Keywords: Communism; totalitarianism; political theology; politics of retribution; guilt
Communism has been sometimes described as a political religion. Marxism-Leninism, as the official ideology of state socialism was also qualified as a perverse form of political theology, if not as a counter-theology. The paper explores the theological-political assumptions that seem to underlie the various critiques, official, institutional and scholarly, addressed to the Romanian brand of communism after its downfall.
More...This article deals with the 1989 Romanian revolution and its international mediatization. The specific focus is upon Belgian written press in the period of December 1989 - January 1990. The study highlights the misinformation at work in the December 1989 Revolution and the internal political effects it produced (external legitimacy of the new NSF government). The theoretical framework uses on one side four modified journalistic questions (Who says? What? How it is said? And with what effects?), and on another side, subdivides the period under scrutiny into four sub-units, relating to the themes and accents emphasized by the Belgian journalists. The media messages are thus deconstructed by this approach. Before concluding on the specific political and media effects, a short review of other cases (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Iraq) of media manipulation is presented.
More...Keywords: citizenship; liberty; political legitimacy; national identity.
The post 1848 period represents for the Romanian political thinkers a turning point not only in restructuring the constitutional order, but also in reconsidering and rebuilding the new meanings of Democracy as a concept. The hesitancies of those who think of Romanian Nation as a milestone of the new democratical institutions are often due to the fact that several authors of this period have a strong tendency of reinterpreting the western liberal ideas and concepts in the Romanian Nation-building context. The results of such theories are placing in the same position two aspects that in the 19th century liberalism are generally considered to be if not completely antagonistic, at least clearly separated: the vocation or the instinct of being democratic, on the one hand, and the genealogically-built Nation type. The contradiction between these two directions should be perhaps read as a source of misunderstandings in the Romanian 19th century national-liberalism, especially in the matter of rethinking concepts as citizenship, liberty, political legitimacy in a close relationship with the ethnic-based national identity.
More...Keywords: education in Moldova;
Debate-investigation with graduates from Moldavian and foreign institutions. The issues discussed were: what was the difference between the different universitary environments, what were the risks and the advantages of studying abroad, integration in the chosen environment (in Moldova or abroad) after finishing studying; how do they see the accusastion of the leader of the Parliament communist majority who says that the young Moldovans that go abroad for to study become "patriots of other states".
More...Keywords: Italian-Romanian talks; foreign policy; Détente; Fanfani; Moro; Ceausescu
After the beginning of the experience of the center-left government in the early sixties, Italy proposes an independent and original foreign policy, consistent with its position in the Mediterranean, across the border between East and West. The preferred partner within the Warsaw Pact is Romania, considered the vanguard of a political process of internal liberalization and of political emancipation of Eastern Europe from Soviet-communism. So far, the limited historiography on the Italo-Romanian relationships has taken into account almost exclusively the economic and trade agreements. This paper, on the basis of largely unpublished documentation at the Senato della Repubblica and at the Central State’s Archive in Italy, analyzes instead the main international issues of the meetings between Bucharest and Rome, namely the Détente, the Sino-Soviet conflict, the peace building in the South-East Asia, the Middle-East, the CSCE. The unpublished diary of statesman Amintore Fanfani, Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1965 to 1968, reveals how the Italian ruling class has a substantial confidence in Ion Gheorghe Maurer and Corneliu Manescu and high expectations around an alleged non-alignment of Romania. On the other hand, the correspondence from the Italian Embassy in Bucharest for Aldo Moro (Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1969 to 1972 and from 1973 to 1974), describes the violent and authoritarian temper of the regime established by Ceauş escu in his country. In any case the Italian strategy seems then to reappraise the special partnership with Romania, in favor of a multilateral approach to the problem of Détente within the continental conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
More...Keywords: Putna Monastery; Stephen the Great; Metropolitan Sebastian Rusan; Archimandrite Dosoftei Morariu; Decree 410/1959
Upon the initiative of the Metropolitan of Moldavia and Suceava, Sebastian Rusan (1950–1956), on May 16, 1956, there came to Putna Monastery 15 monks from Sihăstria Monastery and 9 from Slatina Monastery in order to reorganize the monastic life. The abbot of the new brotherhood was Protosyngellos Dosoftei Murariu. The abbot and the brotherhood struggled to restore the economy of the monastery, the order of the services and of the monastic life and to minister to the faithful. First and foremost they tried to recover Putna’s natural status – as the first monastery Stephen the Great built and his necropolis, a national and religious banner –, especially since on April 12, 1957, they were to celebrate the fifth centennial of Stephen’s ascension to the throne of Moldavia. Despite the immense effort, the Communist State constantly undermined all their initiatives on ideological grounds, unwilling to let surface the religious aspects of the life of the voievode and of his epoch.Due to the pressures of the Communist Regime on October 23, 1957, the Metropolitan of Moldavia and Suceava, Iustin Moisescu (1957–1977), appointed Father Dosoftei Murariu as abbot of Vorona Monastery and ordained that elections for a new abbot take place at Putna. Even though the monastery was greatly affected by the ousting of the abbot after only a year and a half and then by the 410/1959 Decree, which had the majority of the monks taken out of the monastery, the reorganization from 1956, through several monks that came to Putna then and remained afterwards, served as the basis for a new epoch of growth of the monastery, which can be discerned from the stability of the abbots: there have been only three abbots from 1962 up to now.
More...Keywords: Holocaust film; Central and Eastern Europe; communism
Artistic representations of the Holocaust (be they literary, visual, or cinematic) have, more often than not, stirred up controversies and provoked heated debates in the academic and non-academic circles alike. Of these kinds of representations, the cinematic ones — by virtue of the medium’s undeniable popularity — have often been at the forefront of such discussions, in which their content and mode or representation have been analyzed and scrutinized for authenticity, appropriateness, and historical accuracy.The aim of my paper is not so much that of doing a content analysis of films about the Holocaust, but rather to investigate the social and historical context in which they were made, by looking at three case studies of Central- and East-European countries: Poland, Hungary, and Romania. All three countries share similarities (the fact that they were all part of the Soviet bloc until 1989), but also notable differences: while in Poland and Hungary, popular dissent with the communist regime was more vocal and visible in the latter half of the ninth decade, the national-communist Romanian regime tried to stifle completely any form of political opposition. The legacy of the Holocaust was also dealt with differently in all three cases, a factor that undoubtedly influenced both the number, and the content of films directly or indirectly representing it. My intention, therefore, is to make a comparative analysis of Holocaust representations in Polish, Hungarian, and Romanian cinema by focus- ing on films made both before, and after 1989, from Andrzej’s Wajda’s Samson to István Szabó’s Sunshine and from Péter Forgács’ Free Fall to Radu Gabrea’s Gruber’s Journey, with the aim of discovering whether the social and political context in which these films were made had any impact on their representation of the Holocaust and, if so, to what extent.
More...Keywords: Aurel Pantea; Delmore Schwartz; Bogdan Ghiu; Viorel Mureşan; Şerban Tomşa;Alex Goldiş; Francisko Kocsis; Alex Ciorogar; Adriana Moica; Ioan Moldovan; Rareş Moldovan; Mircea Cărtărescu;
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More...Ionela Băluţă, La bourgeoise respectable. Reflexion sur la construction d’une nouvelle identite feminine dans la seconde moitie du XIXe roumain. Saarbrücken: Éditions universitaires européennes 2010. 356 S., ISBN 978-613-1-51260-5, € 98,– Olga Cicanci, Πολιτικά ζητήματα της Νοτιοανατολικής Ευρώπης στον ελληνόγλωσσο τύπο του Ρουμανίας το 19ο αιώνα [Politische Fragen Südosteuropas in der griechischsprachigen Presse Rumäniens im 19. Jahrhundert]. Übers. Nikolaos Diamantopulos. Einleitung Giulia Kutsopanagu. Prolog Dan Berindei. Athen: Ethniko Hidryma Ereunōn 2012 (Enzyklopädische Bibliothek des Griechischen Pressewesens, 4). 168 S., 10 Abb., ISBN 978-960-9538-11-4, € 9,95 L’Etat en France et en Roumanie aux XIXe et XXe siecles. Actes du colloque organise au New Europe College / Institut d’etudes avancees les 26-27 fevrier 2010. Hg. Silvia Marton / Anca Oroveanu / Florin Ţurcanu. Bucarest: New Europe College 2011. 408 S., ISBN 978-973-88304-4-8 Klaus Buchenau, Auf russischen Spuren. Orthodoxe Antiwestler in Serbien, 1850-1945. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2011 (Balkanologische Veröffentlichungen. Geschichte – Gesellschaft – Kultur, 51). 519 S., ISBN 978-3-447-06276-3, € 98,– Silvia Marton, La construction politique de la nation. La nation dans les debates du Parlament de la Roumanie (1866-1871). Iaşi: Institutul European 2009. 439 S., ISBN 978-973-611-614-8, RON 72,– Mehmet Cebeci, Die deutsch-turkischen Beziehungen in der Epoche Abdulhamids II. (1876-1908). Die Rolle Deutschlands in der turkischen Ausenpolitik unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der Bulgarischen, Agyptischen und Armenischen Frage. Marburg: Tectum Verlag 2010. 503 S., ISBN 978-3-8288-2384-6, € 34,90 Noemi Lévy-Aksu, Ordre et desordres dans l’Istanbul ottomane (1879-1909). De l’etat au quartier. Paris: Éditions Karthala 2012. 348 S., ISBN 978-2-8111-0792-5, € 29,– Anatol Schmied-Kowarzik, Unteilbar und untrennbar? Die Verhandlungen zwischen Cisleithanien und Ungarn zum gescheiterten Wirtschaftsausgleich 1897. Innsbruck, Wien, Bozen: Studien Verlag 2010 (Wiener Schriften zur Geschichte der Neuzeit, 8). 402 S., ISBN 978-3-7065-4764-2, € 49,90 Ioanna Laliotu, Διασχίζοντας τον Ατλαντικό. Η ελληνική μετ νάστευση στις ΗΠΑ κατά το πρώτο μισό του εικοστού αιώνα [Den Atlantik überqueren. Die griechische Migration in die USA in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts]. Athen: Ekdoseis Polis 2006. 439 S., ISBN 960-221-335-3, € 21,40 Ileana Moroni, O Ergatis, 1908-1909. Ottomanism, National Economy and Modernization in the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul: Libra 2010. 121 S., zahlr. Abb., ISBN 978-605-4326-24-2, TRY 45,– Nicola C. Guy, The Birth of Albania. Ethnic Nationalism, the Great Powers of World War I and the Emergence of Albanian Independence. London, New York: I. B. Tauris 2012. 338 S., ISBN 978-1-84885-368-3, Ł 54,50 Christopher Clark , The Sleepwalkers. How Europe Went to War in 1914. London u. a.: Allen Lane / Penguin 2012. 696 S., zahlr. Abb. u. Kt., ISBN 978-0-713-99942-6, ₤ 24,– Sean McMeekin, July 1914. Countdown to War. New York: Basic Books 2013. 461 S., zahlr. Abb. u. Kt., ISBN 978-0-465-03145-0, US-$ 21,45 Mehmet Beşikçi, The Ottoman Mobilization of Manpower in the First World War. Between Volunteerism and Resistance. Leiden: Brill 2012 (The Ottoman Empire and its Heritage, 52). XIV, 346 S., ISBN 978-90-04-22520-6, € 127,– Robert C. Austin, Founding a Balkan State. Albania’s Experiment with Democracy 1920-1925. Toronto, Buffalo/NY, London: University of Toronto Press 2012. XI, 222 S., ISBN 978-1-44264-435-9, US-$ 48,– Gojko Malović, Seoba u maticu. 1: Optiranje Srba u Mađarskoj 1920-1931. 2: Spiskovi srpskih optanata u Mađarskoj 1920-1931 [Auswanderung ins Heimatland. 1. Die Ausübung des Optionsrechtes der Serben in Ungarn 1920-1931. 2: Verzeichnisse serbischer Optanten in Ungarn 1920-1931]. Novi Sad: Matica srpska; Budapest: Samouprava Srba u Mađarskoj 2010. 708 S. u. 528 S., ISBN 978-86-7946-057-8 u. ISBN 978-86-7946-058-5, RSD 2 000,– Huseyin Ağuiçenoğlu, Zwischen Bindung und Abnabelung. Das „Mutterland“ in der Presse der Dobrudscha und der turkischen Zyprioten in postosmanischer Zeit. Würzburg: Ergon Verlag 2012 (Istanbuler Texte und Studien, 29). XII, 323 S., 4 Farb- Abb., ISBN 978-3-89913-956-3, € 75,– Teşu Solomovici, Mareşalul Ion Antonescu. O biografie [Marschall Ion Antonescu. Eine Biographie]. Bucureşti: Editura Teşu 2011. 811 S., ISBN 978-9731-765-31-0, RON 90,– Jacques Picard, Edit von Coler. Als Nazi-Agentin in Bukarest. Hermannstadt, Bonn: Schiller Verlag 2010. 230 S., ISBN 978-3-941271-31-9, EUR 14,25 Christian Hartmann, Unternehmen Barbarossa. Der deutsche Krieg im Osten 1941- 1945. München: C. H. Beck Verlag 2011. 128 S., ISBN 978-3-406-61226-8, € 8,95 Simon Geissbühler, Blutiger Juli. Rumaniens Vernichtungskrieg und der vergessene Massenmord an den Juden 1941. Paderborn, München, Wien, Zürich: Schöningh 2013. 229 S., ISBN 978-3-506-77675-4, € 26,90 Herwig Baum, Varianten des Terrors. Ein Vergleich zwischen der deutschen und rumanischen Besatzungsverwaltung in der Sowjetunion 1941-1944. Berlin: Metropol 2011. 280 S., ISBN 978-3-940938-85-5, € 29,90 Sanela Hodžić / Christian Schölzel, Zwangsarbeit und der „Unabhangige Staat Kroatien“ 1941-1945. Münster, Berlin, Zürich: LIT Verlag 2013. 222 S., 11 Abb., 14 Tab., ISBN 978-3-643-10428-0, € 24,90 Nenad Stefanov, Wissenschaft als nationaler Beruf. Die Serbische Akademie der Wissenschaften 1944-1992. Tradierung und Modifizierung nationaler Ideologie. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2011 (Balkanologische Veröffentlichungen. Geschichte – Gesellschaft – Kultur, 52). 388 S., ISBN 978-3-447-06419-4, € 89,‒ Agnes Tóth, Ruckkehr nach Ungarn 1946-1950. Erlebnisberichte ungarndeutscher Vertriebener 1946-1950. München: Oldenbourg Verlag 2012 (Schriften des Bundesinstituts für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa, 43). 389 S., ISBN 978-3-486-71206-3, € 49,80 Adamantios Skordos, Griechenlands Makedonische Frage. Burgerkrieg und Geschichtspolitik im Sudosten Europas 1945-1992. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag 2012 (Moderne Europäische Geschichte, 2). 439 S., ISBN 978-3-8353-0936-4, € 39,90 Transforming Peasants, Property and Power. The Collectivization of Agriculture in Romania 1949-1962. Ed. Constantin Iordachi / Dorin Dobrincu. Budapest: Central European University Press 2009. 544 S., ISBN 978-963-9776-25-8, € 49,95 Dino Mujadžević, Bakarić. Politička biografija [Bakarić. Eine politische Biographie]. Zagreb: Plejada 2011. 383 S., ISBN 978-953-7782-10-8, HRK 225,‒ Rinna Kullaa, Non-Alignment and Its Origins in Cold War Europe. Yugoslavia, Finland and the Soviet Challenge. London, New York: I. B. Tauris 2012. 280 S., ISBN 978-1-8488-5624-0, Ł 54,50 Nicole Münnich, Belgrad zwischen sozialistischem Herrschaftsanspruch und gesellschaftlichem Eigensinn. Die jugoslawische Hauptstadt als Entwurf und urbane Erfahrung. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2013 (Balkanologische Veröffentlichungen, 57). 444 S., ISBN 978-3-447-06881-9, € 74,– Cezar Stanciu, Războiul nervilor. Dispute Ceaușescu–Brejnev 1965-1971 [Der Nervenkrieg. Die Ceauşescu-Breschnew-Dispute 1965-1971]. Târgoviște: Cetatea de Scaun 2011. 270 S., ISBN 978-606-537-077-7, RON 35,– Η τιτοϊκή Γιουγκοσλαβία και η μεταπολιτευτική Ελλάδα του Καραμανλή (1974-1979). Έγγρα φα από τα γιουγκοσλαβικά αρχεία [Tito-Jugoslawien und das postdiktatorische Griechenland Karamanlis’ (1974-1979). Dokumente aus den jugoslawischen Archiven]. Hg. Spyridon Sfetas. Thessaloniki: University Studio Press 2012. 300 S., ISBN 978- 960-12-2075-8, € 18,–
More...Keywords: Geoffroi de Villehardouin; Henri de Valenciennes; Robert de Clari; Niketas Choniates; Benjamin of Tudela; Vlachs; Bulgaria; Johannitsa Kaloyannes; Trojan legend
The chroniclers of the Fourth Crusade (Geoffroi de Villehardouin, Henri de Valenciennes, and Robert deClari) have much to say about the Vlachs. Much of that information results from direct contact with the Vlachs, particularly in the case of Villehardouin and Henri de Valenciennes. However, several issues characterizing theVlachs, especially in Robert de Clari's chronicle, are remarkably similar to stories that may be found in NiketasChoniates. The paper analyzes the role attributed to the Vlachs in the French chronicles, and attempts to explain the similarity to the coverage of things Vlach in Niketas Choniates. As such, the paper offers an examination of allByzantine sources mentioning the Vlachs before Choniates and of non-Byzantine sources such as Benjamin ofTudela, the chronicle attributed to Ansbertus, and the correspondence between Pope Innocent III and JohannitsaKaloyan. The conclusion is that the image of the Vlachs in the French chronicles derives from stories about themcirculating in 12th-century Constantinople.
More...Keywords: Radu Negru; Alexander Basarab; John Basarab; tombstone; A. D. Xenopol, mythical foundation
Based on the “introduction” in Stephen Dushan’s Zakonik (1349), where Basaraba Ivanko was recalled – under the year 1330 – as the father-in-law of the Bulgarian tsar John Alexander, and due to the fact that since the 1340s the preserved contemporary records presented Alexander Basarab as the ruler of Wallachia, A. D. Xenopol presumed at the end of the 1880s that Radu Negru, the mythical founder of Wallachia (identified by Xenopol as well with Thocomerius, Basarab’s father according to Charles-Robert in 1332) had two sons, John Basarab (conventionally until 1330) and Alexander Basarab (until 1365 when the latter’s – presumed and already accepted by Xenopol’s time – son, Wladislaw I, was certainly voivode of Wallachia), who were his successors. Xenopol’s hypothesis received criticisms instead of analysis as it would have deserved, for it was – and still is – the only credible alternative (in relation to the own below) explanation for Basaraba Ivanko in Dushan’s glorification of his (in fact his father’s, Stephen Dečanski’s) victory over Bulgarians, Byzantines, Wallachians and Tartars at Velbujd at the end of July 1330. Dushan’s text clearly was no credible source: the Byzantines under Andronikos III did not even arrive (they focused on plundering in the south); the Bulgarian troops, led by John Alexander and his uncle, Belaur, halted their advance, did not engage in combat and rapidly negotiated an agreement with Dečanski, who had defeated Michael Sishman, Belaur’s brother fallen in battle (the son of Dečanski’s half-sister Anna Neda, Sishman’s first wife, John Stephen, was enthroned tsar of Bulgaria, with Anna and John Stephen as regents); only the Serbian sources record Basarab’s troops at Velbujd, not the Byzantine ones (it is much more likely that Basarab’s men awaited the outcome of the battle together with Basarab’s son-in-law). Hence, why designate Basarab, known otherwise (in Latin and Slavonic texts) only as Basarab, as John Basarab, when – furthermore – the lords involved in the Serbian-Bulgarian conflict who certainly had two names (John Alexander and Michael Sishman) were featured with only one name in Dushan’s Zakonik? In addition to Xenopol’s idea which – in order to avoid the mistakes he made – can be summarized into Dushan in 1349 had to distinguish between the lord of Wallachia in 1330 and Alexander Basarab, the main Wallachian authority since 1343−1345, only one explanation emerges in connection to Serbian medieval practices: Basaraba Ivanko stood for Basarab the son of John(nie) <Thocomerius/Tihomir>, as certainly Basarab, and probably his father too, alike Shishman, had previously been close associates of Stephen Milutin, Dushan’s grand-father. Each explanation has its strengths and weaknesses which must be addressed in an alternative manner. Basarab was never recorded in a known preserved contemporary source as the father of Alexander/Alexander Basarab the designation used by Pope Clement VI (1345) or King Louis I (1355, 1359, as well as under 1343 by his chronicler John of Târnave) for the – de facto (until Basarab’s official death in 1351/1352 according to the graffiti discovered on the walls of the Argeş II Church in 1920, a date – 6860 – present earlier in a peculiarly “transcribed” in 1618 charter issued by Nicholas-Alexander in the memory of his deceased father Basarab for the princely church in Câmpulung) – ruler of Wallachia. Prior to the most questionable Wallachian princely and monastic documents issued in the first half of the 17th century for the monastery of Câmpulung, Basarab was designated as the father of Nicholas-Alexander only in the text of – rather early modern – tombstone (in essence a commemorative plate given its design) of Nicholas-Alexander in the princely church of Câmpulung turned prior to 1618 into a monastery. The inscription on the tombstone appears however to have been accurate since Nicholas-Alexander’s date of death, 16th of November 1364, featured also in a obviously contemporary medieval record from the Szekler Land, as well as because – unlike in 17th and 18th century chronicles and diptychs – only his name, not Basarab’s name too, was preceded by IѠ, as ruler from God’s grace, in the inscription on the tombstone (this “specification” would have made sense chiefly under mid-14th century Greek rite circumstances, as Nicholas-Alexander was after 1359 and the establishment of the Metropolitanate of Wallachia, the first Greek rite ruler from God’s grace of Wallachia, not his father). Hence, even if the tombstone was recreated in the 1630s probably after the destructions suffered by the princely church in Câmpulung following military campaigns (in particular in 1612) and an earthquake (in 1628), the text on the plate most likely matched the original inscription on the initial tombstone. It is therefore even more intriguing why the inscription on the tombstone, obviously posterior to the death of Nicholas-Alexander (because the exact date was mentioned), made no reference to Nicholas-Alexander’s – “known” certainly by the 17th century – son, Wladislaw I (1364−1377), who had succeeded him and – normally – would have taken medieval pride in placing the tombstone upon his father’s grave. In none of his preserved charters, whether in Latin, Slavonic or in Greek, Wladislaw I ever mentioned his father by name, though he recalled his father’s memory and his deeds. Not even Louis I in January 1365 (as well as later), when he prepared for war against Wladislaw, mentioned his father by name, albeit the fact that he emphasized that Wladislaw had learnt his late father’s “bad habits” and refused to acknowledge Louis as his rightful suzerain. The only one to mention Wladislaw’s father by name, as well as – equally important – the only one to call prior to the 17th century Nicholas-Alexander by both names (not only as Alexander), was Chariton of Kutlumus, the future protos of Athos (1375 − c. 1380), and metropolite of Wallachia (1372 − c. 1380), in the 1370 versions of his testament (noteworthy enough, Nicholas-Alexander’s name was omitted from the last version of the testament, drafted in 1378; there Chariton only recorded the pious and generous deeds of the late Wladislaw I and of his wife, Anna). These most peculiar circumstances redraw attention upon a tombstone unearthed under highly unclear conditions (during a “state visit” in the church) in the same summer of 1920, when the famed Grave 10 was discovered, as well as the graffiti mentioning the death of Voivode Basarab in Câmpulung in 6860. The tombstone, found alike Grave 10 underneath the successive pavements of the extant church, belonged to […] Voislav, the son of the Grand Alexander Voivode, <who> passed away in the month of January […]. The partially preserved inscription is also the only coherent inscription on any of the tombstones found in the Princely St. Nicholas Church in Curtea Argeş. Additionally, the tombstone of Voislav, inscribed in Slavonic but created in Western knightly fashion, with a coat of arms in its centre (unfortunately, the coat of arms was badly deteriorated by the time of the discovery in 1920), is the – alongside the two massive tombstones (one depicting a “ruling knight”) deposited “one up the other” in the pronaos of the church in 1920 – the only medieval tombstone preserved in the church (all three were totally different in terms of style and shape from Nicholas-Alexander’s tombstone in Câmpulung). The tombstone either belonged to Grave 6 (near the altar of the extant – Argeş II – church) or to Grave 11 (next to Grave 10, within the perimeter of the first – Argeş I – church). In the absence of any further evidence, we can only presume that Voislav was the – at least teenager – son (the remains associated either with Grave 6 or with Grave 11 were male humans, aged between 15 and 30) of the deceased in Grave 10 (had he been the son of Nicholas-Alexander, he should have been buried in Câmpulung) and was either allowed to be buried next to his “doomed” father (in case he was buried in Grave 6) or was “hidden” (and his grave desecrated unlike that of his father) together with him (in case he was buried in Grave 11, as suggested by the preservation of his tombstone underneath certainly the new pavements of the extant church from around 1750 and 1827 when the other two preserved tombstones were moved – the latest – to the pronaos). Irrespective of the exact date of his death, Voislav’s case redraws attention upon the highly militant pro-Greek and anti-Latin context in Wallachia in the 1360s, chiefly around 1369−1370, as well as – because of his name – upon Serbian-Wallachian relations in the mid-1300s. At the end of 1369, Clara de Ungaria, Wayoudissa Vlachie in 1360, the widow of Alexander Weyda in Vlachia, the mother of Anna of Bulgaria and Ancha of Serbia, as well as the noverca of Wladislaw I Wayuoda Vlachie, feared for her life following the anti-Latin massacres in Vidin that Wladislaw had – reluctantly approved – and the completion of the triumphant Orthodox Princely St. Nicholas Church in Curtea de Argeş. In January 1370, Pope Urban VI urged her to carry on and to ensure also the return of Ancha to the true faith (to which Anna had recently returned together with her husband, John Stratsimir of Vidin, after more than four years in Hungarian captivity). Urban VI – accurately at first – believed that Wallachian matters would improve, but after failing to convince Wladislaw to fully convert (April 1370), the Pope entrusted in July the Wallachian mission to Ladislas-Laţcu, whom he created Duke of Moldavia under the direct authority of the Holy See. These aspects focus our attention on the frescos in Princely St. Nicholas’ Church. Entitled also ruler of Vidin, Wladislaw I appeared as the Solomon who had built the Temple his father, David, had not been allowed to erect because of his sins (David’s story featured prominently inside the church), while overlooking, as the khtitor of the church in the votive painting, the – by then well hidden under the pavement – deceased in Grave 10, who was most likely the voivode literally crushed by the majesty of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas, in a virtually unique version of Déisis (St. John the Baptist was replaced by St. Nicholas). Wladislaw’s unnamed father and Wladislaw’s repeated twists and turns came together under the dome of the new church meant to erase any trace of the days that had brought Wallachia’s first crown from the exiled Papacy (1346−1347) and to break-off the dynastic Wallachian-Hungarian bridge built between the Visegrád Group (Bohemia, Hungary, Poland) and the “Vidin – Severin − Belgrade Group” (Bulgaria, Wallachia, Serbia) through Elisabeth of Oppeln (her name is presumed, especially because she was buried in front of St. Elisabeth’s altar in Oradea), the daughter of voivode Alexander, Anna of Bulgaria and Ancha of Serbia. Through their daughters, Elisabeth and Anna (Ancha was childless) deserve special attention. Anna’s first born was Dorothy in 6864 (1355/1356), the wife of Tvrtko I (1374), the first cousin of Louis I’ second wife (since 1353) Elisabeth Kotromanić, and the first queen of Bosnia (1377−1390). Consequently, Anna, therefore married to John Stratsimir the latest since 1354/1355, had been born the latest in 1340/ 1341, as a result of Clara’s marriage concluded not later than 1339/ 1340. Elisabeth’s three daughters were all born between 1357 and 1360. Hence, Elisabeth, married prior to 1356 (most likely in 1355) to Wladislaw II of Oppeln, Louis’ maternal nephew, had come to life by 1342/1343, as the result of Alexander’s wedding celebrated the latest in 1341/1342. Two aspects become self-evident: the Wallachian-Hungarian compromise signified by Clara’s Transalpine matrimony was concluded prior to Charles Robert’s death (1342) less than a decade after his disastrous Wallachian campaign in the autumn of 1330; the age difference between Elisabeth (who passed away in 1367) and Anna and the Angevine utility of the former makes them – and naturally thus Ancha – sisters. Because Ancha’s Serbian marriage appears to have been negotiated already at the end of 1346 and her husband to be, Stephen Urosh V, the son of Stephen Dushan and Helena, John Alexander’s sister, was aged ten at most at the time, Ancha was probably the eldest, being born between 1336/1337 and 1338/1339, leading to an earlier dating of the Wallachian-Hungarian arrangement that – at any rate – seems to have been sealed between the immediate aftermath of the Serbian-Hungarian-Wallachian conflicts over Belgrade and Severin (1334−1335) and of the Turkish raid, sponsored by Byzantium, in Bulgaria and Wallachia (1337−1338). It coincide with the establishment of the Visegrád Group (1335−1339) and with the new alliance between Bulgaria, Serbia and Wallachia (1331−1332), after John Alexander became tsar and his sister married the new Serbian king, Dushan. In that context, as John Alexander was married to Theodora (also John Stratsmir’s mother), Basarab’s daughter, a Serbian-Wallachian matrimony to cement the alliance would have made perfect sense, leading to the birth of Voislav, Alexander’s son. In relation to the initial question concerning Basaraba Ivanko, the records the chapter of Oradea (1374), where Elisabeth had been buried, might be useful, given that Basarab certainly had more than one son (according to Charles-Robert in 1335) and that two distinct rulers (Nicholas and Alexander) followed after (just) Basarab in the diptychs of Curtea de Argeş and Câmpulung. Elisabeth’s father was listed as Alexi Andri Vajvode Transalpine. The clear unmistaken separation between Alexi and Andri (that – given also that on one occasion Transalpine was read Transylvaniae – has caused many disputes over his identity: Alexander, voivode of Wallachia, or Andrew Lackfi, voivode of Transylvania) allows under the circumstances (supplemented by the reignited conflict between Wladislaw I of Wallachia and King Louis I) only one conclusion: her father’s full name was Alexander Andrew and had to be used in order to distinguish between him and another Alexander that had ruled over/ in Wallachia, Nicholas-Alexander. Though several forgeries regarding Wallachia’s beginnings accumulated – with princely approval – at Câmpulung (chiefly between the 1630s and 1650s), we have to admit that two Alexanders (Andrew and Nicholas) divided the fate of Wallachia between West (Avignon) and East (Byzantium) with – an otherwise intriguing aspect – Hungary favouring a more southern turn of Wallachia (e.g. in autumn 1330, Charles-Robert attacked Wallachia and Andronikos III Bulgaria angered by the deal sealed after Velbujd; in 1359 when the Metropolitanate of Wallachia was created by Constantinople, Louis I was much at ease with the situation and counted on John V Palaeologus’ Ottoman difficulties). Xenopol’s hypothesis therefore remains valid and must be re-addressed through researches on the 1330s, repeatedly neglected by numerous scholars who have focused on the genesis of the Wallachia.
More...Keywords: exhibition; museography; Ethnographical Park; Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography; illustrated guide
The authors present the less known activity held at the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography from 1937 to 1957 towards: Research and Conservation of the Folk Cultural Heritage; Development of a network of ethnographic museums; Establishment of circles of ethnographic researches; Capitalisation through exhibitions and publications. For the research and preservation of the folk cultural heritage there were organised research and acquisition campaigns and there were made questionnaires for finding the buildings for the National park which unfortunately could not be completed because of the war, and after the war because of the political changes. The preservation and capitalisation of the folk heritage could be done successfully only by institutions and qualified individuals, so that the Museum intervened with the bodies of central and local authorities for the establishment of some museums or ethnographic sections in Iasi, Cernauti, Timisoara and Craiova and by ensuring qualified staff trained within the Department and Seminar of ethnography and folklore. An intense activity was made during 1939-1946 towards organizing Circles of ethnographic researches in the main cultural centres of the country, so that their union to re-establish the Romanian Ethnographic Society. The opening of the permanent exhibition in the building of Bărnuţiu Garden represented a very important moment for the Romanian museography by the implications it has had on the followings: the exhibition furniture, the theme and the exposure system, which represented a model for efforts of some institutions to present the collections of objects which they held between 1937- 1940. The authors present then some aspects of Museum work during the refuge in Sibiu (1940-1945) and the difficulties for restoration of the building in the Park in order to organize the Exhibition following the model of the one in 1937. The change of political regime in 1947 coincided with the forced retirement of Professor R. Vuia. There are presented the attempts to continue in 1948-1950 the projects started after returning from refugee interrupted by the change of the director (May 1950) and of the staff (1951). In November 1951, by the Decision of the Committee for Higher Education, the Museum was passed to the Committee for Cultural Settlements, receiving the name "Historical- Ethnographic Museum of Cluj Region". In 1951, the Museum staff have drawn up a Directory for the organization of the new museum exhibition, which the authors, taking into account the fact that this is the only document on how a permanent exhibition theme is made, publishes in its entirety. The theme was sent to the Committee for Cultural Settlements that rejected and outlined the directions the exhibition named "The issue of living and evolution of the society beginning with human formation until nowadays " to be made. The intense discussions regarding the exhibition theme were held in 1953, after which it was established the thematic plan of the exhibition, which was opened on 24th of May 1955, for which it was made an illustrated guide that was to be printed in 1957.
More...Keywords: book review;
Czégényi Dóra: Kutatástörténeti eredmények a romániai magyar néprajztudományban [Kriza János Néprajzi Társaság Évkönyve 18, 20, 22, 23, 24.] — Nagy Ákos: Kulturális gyakorlatok és reprezentációk néprajzi kutatásai [Kriza János Néprajzi Társaság Évkönyve 21.] — Nagy Ákos: Tanulmányok a néprajz és az archívumok kapcsolatának múltjáról, jelenéről és jövőjéről [Jakab Albert Zsolt – Vajda András (szerk.): Örökség, archívum és reprezentáció. Kriza János Néprajzi Társaság, Kvár, 2017. (Kriza Könyvek 40.)] — Bakos Áron: Értékszemle [Jakab Albert Zsolt – Vajda András (szerk.): Érték és közösség. A hagyomány és az örökség szerepe a változó lokális regiszterekben. Kriza János Néprajzi Társaság, Kvár, 2016.] — Makkai Júlia: A tárgyi és szellemi értékek feltárásának változatai Erdélyben [Jakab Albert Zsolt – Vajda András (szerk.): Érték és közösség. A hagyomány és az örökség szerepe a változó lokális regiszterekben. Kriza János Néprajzi Társaság, Kvár, 2016. 342 old. (Kriza Könyvek 39.)] — Molnár Beáta: Hogyan nézzünk az európai múzeumokra? [Ébli Gábor: Múzeumánia. L’Harmattan Kiadó, Bp. 2016. ] — Szőcsné Gazda Enikő: 18. századi forrásmunka Erdélyről [Benkő József: Az egykori Dacia Mediterraneának mondott a világ előtt még nem eléggé ismert Erdély vagy Erdélyi Nagyfejedelemség. Fordította Szabó György. Székely Nemzeti Múzeum – Tortoma Könyvkiadó, Sepsiszentgyörgy–Barót, 2014.] — Sándor Cecília: A székely népballadagyűjtés negyed évszázadnyi hiányosságát pótló hagyaték (Kanyaró Ferenc: Erdélyi népballadák és epikus énekek 1892–1905. Sajtó alá rendezte Olosz Katalin. Kriza János Néprajzi Társaság, Kvár 2015.] — Tekei Erika: Sztánai Füzetek és Kis Magyar Néprajz (Kovács Ágnes: Népmese és közművelődés. Művelődés Egyesület – Szentimrei Alapítvány, Kolozsvár – Sztána 2014. (Sztánai Füzetek 16.)] — Ágoston-Szűcs Brigitta: Az emberi sorsfordulások trilógiája [Balázs Lajos: Sorsfordulások rítusai a székely magyaroknál I. Szeretet fogott el a gyermek iránt. Pallas-Akadémia Könyvkiadó, Csíkszereda 2016; II. Az én első tisztességes napom. Pallas-Akadémia Könyvkiadó, Csíkszereda 2014; III. Menj ki én lelkem a testből. Pallas-Akadémia Könyvkiadó, Csíkszereda 2015.] — Deák-Sárosi László: Velünk élő hagyomány [Barabás László: Az otthonosság gyökerei. Népismereti írások, néprajzi tanulmányok. Mentor Könyvek, Marosvásárhely 2015. Második kiadás: 2016.] — Szőcsné Gazda Enikő: Milyenek voltak nagyszüleink virágoskertjei? [Csoma Zsigmond: Én kis kertet kerteltem... Paraszti virágkultúra Magyarországon. Agroinform Kiadó, Bp. 2015.] — Tar Virág Erzsébet: „Élő erdélyi és moldvai magyar népballadák” [Kallós Zoltán: Balladás könyv. Kallós Zoltán Alapítvány, Válaszút 2014.] — Kató Mária Magdolna: Kallós Zoltán „első kilencven” évének története [Csinta Samu: A lélekementő. Kallós Zoltán első kilencven éve. Hagyományok Háza, Bp. 2016.] — Mogyorósi Ágnes: Itt van otthon Kallós Zoltán [Ablonczy Bálint – Korniss Péter: A Mezőségtől Moldváig. Kallós Zoltán útjai. Helikon Kiadó, Bp. 2013.] — Halász Péter: Egy példamutató tanárember néprajzi gyűjtőmunkája [Dukrét Géza: Siter. Kiadja a Partiumi és Bánsági Műemlékvédő és Emlékhely Társaság megbízásából az Europrint. Nagyvárad 2015. (Partiumi füzetek 82.)] — Halász Péter: Érmelléki néprajz és helytörténet {Wilhelm Sándor: Tanulmányok az Érmellékről. Szerk. Dukrét Géza. Partiumi és Bánsági Műemlékvédő és Emlékhely Társaság – Varadinum Script Kiadó, Nagyvárad 2014. (Partiumi füzetek 80.)] — Bulcsu László: Település és kultúra új perspektívában [Bárth János: Ozsdola, az őrfalu. „Falu” és „Megye”, vagyis székely kommunitás és egyházközség Ozsdolán a XVIII–XIX. században. Kiadja Bárth János. Kecskemét 2015.] — Nagy Ákos: Egy falu kőbe vésett múltja [Kinda István: Homokkőbe faragott múlt. Havadtő régi sírkövei. Székely Nemzeti Múzeum – Pro Havadtő Egyesület, Sepsiszentgyörgy 2016.] — Halász Péter: A „múlt használata” [Gábor Felicia: Csángó élet. Kisprózák, versek. Magyar Napló – Fókusz Egyesület, Bp. 2015.] — Iancu Laura: Tudománnyal a művelődés szolgálatában [Halász Péter: „Cserefának füstje hozta ki könnyvemet...” Néprajzi, tudománytörténeti írások a moldvai magyarokról. Kriza János Néprajzi Társaság, Kvár 2015.] — Máté Gábor: Tükör a Kárpátokon. Reflexiók Halász Péter könyvéhez [Halász Péter: A hagyományos szántóföldi növénytermesztés a moldvai csángó magyaroknál. General Press Könyvkiadó, Bp. 2015.] — Nagy Ákos: A nagy háború egy tüzér levelei tükrében (Bereczki Ibolya – Pozsony Ferenc (szerk.): Üzenet a frontról. Ferenc tüzér levelei 1914–1918. Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, Szentendre 2016.] — Balatonyi Judit: „Megpengetett poharak”[Berta Péter: Fogyasztás, hírnév, politika. Az erdélyi gábor romák presztízsgazdasága. MTA Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont, Bp. 2014.] — Bakos Áron: Társadalomtudományi kisokos [Rezsőházy Rudolf: Bevezetés a társadalomtudományok módszertanába. Typotex – Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem, Bp. 2016.] — Keszeg Anna: A megmutatás művészete és az élettörténet megmutatása [Blos-Jáni Melinda: A családi filmezés genealógiája. Erdélyi amatőr médiagyakorlatok a fotózástól a mozgóképig. Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület, Kvár 2016; Szalma Anna-Mária: A fénykép a mindennapi életben. Fényképkorpuszok antropológiai elemzése. Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület, Kvár 2014.] — Szabó Miklós: „Megengedem önmagamnak, hogy ismét tündérkert legyen” [Hubbes László Attila − Povedák István (szerk.): Már a múlt sem a régi… Az új magyar mitológia multidiszciplináris elemzése. Magyar Kulturális Antropológiai Társaság (MAKAT) Modern Mitológiakutató Műhely − MTA– SZTE Vallási Kultúrakutató Csoport, Bp. 2015. (Vallási Kultúrakutatás Könyvei 18. − MAKAT– Modern Mitológiakutató Műhely Könyvek 1.)] — Szász István Szilárd: Belépés jelszóval. Az internetes kutatások lehetőségeiről (Replika 90–91(1–2). Bp. 2015. Online: http://www.replika.hu/replika/90-91)] — Tatár Erzsébet-Tímea: Paradigmák változó esélyei Délkelet-Európában [Klaus Roth (edited by): Changing Paradigms. The State of the Ethnological Sciences in Southeast Europe. Ethnologica Balkanica. Journal for Southeast European Anthropology 17/2014.] — Tánczos Vilmos: Egy régi mirákulumgyűjtemény a csodákkal jeleskedő csíksomlyói kegyszoborról [Mohay Tamás: Istennek kincses tárháza. P. Losteiner Leonárd ferences kézirata Szűz Mária csíksomlyói kegyszobráról. Csíksomlyó−Bp., Kiadja a Csíksomlyói Ferences Kolostor és a Szent István Társulat, 2015.]
More...Keywords: legal habits; village courts of law; causes of judgment; 19th century
More...Keywords: birth; wedding; funeral; midwife; fate; baptism; asking in marriage; wedding flag; bride’s wreath; the bride and groom’s tree; alms.
The authors present the activity carried out at the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography between 1922-1951 to set up an Archive that keep information on material and immaterial folk culture, obtained using the questionnaires as a research method. The following Questionnaires are presented: The list of objects to be collected for the Ethnograpfic Museum (1923), To preserve our artistic monuments (1925), Questionnaire no. 1: Christmas customs (1926), Questionnaire no. 2: Christmas and New Year customs, Young fellowships (1927), The New Year’s Goat Ritual (1927), The House (1931). The answers to these questions were the base for setting up The Museum’s Folklore and Ethnography Archive, that also includes Collections of folkloric materials, Collections of Year’s Events Customs and Seminar Papers made by students on the following topics: Customs throughout the year; Habits in relation to human life; Settlements and House; Village Monographs; Grazing; Folk costumes; Folk medicine; Pottery; Furriery. Among the materials preserved in the Museum’s Archives, the authors present 14 seminar papers on the customs related to human life events (birth, wedding, funeral). In connection with human birth, some popular beliefs and practices are described: from the prenatal period (bans for pregnant women), and from the post-natal period, focusing on the role of the midwife and of the godmother in the first days of the newborn’s life. On the wedding theme, the authors expose the main phases preceeding the wedding: looking for the predestinated spouse, asking in marriage, the engagement, wedding invitations, the preparation of the flag, of the wreath, of the tree and the fir-tree, the wedding ceremony, the wedding party. Regarding the funeral, the authors present beliefs about the signs portending the death (the owlet song, howling dogs, objects falling off the walls), the dying persons’s spiritual preparation (Confession, Communion), physical preparation of the dead person (washing, grooming, dressing), the wake, the funeral service, the burial, alms (highlighting the importance of water as charity for the dead). The authors also present the funeral with fir-tree, for the unmarried young people, known as the dead’s wedding.
More...Keywords: Evil characters; novels; villains; literature;
A collection of texts about the evil characters in literature,
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