IV.
H. The Roma in Romania
BECK, Sam. “Ethnicity, Class and Public Policy: Tiganii/Gypsies
in Socialist Romania.” In Kot K. Shangriladze and Erica W. Townsend, eds.,
Papers
for the V Congress of Southeast European Studies (Belgrade, September
1984). Columbus: Slavica Publishers.
This solid look at Romanian policy towards its
post-World War II Romany population begins with a discussion of immediate
postwar government efforts to encourage Romany participation in the new
communist regime. Though such opportunities would be short-lived, many
Roma saw this window of opportunity as a chance to improve dramatically
their social and political status in Romania. Later governments would increasingly
neglect the Roma or sweep growing Romany impoverishment under the collective
socialist rug.
BECK, Sam. “The Origins of Gypsy Slavery in Romania.” Dialectical Anthropology,
Vol. 14 (April 1989): pp. 53-61.
This solid study examines the origins of Romany
slavery in Wallachia and Moldavia. It explains Romany bondage as a result
of the persistent wars between the Danubian Roman-ian principalities and
Hungary, the Crimean Tatars and the Ottoman Empire, when Romany prisoners
were enslaved.
BECK, Sam. “The Romanian Gypsy Problem.” In Joanne Grumet, ed., Papers
from the Fourth and Fifth Annual Meeting, Gypsy Lore Society, North American
Chapter. Publications No. 2, New York: Gypsy Lore Society, North American
Chapter, 1985, pp. 101-109.
This paper explores the complexities of the Romany
plight in Nicolae Ceausescu’s Romania and the impact of his Romanization
policies on this impoverished group.
BLAGA, Ion. Romania’s Population: A Demographic, Economic and Socio-Political
Essay. Translated into English by Doina Glavan and Nora Scurtulescu,
Bucharest: Meridiane Publishing House, 1972.
This is an official statistical source of information,
with data about the Roma in formerly communist Romania.
CARTNER, H. “Ethnic Conflict in Tirgu Mures.” New York: Human Rights Watch
Helsinki, 1990, May newsletter.
This human rights report summarizes Romanian
ethnic animosities, especially in Transylvania, where Tirgu Mures is located,
consisting mainly of Romanian antipathy towards the Hungarian minority,
but also of a common hatred by both those groups toward the Roma.
CARTNER, H. “News from Romania.” New York: Human Rights Watch Helsinki,
1990, July newsletter.
This report on the evolution of human rights
in Romania immediately after the fall of the Ceaucescu government describes
the expectations of each Romanian minority, including Roma, and their socio-economic
and cultural needs.
CARTNER, H. “Romanian Lynch Law: Violence against Roma in Romania.” New
York: Human Rights Watch Helsinki, 1994, November newsletter.
Using as background a tragic event when a Romany
village experienced the aggression of neighboring villagers, this text
provides information about recent human rights abuses in Romania.
European Roma Rights Center. Sudden Rage at Dawn: Violence against Roma
in Romania. Budapest: European Roma Rights Center, 1996.
This report discusses the findings of the ERRC’s
mission to Romania in 1996. The group found that Roma faced a new type
of abuse in Romania. Now, the old pattern of community violence has been
replaced by a new pattern of police raids conducted systematically in Romany
communities.
FISHER-GALATI, Stephen. “National Minorities in Romania, 1919-1980.” In
Stephen M. Horak, ed., Eastern European National Minorities, 1919-1980:
A Handbook. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1985.
A brief survey of the history of Romania’s various
minorities, this solid account provides a very modest glimpse of the Roma.
There is one entry on the Roma in the bibliography.
GASTER, M. “Bill of Sale of Gypsy Slaves in Moldavia, 1851.” Journal
of the Gypsy Lore Society. Third Series, Vol. II, No. 2 (1923): pp.
68-81.
This innovative article centers around an analysis
of an 1851 bill of sale of Romany slaves or robi in Moldavia. It also includes
a rather incisive look at the abusive system of Romany slavery in this
part of Romania only 13 years before emancipation.
GHEORGHE, Nicolae. “Origin of Roma’s Slavery in the Rumanian Principalities.”
Roma,
Vol. 7 (1983): pp. 12-27.
Written by a prominent Romanian Romany scholar,
this is a presentation of historic data concerning the origins of their
enslavement in Wallachia and Moldavia.
GILBERG, Trond. “Ethnic Minorities in Romania under Social-ism.” East
European Quarterly 7 (January 1974): pp. 435-464.
This is a report about Romanian minority rights
under the former communist government, with new perspectives about the
rights of the Roma there.
GILLIE, Oliver. “Ceaucescu Is Dead, the Gypsy King Lives!” Independent
(London),
7 March 1990, p. 13.
This article contains information about the abusive
treatment of the Roma by members of the Romanian police forces, taken from
formerly secret records discovered after the fall of Ceaucescu.
Helsinki Watch. Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Persecution of Gypsies
in Romania. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1991.
Based on three field studies conducted by Theordore
Zang, Jr. and Rob Levy, this look at the plight of the Roma in contemporary
Romania begins with an historical overview. The study then looks at issues
such as Romany culture, housing policies, education, employment, and their
relationship with the police and local authorities from the 1950s through
1989. The more contemporary part of this valuable investigatory work looks
at the rising crescendo of violence against the Roma in a number of specific
communities. This work ends with recommendations to improve the status
of the Roma in Romania, and its appendixes include a collection of documents
dating back to the Holocaust that deal with different facets of Romany
life in Romania.
ILLYES, Elemer. National Minorities in Romania: Change in Transylvania.
Boulder: East European Monographs, distributed by Columbia University Press,
1982.
This sociological monograph contains some very
good demographic information on the Roma in post-World War I, though it
conflicts with data supplied by Joseph Roucek in his Contemporary Roumania
and Its Problems (1932).
KOGALNICEANU, Mihail. “Dezrobirea tiganilor, stergerea privilegilor boieresti,
emanciparea taranilor. Discurs rostit In Academia Romana.” In A. Zub, ed.,
Opere
2. Bucharest: Editura Academiei RSR, 1976, pp. 603-635.
This is a copy of the speech made by Mihail Kogalniceanu,
one of the most important advocates of Romany emancipation in the 19th
century. Delivered before the Romanian Academy on April 9, 1891, to commemorate
the end of Romany slavery in Romania, Kogalniceanu recalled the terrible
scenes of Romany slavery that he had seen as a child, which he recounted
in his classic Equisse sur l’histoire, les moeurs et la langue des Cigains
(1837).
KOGALNICEANU, Mahail. “Esquisse sur l’histoire, les moeurs et la langue
des Cigains.” Berlin, 1837. Abridged Romanian translation by D. Simionescu,
in D. Simionescu, ed., Opere, Vol. 1. Bucharest: Editura Academiei
RSR, 1974, pp. 552-3, and the entire French text republished in A. Zub,
ed., Opere, Vol. 2. Bucharest: Editura Academiei RSR, 1974, pp.
354-85.
Drawn principally from his own childhood observations
in Jassy, the capital of Moldavia, Kogalniceanu’s work vividly describes
the inhumane treatment of Romany slaves or robi. He felt that the practice
totally dehumanized the Roma, and estimated that there were 200,000 Romany
slaves in Wallachia and Moldavia at the time. His work played an important
role in opening up not only Romanian national consciousness about the area’s
slave problem, but also Europe’s.
KOGALNICEANU, Mihail. Desrobirea Tiganiloru. Bucharest, 1891.
This work follows up on the author’s 1837 study,
and celebrates the important gains made by the Roma in Romania since their
emancipation in 1864. According to Kogalniceanu, the Roma now held positions
as teachers, businessmen, legislators, and artists. Romany assimilation
had gone so far, he observed, that there were only two groups of Roma in
the country who had not integrated fully into society-the Ursari, or blacksmiths
and tinkers, and the nomadic Laiesi Roma.
MCCLURE, E. F., and Malcolm M. MCCLURE. “Factors Influencing Language Variation
in a Multilingual Transylvanian Village.” Rumanian Studies 3 (1973-1975):
pp. 207-20.
This linguistic study of the Romanian territory
depicts ethnic connections among the people living there, including the
Roma. It also explains why sometimes mixed or adjacent settlements were
not at all or not quite successful.
PANAITESCU, P.N. “The Gypsies in Wallachia and Moldavia: A Chapter of Economic
History.” Translated by Doris Hardman. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society.
Third Series, Vol. XX, No. 2 (April 1941): pp. 58-72.
A careful, studied look at the practice of Romany
slavery in Romania’s two historic provinces, Wallachia and Moldavia. The
author explores this phenomena within the context of both regions’ rather
complex socio-economic needs, and underscores the point that Romany slaves
were only a step below Romania’s deeply oppressed peasants.
POTRA, George. Contributiuni la istoricul tiganilor din Romania.
Bucharest: Fundatia Regele Carol I, 1939.
Written by a student of P.N. Panaitescu, this
study discusses the improvements made by the Roma in Romania during the
interwar years. He noted that many Roma had given up their nomadic ways
and settled in urban areas. Some had also done well at farming, and others
had even broken with tradition and begun to enter the professional class
of professors, physicians, and lawyers. Most Roma, though, the author admitted,
continued to work at odd, unskilled jobs, and many continued to live as
nomads.
ROUCEK, Joseph S. Contemporary Roumania and her Problems. Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1932.
A fine study that looks at Romanian society in
the decade after the end of World War I. It provides valuable demographic
data on the Roma at this time, though this information conflicts with that
provided by Elemer Illyes in his National Minorities in Romania: Change
in Transylvania (1982).
RUSSELL, Alex. “Classification and Numbers of Wallachian Gypsies in 1837.”
Journal
of the Gypsy Lore Society. New Series, Vol. VI, No. 2 (1912-13): p.
150.
This brief glance at Romany demographic estimates
for 1837 provides some insightful information on the number of Romany slaves
in Wallachia as well as the number of Romany families involved in this
oppressive institution.
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