 In early 1849, Bălcescu was in Istanbul when the Hungarian revolutionary armies under Józef Bem mounted a successful offensive against Habsburg forces and their Transylvanian Romanian allies.The Hungarian government of Lajos Kossuth then entered a debilitating war with Avram Iancu's Romanian guerrilla force, and the former members of the Wallachian government were approached by the Polish revolutionaries in exile, such as Henryk Dembiński, to mediate a peace between the two sides (in the hope that this was to ensure a stronger resistance to Russia, and counting on the Wallachian resentment towards the Saint Petersburg government).Bălcescu left for Debrecen in May, and met with Kossuth to register the latter's offer to Iancu.