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

DRAGOº PETRESCUminorities’ strategies of self-affirmation and the way in which state authoritiesand ethnic majorities have reacted to such strategies. In order toaddress the Romanian case, I would propose first to take a brief look atthe ethnic composition of some Central and Southeast European countriesin the early 1990s.The Czech Republic and Slovakia emerged as independentrepublics on 1 January 1993. In the Czech Republic, at the beginning ofthe 1990s, the ethnic structure of the population was the following:Czechs and Moravians 94.4%, Slovaks 3.1%, Poles 0.6%, Germans0.5%, Silesians 0.4%, Gypsies/Roma 0.3%, and Hungarians 0.2%. Therest (0.5%) was made up of other ethnic groups (March 1991 estimate).10 A 1996 estimate provided the following data on Slovakia’s ethnicstructure: Slovaks 85.7%, Hungarians 10.6%, Gypsies/Roma 1.6%,Czechs and Silesians 1.1%, Ruthenians and Ukrainians 0.6%, Germans0.1%, Poles 0.1%, and others 0.2%. 11 In the case of Hungary, 89.9% ofthe population was classified as ethnic Hungarian, 4% as Gypsy/Roma,2.6% as German, 2% as Serbian, 0.8% as Slovak, and 0.7% as Romanian.12 In 1990, the ethnic structure of Poland was the following: Poles97.6%, Germans 1.3%, Ukrainians 0.6%, Belorussians 0.5%. The restwas made up of smaller groups of Slovaks, Czechs, Lithuanians, Russians,Gypsies, and Jews. 13At the beginning of 1990s, Romania’s ethnic structure was the following:Romanians 89.5%, Hungarians 7.1%, and Germans 0.5%, while theGypsy/Roma community amounted to 1.8% of the total population (accordingto a 1992 estimate). Romania also had small minorities (under 1%) ofUkrainians, Jews, Russians, Serbs, Croats, Turks, Bulgarians, Tartars, andSlovaks. 14 In the case of Bulgaria, according to a 1998 estimate, 83% of thepopulation was classified as ethnic Bulgarian, 8.5% as Turkish, and 2.6% asGypsy/Roma. The rest was made up of small groups of Armenians, Macedonians,Greeks, Tartars, etc. 15The analysis of the ethnic structure of Poland, Hungary and CzechRepublic on the one hand, and of Romania and Bulgaria, on the other,reveals that there were no crucial differences in terms of ethnic homogeneitybetween these countries. In fact, all these countries have a majoritythat makes up around 85% of the total population. (As shown above,89.5% of Romania’s population was classified as ethnic Romanian, 83%of Bulgaria’s population was classified as ethnic Bulgarian and 85.7% ofSlovakia’s population was classified as Slovak.) What is a major elementof the differentiation is the existence of a compact and relatively largenational minority within the borders of these post-communist states.In this respect, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as the Central EuropeanSlovakia had larger national minorities than Poland, Hungary and the278