THIS thesis refutes the popularly held view that the interwar period was a 'golden age' in the history of Bucharest. While scholars of Romanian political history question this mythologisation, a parallel history of the city continues to be written by non-historians anxious to rediscover an 'essential' interwar Bucharest. The literary critic Ioana Pârvulescu maintains that interwar Bucharest was 'normal', and 'natural', in contrast to the alien Communist régime; the novelist Mihail Sebastian, a Jewish Bucharester, and the numerous political detainees of the secret police would, I argue, have disagreed with her assessment. By examining the immediate aftermath of the creation of Greater Romania, and the so far neglected debate about the location of the capital city, this thesis contends that politicians in the new provinces, far from simply reacting to the centralisation imposed by the Regat-based government, were actively trying to shape the political agenda, asserting their claim for political dominance: at issue was whether Greater Romania was a new nation-state or simply an enlarged Regat. Meanwhile, Bucharest-based intellectuals were engaged in trying to define Romanian-ness, and many concluded that cities were fundamentally incompatible with the essential characteristics of Romanians. The exploration of the violent potential of 'identity' creation on the city and its inhabitants constitutes a recurrent motif in this thesis. King Carol II believed he could fashion an 'authentic' city that would embody the Greater-ness of both himself and Romania, could overcome the contradiction of building a Western city to represent a peasant nation. Carol's plans for Bucharest were, however, at least as potentially destructive as Ceauşescu's notorious remodelling of the city in the 1980s, the initial inspiration for which arose from the 1934 Master Plan for Bucharest that Carol had commissioned.

This thesis examines the role of sociology in producing visions of rural transformation in interwar Romania. Focusing on the Bucharest School of Sociology, led by Dimitrie Gusti, whose studies in many ways shaped broader academic, social, and political views of the peasantry, it traces the establishment of the discipline as a reputable source of knowledge about the countryside and examines the ways in which sociologists conceptualised and sought to influence the ongoing transformation of rural Romania. The theme of transformation therefore runs through the various stages in the production of sociological knowledge, from the encounter between sociologists and the peasantry, to the intellectual debates over their findings, and to the various blueprints for rural transformation the School produced, considering how sociology shaped and was in turn shaped by its relationship with both the rural world and the state. It explores the constant shift between the lament over social and cultural change in the countryside and the desire to manage its modernisation scientifically. Examining the Bucharest School of Sociology challenges existing conceptual divisions used to understand the politics of interwar Romania. The thesis argues that the School's ethos drew in intellectuals of both the right and the left, all of whom believed that scientific knowledge harnessed to the power of the state was the only solution to Romania's 'agrarian question'. Moreover, this study makes an important contribution to the existing literature on the role of social sciences in state-building and modernisation processes by placing Romanian sociology in a wider interwar intellectual effort of finding the perfect balance between rurality and modernity. It complements and casts new light on studies concentrating mainly on Western states, colonial regimes and the Soviet Union, by looking at how the intellectuals of an independent agrarian state sought to aid its modernisation and integration into the world capitalist system. Finally, it uncovers issues that are very relevant for current debates about the fate of the peasantry in developing countries.

The National Socialist regime’s policies of discrimination, territorial expansion and genocide, and their immediate consequences, radically transformed the demographic, geographic and political map of Europe. These historical circumstances also lastingly recast what it meant to be German. The violence of these events was such that it reverberates across generations until the present. Yet if German nationalism was discredited by the defeat of Hitler, the war also seemed to confirm the necessity of a convergence between peoples and state borders. In addition, the legacies of violence perpetuated the distinction between overwhelmingly Jewish victims and German perpetrators. This thesis explores the development of a variety of constructions and uses of Germanness in the aftermath of World War Two. It is based on the case study of Bukovina, a former province of the Habsburg Empire regarded as both an ‘island of Germanness’ and a model of ‘peaceful coexistence among peoples’. Until the Second World War, the historical territory of Bukovina was home to a significant minority of German-speaking Jews, and self-defining ethnic Germans. After 1945, many of these German-speaking Bukovinians developed a nostalgic and quasi-diasporic relationship to this homeland, epitomised by the creation of Landsmannschaften (homeland societies) in Germany and Israel. This thesis explores the complexities of these Bukovinian identities in different and changing post-war contexts, primarily West Germany, but also former East Germany, Romania and Israel. It argues that these narratives and enactments influenced each other, but also need to be related to the larger post-war categories of ‘expellees’ (Heimatvertriebene) and ‘Holocaust survivors’ in particular. Adopting a socio-cultural approach and taking Bukovina as a site of interaction of different discourses on Germanness in the post-war period, this thesis challenges the direct link often posited between experience, identification and national frameworks of understanding. Instead, it emphasises the importance of ‘belonging’, ‘compensation’ and ‘coherence’.

The present thesis examines the formation and loyalties of the Romanian officers originating from the Banat Military Border who reached the rank of general in the Austro-Hungarian army between 1870 and 1918. As such, it covers an important blind spot in English-, German-, and Romanian-language historiography as, on the one hand, it contributes a multiple case study, based on extant personal testimonies, to the historical literature on the Habsburg officer corps and, on the other hand, it validates and brings together into a coherent narrative the snippets of historical evidence invoked in Romanian bibliography on the topic. The thesis goes beyond the above-indicated time span and follows the development of the Banat Military Border from its establishment in the eighteenth century to its dissolution at the end of the nineteenth century. Particular emphasis is placed on the formative environment of the military elites under discussion, whether this means historical or legal precedent, official stereotypes, or community identity and symbolism. The Border generals are presented in their relationships to the state (in its various instantiations), the army and civil authorities, as well as in their relations with the Romanian intelligentsia of the Empire. The main goal of the thesis is to account for their sense of identity and allegiance: who were these generals? to whom were they loyal?

This research investigates the role of the Romanian press in reporting political corruption. It argues that as a part of a Romanian society tolerant to corruption, the Romanian press manages to report corruption but fails to be part of the solution to the corruption problem by holding the political elite to account. To demonstrate this, the thesis uses textual and contextual analysis by employing techniques and concepts from critical discourse analysis, political economy of the media and theories of media and democracy. To assess the role of the Romanian press reporting political corruption within the larger context of post-communist Romanian realities, the research comprises three case studies and interviews with journalists. The first case study focuses on the corruption case of one of Romania's Prime Ministers, Adrian Nastase. The second case study focuses on the case of Dan Voiculescu, a powerful politician and media owner with strong connections with Romania's communist past. The third case study is an overview of the corruption within the Romanian political realm. It shows corruption as a practice surviving decades and touching politicians irrespective of their political colour or side, Government or Opposition. The interviews provide an image of the internal state of the Romanian media: a mutually beneficial relationship shaped as barter between politicians and media owners, dodgy characters looking to protect themselves from being investigated by the legal system for their irregular deeds while trying to secure good contracts with the state for their other business endeavours. The Romanian journalist becomes almost irrelevant in such a context. The results of the study contribute to a better understanding of post-communist Romania, its problem with political corruption and the working of its media. The results also suggest that, in view of the lack of any significant research into the phenomenon of corruption in Romania, understanding the problem of political corruption and the role of the media in tackling it should be as well approached from a clear understanding of the culture of corruption in Romania.

This thesis approaches contemporary moving image artworks from Romania in order to critically revisit key events, moments and situations in the country’s recent history. Responding to a gap in the literature on Romanian art, it addresses the relations between moving image practices and the socio-political transformations that have taken place in the country over the last three decades. This is achieved by considering the role of moving images in two major events – the Romanian 1989 revolution and the June 1990 anti-government protests – and by mapping critical moving image art practice from the communist period to the “postcommunist condition” and the context of post-2008 economic crisis. In addition, this thesis investigates how moving image art can be used to assess the contemporary Romanian situation. The main argument is that responding to these recent transformations is an urgent political task, one that few artists have addressed themselves to date. A constellation of moments from the recent Romanian past is thus assembled in order to explore the possibilities of thinking and writing about history that are evoked through moving images. The analysis focuses on a selection of works by artists Ion Grigorescu, Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujică, Mona Vătămanu and Florin Tudor, and, Joanne Richardson, each of whom have responded to this political task in a particular way.

Les transformations profondes qui ont eu lieu dans la dernière décennie du XXème siècle - l'effondrement du communisme en Europe de l'Est et ses conséquences, la reconfiguration institutionnelle du continent européen - poussait la Roumanie ainsi que d'autres pays ayant fait partie du bloc communiste à revoir leurs positions sur la scène internationale, tout en acquérant la possibilité de choisir leur propre voie de développement. L'un des principaux leviers dont disposait la Roumanie pour faire face à ce défi était sa politique étrangère et cette dernière devait être revue et adaptée aux nouvelles réalités internationales. Notre recherche est une analyse sur près de 25 ans de la politique étrangère de la Roumanie afin de déceler la manière dont cette politique étrangère a évolué et de comprendre le comportement international de la Roumanie après l'adhésion à l'Union européenne. Le concept de l’européanisation nous a aidé à établir le sens de l’évolution de la politique étrangère roumaine. / The profound changes occurred in the last decade of the twentieth century - the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and its consequences, the institutional reconfiguration of the European continent - urged Romania and other former communist countries to review their positions on the international stage, while gaining the opportunity to choose their own path of development. One of the main levers Romania had to respond to this challenge was its foreign policy. But first of all its foreign policy should be reviewed and adapted to new international realities. Our research is an analysis of nearly 25 years of Romanian foreign policy aiming to observe its evolution and to understand the international behavior of Romania after the accession to the European Union. The concept of Europeanization was a useful tool for establishing the direction of the evolution of the Romanian foreign policy.

Cette thèse concerne la mise en mots et en action de l'idée socialiste en Roumanie, au tournant du 20e siècle. Elle s'ouvre sur la signature du traité de Berlin (1878), qui consacra l'indépendance de l'État-national roumain, et se reforme, la veille de l'entrée de la Roumanie dans la Grande Guerre (1916). La chronologie retenue se situe dans une période d'expérimentation accélérée de la modernité en Roumanie. Elle inclut par ailleurs le temps d'existence de la Seconde Internationale. La participation des socialistes roumains à cette Internationale depuis son Congrès fondateur inscrit le sujet dans une dynamique transnationale de circulations socialistes de part et d'autre de l'Europe avant la Grande Guerre. Les analyses générales de cette recherche se structurent autour d'une question historiographique transversale : les sources ainsi que les ouvrages secondaires disponibles sur le sujet du socialisme en Roumanie ont été irrémédiablement marqués par une griffe idéologique héritée de la période communiste. La mise en pratique d'une méthode d'approche de ces documents constitue l'un des enjeux majeurs. Sur cette question, les travaux amorcés par l'historien d’origine roumaine, Georges Haupt, ont présenté un apport considérable. Cette recherche en est l’héritière. / This thesis is about the articulation and enactment of the socialist idea in Romania, at the turn of the 20th century. It begins with the signing of the treaty of Berlin (1878) that stipulated the independence of the Romanian nation-state. It ends on the eve of Romania entering the First World War (1916). The chosen time frame captures Romania in a period of an accelerated experimentation of modernity and the formation of the Second International. Romanian socialist's participated al this International since its founding congress. The period covered in this thesis is marked with the transnational dynamic of socialists circulating around Europe prior to the Great War. The overarching analysis of this research is based on a transversal historiographical interrogation. Primary and secondary sources that deal with socialisms in Romania are irredeemably marked by an ideological scar inherited from the communist period. How to work with these documents constitutes one of the major issues at stake in this thesis. Georges Haupt, a historian of Romanian origin, began tackling this question and made a considerable contribution to the research that this thesis picks up on.