Dimitrie Ralet (also rendered as Rallet, Ralett, Ralleti or Raletu; Cyrillic: Дімітріє Ралєт,[1] Раллєтȣ, or Раллєтi;[2] c. 1816 – 25 October 1858) was a Moldavian political figure and celebrated contributor to Romanian literature.

Ralet joined a National-Party cabinet formed by Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica in 1849, when he contributed to the abolition of slavery, the introduction of educational reforms, and the first steps toward the confiscation of monastery estates.

[4] Moldavia and neighboring Wallachia (the Danubian Principalities) were at the time vassals and tributaries of the Ottoman Empire; under this regime, they had received a number of Greek settlers, including the Rallet family.

This Dimitrie accompanied Prince Alexander Ypsilantis on his European trips during the Russian occupation of 1788, and adopted some staples of Westernization—including a coat of arms that displayed Noah's Ark[10] and a self-styling as "count".

[6] According to the boyar genealogist Constantin Sion, Dimitrie Sr was originally a scribe of Alexander Mourouzis, in the 1790s, before being made Vornic under Scarlat Callimachi, and calling Alexandru into the country, to join him.

[3][14] The writer was born from Alexandru's marriage to Maria (also known as Marghioala),[15] the daughter of baron Teodor (Tudori) von Mustață, a wealthy merchant from Bukovina District (a former part of Moldavia, then under the Austrian Empire).

"[8] Another positive verdict is provided by literary historian Maria Frunză, who argues that Scrieri points to a reader of the 18th-century Philosophes, himself endowed with "sharp observational skill, fine intelligence, and a penchant for satire.

Manolescu proposes that Ralet copied this template, but explored new grounds in Romanian humor, reinventing physiognomies as a "burlesque" form of entertainment (while also remaining a "sarcastic moralist" with hints of Voltaire's wit, his "cruelty" presented in "the most neutral tone").

[27] The Propășirea works include some frontal attacks on the boyars' take on modernization, which had resulted in their "doing their best not to stay Romanian"; "the harnesses [they use] are Russian, the saddles English, the beards and cigars Spanish, the language, the marriages, the fashions are all French.

Bejenariu credits such accounts, believing that Ralet was welcomed by the Hurmuzachi brothers, switching between their homes in Czernowitz and Czernowka; he also reconnected with other exiles, who had formed a Romanian Revolutionary Committee, and helped draft proclamations on their behalf.

[46] He apparently could move freely into Bukovina, without being counted as an exile, since he was reliably spotted there by Iraclie Gołęmbiowski-Porumbescu;[46] in early 1849, he also intervened with the Hurmuzachis to rescue George Bariț, a Romanian intellectual from the Principality of Transylvania, who was being detained by the Austrians in Czernowitz.

[46] He had a hands-on role in institutional modernization: from 30 November 1850, he served with Kogălniceanu, Rolla and Nicolae Șuțu on a commission to draft Moldavia's civil code, and personally authored and published its legal instrument.

[49] Ralet's activity was in any case put on hold by the Crimean War, which finally resulted in the Danubian Principalities being placed under the oversight of European powers, including the French Empire, with the Ottomans still exercising suzerainty.

[18] A fellow minister, Anastasie Panu, recalls that, by early 1855, most members of the cabinet were pushing for immediate reforms: Ralet prioritized the confiscation of monastery estates, namely those directly controlled by the Constantinopolitan and Jerusalemite Patriarchates.

[51] The Prince himself was more interested in ending slavery; Ralet and Panu argued that this should be done by sheer abolition, with no compensation for the owners, but their proposal was immediately vetoed by Ștefan Catargiu, who "began shouting that this would mean spoliation."

They were received there by the reigning Prince, Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei, who informed them that he did not approve of Ghica's plan, which was to take nationalize virtually all the estates held by the "Holy Realms", and would only support the purchase or confiscation of a quarter of the land.

[57] Upon his arrival to Istanbul, Ralet became one of the last visitors received by the Polish exile writer, Adam Mickiewicz, before his death later that year; the Wallachian guest met Ottoman figures such as Âli and Kıbrıslı Pasha, and also Sheikh Boumaza, who was a veteran of the French wars in Algeria.

[18] Residing for a while in Pera, Ralet and Negri could network with a colony of Moldavian and Wallachian expatriates, whose other members included Alecsandri and Ion Ghica, as well as with the Frenchman Laurent, who had been incapacitated during the Siege of Sevastopol.

[56] Ralet and Negri's correspondence with Prince Ghica additionally reveals that they were to consider offering military support by Moldavian militias, a "baptism of blood" that would then entitle Moldavia to claim Bessarabia back from a defeated Russian Empire.

He concluded, that, though Romanians were Latin by origin, un popor ce vrea să se îngâmfeze cu istoria sa, firește, nu poate să fie înstrăinat de moștenirea sa cea mai legiuită și cea mai scumpă, de limba părinților săi ("a people that wishes to parade its history, as is natural, cannot be alienated from its most legitimate and dearest possession, namely the language of one's parents").

[66] He insisted on providing his direct contribution to the modernization of Moldavia's landscape: also in June, he and Alecsandri, alongside Nicolae Vogoride, offered to donate estates they owned along the Siret for building a state railway.

[67] In early 1856, an Austrian informant in Moldavia, known simply as Stokera, reported that Ralet was among a group of 43 boyars who could legitimately contest the princely throne in Iași, but who "rendered no real service to the country, have no partisans, and the same time never stated a claim up to this point".

[80] A letter he sent to Ioan I. Filipescu of Wallachia, on 17 July, made specific accusations against Vogoride's Vornic in Vrancea County, Iordache Pruncu, whom he depicted as accepting bribery in exchange for fraud.

[56] Negri and Rallet networked between her and the French legation in Bucharest, threatening to publish the evidence; in the aftermath of the scandal, the Ottomans agreed to have a repeat election in September, carried by the National Party.

[86] Lăzăreanu also mentions a comedy of manners, Harță ("Quarrel"), which is "charmingly dosed" and contains a "very interesting lexical matter";[87] the same work is reviewed by Anghelescu as a study in the yeomanry's encroachment by land-grabbing boyars.

"[31] Resuming his propaganda work at Iași, Ralet also authored a brochure, Unirea și clevetitorii ei ("The Union and Its Naysayers"), which ended in his own version of the patriotic hymn, Hora Unirii.

Pandure, chitaci din fire, Ia-ți arcul cel de iubire, Peste Milcov să zbori iute Ca s-ajungi la Vrancea-n munte.

"[106] In describing his travels, Ralet commends the Osmanlis and the "Turkish people" for having embraced reform, and especially for doing so without "blindly adopting what we in Europe take to mean civilization [...] We would not wish for them to regard as prejudice all things that hamper vice.

As the same critic observes, Ralet veered away from "romantic cliches", and instead reached artistic profundity in commending the Turks for their fatalism—according to Zamfir, this attitude reflected the writer's own moral agony, as he was already losing his battle with tuberculosis.

[29][93] On 1 November, at Saint Spyridon Church in Iași, Metropolitan Scriban dedicated Ralet his sermon in his memory, calling him "our friend of principle and of duty, of deeds and of sorrows", as well as "the first Apostle of [our national] regeneration".