3.2.iv
- what is meant by 'by the 22 the revolution had been stolen'?
Stolen means taken over by the protesters so it was 'stolen' by the people. The security forces were completely overthrown and were powerless to protect Ceauşescu. Here are some further details.
It is likely that in the early hours of 22 December the Ceauşescus made their second mistake. Instead of fleeing the city under cover of night, they decided to wait until morning to leave. Ceauşescu must have thought that his desperate attempts to crush the protests had succeeded, because he apparently called another meeting for the next morning. However, before 7:00 am, his wife Elena received the news that large columns of workers from many industrial platforms (large communist-era factories or groups of factories concentrated into industrial zones) were heading towards downtown Bucharest to join the protests. The police barricades that were meant to block access to Piaţa Universităţii(University Square) and Palace Square proved useless. By 9:30 am, University Square was jammed with protesters. Security forces (army, police and others) re-entered the area, only to join with the protesters.
By 10 am, as the radio broadcast was announcing the introduction of martial law and of a ban on groups larger than five persons, yet hundreds of thousands of people were gathering for the first time, spontaneously, in central Bucharest (the previous day's crowd had come together at Ceauşescu's orders). Ceauşescu attempted to address the crowd from the balcony of the Central Committee of the Communist Party building, but his attempt was met with a wave of disapproval and anger. Helicopters spread manifestos (which did not reach the crowd, due to unfavourable winds) instructing people not to fall victim to the latest "diversion attempts," but to go home instead and enjoy the Christmas feast. This order, which drew unfavorable comparisons to Marie Antoinette's haughty (but apocryphal) "Let them eat cake", further infuriated the people who did read the manifestos; many people at that time had trouble procuring such basic foodstuffs as cooking oil.
3.4.i
- difference between life in the city and life in the country in Romania (before and after the revolution)
BEFORE REVOLUTION
In cities:
Even before Romania fell into the orbit of Nazi Germany, Romanian authorities pursued a policy of harsh, persecutory antisemitism--particularly against Jews living in eastern borderlands, who were falsely associated with Soviet communism, and those living in Transylvania, who were identified with past Hungarian rule. Right-wing social revolutionary movements, like the fascist Iron Guard, found significant popular support and some official sympathy for their demand that the Jews of Romania be removed from alleged places of power and then expelled from Romania. However, their call for a social revolution against the political and economic establishment and their use of violent protest led to extreme hostility from the Romanian authorities. By 1938-1939, the Romanian police and the Iron Guard were locked in a state of virtual terrorist civil war.
After the negotiated retreat of Soviet troops, Romania, under the new leadership of Nicolae Ceauşescu, started to pursue independent policies, including the condemnation of the Soviet-led 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia (Romania being the only Warsaw Pact country not to take part in the invasion), the continuation of diplomatic relations with Israel after the Six-Day War of 1967 (again, the only Warsaw Pact country to do so), and the establishment of economic (1963) and diplomatic (1967) relations with the Federal Republic of Germany.[75] Also, close ties with the Arab countries (and the PLO) allowed Romania to play a key role in the Israel-Egypt and Israel-PLO peace processes by intermediating the visit of Sadat in Israel.[76] As Romania's foreign debt sharply increased between 1977 and 1981 (from 3 to 10 billion US dollars),[77] the influence of international financial organisations such as the IMF and the World Bank grew, conflicting with Nicolae Ceauşescu's autarchic policies. Ceauşescu eventually initiated a project of total reimbursement of the foreign debt (completed in 1989, shortly before his overthrow). To achieve this goal, he imposed policies that impoverished Romanians and exhausted the Romanian economy. He greatly extended the authority of the police state and imposed a cult of personality. These led to a dramatic decrease in Ceauşescu's popularity and culminated in his overthrow and execution in the bloody Romanian Revolution of 1989.
Seduced by Ceauşescu's "Independent" foreign policy, Western leaders were slow to turn against a regime that, by the late 1970s, had become increasingly arbitrary, capricious and harsh. Rapid economic growth fueled by foreign credits gradually gave way to wrenching austerity and severe political repression, which became increasingly draconian through the 1980s. During the 1947–1962 period, many people were arbitrarily killed or imprisoned for political, economic or unknown reasons:[78] detainees in prisons or camps, deported persons, persons under house arrest, and administrative detainees. There were hundreds of thousands of abuses, deaths and incidents of torture against a large range of people, from political opponents to ordinary citizens.[79] Between 60,000[80] and 80,000 political prisoners were detained as psychiatric patients and treated in some of the most sadistic ways by doctors.[81] It is estimated that, in total, two million people were direct victims of Communist repression in Romania.[82][83]
In the country:
the country folk experienced a more pleasant and less of a fear-filled life than the city folk due to their rare collisions with authority. As long as they stayed clear of the Iron Guard. There was little mingling between the cities and the farms and many jews (and other minority groups) took refuge in that.
AFTER REVOLUTION
In the country:
"The country life here is quite difficult. To make a living, each family must utilize the products of their own work in agriculture and cattle breeding.During the summer, children and adults gather the hay. It is the winter provision of food for the cattle!"
I got this information from what seemed to be a first person recollection of a Romanian family hence the wonky grammar. Life in the country after the revolution was tough, families became self-sustaining with no one else to rely on.
In the cities:
Life normalized for the citizens of the cities more or less after the revolution. there was still political unrest and some revolts but like any meaninglful change, it took a lengthy amount of time to execute.
After the fall of Ceauşescu, the National Salvation Front (FSN), led by Ion Iliescu, took partial multi-party democratic and free market measures.[84][85] Several major political parties of the pre-war era, such as the National Christian Democrat Peasant's Party (PNŢCD), the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Romanian Social Democrat Party (PSDR) were resurrected. After several major political rallies (especially in January), in April 1990, a sit-in protest contesting the results of the recently held parliamentary elections began inUniversity Square, Bucharest. The protesters accused the FSN of being made up of former Communists and members of the Securitate. The protesters did not recognize the results of the election, which they deemed undemocratic, and were asking for the exclusion from the political life of the former high-ranking Communist Party members. The protest rapidly grew to become an ongoing mass demonstration (known as the Golaniad). The peaceful demonstrations degenerated into violence, with some of the protesters attacking the police headquarters, national television station, and the Foreign Ministry.[86] After the police failed to bring the demonstrators to order, Ion Iliescu called on the "men of good will" to come and defend the State institutions in Bucharest.[87][88] Various worker groups from Romania's industrial platforms responded, some of whom engaged in altercations with the protesters. But the most visible and politically influential were the coal miners of the Jiu Valley. After representatives of the government met with leaders of the Jiu Valley coal miners union, thousands of miners were organized and arrived in Bucharest June 14, transported on special trains provided by key members of the government, one of them being the subsecretary of state for the Transport Ministry, the first (two time) suspended president of Romania, former communist party member, Traian Basescu.[86][89] Their violent intervention is remembered as the June 1990 Mineriad.
Presidential and parliamentary elections were held on May 20, 1990. Running against representatives of the re-established pre-war National Peasants' Party and National Liberal Party, and taking advantage of FSN's tight control of the national radio and television, Iliescu won 85% of the vote. The FSN secured two-thirds of the seats in Parliament. A university professor with strong family roots in the Communist Party, Petre Roman, was named prime minister of the new government, which consisted mainly of former communist officials. The government initiated modest free market reforms.
3.4.ii
- orphanages & adoption in Romania (can refer to Ceausescu's attitudes toward abortion as posted on the blog for some information about the increase in births/orphan crisis - please try to find specifics on gypsy/Hungarian/Romanian relations and how it effected adoption, if possible)
The standard of living for Romanian orphans is still grave despite vast improvements since their conditions were leaked to the West after the fall of the Communist government in 1989. A news report on the American newsmagazine 20/20, which first aired on October 5, 1990, was the first to show the conditions in full detail on television.[1]
Under Nicolae Ceauşescu, both abortion and contraception were forbidden, leading to a rise in birth rates.[2] This resulted in many children being abandoned and these were joined in the orphanages by disabled and mentally ill people. Together these vulnerable groups were subjected to institutionalised neglect and abuse, including physical and sexual abuse and use of drugs to control behaviour.
When entering west Europe they initially had letters of protection from the King of Hungary. This privileged situation did not last long as amazement at their way of life commonly led to hostilities. The Gypsy way of life still leads to hostilities from the people of their host nations. Europeans regard "private property" as sacrosanct, whereas gypsies do not have a word for "possess", which gives rise to two incompatible ways of life and a continual problem of gypsies being regarded as "thieves" from the European's view.
In each host nation gypsies appear to take on the religion, names and language of their hosts, but within the Rom they maintain their Romlanguage, names, music, customs and Indian looks. This tight community has meant that after some six hundred years there is still a large population of gypsies not integrated or assimilated with Romanians.
From the time of their arrival in Romania Gypsies were the slaves of the landowners, only to be emancipated in 1851. While in Romania some of the Gypsies took to speaking a version of Romanian called Bayesh which can be heard in some of the songs of Gypsy groups recorded in Hungary. Nowadays about 40% of the Gypsies still speak Romany and many can still be seen travelling in lines of carts along the roads of Romania. The majority live in the towns and villages, some fully integrated into villages, some in large ornate houses standing out from the Romanians, but others in small buildings on scraps of lands on the villages edges.
The gypsies took in a lot of these children that people didn't want at the time when abortion and contraception was illegal. These children became social outcasts but at least they had a home.
Interesting article:
the dates are slightly more modern but the attitude towards orphanages is well illustrated
3.4.iii
- Hungarian/Romanian relations (I know we touched on this in Part 1 - please make specific reference to marriage, ie: regarding Lucia and Ianos)
Relations between the two states date back from the Middle Ages. Until the end of World War I, Transylvania, Banat, Crişana andMaramureş were part of the Kingdom of Hungary, after the war they became part of the Romanian territory.
Hungary also has improved its often frosty neighborly relations by signing basic treaties with Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. These renounce all outstanding territorial claims and lay the foundation for constructive relations. However, the issue of ethnic Hungarian minority rights in Slovakia and Romania periodically causes bilateral tensions to flare up.
Hungarian-Romanian relations are foreign relations between Hungary and Romania. Relations between the two states date back from the Middle Ages. Both countries established diplomatic relations in 1920.
Hungary has an embassy in Bucharest, 3 general consulates (in Cluj-Napoca, Miercurea-Ciuc and Constanţa) and 2 honorary consulates (in Constanţa and Iaşi). Romania has an embassy in Budapest and two general consulates (in Gyula and Szeged). Both countries shares 443 km of common border. Both are full members of NATO and of the European Union.
Romania has developed strong relations with Hungary, with the latter playing a key role in supporting Romania's bid to join the EU. Romania's ethnic Hungarian party also participated in all the government coalitions between 1996 and 2008 and from 2009. In 1996, Romania signed and ratified a basic bilateral treaty with Hungary that settled outstanding disagreements, laying the foundation for closer, more cooperative relations.
After quashing the 1848 revolution, the Habsburg Empire imposed a repressive regime on Hungary and ruled Transylvania directly through a military governor. Habsburgs abolished the Unio Trium Nationum and granted citizenship to ethnic Romanians. However, in the compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867, which established the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the special status of Transylvania ended and it became a province under the control of the Kingdom of Hungary. Hungarian becomes the official language and a policy of Magyarizationis applied to the various ethnic groups in Transylvania.
Ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania define themselves as being Hungarian, Transylvanian and Romanian at the same time, and there is even a sense of pride about this fact[citation needed]. Many Hungarians living in Transylvania were disconcerted when the referendum held in Hungary in 2004 on the issue of giving dual-citizenship to ethnic Hungarians living abroad failed to receive enough electoral attendance and the vote was uncertain. Some of them complain that when they are in Hungary, they are perceived as half-Romanians, and are considered as having differences in language and behaviour. However, a large proportion of Transylvanian Hungarians currently work or study in Hungary, usually on a temporary basis. After 1996, Hungarian-Romanian economic relations boomed, and Hungary is an important investor in Transylvania, with many cross-border firms employing both Romanians and Hungarians
Marriage specific information - Since Hungarians had trouble obtaining status, marriage to one was made difficult by this. The state would at times not even acknowledge marriages that had Hungarian or gypsy spouses. They were considered ill-bred people.
