Romanianization
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Romanianization [citation needed] or Rumanization (Hungarian: románosítás or elrománosítás) is the term used to describe the forced assimilation policies employed by the Romanian governments and institutions during the 20th century. The use of the term is usually [citation needed] related with the Hungarian minority in Romania and the Ukrainian minority in Bukovina or Bessarabia. The inability of Romanian governments to assimilate the Magyar and Ukrainian minorities during interwar period, the simple perpetuation of those minorities were further pretexts for Romanian territorial losses in Transylvania and Moldova in 1940.
Rumanization in Transylvania
In the period between the two World Wars
At the end of WWI, Transylvania, Austro-Hungarian territory, was occupied by the Romanian army, then the Romanian National Council took the decision of unifying the province with Romania. The Treaty of Trianon established the Romanian border with the new Hungarian state. However, Transylvania had a large Hungarian minority, of about 30% according to the 1910 census. A part of them fled to Hungary after the union, however most part remained in Romania, as in 1930 about 26% of the Transylvanians were Hungarians. The 1923 Constitution of Romania declared Romania a nation-state.
After the second World War
After 1948, the industrialization of towns made the number of inhabitants in some urban areas to double or even triple, most of the newcomers being ethnic Romanians from the rural areas. The urbanization policy, natural phenomenon as the urbanization being required by the economic development and by the intention of transforming the predominantly agrarian country into an industrialized one, was followed throughout Romania, including in areas inhabited by minorities although much less significant.
Results
According to census data the Hungarian population of Transylvania did decrease from 34% in 1910 to 26% in 1930 and 20% in 2005. Changes were more significant in cities/larger settlements, where Hungarians used to be in majority, especially in Northern Transylvania such as Oradea (Hungarian: Nagyvárad) and Cluj-Napoca (Hungarian: Kolozsvár).
Romanianization was not the only factor to modify the ethnic makeup of the region. The other are
- differences in birth rate (in the mid-20th century, the largely rural Romanians had a higher birth rate than Hungarians);
- the 1944 destruction by Hungary and Germany Nazi regimes of more than 100,000 northern Transylvania Jews - many of them considering themselves part of the Magyar nation and culture;
- the voluntary exile of some 100,000 Germans (Saxons and Banat Swabians) to Germany in the 1980s.
Romanianization was less sustained in the compact Szekely areas of south-eastern Transylvania (the Szekelyfold), where even now Hungarians make around 80% of the population, the capital city of the former Hungarian Autonomous Province (covering mostly the Székely areas) being an exception: Romanianization was successful enough there in Târgu Mureş to decrease the ratio of Hungarians to 46%). The rapid change of ethnic setup was one of the reasons [citation needed] for the Ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureş in March 1990. After the 1989 Revolution a confidential document [citation needed] issued by the Targu Mures communist party organization was found, stating the main objectives for changing the ethnic structure of that town in favor of Romanians.
Policies toward Ukrainian minority in Romania
The process of Rumanization directed against ethnic Ukrainians in Bukovina and Bessarabia, is said to begin in time of medieval principality of Moldova. More intense became this policy after 1564, when the capital of Moldova was moved from Suceava to Iaşi. [1]
According to the 1930 census, Ukrainians made up 3.2% of the population of Romania. Ethnic territories of Ukrainians and Romanians populated by both nations for hundred of years are not designated by clear natural divides. In fact their merger is seamless. For a long time, in Bukovina, both nations were sharing the same political formation - Austro-Hungary which pursued a somehow balanced ethnic policies in Bukovina, the Austrian province where both Romanian and Ukrainian (or Ruthenian, as it was called at the time) populations were significant.
In 1918, following the collapse of the Austrian and Russian empires the control over the entire Bukovina fell under the Kingdom of Romania. The takeover was followed by the policies of Rumanization of ethnic minorities, mostly Ukrainians, being pursued by the Romanian authorities. The policies were built on an increasing sentiment spread in Romanian media and historic works that entire Bukovina were inherently a Romanian ethnic territory. Ion Nistor, a prominent Romanian historian and one of the most vocal proponents of Greater Romanian nationalism was made a rector of the main University of the province (in Chernivtsi) which was changed from Franz-Josefs Universitat to Universitatea Regele Carol I(the actual current full name Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University). Following the years of his rectorship the enrollment of Ukrainians in the University fell from about 20-25 % in 1914 [2] to less than 5% (1933) while Romanian enrollment being in 1914 close to the Ukrainian one increased by 1933 to 60 %.
The Rumanization policies not only brought the closures of the Ukrainian public schools (all such schools were closed until 1928) but also the suppression of most of the Ukrainian (Ruthenian) cultural institutions. The very term "Ukrainians" was prohibited from the official usage and ethnic Ukrainians were rather called the "citizens of Romania who forgot their native language". As such, according to the Romanian census, of the the total population of 805 thousand 74% were called Romanians, the number included the Ukrainians and other related ethnic groups referred to as "Romanians who forgot their native-language".
The declines in Ukrainian population between censuses of 1919-1930, and 1992-2002 illustrate the dynamic of assimilation of Ukrainian minority in Romania. (See table below)
| Total number of Ukrainians and % of total population in Romania | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1919 | 1930 | 1941-1947 | 1992 | 2002 | |
| Ukrainians | 763,750 - 4,7% | 576,828 - 3,2% (75,5% of previous) |
Loss of Northern Bukovina, Bugeac and Moldova |
65,764 - 0.3% |
61,353 - 0.3% (93,3% of previous) |
| Total population | 16,250,000 100% |
18,025,896 111% of previous |
22,810,035 126,5% of previous |
21,698,181 95,8% of previous | |
| Country area | 316,710 km2 | 316,710 km2 | 238,391 km2 | 238,391 km2 | |