Premium
“We Have Wines of All Kinds: Red, White, and Green”: Romanian Reactions to the Hungarian Uprising in 1956 *
Author(s) -
Granville Johanna
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
australian journal of politics and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-8497
pISSN - 0004-9522
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8497.2008.00494.x
Subject(s) - romanian , communism , memoir , political science , white (mutation) , communist state , economic history , history , law , politics , philosophy , linguistics , biochemistry , chemistry , gene
Drawing on memoirs, archival documents, and recent scholarship, this article examines the reverberations of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 in three Romanian cities, Bucharest, Cluj‐Napoca, and Timişoara. Before the collapse of communism in Romania in 1989, a stereotype prevailed that, in contrast to the youth in Hungary, as well as in Poland and Czechoslovakia, Romanian students were too “cowardly” to voice their opinion of the events of the 1950s, including the Hungarian revolt. After the communist regime's collapse, Romanian scholars working with new archival documents debunked this conception, claiming that a student protest “movement” and widespread “demonstrations” ( manifestarile ) did indeed occur throughout Romania. The truth lies somewhere in‐between. Romanian university students were neither too “timid” to speak their minds about the need for reforms, nor tightly united in a movement with a central leadership and specific agenda.