Romania

“ This handbook attempts to describe the social, political, and economic bases of Romanian society and, more particularly, how these bases have been affected by Romania's independent stance within the alliances of Eastern European communist countries. The authors of the handbook have tried to be objective in order to provide a comprehensive exposition of the dominant aspects of Romanian life in the early 1970s. ”

“ But the Western Empire was not Romania, nor were its people Romans. The only Romania in the West, the Italian land so called, took its name from its long adhesion to the Eastern Empire.
♦Importance of distinctions of race in the East.♦
In the East again differences of race are far more important than they ever were in the West. In the West nations have been formed by a certain commingling of elements; in the East the elements remain apart. All the nations of the south-eastern peninsula, whether older than the Roman conquest or settlers of later times, are there still as distinct nations. ”

“ The regime emphasized that the geographical isolation and the socialist systems of Albania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Romania make for common interest in increased economic, political, and cultural cooperation. Observers of Eastern European politics pointed out that Romania shares lengthy borders with Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Soviet Union and that improving relations with the other Balkan states would serve to overcome the country's relative physical isolation. ”

“ Romanian Bukovina is small, totaling only about 3,400 square miles. It was part of Moldavia from the fourteenth century until annexed by Austria in 1775. Romania acquired it from Austria-Hungary in 1918, but after World War II the Soviet Union annexed the 2,100-square-mile northern portion with its largely Ukrainian population.
The approximately 1,300 square miles of the former province remaining in Romania is picturesque and mountainous. Less than one-third is arable, but domestic animals are kept on hillside pastures and meadows. Steeper slopes are forested. ”

“ Thirty thousand men can take a city, but they cannot subdue a realm 800 miles long and 400 broad. Far more than any government which has since held sway on the same spot did the Latin Empire of Romania deserve the name of “the Sick Man.” ”

“ The treaty further provided for the creation of an Empire of Romania, to take the place of the Byzantine Empire, and for the election of an Emperor to reign over it. The arrangements of the treaty in this latter respect were carried out, not long after the taking of the city by the election of Baldwin, count of Flanders, the most esteemed and the most popular among the princes of the crusade, and he received the imperial crown of the new Empire of Romania at the hands of the legate of the pope. ”

“ After decades of tyranny and oppression, today Romania is an important member of an international alliance dedicated to liberty, and it is setting a bold example for other former communist nations that desire to live in peace and freedom. ”

“ The Socialist Republic of Romania Article 1. Romania is a Socialist republic. The Socialist Republic of Romania is a sovereign, independent and unitary State of the working people in towns and villages. Its territory is inalienable and indivisible.
Article 2. All power in the Socialist Republic of Romania is vested in the people, free and master of their destiny. People's power is based on the worker-peasant alliance. ”

“ The Romanian People's Republic was born as a result of the historic victory of the Soviet Union over German fascism and the liberation of Romania by the glorious Soviet Army, a liberation which empowered the working people, led by the working class under the leadership of the Communist Party, to overthrow the fascist dictatorship, to destroy the power of the exploiting classes and to establish the state of people's democracy, which fully corresponds to the interests and wishes of the popular masses of Romania. ”

“ Although the Romanians were slow to benefit from the relatively high cultural and political level reached in Transylvania under the Austro-Hungarians, an appreciable number of concessions had been made to them by the middle of the nineteenth century. They began to share in the political life after political parties were established, schools were opened for Romanian children, and education became more widespread among the general population. ”

“ If you want to see where I live in Romania, just find a decent map— look to the upper left very near Bucharest, and there is the lake.
Follow the Dimbovita [the t is really a ts] River toward town, it is going to go right through the middle of town. ”

“ Romania is the common and indivisible homeland of all its citizens, without any discrimination on account of race, nationality, ethnic origin, language, religion, sex, opinion, political adherence, property or social origin. ”

“ Underlying all these influences from abroad are elements of a native peasant culture that can be traced back to the Neolithic settlement found on the territory of the Romanian state. The mixing of all the elements has produced a cultural mosaic that, although it has much in common with the cultures of neighboring countries, is purely Romanian. ”

“ The values of urban Romanians are more complex than those of peasants. They have been influenced by ideas and values from abroad, particularly by those emanating from France. Educated Romanians have long felt a kinship with the French emotionally and intellectually and have looked to French culture as a model to emulate. ”

“ These qualities are praised in song and legend and are widely held responsible for the survival of the Romanian people and their culture during centuries of foreign domination. Loyalty is also a highly admired peasant quality—loyalty to the land, to the family, to God, to country, and even to one's animals. ”

“ But the Latin Empire of Romania was not the only Empire which arose out of the break-up of the old East-Roman power. Two, for a time three, Greek princes bore the Imperial title; there was also a Latin king. It will be convenient for a while to leave out of sight both Asia and southern Greece, and to look to the revolutions of Thrace, Macedonia, northern Greece, and what we may now begin to call Albania. The immediate result of the Latin conquest was to divide these lands between three powers, two Latin and one Greek. ♦Kingdom of Thessalonikê. ”

“ The basis for Romanian seems to be the Vulgar Latin of ancient Rome. Long contact with Slavic-speaking peoples has left its mark on the vocabulary but has not affected grammar or syntax, which remain similar to those of other Romance languages. The vocabulary of literary Romanian is more purely of Latin origin than that of the spoken dialects. Frequently, parallel words of Latin and Slavic derivation exist for an object or concept and are used interchangeably. Turkish, Albanian, Hungarian, and German have also influenced the vocabulary of the spoken language in various parts of the country. ”

“ Relations between Romanians and Hungarians, the two largest ethnic groups, have been less than smooth. During the eight centuries of Hungarian rule of Transylvania, Romanians, who constituted the poorest rural elements of the population, occupied a subservient position to the wealthier, more urbanized, and better educated Hungarians and Germans. With the joining of Transylvania to Romania in 1918, the Hungarian and German populations of the region lost much of their favored position and, through land reform and nationalization since World War II, they lost their source of wealth. ”

“ It is the season of harvest that shows Rumania in all her glory, that season when the labour of man meets its reward, when, the earth having given her utmost, man, woman, and child go forth to gather in the wealth that makes this country what it is.
Sometimes, indeed, it is an hour of disappointment, for rain, hail, or drought ofttimes undoes man's weary work. Sometimes the earth has not responded to his dearest hopes, has not been able to bring forth her fruit. ”

“ To gain religious equality and to win a larger measure of economic and social recognition, many of the Romanians gradually abandoned their Eastern Orthodox creed and became Uniates by accepting papal authority in 1698. ”

“ I have climbed up to humble little houses clustering together on mountain-sides. I have come upon lovely little places hidden amongst giant pines. On forlorn seashores I have discovered humble hamlets where Turks dwelt in solitary aloofness; near the broad Danube I have strayed amongst tiny boroughs inhabited by Russian fisher-folk, whose type is so different from that of the Rumanian peasant. At first sight one recognises their nationality—tall, fair-bearded giants, with blue eyes, their red shirts visible from a great way off. ”

“ The beginnings of fine art in Romania date back to the fourteenth century when frescoes and other paintings were created to decorate the churches of the period. All of the early art was created in connection with churches, although not all of it was religious in content. ”

“ The Romanian people are very proud of their cultural heritage and of the artistic and intellectual expression that it has inspired. Artists and intellectuals have always occupied a favored position in society as transmitters of the aspirations of the people. ”

“ Our current conceptions of Europe and of European nations have grown up to account for a state of things which has gradually developed from something in which those conceptions had no place. When the northern folk invaded the Roman Empire, their leader, in the first exuberance of strength and spirits, proposed to turn Romania into Gothia. ”

“ Rumania is not a country of violent colours. There is a curious unity in its large horizons, its dusty roads, its white-clad peasants, its rough wooden carts. Even oxen and horses seem to have toned down to grey or dun, so as to become one with a sort of dreamy haziness that lies over the whole.
It is only the sunsets that turn all these shadowy tints into a sudden marvel of colour, flooding earth and sky with wondrous gold. I have seen hay-stacks change into [13] fiery pyramids, rivers into burning ribbons, and pale, tired faces light up with a marvellous glow. ”

“ A vast collection of legends, tales, ballads, proverbs, and riddles has been preserved and is known to both rural and urban Romanians. Legends and tales deal with the daring exploits of a national hero, sometimes real and sometimes imaginary. In the oldest tales, the adversaries are monsters and inhabitants of the underworld ”

“ A ranking military spokesman has stated that the army was developing friendly relations with its counterparts in all the countries of the socialist system in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He added that Romania is increasing its relations of cooperation and collaboration with the nonsocialist states, as a contribution to the development of mutual trust.
MANPOWER, TRAINING, AND SUPPORT
Manpower
There are approximately 4.86 million men in the military age group, that is, the male population between the ages of eighteen and forty-nine. ”

“ There are some strange customs amongst the peasants, curious superstitions. Rumania being a dry country, it is lucky to arrive with rain: it means abundance, fertility, the hope of a fine harvest—wealth.
Sometimes as I went through the villages, the peasant women would put large wooden buckets full of water before their threshold; a full vessel is a sign of Good-luck. They will even sprinkle water before one's feet, always because of that strange superstition, that water is abundance, and, when the great one comes amongst them, honour must be done unto her in every way. ”

“ Hungarian and German also recognized and utilized in areas of large minority concentrations.
8. LABOR: Working population employed by the state in 1969 numbered about 5 million. About 40 percent were employed in [Pg viii] industry; about 51 percent, in agriculture. Women constituted about 43 percent of the industrial and 57.5 percent of the collective farm labor forces.
9. RELIGION: Freedom of worship is guaranteed by Constitution, but state controls all church activities. About two-thirds of population belong to Romanian Orthodox Church. ”

“ The most lonely inhabitants of Rumania are the shepherds—more lonely even than the monks in their cells, for the monks are gathered together in congregations, whilst the shepherds spend whole months alone with their dogs upon desolate mountain-tops. ”

“ I have been to a village in the Dobrudja which was part Rumanian, part Russian, part German, part Turkish. [17] I went from one side to another, visiting many a cottage, entering each church, ending my round in the tiny rustic mosque hung with faded carpets, and there amongst a crowd of lowly Turks I listened to their curious service, of which I understood naught. A woman who is not veiled has no right to enter the holy precinct ”

“ Aliens within Rumania shall enjoy the protection granted by law to persons and property in general. Only Rumanians and naturalized Rumanians may acquire, under any title, or hold rural real property in Rumania. Aliens shall have only the right to the value of such real property. Article 28 Foreign decorations shall be worn by Rumanian only with the authorization of the King. ”

“ Yet there are places in Rumania where those gipsies have settled down on the outskirts of villages or towns.
There, in the midst of indescribable filth and disorder, they are massed together in tumble-down huts and [52] dug-outs, half-naked, surrounded by squabbling children and savage dogs. Their hovels are covered with whatever they can lay hand upon: old tins, broken boards, rags, clods of earth, torn strips of carpets; no words can render the squalor that surrounds them, the abject misery in which they swarm. ”