at best ambiguous.
I heard from one Russian student of Serbian Culture, Alena, that vampires were often concerned parents who returned from the dead to help their loved ones take care of their children.
Anna Plotnikova, an academic who specializes in Slavonic studies once said in an interview 'He is not quite like Dracula who rises from a coffin to annoy his relatives and close ones, but refuses to take their blood and on the contrary, helps them. In Macedonia, they tell stories about vampires coming at night to homes , and in the morning people find they have already laid out pastry, brought water, and cut wood. You get a positive personnage , who helps around the home.' {from a translated interview of Anna Plotnikova, “National Geographic” (Russian edition), January 2007, page 34}.
There exists a legend which tells how Vlad the Impaler cruelly massacred all the homeless, the poor, the beggars, and invalids in his kingdom. The author might have been a Russian diplomat by the name of Fedor Kuritsin, who visited the Hungarian court and recorded some tales about Vlad the Impaler titled 'Tales of Dracula's Rule.' Kuritsin writes that Vlad was cruel but fair and hated evil so much as a Christian that he wanted to wholly eradicate it from his kingdom.
The tale goes 'Once Dracula announced "Let all those who are old, weak, ill or poor come to me." And he rounded up countless beggars and the homeless, who were expecting him to offer them sweet wisdom. He gathered them all into a mansion specially built for them and brought them food and wine: they feasted and became cheerful. He then asked them "Do you want me to make you happy on this earth so you will no longer be in need ?" They answered with a shout "We want this, your majesty!" Dracula then went to lock the door of the mansion, set it on fire and burnt all those people to death. And then Dracula told his boyars {noblemen} "Do you know why I have done this? Firstly, let them not annoy people and let there be no beggars in my land, and that everyone will be rich; secondly, let none of them suffer on this land from want or illness." ‘
In other words, Vlad the Impaler justified his mass murder of the poor, the homeless and the lame by claiming he was only putting them out of their misery.
Modern day statesmen do not always go as far as Vlad the Impaler, but they can still share the same contempt of the underdog, round them up and thrust them into special detention centers under the false pretext of 'doing them a favor' or 'reforming them'. The distinct difference is that they don't burn down those buildings with defenseless people within them.
It is fortunate that most people in 21st century Romania have not heeded the call of the Romanian poet Eminescu for the return of Dracula or a similar type of ruthless tyrant. It is just as well. Such a scenario would be a catastrophe for the most vulnerable sections of society such as the ill, the orphans, the homeless, and the gypsies.
The German playwright Brecht was right when one of his heroes declared in a play 'Happy is the land that needs no heroes.'
We certainly don't need another Dracula !
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For further information you might read the following:
“Dracula,” by Dram Stoker, 1897, Dover Thrift edition, 2000. Mineola, NY: Dover.
‘The Curse of Count Dracula,’ in “National Geographic” (Russian edition), January 2007. (Lucid account of how the homeless were rounded up and murdered by Dracula after being invited to a feast. There may well be an English edition of this article which I couldn't sexure. It is worth reading the interview of Anna Plotnikova on the basic folklore surrounding vampires.)
“Richard III, England's Black Legend,” by Desmond Seward, 1997, London: Penguin Books.
“Vlad the Impaler, The Real Count Dracula,” by Enid A. Goldberg and Norman Itzkowitz, 2008, London: Scholastic Inc.