Social Inclusion Open Access Journal | ISSN: 2183-2803
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Social Inclusion Open Access Journal | ISSN: 2183-2803 Volume 8, Issue 2 (2020) GypsyGypsy PolicyPolicy andand RomaRoma Activism:Activism: FromFrom thethe InterwarInterwar PeriodPeriod toto CurrentCurrent PoliciesPolicies andand ChallengesChallenges Editors Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov Social Inclusion, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 2 Gypsy Policy and Roma Activism: From the Interwar Period to Current Policies and Challenges Published by Cogitatio Press Rua Fialho de Almeida 14, 2º Esq., 1070-129 Lisbon Portugal Academic Editors Elena Marushiakova (University of St Andrews, UK) Vesselin Popov (University of St Andrews, UK) Available online at: www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion This issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY). Articles may be reproduced provided that credit is given to the original and Social Inclusion is acknowledged as the original venue of publication. Table of Contents Gypsy Policy and Roma Activism: From the Interwar Period to Current Policies and Challenges Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov 260–264 ‘Letter to Stalin’: Roma Activism vs. Gypsy Nomadism in Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe before WWII Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov 265–276 A View of the Disaster and Victory from below: Serbian Roma Soldiers, 1912–1918 Danilo Šarenac 277–285 “Improving Our Way of Life Is Largely in Our Own Hands”: Inclusion according to the Romani Newspaper of Interwar Yugoslavia Sofiya Zahova 286–295 Images of Roma through the Language of Bulgarian State Archives Aleksandar G. Marinov 296–304 Between Nationalism and Pragmatism: The Roma Movement in Interwar Romania Petre Matei 305–315 Faith Church: Roma Baptists Challenging Religious Barriers in Interwar Romania Iemima Ploscariu 316–326 Hungarian Gypsy Musician’s National Association: Battles Faced by Gypsy Musicians in Hungary during the Interwar Years Tamás Hajnáczky 327–335 Political Activity of Kwiek ‘Dynasty’ in the Second Polish Republic in the Years 1935–1939 Alicja Gontarek 336–345 ‘The Books to the Illiterate?’: Romani Publishing Activities in the Soviet Union, 1927–1938 Viktor Shapoval 346–357 The Kalderash Gypsies of Russia in Industrial Cooperation of the 1920s–1930s Aleksandr V. Chernykh 358–366 Table of Contents From Christian Mission to Transnational Connections: Religious and Social Mobilisation among Roma in Finland Raluca Bianca Roman 367–376 Social Inclusion (ISSN: 2183–2803) 2020, Volume 8, Issue 2, Pages 260–264 DOI: 10.17645/si.v8i2.3036 Editorial Gypsy Policy and Roma Activism: From the Interwar Period to Current Policies and Challenges Elena Marushiakova * and Vesselin Popov School of History, University of St Andrews, KY16 9BA, St Andrews, UK; E-Mails: [email protected] (E.M.), [email protected] (V.P.) * Corresponding author Submitted: 17 March 2020 | Published: 4 June 2020 Abstract The editorial introduces the key ideas of this thematic issue, which originated within the European Research Council project ‘RomaInterbellum. Roma Civic Emancipation between the Two World Wars.’ The period between WWI and WWII in the region of Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe was an era of worldwide significant changes, which marked the birth of the Roma civic emancipation movement and impacted Roma communities’ living strategies and visions about their fu- ture, worldwide. The aspiration of this thematic issue is to present the main dimensions of the processes of Roma civic emancipation and to outline the role of the Roma as active participants in the historical processes occurring in the studied region and as the creators of their own history. The editorial offers clarifications on the terminology and methodology employed in the articles included in this issue and their spatial and chronological parameters while also briefly introducing the individual authored studies of this issue. Keywords Central Europe; civic emancipation; Eastern Europe; equality; Gypsy Policy; inclusion; Interwar Period; nation-state; Roma Activism; Southeastern Europe Issue This editorial is part of the issue “Gypsy Policy and Roma Activism: From the Interwar Period to Current Policies and Challenges” edited by Elena Marushiakova (University of St Andrews, UK) and Vesselin Popov (University of St Andrews, UK). © 2020 by the authors; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). 1. Introduction beginning of a new stage in world history but, on a micro- level, had a direct impact on living strategies and visions This thematic issue addresses the history of the Roma— for the future of Roma communities worldwide. It was known at that time under different local denomina- also the time when, for the first time, different solutions, tions, translated into English as Gypsies—in the pe- strategies and models for social inclusion of Roma com- riod between WWI and WWII in Central, Southeastern munities were proposed and applied by different actors, and Eastern Europe, and its impacts in current policies including Roma themselves. and activism. Clarifications on the terminology and methodology Thе period in analysis represented an era of signifi- employed in the articles in this thematic issue of Social cant changes worldwide, encompassing the breakdown Inclusion are due, as well as on their spatial and chrono- of old Empires, the re-drawing of borders, the beginning logical parameters. We start with the latter. of new-world relations on a macro-level and new inter- ethnic relations on micro-levels, huge movement of pop- 2. Spatial and Chronological Scope ulations, the birth of new nation states, the rise of na- tionalism and internationalism, exchange of populations, The spatial scope of the articles included in this issue is civil wars and more. All these events not only marked the fixed as the region of Central, Southeastern and Eastern Social Inclusion, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 2, Pages 260–264 260 Europe. This definition is not based on purely geograph- ethnic solidarity that inevitably emerges among groups ical reasons, but on historical and geopolitical criteria. which are relegated to inferior positions in a cultural di- Until the early 20th century, these were the lands of vision of labour (Hechter, 1975). the three great Еmpires—Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman The end caesura of our focus is the WWII, which and Russian—where, after their disintegration, numer- fundamentally changed the worldwide social and polit- ous new nation-states emerged. This is also the region ical order and greatly influenced the processes of Roma where, at the time, the processes of Roma civic eman- emancipation. The end of the WWII marks the beginning cipation emerged and developed. Finland’s short-lived of a new and quite different historical era. membership within the Russian Empire (1809–1917) This frontier however is not chronologically fixed due proved sufficient in developing the Roma emancipation to a number of circumstances. Different countries be- movement in sync with a common paradigm for this en- came involved in the war at different times and, in some tire region, which justifies the inclusion of Finland, part of them, the processes of Roma civic emancipation con- of the Scandinavian historical region, in one of our arti- tinued to evolve for some time also under new social, cles. At the same time, some other countries in the re- economic and cultural conditions brought about by the gion (such as Austria, Albania, Lithuania, Estonia), where conflict. In addition, some of the materials presented no written evidence has yet been found concerning the (the memories of participants in the events, for example) process of Roma civic emancipation, are absent. are of a later date, even when they describe the events The chronological scope of the issue is not deter- of the interwar period. We also extend our chronological mined by specific dates but according to respective his- boundaries to include the contemporary dimension, i.e., torical eras. In the original idea of this thematic issue, the the striking similarities between Roma emancipation in chronological limits were intended to be the two World the interwar period and current concerns. Wars. Nevertheless, it also includes reflections on today’s Chronological boundaries are not to be perceived lit- Roma policy, activism and failures of strategies for so- erally. They are not absolute, since both the historical cial inclusion which simply cannot be realized without a roots of particular processes and their later appearances, fuller understanding of the region’s history during the in- and present-day manifestations are reflected upon. terwar period. Along with presenting results from current histori- 3. On Terminology cal research, the aim of this thematic issue is to reflect and respond to anxieties coming from parallels with cur- The two key terms used in the literature, source mate- rent failures of policies for inclusion, increased ethnic rial and now analysed in the articles in this issue are hatred and clashes and unfulfilled promises for equality. ‘Roma’ and ‘Gypsies.’ There is no need to pay attention However, based on existing and newly discovered histor- here to the public debate surrounding the use of these ical sources, and due to the purpose of the individual ar- terms, in which two discourses (political and academic) ticles themselves, it appeared necessary to go beyond are wrongly mixed; this debate is closely correlated with the range of our intended chronological limits: