DOCSLIB.ORG

NOVA University of Newcastle Research Online Nova.Newcastle.Edu.Au

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
NOVA University of Newcastle Research Online Nova.Newcastle.Edu.Au NOVA University of Newcastle Research Online nova.newcastle.edu.au Davis, S. E. “Competitive civilizing missions: Hungarian Germans, modernization, and ethnographic descriptions of the Zigeuner before World War I”. Published in Central European History Vol. 50, Issue 1, p. 6-33 (2017) Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0008938917000012 Accessed from: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1352549 1 Competitive Civilizing Missions: Hungarian Germans, Modernization, and Ethnographic Descriptions of the “Zigeuner” before World War I Sacha E. Davis In the late nineteenth century a new generation of scholars, many from Hungary’s German minorities in Transylvania and the Banat, focused on what they identified as Zigeuner culture.1 This interest coincided with strong Magyarization pressures on minorities. Following the 1867 Ausgleich, in which Hungary absorbed Transylvania and became autonomous within the Habsburg Empire, Magyar nationalists elided Hungarian citizenship with Magyar ethnicity in their pursuit of a modern, unitary nation-state. Liberal reform threatened Transylvanian Saxon corporate privileges while Magyarization offered historically unprivileged Banat Schwabs opportunities for social advancement. Consequently, German responses to Magyarization were divided. Whereas some Germans embraced Magyarization, others competed with the Hungarian modernizing project by asserting their own German nationalist civilizing mission in East Europe. Still other individuals, indifferent to nationalism, identified with prenational collectives such as estate, religion, and locality. Hungarian and German elites alike placed themselves at the apex of an ethnic hierarchy ordered by level of “civilization,” thereby legitimizing participation in public life. Simultaneously, they castigated Zigeuner and other subaltern cultures as primitive Naturvölker, denying those interpolated the right of reply.2 Both Magyar and German elites perceived Zigeuner as threatening public order and the general good, thus legitimizing reform efforts. By writing about the Zigeuner, scholars 2 therefore either asserted competing Magyar and German models for modernization and reform, or rejected modernization by embracing the romantic image of the Wanderzigeuner (“nomadic Gypsy”). This article examines three prominent Hungarian-German scholars: the historian Johann Schwicker (1839-1902), the ethnographer Anton Herrmann (1851-1926), and the folklorist Heinrich von Wlislocki (1856-1907). Whereas Schwicker, a passionate German nationalist, asserted a German mission to civilize Hungary itself, Herrmann willingly embraced Hungarian nationalism, while Wlislocki rejected all nationalist modernizing efforts as a threat to his romantic visions of Transylvania’s vanishing past. These three scholars collectively illustrate the range of Hungarian-German responses to nationalist modernization. All three also played leading roles in the study of Transylvanian and Hungarian Zigeuner. Historians have explored how Hungarian-German scholars reinforced the European image of the Zigeuner as an uncultured, Oriental Naturvolk, alternately symbolizing romantic freedom or desperately needing reform.3 Few consider these descriptions as responses to the demands of the Hungarian state, however. The exception, Marian Zăloagă’s examination of how Hungarian-German nationalists used the Zigeuner to assert their culture’s alleged superiority over Hungarian nationalism, has been of great assistance in writing this article.4 Certainly, Schwicker called for the Zigeuner to assimilate into Hungarian and Romanian culture, arguing that Germanization was beyond their reach, thereby asserting German culture’s alleged superior status as the culture of the educated elite. Conversely, however, Herrmann urged the Magyarization of the Zigeuner to strengthen the Hungarian nation-state and denigrate the role of German and Romanian culture. Finally, Wlislocki presented the Zigeuner as the romantic symbol 3 of the premodern age, and as a critique of the modernizing projects he opposed. Whatever their differences, Schwicker, Herrmann, and Wlislocki all underline the role of national disputes in shaping Zigeunerkunde (“Gypsy Studies”). Racial identities do not resemble some underlying objective reality, of course, but are constructed through the process of enactment.5 Schwicker, Herrmann, and Wlislocki’s Zigeuner bore limited resemblance to Romani lived experience. For that reason, this article uses the term Zigeuner to refer to the objects constructed in the stereotypical discourses of non-Romani writers, and refers to the individuals these stereotypes claimed to portray as Roma. 6 The first part of this article examines German responses to Magyarization, outlining the Hungarian modernizing project and the demands it made of Hungarian Germans. It then considers the responses made by Transylvanian Saxons and Banat Schwabs at the communal level, before examining Schwicker, Herrmann, and Wlislocki’s individual responses. Communal attitudes did not dictate individual responses but did determine what institutions scholars could draw upon to support their views. The second part of this article focuses on the impact of nationalist modernizing projects in Zigeunerkunde, outlining first the Romani population of Hungary, their social marginalization and increasing state efforts at surveillance and control, which, in turn, motivated growing scholarly interest in the Zigeuner. Schwicker, Herrmann, and Wlislocki were inconsistent in which Zigeuner they described, but tended to focus on Transylvania and the Banat, where Zigeuner culture was considered most “pure” (and problematic for Hungary’s continuing development). The following analysis of the Roma therefore also focuses on the regions of eastern Hungary. It then examines, in turn, 4 Schwicker, Herrmann, and Wlislocki’s discursive deployment of the term Zigeuner in support of their views on modernization, shaping Zigeunerkunde in Hungary. Collectively, their representations discredited attempts by Roma to integrate into mainstream society, marking them as insufficiently “civilized” while simultaneously denying authenticity to all but a vanishingly small fraction who supposedly met an impossible ideal. Consequently, by the outbreak of World War I, Hungarian-German scholars increasingly viewed the Zigeuner as irredeemable and “dying out.” The article concludes with an analysis of how the function of the Zigeuner stereotype changed after World War I, when Romanianization replaced Magyarization in former eastern Hungary. Considered incorrigibly “Oriental,” Zigeuner no longer stood as a discursive subject of reform, but rather as one of the last symbols of an increasingly fragile German social mastery. Magyar Nationalism and the Hungarian Modernizing Project Under the 1867 Ausgleich, those in Hungary who spoke Hungarian speakers as a first language constituted less than half of the population of Hungary: 46.6 percent in 1880; this rose to 51.4 percent in 1900 and 54.5 percent in 1910. (Even this narrow majority was achieved only by excluding semiautonomous Croatia-Slavonia from the census figures.7) Other widely spoken mother tongues were Romanian (17.5 percent in 1880, falling to 16.1 percent in 1910), Slovak (13.5 percent in 1880, 10.7 percent in 1910) and German (13.6 percent in 1880, 10.4 percent in 1910).8 Conversely, Roma (classed ethnically rather than linguistically) constituted approximately 1.6 percent of the 5 population in 1893.9 These demographics provoked considerable anxiety for Magyar nationalists. Late eighteenth century Hungarian nationalists had hoped to transform the estate- based natio Hungarica of the nobility into a modernized Hungarian nation unified by shared institutions, rather than shared language. In the first half of the nineteenth century, however, nationalists increasingly embraced a specifically Magyarist conception of Hungarian nationalism, linking the Hungarian nation with the Hungarian language and advocating the assimilation of non-Magyars. Simultaneously, Magyar nationalists laid claim to the non-Hungarian speakers in Hungary. Unlike German, which draws (inconsistent) distinctions between Ungar (Hungarian; an inhabitant of Hungary) and Magyar (Magyar; a speaker of Hungarian), the Hungarian language uses Magyar for both.10 This lack of distinction aided Magyar nationalists in arguing that all citizens of the country were members of the Magyar politikai nemzet (Hungarian political nation). As such, however, all citizens were to consider themselves Hungarians (Magyarok) and speak Hungarian. The nation thus simultaneously included all inhabitants and was specifically Magyar. For Magyar nationalists, this contradictory position legitimized Magyarization, a necessity if the state was to be based on an ethnolinguistic nation.11 Magyarization was closely bound up with modernization. Most national activists in the Habsburg Empire considered their movement to be the agent of progressive reform.12 Magyar nationalists believed the Ausgleich had finally freed Hungary from Austrian colonization, enabling it to fulfil its destiny as a modern European state. Magyar nationalist parliamentarians sought a French-style monolingual liberal nation-state by introducing universal laws and a common state language. Liberal nationalist politician 6 Belá Grünwald (1839-91) claimed, for example, that Hungarian non-Magyars were incapable of independent advancement; it was the destiny of Magyardom to assimilate them, thereby elevating them to a “civilized” status.13
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Holocaust/Shoah the Organization of the Jewish Refugees in Italy Holocaust Commemoration in Present-Day Poland
    NOW AVAILABLE remembrance a n d s o l i d a r i t y Holocaust/Shoah The Organization of the Jewish Refugees in Italy Holocaust Commemoration in Present-day Poland in 20 th century european history Ways of Survival as Revealed in the Files EUROPEAN REMEMBRANCE of the Ghetto Courts and Police in Lithuania – LECTURES, DISCUSSIONS, remembrance COMMENTARIES, 2012–16 and solidarity in 20 th This publication features the century most significant texts from the european annual European Remembrance history Symposium (2012–16) – one of the main events organized by the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity in Gdańsk, Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Budapest. The 2017 issue symposium entitled ‘Violence in number the 20th-century European history: educating, commemorating, 5 – december documenting’ will take place in Brussels. Lectures presented there will be included in the next Studies issue. 2016 Read Remembrance and Solidarity Studies online: enrs.eu/studies number 5 www.enrs.eu ISSUE NUMBER 5 DECEMBER 2016 REMEMBRANCE AND SOLIDARITY STUDIES IN 20TH CENTURY EUROPEAN HISTORY EDITED BY Dan Michman and Matthias Weber EDITORIAL BOARD ISSUE EDITORS: Prof. Dan Michman Prof. Matthias Weber EDITORS: Dr Florin Abraham, Romania Dr Árpád Hornják, Hungary Dr Pavol Jakubčin, Slovakia Prof. Padraic Kenney, USA Dr Réka Földváryné Kiss, Hungary Dr Ondrej Krajňák, Slovakia Prof. Róbert Letz, Slovakia Prof. Jan Rydel, Poland Prof. Martin Schulze Wessel, Germany EDITORIAL COORDINATOR: Ewelina Pękała REMEMBRANCE AND SOLIDARITY STUDIES IN 20TH CENTURY EUROPEAN HISTORY PUBLISHER: European Network Remembrance and Solidarity ul. Wiejska 17/3, 00–480 Warszawa, Poland www.enrs.eu, [email protected] COPY-EDITING AND PROOFREADING: Caroline Brooke Johnson PROOFREADING: Ramon Shindler TYPESETTING: Marcin Kiedio GRAPHIC DESIGN: Katarzyna Erbel COVER DESIGN: © European Network Remembrance and Solidarity 2016 All rights reserved ISSN: 2084–3518 Circulation: 500 copies Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media upon a Decision of the German Bundestag.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Alberta
    University of Alberta Making Magyars, Creating Hungary: András Fáy, István Bezerédj and Ödön Beöthy’s Reform-Era Contributions to the Development of Hungarian Civil Society by Eva Margaret Bodnar A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Department of History and Classics © Eva Margaret Bodnar Spring 2011 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. Abstract The relationship between magyarization and Hungarian civil society during the reform era of Hungarian history (1790-1848) is the subject of this dissertation. This thesis examines the cultural and political activities of three liberal oppositional nobles: András Fáy (1786-1864), István Bezerédj (1796-1856) and Ödön Beöthy (1796-1854). These three men were chosen as the basis of this study because of their commitment to a two- pronged approach to politics: they advocated greater cultural magyarization in the multiethnic Hungarian Kingdom and campaigned to extend the protection of the Hungarian constitution to segments of the non-aristocratic portion of the Hungarian population.
    [Show full text]
  • Romanian Neo-Protestants in the Interwar Struggle for Religious and National Identity
    Pieties of the Nation: Romanian neo-protestants in the interwar struggle for religious and national identity by Iemima Daniela Ploscariu Submitted to Central European University Department of History In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Constantin Iordachi Second Reader: Vlad Naumescu CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2015 “Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author.” CEU eTD Collection i Abstract Neo-protestants (Seventh-Day Adventists, Baptists, Brethren, and Pentecostals) were the fastest growing among the religious minorities in interwar Romania. The American, Hungarian, German, and other European influences on these groups and their increasing success led government officials and the Romanian Orthodox Church to look on them with suspicion and to challenge them with accusations of being socially deviant sects or foreign pawns. Neo- protestants presented themselves as loyal Romanians while still maintaining close relationships with ethnic minorities of the same faith within the country and abroad. The debates on the identity of these groups and the “competition for souls” that occurred in society demonstrate neo- protestants' vision of Romanian national identity challenging the accepted interwar arguments for what it meant to be Romanian.
    [Show full text]
  • Dniester Jews Between
    PARALLEL RUPTURES: JEWS OF BESSARABIA AND TRANSNISTRIA BETWEEN ROMANIAN NATIONALISM AND SOVIET COMMUNISM, 1918-1940 BY DMITRY TARTAKOVSKY DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Mark D. Steinberg, Chair Professor Keith Hitchins Professor Diane P. Koenker Professor Harriet Murav Assistant Professor Eugene Avrutin Abstract ―Parallel Ruptures: Jews of Bessarabia and Transnistria between Romanian Nationalism and Soviet Communism, 1918-1940,‖ explores the political and social debates that took place in Jewish communities in Romanian-held Bessarabia and the Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic during the interwar era. Both had been part of the Russian Pale of Settlement until its dissolution in 1917; they were then divided by the Romanian Army‘s occupation of Bessarabia in 1918 with the establishment of a well-guarded border along the Dniester River between two newly-formed states, Greater Romania and the Soviet Union. At its core, the project focuses in comparative context on the traumatic and multi-faceted confrontation with these two modernizing states: exclusion, discrimination and growing violence in Bessarabia; destruction of religious tradition, agricultural resettlement, and socialist re-education and assimilation in Soviet Transnistria. It examines also the similarities in both states‘ striving to create model subjects usable by the homeland, as well as commonalities within Jewish responses on both sides of the border. Contacts between Jews on either side of the border remained significant after 1918 despite the efforts of both states to curb them, thereby necessitating a transnational view in order to examine Jewish political and social life in borderland regions.
    [Show full text]
  • So That's How Life Abroad Made Me
    “SO THAT’S HOW LIFE ABROAD MADE ME LOOK AT THINGS DIFFERENTLY” TRANSYLVANIAN VILLAGERS AND THE DOMESTICATION OF EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT By Bridget Kelly Submitted to Central European University Department of Nationalism Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Professor Michael Miller Budapest, Hungary CEU eTD Collection 2020 Abstract Since 1989, scholars and politicians have touted so-called East-West migration as a means of “Europeanizing” the former socialist states on the assumption that migrants will become accustomed to “Western” and “liberal” social, political, and economic cultures and transmit that knowledge back to “develop” their native communities. Through multi-sited ethnography following the transnational networks between Bistrița-Năsăud county, Romania, southern Spain, and Vienna, Austria, I test this assumption by investigating how circular and return migrants from rural Transylvania judge the “development” of their communities after three decades of “transition” and migration. I argue that the things they bring back (their “social and economic remittances”; Levitt 1998) paint a mixed picture of “European integration,” as villagers embrace both positive and negative ideas from the “West” while also rejecting or reinterpreting others. Applying Garapich and Grabowska’s (2016) processual typology of remittances (“imitation, resistance, and innovation”), I show how acts of imitating the West (ranging from the adoption of “modern” infrastructure to embracing norms about entrepreneurship, professionalism, and racial hierarchies) are countered by attempts to resist Western values in favor of “traditional Romanian” (or rural, religious, and peasant) lifestyles. I argue that villagers recast this backward-looking romanticization of pre-socialist history into forward-oriented strategies of getting by and finding pride in their peripheralized region by vernacularizing Western concepts to transform ancestral practices (like peasant farming) into modern amenities (like organic agriculture).
    [Show full text]
  • The Making of Ethnicity in Southern Bessarabia: Tracing the Histories Of
    The Making of Ethnicity in Southern Bessarabia: Tracing the histories of an ambiguous concept in a contested land Dissertation Zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) vorgelegt der Philosophischen Fakultät I Sozialwissenschaften und historische Kulturwissenschaften der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, von Herrn Simon Schlegel geb. am 23. April 1983 in Rorschach (Schweiz) Datum der Verteidigung 26. Mai 2016 Gutachter: PD Dr. phil. habil. Dittmar Schorkowitz, Dr. Deema Kaneff, Prof. Dr. Gabriela Lehmann-Carli Contents Deutsche Zusammenfassung ...................................................................................................................................... iii 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Questions and hypotheses ......................................................................................................................... 4 1.2. History and anthropology, some methodological implications ................................................. 6 1.3. Locating the field site and choosing a name for it ........................................................................ 11 1.4. A brief historical outline .......................................................................................................................... 17 1.5. Ethnicity, natsional’nost’, and nationality: definitions and translations ............................
    [Show full text]
  • The HCNM in Ukraine: Conflict Prevention in a Divided Society
    In: IFSH (ed.), OSCE Yearbook 2012, Baden-Baden 2013, pp. 297-309. Klemens Büscher The HCNM in Ukraine: Conflict Prevention in a Divided Society Ukraine’s post-Soviet transformation, which has taken place in a difficult foreign-policy environment and despite complex ethnopolitical divisions and tensions, has so far not been marred by violent conflict. This achievement of the country and its people is deserving of great respect. The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) has been active in Ukraine since 1994. His ongoing work has sought to support the largely peaceful management of ethnopolitical problems and conflicts and to help in avoiding the escalation of existing tensions. On the whole, the political leadership in Ukraine, both central and re- gional, has tended to co-operate constructively with the HCNM while re- specting the autonomy of this OSCE institution, even if there have been rad- ically different points of view on numerous specific issues. The High Com- missioner’s written recommendations – the heart of his political work – have been taken note of by Kyiv, and have occasionally triggered wide-ranging political discussions. As is only to be expected, Ukrainian politicians and diplomats have at times attempted to instrumentalize the HCNM for their own foreign or domestic political goals and to interpret his recommendations in a partial or distorted way. Furthermore, there is occasionally a sense in Ukraine that the HCNM’s engagement, and the presence of the OSCE in general, carry a stigma. This has, however, not restricted the High Commis- sioner’s freedom action. While the HCNM has been continually active, Ukraine is a remarkable and rare case of a country where two conflict issues have been largely re- solved over time to the extent that the High Commissioner could end his en- gagement with them.
    [Show full text]
  • Culture and Customs of Ukraine Ukraine
    Culture and Customs of Ukraine Ukraine. Courtesy of Bookcomp, Inc. Culture and Customs of Ukraine ADRIANA HELBIG, OKSANA BURANBAEVA, AND VANJA MLADINEO Culture and Customs of Europe GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Helbig, Adriana. Culture and customs of Ukraine / Adriana Helbig, Oksana Buranbaeva and Vanja Mladineo. p. cm. — (Culture and customs of Europe) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–313–34363–6 (alk. paper) 1. Ukraine—Civilization. 2. Ukraine—Social life and customs. I. Buranbaeva, Oksana. II. Mladineo, Vanja. III. Title. IV. Series. DK508.4.H45 2009 947.7—dc22 2008027463 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2009 by Adriana Helbig, Oksana Buranbaeva, and Vanja Mladineo All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008027463 ISBN: 978–0–313–34363–6 First published in 2009 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The authors dedicate this book to Marijka Stadnycka Helbig and to the memory of Omelan Helbig; to Rimma Buranbaeva, Christoph Merdes, and Ural Buranbaev; to Marko Pećarević. This page intentionally left blank Contents Series Foreword ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii Chronology xv 1 Context 1 2 Religion 30 3 Language 48 4 Gender 59 5 Education 71 6 Customs, Holidays, and Cuisine 90 7 Media 114 8 Literature 127 viii CONTENTS 9 Music 147 10 Theater and Cinema in the Twentieth Century 162 Glossary 173 Selected Bibliography 177 Index 187 Series Foreword The old world and the New World have maintained a fluid exchange of people, ideas, innovations, and styles.
    [Show full text]
  • Theories of Nationalism
    Theories of Nationalism A Critical Introduction Second Edition Umut Özkirimli Ozkirimli Prelims 22/12/09 11:09 am Page i Theories of Nationalism Ozkirimli Prelims 22/12/09 11:09 am Page ii Also by Umut Özkırımlı Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey (with Spyros A. Sofos) Contemporary Debates on Nationalism: A Critical Engagement Nationalism and Its Futures (editor) Ozkirimli Prelims 22/12/09 11:09 am Page iii Theories of Nationalism A Critical Introduction Second Edition Umut Özkırımlı Ozkirimli Prelims 22/12/09 11:09 am Page iv © Umut Özkırımlı 2000, 2010 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2000 Second edition 2010 Published by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
    [Show full text]
  • Assimilation, Segregation, Integration: State Control on Minority Policies in Modern Romania (1918-2007)
    W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 6-2011 Assimilation, Segregation, Integration: State Control on Minority Policies in Modern Romania (1918-2007) Doina Anca Cretu College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Cretu, Doina Anca, "Assimilation, Segregation, Integration: State Control on Minority Policies in Modern Romania (1918-2007)" (2011). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 436. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/436 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Introduction Looking back across Romania‟s twentieth century, Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran once said: "Some countries are blessed with a sort of grace: everything works for them, even their misfortunes and their catastrophes. There are others for whom nothing succeeds and whose very triumphs are but failures. When they try to assert themselves and take a step forward, some external fate intervenes to break their momentum and return them to their starting point."1 Interestingly enough, this particular concept of fate has always been part of socio-political discourse in Romania. Often times the focus shifted towards the benefits of a suprastate, mirrored by what is often called a Romanian inability for decision- making. The idea of the impossibility for Romanians to make their own decisions and determine their own fate has, in fact, become a national cliché as of late.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ambiguities of Soviet “Piedmonts”: Soviet Borderland
    THE AMBIGUITIES OF SOVIET “PIEDMONTS”: SOVIET BORDERLAND POLICIES IN THE UKRAINIAN SSR AND THE MOLDOVAN ASSR, 1922-1934 Alexandr Voronovici A DISSERTATION in History Presented to the Faculties of the Central European University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Budapest, Hungary 2016 CEU eTD Collection Supervisor: Professor Alexei Miller ii Copyright in the text of this dissertation rests with the author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained by the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copied made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author. I hereby declare that this dissertation contains no materials accepted for any other degrees and no materials previously written and/or published by another person unless otherwise noted. CEU eTD Collection iii Abstract The dissertation analyzes Soviet borderland policies in the Ukrainian SSR and the Moldovan ASSR in the 1920s and early 1930s. Adopting the situational approach, I explore the Soviet struggle for borderlands on the Western border and the role of the cross-border cultural ties in it. The dissertation argues that the negotiations, different interpretations and the interplay between actors on both sides of the Soviet Western border influenced and framed the evolution of borderland policies in the Ukrainian SSR and the Moldovan ASSR in 1920s. Although, the Soviet Union was a centralized state with a disciplined party, there was still considerable space for conflicting interpretations of Moscow's directives and the promotion of personal agenda by Soviet leaders and activists.
    [Show full text]
  • Separatism and Regionalism in Modern Europe
    Separatism and Regionalism in Modern Europe Separatism and Regionalism in Modern Europe Edited by Chris Kostov Logos Verlag Berlin λογος Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de . Book cover art: c Adobe Stock: Silvio c Copyright Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH 2020 All rights reserved. ISBN 978-3-8325-5192-6 The electronic version of this book is freely available under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence, thanks to the support of Schiller University, Madrid. Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH Georg-Knorr-Str. 4, Gebäude 10 D-12681 Berlin - Germany Tel.: +49 (0)30 / 42 85 10 90 Fax: +49 (0)30 / 42 85 10 92 https://www.logos-verlag.com Contents Editor's introduction7 Authors' Bios 11 1 The EU's MLG system as a catalyst for separatism: A case study on the Albanian and Hungarian minority groups 15 YILMAZ KAPLAN 2 A rolling stone gathers no moss: Evolution and current trends of Basque nationalism 39 ONINTZA ODRIOZOLA,IKER IRAOLA AND JULEN ZABALO 3 Separatism in Catalonia: Legal, political, and linguistic aspects 73 CHRIS KOSTOV,FERNANDO DE VICENTE DE LA CASA AND MARÍA DOLORES ROMERO LESMES 4 Faroese nationalism: To be and not to be a sovereign state, that is the question 105 HANS ANDRIAS SØLVARÁ 5 Divided Belgium: Flemish nationalism and the rise of pro-separatist politics 133 CATHERINE XHARDEZ 6 Nunatta Qitornai: A party analysis of the rhetoric and future of Greenlandic separatism 157 ELLEN A.
    [Show full text]