Anti-Romanian discrimination

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Anti-Romanian discrimination has been present in the policies of countries bordering Romania towards the Romanian-speaking population or minorities residing in these countries, as commonly happened between any countries whose political borders did not coincide with the patterns of ethnic population . The term is also known as "Românofobia" (Romanophobia) in the Romanian language.

Anti-Romanian (alternatively spelled antiromanism) is hostility toward or prejudice against Romanians as a religious, ethnic, or racial group, which can range from individual hatred to institutionalized, violent persecution.

Contents

[edit] Kingdom of Hungary and Austria-Hungary

The Romanian population of Transylvania was never directly represented in the Transylvanian Diet which consisted of German, Hungarian and Szekler nobles (the Unio Trium Nationum), despite the fact that the three groups were minorities, while the Romanians comprised a majority of the Transylvanian population. Moreover, in Medieval times, the Romanians were not allowed to reside within the walls of some Transylvanian cities such as Sibiu or Braşov. This led to extensive persecution against the under-represented Romanians. For example, in the 16th century Transylvanian laws of justice separated the rights of Hungarians and Saxons from the rights of the Romanians.

As a consequence, Romanian peasants would sometimes revolt and demand better treatment. These revolts, such as the 1784 Romanian peasant-uprising, would be ruthlessly suppressed and would be met by horrible cruelty on the part of the Hungarian nobles who would execute peasant leaders and their followers by breaking on the wheel. This method of execution consisted of the victim being laid on the ground whilst the executioner would break the prisoner’s bones with a spiked wheel. Other peasants would be forced to watch the executions in order to frighten them from attempting future uprisings.

After Transylvania became part of Hungary in 1867, a policy of assimilation (see Magyarisation) of the minorities was employed by the Hungarian authorities and one of its major targets was the Romanian population of Transylvania. The policies of Magyarization aimed to make the fluency in Hungarian language a requirement for access to basic government services such as local administration, education, and justice. the number of minority-language schools was steadily decreasing: in the period between 1880 and 1913, when the number of Hungarian-only schools almost doubled, the number of minority language-schools almost halved.[2] Countless personal names were Magyarized in a short period of time, often forcibly or unwittingly.

The Romanian national movement led to the 1892 Transylvanian Memorandum, a document sent by the leaders of the Transylvanian Romanians to the Austrian Emperor which asked for Romanians equal national rights with the Hungarians and demanding the cease the persecutions and the attempts of denationalization of the Romanians. The memorandum was turned down and the leaders of the movement were sentenced to prison for "homeland betrayal".

[edit] Russian Empire

Bessarabia became a part of the Russian Empire according to the 1812 Treaty of Bucharest. A period of autonomy followed, after which all Romanian government institutions, schools and press were closed and replaced by a Russian style provincial administration in 1828. At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, Bessarabia saw an intense process of Russification. Military service also became a new instrument of Russification. The process of russification and colonization of this territory started to be carried out by representatives of other ethnic groups of the Russian Empire.

  • Russian census 1817: 86% Romanians
  • Russian census 1856: 74% Romanians
  • Russian census 1897: 56% Romanians

[edit] Soviet Union (including the 1917 Revolution)

When the Russian Empire collapsed after the Russian Revolution of 1917, in Basarabia the local body called “Sfatul Tarii” ("Council of the Country") was created. Moldova became an independent Republic on December 2, 1917. Given that Soviet raids already menaced the newly-formed authority, the local body ("Sfatul tării") called in support troops from the Kingdom of Romania. The troops entered Bessarabia on December 13. On March 27, 1918, the local body Sfatul Tarii voted for the unification with Romania. Subsequently, the Soviet Union refused to recognize the union, and supported an intense propaganda stating that the Kingdom of Romania was an imperialistic multi-ethnic state.

Bessarabia was a part of Romania until 1940 when the USSR re-annexed the territory as well as Northern Bukovina.

The convention of October 28, 1920, whereby the British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan recognized Romanian sovereignty in Bessarabia, was rejected as invalid by the USSR. Moscow even denied the validity of that part of the convention that stipulated that, upon Russian request, the Council of the League of Nations could be empowered to arbitrate the Russo-Romanian dispute over Bessarabia. In short, the Kremlin insisted that Romania was illegally occupying Bessarabia. Moscow also encouraged revolutionary activities by Bolshevik elements in Bessarabia.

The exact position of the USSR on these issues is unknown except for Moscow's unwillingness to make any concessions to Bucharest on Bessarabian issues. Recent tracts by Romanian historians have emphasized the support given by Romanian Communists to the "democratic forces" opposed to alteration of the status quo in Transylvania in 1938 and subsequent years. True as this may be, there has been no evidence presented in support of any fundamental change in Moscow's positions with respect to Bessarabia in 1938 and subsequent years.

According to official NKVD documents, over 15,000 Romanians from Bukovina were deported to Siberia in 1940 alone [1]. The Soviet action culminated with the Fântâna Albă massacre when 2,500 to 3,000 Romanian refugees who were attempting to leave Bukovina for Romania were blocked by the USSR Border Troops and about 200 of them were shot, at a place called "Fântâna Albă" (White Fountain in Romanian). This policy resulted in a substantial shrinkage of the Romanian population in the province. By 1941, out of 250,000 Romanians in Bukovina, only 192,000 were left.

The territory of the Moldavian SSR was composed of Basarabia (except for Southern Basarabia, assigned to Ukraine) and a part of the territory of the former Autonomous Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic (Trans-Dniestria), founded in 1924 within the territory of Ukraine. In the document confirming the establishment of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Moldovan Republic (ASSMR) of 12 October 1924 the West frontier of the republic was traced out not along the Dniester River but the Prut River. In the ASSMR the ideology of a separate Moldovan identity was pursued, including the introduction of Moldovan language, distinct from Romanian. The Cyrillic alphabet and abundant Russisms were introduced.

Another historical event which contributed to the future implementation of the anti-Romanian feelings constituted Romania’s behaviour in the World War II when the Romanian regime allied itself with Nazi Germany.

In Bessarabia, the Soviet government pursued a policy of assimilation of the native Romanian population. First, the province was divided into a "Moldovan" Socialist Republic and a southern region known as Budjak which was renamed Ismail Oblast and attached to the Ukrainian SSR. Elite elements of the Romanian population were then deported to Siberia much like their Bukovinian counterparts. Russian and Ukrainian settlers were used to fill the vacant areas caused by the deportation of Romanians [2], [3]. Romanians who continued to identify themselves as Romanians and not Moldovans were severely punished by the Communist regime.[citation needed]

In 1946-1947, as a result of the famine organised in the MSSR (according to some data of certain scientists; official data are not published until nowadays), died around 300 thousand people and many cases of cannibalism occurred. In addition, the population of the former ASSMR, as a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, had to suffer also from the awful famine in the 30s when in Ukraine several millions of people died (see also Holodomor).

The territory of Trans-Dniestria was more industrialised in comparison with the other part of Moldova and the industrialisation process of Trans-Dniestria was accompanied by a population flow from other areas of the USSR, especially from the Russian Federation. Although in the Republic of Moldova the level of population density was the highest one in the USSR, Moscow continued to stimulate the arrival of labour force from outside, including that with a poor qualification. Even Igor Smirnov himself, current leader of the separatist regime of Trans-Dniestria, was sent in 1987 from Russia to Bender to be the director of an enterprise. This process was also amplified by the excessive militarization of the area.

Many officers of the Soviet Army, serving in military units on the left bank of Dniester river, transferred to reserve, preferred to stay and live in Tiraspol and Bender. Therefore, if on the whole in the MSSR in 1989 the native population was about 65%, in Trans-Dniestria – only 40%. Moreover, the majority of native population on the left bank of Dniester was dispersed in rural localities and it was more difficult for them to consolidate and to express themselves politically.

The adoption in 1989 of the Law on state language (official language) and Law on functioning of languages on the territory of the MSSR generated an extremely negative reaction in the industrial centres of Trans-Dniestria,where the largely Russian-speaking population was not being consulted, and felt threatened by the prospects of Rumanization. These laws proclaimed the Moldovan (Romanian) language, written in the Latin alphabet, as the only state language. The identity of Moldovan with Romanian language has been recognised. Although the absolute majority of the Trans-Dniestrian population never read these laws which, in fact, served as a reason for the conflict outburst, they feared that by the application of the new linguistic legislation, Russian language speakers would become second class citizens. At the industrial enterprises, including those of the military-industrial complex of the USSR, strikes occurred protesting against granting official language status to Moldavian (Romanian) language.

[edit] Soviet politicide and ethnic cleansing

Before and after World War II, Soviet transferred a significant population from Bessarabia and Bukovina to labour camps, where many died or executed. the categories of popultation deported were these declared enemies of the working class by Stalinist policy. These included former police and military, religious workers, larger landowners (nobility and "kulaks" (richer peasants)), memebers of certain political parties, as well as those who expressed any kind of dissent, which altogether constituted a significant part of population and included the majority of educated population, the bearers of Romanian culture. In addition, ethnically Romanian population was resettled from the border regions. See Population transfer in the Soviet Union and Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union for similar processes all over the USSR.

  • Between 1939-1941, 300,000 Romanians were deported of whom 57,000 were killed (not counting the Gulag).
  • Between 1941-1945, 390,000 Romanians were deported of whom 51,000 were killed (not counting the Gulag).
  • Between 1945-1953, 1,654,000 Romanians were deported of whom 215,000 were killed (380,000 more counting Gulag and terror killings).

In total, around 2,344,000 Romanians were deported, of whom 703,000 were killed.

[edit] Post-USSR Moldova and Transnistria

After the break-up of the USSR, various legislative reforms consolidated the position of ethnic Romanians/Moldovans, especially by establishing the Moldovan language as the official language. The 2001 won by the Communist party of Moldova initially brought a series of attempts to raise Russian to the status of a state language, however the project was dropped due to popular opposition.

Relations between the Moldovan and Romanian governments have initially included some tension as the Moldovan government led by President Vladimir Voronin accused Romania of imperialism. Nevertheless, in the recent past relations have improved and President Voronin as well as Romanian President Traian Băsescu have called for cooperation between the two sovereign states.

In 2006, "Gh. Asachi Romanian-French School" was forced by the government to change its name to "Gh. Asachi Moldovan-French School". Critics argued that the government acted unilaterally and discriminated against Romanians as other schools such as the „Necui-Leviţki” Russian-Ukrianian School were allowed to continue using that name. In protest, four high school students from Asachi replaced the new high school sign with another with the old name. They were indicted with "group-committed aggravated hooliganism". [1]

In Transnistria, the situation is far worse. After the 1992 war between the breakaway republic and Moldova, the Romanian population was substantially persecuted, causing at least 5,000-10,000 Romanians to flee the region. Although the Romanians of Transnistria of the area is significant, the Romanian language is almost never used in public.

Romanian schools comprise about 11% of the total schools in Transnistria, despite the fact that according to the latest Transnistrian census of 2004, Romanians make up about 32% of the population. Most of these schools are forced to teach in the Cyrillic script and use outdated, 40-year-old, communist-era books. 6 schools are permitted to teach in Romanian using the Latin script, however pressure is often put on these institutions to close. The 2004 school scandal is a prime example of this, when the pro-Russian government in Tiraspol forcefully attempted to close down 2 of these schools. In the orphanage of Tighina, Romanian children returning from vacations found the orphanage locked by police. After spending a night outdoors, they forced their way into the building and had to stay there without water and electricity for a few months, until, due to the pressure of the Moldovan and Romanian governments as well as the OSCE, the conflict was resolved [2]. Numerous Romanian parents were arrested or fired from their jobs due to their political views and their determination to keep their children in Romanian-language schools.

Citizens who express pro-Romanian or pro-Moldovan attitudes are likewise persecuted in Transnistria. The Ilie Ilaşcu group is the most commonly known and well-documented of these organisations.

[edit] Ukraine

Northern Bukovina, as well as Tiachiv and Rakhiv raions (districts) of Zakarpattia Oblast (Transcarpathia) are the regions in Ukraine with considerable Romanian minorities according to the last 2001 Ukrainian Census.

The Ukrainian Census of 2001 was criticized by Dr. Ion Popescu, leader of the National Council of the Interregional Union of the Romanian Community in Ukraine and also one of the authors of the Constitution of Ukraine, who claims that the very existence of the classification of Moldovans as a separate ethnic group in census results is the "continuation of the Stalinist and Soviet policies of artificially dividing Romanians into Romanians and Moldovans"[4]. However, the response to the question about the respondent's ethnicity had to be written-in into the census form rather than picked from the predetermined set of choices and the census respondents were free to claim their ethnicity as they wished with no predetermined set of choices,[3], not to respond to any particular census question or not answer any questions at all and no serious allegation of the counting fraud were ever brought up. It is therefore unclear if Dr. Ion Popescu criticizes the way the census was conducted or the way data was processed.

The number of Romanian students at the Chernivtsi University has declined sharply in Soviet times. In 1991-92, the last year of Soviet rule, the number of Romanian students was only 4.44% (434 out of 9,769) [5]. Among teaching faculty, under-representation of Romanians is also evident. The breakdown by nationalities (in the same year)reveals: Ukrainian teachers 465 (77,1%), Russians 102 (16.9%), Moldovans 9 (1.4%), Romanians 7 (1.1%), Belorussians 6 (0.9%) etc. (see also Chernivtsi University). Even after Ukrainian independence, the number of Romanian students at the University continued to decline, to only 3.9% in 1992-93 , which is much less than the overall percentage of Romanians in the general population. After 1997, arrangements have been made for some students to study at universities in Romania [6]. In 2001 the Christian-Democratic Alliance of the Romanians from Ukraine had reported that Romanians in Chernivtsi lack an opportunity to study at University level in their native language.[7]

However, it should be noted that according to the Ukrainian Constitution adopted after the 1991 independence, the Ukrainian is the only state language in the country, and the state higher education system was switched to Ukrainian, according to the common practice in many countries worldwide and this practice was not directed specifically at the Romanian population. For example, the majority of the Ukrainian universities do not provide the education in the Russian language as well, despite Russian's being the native language of a much more considerable part of the population in Ukraine.

At the same time, there are schools teaching Romanian as primary language, newspapers, TV, and radio broadcasting in Romanian [8], [9],[10]. Future teachers for Romanian schools are trained in University of Chernivtsi in the fields of Romanian philology, mathematics and physics[11]. Romanian organization still complain that despite this, 19 villages which are inhabited by Romanians have been deprived of schooling in their own native language, and therefore creating a worse situation then that during the repressive Soviet regime [12].

[edit] Yugoslavia and modern Serbia

The Romanians living in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina are very well represented at the provincial level despite their small presence (about 30,000 people), and Romanian is one of the six official languages of the province. Their counterparts in the Timok Valley, however, who number around 50,000 have not enjoyed the same treatment.

The Timok Romanians speak the same Daco-Romanian or Romanian-standard dialect as their kinsmen to the north, in Romania proper. The Serbian authorities however have pursued a policy of denationalization as they have slowly changed the term Romanian into Vlach throughout the years [13].

In eastern Serbia (mainly in Timok Valley region) live people who speak basically same language as Romanian. These people declare themselves in census as ethnic Vlachs and their number is about 40,000. Nevertheless, even Serbian parliament members put these numbers as high as one million [14]. These Vlachs (Romanians) are bilingual, they are fluent in two languages, Serbian and Vlach/Romanian. In everyday communication Vlachs (Romanians) mainly use Serbian language, while their native language is used mainly at home. Since many Vlachs declare themselves in census as Serbs, the real number of the people of Vlach origin is unknown (This number could be as high as 135,000, since that is a number of people whom declared Vlach language as their mother tongue in 1981 census) [15].

The year 2004 as well as 2005 saw a clash between the Serbian authorities and the Romanian community in Timoc when a Romanian priest decided to build a small church where he would hold services in Romanian. The priest has been subjected to threats while children attending the mass with their parents have been humiliated in the village school by their Serbian teacher. Romanians in Serbia proper do not have the right to schooling and prair in their native language. [4] [16]

In the town of Negotin, the Romanian Cultural Association has been vandalized in the year 2004 when Serbian ultra-nationalists wrote "Romanians go home" on the windows of the main doors and such psychological pressure has contributed to the fear instilled in the Romanian minority's reluctance to declare themselves Romanians in the census [17].

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ 4 elevi moldoveni riscă închisoarea, pentru că susţin că sunt români Jurnalul National, 2006
  2. ^ OSCE report about Romanian language in Transnistria
  3. ^ The Census form at the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine web-site.
  4. ^ Article by Drasko Djenovic on Forum18

[edit] References

[edit] Transnistria

  1. "Lichidarea şcolilor româneşti din Transnistria", BBC.

[edit] USSR

  1. Grenoble, Lenore A (2003). Language Policy in the Soviet Union. Springer. ISBN 1-4020-1298-5.

[edit] Transylvania

  1. Pop, Ioan-Aurel (1997). Istoria Transilvaniei Medievale. ISBN 973-9261-24-8.
  2. Romsics, Ignác. Magyarország története a huszadik században ("A History of Hungary in the 20th Century"), p. 85-86.

[edit] Serbia

  1. Crăciun, Gilia. "Minoritatea românilor din Serbia este nemulţumită", BBC. (in Romanian)
  2. Djenovic, Drasko. "SERBIA: Police ban Romanian Orthodox commemoration", Forum18.
  3. Mihalcea, Florian. "Biserica românească din Malainiţa ameninţată din nou", BBC. (in Romanian)
  4. Petrovici, Georgeta. "Românii nimănui", Evenimentul Zilei. (in Romanian)
  5. Ursuleţu, Lucian. "Slujbă clandestină pentru românii de pe Valea Timocului", Evenimentul Zilei. (in Romanian)
  6. Dolha, Viorel. "Românii din Timoc", ROST. (in Romanian)
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