No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Nationality Question in Contemporary Hungarian-Romanian Relations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Extract
The historical feud between Hungary and Romania over Transylvania has escalated in proportion and intensity in recent years. Territorial dispute is no longer central to the present debate. Rather, it is the treatment of approximately two million ethnic Hungarians residing in Transylvania that has generated considerable tension between the governments of Janos Kadar and Nicolae Ceausescu. Transylvania's ethnic Hungarians represent an obstacle to Ceausescu's policy of “national communism,” which promotes “Romanianism” to the detriment of the country's minority populations. In Hungary, reformists both within and outside the Kadar government have pressed the regime for a satisfactory solution to the perceived mistreatment of Hungarians living in neighboring socialist countries. By complicating relations between the two countries, the nationality question also effectively limits the degree to which Hungary and Romania can cooperate succesfully on regional endeavors. Finally, particularly in the case of Romania, exacerbation of the nationality question has attracted increased concern among “external” players, including the Soviet Union and the United States.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 1982 by the Association for the Study of the Nationalities of the USSR and Eastern Europe, Inc.
References
Notes
This paper presents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the U.S. General Accounting Office.Google Scholar
1. The actual population figures for Hungarians residing in Transylvania are hotly contested between the Hungarian and Romanian governments. The figure mentioned here is based on Romanian statistics. Unofficial Hungarian figures range between 1.8 and 2.5 million.Google Scholar
2. Lee, G., “The Truncation of Romania: Historical Echoes,” RFE Background Report 72 (1984).Google Scholar
3. See Tismaneanu, Vladimir, “Ceausescu's Communism,” Problems of Communism, vol. 34 (Jan-Feb. 1985), pp. 56–57.Google Scholar
4. Illyés, Elemér, National Minorities in Romania, East European Monograph No. CXII (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), p. 3.Google Scholar
5. Shafir, Michael, “Political Culture, Intellectual Dissent, and Intellectual Consent: The Case of Romania,” Orbis (Summer 1983), p. 410.Google Scholar
6. See Maier, Anneli, “Romania Commemorates Foundation in 1918,” RFE Background Report 30 (March 1984).Google Scholar
7. “The Cauldron Bubbles Over,” The Economist (26 January 1985), pp. 45–47.Google Scholar
8. Kovrig, Bennet, Communism in Hungary Hoover Institution Publication No. 211 (Stanford, California: 1979), p. 402.Google Scholar
9. Kovrig, , Communism in Hungary p. 414.Google Scholar
10. Ceausescu Satirized by Népszabadság, RFE Situation Report (Hungary/7) (May 1982), p. 4.Google Scholar
11. “The Cauldron,” The Economist. p. 45.Google Scholar
12. Krause, Jan, “For the Government, Reform is a Way of Ensuring That Nothing Changes,” Manchester Guardian Weekly (29 July 1984), p. 12.Google Scholar
13. Krause, Jan, “Hungarian Party Set to Return to Ideological Purity,” Manchester Guardian Weekly (14 April 1985), p. 13.Google Scholar
14. Graham, Bradley, “Hungary's Restive Writers,” Washington Post (23 March 1985), p. A18.Google Scholar
15. “Foreign Report,” The Economist (19 December 1985), pp. 1–2.Google Scholar
16. FBIS, “Soviet Union Daily Report,” (24 June 1985), p. BB6.Google Scholar
17. Drozdiak, William, “Bush: U.S. Will Aid Maverick Soviet Bloc States,” Washington Post (22 September 1983), pp. A1, A22.Google Scholar
18. Romania Literara (29 May 1986).Google Scholar
19. Matthews, Jackson, ed., Collected Works of Paul Valery, vol. 10 (New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1962), p. 14.Google Scholar