A controversial political figure, Asachi endorsed the Imperial Russian presence in Moldavia and played a major part in establishing the Regulamentul Organic regime, while supporting the rule of Prince Mihail Sturdza.

In 1808, as the Russo-Turkish War erupted, Moldavia was occupied by the Russian Empire, First Protopope Lazăr contacted Pavel Chichagov to have his son appointed lieutenant and local head of the Corps of Engineers, but Gheorghe Asachi refused to assume office or even return from Vienna.

Instead, he left for Italy in April 1808, aiming to complete his studies in Rome, but making long stops in other localities on the way (he notably visited Trieste, Venice, Padova, Ferrara, Bologna, and Florence).

[6] Through Bianca Milesi, Asachi met François Miollis, the French commander in Rome, who reportedly told him that Napoleon Bonaparte intended to emancipate Moldavia and Wallachia as a result of the expedition into Russia, and thus create a new "Dacian Kingdom" in the area of present-day Romania.

His designs regarding French protection over the Danubian Principalities were ended by Napoleon's retreat from Russia, and by the restoration of Ottoman suzerainty and Phanariote rule, when Sultan Mahmud II appointed Scarlat Callimachi as Prince.

In March 1828, he succeeded in opening a multilingual upper school and gymnasium, connected to the Trei Ierarhi Church, named Școala Vasiliană or Gimnaziul Vasilian (in honor of the 17th-century prince Vasile Lupu, who had created the original education institution on that site).

[13] Școala Vasiliană also continued the engineering course, taught by Gheorghe Filipescu, and had additional chairs in mathematics, architecture, applied mechanics and hydraulics; in 1834, it sent several of its alumni, including the architect Alexandru Costinescu, for further studies abroad.

During that interval, Asachi decided to expand his educational goals and popularize new ideas through the means of press institutions, and requested approval from the Russian consul in Iaşi, Matvey Minciaky, to have these set up.

[19] Over the following decades, it oversaw the publishing of several other magazines, which were originally designed as supplements;[20] among these, Alăuta Românească (1837–1838) and Foaea Sătească a Prințipatului Moldovei (1839) were initiated by the younger activist Mihail Kogălniceanu, who, through his influential publication Dacia Literară, become a vocal critic of Asachi's political and cultural views.

[24] In late 1829, through a framework first outlined in the Akkerman Convention, Russian governor Peter Zheltukhin established a board of experts from both countries, charged with drafting the constitutional project eventually known as Regulamentul Organic.

The project was delayed by the ongoing war and epidemics of cholera and bubonic plague until 1831–1832, as Pavel Kiselyov took over for Zheltukhin; Gheorghe Asachi served as secretary of the Moldavian board[25][5] — the body also comprised Mihail Sturdza, Iordache Catagiu, Constantin Cantacuzino-Pașcanu and Costache Conachi.

[27] Despite the protests, the board continued its activities, being overseen by the former consul Minciaky; together with Mihail Sturdza and the Wallachian Alexandru Vilara, Asachi was dispatched to Saint Petersburg to obtain the approval of Emperor Nicholas I, which led to the document being enforced in both Principalities.

[28] By May 1833, he was able to move into a new house, which he designed and erected in the Muntenimea area of Copou Hill, on a large plot of land he had purchased from Lupu Balș; at around the same time, Institutul Albinei was also reopened on the new location.

[35] As most other press venues submitted to the minimal requirement of Russian officials and avoided publishing any material related to the revolution, Albina Românească criticized the revolutionaries for having discarded "their duty to the powers that be", and praised Russia for sending its troops to combat "anarchy".

[36] The debate prolonged itself over the following years, and, coupled with Asachi's unwavering support for Sturdza, saw him joining the separatist camp at a time the post-revolutionary group Partida Națională began openly campaigning for Moldo-Wallachian unification.

[16] In January 1850, almost one year after the Convention of Balta Liman awarded the Moldavian throne to the reform-minded and revolutionary sympathizer Grigore Alexandru Ghica, Albina Românească changed its name to Gazeta de Moldavia, adopting an official tone.

[20] After the retreat of Russian troops and an interval of Austrian administration, Moldavia and Wallachia's government came under the direct supervision of various European powers, and Kaymakam Teodor Balș ensured the interregnum in Iași.

[22] As the Treaty of Paris imposed the creation of ad hoc Divans, through which the two countries' inhabitants were allowed to decide their future, the unionist camp saw a chance for fulfilling its goals; Asachi and his associates reacted vehemently, and, in May 1857, complained to the Porte that unification would bring about various perils.

[40] In November 1837, Asachi and another 36 separatist boyars issued a memorandum unsuccessfully asking the Ottoman Grand Vizier Aali Pasha to intervene against the unionist kaymakams, restore censorship, and to narrow down the electoral lists.

After congratulating Cuza on his accomplishment, Asachi authored a poem titled Odă la Dumnezeu ("An Ode to God"), which proclaimed the brotherhood of Romanians and the notion that "power resides in Unity".

[35] In the context of early Romanian literature, where Romanticism and delayed Classicism coexisted, Asachi, like Grigore Alexandrescu, George Baronzi and others, tended to side with the latter,[41] at a time when his counterpart in Bucharest, Ion Heliade Rădulescu, bridged the gap between the two schools.

[18] His works included poems, the first of which were written in Italian,[43] as well as vast array of short stories and novellas, through which Asachi attempted to create a legendary history partly mirroring Romanian mythology.

The story centers on Harboe, a chivalrous Tatar ruler who resides in the Cumanian town of Romidava, who falls in love with Branda, the daughter of a Moesian lord and would-be wife of Dragoș.

[46] In essence, Asachi called for the modern language to reflect as much as possible the one used by the people — in this respect, he came closer to Kogălniceanu's views than to those of Heliade Rădulescu (at a time when the latter favored using the dialects employed by the Romanian Orthodox and Greek-Catholic churches).

However, in his later years, Asachi came to praise and uphold Heliade Rădulescu's controversial advocacy in favor of modifying Romanian on the basis of Italian (with its claim that the two languages were in fact closely related dialects of Latin).

[18] Considered, together with the Wallachian Heliade Rădulescu, the founder of early Romanian theater,[50][51] Asachi produced the first staging of a Romanian-language play, first performed for the public on 27 December 1816, at the Ghica family manor.

[52][53] The work was his own adaptation of Myrtil et Chloé, a pastoral theme authored by Solomon Gessner and retaken by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian;[52][53][50] in its printed version, the text also featured illustrations drawn by his own hand.

[58] Gheorghe Panaiteanu Bardasare, the recipient of a scholarship to the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, was the only one of his many disciples to remain under the influence of Asachi's tenets for the rest of his life, developing these into academic art.

[60][61] Arguably, Asachi's most important contribution to the artistic field was his involvement in attracting foreign painters to the Moldavian scene, by offering them commissions or educational assignments; among these were the Polish Ludwik Stawski and Mauriciu Loeffler, the Italian Giovanni Schiavoni,[62][63] as well as the Austrian Josef Adler (noted for authoring an 1833 manual for landscape painting and still life works) and Ioan Müller (who taught figurative art).

[16] Among the artists two have depicted Asachi during his lifetime were his associate Giovanni Schiavoni (whose painting shows the young writer surrounded by objects illustrating his many interests)[62][75] and Constantin Daniel Stahi (a pupil of Panaiteanu Berdasare).