|
Romania Nation-Building and National Minorities
Even before Ceausescu came to power, PCR leaders had
taken a
nationalistic, anti-Soviet stance, which was important for
maintaining the legitimacy of the regime. During the first
decade
of Soviet-imposed communist rule, the population suffered
the
misery of expropriations, the disruptions of rapid
industrialization and forced collectivization, and the
Sovietization of society. The result was an increasing
bitterness
toward the Soviet Union and the PCR itself, which was
directly
controlled by Moscow. In the late 1950s and early 1960s,
as deStalinization and a more liberal atmosphere prevailed in
Moscow,
PCR leaders asserted their independence by ousting
pro-Soviet
members and refusing to accept Soviet plans to make
Romania the
"breadbasket" for the more industrialized
Comecon (see Glossary)
countries
(see Historical Setting
, ch. 1).
As Ceausescu assumed power, the campaign for
self-determination
and de-Sovietization was accompanied by increasing
Romanian
nationalism in domestic policy. Fervent emphasis on
Romanian
language, history, and culture, designed to enhance
Ceausescu's
popularity among the Romanian majority, continued unabated
into the
1980s. In 1976 the PCR launched a nationwide campaign
dedicated to
the glorification of the Romanian homeland--the "Hymn to
Romania."
All nationalities were expected to join the fete, which
placed the
Hungarian and German minorities of Transylvania in a
grievous
predicament. The campaign aimed to remove all traces of
German and
Hungarian territorial identification. In cities that had
already
been Romanianized, monuments and artifacts representing
links to
the Hungarian or Saxon past were all but eliminated,
bilingual
inscriptions were removed, and streets--and in some cases,
cities
themselves--were renamed to emphasize Romanian roots. Thus
Turnu
Severin became Drobeta-Turnu Severin, and
Cluj--Transylvania's most
important Hungarian city--was renamed Cluj-Napoca.
Given the socioeconomic structure of precommunist
Transylvania,
when Hungarians and Germans were much more urbanized and
economically advanced than the mostly peasant Romanian
majority,
the changes wrought by the modernization program
negatively
affected the position of the minorities. As the needs of
industrialization brought more and more peasants from the
countryside to the factories, the ethnic composition of
Transylvania's urban places shifted. Romanians became the
growing
majority in cities that had long been Hungarian and German
enclaves. These changes were not solely the result of
natural
migration, but were carefully engineered by the state.
Secret
internal regulations ordered major minority centers such
as Cluj,
Oradea, and Arad to be virtually sealed off to the largest
ethnic
minorities and encouraged their outmigration while
directing an
influx of ethnic Romanians.
Population shifts were engendered under the guise of
multilateral development, the party's byword for building
socialism. The stated goal was equalization of regional
development, and statistical data were often cited to show
that
investments in underdeveloped minority-inhabited areas
were made in
an effort to bring them up to the national average.
Minorities--
particularly the Hungarians--claimed, however, that
economic growth
did not provide training and jobs for them but served as a
pretext
for the massive influx of ethnic Romanian workers. Thus,
whereas
ethnic Hungarians had to leave their homeland to find
employment in
the Old Kingdom region, ethnic Romanians were offered
incentives to
relocate to Transylvania.
The dispute between Hungary and Romania over the
history of
Transylvania complicated interethnic relations in the
region. The
histories of both countries claim Transylvania as the safe
haven
that ensured the survival of each nation. The Romanians
contend
that they are descendants of Geto-Dacians--the indigenous
inhabitants of Transylvania. Although earlier Romanian
historiography emphasized the Latin origins of Romanian
language
and culture, later pronouncements by Ceausescu and
Romanian
historians stressed cultural ties to this pre-Roman
civilization.
The regime set out to prove the so-called Daco-Roman
continuity
theory to bolster Romania's claims over Transylvania.
Despite
furious archaeological activity to discover Dacian roots,
however,
just as many traces of Celts, Huns, Avars, Goths, and
Romans were
uncovered. Nevertheless, the country's museums and history
books
presented the theory as indisputable fact.
Even as early as 1948, the process of rewriting the
history of
Transylvania to favor the Romanian version was under way.
Revised
textbooks gave ample coverage of the great Romanian heroes
of the
past, but they provided little or no information about key
minority
figures, and those who were mentioned were given Romanian
names.
The books emphasized that the struggle for unification of
the
Romanian fatherland had been opposed by the Hungarians and
Germans,
who were labeled "latecomers" and "colonists."
Amidst the controversy, the Hungarian minority of
Transylvania
was considered an instrument of the Hungarian government,
further
ensuring their second-class citizenship status.
Expressions of
concern for the treatment of this minority, whether
originating
inside or outside Romania, were branded "chauvinistic,
revanchist,
and irredentist." The regime increasingly limited contacts
and
cultural links between Hungary and Romanian Hungarians.
After 1974,
regulations forbade all foreign travelers except close
family
members to stay overnight in private homes. Violators
placed their
hosts at risk of fines amounting to as much as one year's
salary.
Romanian Hungarians found it difficult to obtain
newspapers and
journals from Hungary, and the Department of State
Security
(Departamentul Securitatii Statului--Securitate), the
secret
police, monitored the reception of Hungarian radio and
television
broadcasts and the placement of long-distance calls to
Hungary.
Significantly, the pervasive Securitate employed few
minority
citizens.
As the economy ground to a halt in the 1980s and living
conditions deteriorated for both the majority and the
minorities,
thousands of citizens fled to Hungary. In 1987 alone, some
40,000
sought refuge there, and from June until August of 1988,
at least
187 Romanians were shot dead by the Securitate while
attempting to
escape to Hungary.
Data as of July 1989
|
