Keywords: archaeological evidence; medieval towns; Moldavia; Wallachia; Transylvania; Lower Danube
More...Keywords: words: oral history, Jews, collective memory, Maramures, tradition, interview, life story
The fragment of history that Jews from Maramures are connected to risks to be forgotten in the middle of the political, social, administrative events interwar. The subjective history related to them has the chance to be known and to reveal a world that disappeared. Oral history can recreate a mere opaque atmosphere for our world but necessary in the process of reconstruction the unknown history due to the communist rules. The author appealed to the interview as a strategy in order to discover significant moments of childhood, youth, family traditions, capital rules in Jewish community. It is also given a social and economical frame, details about school, clothes, food, rituals, everyday life, celebrations, ethnic relationships, matrimonial strategies, occupations etc. As a conclusion, for the spectacular information already received, the research on this field remains open for oral historians as well as for traditional ones.
More...Keywords: Western Pomerania; World War II; Waffen-SS; Wehrmacht; foreign volunteers SS
The article presents the units that participated in the fights in Western Pomerania (German: Provinz Pommern) in January and February 1945: the 6th foreign Waffen-SS Division (the 11th Voluntary Armoured SS Division Nordland, the 15th Grenadiers’ Division Lettland, the 23rd Voluntary Armoured Grenadiers’ SS Division Nederland, the 27th Voluntary Armoured Grenadiers’ Division Langemarck, the 28th Voluntary Armoured Grenadiers’ Division Wallonien, the 33rd Grenadiers’ SS Division Charlemagne) and anti-Stalinist units of the 1st Division of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA), which was part of the so-called Własow Army. At the beginning there is a presentation of the genesis of the armed forces of the SS composed of West-European volunteers (Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Frenchmen, Belgian Walloons and Flemings), the profiles of some of their leaders, the structure of the forces and the sites of some earlier battles (especially during the period of 1943–1944) against a wider background of the Pomeranian operations of the Red Army and the units of the 1st Polish Army. Later there is a presentation of the military situation at the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945 and the effects of the January offensive of the Red Army, as well as the circumstances of how the foreign units of the Waffen-SS reached Western Pomerania and how they were reconstructed (the 15th SS Division Lettland) and their initial battle operations. The first chapters depict the battle operations of the units of the 15th Latvian SS Division Lettland on the ‘Pomeranian Embankment’ and later near Kamień Pomorski, and the fate of the units after the defeat in Western Pomerania. One of the episodes described in detail is the war crimes against the Polish soldiers who had been taken captive at the beginning of February 1945 in the village of Podgaje (German: Flederborn) committed by either Latvian SS-men or the Dutch ones from the Division Nederland. The first chapters also depict the battles fought by the 33rd French SS Division Charlemagne on its combat trail from Szczecinek (German: Neusttetin) to Białogard on the Parsęta River (German: Belgard) and Karlino (German: Körlin), and in defence of the Twierdza Kołobrzeg (German: Festung Kolberg; English: Kolberg Stronghold). In the background there are other military operations in Pomerania, among other things the defeat of the 10th SS Army Corps or the battles in retreat between Dziwnów (German: Dievenow) and Trzęsacz (German: Haff). These descriptions have been supplemented with the presentation of the battles fought by the units of the 1st Division of the ROA (S.K. Bunjaczenko was its commander but it was subordinated to Wehrmacht) along the Oder, including – among other things – groups of tank destroyers at Gozdowice (German: Güstebiese) and South of Szczecin, as well as on the combat trail of the Własow Army from Brandenburg, through Lusatia (Polish: Łużyce), to Czechoslovakia, where the Army finally ceased to exist.
More...Keywords: marriage; foreign element; substantive requirements; formal requirements; free-consented unions; registered partnerships;
Family, in private international law, remains one of the most dynamic and interesting area of conflict of laws, especially in the light of changes that states’ substantive laws suffer. The time of changes is just at its beginning. One can easily notice novel regulations – these are not else but the reflection of profound changes in family domestic law. Moreover, these are not variations on the same theme, but changes in mentality, views and concepts which are also reflected at the legislative level – firstly, in the European courts case-law and, gradually, in national perimeters.This study examines the marriage legal relations with foreign element. This extension deals with the promise of marriage and other relationships generated by a marriage, but seen in another setting than marriage. The practice of trans and cross-border relations brings in a series of legal patterns not yet experienced by Romanian domestic law. Rights acquired in another State, private international law public order, parallel regulations – at national, European or international level or through international conventions – are absolutely necessary in order to harmonize solutions offered by both conflict of laws and conflict of jurisdictions.The substantive and formal requirements are the general framework of debate for marriage with foreign element. Among the difficult issues we mention fictitious marriages, polygamous marriages, same-sex marriages, marriages celebrated abroad that followed unknown formalities for the forum state (religious marriage, for instance, as regulated in some systems). Frequently, national law offers different solutions for both conflicts of law in space and for conflicts of laws in time and space; Romanian domestic law provides specific regulation for the matrimonial relations with foreign element.
More...Keywords: Dobrudja; Romania; Ottoman Empire; internal colonialism; colonization; modernization; nationalism; Muslims; unification in Greater Romania.
This paper focuses on the integration of Northern Dobrudja into Romania, which is celebrated in Romanian historiography as the second stage of the creation of the national and unitary Romanian state, after the 1859 union of Wallachia and Moldavia. From this perspective, the mechanisms of assimilation used in Dobrudja by Romanian political elites prefigured the more complex and arduous process of administrative integration and cultural homogenization that took place in interwar Greater Romania. Nevertheless, while the process of national consolidation in Greater Romania has been recently subject to comprehensive research from non-teleological theoreticalperspectives, the case of Dobrudja’s assimilation into Romania has received much limited attention. Chronologically, the article covers 35 years (1878-1913), and encompasses the main stages of Dobrudja’s assimilation into Romania, namely the administrative organization (1880), the regulation of the property regime (1882), the introduction of the capitalist economy in the province, and, finally, the gradual process of granting political rights to Dobrudjans (1908-1913). It is argued that Northern Dobrudja served as a kind of “Internal America” for Romania – a dynamic frontier zone for expanding the national economy and ethnic boundaries. The integration of the province into Romania followed the model of “internal colonialism”: in order to foster theincorporation of the province, Romanian political elites designed a threefold mechanism composed of ethnic colonization, cultural homogenization, and economic modernization. This mechanism had at its core the citizenship legislation; thus, despite its formal incorporation into Romania, Northern Dobrudja was subject to a separate, extraconstitutional administrative organization between 1878 and 1913. Under this status, the Dobrudjans enjoyed a local type of citizenship, which denied them political participation and the right to acquire properties outside the province. The analysis focuses on the mechanism of assimilation implemented in Dobrudja by the Romanian political elites, and is organized in several parts. The first part of the article explores the formation of the Romanian nation discourse about Dobrudja, and the way Romanian political elites approached the organization of the province. The second part examines the post-1878 administrative organization of Dobrudja, with an emphasis on citizenship and property legislation. The third part explores the association between national consolidation and modernization, and its side-effect, namely the uneven economic development in the province. It also highlights the relationship between Bucharest’s excessive administrative centralization and regionalist tendencies in Northern Dobrudja. The forth part focuses on the political emancipation of Dobrudjans, and looks at the consequences of this event for the socio-political life in the province. The paper ends with the Second Balkan War (1913), after which, by the Treaty of Bucharest, Romania annexed Southern Dobrudja from Bulgaria. This event had a great socio-political and demographic impact on the entire province, and inaugurated a new stage of Dobrudja’s integration into Romania. In conclusions, some specific characteristics of the process of nation- and state-building in the province are highlighted, in an attempt to add the complementary case-study of Northern Dobrudja’s pre-World War One assimilation into Romania to the process of administrative integration and cultural homogenization in interwar Greater Romania.
More...Keywords: bronze deposits; Bronze Age; ritual
The study aims to research and valorize the resources that can contribute to understanding and interpretation of what prehistorians conventionally refer to "bronze deposits". As starting point was the finding that the extreme views that consider the deposits of having only a profane character (eg. A. Mozsolics, Chr. Huth), or being the expression of exclusive offerings to gods (B. Hänsel) do not find any historical and argumentative support in written sources and iconography, nor within the data provided by ethnology. Because of the wealth of information and importance of this category, we have focused in particular on sword in extra-military setting, trying to gather as complete as possible all sources of the European continent, but also from Asia Minor and part of the Middle East. Chronological limits are between the appearance of the sword in the Middle Bronze Age and about the end of the early Middle Ages. Unable to exaggeratedly present individual written sources, we decided to focus on direct approach on the various “interpretative layers”, with grouping of written, iconography and ethnological information according to their contents. Archaeological side was always kept as background of research. The main conclusion is that the interpretative itineraries cannot be narrow and one-sided. There is an extremely large specter of use for the sword outside the military purpose: sword worshiped as the deity itself; receiving a sword as a sign of special benevolence of the deities; swords in temples or other holy places; swords as instruments of worship and means of healing; swords as a symbol of justice; swords used in giving an oath or concluding an alliance; swords used in prophecies, and in the interpretation of dreams and magic; dance, acrobatics and ritual fights performed with the sword; taking property or marking with sword; swords and weapons lost; accidental element; cult degradation.
More...Keywords: chronicle; diary; parish; communists; Orthodox; Baptists
In 1946, titular of the Orthodox parish from Pâclişa (Alba county) was Ioan Clonţa. On the pages of a parochial register started in 1901 by the vicar Nicolae Cado, Ioan Clonța describes the events from the period when he was amongst believers from Pâclișa. The Orthodox majority that formed the community was for two decades divided by appearance of Baptists, and the priest cannot do anything to reconvert them. Once with instauration of communism, Romania transforms radically, and priest Clonța is also obliged to change himself. During his shepherding, collectivi-zation engulfed the terrains of the Church, the parochial house, which was also wanted by the Communists, was both stable for bulls but also headquarters of the town hall, with or without permission the Greek-Catholics become Orthodox, the priest was faced with attending refresher courses to comply with requirements imposed by the party that came to power. Speech from annual reports becomes stereotypical, the priest holds religious services in the church, catechizes children, reads the circulars of the bishop and protopope, supports and encourages enthusiasm of believers for agricultural labours of the terrain that got into property of the state, but especially he does not do anything but to follow the instructions from the centre.
More...Keywords: archaeology; social anthropology; ethnography; hunters and gatherers; peaceful societies; warfare; armed violence; egalitarianism; monopolization of knowledge; social inequality; social evolution;
The author of the article argues that in order to determine the role of armed violence in the life of a particular society in a particular period of time we should first of all investigate resilient, persistent behavioral stereotypes, attitudes and spiritual values of people belonging to that particular society. The ethnographical data on two types of hunter-gatherer societies is studied in the article: 1) the societies characterized by egalitarian social relations and cultural traditions which tend to eliminate any violence, 2) societies which have developed institutionalized forms of social inequality and social norms tolerating, culturally shaping armed violence. None of the two models could be projected into the deep past of Europe or any other part of the world, but we have to admit that the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic hunters could develop egalitarian and peaceful social systems, as well as non-egalitarian social relations and militant or warlike cultures. We also are to assume that egalitarian and non-egalitarian systems, as well as peaceful and militant cultures in quite diverse cultural contexts, in different natural environments and various geographical locations of Oecumene were coming and going innumerable number of times throughout many millennia of prehistory. The author would like to hope that such ethnographical approach will be of some use for archaeologists.The article studies ethnographical data on two types of hunter-gatherer societies
More...Keywords: reader; author; book; the reading experience;
This large section of the issue contains the opinions of different literary critics and writers regarding the relationship between author-text-reader.
More...Keywords: Ion Pop;Echinox literary movement; neomodernism;
This thematic file entitled „Ion Pop's Poetry” aims to be a "recovery" of the poet's prestige under the hegemony of the critic who irredeemably confiscated the literary prestige and, at the same time, the literary personality of Ion Pop. Of course, we are talking about the critical reception and the obstinacy that perpetuated the split between the poet and the critic.
More...Keywords: Monograph; Postmodernism; literary criticism;
A collection of texts about the Postmodern Monograph.
More...Keywords: Cornel Moraru;Literary Criticism;Romanian Literature;
A collection of texts about the Romanian literary critic Cornel Moraru.
More...Keywords: drama;theatre;dramatists;Romanian theatre;
This section of the issue contains a large debate on the state of the Romanian contemporary theatre.
More...Keywords: history of education; mid 19th century Iași; teacher protests student uprisings; A. T. Laurian;
In the Autumn of 1857, the educational environment of Moldavia has been highly disturbed by a fierce conflict between the Transylvanian A. T. Laurian, the general school inspector (backed up by the School Council), and a large part of the educational staff of the Iași public schools. The first one had been accused by the teachers of overly violent behavior including insults, threats and constantly exerting pressure. That has led over 17 teachers to step down in 1857 and to ask for Laurian’s resignation, in order to come back to their jobs. Amongst them were mostly teachers at the elite schools (Normal School, Gymnasium, and Law Faculty). The Ministry of Public Instruction got involved, and discreetly supported the teachers, making it known that the offending language used by Laurian (and the School Council), nor the disrespect towards the higher authorities, were not to be tolerated. The ruler Vogoride has assigned a special committee, albeit with no results, because of the teacher’s refusal to agree on anything less than Laurian’s removal. The case had reached Moldavia’s Administrative Council which suggested the sanctioning of the protesting teachers and Laurian’s demission for offensive conduct. Surprisingly enough, Vogoride declined the proposal and proceeded to sanction both sides with a warning. Nevertheless, he allowed Laurian to maintain his position and asked for the protesters to quickly return to their jobs. Since new educators were assigned instead. The whole situation became even more complicated a few weeks later when the students at the Gymnasium Boarding School decided to revolt against their unsatisfactory living conditions. Moreover, the educational system was in shambles, given the fact that a lot of classes were taught by substitute teachers. Following, one of Laurian’s associates had been beaten by students, which lead to the residents leaving the boarding school, which was closed. A new committee had been assigned by the ruler to identify the reasons for the students' revolt against the system and to put forward measures for re-establishing order and restoring an appropriate school climate. On the 24th of January, the committee presented its report. It said that one of the main causes was the removal of the teachers, both locals and Transylvanians, and asked for a new committee to reform the system. Laurian and his associates (Al. Papiu Ilarian, Gh. Giușcă, M. Alboteanu, Iosif Patriciu) resigned and the contesters had been reinstalled in their positions, which allowed the system to restart. For this investigation, we used resources such as autobiographies, articles, press releases, and published correspondence (including the letters written by Laurian’s group). But our main source for this investigation consists of unedited archive documents, out of which we have selected 62 of the most relevant ones and published them at Annexes. In the scientific literature, “the scholastic disorders” in Iasi have been interpreted in two ways. The first one considered a conflict between the local teachers and those coming from Transylvania; this had proven to be a misunderstanding, caused by a mistakenly published document of V. A. Urechia in his masterwork History of Schools, which we address in this study. The second key to interpretation relies on the political fights between the unionists and the anti-unionists, which could stand base for the conflict. According to this one, the teachers had been constantly manipulated by the intriguing “genius” anti-unionists such as N. Istrati, Gh. Asachi, and Vogoride itself. However, this interpretation is reductionist, and the documentary base is weak: it almost exclusively consists of a series of letters written by Laurian and Papiu Ilarian, his close collaborator. In one of these documents, named The Violent Debate by the one whom it was addressed to (G. Barițiu), Laurian’s group’s own version of the scholastic scandal is presented. Moreover, this manner of interpretation originates in the sphere of political history analysis, although in the absence of specific tools, vital when pursuing the history of education. It is not by chance that our study also has an important methodological component. Even taking account of the political polarization of the teachers, we consider that the eruption of the “scholastic disorders” was mainly a cause of Laurian’s violent behavior. Otherwise a competent scholar with good intentions, the general school inspector became “an impossible man” due to his highly conflictual nature that aroused many dislikes over the years. Also relevant for the genesis of a critical mass against Laurian are his linguistic exaggerations, given his attempts to re-Latinize the Romanian language, implicitly getting rid of any Slavic remaining; he purposefully started to change even some toponyms in his textbooks, a practice that was perceived as an insult to the local history and traditions.
More...Keywords: Minutes; Central Committee of the Communist Party; scientists; cultural figure; Hungarian nationality;
STENOGRAMA consfătuirii cu oamenii de știință și cultură din rîndul naționalității maghiare - 27 iunie 1968 -
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