Abstract
This chapter traces the role that Romanian mountains have been playing in political dissidence of the past and present. While during the communist regime, the mountains were home to groups of people who opposed what they understood as Soviet occupation, Romanians in the twenty-first century reenact a sense of foreign siege and prepare for an invasion from the West. Romania’s ethno-nationalism is crystalized in people’s relationship with land: their reactions to colonization and collectivization of agricultural land are balanced by their understanding that the mountains will always be a sacred, safe shelter from invaders. The chapter traces possible logics that explain the political leanings of the Carpathians as sentient beings. In particular, the chapter follows the ways in which the Carpathians have been imagined as spaces of resistance against political oppression.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEte8Cwg_l4, accessed Mar 24, 2022.
- 2.
https://gogupuiu.ro/tabere-pentru-adolescenti/, accessed March 24, 2022.
- 3.
- 4.
References
Aligica, P. D., & Evans, A. J. (2009). The neoliberal revolution in Eastern Europe: Economic ideas in the transition from communism. Elgar.
Bandelj, N. (2016). On postsocialist capitalism. Theory and Society, 45(1), 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-016-9265-z
Barkun, M. (2003). A culture of conspiracy: Apocalyptic visions in contemporary America. University of California Press.
Ben-Ghiat, R. (2001). Introduction. In R. Ben-Ghiat (Ed.), Fascist modernities, Italy, 1922-1945 (pp. 1–15). University of Chicago Press.
Bilewicz, M., Winiewski, M., & Soral, W. (2013). Antysemityzm w Polsce w świetle badań psychologicznych. Retrieved from http://cbu.psychologia.pl/uploads/f_winiewski/PPS2%20raporty/raport_antysemityzm_ang.pdf
Bloch, A. (2017). “We are like slaves—Who needs capitalism?”: Intimate economies and marginal, mobile households. Sex, Love, and Migration, 3, 76–112. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501709418-007
Borenstein, E. (2019). Plots against Russia, conspiracy and fantasy after socialism. Cornell University Press.
Bubociu, O., Dégh, L., Filipović, M. S., & Gavazzi, M. (1966). Folklore and ethnography in Rumania [and comments and reply]. Current Anthropology, 7(3), 295–314. https://doi.org/10.1086/200719
Byford, J. (2011). Conspiracy theories: A critical introduction. Palgrave Macmillan.
Ciobanu, M. (2009). Criminalising the past and reconstructing collective memory: The Romanian Truth Commission. Europe-Asia Studies, 61(2), 313–336. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668130802630870
Clark, R. (2012). Anti-masonry as political protest: Fascists and freemasons in interwar Romania. Patterns of Prejudice, 46(1), 40–57.
Clark, R. (2015). Claiming ethnic privilege: Aromanian immigrants and Romanian fascist politics. Contemporary European History, 24(1), 37–58. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0960777314000411
Colăcel, O., & Pintilescu, C. (2017). From literary culture to post-communist media: Romanian conspiracism. Messages, Sages, and Ages, 4(2), 31–40. https://doi.org/10.1515/msas-2017-0007
Dobrincu, D. (2003). Macedo-românii și rezistența armată anticomunistă din Dobrogea (1948–1952). In Interferențe româno-elene (secolele XV–XX): Leonidas Rados/Fundația Academică (pp. 233–275). A.D. Xenopol.
Dobrincu, D. (2006). Anticommunist resistance groups [Leon Şuşman, Simion Roşa, Leon Şuşman-Simion Roşa] in Central Transylvania – The Apuseni Mountains (1948-1957). Revue Roumaine d’Histoire, XLV(1–4), 245–265.
Dobrincu, D. (2007). Rezistenţa armată anticomunistă din Munţii Făgăraş – versantul nordic. “Grupul carpatin făgărăşan”/grupul Ion Gavrilă (1949/1950–1955/1956). Series historica, XLVI, 433–502.
Girard, P. (2012). Les complots politiques en France et enItalie de la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale à la fin des années 1950 [Political conspiracies in France and Italy from the end of World War II to the end of the 1950s]. PhD dissertation, European University Institute, Florence.
Groh, D. (1987). The temptation of conspiracy theory, or: Why do bad things happen to good people? Part II: Case studies. In C. F. Graumann & S. Moscovici (Eds.), Changing conceptions of conspiracy (pp. 15–37). Springer.
Hann, C. (2015). Backwardness revisited: Time, space, and civilization in rural Eastern Europe. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 57(4), 881–911. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0010417515000389
Kalb, D. (2019). 12. Post-socialist contradictions: The social question in central and Eastern Europe and the making of the illiberal right. In The social question in the twenty-first century (pp. 208–226). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520972483-015
Kogălniceanu, M. (1988). Scrieri literare, sociale și istorice. Litera International.
Markham, R. (1950). Communists crush churches in Eastern Europe. Meador Publishing.
Melley, T. (2011). Brain warfare: The covert sphere, terrorism, and the legacy of the cold war. Grey Room, 45, 19–40.
Mudde, C. (2000). In the name of the peasantry, the proletariat and the people: Populisms in Eastern Europe. East European Politics and Societies, 15, 33–53.
Nicolescu, V. Q. (2014). Nature and identity in the construction of the Romanian concept of nation. Environment and History, 20(1), 123–141. https://doi.org/10.3197/096734014x13851121443526
Rogers, D., & Verdery, K. (2012). Postsocialist societies: Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In The handbook of sociocultural anthropology (pp. 439–455). Springer. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003086987-30
Roth, E. R. (2016). The Romanian revolution of 1989 and the veracity of the external subversion theory. Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 24(1), 37–50.
Rusu, M. S. (2017). Transitional politics of memory: Political strategies of managing the past in post-communist Romania. Europe-Asia Studies, 69(8), 1257–1279. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2017.1380783
Schumpeter, J. A. (2008). Capitalism, socialism, and democracy. 3rd ed. New York: Harper. First published 1942.
Shafir, M. (2008). From historical to “dialectical” populism: The case of post-communist Romania. Canadian Slavonic Papers, 50(3–4), 425–470. https://doi.org/10.1080/00085006.2008.11092591
Stan, L. (2013). Reckoning with the communist past in Romania: A scorecard. Europe-Asia Studies, 65(1), 127–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2012.698052
Swain, N. (2011). A post-socialist capitalism. Europe-Asia Studies, 63(9), 1671–1695.
Verdery, K. (1991). National ideology under socialism. University of California Press.
Verdery, K. (2010). A Romanianist’s perspective on 1989. Focaal, 58, 117–120. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2010.580114
Voicu, G. (2004). The notion of ‘Judeo-Bolshevism’ in Romanian wartime press. Studia Hebraica, 4, 55–68.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cotofana, A. (2022). Militant Topographies and National Identity. In: Xenophobic Mountains. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13112-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13112-7_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-13111-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-13112-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)