National identity in Romania and the "other"

Broad definition of national identity

While national identity is a concept that cannot be easily categorized, it can be broadly defined as an individual’s relationship with the nation that they belong to and how that relationship affects their sense of belonging and perception of self (Triandafyllidou, 1998, 595). Since each nation has its own unique culture and history, members of said nation will bond with one another through their shared experiences, creating a strong sense of unity. This leads to the development of nationalism and the desire to assert their nation’s uniqueness while distinguishing themselves from other nations or ethnic groups. However, there is great nuance to how each nation’s identity is developed, as there are many different factors that could further that development such as language, historical events, or conflict with “significant others”-other nations or ethnic groups that are seen as a threat to their nation (Triandafyllidou, 1998, 600). In this case, Romania’s national identity (and treatment of “significant others”) has been shaped by factors such as their strong religious beliefs and the struggle to redefine themselves post-communism.

 

Identity fueled by religion-the significance of the Romanian Orthodox Church

A key part of Romanian national identity is religion, specifically the Romanian Orthodox Church. Statistically, Romania is one of the most religious countries in Europe, with 81.9 percent of the population identifying as Eastern Orthodox (CIA World Factbook, 2021). While the significance of Orthodoxy in Romanian identity is in some part due to the religion itself, it is also rooted in the Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC)’s efforts to promote a strong sense of nationalism and unity throughout history.

After Romania became unified with several smaller neighboring regions in 1919, the ROC promoted the idea that Orthodoxy was an essential part of Romanianism (an imagined shared identity between Romania and these smaller regions). However, the introduction of these new territories into Romania created a religious divide between the ROC and the Greek Catholic Church (Adams, 2016, 19). Thus, the Greek Catholic Church became an internal significant other-an ingroup threatening the national identity that had previously been established (Triandafyllidou, 1998, 601). This led to a stronger link between the ROC and Romanian national identity, as they continued to promote Orthodoxy as being intrinsically linked to what it meant to be Romanian. While tensions in Europe increased, these religious disputes continued, and the ROC struggled to gain and maintain political power as Romanian territories were lost to other nations. Despite originally fighting with Germany, Romania ended up fighting alongside the Red Army, which helped them recover northwest Transylvania through peace settlements with the Soviets (Adams, 2016, 21). In 1946, the ROC was revitalized. The following year Romania was completely taken over by communists and there was a law passed regulating religious freedom, a decision that most ROC leaders accepted begrudgingly as a matter of survival (Adams, 2016, 21). In 1948 the Greek Catholic Church was “united” with the ROC and ended up being completely abolished, meaning that a previous internal significant other was no longer a “threat” to Romanian identity (Adams, 2016, 22). Conflicts between the communists and opposing ROC members were resolved, and the church had little opposition going forward.

To solidify their presence in Romanian culture and gain legitimacy, the ROC promoted a narrative that blurred the lines between historical fact and religious messages. They would often combine historical events with themes of mythology they could tie back to their religion and reinterpreted those events to support their narrative that religious unity was key to being a strong Romanian nation (Adams, 2016, 25). Nationalists also promoted the idea that Romanian Orthodoxy was the most visible characteristic that set Romanians apart from other nations and ethnic groups and tried to strengthen the connection between the church and history in order to promote this idea (Adams, 2016, 26). When combined with generations of foreign dominance and oppression in Romania that created a distrust of other groups, this led to the “othering” of smaller ethnic minorities within Romania such as Hungarians, Jews, Germans, and Roma. Through this idea of a culturally and ethnically unified society, marginalization and oppression of these minority groups was justified, as they were not seen as true Romanians. This marginalization continues today, especially against Roma people-according to a 2020 survey by the Institutul Român (Romanian Institute), 51% of Romanians said that they “[had] little trust” for Roma people, and 19% said they “[didn’t] trust them” at all, meaning on average seven out of ten Romanians still hold discriminatory views towards Roma (Sava, 2020). While the nationalistic ideas promoted by the Romanian Orthodox Church have strengthened Romanian national identity, they have also paved the way for religious and ethnic discrimination, a problem that continues to be prevalent even today.

 

Aftermath of communism

A year after the Soviets claimed control of Romania, a group of communists won 84 percent of the seats in parliament, leading to complete communist control and the creation of the Romanian People’s Republic (Adams, 2016, 21). Under this communist regime, a new kind of nationalism developed-the idea that Romanians must be united as a working class with no religious, racial, or class differences (Badila, 1998, 18-19). While this idea promoted themes of unity essential to national identity, it also was detrimental to the ethnic minorities living in Romania. Under communist dictator Ceausescu, a doctrine justifying historical precedence of Romanians over any other nations or ethnic groups (both external and internal significant others) was adopted. This ideology was used to marginalize and forcibly assimilate ethnic minorities through practices such as closing all Hungarian language schools (Adams, 2016, 31-32). Despite his claims to protect and promote Romanian heritage, Ceausescu later adopted a policy known as the “systemization policy”, which involved the destruction of not only the cultural heritage of minorities, but also the heritage of Romanians themselves. To do so, he ordered the destruction of churches, historical buildings, and even entire villages (Badila, 1998, 20). This made him a major threat to Romanians’ national identity, as he was trying to destroy the very culture it was built upon.

These tensions between Ceausescu and the Romanian people reached a boiling point in December of 1989, when he ordered his troops to open fire on protestors during an uprising in western city Timisoara over the removal of a Hungarian priest, killing and injuring hundreds of people (Adams, 2016, 33). This sparked more protests, all of which were met with violence from the government troops, and a revolution began. After this revolution Ceausescu and his family were executed, but there had been major casualties; over 1,000 Romanians were killed, and 3,000 were injured. Ceausescu’s control over Romania had been detrimental to Romanian national identity, and now Romania was faced with the challenge of moving on from its communist past and redefining what it meant to be Romanian. Trying to transition to democracy, the National Salvation Front (a political platform meant to temporarily rule the country until elections could take effect) passed a law that allowed Romanian citizens to create their own political parties (Badila, 1998, 21). Several popular new political parties promoted extreme nationalist views, playing on the fears that Romanians had developed from having their national identity consistently threatened. They painted ethnic minorities in a negative light, and as a result, these minorities were seen as internal significant others. Through this nationalist propaganda, Romanians redefined their identity, but also developed deep-rooted prejudices against minorities.

 

Conclusion

To summarize, Romania’s national identity has been shaped by religion and the fight to maintain autonomy through the period of communist rule, which has resulted in religious values and nationalism being key components of national identity. However, while this has promoted positive ideas of national pride it has also promoted xenophobic and discriminatory attitudes that are still present even today, especially against Jewish and Roma people. Moving forward, Romania must continue to reexamine its relationship with nationalism and find a way to define Romanian identity without marginalizing others.

References

Adams, K. (2016). God, Mythology, Nationalism, and Romanian Identity: The Post-Communist Transition to Democracy. University of Delaware.

Badila, A. (1998). Nationalism in Romania -possible ways to decrease the nationalist behaviour and the public support for nationalist parties-. North Atlantic Fellowship Programme.

Sava, J. (2020). Romanians’ trust in minority groups 2020. Institutul Român. Retrieved January 26, 2022 from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1130968/romania-trust-in-minority-groups/

Central Intelligence Agency (2021). Romania. In CIA World Factbook. Retrieved January 26, 2022 from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/romania/

Triandafyllidou, A. (1998). National identity and the “Other". Ethnic and Racial Studies, 21(4), 593–612. https://doi.org/10.1080/014198798329784