Everything about Romanianization totally explained
Romanianization or
Rumanization is the term used to describe a number of ethnic assimilation policies implemented by the
Romanian authorities during the
20th century. The term particularly refers to Romanian government policy in several periods toward the
Hungarian minority in Romania and the
Ukrainian minority in
Bukovina or
Bessarabia.
Romanianization in Transylvania
In the period between the two World Wars
At the end of World War I,
Transylvania, at the time a territory of the Austro-Hungarian empire, was occupied by the Romanian army. Shortly before, the Romanian National Council (representing the Romanian population) and representatives of the German population had taken the decision of
unifying the province with Romania. The decision was contested by the Hungarian minority. The
Treaty of Trianon established the Romanian border with the new Hungarian state. However, Transylvania had a large Hungarian minority, of 25.5% according to the 1920 census. A portion of them fled to
Hungary after the union; however, most remained in Romania, as by 1930 their number increased to 26.7% of the Transylvanian population. While Romania included large national minorities, the
1923 Constitution declared the country to be a
nation-state.
After the second World War
After
1948, the
industrialization of towns made the number of inhabitants in some urban areas to double or even triple, most of the newcomers being ethnic Romanians from the rural areas. The
urbanization policy, natural phenomenon as the urbanization being required by the economic development and by the intention of transforming the predominantly agrarian country into an industrialized one, was followed throughout Romania, including in areas inhabited by minorities although much less significant.
Results
According to census data, the Hungarian population of Transylvania decreased from 25.5% in 1920 to 19.6% in 2002. Changes were more significant in cities/larger settlements, where Hungarians used to be in majority, especially in Northern Transylvania such as
Oradea (Hungarian:
Nagyvárad) and
Cluj-Napoca (Hungarian:
Kolozsvár).
Romanianization of the Transylvanian population was also affected by the fact that 300,000 Germans emigrated into
West Germany. The West German state paid to Romania the equivalent of $2,632 per ethnic German emigrant, as of 1983.
Also, about 50,000
Jews who survived the Holocaust emigrated to Israel on similar terms. These mass emigrations were, however, an example of positive discrimination towards the German and Jewish populations, as the rest of the Transylvanian population (Romanians, Hungarians, Romas) had no opportunity take part in this economical emigration.
Romanianization was less sustained in the compact
Székely areas of south-eastern Transylvania (the
Székelyföld), where even now Hungarians make around 80% of the population. The capital city of the former Hungarian Autonomous Province (covering mostly the Székely areas) is an exception: the percentage of Hungarians in
Târgu Mureş decreased to 46%, as the industrialization of the city led many people from the surrounding rural areas (largely Romanian) to move into the city. After the
Romanian Revolution of 1989 a confidential document issued by the Târgu Mureş Communist Party organization was found and published in the local newspaper Népújság, stating the main objectives for changing the ethnic structure of that town in favor of Romanians.
Policies toward the Ukrainian minority in Romania
The territories of
Bukovina (today split between Romania and Ukraine along ethnic lines) and
Bessarabia (today, the Republic of
Moldova), historically populated by the
Romanians and
Ukrainians for hundreds of years.
In 1775,
Bukovina was annexed by the
Habsburg Empire, which offered certain currency in the public life for the two nations, however the general policy on churches and education disfavored the
Christian Orthodox population.. Austrian control favored immigration to develop the economy of the region. Due to Bukovina being administratively linked to the province of
Galicia, the ethnic composition of the province was altered by waves of
Ruthenian,
German and
Jewish immigrants. was made a rector of the
University of Cernăuţi (
Chernivtsi), the main university of the province. Enrollment of Ukrainians in the university fell from 239 out of 1671 in 1914 to 155 out of 3,247 in 1933, while Romanian enrollment in the same period increased several times, to 2,117 out of 3,247.
The Romanization policies brought the closure of the Ukrainian public schools (all such schools were closed until
1928) and the suppression of most of the Ukrainian (Ruthenian) cultural institutions. The very term "Ukrainians" was prohibited from the official usage and some populations of disputable Ukrainian ethnicity were rather called the "citizens of Romania who forgot their native language" and were forced to change their last names to Romanian-sounding ones.
Notes and references
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