Românii mureșeni sub drapel austro-ungar
Romanians from Mureș County under the Austro-Hungarian Flag

Romanians from Mureș County under the Austro-Hungarian Flag

Summary/Abstract: In the first number of the “Transilvania” magazine of 1923, T.V. Păcățian was publishing the article named Jertfele românilor din Ardeal, Bănat, Sătmar și Maramureș aduse în războiul mondial din anii 1914-1918 (The sacrifices of the Romanians of Ardeal, Bănat, Sătmar and Maramureș on the battle from the 1914-1918 World War). The “investigation” the author was talking about followed the collecting of every argument and evidence which could prove that Romanians performed their duty to their country again, to acquire political and national rights for a country of over three million citizens, state former like the Hungarians. For the Mureș county, the general statistic records 273 localities in which Romanians lived, in a smaller or bigger proportion. Our thesis presents the nominal display of the localities of the Mureș County that have sent Romanians on the battlefront of the Great War, almost identically copied from the ones existing in the ASTRA Fund of the State Assets Sibiu. Among those 151 090 Romanians, 22 363 have taken part in the war in one way or another (on the battlefront, requested on the spot, arrested and hospitalized, as refugees), meaning 14.7%, percentage close to the provincial average. 2 711 deaths on the battlefront and other war-related circumstances have been recorded (1.7% from the entire population), which left behind 1 792 widows with 4 199 orphan children. The voluntary contributions for the army have been of 450 226 Romanian lei, and the war reparations of 3 441 100 Romanian lei. For the bravery demonstrated on the battlefront, 1 863 soldiers have been decorated. Concerning the social background of the Romanian participants of the Mureș county in World War I: 249 have been intellectuals (1.11%), 448 craftsmen (1.99%) and 21 681 farmers, meaning 96.8%. The low number of intellectuals also explains the low number of inferior Romanian officers from the Austro-Hungarian army, being known that without high school, the highest possible rank that could be achieved was that of second lieutenant helper. Even though statistics with limited data concerning the investigated area had been produced before, the one conducted by ASTRA on the provincial level is the most detailed, notwithstanding the inherent downsides of such a piece, chronologically placed the closest to the investigated event, therefore, providing, a complex and plausible description of it.

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