Between Words and Reality: Studies on the Politics of Recognition and the Changes of Regime in Contemporary Romania by Victor Neumann (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 589 Neumann, Victor. Between Words andReality.Studies onthePoliticsofRecognition andtheChanges of Regime in Contemporary Romania. Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change: Series IVA, Eastern and Central Europe, 15. The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy,WashingtonD.C., 2000. 207 pp. Notes. Appendices. Index. $17.50 (paperback). THEpresentworkconsistsof fivediscrete,but interrelatedessays,dealingwith contemporary and historical issues in Romania. In particular, the volume centresupon Romania's Banatprovince, with itstraditionsof ethnic diversity, tolerance and its relatively well developed 'civic society'. This is frequently contrasted to the less tolerant attitudes towards other cultures and assimilationisttendencies of the centralistRomanian governmentsbased in Bucharest since I9I8. The Banat, situated in western Romania, became part of Romania followingthe FirstWorldWar,aftercenturiesof ruleby theAustro-Hungarian monarchy. The monarchy's'colonizationpolicies', combined with the Banat's geographical position as the borderland between the monarchy and the Ottoman empire, created a poly-cultural society consisting of numerous ethnic groupswho lived in an atmosphereof mutual forebearance,with such notable exceptions as I848-49, over the course of several centuries. In addition to the Romanians, these groups consisted of Hungarians, Germans, Serbs, Croats,Jews, Bulgarians,Slovaks,Bohemians,Roma and Turks.With such diversity came also a plurality of religious beliefs: Orthodox, Catholic and ProtestantChristianity,aswell as the Moslem andJewish religions. Neumann's firstessay deals with theJewish population of the Banat from its emancipation in i867 under the Austro-Hungarianmonarchy up until the interwarperiod. The growth of theJewish population, and its contributionto the industrialization and modernization of the province, is described. The essay also highlightsthe co-existence between the differentJewish groupsand within the Banat'smulticulturalsociety as a whole, as well as the assimilation of the Jews into the Hungarian-speaking society of the Banat in the late nineteenth century. Their use of the Magyar tongue, however, brought the Jews into conflict with the centralizing Romanian governments of the 1920S and '30s. Nevertheless, their importantposition within the liberalprofessions and as entrepreneurs forced Romania's successive governments to allowv Jewish firms to function for some while in the province. Timi?oara, the capital of the Banat, and its role in the events of i 989 are the subjects of the next chapter. Neumann undertakes a highly informative historical analysis of the background to the events of December I989 when the citizens of Timi?oara defended the Calvinist Reverend Laszl6 Tokes from the Securitate. By the late nineteenth century, the city, whose population reflected the multicultural nature of the province as a whole, was already the most industrialized of the cities in the eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. It had a well-developed middle class and civic society. This civic culture, according to Neumann, continued, albeit in muted tones, throughout the communist period and into the I98os. It manifested itself in an acceptance of pluralism and in a critical attitude towards authoritarianism. Such attitudes were reinforced by the province's proximity to Central Europe and, by the 590 SEER, 8i, 3, 2003 I980s, access to the media of both Hungary and Yugoslavia. Of particular interestisNeumann's discussionof thevariousculturalassociationsexistingin Timi?oara during the Communist period such as the Aktionsgruppe Banatrun by German-speakingwritersandpoets which criticizedthe regime'smonopoly of power, or the multicultural pop band Phoenixwhich produced vibrant protestsongsin the i 980s. Such anti-Communist manifestations were in marked contrast to the relativelack of opposition to the regime in other areas of Romania until late in I989. Nevertheless,Timi?oaraand the Banatfailedto produce a large-scale democraticoppositionon the scaleof, forinstance, Solidarityin Poland.In his next essay,therefore,Neumann discusseswhether,in view of the lackof a true revolutionaryorganization or programme, the events of December I989 in Romania can be called a 'revolution'? Even the events in Timi?oara are described as no more than a 'spontaneousprotest movement' with no initial connection with the small circle of ex-Communists who were to take power. Despite the popular uprising in Bucharest in December i 989, Neumann stressesthe importanceof the decision by the armyand Securitateto backthe crowd in the events leading to the fall of Ceau,escu and the rise of the exCommunists to power. The latter are regarded by the author as essentially reformistsin the Gorbachev mould rather than 'revolutionaries'.Neumann concludes that the 'revolution' was, in fact, 'a popular uprising...