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

The Idea of Independent Romanian National Economy in Transylvaniasought legitimation through the cultural values of the nation. 44 An evenstronger connection was created between the middle class and the peasantryby the brochures disseminating the new economic conceptions, aswitnessed by Romul Simu’s fictive monography. In this respect, the activityof ASTRA served the aim of general education in two ways: it establisheda rural library network and published cheap books to enrich thestock of these libraries. The first volume of the series Biblioteca poporalãappeared in 1900 and the literary, scientific, economic and historical sectionsof the association published 37 booklets in ten years, generally in2-3000 copies. 45 In 1910, it was decided that ten brochures and a calendarwould be published every year. The number of subscriptions reached11,851 in 1912, while the number of copies reached 15,000. 46 The succesfulcultural and educational activities of ASTRA were also recognized bysome Hungarian contemporaries, such as the architect Károly Kós. In theBudapesti Hírlap, Kós reported on the fiftieth anniversary meeting ofASTRA with the following – anguished and appreciative – words:I could see in Balázsfalva some six thousand people flocking together:some gentlemen and ladies from Romania and from all the angles of ourcountry; some prelates, professors, landowners, lawyers and deputies;poor preachers and schoolteachers, craftsmen, merchants and countrymen– a whole society. These numerous and different people came hereall from enthusiasm, on their own choice; not to drink, not to revel, butonly to enthuse, to learn, to listen to their leaders and to engrave thosewords upon their memory in order to take home, for another ten years,some love of work and national consciousness to those who remained athome. We, Hungarians, cannot imitate them. 47By the turn of the century, the leading cultural association of the Romaniansbecame an extensive national institution (by the end of 1906, itsproperty was worth 884,812 koronas). Besides this, many other voluntaryassociations and charity foundations existed. 48 The crowning of theseefforts was the creation of special schools and high schools. A high commercialschool already existed in Kronstadt and contemporaries spoke ofit enthusiastically. 49 Nevertheless, an agricultural school was even morenecessary as a primary condition for the economic emancipation of theRomanian peasants. 50 As far as higher education is concerned, the firstresolution of Blaj, in May 1848, demanded an independent Romanian universityat state expense. Of course, this demand was quite unrealistic, evenin peacetime: in December 1850, the Minister of Education, Leo Thun,told the Romanian delegates who petitioned him for a Romanian philosophicaland a law faculty in Kolozsvár (Cluj/Klausenburg) that it was215