Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

CRISTINA PETRESCUwhen escorting him to town. The peasant was finally acquitted in 1944, but hadto spend a lot of money to prove his cause.68 The experience of these Bessarabian refugees in “rump” Romania of 1940 wasalso extremely frustrating, since their “brothers” across the Prut treated themas second rank citizens. In this respect, see the memories of Paul Mihail,a priest from the county of Orhei, who, between 1940 and 1941, tried to integratehimself in Iaºi. See his Jurnal (1940-1944) ºi corespondenþã (Diary, 1940-1944, and correspondence) (Bucharest: Paideia, 1999).69 Personal information from my grandfather, Nicolae Mãgãleasa.70 For the emergence of the independent Republic of Moldova in the Gorbachevera, see Michael Bruchis, The Republic of Moldavia: From the Collapse of theSoviet Empire to the Restoration of the Russian Empire (Boulder: East EuropeanMonographs, 1996).71 However, it must be noted that Romania was the first country to recognize theindependence of the Republic of Moldova. Furthermore, it immediately introducedscholarships for the Moldovan students, allowed visa-free and passportfreecirculation between the two countries, and established inter-ministerialcommittees on bilateral relations. Cultural associations, such as Pro-Basarabiaºi Bucovina, were also established and networks of cooperation at a moreinformal level started to develop. Therefore, for a while, it seemed that the twocountries were heading towards unification. For a harsh criticism of both theRomanian and the Moldovan governments for their hesitation in accomplishingthe union when, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, political circumstanceswere favorable, see Alexandru Zub, Impasul reîntregirii (The deadlockof reunification) (Iaºi: Timpul, 1995).176