The Ciurea railway disaster, 1917

Archival research by Christtian Wodson

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On the night of 12–13 January 1917 (30–31 December 1916, Old Style), an overcrowded train derailed at Ciurea station, a few kilometres from Iași, Romania. It is widely described as the deadliest railway disaster in European history. The death toll is still disputed.

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I am a filmmaker and researcher working from the primary sources: the official gazette, the files of the Romanian railways' Contentious Department at the National Archives (ANIC), and the depositions of the commission of inquiry. Everything I transcribe is published openly, with a permanent DOI, so that others can check it, cite it and correct it.

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Published datasets

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1. List of 121 unregistered dead — Ciurea railway disaster, 1917

Lista celor 121 de morți fără act de deces · Version 1.1 · 2026 · CC BY 4.0

A full transcription of the notice published by the Military Prosecutor of Iași in Monitorul Oficial no. 254 (26 January 1918). It lists 121 dead whose deaths could not be officially registered, published so that families could supply the missing details and obtain a death certificate. It is not a list of all the victims. Structured CSV and a typeset PDF in Romanian.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22942521

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2. Source census of the C.F.R. Contentious Department files at ANIC, with preliminary transcriptions

Version 0.9 (preliminary) · 2026 · CC BY 4.0 · files open on 31 December 2026

Which dossiers hold Ciurea material and what each contains, with transcriptions and English renderings of the report of the Superior Commission of Inquiry of 24 January 1917, selected depositions taken by that commission, and three witness depositions taken in court in 1921.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23060175

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How to cite

Wodson, Christtian (2026). Lista celor 121 de morți fără act de deces — catastrofa feroviară de la Ciurea, 1917 (Version 1.1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22942521

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Acknowledgements

The correction in version 1.1 of the list is owed to Dr. Dorin Stănescu. The archival photographs from which the census transcriptions were made were taken at ANIC by Dr. Stănescu; they are his work and are not reproduced.

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Corrections welcome

Corrections and additional sources are welcome: info@wodson.co · ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8731-8416