Elemér Illyés : National Minorities in Romania

1. The area of present-day Transylvania is given in Hungarian statistical sources as being between 102,787 and 103,093 square kilometers; the vast majority of Romanian sources give the area as 102,200 square kilometers.

2. Gyula László, "Magánbeszéd a kettös honfoglalásról" ["Monologue on the Dual Conquest of the Homeland"], Népszava, Budapest, December 19, 1970; A honfoglalókról [On the Conquerors of the Homeland], (Budapest: 1973); Magyar östörténeti tanulmányok [Studies in Hungarian Pre-History] (Budapest: 1977).

3. On the Hungarian conquest of Transylvania, the following works provide detailed information: Bálint H6man -- Gyula Szekfü, Magyar történet [Hungarian History], vols. I-VIII, (Budapest: 1935-1936); J. Darkó, Die Landnahme der Ungarn in Siebenbürgen, in Ostmittel-europäische Bibliothék, no. 24, (Budapest: 1940); E. Moór, A honfoglaló magyarsag megtelepedése és a székelyek eredete [The Settlement of the Hungarian Conquerors and the Origin of the Székler], (Szeged: 1944).

4. Valuable information on the origin of the Széklers, [Székély], in György Györffy, "Der Ursprung der Székler und ihre Siedlungsgeschichte", in E. Mályusz ed., Siebenbürgen und seine Völkerschaften, (Budapest-Leipzig: 1943); K. Schünemann, "Zur Herkunft der Siebenbürger Székler", in Ungarische Jahrbücher, vol. IV, 1924; Gy. Sebestyén, A székelyek neve és eredete [Name and Origin of the Széklers], (Budapest: 1897); Bálint Hóman, "Der Ursprung der Székler", in Ungarische Jahrbücher, vol. II, 1922.

5. While a large proportion of the inhabitants of the districts and seats were free and enjoyed autonomous rights, the inhabitants of the counties, which were based on the feudal system, were nobles and serfs.

6. When the county boundaries were redrawn in 1968, the historical names of three Székler counties were abolished. Udvarhely and Csík Counties were combined under the name of Harghita, and the name of Háromszék County was changed to Covasna.

7. "Csángó" is probably the derivative of an archaic verb that meant "wandering away" or "breaking away."

8. About 13,000 Bucovina-Csángó Magyars were resettled to the Bácska (Hungarian until 1918 and now Yugoslavia) after the annexation of Northern Bucovina by the Soviets in 1941. They were resettled from there to Hungary in 1945.

9. See among others, Mózes Rubinyi, "A moldvai csángók múltja és jelenje," [The Past and the Present of the Csángó of Moldavia], in Ethnographia, Budapest, vol. 1901, p. 115; Pál Péter Domokos, A moldvai magyarság [The Hungarians of Moldavia], (Csíksomlyó: 1931), p. 15.

10. See László Mikecs, "A Kárpátokon túli magyarság" ["The Hungarians Beyond the Carpathians"], in József Deér and László Gáldi, eds., Magyarok és románok [Hungarians and Romanians], (Budapest: 1943), vol. 1, p. 446. On the Moldavian and Bucovinan Csángós, the following works provide excellent and detailed information: Ernst Wagner, "Ungarn (Csangonen) in der Moldau und in der Bukowina im Spiegel neuerer rumänischer Quellen-editionen", in Zeitschrift fur Siebenbürgische Landeskunde, 3. (74) vol., no. 1/80, pp. 27-47; Hugo Weczerka, Das mittelalterliche und frühneuzeitliche Deutschtum im Fürstentum Moldau, (München: 1960.)

11. Zoltán Kallós, Balladák könyve [Book of Ballads], (Bucharest: 1970.)

12. The name "Saxon" comes quite likely from a word in Latin, the official language of Hungary in the Middle Ages. On the history of the Transylvanian Saxons see, for example, Georg Daniel Teutsch and Friedrich Teutsch, Geschichte der Siebenbürger Sachsen für das sächsische Volk, vols. 1-4 (Hermannstadt: 1907-1926); Friedrich Teutsch, Kleine Geschichte der Siebenbürger Sachsen. Mit einem Nachwort von A. Möckel (Darmstadt: 1965); Ernst Wagner, Quellen zur Geschichte der Siebenbürger Sachsen 1191-1975, (Köln-Wien: 1976); K.K. Klein, Transsylvanica. Gesammelte Abhandlungen und Aufsätze zur Sprach -- und Siedlungsforschung der Deutschen in Siebenbürgen, (München: 1963).

13. "Königsboden," the name of a large part of the area inhabited by the Saxons, consisted of Saxon seats and districts; but approximately one-third of the Saxon settlers did not live in this area. The Königsboden's inhabitants -- Hungarians and Romanians as well as Saxons -- were free.

14. See F. Zimmermann and C. Werner, Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der Deutschen in Siebenbürgen, vol. I, document no. 19, p. 11 The Barcaság (in German Burzenland; in Romanian, Tara Birsei) is a flat area in the south eastern part of Transylvania, between the Olt River and the southern Carpathians.

15. Urkundenbuch, doc. 43, p. 32.

16. See F.H. Riedl, Das Südostdeutschtum in den Jahren 1918-1945, (München: 1962), p. 46.

17. On the history of the Romanians see, for example, Nicolae Iorga, Istoria Romanilor [The History of the Romanians], vols. I-X, (Bucharest: 1936-39); C.C. Giurescu and D.C. Giurescu, Istoria Romanilor din cele mai vechi timpuri pina astazi [The History of the Romanians from the Most Ancient Times to the Present], (Bucharest, 2nd ed.: 1975); Robert W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Roumanians; from Roman Times to the Completion of Unity, (Cambridge: 1934), 2nd ed. USA: 1963); Georg Stadtmüller, Geschichte Südosteuropas, (München: 1950); Grundfragen der europäischen Geschichte, (München-Wien: 1965); Alexandru Philippide, Originea Romanilor [The Origin of the Romanians], vols. I-II (Iasi: 1923-1927); A. D. Xenopol, Une enigme historique: les roumains au moyen-age, (Paris: 1885); L. Gáldi and L. Makkai, A románok története [The History of the Romanians], (Budapest: 1942); André Du Nay, The Early History of the Rumanian Language, (Lake Bluff, USA: 1977); Constantin C. Giurescu and Dinu C. Giurescu, Geschichte der Rumänen, (Bucharest: 1980).

18. Historical documents refer to the presence of the Romanians in the territory of Transylvania for the first time: 1222, in: Zimmermann and Werner, Urkundenbuch, document 31, p. 18-20; 1223: Silva Blacorum et Bissenorum, am Nordrand der Fogarascher Gebierge, doc. 43, pp. 32-35; the Abbey of Kerz (Kerzer Abtei) as "terra exempta de Blaccis" in: Urkundenbuch, doc. 38, pp. 26-28.

19. The word ispán came into Hungarian from the Slav zupan, meaning, in this case, "lord."

20. For more detail on this see the chapter entitled "The Churches of the National Minorities in Romania".

21. Zoltán I. Tóth, "Román vonatkozású magyar történeti irodalom" ("Hungarian Historical Literature with Romanian Connections,"), Hitel (Credit), no. 2, Kolozsvár, 1943, p. 125; Elemér, Mályusz, "A magyarság és a nemzetiségek Mohács elött" ("The Hungarians and the Nationalities before Mohács"), in Magyar müvelödéstörténet [Hungarian Cultural History], (Budapest: 1942), pp. 105-124.

22. The Hungarians, moving east beyond the Carpathians, inhabited a sizable area of the Romanian voivodship for several centuries. Secuieni, for example, was a county inhabited by Széklers and Romanians in Wallachia, the present-day Muntenia; the political division disappeared only in 1845. See C.C. Giurescu, Judetele disparute din Tara Romaneasca [Vanished Counties in the Romanian Voivodships], (Bucharest: 1937), pp. 17-18.

23. Elemér Mályusz, "A magyarság és a nemzetiségek Mohács elött", op. cit., pp. 109-124.

24. See István Bakács, "A török hódoltság korának népessége," ("The Population in the Age of Turkish Domination"), in József Kovacsics, ed., Magyarország történeti demográfiája [The Historical Demography of Hungary], (Budapest: 1963), pp. 115-142.

25. See, for example, Zsigmond Jakó, "A románság megtelepülése az újkorban" ("The Settling of the Romanians in the Modern Period") in Elemér Mályusz, ed., Erdély és népei [Transylvania and its Peoples], (Budapest: 1941), pp. 118-141; Attila T. Szabó, "A románok újabb kori erdélyi betelepülése" ("The Immigration into Transylvania by the Romanians in the Modern Period"), Hitel, June 1942; László Makkai, "Északerdély nemzetiségi viszonyainak a kialakulása" ("The Development of the Nationality Conditions in Northern Transylvania"), Hitel, July l942; G. Müller, "Die ursprüngliche Rechtslage der Rumänen im Siebenbürger Sachsenlande," in Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte der Deutschen in Ungarn, (Hermannstadt: 1912), vol. 1.

26. The Romanian Voivodships or Romanian Principalities (or Danubian Principalities) consisted of the territories of Wallachia and Moldavia, which gained their independence in the fourteenth century. In the fifteenth century they came under Turkish rule; and they merged in 1859. These principalities were formed where the Cumanians and Petchenegues had settled; a part of the principalities, an area that was known as Ungro-Wallachia, was under Hungarian sovereignty during the Middle Ages.

27. The Fanariots were the rulers of the Danubian Principalities from the beginning of the eighteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. They received the name "Fanariot" from the Fanar district of Constantinople. They were trusted agents of the Turkish court.

28. Zoltán David, "Az 1715-20 évi összeírás" ("The 1715-20 Population Register"), in A történeti statisztika forrásai [The Sources of Historical Statistics], (Budapest: 1957), p. 172.

29. The data are based on approximate calculations made from Austrian statistics; see B. Hóman and Gy. Szekfü, Magyar történet [Hungarian History], (Budapest: 1936), vol. VI, pp. 443-444; see also R. W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Roumanians, (Connecticut: 1963), p. 177.

30. See Nicolae Togan, "Romanii din Transilvania la 1733. Conscriptia episcopului Ioan In. Klein de Sadu," [The Transylvanian Romanians in 1733. The Population Register of Bishop Ioan In. Klein de Sadu], in Transilvania, Sibiu 1898, vol. XXIX.; Augustin Bunea, "Statistica Romanilor in anul 1750," in Transilvania, no. 32., (1901), pp. 237-292.

31. Based on statistics given by C. A. Macartney, Hungary and Her Successors, (London: 1937), p. 264.

32. Ibid.

33. On the Swabians of the Banat, the following works provide excellent information: E. Eisenburger, M. Kroner, eds., Sächsisch-schwäbische Chronik. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Heimat, (Bucharest: 1976), pp. 81-93, 107-110, 133-139; Johann Wolf, "Wie kamen im 18. Jahrhundert die deutschen Kolonisten ins Banat", in Forschungen zur Volks- und Landeskunde, Hermannstadt, vol. 16/2, 1973, pp. 5-20.; Anton Tafferner, Quellenbuch zur donauschwäbischen Geschichte, vol. 1, (München: 1974), vol. 2., (Stuttgart: 1977), vol. 3., (Stuttgart: 1978).

34. The Romanian Banat is in the southwestern part of Romania, situated between the Mures, Tisza and Danube Rivers and comprises Timis-Torontal and Caras-Severin Counties.

35. See Transilvania, Banatul, Crisana si Maramuresul 1918-1928, vols. I-III, (Bucharest: 1929), p. 653.

36. See Die Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild, vol. IV, Hungary, (Vienna: 1902), pp. 238. et seq.

37. Data from E. Wagner's work, Historisch-statistisches Ortsnamenbuch für Siebenbürgen, (Cologne-Vienna: 1977), p. 75.

38. In Oradea/Nagyvárad 97.4 percent of the Jews were Hungarian-speaking, in Satu Mare/Szatmár 94.1 percent, in Arad 96.1 percent, in Timisoara/Temesvár 65.3 percent, and in Cluj/Kolozsvár 93.2 percent. See László Fritz, "Az erdélyi magyar anyanyelvü zsidóság" ("The Hungarian-Speaking Jews of Transylvania"), in Erdélyi Magyar Évkönyv 1918-1929 [Transylvanian Hungarian Yearbook 1918-1929], (Cluj: 1930), pp. 109-117.

39. The data relating to language in the 1910 Hungarian census is published parish by parish in Magyar Statisztikai Közlemények [Hungarian Statistical Papers], new series, vol. 42, (Budapest: 1912); also see József Kovacsics, ed., Magyarország történeti demográfiája. Magyarország népessége a honfoglalástól 1949-ig [The Historical Demography of Hungary. The Population of Hungary from the Conquest of the Homeland until 1949)], (Budapest: 1963). The Jewish population was not classified according to language in the Hungarian census of 1910. For information on the Romanian census, see R. W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Roumanians, new ed., USA l963, pp. 566-567.

40. Together with Fiume (21,000 square kilometers) as well as Croatia and Slovenia (43,822 square kilometers). Figures relating to the size of the territory of historic Hungary vary according to the source. In the Magyar Statisztikai Szemle, nos. 7-8, 1923, p. 289, the 1910 data give the area as 325,411 square kilometers; according to the 1880 data the area was 322,939 square kilometers.

41. See G. Schacher, Die Nachfolgestaaten-Österreich, Ungarn, Tschechoslowakei - und ihre wirtschaftliche Kräfte, (Stuttgart: 1932), p. 2; also see Magyar Statisztikai Szemle, nos. 7-8, 1923.

42. In Transylvanian usage the term "Regat" does not include Bucovina and Southern Dobrugea.

43. The Bucovina was acquired by the Habsburgs after the first Partition of Poland (1775); it remained an Austrian possession until 1918 when it was attached to Romania. Since 1940, Northern Bucovina has belonged to the Soviet Union.

44. Situated between the Danube, the Balkan Mountains, and the Black Sea, Dobrugea is an area of Romania and Bulgaria. Northern Dobrugea was taken from Bulgaria and granted to Romania by the Treaty of San Stefano (1878), and its modification by the Congress of Berlin (1878). Romania acquired Southern Dobrugea in the 1913 Balkan War; it was, however, returned to Bulgaria by the Craiova Agreement of September 7, 1940.

45. Data by the Hungarian National Refugee Office. This number increased to 260,000 by 1938. Also see H. Bogdan, Le problème des minorités nationales dans les "États-Successeurs" de l'Autriche-Hongrie, (Louvain: 1976), p. 13.

46. See E. Mesaros, "Inceputurile statisticii migratiei externe a populatiei in Romania" ["The Statistical Beginnings of the External Migrations of the Population of Romania"], Revista de Statistica [Statistical Review], 6, Bucharest, 1969, pp. 47-48.

47. See Nation und Staat, vol. 14, Vienna, 1940-41, p. 14.

48. See H. Hartl, Das Schicksal des Deutschtums in Rumänien, (Würzburg: 1958), p. 35.

49. We find the figure for the German population too low; in our estimation it reached 70,000.

50. See Recensamantul general al Romaniei din 6 aprilie 1941: Date sumare provizorii [The General Romanian Census of April 6, 1941. Preliminary Summary Data], Bucharest, Institutul Central de Statistica, 1944, Table I, p. ix; "Rezultatele Recensamantului maghiar 1941" ["The Results of the Hungarian Census of 1941"], Comunicari Statistice, no. 1, Bucharest, January 15, 1945, Table 18, pp. 14-15; also see Lajos Thirring, "A visszacsatolt keleti terület. Terület és népesség" ["The Re-Annexed Eastern Territory. Territory and Population"], Magyar Statisztikai Szemle, nos. 8-9, Budapest, 1940, p. 663.

51. Magyar Statisztikai Szemle, nos. 9-12, 1944, pp. 394-410.

52. On the loss of the German population in Romania during World War 11 the following works provide detailed information: Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa. Vol. 111: Das Schicksal der Deutschen in Rumänien, edited by the Bundesministerium für Vertriebene, Flüchtlinge und Kriegsgeschädigte, (Berlin: 1957); see also Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanz für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939-1950, edited by the Statistisches Bundesamt, (Wiesbaden-Stuttgart: 1958), Supplement, W. Krallert; Hans Hartl, Das Schicksal des Deutschtums in Rumänien, (Würzburg: 1958).

53. See Krallert's findings in Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste, p. 473.

54. Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa, p. 80 E.

55. Ibid., p. 112 E.

56. Ibid.

57. Data by the Bundesausgleichsamt.

58. The population data of some of the territories (Bessarabia, Northern Bucovina, Southern Dobrugea) lost in 1940 by Romania are not included in this figure.

59. Sabin Manuila and W. Filderman, "Regional Development of the Jewish Population in Romania," Genus, vol. XIII, nos. 1-4, Rome, 1957, p. 162.

60. See E. Wagner, Historisch-statistisches Ortsnamenbuch für Siebenbürgen, p. 75.

61. S. Fischer-Galati, ed., Romania, p. 38.

62. For more detail on this, see Matatias Carp, Cartea neagra -- fapte si documente -- suferintele evreilor din Romania 1940-1944 [Black Book Facts and Documents -- The Sufferings of the Romanian Jews, 1940-1944], (Bucharest: 1946); Oscar 1. Janowsky, People at Bay: The Jewish Problem in East Central Europe, (London: 1938); Peter Meyer, The Jews in the Soviet Satellites, (Syracuse, N.Y.: 1953).

63. Data is cited from S. Fischer-Galati, ed., Romania, p. 38.

64. See The Statistical Bulletin of Israel, vol. 3, October-April, 1952-1953.

65. S. Fischer-Galati, ed., Romania, p. 39.

66. See Los Angeles Times, November 11, 1976.

67. See RFE (Radio Free Europe) Special, Washington, January 18, 1977.

68. See the preliminary results of the official Romanian census of January 5, 1977, in Scinteia (The Spark), the official daily of the Romanian Communist Party, Bucharest, June 14, 1977, and in Revista de Statistica, June, 1977.

69. According to some sources approximately 250,000 Jews in the Regat had already become fully assimilated before the First World War. (See C. A. Macartney and A.W. Palmer, Independent Eastern Europe, (London-New York: 1962), p. 168.

Elemér Illyés : National Minorities in Romania