Radio România Internațional

Tag: history

  • 80 years since the installation of Petru Groza’s pro-communist government

    80 years since the installation of Petru Groza’s pro-communist government

    March 6, 1945, is one of the dates with a deeply negative significance in the history of contemporary Romania. On that day, following pressure from the Soviet emissary Andrey Vyshinsky, a government was installed that was formed by the National Democratic Front, an alliance led by the Romanian Communist Party, a government chaired by the lawyer Petru Groza. His government, considered by historians as being one of the most harmful, is responsible for the Sovietization of Romania and its economic, political, social and cultural transformation from a free and democratic country into a repressive and totalitarian one. Through the measures taken, the Groza government nationalised the means of production, various facilities and private homes, amended the legislation regulating the organisation of economic facilities, abolished political parties and made it easier for the courts to send hundreds of thousands of innocent people to prison. 

    In February 1945, groups of communists began protest actions against the government led by General Nicolae Rădescu with the aim of destabilising it and creating an artificial crisis. The deterioration of the political climate at that time was described in 1976 by Constantin Vişoianu, Minister of Foreign Affairs in that government, in an interview to Radio Free Europe. Vişoianu recalled how Andrey Vyshinsky forced King Michael I to sack Rădescu:

    “It was in that atmosphere and amid that turmoil that Vyshinsky arrived in Bucharest on February 26, 1945. The Soviet embassy informed me, as I was at that time the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania, that Mr. Vyshinsky wished to be received by the King the next day. Although it was an improper request, I advised the King to accept it. The next day Vyshinsky had his first audience with the King, which I also attended. Vyshinsky began to explain what he thought the situation in Romania at that moment meant, saying all sorts of untrue things: that the government was not democratic enough, that it could not keep the masses under control, that it was not making enough efforts to calm the tensions. It was simply not true, but his idea was that the government was not democratic enough and that it had to be changed. He asked the King to replace the Radescu government as soon as possible. This first audience was conducted in a civilised tone.”

    The king tried to delay Radescu’s replacement to gain time. But Vyshinsky was not willing to wait. A second and less cordial visit followed, as Constantin Vişoianu recalls:

    “On February 27, Vyshinsky again asked to be received by the king. I was present at this audience as well. Vyshinsky’s tone became more brutal and he declared on behalf of his government that the present situation could no longer continue. ‘Your Majesty must intervene urgently and put an end to this intolerable state of affairs by instating a more democratic government’. He even demanded that the king immediately demand Radescu’s resignation and install a more democratic government. The king explained to him that the government was the most democratic possible, since representatives of the most important parties were there, including the communists, and that it was supported by the entire Romanian nation. Vyshinsky insisted that the Rădescu government was not democratic, without providing any justification. I intervened and explained to Vyshinsky Romania’s political and constitutional system, telling him that our king could not appoint the members of government, a task that belonged to the political parties. He insisted, demanding that a people’s government be formed immediately. And with that he left.”

    Vyshinsky’s third audience with the king was the beginning of the end for Romanian democracy. Constantin Vişoianu:

    “The next day, February 28, Vyshinsky requested a new audience with the king at 3:30 p.m. I was also present at the meeting again. This time, Vyshinsky’s tone was extremely violent. He said: ‘I have come to find out Your Majesty’s decision’. The king replied that he had informed the government of the Soviet representative’s wishes and that negotiations were currently taking place with the party representatives. Vyshinsky said: ‘That is not enough, I consider the Radescu government to be a fascist government and that it must be got rid of.’ He began to threaten, saying that the situation was very serious and that the new government must be installed by 6:00 p.m., that is, in two hours. He stood up, banged his fist on the table, and left, slamming the door so hard that the plaster around it cracked. And that’s how the third audience ended, at which I tried to explain to Vyshinsky that the king could not dismiss the government without consulting the leaders of the parties that formed it. Vyshinsky replied with false politeness that he had not come to talk to the foreign minister but to the king. I also informed the English and the American representatives of the attitude of the Soviet representative, since Vyshinsky was speaking on behalf of the Allied Control Commission of which the Allied powers were members. Unfortunately, the policy pursued at that time by the Americans and the British was not of much help to us.”

    The appointment of Petru Groza to a government approved by the communists was the price that had to be paid to avoid bloodshed. But, on March 9, 1945, it also marked the return under Romanian control of Northern Transylvania, a territory ceded to Hungary in 1940 following the Vienna Diktat.

  • Romania – FRG diplomatic relations

    Romania – FRG diplomatic relations

     

    The fact that, after 1945, there were two German states on Europe s map, was the effect of deep divergences between the US, Great Britain and the USSR regarding the future of the country that had triggered the terrible war. The two Germanys, West and East, were in hostile terms. Walter Hallstein, the first president of the European Economic Community, had given the name to the doctrine by which the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) did not have diplomatic relations with the countries that had recognized the Democratic Republic of Germany (DRG), while the countries that were part of a group, out of solidarity, did not have diplomatic ties with the German state from the opposite bloc. Thus, Romania, located in the communist bloc, did not have diplomatic ties with the Federal Republic of Germany.

     

    Things would change, however, starting the second half of the 1960s. In 1967, Romania managed to establish diplomatic relations with West Germany due to changes in the approach to European relations. With two reciprocal visits, that of the Romanian Foreign Minister Corneliu Mănescu to the FRG and that of the West German Foreign Minister Willy Brandt to Bucharest, the foundations of rapprochement would be laid. In 1994, the Oral History Center of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting interviewed diplomat Vasile Șandru, who remembered the context in which the changes took place: “The visit of Vice Chancellor Wili Brandt, who was also Foreign Minister at the time, took place after Romania had established diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany. The context was as follows: in the summer of 1966, the Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Treaty had convened in Bucharest. In the document adopted on that occasion, the idea of ​​convening a European conference on collaboration and security in Europe was launched. There was also a provision that advocated the normalization of relations with both German states. In keeping with this document, Romania initiated the establishment of normal diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany, doing so from its own positions, by its own decision, without any consultations with its allies. Of course, this generated a reaction of dissatisfaction, especially from the Soviet Union and the other states participating in the Warsaw Treaty, which argued that the establishment of relations with Germany should have been done through a collective act.”

     

    Perceptions were reset: “Romania’s initiative had a positive echo in Federal Germany and, at the beginning of 1967, the action of establishing diplomatic relations took place. Previously, Romania had established official consular and commercial relations with West Germany. We already had a commercial-consular representation in Cologne. Now it was time to raise these relations to the highest level of diplomatic relations. From the Federal Germany s point of view, establishing diplomatic relations with Romania meant, in fact, abandoning the Hallstein doctrine, which was a spectacular step, I would say, even in the context of the Cold War. West Germany had had, until then, a very firm attitude in not establishing any kind of relations with the states that had relations with the German Democratic Republic. The position of the Federal Republic of Germany was not to recognize the existence of a second German state.”

     

    Vasile Șandru believes that personal involvement also contributed a lot to creating a new atmosphere: “Willy Brandt went to the seaside where he was received by Nicolae Ceaușescu with whom he had a conversation that lasted about five hours. With Nicolae Ceaușescu, the discussions were predominantly political and referred not only to the political situation in Europe, but also to the party-line ties between the communist and socialist parties. How did Willy Brandt approach this visit? He came with his wife and son, Lars – he had a son who became a participant in these leftist movements in Germany. So he approached the issue of the visit not only on a political level, but also on a personal level, to get closer to our country. Mrs. Brandt and her son had a separate program on the coast. They had a very interesting program, they were very satisfied with the visit, they were also able to see some Romanian traditional shows and visited cultural sites. It was a visit with a program that also helped them make an idea about Romania.”

     

    In 1997, Communist dignitary Paul Niculescu-Mizil said that, beyond the optimism with which we regard it today, there was more to it than we suspect: “When I was in prison, I listened to a television report by Cornel Mănescu, about how diplomatic relations with the FRG were established. He said that he went to Germany, that he met with Brandt and Brandt said let’s establish diplomatic relations, then they shook hands and said yes, we agree. Let’s be serious. I know how those relations were established; I was a member of the Permanent Presidium. This problem was discussed and re-discussed, how to do it, how to get to this, how the Soviets will react, if it is good, if it is not good. This was discussed for days and days. And when he left, Mănescu had a clear mandate, to go and end diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany, as the only option. I was part of many delegations, it would be absurd to say anything else. I had a mandate from home, and if it did not match the situation there, I would have to report back home and ask for approval.”

     

    In 1967, Romania was the second country in the communist bloc to establish relations with West Germany, after the USSR. It was a diplomatic move through which old ties of the Romanian space with the entire German space were restored.

  • The Romanian Institute of Technical Documentation  

    The Romanian Institute of Technical Documentation  

     

    Institutional history is not always as interesting as the biography of a personality, or as the story of a breakthrough that changed everything that mankind used to know. Institutions are generally perceived as cold, depersonalized spaces, where an authority imposes its order on citizens. But the history of institutions is of great importance in knowing the past, because they also involve human creativity and daily routine for the people who work there.

     

    In Romania, after 1945, the communist regime was established, with the direct support of the Soviet occupation army. This meant the destruction of old institutions considered repressive of the working class, the distortion of others, as well as the establishment of new ones. One of the major problems faced by the communist regime in Romania was finding specialists, engineers in particular, to help restart the new centralized economy headed by the communist party. While part of Romania’s old technical elite had been thrown into prison on ideological grounds, the new elite was trying to make up for what had been lost and adapt to the new ideology. Thus, an institution that assumed the task of collecting information and drawing up syntheses related to the state of technological development was Romania’s Technical Documentation Institute, established in 1949.

     

    Engineer Gheorghe Anghel was the general director of the institution and in 2003 he recalled, at the microphone of Radio Romania’s Oral History Center, the beginnings: “The Technical Documentation Institute of Romania became appreciated as one of the best documentation and information institutes of the socialist bloc. Specialists from many countries came to learn how the information and documentation activity was organized in Romania. Apart from the National Institute of Information and Documentation, there were a number of 24 information-documentation offices, by branch and field, which in turn were specialized in promoting technical innovations in the field they represented.”

     

    Located in the center of Bucharest, on the Victory Boulevard, the Technical Documentation Institute was the main information and documentation entity for engineers. The institution was copied after a similar one in the Soviet Union, a huge institute, focused on this activity. The Romanian institute was equipped with an impressive technical book fund and substantial collections of specialized magazines from all technical fields. A generous reading room accommodated everyone who wanted to stay connected to the latest news in their field. The institute centralized technical knowledge, but at the level of each branch and field of activity it was also supported by information and documentation offices.

     

    Gheorghe Anghel talked about the activity of the institute: “The activity of the Institute and the offices was very complex. It was not limited only to the reception of books and magazines, but, in particular, to the promotion of content. Within the Institute there was a whole series of departments that processed the existing information in the pages of the magazines: from simply signaling the existence of the content of the existing magazines, by photocopying their summaries and organizing them into several collections, which were distributed on a subscription basis to those interested , to the actual processing of the content of specialized articles. The respective novelties were extracted from them and they were reported to the specialists in the national economy.”

     

    But although the institute was intended for engineers and technical documentation, the famous censorship was in place there too. Gheorghe Anghel: “We did not have the right to send all magazines to the reading hall. Some of them contained various articles that were not in tune with the party policy. So, there was a special stamp applied on the banned ones. They were registered at an office of secret documents and deposited there. The access was prohibited. I remember that there was an elaborate book in English that dealt with a certain mysterious phenomenon that had happened in the Urals. On the basis of documents published in the Soviet Union in specialized magazines, an English researcher had demonstrated that an atomic catastrophe had occurred in the Urals in which many people had perished. At that time these things were not public and were shrouded in mystery. It was not a fantasy, they were accurate documents published in the Soviet Union, in their magazines.”

     

    The institute held symposia and conferences, and by 1974 several hundred foreign-language people were working there. However, in 1974, Elena Ceaușescu, the wife of Nicolae Ceaușescu, head of the National Council for Science and Technology, decided to streamline the activity and reduced the number of employees to 160. However, in the 1980s, the general crisis of Romanian society also hit the institute. Due to the lack of foreign currency, the purchase of magazines and books had been drastically reduced. Those seeking to document themselves, could still read publications from the Soviet Union. The crisis of the institution was the crisis of the system that ended in 1989. (EE)

     

  • Prince Nicholas’ activity in exile

    Prince Nicholas’ activity in exile

    Born in August 1903, prince Nicholas was the only brother of King Carol II to make it into adulthood, with the king’s younger brother Mircea dying when he was a child. Brought up by his mother Queen Marie in an unrestricted manner, Nicholas was an energetic child and later as a teenager was interested in sports and car racing. He went to school at Eton and was educated in a British environment. He is, however, still somewhat of a mystery for the public, not least because he spent most of his life in exile. He was a regent between 1927 and 1930, as King Michael was still a minor, and until the return to the throne of Carol II.

    Prince Nicholas went into exile because he entered into a morganatic marriage to Ioana Doletti, which the Royal House did not accept. Although his brother Carol had a similar marriage, this did not prevent Carol from exiling his brother when he took back the throne in 1930. Nicholas’ exile began in the inter-war period and continued after the installation of communism after the war. It was this period that Diana Mandache covered in her recent book entitled Principele Nicolae. Exil și rivalități (“Prince Nicholas. Exile and rivalries”). The author conducted research both in the national archives and abroad. Here’s Diana Mandache speaking about the personality of prince Nicholas and his influence in the Romanian diaspora:

    “Nicholas was a firm man. He was temperamental, but also had the British manners owing to having studied and lived in Great Britain, after WWI. He also had as tutor the same man who was the tutor of the children of George V, Queen Marie’s cousin. So he had mentors who shaped his character and guided him in key moments. The historian Nicolae Iorga praised Nicholas for accepting the regency and thus lending a certain stability to Romanian political life. King Michael was a minor at the time, and the regency was ensured by three people: patriarch Miron Cristea, Gheorghe Buzdugan, the president of the High Court of Cassation and Justice in 1927 and Nicholas, at the request of Queen Marie. So he was morally ready for the task, but it was difficult to give up his personal life at that young age.”

    When he was definitively exiled in 1937, Nicholas embarked on a diplomatic activity, first in Venice, where he lived initially, then in Switzerland, in Lausanne. Diana Mandache explains:

    “Nicholas met in the 1940s with Romanian diplomats to discuss important matters, apart from the political and military problems of WWII and the need to join the war on the side of the allies, which meant a change of foreign policy. He wanted to create a committee of free Romanians, which wasn’t possible, Switzerland being a neutral state that did not allow for political activities. But he did have talks with foreign diplomats from the allied states, and an important figure was the United States ambassador, Leland Harrison, who had been familiar with Nicholas’ case since 1937, when he was accredited to Bucharest. He had frequent meetings with Harrison, as well as with Great Britain’s minister in Bern. Nicholas wanted to revise or to draw up a different Constitution and to this end, he hired a Swiss legal expert, which the latter mentioned to the authorities in Bern, because he was obliged to disclose any political interests or positions. Prince Nicholas was warned by the Swiss authorities, verbally, through an intermediary, very diplomatically, to put an end to these political meetings, which sometimes took place during private dinners. Nicholas was naturally allowed to express his views, but nothing more, as Switzerland was a neutral state and didn’t take sides.”

    After Romania became a communist country, prince Nicholas intensified his work in exile, with a focus on culture and trying to unify the Romanian diaspora, which was very divided. Diana Mandache tells us more:

    “After 1947, prince Nicholas shifts his attention to other states, like France, which had a strong Romanian community owing to the installation of the communist regime and the abdication of the king, as well as Spain, which mainly attracted members of the Iron Guard, and also Italy. Prince Nicholas played an important role in this period. He gave statements to Radio Madrid and Radio Rome on Monarchy Day, on 10th May, or on 24th January, and he organised Romanian festivals. He tried to unify the diaspora in these countries, visiting Romanian associations and organisations and the Romanian communities in Italy, Spain and France. He focused on these three countries. He gave interviews to the Italian and Spanish press, gave statements on the situation of the Romanians in Romania, and took a stand, for example by taking advice in connection to the attack on the legation of the People’s Republic of Romania in Bern by the Oliviu Beldeanu group. […] Prince Nicholas was also interested in cultural matters and he saw culture as a means of propaganda. During the Cold War, the Romanian festivals he organised in West Germany, his support for the Romanian Library in Freiburg, the establishment, after his wife’s death, of the Princess Ioana Cultural Foundation and the organisation of a Romanian festival in Madrid brought together not only his own supporters, but also Romanians living in exile who did not support a particular political group or orientation. These activities were a success in the sense that they were attended by great Romanian cultural figures who gave talks on Romania. So, for prince Nicholas Romania was first and foremost an ideal.”

    Prince Nicholas died in 1978 in Madrid and was first buried in Lausanne. This year, however, his remains and those of his wife Ioana Doletti were brought to Curtea de Argeș and reburied in the royal necropolis there.

  • 90 years since the signing of the Balkan Pact

    90 years since the signing of the Balkan Pact

    After WWI, the victorious states part of the Entente, that is France, Britain, Italy, Japan, the US and Romania, wanted to preserve peace through peace treaties, the League of Nations, which later became the UN, and regional alliances. Thus, regional alliances appeared in Central and South-Eastern Europe that sought to block the policy of the revisionist states. One of the alliances was the Balkan Pact or the Balkan Entente signed in the Greek capital, Athens, 90 years ago, on February 9, 1934, between Yugoslavia, Romania, Turkey and Greece. It had been preceded by the Balkan Bloc 10 years earlier, in 1924.

    From Romania’s viewpoint, the Balkan Pact was part of a system of alliances designed to defend its borders on the north, east, south and west. Romania’s national defense doctrine saw the Soviet Union as the main danger to its security, so the signing of the alliance with Poland in 1921 secured defense for the north and the east. To the west, Romania had secured its border by signing the Little Entente, a mutual defense arrangement with Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia in 1921. To the south, security was to be guaranteed by the Balkan Pact. The main inspirer and guardian of the alliances in Central and South-East Europe was France.

    Why do states forge military alliances? It is a question to which experts in international relations have given answers such as economic interests, the similarity of political systems, values, ideologies, cultural and linguistic affinities, the pressures of the Great Powers and so on. American political scientist Randall Schweller has identified two major reasons for states to form military alliances. The first motivation is to balance the threat, which is usually defensive and tries to block the aggression of other states. The second motivation is alignment, which is offensive and whose main determinant is the compatibility of political goals. From this point of view, the Balkan Entente was meant to balance the threat, it was a defensive military alliance aimed at isolating Bulgaria, which was promoting an aggressive policy in the area, actively supported by the Soviet Union.

    Military historian Petre Otu outlined the geopolitical and geostrategic features of the Balkan Entente: “It is a regional alliance. The actors are four states and it is based on the principles of balancing the threat, with the aim of protecting its status quo in the region, as established by the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and 1920. Some say it was against Bulgaria and I do not deny such an intention of the initiators. But there is another important reason, as Nicolae Titulescu said: the Balkans were known as the powder keg of Europe. I think that what Titulescu said is relevant. He was right, as we had to end this endemic warlike attitude of the Balkans, reach and agreement and establish an area of ​​peace and cooperation.”

    Although driven by common interests, the states of the Balkan Entente put their own interests first. Petre Otu explains: “Three of the partners were Mediterranean states, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey, and their security efforts were oriented to this direction. They were not aimed at what particularly interested Romania. Greece had reservations about a possible Italian aggression in the Balkan Peninsula. Likewise, Italy was a danger to Yugoslavia. Romania and Turkey were two Pontic countries and there should have been a greater solidity. But there was the so-called Turkish reserve here. According to the understandings between Kemal Pasha and Lenin in the early 1920s, the two countries would be allies and Turkey was committed not to have a conflict with Moscow.”

    Laudable in theory, the Balkan Pact was one that lacked cohesion in practice. Petre Otu: “Another problem of this regional alliance was the lack of a sponsor state, a hegemonic state. The Balkan Entente faced control attitudes from France, Italy and Britain, among which there were strong contradictions. In 1931, Italy and Britain encouraged the creation of a Bulgaria-Turkey-Greece Union. But France opposed it and bet on a Yugoslavia-Romania-Bulgaria deal.”

    Regional alliances were useful in diplomatic terms but useless in military terms. For reasons of its own, within the framework of the Little Entente, Czechoslovakia did not clearly undertake to support Romania in the event of an attack. For the same reasons, neither Greece nor Turkey committed to support Romania in the event of an attack from the east. In conclusion, Petre Otu said that regional alliances only work if big players are also involved: “The Balkan Pact was an alliance of small actors and did not resist the conflicting interests of the Great Powers. In general, regional alliances of smaller actors have little viability in the system of international relations. They can be played by the big international actors, so the Little Entante, the Balkan Pact and the Romanian-Polish understanding did not withstand the extraordinary pressure of the Great Powers and the tensions in international relations.”

    By the late 1940s, regional alliance systems were collapsing and World War II was breaking out. A long and bloody conflict followed, from which humanity emerged in 1945, struck by other tragedies and unfulfilled goals. (EE)

  • Germans and Soviets in Romania, in the Second World War

    Germans and Soviets in Romania, in the Second World War

    Wars are some of the most horrendous forms of human degradation. During the Second World War, the war hit limits that are hard to imagine. It was the war where civilians had a lot to suffer, it was the war at the end of which international law was changed and recreated, significantly, in a bid to cover all the atrocities that were perpetrated. Notwithstanding, the overwhelming majority of the abuses and killings civilians had been subjected to, have remained unpunished. The civilians’ memory regarding the occupation armies has been significantly influenced by every individual’s experience and by the intensity of their own suffering.

     

    Just like other Central and Eastern European states, Romania had the misfortune of going through both types of occupation during the Second World War. The Romanians and the other Central-European citizen drew a comparison between the German and then the Soviet patterns of behavior. All things considered, the German behavior was perceived as being positive, while the Soviet type of behavior was described as negative. With respect to the Germans, the memories of the Romanians who lived back then, quite a few of them confirmed by archive documents, speak about some friendly, honest and dependable people. About the Soviets, the memories are, on the contrary, negative: they were aggressive people, irrational selfish and dominated by animalistic impulses. Radio Romania’s Oral History Center had the opportunity to record testimonies of those who witnessed how people from the two armies behaved, which prompted them to have the aforementioned perceptions of them.

     

    In 1999, nurse Petre Radu Damian reminisced how he was dispatched to Campina in 1939, where the first German transmission troops had been stationed Apart from the military technique, the Germans arrived there with sanitary vehicles and facilities that amazed Damian.

     

    Petre Damian: “And we went to the other side, to them, in front of the barracks there was the colonel commander of the Panzer unit. It was for the first time when I saw some big jars, then the trend in the treatment of blennorrhagia, as well as many other things I hadn’t seen before. I was accepted among them, it was a great joy for them and I was quick to make friends with a physician hailing from Banat, but their chief was a captain. The collaboration was great. The medical stuff they were researching had to do with interpretation and tests, they made extensive use of laboratories. ”

     

    Trader Aristide Ionescu in 2000 reminisced how the German military behaved, who lived in his parents’ house, in a commune in Valcea county.

     

    Aristide Ionescu: “In 1940, it was winter, the German troops arrived in the country, those who were about to attack Russia; in our commune, they were accommodated in the school building, in some barracks. The behavior the Germans had was very disciplined, not a single thing was taken from a peasant without paying back, and in our house there were the headquarters, in our study there were the headquarters. We had two adjoining passage rooms; I was living in the room at the back, while in the first room a German lieutenant was accommodated. As I was passing through his room, I saw he left his watch there, he left some of his other things there as well. I always locked my room, and then I got the hang of it and I didn’t lock my room any more. One night they simply vanished. The German unit moved on and the whole village found out about it. At about 10 a motorcycle stops in front of our gate and the motorcyclist tells me, in a French language which was quitter fluent, that the lieutenant whom I accommodated took a little pillow by mistake and was handing it back.”

     

    The war changed after 1944 and the Soviets came as liberators. But they weren’t like that at all. Here is Petre Radu Damian.

     

    Track:” When the Russians came, there were groups of raiders, you know.  On command or not, I don’t know, some of them entered our street. I remember one particular time, there was only one of these troops on a horse, which he had probably stolen from somewhere. He had with him that famous Russian assault rifle, which we called Balalaika. He entered our courtyard and told me to catch him two geese and bind their legs. He wanted me to carry those geese for him to their residence. Our dog attacked him and he shot the gun against the dog wounding it. He was also drunk, which was quite common, because back then we were seeing lots of Russian soldiers drunk, as they use to drink everywhere. I remember them shooting their rifles against them wine barrels and did a lot of bad things at that time.”

     

    But more serious than those raids were the murders and rapes the Soviet troops committed. Aristide Ionescu recalled the case of such a rape.

     

    Aristide Ionescu:” On September 20th 1944 the first Russians carrying their assault rifles entered our commune. They came from Drăgăşani and entered the house of one of our relatives named Trican, who had the first house in our commune. There the Russians were given food and drinks and after eating and drinking, they got drunk and raped a woman who was over 60 years old.”

     

    The recollections of the Romanians regarding the behaviours of the Russian and German troops on the Romanian territory are polarized and will remain the same because history can be neither forgotten nor erased.

  • Children in the tumult of history

    Children in the tumult of history

    Tyrannical political regimes, wars, genocides, displacements, pandemics, natural disasters have been the greatest trials that history has subjected individuals to, and with them, the society. The history of the 20th century is a champion in abusing the individual in all ways. In the confrontation with the ravages of time, children, the most sensitive and helpless beings, suffered the most. Romania’s history is no exception to the rule, as, in the 20th century, it recorded all the mentioned types of brutality. Innocent children in Romania, like all the children all over the world, paid too high a price for the tyrannical history.



    The Oral History Center of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation has recorded disturbing testimonies of children’s suffering in times of austerity. During the Second World War, in Northern Transylvania occupied by Hungary, the Jewish population was sent to concentration camps.



    Grigore Balea, a Greek-Catholic priest, in 1997 remembered how he witnessed terrible scenes when Jews were put on trains. His mother tried to offer a bucket of water to a Jewish family of 9 children awaiting deportation: One of the Hungarian soldiers who were guarding the Jews punched my mother in the back of the head. I will never forget my mother’s pain when she saw a population taken without any fault. Neither I nor my mother were present in Vişeu, but I found out that they were separated there. They put the little children on one side, on the platform, and the mothers on the other aside, and that’s where the tragedy started! The children were crying on the platform and screaming, the mothers on the other side were also crying.



    Ileana Covaci was from Moisei, the place where the Hungarian army massacred several dozen innocent ethnic Romanians in October 1944. She recalled being deported to Austria by the Hungarian authorities, following a criminal investigation which she had nothing to do with: The Hungarian gendarmes came at night and took us out of the bed. We were minors, me and my younger sister, and they took us against our will to the Council and locked us up until morning! And I cried. They did not tell us why they did that. My father and mother also cried, they said that the girls were taken to work, that they don’t steal. After they released us, they told us that they would take us to Austria for three months.



    Ana Darie from Săliștea de Sus, Maramureș, told how her daughters suffered because their father was an opponent of the communist regime, instated on March 6, 1945: They threw the girls out of school, only one of them could study. The girl kicked out of school befriended a Romanian teacher from Baia Mare, and she taught her outside the school system until she finished secondary school. And I had quite a lot of difficulties. When she went to high school, those from the Peoples Council threatened her, told her that if her father was a political prisoner, she could not study. But the school principal helped us, and the girl could study until she finished high school.



    Imprisoned for 13 years in the communist prison in Aiud, Sima Dimcică had left three minor children at home. Upon returning, the reunion was mutually awkward: I arrived home where I had left three small children: one was only 6 months old, the middle one was 3 years old and the oldest was 5 and a half, almost 6 years old. When I was released and went home, the older one was 19-20, the middle one was 16 years, the youngest 13-14 years. I was ashamed, I was ashamed of them, they were ashamed of me. Where’s mom? I ask them. In Aiud! Yesterday, the police chief from the village came with a telegram and told mom to urgently report to the Aiud penitentiary. At nightfall we went to bed. I couldnt sleep a wink. All night I was thinking what to do? When I arrived home in Sinoe, my wife arrived in Aiud. For what reason I don’t know even now. They did that on purpose, to make us worry, they sent us on a fools errand.



    Ion Preda helped a group of anti-communist partisans led by Toma Arnăuțoiu. Imprisoned and harassed for the rest of his life by the political police of the communist regime, in 2000 he assessed the consequences of his own decisions: I’m sorry that the children suffered because of me for years. The younger girl was taken to the orphanage, she stayed there for several years. When I came home they sent her back home, she continued high school and later married an aviator. I’m sorry that I lost the years of my youth, the most beautiful years of anyone’s life. But, on the other hand, Im proud of my creed for the country as it was: free, honest, democratic, not a dictatorship, with its citizens enslaved. (LS)

  • Bucharest’s stone crosses and their history

    Bucharest’s stone crosses and their history

    The man of the past, from time immemorial, felt the
    need to bequeath to the future generations signs of his presence in this world.
    Until writing was discovered, man expressed his thoughts through rupestrian
    drawings, or through several objects, adorned or painted. When writing proper
    appeared, messages and thoughts for posterity became more elaborated, enabling
    us to know more about the perceptions of the past. As for the messages carved
    in stone, they were among the most perennial ones, standing the test of time to
    this day. When we speak about the messages carved in stone, what mainly comes
    to mind is the ancient period, with its spectacular temples, statues, and
    tombs. However, apart from the ancient period, in timeframes closer to our
    times, texts carved in stone are quite a few and no less important, at that.


    In 19th century Romanian
    society, the force of the messages carved in stone was impressive, especially
    when we speak about the messages engraved on crosses. In the city of Bucharest
    two centuries ago, stone immortalized what then the Bucharesters thought it was
    worth reminiscing.


    Cezar Buiumaci is a museographer
    with the museum of Bucharest Municipality. Also, he is a hunter of the city’s
    stone crosses and of the messages engraved on them.

    Cezar Buiumaci:


    In the present research I found two crosses we seem to have lost track
    of. We’re speaking about Ioan
    Pometcovici’s cross, a fountain cross in the Ferentari neighborhood and which
    today can be found in the Bellu cemetery, at the tomb of general Gheorghe Brătianu.
    It was a fountain cross that changed its purpose, becoming a funeral cross.
    That is the model, a matrix, just as it happens with all crosses around
    Bucharest. The other cross is Miloradovici’s cross, another cross which is a reminder
    of Russian troops’ win over the Turks. General Miloradovici was the one who
    succeeded to have the battle sidestep Bucharest and was thus dubbed the savior
    of Bucharest. A cross was erected in remembrance of that, it was a cross that
    can be found on the Patriarchate Hill, close to the belfry.


    The
    strongest messages carved in the stones of 19th century Bucharest are
    those carved on crosses. The cross is one of the oldest universal symbols that existed
    before Christianity. However, it was Christianity that brought the cross center-stage.
    The four arms of the cross signify the great axes of the world and the physical
    coordinates underlying man’s endeavor to build hid own material world. So the
    cross was the basic element on which messages for eternity could be drawn or
    written in a concise manner. For instance, on Tanase the Shoemaker’s Cross which
    today can be found in Ferentari neighborhood, located in the south-west of
    Bucharest, the Biblical scene of the Annunciation can be seen. The profile of kneeling
    Virgin Mary is to the right, while to the left, Archangel Gabriel can be seen
    standing. A bunch of rays signifying the presence of the Holy Ghost is drawn
    above. The inscription is in Romanian, but it is written in the Cyrillic
    alphabet, still in use in 1829, the year when the cross and the water fountain were built. The inscription runs as follows: With the mercy and help of the one who in
    Trinity is most glorified, God, this cross was erected, to the glory of the
    Annunciation of the Purest Mother, and this water fountain was also built.


    A key aspect of the messages carved
    in stone is made not only by the abstract side of life, but also by its
    material side, a fountain, in our case. Cezar Buiumaci emphasizes the bond
    between spirit and matter in the messages he found on Bucharest’s stone crosses, which he studied. One such cross is that in the Putul cu Tei street, which
    can be found in Bucharest’s present-day neighborhood, Berceni.


    Cezar Buiumaci:


    The cross in the Bellu district was placed, according to
    various authors, in the time of the pandours, in 1821, or in the time of the eighteen
    forty-eight revolutionaries. The truth lies somewhere in between, it was
    commissioned in 1831. It is a fountain cross, erected on a greenfield land on the Putul cu Tei street, lying a couple of meters away. It was
    customary for a tree to be planted and for a cross to be erected, whenever a
    fountain was dug. It was a gesture of great humaneness to offer water to the thirsty
    traveler, at a time when water supply networks did not exist. Concurrently, the fountains
    had the economic function of providing water to the livestock or for irrigation.
    There where this cross was found, the vineyards site began, on the Vineyards
    Hill. The story usually went like this: the traveler would arrive, he would
    quench his thirst and sit in the shade. That is how he took the time to read the diptych
    those who erected the cross had inscribed on it. Thus they organized their own
    alms when they were still alive.


    The messages found on stone crosses
    are messages of gratitude, yet they are also message of triumph, such as the
    one on the cross erected by Wallachian ruling prince Leon Voda, in 1631, by
    means of which he marked his win over the enemy. There are also messages inscribed
    as a lament for the departed ones whom someone held most dear, such as the
    message on the cross of the great boyar Papa Brâncoveanu, who was killed in
    1655 during an uprising. Such an example is one of the many examples available.
    We can thus view diversity as a stone-carved chronicle of Bucharest history.

  • Mircea Eliade: unpublished documents

    Mircea Eliade: unpublished documents


    In the summer of 1942, the writer, journalist and historian of religion Mircea Eliade was briefly in Bucharest, between leaving his diplomatic post in London and taking over the one at the Romanian Embassy in Lisbon. This was the last time the author, then aged 35, saw his home country and, more importantly, his birth city, Bucharest, which he gave a mythical aura in his prose. This was also when he left his entire personal archive, with manuscripts, documents and scientific writings, in the care of his family, until his return which, in 1942, seemed not only possible, but simply natural. As we know, this never happened, and Eliade died abroad in 1986.



    The archive in Bucharest was kept by his sister, Corina, until her own death in 1989. Unfortunately, since then Eliades documents were neglected, and to this day they have not been properly accounted for and studied by experts. However, the Romanian Academys Institute for the History of Religions has recently managed to obtain an important part of this archive and to organise an exhibition entitled “Mircea Eliade: unpublished documents.” Historian Eugen Ciurtin, head of the Institute for the History of Religions, told us the troubled story of the efforts to recover Eliades manuscripts:



    Eugen Ciurtin: “We were able to prove, and we hope this will be included in the forthcoming months in a first volume of the complete collection of Mircea Eliades scientific work, that he picked some pages from the works he was preparing at the time and he took them with him in Portugal. But it was only a few pages. The archive he left in Romania contains tens of thousands of pages. As he says in a diary entry dating from August 1952, when he was already in Ascona, his entire youth was there. In his diary, Eliade is heartbroken to realise that his entire youth, everything he had lived, written, thought, read until the age of 33, including in India, might be lost forever. The horrors of the post-war period, his image as a fascist supporter and his inability to return prevented access to his manuscripts, which fortunately were protected by his family. Thanks to Constantin Noica, Sergiu Al-George and Arion Roșu, some of his Indology books, around 130 volumes, ended up in the “Eliade” Collection of the library of the Institute for the History of Religions. But the manuscripts themselves were not opened until 1981. It was Constantin Noica who did this in 1981, together with a young literary historian and high school teacher, Mircea Handoca, who got the familys permission to research the archive.”



    For many years, Mircea Handoca exchanged letters with Mircea Eliade, who in 1981 told him, “I persuaded my sister to allow you to research my manuscripts.”Mircea Handoca did this, and he also took part in the editing of several religious history books whose publication was permitted by the Communist regime. After Eliades sister died in 1989, her son, professor Sorin Alexandrescu, who lived in the Netherlands, gave the entire archive to Handoca for safekeeping. Eugen Ciurtin told us what happened next:



    Eugen Ciurtin: “Unfortunately, in March 1989, when Eliades sister died in an empty house, as Mr. Sorin Alexandrescu recounted, these manuscripts were appropriated by Mircea Handoca. Between March 1989 and September 2015, they could not be seen. Thousands and thousands of pages. So far only a few hundred pages, maybe a few hundred manuscripts have been auctioned, and only some of them could be recovered, and only some of them could be donated to the Institute for the History of Religions.”



    Although no rights on the archive had been transferred, Mircea Handoca never returned the documents to the rightful owners, and after his death in 2015, his heirs took them over. This is why, instead of being studied for academic purposes by experts, fragments of Eliades archive were auctioned in the past 2-3 years. Fortunately, they were purchased and then offered to the Institute by generous anonymous donors. Shortly after, the Institute started to research and organise them and put together the exhibition at the Museum of Romanian Literature in Bucharest. Visitors can find here the seeds of the comprehensive studies published by Mircea Eliade in the post-war years he spent in Paris and later on in Chigaco.



    Eugen Ciurtin: “We can see, for the first time, several very important essays from his Indian period and his Ph.D. thesis, in various stages of progress. Not only the text dated November 1932, but also the volume published in May 1936, “Yoga. Essay sur lorigine de la mystique indienne”. Then we have manuscripts of books for which we had not imagined we would ever see all the authors hesitations, amendments and changes operated until printing. There is the manuscript of “Borobudur: the Symbolic Temple” published in September 1937 in the Royal Foundations Magazine and included as such in the volume “The Island of Euthanasius” in 1943. We have the manuscript of the 1942 “Myth of Reintegration”, hand-written studies and reviews written for Zalmoxis magazine. And, interestingly, there is a previously unseen essay dated late 1930 – early 1931 and titled “What is wrong with Europe”. The media of 1930 announced this essay, but nobody knew anything about it until my colleagues found it. All these details will be included in this planned complete collection, because our goal is precisely to show an outline of what Eliade was planning to achieve.”



    Another fascinating find among the documents recovered by the Institute are pages handwritten by Mircea Eliade in Sanskrit when he was studying this language.



    Unfortunately, the full archive is still not available, and without an inventory of the documents, its content remains unknown.



    The exhibition at the National Museum of Romanian Literature is open until March, and was completed thanks to the work of the researchers Andreea Apostu, Ionuț Băncilă, Eugen Ciurtin, Daniela Dumbravă, Octavian Negoiță, Cătălin Pavel, Vlad Șovărel and Bogdan Tătaru-Cazaban. (AMP)


  • The history of child protection in Romania

    The history of child protection in Romania


    Children have a special place in human history, being, in fact, actors and creators of history, like any human being. But children have always needed protection and, over the years, ordinary people or institutions such as the Church in the Middle Ages and the state and organizational settlements in the modern era assumed protective roles.



    The Romanian space had approximately the same history of child protection as that of the geo-cultural areas that influenced it. In the second half of the 19th century, the modern state assumed the role of active protector of children by establishing creches, care homes and orphanages. The children who needed such institutions were the less fortunate ones: the orphans, the abandoned, the poor, the homeless, the seriously ill and those with incurable diseases. The first modern child protection institution in Romania was opened in 1897, when “Sfânta Ecaterina” — Saint Catherine Creche, a Social Assistance Society was established. Poor children, motherless children, and young single mothers were brought here.



    Among the founders were Ecaterina Cantacuzino, wife of the conservative politician Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino, Irina Cantacuzino, their daughter, and doctor Thoma Ionescu. The Bucharest City Hall donated a plot of land of 20,000 square meters in the north of the city, near the current Arch of Triumph, on which seven buildings were erected. By 1948, the year the Creche was nationalized by the communist regime, thousands of children had passed through the respectable charitable institution.



    Oana Drăgulinescu, the manager of the newest museum project in Romania, called the Abandonment Museum, emphasized the pioneering role in child protection that the St. Catherine Creche had: “It is clear that, for a very long time, the child had a rather unprivileged role in the family. There were many children, they started being used from a young age, lets not say exploited, but anyway they had to have a role in the family. They were a mouth to feed, so they had to produce their own food. What I found in the documents from Saint Catherine is that around the year 1900 child protection began being structured in Romania. And from this perspective, St. Catherine Creche had a pioneering role, because its representatives came and said: we no longer take children in out of pity, but we adopt them with proper documents. We no longer give children away to women to take care of them, but we create a system in which these women, the future foster carers, are supervised how they feed the children, and in what way they educate them. Thus, they began to somehow supervise the placement of the children on long term, so that they could have control over the future of these children.”



    The communist regime established on March 6, 1945 brought another societal reality to Romania. As everything has undergone a radical transformation with the human being having been brutalized to the highest degree, child protection has also changed accordingly.



    Oana Drăgulinescu is back at the microphone with more: “The Communist regime was instated and Ceaușescu said: we want a strong relationship, we want more and more children and he found this formula of decree 770 which prohibited contraception. Which led to a birth boom, the “decree children” whom we keep talking about. Its just that he didnt think about the capacity of the Romanian people to raise children. Romanians were an already impoverished people, already in the grips of savings, which the communist party imposed on the people. So, the people started abandoning children more and more, and the Romanian state started building more and more institutions.”



    The socialist society was one in which man was supposed to be happy and perfect. And any biological deviation was brutally treated. Oana Drăgulinescu has more: “There emerged this perception of the perfection of the communist child, who had to meet certain standards. Anyone who was not up to standard, and that could mean absolutely anything, even crossed eyes, was taken to those hospital-homes which, in time, due to the large number of children and the system’s incapacity to support these children, became genuine extermination camps. This is what happened in 1989, this is what the western televisions who came here found and were horrified by these images that resembled those in Auschwitz. The only difference was that they were not during the Nazi period, but in 1989 Romania: children tied to beds, children in chains, children treated inhumanely.”



    After 1989, when the communist regime collapsed in Romania, child protection had to be rebuilt. It was an effort that the society assumed. Oana Drăgulinescu is back with details: “Its just that things didnt stop in 1989. It was not a sudden transition, it wasnt like the Romanian people suddenly became enlightened and started having resources for these children, things continued long after that. It was a period of total decline and until 2004, when the child protection law practically changed, things continued in an almost similar formula.”



    The history of child protection in Romania overlaps its times. And the new memorialization project of the Abandonment Museum invites us to reflect on a problematic past. (LS)

  • Dacia, the last space of the Roman world

    Dacia, the last space of the Roman world

    North of the River Danube, on its middle and lower course down to its mouth, ancient Greek and Roman sources mention the existence of Getic and Dacian tribes in the big Thracian conglomerate. The information we learn about the Getae and the Dacians differs from one author to another, and the amount of information is related to the period in which the authors wrote and to the accuracy of their documentation. It is not known exactly if the Getae and the Dacians were the same people, some opinions claim that they were identical, others that they were not. Most information, and the most accurate, seems to have been provided by the emperor Trajan, the conqueror of Dacia in the year 106 AD, who is the author of the volume “De bello dacico”. Trajans notes have been lost, but, one single sentence survives in the 6th-century treatise on Latin grammar by Priscian. It is a short quotation from Trajans text and refers to the way through the Banat region of the Roman army: “From here we went to Berzobis, then to Aixis”.



    The political history of the Getae and Dacians ends in 106 AD when Trajan conquers the state of King Decebalus. A part of the Dacian space, namely Transylvania and todays Banat region inside the Carpathian arc and Oltenia between the Carpathians and the Danube, is transformed into a Roman province. Other Getae and Dacians such as those from Wallachia, Maramureș and Moldavia remained outside the Roman administration, but were influenced by the Roman culture and civilization. Thus, Dacia was until 275, the year in which Emperor Aurelian decided to withdraw the Roman army and bureaucracy from Dacia, the most advanced frontier of the Roman world in northeastern Europe.



    The National History Museum of Romania opened the exhibition “Dacia. The last frontier of the Roman world”. It is the largest general exhibition dedicated to the Getae and Dacians, the Romans as well as the first migrants to this space organized in the last 25 years in Romania. The National Museum of Archeology in Madrid, Spain, and the National Roman Museum in Rome, Italy collaborated for the organization of the exhibition.



    Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu, the director of the National History Museum of Romania, wanted to remove the political dimension from the history of the Getae and Dacians: “The Dacians do not belong to a political party, they do not belong to a particular way of thinking or ideology. They represent an important people of the antiquity based on which a nation was later built, through a very complicated process, a nation that today bears the name Romanians, continuing the name romanus from the antiquity and whose language is today largely based on the Latin language.”



    The exhibition includes centerpieces of the culture of the Getae and Dacians: the golden helmet from Coțofenești, the treasures from Stâncești, Agighiol and Peretu, the princely treasure from Cucuteni-Băiceni, the silver treasures from Sâncrăieni, Herăstrău, Senereș and Vedea, the inscriptions that mention the kings Tiamarkos, Burebista and Decebalus. Also on display are the imperial portraits of Trajan, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Traianus Decius, the treasures from Pietroasele, Apahida and Histria.



    However, Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu believes that there is plenty of room for new research: “We dont know as much about the Dacians as we should know, not only because their traces are spread over a large territory and in many places, often difficult to access, in high-altitude regions or in forested places, but also because of the fact that we dont allocate much money for these researches. We have gathered here vestiges from 45 museums, including the National History Museum of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. We have considered the Geto-Dacians, as they are conventionally called, in a continuous historical evolution, from the first elements that allow us to see that from the mass of the Thracian tribes, living north of the Danube, something happened that would later lead, from the point of view of material culture, to the classical Dacian civilization.”



    The history of a people cannot be taken out of the context involving the presence of other peoples too. Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu is back at the microphone: “We followed the Dacians in their subsequent evolution, when part of them were included in the Roman Empire as a province. Also for the first time, we included the free Dacians in an exhibition, those Dacians who remained more or less outside the imperial Roman control. We have also included the period when the population of the former Roman province of Dacia and the populations of the free Dacians and other tribes settled here and were united in a great political and cultural union, known as the Sântana de Mureș-Cernehov culture. From a political point of view, the culture of Sântana de Mureș-Cerneahov represents the confederation of Gothic tribes, which has elements from the culture of the free Dacians, from the culture of the Sarmatians and other ethnic groups. This exhibition looks at almost 1,400 years of history: from the moment when we see different developments north and south of the Danube until 681, the year when the Eastern Roman Empire, which was becoming more of a Byzantine Empire, undertakes the last military and political action north of the Danube.”



    “Dacia. The last frontier of the Roman world” is about the ancient space in which the Romanians were later formed. But it is equally about the history of others. (LS)

  • Titus Gârbea, a witness to Scandinavian history

    Titus Gârbea, a witness to Scandinavian history

    During their lifetime, people may reach some of the most unexpected places and become witnesses to events they never thought they would witness. This is the case of the centenarian general Titus Gârbea, ‘a Romanian in northern Europe who witnessed the history of that region in the first half of the 20th century. Gârbea was born in 1893 and died in 1998, at the age of 105. He fought in World War I and was appointed military attaché in Berlin between 1938 and 1940, and from 1940 to 1943 he was military attaché in Stockholm and Helsinki. He served on the front in World War II, was decorated, and in 1947 he was put on a reserve duty status. From his position as diplomat, he was in contact with several personalities in the history of northern Europe such as King Gustaf V of Sweden and Alexandra Kollontai, the Soviet ambassador to Stockholm.



    The Oral History Center of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation had the opportunity to talk to Titus Gârbea in 1994, when he was 101 years old. The general recollected the moment when King Carol II appointed him Romania’s representative to Scandinavia: Finland is a small country, with four million inhabitants, but with hardworking and honest people, true to their word. King Carol II called me and said, Could you go to the Nordic countries ?! I was in Berlin on a very difficult mission, and at the same time I had missions in Bern, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. I said, Your Majesty, I can cope with the mission, but travel will be very expensive, because I will often have to travel by plane! And so, I was also appointed military attaché in the Nordic and Baltic countries, that is, about five or six more countries were added. I was always on the road! But I coped with the mission and sent very important information for our country and its future, because the Nazi danger had begun threatening our country too.



    Already familiar with the Nordic spirit, Gârbea travelled between the Swedish and Finnish capitals. But, in the Baltic States, occupied by the Soviets in 1940, he was not received in a way that he had expected: “My job required me to go to both Stockholm and Finland from time to time. The mission was very difficult, because Berlin was in control of the entire Europe. I was assigned to the four Nordic countries: Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. Additionally, I was also dealing with the three Baltic countries where we were seen as a black beast by the communists in those three countries. Our very good Estonian friends warned me: ‘Sir, don’t leave the house at night because the Russians, who are almost everywhere, are capable of doing very wicked things! Well, I survived, nothing happened, but I was the black beast.



    The eve of World War II caught Gârbea right on the demarcation line between the Poles and the Soviets who were ready to occupy Poland. There he became aware of the Soviet antipathy to the Romanians: In 1939, after Hitler’s Germany and Lenin’s Russia, side by side, simply crushed Poland, I was right there on the front. I went to Brest-Litovsk where the Russians were supposed to come. According to them, Brest-Litovsk was to remain in Russian hands, and the rest, in the west, in the hands of Germany. And when I arrived in Brest-Litovsk and got in touch with the Russians who had come there, given that we, as diplomats, had some freedom, one of the Russians, with a typically Russian rude attitude, told me: ‘You are going to have the same fate one day. He literally threatened me, despite my position of military attaché. I did not retort to his rude attitude. And indeed we had the same fate.



    In the same turbulent year 1940, Gârbea was in Sweden when the winter war between Finland and the Soviet Union began. Little Finland showed extraordinary heroism in the face of the Soviet giant that had invaded it. Gârbea wanted to highlight the Finnish courage and the sympathy that the whole world showed to the Finnish people: I was in Stockholm and Finland when this war broke out. From there I was following the Russian operations in Finland, during that very hard winter in 1939-1940, when the natural ally of Finland helped it a lot in the battle. But in the spring, when the thaw began, the huge number of big aircraft overwhelmed the poor Finland with a population of only four million. It was like a mosquito fighting a stallion! Because at that time, I must say, Russia was blamed and ostracized by the whole continent for what it had done, for having attacked poor Finland, with considerable troops, to occupy everything. It was nothing but one of the many horrendous actions taken by Russia, actions also taken against Romania, in 1877 and before.



    The Romanian Titus Gârbea witnessed history far from his country. But it was an equally personal history. (LS)

  • Romanian cities and their proud past

    Romanian cities and their proud past



    We heading, today, towards one of western Romanias biggest cities, Timisoara. In 1711, Central and South-eastern Europes first German-language newspaper was printed in this city. It was also in Timisoara that Hapsburg Empires first public library with a reading room was built. At present, the city boasts three theaters in three different languages. Between 1880 and 1914, Timisoara was the regions leading industrial, cultural and financial center. As we speak, the city makes a complex tourist destination for everybody.



    Here is the executive director of the Timisoara Promotion Association, Simion Giurca:



    “The city stands out as compared to other destinations thanks to a compound of three squares, located in the city center. They are connected to one another and it takes a short while to cross them through. Not only are they a beautiful area in Timisoara, they also make Romanias largest pedestrian area. Along this route you can see Timisoaras old palaces, part of them being refurbished and now they look really fine. We have a Neolog synagogue, which has been recently opened, after the refurbishment works. Also, Timisoara boasts a great many listed buildings, ranging from the Secession, Baroque or ArtNouveau style. It was also here that we have many restaurants, beer gardens, cafes, where people can relax and admire the beautiful parts of the city. In the Union Square, we have the Catholic Dome, built in 1736. We have the Serbian Cathedral, built in 1750. Also, there is a string of beautiful, refurbished buildings, a living proof of the Timisoaras architectural and historical progress, but also of the fact that here, the ethnic minorities have always lived in harmony with one another. “



    The military structure of the former citadel lies in the Freedom Square, with its army casino, with the building of the former headquarters and even with the old building of the town hall.



    The executive director of the Timisoara Promotion Association, Simion Giurca, once again.



    “It is the area of the citys former administration, an area playing host to numerous events. The squares recently-refurbished layout allows for a numerous public to attend the events. The Revolution Square is that one particular spot reminding us of the place where the most important moments of the 1989 Revolution occurred. Here lies the Orthodox cathedral, one of the most beautiful Romanian religious buildings, for which construction works began in 1936 and which was inaugurated after the war, with King Michael I attending. Opposite the cathedral, lies the Opera House. Furthermore, that building plays host to the asserts Timisoara holds pride of place for: three state theaters, in three languages, the National Theater in Romanian Language, The German State Theater and the Hungarian State Theater. Together with the Opera House, they make Timisoaras leading cultural compound.”


    For their own leisure time, tourists are invited to visit the museums. The Revolution Memorial, the Art Museum, the Banat Museum or the Banat Village Museum are among the options.



    Simion Giurca:



    “Also, exhibitions and events are being staged quite often. For those who want a ride across Bega River, there are the so-called vaporetti. Those are boats made in Galati, tailored for the public transport, but you can also have a pleasure ride across the river on board those boats. There are also paddle boats for families with children, so the little ones can discover the city by water. As a novelty, this year Timisoara is set to become a leader on the Christmas fairs market and will most succeed that, with two fairs. The first one will be placed in the city center, while the other one, on the premises at the Banat Village Museum.”



    Around Timisoara, there are a couple of areas that have developed really fine and which also offer fine accommodation facilities for those who, for instance, want to go on a tour of south-western Romania. Here is the executive director of the Timisoara Promotion Association, Simion Giurca, once again.



    “Starting off with the localities around Timisoara, we recommend a visit to Buzias, to the former imperial bath. But ours is not a sheer historical recommendation, you should also try the treatment using the healing waters in Buzias. Just as we have the Recas Hills, very well-known for the wine production, in Buzias, several smaller vineyards have been developed, they are perfect for visiting if you want to see for yourselves the wine-making process, and if you want to taste the wine. Also nearby Buzias lies the locality of Nitchidorf, the birthplace of Nobel Literature Prize Laureate Herta Muller. If we travel further east, we hit the town of Lugoj, which is a place of traditions. A couple of days ago, a guilds road has been launched there. Tourists can discover the 200-year-old history of the guilds, but also a city of Romanian choral music. A couple of famous Romanian composers lived there. “


    Simion Giurca:



    “Much to our joy, the feedback weve got is positive. Tourists from the German-speaking countries recognize some of their architecture in the German-style borough theyre visiting. The influence still exists, of the imperialist age and there still are a great many people confirming that Timisoara is quite aptly known as Little Vienna. We have lots of tourists form Serbia who feel really fine with us, since they see buildings that re closely connected to the Serbian culture. They are also delighted by the shopping facilities of the city center. Also in this part of the city we boast a road crossing built under the shape of a tunnel and which is decorated with street art elements. We want to turn Timisoara, in the shortest time possible, into a smart destination. “



    Timisoara has been selected as the European Capital of Culture in 2023. The programme is focused on the slogan “Shineyourlight – Lightupyourcity!”


    (EN)





  • Romania’s Tourism Fair, the spring edition

    Romania’s Tourism Fair, the spring edition

    The spring edition of the largest tourism fair staged
    in Romania brought together generous offers for various categories of tourists,
    whether they are into cultural or treatment tourism, or whether they ‘d rather
    go for rural or business tourism offers. Visitors had the opportunity to
    discover some of Romania’s most beautiful areas. Also , they found ready-made tourism
    packages for a holiday to remember, for extremely affordable prices.


    Dana Matic, of the Visit Mureș Association, told us
    she has been taking part, for many years now, in both editions of the fair, the
    spring and the autumn edition. Dana Matic:

    Mures County has quite a few treasures
    to offer, and, as of late, because of the pandemic, we have been focusing on natural
    assets, on outdoor activities. That is why we invite
    our tourists to discover the castles. They are our strongest point. They are
    the heritage of the Hungarian nobility of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. We recommend
    a three, four-day tour, so they can visit the castles but also the mansions.


    Petru Maran works for the Sighetu-Marmatiei tourism promotion
    and information Centre. He has invited us to discover Maramures.Petru Maran:

    Ours is a very generous offer, culture-wise,
    but also in terms of adventure tourism, and my job is to present the Sighetu
    Marmatiei municipal city from a tourism perspective. When it comes to cultural tourism,
    I recommend the Maramures Museum, with its sections. I recommend the Maramures
    Village Museum, the Ethnographic Museum of Maramures, the Elie
    Wiesel Memorial House. There is a very important museum we also have in Sighetu
    Marmatiei: The Communism Victims and Resistance Memorial. You’re sure to find out
    a lot about the communist repression in Romania and about the Sighetu Marmatiei
    prison. In the historical Maramures, I recommend that you visit the Merry Cemetery
    in Sapanta and the Peri Sapanta Monastery. We cannot ignore the narrow-gauge
    train on the Vaser Valley either.


    Anca Grădinariu is a representative of the Buzau Country Association,
    which was set up with a view to promoting one of Romania’s less well-known
    regions. The Association has been submitting documentation so that UNESCO may
    recognize the Buzau Country as a geopark. The first assessment has already been
    made, or at least that’s what we’ve been told, and we also found out the region
    would most likely be granted that status in May this year. Anca Gradinariu:


    We present the offers of the
    region. We have lots of leaflets for that. And joining us is the Buzau Country ‘s
    most distinguished representative, Amelia Papazissu, a
    living human treasure who can weave using the goat hair. We’ve got wines, then
    we also have the local craft beer. There are a great many magnificent areas in
    Buzau County, still unspoiled by mass tourism, with their prose and their cons.
    The region is wild and, if we reach a certain altitude, around the Mocearu Lake,
    we have the feeling we’re in Switzerland or Iceland, the quietness there is
    impressive, what with the extraordinary guest houses, with people who are
    cooking experts. The Lopatari Mocearu Lake is my favorite region.


    A lively and colorful stall was the one of Bukovina,
    represented by Catalina Velniciuc with the Suceava County Council.


    Bukovina came to the fair with Easter and
    summer offers, many of them from business operators in the tourism sector. Representing
    Bukovina at the fair are also Tara Dornelor Eco-tourism Association, Suceava Town
    Hall and a craftsman who makes egg-painting demonstrations. A three-night accommodation
    package, breakfast, dinner and SPA access included, in a four-star facility in
    Campulung Moldovenesc costs RON 2250 per person.


    The county of Dambovita is represented at the fair by
    Georgiana Ungureanu with the Curtea Domneasca Museum Compound in Targoviste.


    Georgiana Ungureanu:

    The Dambovita County Council,
    through the Curtea Domneasca Museum Compound in Targoviste, has come to the
    fair this year to present the 16 museums in our county. Nine of them are
    located in the county capital Targoviste. Among them is Curtea Domneasca, the Princely
    Court monumental ensemble and the Chindia Tower, which also venues the Museum
    of Printing and Old Romanian Book. As a novelty, we invite tourists to visit
    the Potlogi Ensemble built in the Brancoveanu style, which has been restored. Towards
    the mountains, in Vulcana-Pandele, there is the memorial house of artist Gabriel
    Popescu that is also worth visiting. The museum has a beautiful garden where
    tourists can take some time to relax.


    Szabó Károly is the executive director of the Harghita
    Intercommunity Development Agency:


    I came here with plenty of offers, from wellness
    and gastronomy to theme parks. I have brought the best our county has to offer.
    During the pandemic we launched an initiative called Family-Friendly Harghita.
    The county is an ideal place for families and we are now licensing tourist units
    in this respect. We so far have 86 such units, that include guest houses,
    restaurants, places to visit and services that meet our criteria. All these can
    also be found the Visit Harghita application.


    Florentina Gheorghita, the head of the Botosani Tourist
    Information Centre, has also told us about her offer:


    The town of Botosani stands out due to its
    historical center, known as the Little Leipzig. Many old buildings have been
    preserved and most of them have been restored. The church where national poet
    Mihai Eminescu was baptized as well as his birthplace are located in the city center.
    We now have a project under way aimed at bringing to light the legends of the
    old center. It is said that the whole town used to be crossed by tunnels and
    underground cells which connected all houses ever since the Tartar invasion.
    People used to hide in these cells. With the help of scanners we have found
    tunnels dug six and eight meters deep.

    (Translation by EN and E. Enache)

  • By ship from Vienna to Constantinople

    By ship from Vienna to Constantinople

    Under Ottoman influence for several centuries, the Romanian Principalities had been looking for and eventually found a new path in the first half of the 19th century. It was the path to modernization and Europeanization. Europe’s geopolitical history of the first half of the 19th century created the context for the Western ideas and the determination of elites to lead to the emergence of the Romanian state. Two of the powerful ideas of the time were: to put the Danube River at the center of the European community and to expand the West towards the East. People travelled by ship on the Danube between Vienna and Constantinople and that widened their horizon, realizing that commercial transport on the big river was profitable.



    The historian Constantin Ardeleanu is the author of the book “A cruise from Vienna to Constantinople. Travelers, spaces, images, 1830-1860”. It is a book of history viewed through the eyes of those who traveled on the route between the two great empires, the Habsburg and the Ottoman empires.



    How did the Romanian society receive the changes from the West, the technological innovations, is the first question to which historian Constantin Ardeleanu answered: “I would say that the Romanian society received those changes with openness. And with fear, initially, but also with a good understanding of the usefulness of those modern technologies. The Romanian space got connected to travel routes in Europe after the introduction of steam navigation on the river. This happened as of the 1830s and the symbolic moment was April 1834, when the first steamer, belonging to the first Austrian steam navigation company, arrived in a Romanian port. A reception ceremony was held, the Romanian elites quickly embraced the innovation, which they knew of from their travels abroad, and made full use of it equally to the West, to Vienna, and from there to the rest of Western Europe, through Constantinople, to the east and to the Holy Land, to Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. However, for the ordinary people, that terrible invention was hard to understand, but they were aware of it. And this was because the ship and its modern technology had a specific form of territoriality.”



    The Danube was, undoubtedly, the axis of modernization for Romanians. This is how it was seen at the time, and although almost two centuries have passed since then, its current importance has remained intact. Here is historian Constantin Ardeleanu with more details: “This relationship with the Danube is very important, it was the first natural highway that connected us to the world. Undoubtedly, it needed some changes that were made both in the Iron Gates area and the Danube Delta area, in order to ensure the function of pan-European waterway. It was the Austrian company DDSG (Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft) that came to introduce these lines between Vienna and Constantinople as part of an investment meant to connect the south-east of Europe. I was saying that the Danube was the main waterway that connected the Romanians to the world, hence the name ‘the Danube Principalities’ given to the Romanian Principalities. When this term was concocted, Serbia was also included in the Danube Principalities, but later, during the Crimean War of 1853-1856, the name ‘the Danube Principalities’ was used almost exclusively for Muntenia — Wallachia and Moldavia.”



    1830-1860 is the period chosen by Constantin Ardeleanu to imagine a journey on the Danube from Vienna to Constantinople. We asked him why he chose this period: “This period represents the start and the apogee of this Danube route between Vienna and Constantinople. 1830 is the year when the Austrian company, in British partnership, introduced a line on the Danube between Vienna and Budapest. This is how the connection of the Habsburg space through the Danube waterway started. Then steam navigation on the Danube was introduced, which reached the Romanian space in 1834, as I already said. 1860 was a year in which railway competition became increasingly important. The waterway went into decline with the introduction of the railways into the Habsburg space first. Starting with this decade of the 1860s, the same happened in the Romanian space. In 1860, the first railway in the Romanian space was built in ​​the Danube Delta area, namely the railway from Cernavoda to Constanța, which in a way short-circuited the Danube route. Travelers no longer needed to make a detour through Brăila and Galați, thus saving a few days. A new rush to speed up the process began, after reducing the travel time between Vienna and Constantinople and other destinations.”



    You may wonder who was traveling on the Danube? There were several types of travelers. First, there were the merchants and the military, the oldest travelers, the most adventurous spirits ever. Then there were the spiritual pilgrims to Mount Athos and to the holy lands of Jerusalem and Palestine. But there also emerged a new category, the tourists. The rich people wanted to discover the world and thus boarded on ships that took them across the Danube to the wide world. A cruise on the Danube from Vienna to Constantinople in the 19th century also brought them to Romania, which immediately adopted the models of the time. (LS)