În apărarea identităţii naţionale. Imaginea Rusiei în publicistica lui Mihai Eminescu

Abstract

Struggling for preserving our national identity, Mihai Eminescu's journalistic work deals with some of the most important topics of that period, covering essential problems in social, cultural, economic and political life. In his commentaries on external politics, Eminescu chooses the undesirable, but necessary position of a public voice, whose discourse started controversies, gave birth to polemics and brought him friends and enemies, turning him into one of the most important voices of his nation. Starting from these pre-requisites, the present paper develops Eminescu's nationalism and his clear-cut conception about national identity, the way it can be defined in his articles about Russia and its attempts of interfering with Romanian politics, thus threatening Romania's fragile position as a recent-formed national state. Rusia's image is that of a threatening empire doing its best to extend its influence over Romania and the whole Balcanic region.