Knowing
Romania under the social, political and cultural aspect is useful and critical.
It is useful for Romania is a state with an amazing cultural richness, situated
at the crossroads of many cultures; it is critical for scholarly research often
has been based on political interests, either in defense or in disapproval. The
present volume – which is not a monograph – explains the past through the
plurality of its cultures, analyzes the present political situation through the
perspective of the events that provoked the collapse of the 1989 dictatorship.
Comparatively it discusses the education process through an intercultural
perspective. The studies cover the
problematization and understanding of the Romanian phenomena during different
periods in the 20th century.
What is new in the present volume? The study concerning the Jewish
question presented the tendencies existing in the political context of the
transition from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the Romanian nation-state. Among
these tendencies were: 1. The wish of the Banatian and Transylvanian Jews to
become a minority culture in the new country; 2. The formulation of their
aspirations concerning their own state identity through the Zionist movement; 3.
The integration and assimilation into the Romanian society and culture. The Jews
of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire represented a cosmopolitan group. Their
history had been reconsidered after World War I, depending on the cultural and
political values of the nations and states in the midst of which they happened
to live. The controversies arising under that circumstance explain both the
peculiarities of the Jewish milieu and the way in which the Romanian authorities
perceived the issue of integration of both the socio-cultural and
communitarian-religious values of a different group into its national policy.
The attention I have focused on the regions of Banat and Transylvania can
be useful in covering the complex politics of recognition in contemporary
Romania. For example, clarification of civic culture with regard to multicultural education and interculturality allows for insight
into the causes that made possible of the revolt against the
nationalist-communist dictatorship in Timişoara – the most cosmopolitan
city of the country. The opposition practiced by the cultural-linguistically
minorities, such as the Hungarian and the German, had a quite strong domestic
and international impact. The towns in the above-mentioned provinces played a
decisive role in ensuring an atmosphere contrary to the totalitarian political
system.
The
clarification of the multiple character of the Romanian world seems all the more
necessary as a large number of studies dedicated to Romanian history and culture
directly or indirectly took up positions in the favor either of the majority or
of the minorities. Usually, such a way to moot a question does not help in
forming a coherent picture of the problems that have confronted this country as
a whole. And, because the disputes are highlighted through employing a
relatively different set of cultural values (visible in the Romanian-Hungarian
case in particular), I have considered that the issue of education should play
an important role in the articulation of the contemporary social programs. This
is why, the study about civic education in an intercultural perspective, focused
on the contemporary educational system, for the school is an institution whose
reformation could contribute to the modeling of democratically oriented
mentalities.
I
should highlight in the conclusions of this volume the outcomes of the study
about the popular revolt of 1989. If the provocation of changes in ideological
respect had the most active and pragmatic advocates among the
reformist-communists, the Army and the Securitate became supporters of the demonstrators. The study of the
political events at the end of 1989 highlighted that the position of the Army in
the confrontations was extremely decisive. Why so? Because almost always the
success and the failure of a revolt against a political regime depend upon the
Army’s position. In December 1989, a part of the senior military officers of
the Romanian Army did not remain loyal to Ceauşescu; this fact contributed
decisively to the political transformation.
In
order to see more exactly the mixture of contradicting facts, I availed myself
also of another explanation, namely that the interdiction of the freedom of
speech before 1989 made impossible both the coagulation of authentic dissidence
and the formation of an authentic intelligentsia, which peacefully could take
over power from the communist party. Under the circumstances, when everything
was at stake for the former political class, the set-up of changes inclusively,
only an effort of imaginative empathy could lead us to use the term of
‘revolution’ to name the events of ’89 Romania. This is why they were
defined in terms of ‘popular revolt joined by a coup
d’etat’ and why one study and also my book is entitled Between
Words and Reality. The Romanian
citizens’ protest, accusations and complaints indicate either a poor
understanding of what happened or, at least an emotional response. Since only
the legends include emotional components, I considered that the recent history
of Romania has to depend on the above-mentioned rational arguments. An honest
effort to extend the frontiers of knowledge is possible as soon as one focuses
on understanding the facts.
Between
Words and Reality is a volume of studies that aspires to changes in the
discourse regarding history, religion, and polics in Romania. The critical
survey of the cultural values – as proposed in this book – could provoke
academic approaches useful in the redefinition of the nation idea in
East-Central Europe. This is the more so as the cultural-political concepts of
the 19th century on the strength of which the state entities of the
region continue to contrast themselves one against the other are completely
obsolete. This fact does not require comment, if we admit that the recent
tragedies in former Yugoslavia had as a starting point the ethno-cultural
differentiation of Romantic origin.