Glossary -- Romania
- Banat
- Region bounded by the Tisza River on the west, the Mures River
on the north, the Transylvanian Alps on the east, and the Danube on
the south. After World War I, it was divided between Yugoslavia and
Romania.
- Bessarabia
- Region between the Dniester and Prut rivers north of the Black
Sea. Seized by the Soviet Union in 1940, it was merged with
Bukovina (q.v.) to form the Moldavian Soviet Socialist
Republic.
- Bukovina (var., Bucovina)
- Region in the foothills of the Eastern Carpathians at the
headwaters of the Prut, Siret, and Dniester rivers. The region
belonged to Romania between World War I and World War II, but was
annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940.
- central (pl.,
centrale)
- Large industrial associations created by economic reforms in
the late 1960s ostensibly to assume some of the decision-making
authority of the various economic ministries. They had little real
autonomy.
- Comecon
- Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Founded in 1949;
headquartered in Moscow. Members are Bulgaria, Cuba,
Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Mongolia,
Poland, Romania, Soviet Union, Vietnam. Purpose is to promote
economic development of member states through cooperation and
specialization.
- Dobruja (var., Dobrudja and
Dobrogea)
- Black Sea coastal lands lying south of the Danube in
southeastern Romania and northeastern Bulgaria.
- Extensive economic development
- Expanding production by adding resources rather than by
improving the efficiency with which these resources are exploited.
- Fiscal Year (FY)
- Calendar year.
- GATT
- General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. An international
organization established in 1948 and headquartered in Geneva that
serves as a forum for international trade negotiations. GATT
members pledge to further multilateral trade by reducing import
tariffs, quotas, and preferential trade agreements and promise to
extend to each other any favorable trading terms offered in
subsequent agreements with third parties.
- GNA
- Grand National Assembly. Nominally the supreme organ of state
power, it is essentially a rubber-stamp legislature of 369 deputies
elected every five years. It meets twice yearly and in special
sessions as necessary.
- GNP
- gross national product. The total value of goods and services
produced in a nation during a specified period, usually one year.
- Greater Romania
- Following World War I, Romania incorporated Transylvania,
Bessarabia, Bukovina, the eastern Banat, and southern Dobruja. It
subsequently lost much of this territory.
- IMF
- International Monetary Fund. Established along with the World
Bank (q.v.) in 1945, the IMF is a specialized agency
affiliated with the United Nations that takes responsibility for
stabilizing international exchange rates and payments. The main
business of the IMF is the provision of loans to its members when
they experience balance-of-payment difficulties. These loans often
carry conditions that require substantial internal economic
adjustments by the recipients.
- judet (pl., judete)
- Local administrative division corresponding to county or
district. There are forty such units plus the municipality of
Bucharest and the surrounding Ilfov Agricultural District.
- leu (pl., lei)
- Standard unit of currency, divided into 100 bani. The official
exchange rate in January 1989 stood at 14.5 lei per US$1, but the
actual rate varied according to type of transaction.
- Moldavia (var., Moldova and Moldau)
- Former principality, east of Transylvania (q.v.) and
north and east of Walachia (q.v.).
- multilaterally developed socialist
state
- The proclaimed goal for Romania's social and economic
development to be achieved by the year 2000. The goal envisioned an
industrially advanced socialist nation with an efficient and
productive agriculture and a well-educated population enjoying a
high standard of living.
- national income
- The total value of a nation's material production,
depreciation, achieved in one year.
- New Economic and Financial Mechanism
- Economic reforms introduced in March 1978, the first of
numerous efforts to improve economic management and planning by
increasing the decision-making powers of individual enterprises and
centrale (q.v.). The reforms were implemented
only half-heartedly.
- PCR
- Partidul Comunist Romān (Romanian Communist Party). The ruling
and only legal political party. Founded in 1921, the Communist
Party was declared illegal in 1924 and operated underground until
1944. The party came to power as a result of the Soviet occupation
during the final year of World War II. In 1948 it merged with on
wing of the Social Democratic Party to form the Romanian Workers'
Party (Partidul Muncitoresc Romān--PMR). In 1965 the party assumed
its present name.
- Polexco
- Political Executive Committee. The politburo of the PCR
(q.v.), the party's primary policy-making body. In 1988
there were nineteen members, most of whom held other important
party and government positions.
- Procuratura
- Office of the prosecutor general, established in 1952, it
operates the court system, decides jurisdictional questions,
compiles crime statistics, and oversees the central criminology
institute and forensic science laboratory.
- Securitate
- Popular term for the Departmentul Secevit#atii Statului
(Department of State Security), the secret police. On a per capita
basis, Romania has the largest such service in Eastern Europe.
- socialism (adj., socialist)
- In Marxist theory a stage of historical development
transitional between capitalism and communism. Romania claimed to
have attained socialism by 1965.
- Sublime Porte (short form, the
Porte)
- Term used by Europeans to designate the Ottoman court or the
government of Ottoman Turkey; derived from the gate (port) of the
sultan's palace, at which justice was administered in ancient
times.
- Transylvania (var.,
Transilvania)
- Region of northwestern and central Romania of triangular shape,
bounded on the north, east, and south by the Carpathian Mountains
and Transylvanian Alps and the homeland of roughly two million
ethnic Hungarians.
- UGSR
- Uniunea Generalā a Sindicatelor din Romānia (General Union of
Trade Unions). Official organization incorporating all labor unions
of blue- and white-collar workers. Membership in 1985 was 7.3
million.
- UTC
- Uniunea Tineretului Comunist (Union of Communist Youth).
Official organization that functions as the youth branch of the PCR
(q.v.). Membership open to young people between ages
fifteen and twenty-six. Membership in 1984 estimated at 3.7
million.
- voivode
- A slavic term designating a military leader, adopted for a time
by the rulers or princes of Walachia and Moldavia.
- Walachia (var., Wallachia)
- Former principality between the Danube and Transylvanian Alps
in southern Romania.
- Warsaw Treaty Organization
- Formal name for Warsaw Pact. Military alliance of communist
countries founded in 1955, with headquarters in Moscow. The Soviet
minister of defense is traditionally the supreme commander of
Warsaw Pact forces. Members are Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, German
Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet
Union.
- World Bank
- Informal name used to designate a group of three affiliated international
institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD),
the International Development Association (IDA), and the International Finance
Corporation (IFC). The IBRD, established in 1945, has the primary purpose
of providing loans to developing countries for productive projects. The IDA,
a legally separate loan fund administered by the staff of the IBRD, was set
up in 1960 to furnish credits to the poorest developing countries on much
easier terms than those of conventional IBRD loans. The IFC, founded in 1956,
supplements the activities of the IBRD through loans and assistance designed
specifically to encourage the growth of productive private enterprises in
less developed countries. The president and certain senior officers of the
IBRD hold the same positions in the IFC. The three institutions are owned
by the governments of the countries that subscribe their capital. To participate
in the World Bank group, member states must first belong to the IMF (q.v.).
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