The literature devoted to the history of the Eastern crisis of the 70s of the XIX century was supplemented with a detailed analysis of the Romanian-Russian relations of this time. Written on the basis of a wide range of unpublished materials from Soviet and Romanian archives and other sources, both on the problems of foreign policy of the countries under consideration, and on the internal history of Romania, the book by Associate Professor of Moscow State University, Candidate of Historical Sciences M. M. Zalyshkin is distinguished by a high degree of documentation and evidence. Describing the economic and political situation of Romania on the eve of the Eastern crisis, the author dwells on the agrarian reform of 1864, which created "relatively favorable conditions for the development of capitalism in agriculture" (p.15), although it did not satisfy the peasants ' land needs. The reform contributed to the development of capitalism in the country, but these were still the first sprouts of it, and industrial production accounted for only 1/10 of agricultural production. The vassalage of the Romanian principalities towards Turkey and the impossibility of customs protection facilitated the access of foreign goods to their territory and the influx of foreign capital. In the hands of foreign entrepreneurs were railways, oil fields. Foreign capital also operated in the banking sector. Chronic deficits undermined public finances. Romania, or, as it was officially called at that time, the united principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, was a hereditary constitutional monarchy, in the political life of which groups of conservatives and liberals, representing land-owning and bourgeois circles, participated. The author examines the Romanian policy of neutrality in 1875-1876. Both the Conservative government that was in power in 1875 and the liberal government that succeeded it in 1876 maintained a policy of neutrality, although it should be noted that there were certain fluctu ... Read more