Romanianization is the series of policies aimed toward ethnic assimilation implemented by the Romanian authorities during the 20th and 21st century. The most noteworthy policies were those aimed at the Hungarian minority in Romania, Jews and as well the Ukrainian minority in Bukovina and Bessarabia.István Pávai, "The Folk Music of the Moldavian Hungarians", Hungarian Heritage 2002 Volume 3 Numbers 1–2. Extract online at , accessed 11 Feb 2006.James Fuchs, "Averescu: Rumania's Mussolini", The Nation, Vol. 122, no. 3175, May 12, 1926. A relatively early citation for the term "Rumanization" – a policy attributed, among others, to the Romanian government of Ion I. C. Brătianu, one which would have contributed to an alliance between nationalist forces hostile to Brătianu and representatives of ethnic minorities, as the pseudo-fascist People's Party (led by Alexandru Averescu)Bukovina – Handbook, part of the Yizkor Book Project on JewishGen.org. In particular, see the section "The Church Question". Accessed 11 Feb 2006.
Romanianization in Transylvania
Interbellum After the end of World War I, on 1 December 1918, the Romanian National Council (elected representatives of the Romanian population) and soon afterwards, the representatives of the German population had decided to unify with Romania. The decision was contested by the Hungarian minority. The Hungarian–Romanian War of 1918–1919 established Romanian control over Transylvania, while the Treaty of Trianon of 1920 determined the Romanian border with the new Hungarian state. However, Transylvania had a large Hungarian minority of 39%, according to the 1910 census. A portion of them fled to Hungary after the union;Raffay Ernő: A vajdaságoktól a birodalomig-Az újkori Románia története = From voivodates to the empire-History of modern Romania, JATE Kiadó, Szeged, 1989, pages 155–156); Kovrig, Bennett (2000) ‘Partitioned nation: Hungarian minorities in Central Europe’, in: Michael Mandelbaum (ed.), The new European diasporas: national minorities and conflict in Eastern Europe, New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, pp. 19–80. Ernő indicates an exodus of about 197,000 Transylvanian Hungarians fled to Hungary in 1918–1922, Kovrig estimates a further 169,000 over the remainder of the interwar period. however, most of them remained in Romania, and by the 1930s, their number increased to 26.7% of the whole Transylvanian population. The increase in the proportion of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania was induced by the immigration of the Hungarians from Hungary and by the significant improvement of living standards of the Hungarian minority in Romania compared with those of the interwar Hungarian population. While Romania included large national minorities, the 1923 Constitution declared the country to be a nation-state, following the French model which was popular in many European nations at that time.
After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the post-war mass actions undertaken by the Romanian authorities were primarily directed against the Hungarian aristocracy and, at times, the Jews. The takeover did not happen without impacting the cultural and economic life of the Hungarians. While, in accordance with the Agricultural Act of 1921, a number of Hungarian estates and lands were confiscated, the land reform openly favored the Romanians, the national group which used to be the victims of the unjust land allocation systems in place during Hungarian rule.
Although Romania won the war, the anti-Hungarian sentiments were not remitted. During the 1930s, in response to Hungarian irredentism, anti-revisionist demonstrations began in Romania,A Romanian point of view: Miklós Zeidler: Ideas on territorial revision in Hungary, 1920–1945. Social Science Monographs, 2007. p. 157. supported by Nationalist newspapers like Universul. After a particularly violent protest in Cluj, Foreign Minister Nicolae Titulescu officially condemned the events in Bucharest newspapers.Thomas Lorman: Missed Opportunities? Hungarian policy towards Romania, 1932–1936. Slavonic & East European Review 2005. v. 83. p. 291
In August 1940, during World War II, Northern Transylvania was annexed by Hungary as a result of the Second Vienna Award, leaving Southern Transylvania to Romania. After the coup d'état of 23 August 1944, Romania left the Axis and joined the Allies, and, as such, fought together with the Soviet Union's Red Army against Nazi Germany and Hungary, regaining Northern Transylvania. During the fall of 1944, after the withdrawal of the Hungarian military forces and administration from Transylvania, the Székely Land was engaged and pillaged by the Romanian Gendarmerie and volunteers. However, on 12 November 1944, the Soviets expelled the returning Romanian authorities from Northern Transylvania with reference to the massacres committed by members of Iuliu Maniu's so-called Maniu Guard, and the Romanian administration was not allowed to return until the communist-led government of Petru Groza was formed on 6 March 1945.Gábor Vincze: A kisebbségpolitikus Márton Áron. Magyar Kisebbség. Retrieved 25 September 2012. The Hungarian-Romanian conflicts in 1940 and 1944 are still controversial.
After the Second World War From 1947, the Romanian authorities gradually eliminated the wartime Hungarian institutions, after the Treaty of Trianon borders had been restored at the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947. However, Hungary was a Communist country as well; after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Hungarians in Transylvania were often accused of separatism and revisionism,Stefano Bottini – Zoltán Csaba Novák: Az 1956. évi forradalom sajátos romániai következményei (forrásközlés). In: 1956 megközelítése: levéltárak, irattárak = The specific consequences of the revolution of 1956 in Romania. In: Approach to 1956: archives, records. Levéltári szemle 2006. Volume 54. p. 61-73. and the majority of Hungarian intellectual and spiritual leaders, including Catholic bishop Áron Márton, were arrested and imprisoned for years. On the other hand, during the Communist era, the former civil organization possibilities of the interwar period were eliminated.
After 1948, the industrialization of towns doubled or even tripled the number of inhabitants in some urban areas, most of the newcomers being ethnic Romanians from the rural areas. The urbanization policy, a natural phenomenon tied to economic development and the intention of transforming a predominantly agrarian country into an industrialized one, was followed throughout Romania, including in areas inhabited by minorities.
By the late 1950s, the regime of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej increasingly manipulated Romanian nationalism as a popular legitimizing device, applying more repressive policies toward the Hungarian minority.Bugajski, p. 200 After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Magyar Autonomous Region was dissolved and most key posts were filled by loyal Romanians.
In 1959, the Hungarian university in Cluj was merged with the Romanian one to become Babeș-Bolyai University, an almost exclusively Romanian-language institution. The event was marked by the suicide of several Hungarian professors. The Romanianization of education had begun earlier, in 1958, with the forced merger of Magyar primary schools with Romanian ones. The Csángós, for their part, lost their last Hungarian school in 1958.
After Nicolae Ceaușescu came to power in 1965, the assimilationist drive was pursued with new vigor. The remaining minority "privileges" were lost; Hungarian representation in the local bureaucracies was limited to the proportion of Hungarians in the total population. Mass resettlement of Romanians into Transylvania took place. Hungarian intellectuals were coerced into leaving Transylvania and were compelled to take jobs in non-Hungarian areas which also contributed to Romanianization.
Results According to census data, the Hungarian population of Transylvania decreased from 25.5% in 1920 to 19.6% in 2002. Changes were more significant in cities/larger settlements where Hungarians used to be the majority, especially in Northern Transylvanian cities such as Oradea and Cluj-Napoca.
Romanianization of the Transylvanian population was also affected by the fact that 300,000 Germans emigrated to West Germany. The West German state paid Romania the equivalent of US$2,632 per ethnic German emigrant, as of 1983."Relations with Noncommunist States" in Library of Congress Country Study: Romania, based on data as of July 1989. "In 1979 West Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt visited Bucharest and extended credit guarantees of approximately US$368 million in return for Romanian pledges to facilitate the reunification of ethnic German families. The issue resurfaced in 1983 when the so called education tax would have increased West Germany's payment of the equivalent of US$2,632 per ethnic German emigrant to US$42,105. After visits by Bavarian premier Franz Josef Strauss and West German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, an agreement was reached whereby the West German government increased its payment per emigrant to approximately US$5,263." Accessed online 12 November 2006. Also, about 50,000 Jews who survived the Holocaust emigrated to Israel on similar terms. These mass emigrations were, however, an example of positive discrimination towards the German and Jewish populations, as the rest of the Transylvanian population (Romanians, Hungarians, Romas) had no opportunity to take part in this economically-driven emigration.
Romanianization was less sustained in the compact Székely areas of south-eastern Transylvania (the Székely Land), where in 2002, Hungarians made up around 61% of the population. The capital city of the former Magyar Autonomous Region (covering mostly the Székely areas) is an exception: the percentage of Hungarians in Târgu Mureş decreased to 46%, as the industrialization of the city led many people from the surrounding rural areas (largely Romanian) to move into the city.
Recent events
In the aftermath of the Romanian Revolution of 1989, ethnic-based political parties were constituted by both the Hungarians, who founded the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, and by the Romanian Transylvanians, who founded the Romanian National Unity Party. Ethnic conflicts, however, never occurred on a significant scale, even though some violent clashes, such as the Târgu Mureș events of March 1990, did take place shortly after the fall of the Ceaușescu regime.
In 1995, a basic treaty on the relations between Hungary and Romania was signed. In the treaty, Hungary renounced all territorial claims to Transylvania, and Romania reiterated its respect for the rights of its minorities. Relations between the two countries improved as Romania and Hungary became members of the European Union in the 2000s.
The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) is the major representative of Hungarians in Romania, and is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. The aim of the UDMR is to achieve local government, cultural and territorial autonomy and the right to self-determination for Hungarians. UDMR is a member of the European Democrat Union (EDU) and the European People's Party (EPP). Since 1996, the UDMR has been a member or supporter of every governmental coalition.