“Towns in captivity” : Transformation of the Towns of Transylvania in the Interwar Period: the Hungarian Point of View

Abstract

In this paper I look at the Hungarian representation of the way towns in Transylvania changed after these had become part of Romania after World War I. While, according to the census of 1910, Hungarians made up a third of the total population of Transylvania, their share was about 60% in urban contexts. Besides the place urban spaces occupied in Hungarian historical consciousness, this factor determined the way Hungarian commentators interpreted the “loss” of Transylvanian towns. The idea that the “loss of Hungarian towns” changed the formerly Hungarian character of the towns, and their “Balkanization” were central motifs of Hungarian discourse in the interwar period. Some of these elements are present even today. Although the texts I investigate are part of the Hungarian discourse of ressentiment, I argue that they offer some insight into the changes in the “identity of the city”: the urban world which belonged to Central-Europe shifted to another cultural context, to that of Southeastern Europe. Moreover, I will show that these texts also reveal the process of nationalisation of towns, which became an important goal for the national elites since the 19th century within the project of building the modern national state.