RRI Live!

Listen to Radio Romania International Live

Romanian political ideas around 1918

WWI brought about the Entente powers victory and a fundamental change in Europes geopolitical map.

Romanian political ideas around 1918
Romanian political ideas around 1918

, 30.11.2015, 13:54

WWI brought about the Entente powers’
victory and a fundamental change in Europe’s geopolitical map. New states were
born out of the ashes of the former empires, while others extended their
territory. Romania was in the winners’ camp and on December 1st
1918, together with the provinces of Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania,
inhabited by a majority Romanian-speaking population, set the basis of the
Greater Romanian Kingdom.




The most important ideas that underlay
the construction of this political edifice took a clearer shape in the years of
WWI, especially in the case of the Romanians from Austria-Hungary. The
after-1918 historiography books insisted on the scope of the event and
accentuated the sacrifice of the Romanian nation for the union of all Romanians
into one single state around the figure of a monarch that embodied both
identities. The Communist regime seriously distorted the reality of December 1st
1918, turning it into a thousands-of-years struggle of an entire people to form
the unitary nation-state.




However, the ideas that accompanied the
fight for the rights of the Romanian ethnics in Austria-Hungary had a much more
convoluted history. Far from being united in their goals and means of reaching
these goals, the Romanians in Transylvania often had conflicting views on
matters related to the policies and national rights of their co-nationals. One
such case was the conflict between the newspaper Tribuna and the
National Romanian Party over the election tactics, a conflict that many saw as
fratricidal. This case was relevant for the social and political context of the
1890s, marked by the radicalism of a new generation of young intellectuals
championed by Octavian Goga and Octavian Tăslăuanu. It
was around that time that the idea emerged that while parties would divide a
nation, culture would unite it.




One of the most popular ideas was
federalism. Emerging in the first half of the 19th Century,
federalism spread quickly among the intellectuals who were seeking the
modernization of the state. In Austria-Hungary, the idea was even more
successful because the structure of that dual state allowed a reform in this
respect. Historian Răzvan Paraianu, from the Petru Maior University in Targu Mures, says
the Romanian federalist Aurel C. Popovici was among the leading Romanian
nationalist thinkers:




Aurel C. Popovici was one of the
greatest nationalists of the 19th century, and he wanted to federalize the
Austro-Hungarian Empire on a nation by nation basis. His theory was that the
central and eastern European nations could not survive by themselves caught
between what he called the great German race and the great Slavic race. Sooner
or later, Popovici said, these two would clash, and all these nations, such as
Romanians and Hungarians, would be crushed between the two great forces, the
two great races, as he called them. Popovici died before the Great War ended in
1917, in exile, at a time when Romania was in dire straits. Only at the end did
he realize that there was no hope for the empire because of the totally
uninspired policies run by the Istvan Tisza government.




The coming war precipitated things, and
radical solutions became more popular. Here is Răzvan Paraianu:




We should say that early in the war, the Tisza government had a
relatively favorable position towards Romanians, who had surprised him with
their enthusiasm for mobilization. He tended to take into consideration some
national demands. Things changed dramatically after Romania joined the war
against Austria-Hungary. At that time, many Romanians in the area of Brasov
welcomed with open arms the Romanian army. That being said, after the Romanian
army was forced to retreat, the Hungarian government had a vindictive policy
not only towards people who had shown their enthusiasm for the Romanian army
attacking the empire, but against Romanians in general. For instance, church
schools were suspended and were turned into state schools. They attempted an
ethnic conversion of the Romanian population. A lot of priests and teachers
were interned in camps, taken from home and moved, in order not to stir up
popular malcontent. Towards the end of the war, when things did not go as
planned for the Habsburg and German armies, the discontent was about to
explode. It was not the discontent of Romanians only, it was general
discontent. Bolshevik revolutions were erupting in Budapest, Vienna and
Germany. Against this background, Transylvanian Romanians started believing
that Romania had become a solution for all the chaos that an entire society and
state was sinking into.




Greater Romania formed on 1 December 1918 by the will and vote of
the National Assembly in Alba Iulia and some Transylvanian Romanian leaders such
as Iuliu Maniu, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, Vasile Goldiş, and the leaders of the
Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches. All those statesmen saw in the new
political construction that was Romania an end to uncertainty, and hope in a
new model of state and society.

Soviet prisoners in Romania
The History Show Monday, 25 November 2024

Soviet prisoners in Romania

Romania took sides with Germany in World War Two. On June 22nd, 1941, jointly with Germany, Romania began military operations against the Soviet...

Soviet prisoners in Romania
Giuseppe Mazzini and the Romanians
The History Show Monday, 11 November 2024

Giuseppe Mazzini and the Romanians

The Romanian political elites of 1848 were influenced by the ideas of the Italian Giuseppe...

Giuseppe Mazzini and the Romanians
banner-Pro-Memoria.-960x540-1.jpg
The History Show Monday, 04 November 2024

The Spark(Scanteia) communist newspaper

The press was one of the communist regime’s most powerful weapons regarding propaganda. The freedom of expression and of the press was a right that...

The Spark(Scanteia) communist newspaper
RRI
The History Show Monday, 28 October 2024

Securitate and the KGB parting ways

The most feared institution of the Romanian communist state was the political police known as Securitate, created on the model of the NKVD, which...

Securitate and the KGB parting ways
The History Show Monday, 21 October 2024

Vasile Luca

From the end of World War II in 1945 until 1989, the Red Army imposed communist party regimes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. They...

Vasile Luca
The History Show Monday, 14 October 2024

The Romanian Communist Party and the Agrarian Reform

According to the Marxist-Leninist theses about means of production, property had to be common, owned by all those who used it and created added...

The Romanian Communist Party and the Agrarian Reform
The History Show Monday, 07 October 2024

The Romanian military fleet in WWII

The history of the Romanian military fleet begins in the middle of the 19th century, when, after the union of the two principalities of Moldova and...

The Romanian military fleet in WWII
The History Show Monday, 30 September 2024

Ana Pauker

Ana Pauker is one of the most conspicuous figureheads in the history of the communist regime in Romania. Ana Pauker played a crucial part in the team...

Ana Pauker

Partners

Muzeul Național al Țăranului Român Muzeul Național al Țăranului Român
Liga Studentilor Romani din Strainatate - LSRS Liga Studentilor Romani din Strainatate - LSRS
Modernism | The Leading Romanian Art Magazine Online Modernism | The Leading Romanian Art Magazine Online
Institului European din România Institului European din România
Institutul Francez din România – Bucureşti Institutul Francez din România – Bucureşti
Muzeul Național de Artă al României Muzeul Național de Artă al României
Le petit Journal Le petit Journal
Radio Prague International Radio Prague International
Muzeul Național de Istorie a României Muzeul Național de Istorie a României
ARCUB ARCUB
Radio Canada International Radio Canada International
Muzeul Național al Satului „Dimitrie Gusti” Muzeul Național al Satului „Dimitrie Gusti”
SWI swissinfo.ch SWI swissinfo.ch
UBB Radio ONLINE UBB Radio ONLINE
Strona główna - English Section - polskieradio.pl Strona główna - English Section - polskieradio.pl
creart - Centrul de Creație Artă și Tradiție al Municipiului Bucuresti creart - Centrul de Creație Artă și Tradiție al Municipiului Bucuresti
italradio italradio
Institutul Confucius Institutul Confucius
BUCPRESS - știri din Cernăuți BUCPRESS - știri din Cernăuți

Affiliates

Euranet Plus Euranet Plus
AIB | the trade association for international broadcasters AIB | the trade association for international broadcasters
Digital Radio Mondiale Digital Radio Mondiale
News and current affairs from Germany and around the world News and current affairs from Germany and around the world
Comunità radiotelevisiva italofona Comunità radiotelevisiva italofona

Providers

RADIOCOM RADIOCOM
Zeno Media - The Everything Audio Company Zeno Media - The Everything Audio Company