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

RÃZVAN PÂRÂIANUThese are the general coordinates of the scandal around the first postcommunistgeneration of history textbooks in Romania, which erupted inthe fall of 1999, and involved many prominent intellectuals. Almost all commentatorsconsidered that the scandal was initiated by the publication ofalternative textbooks for the last grade of high school. In reality, this scandalbrought to light very deep cultural tensions. The fact that the direct andpalpable results of the educational policy, namely the new textbooks, provokedthe popular imagination to such an extent is one of the main justificationsfor the present paper. 1 Besides, the scandal forced Romanian publiclife to focus on questions of national history. While revisiting some of thecomments, it is possible to create an overall perspective of the Romaniancultural landscape, a sort of thick description, in which each individual hashis own distinct position. It is too early to judge the effects of this reform,which tried to update the Romanian education to “European standards.”Nevertheless, the principal presupposition of this paper is that a radicalreform of history-teaching is painful and troublesome without an importantchange in the cultural sphere and in the public opinion.An Outline of the DebateOn 5 October 1999, Petru Bejinariu, at the time deputy of the oppositionPDSR (Party of Social Democracy in Romania, currently in power underthe name of the Social Democratic Party), called the Minister of NationalEducation to answer concerning one of the five alternative history textbooks,stating that “the history textbook for the twelfth grade is an attackagainst our national history.” The very same day, Sergiu Nicolaescu, anindependent senator and vice-president of the Committee of Culture,Arts and Mass Media, said in the Senate that “this textbook should beburned in a public square.” 2In the evening of the same day, the historian Sorin Mitu, the coordinatorof the incriminated textbook, was invited to the Marius Tucã Show,a popular talk show of Antena 1 TV channel. Marius Tucã, together withCristian Tudor Popescu, editor-in-chief of the daily Adevãrul, launcheda personal attack against Mitu. They denounced him as being the enemy ofthe nation. This presentation set the main coordinates and the tone for thedebates that followed. In the next two weeks, the polemic was sustained bythe main newspapers (Adevãrul, România Liberã, Jurnalul Naþional, EvenimentulZilei, Cotidianul), some cultural magazines (Dilema, Revista 22,România Literarã) and some party journals (Dimineaþa and România Mare).Very soon, the main accusations started to implicate the Minister of NationalEducation, Andrei Marga, and the viability of his education reform.94