Journal of Romanian Studies, 6, No. 1 (2024)
Editors: Jill Massino, Narcis Tulbure Book Review Editor: Iuliu Rațiu Assistant Editor: Iemima Ploscariu
Contents
Jill Massino, Narcis Tulbure (pp. 1-4)
Articles:
Eduard Baidaus
(pp. 5-26)
This article examines the fate of Soviet refugees who fled collectivization and the famine by focusing on the residents of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (MASSR) who attempted to cross the Soviet–Romanian frontier during the late 1920s–early 1930s. The article discusses their lives in the USSR prior to their flight, their perilous journey across the border, and their experiences in Romania.
Răzvan Roşu
Beyond Nationalism and State Authorities: Voices of the Moți Colonists from the Carei Area
(pp. 27-45)
Following the creation of Greater Romania and the Hungarian–Romanian War in 1919, the Romanian state decided to colonize the new Hungarian–Romanian border with ethnic Romanians. Among other ethnic Romanians from the Apuseni Mountains and Maramureș, the authorities considered the Moți the most suitable settlers. This article examines this process by focusing on the Moți colonies in the Carei region, situated in northwestern Romania. In contrast to most research on the topic, which has relied exclusively on written sources from archives and newspapers, examining colonization from the perspective of state authorities, this article explores the topic from the perspective of the settlers themselves. Drawing on oral histories with the Moţi, it examines the challenges they faced in adapting to their new environment, their relationships with other ethnic groups, and their negotiations with state authorities. By analyzing oral sources alongside official and elite sources, it provides a more nuanced portrait of colonization that showcases the voices of ordinary people.
Bronwyn Cragg
Letters from Exile: Canadian Media, the Romanian Diaspora, and the Legionary Movement
(pp.47–70)
This article traces the post-Second World War immigration of Romanians to Canada, and addresses themes of self-identification versus outside perception, national identity, and myth-making in the Romanian-Canadian community. It subsequently documents the scrutiny faced by the Romanian diaspora for supposed links to the interwar Romanian far-right Legionary Movement. Beginning in the 1950s, Romanian exiles in Canada forged their own community organizations, churches, and media, in which a unique synthesis of national identity and far-right politics was promoted, placing these new immigrants at the center of intracommunity and inter-ethnic conflict. Following the release of the Deschênes Report on war criminals living in Canada in 1986, as well as a series of unsolved terrorist attacks, Romanian-Canadians were subject to investigations by the mainstream Canadian media for potential involvement in far-right organizing. In the years since the collapse of state socialism in Eastern Europe, significant strands of the Romanian diaspora in Canada have continued to embrace historical figures of the Legionary Movement, synthesizing a diaspora identity flavored by anticommunism, radical right politics, and (ultra-) nationalism well into the post-communist period.
Keith Harrington
(pp.71–94)
The Popular Front of Moldova (PFM) was a sociopolitical movement in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic that spearheaded several initiatives that helped dismantle Soviet power in Moldova. However, the group’s pan-Romanian position created deep divisions within Moldovan society. Drawing on extensive archival research, this article explores how local branches of the PFM, officially known as coordination committees, sought to reshape local politics between 1989–1992. I examine the composition of these coordination committees, their policy initiatives, and their relationship with local authorities, which varied according to geographic and demographic factors. I argue that the group’s hard-line position eventually caused it to lose support across Moldova, including in regions where the PFM had initially been immensely popular.
Mihai S. Rusu
(pp.95–121)
Besides being canonized as Romania’s “national poet,” Mihai Eminescu was hailed as the “complete man of Romanian culture” and the “absolute Romanian,” among a profusion of
encomiastic praises. Eminescu was immortalized in myriads of ways, from the most solemn and official (e.g. state-run rituals) to the most prosaic and banal (e.g. banknotes). In this article, I investigate the spatial dimension of Eminescu’s memory by charting the commemorative landscape defined by toponymy and public monuments honoring the national poet in Romania. Particular attention is given to Eminescu’s presence in urban street nomenclature and its regional distribution across the country. Drawing on several datasets of spatial information, I use statistical modeling techniques to examine the factors underpinning Eminescu’s memorial namescape. Employing logistic regression analyses, the article highlights an uneven geography of Eminescu’s memory and points out the variables structuring its particular spatial patterning.
Source Translation:
Dumitru Lisnic and James A. Kapaló
(pp. 231–241)
Vladimir Solonari
Philippe Henri Blasen. La “primauté de la nation roumaine” et les “étrangers”: Les minorités et leur liberté du travail sous le cabinet Goga et la dictature royale. Cluj-Napoca: Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă, 2022. 408 pp.
Gheorghe Gelu Păcurar
Oliver Jens Schmitt. Biserica de stat sau Biserica în stat? O istorie a Bisericii Ortodoxe Române: 1918–2023. București: Humanitas, 2023. 457 pp.
Simona Drăgan
Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković, Mihai Dragnea, Thede Kahl, Blagovest Njagulov, Donald L. Dyer, and Angelo Costanzo, eds. The Romance-Speaking Balkans: Language and the Politics of Identity. London: Brill, 2021. 260 pp.
Andrei Cușco
Svetlana Suveica. Post-Imperial Encounters: Transnational Designs of Bessarabia in Paris and Elsewhere, 1917–1922. Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2022 (Südosteuropäiche Arbeiten, 167). 509 pp.
Roland Clark
Dorina Dragnea, Emmanouil Ger Varvounis, Evelyn Reuter, Petko Hristov, and Susan Sorek, eds. Pilgrimage in the Christian Balkan World: The Path to Touch the Sacred and Holy. Turnhout: Brepols, 2023. 300 pp.