Reciklált történelem. A múlt instrumentalizálása a jelenlegi magyar és román nemzetépítésben
Recycled History. The Instrumentalization of the Past in Contemporary Hungarian and Romanian Nation-Building

Summary/Abstract: There is usually plenty of history involved in the political discourse of Central and Eastern Europe. However, the history used frequently by politicians and national activists is a ’different kind of history’. Sometimes it can be rather far from the ’history of professional historians’, because in this discourse, the past is being instrumentalized and (de)formed on demands of different actors in the present. In my essay I try to present the current ways of using history by the example of two national movements: the ’autonomist’ movement of ethnic Hungarians in the Szekler region of Romania, and the ’unionist’ struggles for the (re)unification of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Beyond the obvious differences, there are many parallels between the aspirations and procedures of the two groups, in which the past serves either as a model worth following, or as a legitimizing tool. In my essay first I focus on the historical roots of the two phenomena (the national self-determination at the end of WWI), then on their current geopolitical context (the Euro-Atlantic integration of Romania at the beginning of 21st century). After that I examine two main sources used by the actors involved – the constitution of ’Szekler National Councils’ in Szeklerland and the ’Declarations of Unification’ of many localities in Moldova –, and finally I briefly explain the discoursive context of the two efforts. It is also interesting how they are linked to each other: they both use similar discourse strategies and tropes, but also by direct connections between several actors (mainly Romanian national activists).

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