¹ “[N]icicând acest popor nu s'a prezentat în conditiuni mai impunatoare ca un element etnic superior, ca un factor important de civilizatiune şi ca o natiune înzestrata cu o vitalitate şi cu însuşiri şi talente mare, cari îi garanteaza cu viitor frumos şiun loc distins între popoarele din Orientul Europei.” Transilvania, 1905, p. 149.Google Scholar

² Keith Hitchins argues that intellectuals and white-collar professionals (including clergy and school teachers) constituted less than 2 percent of the Romanian population in Transylvania before the Great War in A Nation Affirmed: The Romanian National Movement in Transylvania, 1860–1914 (Bucharest, 1999), 106;Google Scholar and about 3 percent in idem, Rumania, 1866–1947 (Oxford, 1994), 218–19. In 1910, only4.5 percent of Romanians lived in urban centers.Google Scholar

³ Most studies of nation building and nationalism ignore the agency of local leaders and their followers who are all too often regarded as disinterested passive subjects. Notable exceptions include the important works of Keely Stauter-Halsted. See her The Nation in the Village: The Genesis of Peasant National Identity in Austrian Poland, 1848–1914 (Ithaca, 2001);Google Scholaridem, The Moral Community and Peasant Nationalism in Nineteenth-century Poland, in Transforming Peasants Society, State and the Peasantry, 1861–1930, ed. Judith, Pallot (New York, 1998), 73–89;Google Scholaridem, “Patriotic Celebrations in Austrian Poland: The Kosciuszko Centennial and the Formation of Peasant Nationalism,” Austrian History Yearbook 25 (1994): 79–95;Google Scholar and idem, “The Peasant Vision of the Polish Nation,” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Washington, D.C.,Oct. 26–29, 1995. For a better understanding of the agency of workers, see Steinberg, Mark D., Moral Communities: The Culture of Class Relations in the Russian Printing Industry, 1867–1907 (Berkeley, 1992).Google Scholar

⁴ For more information on this history, see John, Breuilly, Nationalism and the State (Chicago, 1982);Google ScholarBenedict, Anderson, Imagined Communities (London, 1983);Google ScholarErnest, Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Ithaca, 1983);Google ScholarHobsbawm, E. J. and Terence, Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983);Google ScholarKatherine, Verdery, Transylvanian Villagers: Three Centuries of Political, Economic, and Ethnic Change (Berkeley, 1983);Google ScholarSmith, Anthony D., The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford, 1986);Google ScholarRichard, Handler, Nationalism and the Politics of Culture in Quebec (Madison, 1988);Google ScholarBhabha, Homi K., ed., Nation and Narration (New York, 1990);Google ScholarHobsbawm, E. J., Nations and Nationalism since 1780 (Cambridge, 1990);Google ScholarLinda, Colley, Britons Forging the Nation, 1707–1837 (New Haven, 1992);Google ScholarPartha, Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments (Princeton, 1993);Google ScholarGillis, John R., ed., Commemorations: The Politics of National Identities (Princeton, 1994);Google ScholarPrasenjit, Duara, Rescuing History from the Nation (Chicago, 1995);Google ScholarMaria, Todorova, Imagining the Balkans (New York, 1997).Google Scholar Severalof these works are reviewed in Tanya, Dunlap, Nation-building and Nationalism: A Review Article, in Spiritualitate transilvana şi istorie europeana (Transylvanian spirituality and European history), ed. Iacob, Marza and Ana, Dumitran (Alba Iulia, 1999), 519–34.Google Scholar

⁵ Richard, Handler, “Is ‘Identity’ a Useful Cross-Cultural Concept?” in Commemorations, ed. Gillis, 29.Google Scholar The idea of homogeneity applies even in nations such as France, where the modern concept of the nation refers to the sovereign people with homogeneous rights and not explicitly homogeneous characteristics. As Rogers Brubaker argues, French nationalism was a political-ideological product of war, in which the nation, and hence citizenship, was based on territorial acquisition. Those residing in conquered territory administered by French armies were conceived as potential Frenchmen to be assimilated (read homogenized) in the dominant culture. Rogers, Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge, 1992).Google Scholar Likewise, British nationalism, sometimes seen as a compact agreement between individuals to defend certain freedoms, still assumes that the individuals have a homogeneous commitment to those freedoms. In the case of nationals believed to respect a principle, squabbles emerged when people tried to define the principle. Perceptions ofliberty or equality were rarely as alike as imagined. Linda Colley drives thispoint home in her excellent study, Britons Forging the Nation.Google ScholarSee also Gale, Stokes, Containing Nationalism: Solutions in the Balkans, Problems of Post-Communism 46 (July-Aug. 1999): 3–10.Google Scholar

⁶ See David, Prodan, Supplex LibellusValachorum (Bucharest, 1984);Google Scholar and Keith, Hitchins, The Idea of Nation: The Romanians of Transylvania, 1691–1848 (Bucharest, 1988).Google Scholar

⁷ Hutton, Patrick H., History as anArt of Memory (Hanover, 1993), 156.Google Scholar For more information on the differences between oral and print cultures, see Ong, Walter J., Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London, 1982);CrossRefGoogle Scholar and James, Fentress and Chris, Wickham, Social Memory(Oxford, 1992).Google Scholar

⁸ For more detailed descriptions of how groups form and regenerate through narration, see Bhabha, Homi K., “DissemiNation: Time, Narrative, and the Margins of the Modern Nation,” in Nation and Narration, ed. Bhabha, 291–332;Google Scholar and Duara, , Rescuing History.Google Scholar

⁹ Pompiliu, Teodor, Evoluta gîndirii istorice romaneşti (The evolution of Romanian historical thinking) (Cluj, 1970);Google Scholar and Mihai, Pop, ed., Istoria literaturii române (The history of Romanian literature), 2vols. (Bucharest, 1970).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Prodan, , Supplex;Google ScholarAugustin, Bunea, Din istoria românilor: Episcopul Ioan Inocentiu Klein (1728–1751) (From the history of the Romanians: Episcopul loan Inocentiu Klein) (Blaj, 1900);Google Scholar and Keith, Hitchins, A Nation Discovered: Romanian Intellectuals in Transylvania and the Idea of Nation, 1700–1848 (Bucharest, 1999).Google Scholar

¹¹ Prodan, , Supplex;Google ScholarTeodor, , Evolutia gîndirii;Google ScholarHitchins, , A Nation Discovered;Google Scholar and James, Niessen, ed.,Religious Compromise, Political Salvation: The Greek Catholic Church and Nation-Building in Eastern Europe, The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, 1003 (Pittsburgh, 1993).Google Scholar Representative examples of works of the Transylvanian School include Samuil, Micu-Klein, Scurta cunoştinta istoriei românilor (The brief acknowledgment of Romanian history), in Despre vechimea şi continuitatea românilor (On the antiquity and the continuity of the Romanians), ed. Anatol, Ghermanschi (Bucharest, 1989);Google ScholarGheorghe, Şincai, Hronica românilor (The chronicle of theRomanians), in Şcoala Ardeleana (The Transylvanian School), vol. 2, ed. Florea, Fugariu (Bucharest, 1988);Google Scholar and Petru, Maior, Istoria pentru începutul romanilor în Dacia (Thehistory of the beginning of the Romanians in Dacia), ed. Floria, Fugariu (Bucharest, 1982).Google Scholar

¹² Vlad, Georgescu, Political Ideas and the Enlightenment in the Romanian Principalities, trans.Matei, Calinescu (Columbus, 1984), 171–72.Google Scholar

¹³ Pierre, Nora, Between Memory and History, Representations 26 (1989): 1.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Hitchins, , The Idea of Nation, 36.I do not mention the Greek Catholic faith here because, generally speaking, the establishment of the Greek Catholic Church at the beginning of the eighteenth century caused little change in traditional Romanian religiouslife, especially at the rural level. It “meant very little to the average priest and the mass of believers. For them, old faith remained intact.” Hitchins, A Nation Discovered,25.Google Scholar

¹⁵ For insight into the international dimensions of these historical arguments, see Katherine, Verdery, NationalIdeology Under Socialism (Berkeley, 1991), 27.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Romanians in Transylvania first had to think of themselves as part of a national community. Then they had to demonstrate a willingness to organize and live together as a nation. See Nicolae, Bocşan, Ideea de naţiune la românii din Transilvania şi Banat. Secolul al XlX-lea (The idea of nation among the Romanians from Transylvania and Banat: The nineteenth century) (Cluj, 1998).Google Scholar Bocşan argues that Romanian ideas of the nation evolved over the course of the eighteenth century as a synthesis of European ideas of popular sovereignty and cultural homogeneity applied to Romanian realities. Essentially he is arguing that Romanian nationalism is a synthesis of liberal, or civic, nationalism generally associated with French and Anglo historical experiences and with nationalism dependent on ethnic definitions of a nation. For information on intellectuals' views of the peasantry as the basis of the Romanian nation, see George Em., Marica, Repere ale sociologiei natiunii la scriitorii români din secolul al XlX-lea (Reference points of national sociology among Romanian writers in the nineteenth century), in Natiunea Româna (The Romanian nation) (Bucharest, 1984), 446–76. For an informed discussion of Romanian nation building as a reaction to Habsburg centralization and Hungarian state building,Google Scholar see Verdery, , Transylvanian Villagers.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Although most of these men came from peasant families, few entered the priesthood, the traditional vocation of Romanian intellectuals. Instead, they profited from educational opportunities available at secondary schools in Transylvania and settled in Romanian cultural centers where they took up professions in teaching, journalism, and law. For moreinformation on the importance of the Greek Catholic schools for the 1848ers, see Jacob, Mârza, Şcoalā, şi natiune. Şcolile din Blaj în epoca renaşterii nationale (School and nation: The schools in Blaj in the era of national rebirth) (Cluj, 1987).Google Scholar

¹⁸ For more information on the history of these institutions and their antagonisms, see Hitchins, , A Nation Discovered; idem, Orthodoxy and Nationality: Andrei Şaguna and the Rumanians of Transylvania, 1846–1873 (Cambridge, 1977);Google ScholarProdan, , Supplex;Google Scholar and Niessen, James P., Relatie interconfesionale şi procesul formarii natunii române în Transilvania (Interconfessional relations and the process of forming the Romanian nation in Transylvania), Anuarul Institutului de Istorie Cluj 31 (1992): 79–92.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Ladislau, Gyémánt, Mişcarea nationala a românilor din Transilvania, 1790–1848 (The national movement of the Romanians in Transylvania, 1790–1848) (Bucharest, 1986), 129–46;Google Scholar and Hitchins, , Orthodoxy and Nationality, 208–47.Google ScholarSee also Marica, George Em., Ioşif, Hajos, Calina, Mare, and Constantin, Rusu,Ideologia generatiei române de la 1848 din Transilvania (The ideology of the Romanian generation of 1848 in Transylvania) (Bucharest, 1968), 160–61.Google Scholar

²⁰ Under the influence of the lay leadership, the Sixteen Points differed significantly from previous petitions to governing officials. Instead of arguing on the basis of historic rights and legal agreements, the authors of the declaration appealed to the universal and natural rights of man and extended those rights to the nation. The document also laid out many other demands, such as the full restoration of Romanian church autonomy, social emancipation, industrial and commercial freedoms, the abolition of taxes and duties, civil freedoms guaranteed by a constitutional government, an armed national guard, and independent educational institutionsfunded by the state. As a political declaration, the Sixteen Points “represented the most comprehensive and forceful statement of Romanian aspirations made up to that time, and in its essentials it provided the nationalmovement with its program for the next half-century.” Hitchins, , A Nation Discovered, 192.Google Scholar

²¹ The Habsburg military commander in Transylvania, General Anton von Puchner, later suspended Lemeni as bishop on account of his support for an independent Hungarian government. Lemeni had no subsequentinfluence over the national movement and died in a monastery in Vienna in 1861. Hitchins, , Orthodoxy and Nationality, 66.Google Scholar

²² Ibid., 55–63.

²³ Simion, Retegan, Dieta româneasca a Transilvaniei (The Romanian diet of Transylvania) (Cluj, 1979).Google Scholar

²⁴ See Curticapeanu, V., Mişcarea culturala româneasca pentru unirea din 1918 (The Romanian cultural movement for union in 1918) (Bucharest, 1963).Google Scholar for more information on the Romanian cultural movement in the second half of the nineteenth century. Also available in French translation, Le Mouvement Culturel Pour le Parachèvement de l'État National Roumain(1918) (Bucharest, 1973).Google Scholar The turn toward cultural activities was a common phenomenon in central and southeastern Europe. Other prominent cultural organizations included Matica srpska established for the Serbs in 1826, Matica česká for the Czechs in 1831,the Illyrian National Cultural Society in 1839, which became Hrvatska matica in 1874, the Sorb-Lusatian Cultural Society in 1847, Matica slovenská for the Slovaks in 1863, and Matica slovenska for the Slovenes in 1864. For more information on these and other cultural organizations, seeBrock, P., The Slovak National Awakening (Toronto, 1976);CrossRefGoogle ScholarBrock, P. and Skilling, G., The Czech Renascence in the Nineteenth Century (Toronto, 1970);CrossRefGoogle ScholarMurray, E.Despalatović, Ljudevit Gaj and the Illyrian Movement (Boulder, 1975);Google ScholarJózef, Chlebowczyk, On Small and Young Nations in Europe: Nation-Forming Processes in Ethnic Borderlands in East Central Europe (Warsaw, 1980);Google ScholarŽivan, Milisavac, Matica srpska (Serbian matrix) (Novi Sad, 1965);Google ScholarGary, Cohen, The Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague, 1861–1914 (Princeton, 1981);Google Scholar and Gale, Stokes, Legitimacy Through Liberalism: Vladimir Jovanović and the Transformation of Serbian Politics (Seattle, 1975.Google Scholar

²⁵ In Transylvania, the Saxons founded the first intellectual and cultural society in 1840 (Vereinfür Siebenbürgische Landeskunde). They established the Transylvanian Association of Natural Sciences (Siebenbürger Verein für Naturwissenschaften) in 1849. Inspired by the Saxons, the Hungarians established the Transylvanian Museum Association (Erdélyi Múzeum Egylet) in 1857 (with official permission to organize in 1859). Leaders of Astra patterned their association after the Saxon and Hungarian organizations, but Astra also influenced those organizations. According to Kántor Lajos, Astra's attention to rural communities impressed Hungarian leaders, and the Hungarians began to incorporate portions of Astra's rural activities, such as popular lectures, into their own organizations. Despite the mutual influences, the societies retained separate programs. For more information on these organizations, see Béla, Köpeczi, ed., History of Transylvania (Budapest, 1994), 584–86;Google ScholarGollner, C., ed., Die Siebenbürger Sachsen in den Jahren 1848–1918 (Cologne, 1988);Google Scholar and Kántor, Lajos, Párhuzam az Erdéyi Múzeum-Egyesület és az Astra megalakulásában és korai müködésében (Parallels between theunification of the Transylvanian museum and the foundation of Astra and itsearly history), Erdélyi Muzeum 45, no. 2 (1940): 103–17.Google Scholar

²⁶ Astra statutes published in 1862 and again in revised form in 1897 prohibited discussions with specific political or religious content that might prove contentious. Members attending Astra events refrained from public discussions of political issues, but on occasion they metprivately to discuss politics or to sound out political opinions and to establish the need for and plan political meetings.

²⁷ This remained true even when the speaker was a church official. In 1891, Greek Catholic vicar and Astra regional chapter president Alimpiu Barboloviciu extolled the historic educational contributions Blaj—the residence of the Greek Catholic Merropolitanate—had made to the Romanian national cause. He did, however, also mention the importance of (Orthodox) Bishop Şaguna's role in founding the association and in promoting Romanian culture. Transilvania, 1891, pp. 59–64.Google Scholar

²⁸ Şaguna's election in 1861 was not a foregone conclusion. Secular leaders had worked hard to get a Romanian scholar (and Greek Catholic priest), Timotei Cipariu, elected Astra president in 1861, but Şaguna won, and Cipariu became vice president. In 1867, the situation had become more tense, and Şguna's removal reflected those strains. Hitchins, , Orthodoxy and Nationality, 255;Google ScholarStefan, Pascu et al. , eds., George Barit, şi contemporanii sai (George Barit and his contemporaries), 3 vols. (Bucharest, 1976), 3:339.Google Scholar

²⁹ For example, newspaper editor and historian GeorgeBaritiu and Dr. loan Ratiu, the advocate of the Greek Catholic Church and later prominent Romanian party leader, sought support from Romanian leaders for a memorandum to the emperor protesting the unification of Transylvania and Hungary. Although Şaguna opposed the idea, Baritiu and Ratiu proceeded and received the approval and financial support of hundreds of prominent Romanians. Ratiu delivered the document to the court on December 31,1866, but quickly learned that imperial support would not be forthcoming. Hitchins, , A Nation Affirmed, 82–84; Pascu, , George Barit, 190.Google Scholar

³⁰ Alexandru, Dobre, “Asociatiunea transilvana şi academia româna” (The Transylvanian Association and the Romanian Academy), in ASTRA 1861–1950 Asociatiunea transilvana pentru literatura româna ş cultura poporului român 125 ani de la înfiintare (ASTRA 1861–1950 The Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People: 125 years since its founding), ed. Victor, Grecu (Sibiu, 1987), 53–60.Google ScholarPamfil, Matei, Astra Asociatiunea transilvana pentru literatura român şi cultura poporului român, 1861–1950 (The Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the RomanianPeople, 1861–1950) (Cluj, 1986), 24–29,40.Google Scholar

³¹ In 1862 and 1881, the association organized Romanian ethnographic, agricultural, and home industrial exhibits in Braşov and Sibiu. These events were important because they provided opportunities for Romanian villagers to represent themselves through the display of their wares and way of life. The exhibits are reported to have generated much excitement at the time and effectively portrayed the peasant communities asintegral parts of the national community, but they were not part of the sustained attempt to cultivate the masses that is evident in later decades.

³² In 1869, the association decided to found regionalchapters in Braşov, Fagaraş, Sibiu, Sebeş, Hateg, Deva, Abrud, Balgrad (Alba Iulia), Baia de Crisiu, Cluj, Şimleu Silvaniei, Dej, Gherla, Şomcuta mare, Nasaud, Bistrita, Reghin, Turda, Muraş-Oşorheiu, Blaj, Sighişoara, and Mediaş. Out of these twenty-two chapters, eighteen were actually established, but only a portion of them were active.

³³ On Magyarization, see Hitchins, , A Nation Affirmed.Google Scholar For more on Romanian independence, see Frederick, Kellogg, The Road to Romanian Independence (West Lafayette, 1995).Google Scholar

³⁴ Bocşan, , Ideea de natiune, 167–68. Lawyers and notaries totaled sixty-four delegates. Members of the clergy accounted for thirty-seven delegates. There were also twenty-eightlandowners (proprietari) present as well as seven professors, four bankers, four retired state employees, two journalists, and two doctors.Google ScholarLiviu, Maior, Mişcarea nationala româneasca din Transilvania, 1900–1914 (The Romanian national movement in Transylvania, 1900–1914) (Cluj, 1986), 12–14.Google Scholar

³⁵ The complex political scene, however, is difficultto summarize, for although passivism dominated the political agenda, in some regions with substantial Romanian majorities, Romanian candidates supported by the National Party competed in elections with varied results. Other Romanian leaders promoted national causes during elections without actually participating in the election. For a detailed account of the political scene prior to World War I, see Maior, , Mişcarea nationala. The newly established party adopted a traditional passivist platform calling for the restoration of Transylvanian autonomy, new electoral laws, the introduction of the Romanian language in the courts and imperial administration, the appointment of Romanians to positions in the state bureaucracy in areas heavily populated by Romanian speakers, the maintenance of autonomy for confessional schools and for the Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches, and a variety of other legal reforms. Maior, , Mişcarea nationala, 14–15.Google Scholar

³⁶ Hitchins, , A Nation Affirmed, 131–32.Google Scholar

³⁷ The Romanian National Party had proposed such a document in 1884, but continued wrangling over the strategy and timing of thedocument delayed its realization. Only with the urging of the younger party members was the Memorandum drafted and submitted to the authorities and to international public opinion. For more information on the Memorandist movement, see Corneliu Mihail, Lungu, ed., Dela pronunciament la memorandum, 1868–1892. Mişcarea memorandista expresie a luptei nationale a românilor (From the Pronunciamento to the Memorandum, 1868–1892. The Memorandist movement: Expression of the Romanian national struggle) (Bucharest, 1993);Google Scholar and Cordoş, N., Mişcarea memorandista în documente (1885–1897) (Documents of the Memorandist movement [1885–1897]) (Cluj, 1973).Google Scholar

³⁸ For more information on the international dimensions of the Memorandist movement, including the tension the trial put on Romania's relationship with the Dual Monarchy, see Keith, Hitchins, Austria-Hungary, Rumania and the Memorandum 1894, Rumanian Studies 3 (1976): 108–48;Google Scholar and idem, “Austria-Hungary, Rumania, and the Nationality Problem in Transylvania, 1894–1897,” Rumanian Studies 4 (1979): 75–126.Google Scholar

³⁹ Although the indicted leaders considered fleeing to Romania, only Eugen Brote emigrated before the court date. Alexandru Popovici fled to Romania while on bail after his sentence was announced.

⁴⁰ The best single-volume work on the activist faction of the Romanian National Party is Maior, , Mişcarea nationala. For details of party activity before 1900, see Hitchins, , A Nation Affirmed, 101–68.Google Scholar

⁴¹ The fact that Brote was even elected to offices in the 1870s and 1880s was remarkable. He had published scathing articles on the ineffectiveness of the association in 1876. His election indicates that other voting members shared his opinions. Lucian, Boia, Eugen Brote (Bucharest, 1974), 31–42.Google Scholar

⁴² Bocşan, , Ideea de natiune, 141–66.Google Scholar

⁴³ Statutele Asociatiunei Transilvane pentru Literatur'a româna, şi Cultur'a poporului românu (The statutes of the Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People) (Sibiu, 1862), 1.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ In order to receive final approval for the modification of statues in 1897, the association had to change its name and drop the word Transylvanian. They retained the acronym “Astra” (trstanding for transilvana) for colloquial use, although in newspapers Astra was known as “the Association.”Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Astra elites did not necessarily believe that most Romanian villagers were literate and rational, but that the villagers needed to be literate and rational in order to build a strong Romanian nation.

⁴⁶ Efforts to make education accessible to the Romanian peasantry in Transylvania paralleled activities of elites in other European countries. For information on Bulgarian peasant movements, see Bell, John D., Peasants in Power, Alexander Stamboliski and the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, 1899–1923 (Princeton, 1977).Google ScholarJohn-Paul, Himka's book, Socialism in Galicia: The Emergence of Polish Social Democracy and Ukrainian Radicalism (1860–1890) (Cambridge, 1983), offers information about attempts to organize and educate the working class and the peasantry in Poland and Ukraine.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ For details of this process, see Tanya, Dunlap, A Union in Disarray: Romanian Nation Building under Astra in Late-Nineteenth-Century Rural Transylvania and Hungary (Ph.D. diss., Rice University, 2002).Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Ioan, Lupaş, De demult povestire istorica (A historical story from long ago), Biblioteca poporala a asociatiunii, vol. 1, no. 1 (Sibiu, 1911).Google Scholar After Astra promised monthly publications in return for associate membership in the association, the membership rolls increased dramatically. The association originally published Lupaş's work, the first of the initial series (January 1911), in 5,000 copies and had to republish it two more times in runs of 5,000 copies each. See the Astra central committee report in Transilvania, 1912, p. 307.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Transilvania, 1892, p. 302.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Muzeul national de istorie a Transilvaniei, Cluj-Napoca, Fondul Iuliu Boila, nr. inv. M749.

⁵¹ Ibid., nr. inv. M642. Occasionally, exhibits also included the wares of men and also awarded them cash prizes, but most often recipients were women. Dunlap, , “A Union in Disarray,” 302–18.Google Scholar

⁵² “Asociatiunea la Sibiiu” (The Association in Sibiu), Tribuna, May 27/June 9, 1901, p. 390.

⁵³ Michel, Foucault, The Subject and Power, in Dreyfus and Rabinow, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics (Chicago, 1982), 208–12.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ For example, over nine hundred rural Romanians joined nonprofit banking societies on the advice of an Astra representative during a period of seven months in 1913. Transilvania, 1914, p. 306. For more specific information on the modest size and scope of these organizations and for a discussion of Astra's campaign to promote economic development, see Dunlap, , “A Union in Disarray,” 73–138.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Dominguez, Virginia R, People as Subject, People as Object: Selfhood and Peoplehood in Contemporary Israel (Madison, 1989), 21–41.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Hitchins, , A Nation Affirmed, 99–110; Niessen, , “Relatie interconfesionale,” 86;Google ScholarGyémánt, , Mişcarea nationala, 456–58;Google ScholarMiroslav, Hroch, Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe (New York, 2000), 243–44.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Braşov regional chapter leaders were generally careful to record activity at the local level and document when an agentura was reorganized or established. Since the records leave no indication of regular committee changes, it appears that agenturi committees served as long as they were willing and accepted. Thus, when a president of a local chapter was elected in 1900, for example, it is likely that that person remained until the agentura was reorganized. Priests led agenturi in Braşov-vechiŭand Maieruş (Directia Generala a Arhivelor Nationale Sibiu, Fond Astra -ANS- doc. no. 333–1898); Satulung (ANS 726–1900 and 528–1910); Vladeni and Ţantari (ANS 874–1900); Preşmer, Cristian, and Dârste (ANS 81–1900); Râşnov (ANS 607–1903); Halchiu (ANS 588–1904); Bod (ANS 666–1904); Vulcan (ANS 770–1905); Târlungeni (ANS 1310–1906); Rotbav, Tocile, and Harman (ANS 625–1907); Ghimbav (ANS 112–1907); Arpatac (943–1908); Stupini (164–1909); Turcheş and Előpatak (ANS 1184–1911); and Bacifalu (ANS 1117–1912). Teachers led the agenturi in Codlea (ANS 666–1904) and Feldioara (ANS 317–1906). No information is available on the heads of the agenturi in Purcareni and Sânpetru.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ ANS 874–1900. In Vladeni, agentura members elected the local notary to the post of secretary and the mayor to the position of agentura treasurer.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ When this did not prove effective, members of the regional chapter committee communicated personally with the local leaders (generally priests) and often traveled to the local commune to hold a founding meeting at which local notables gathered to meet the regional representative; organize an agentura; listen to a popular lecture, sometimes illustrated with acetylene lamp projections; receive free books; and attend local exhibits or musical performances. After the meeting, the despartamânt representatives returned to the district center, and the local Astra authorities resumed their leadership of the agentura. See for examples ANS 9–1890,70–1891, 645–1906, and 257–1908.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Arhiva Mitropoliei Ortodoxe (AMO), Sibiu, III-429–1900, III-126–1903, III-624–1904, III-541–1905, III-253–1907, III-367–1908, III-474–1911.

⁶¹ AMO, III-514–1899, Tarnava.

⁶² AMO, III-474–1911, Bistrita.

⁶³ AMO, III-602–1912.

⁶⁴ Astra Central Committee Minutes (Procese Verbale) are full of such requests. See Partea oficiala or Analele in Transilvania, or the original committee minutes at the National Archives in Sibiu, especially from 1908 until 1914.

⁶⁵ Amounts generally ranged from ten to fifty crowns and were budgeted by the central committee or the local chapter. In many cases before (and even after) these prizes were institutionalized in the 1890s, better-off members of a local chapter voluntarily financed a specific competition.

⁶⁶ After the reorganization of regional chapters in 1899, Astra had only thirty-two local chapters, two-thirds of which were located in the Braşov and Blaj chapters and established with the aid and enthusiasm of the regional leadership. (Transilvania, 1900, p. 224.) Within three years, however, the number of local chapters almost tripled, totaling eighty-four. (Transilvania, 1903, p. 64.) In 1905, the central committee placed greater emphasis on the network of local chapters by including a subsection on agenturi (local chapters) in the annual report and promoting the importance of local Astra organizations. There were no immediate improvements in the situation. In 1906, the association reported just 122 active agenturi, 17 more than the previous year. (Transilvania, 1907, p. 70.) Four years later, however, the number of active local chapters had doubled at 259. (Transilvania, 1911, p. 492.) The excitement generated by the popular books Ast-ra began to publish in 1910 accelerated the number of new agenturi founded. Although there was only a small growth of local chapters (total of 274) in 1911, in 1912,395 agenturi existed. (Transilvania, 1912, p. 408; 1913, p. 318.) At the end of 1913, Astra recorded having 509 agenturi. By summer 1914, there were 523, though few remained active after the outbreak of war. (Transilvania, 1914, p. 294; 1915, p. 144.)Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Astrists often used the verb “to cultivate” when speaking about the masses. In Romanian, the verb has several connotations, including working the land, trying to gain the friendship or good will of someone, or looking to assimilate knowledge in different fields. In any case, the use of this word illustrates that whereas intellectuals tried to diversify the association's goals to suit the needs and interest of Romanian villagers, they always considered themselves the leaders of the national community.

⁶⁸ AMO, III-514/3326–1899.

⁶⁹ AMO, III-514/3326–1899; III-424–1909.

⁷⁰ AMO, III-514/1408–1899.

⁷¹ AMO, III-514–1899, III-126–1903.

⁷² Baiulescu, B., “Femeea româna din Transilvania” (The Romanian woman in Transylvania), Transilvania, 1895, pp. 2–12.Google Scholar

⁷³ Partenie, Cosma, “Cuvêntu de dechidere” (Opening remarks), Transilvania, 1894, pp. 227–30.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ “Asociatiunea la Sibiu” (The Association in Sibiu), Tribuna, May 27/June 9, 1901, p. 390; ANS 275–1911. When referring to peasant women, Romanian authors generally used the word tarance. Doamna or damele referred to female residents of towns and cities. Occasionally the wives of priests were also called dame.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ For an alternative view of how this happened in Poland, see Stauter-Halsted, , The Nation in the Village; and idem, “Patriotic Celebrations.”Google Scholar

⁷⁶ At the end of the nineteenth century, approximately 85 percent of the Romanian population depended on agriculture. Over 70 percent of peasants in Transylvania owned ten iugare or less (one iugar = 0.5775 hectare); 22 percent owned between six and ten iugare, 29.5 percent owned between one and five iugare, and 20.4 percent owned less than one iugar.Egyed, A., Structura proprietatii funciare în Transilvania la sfîrşitul veacului al XlX-lea (The structure of landed property in Transylvania at the end of the nineteenth century), in Anuarul Institutului de Istorie şi Arheologie Cluj-Napoca 17 (1974): 146.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Many thanks to Keely Stauter-Halstead, who helped me think through the remarks in this paragraph.

⁷⁸ Handler, “Identity,” 30.

⁷⁹ Paul, Connerton, How Societies Remember (Cambridge, 1989), 12.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Dreyfus, and Rabinow, , Michel Foucault, 186–87.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Irina, Livizeanu, Cultural Politics in Greater Romania: Regionalism, Nation Building, and Ethnic Struggle, 1918–1930 (Ithaca, 1995).Google Scholar

⁸² For more information on the important agrarian movements in Romania, see Ornea, Z., Samanatorismul (Samanatorism), 2nd ed. (Bucharest, 1971);Google Scholar and Ibid., Poporanismul (Populism)(Bucharest, 1972).Google Scholar