Visions of Ethnic Purity in Greater Romania

Dr. Vladimir Solonari

Panel 1 Greater Romania

Abstract

Vladimir Solonari examines the origin of the policy of “ethnic purification” which was pursued by the Romanian government during World War II. He argues that this policy had its roots in the traditional Romanian understanding of the nation as an ethnic entity which excluded national minorities from its body. In the inter-war period a series of nationalistic ideologues propagated the idea that only an ethnically “pure” country could succeed economically and politically. They recommended various measures of ethnic homogenization, among which population exchange with neighboring countries and resettlement of ethnic Romanians on “freed” properties featured prominently. The spectacular successes of Nazi Germany added luster to their cause.

Relevant Publications

• “Regulation of Ethnic Relations in Post-Soviet Countries: The Cases of Latvia and Moldova Compared.” Razprave in gradivo 52 (2007): pp.316-42.
• “Patterns of Violence: Local Population and the Mass Murder of Jews in Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, July-August 1941.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 4 (2007): pp.749-87.
• “An Important New Document on the Romanian Policy of Ethnic Cleansing during World War II.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 21 (2007): pp.268-97.
• “‘Model Province’: Explaining the Holocaust of Bessarabian and Bukovinian Jewry.” Nationalities Papers 4 (2006): pp.471-500.
• “Creating ‘a People’: A Case Study in Post-Soviet History-Writing.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 2 (2003): pp.411-48.
• “From Silence to Justification?: Moldovan Historians on the Holocaust of Bessarabian and Transnistrian Jews.” Nationalities Papers 3 (2002): pp.435-457.
• “Narrative, Identity, State: History Teaching in Moldova.” East European Politics and Societies 2 (2002): pp.415-46.
• “Trandniestria: Old Problems, New Developments.” Beyond EU Enlargement. Berthelsman, 2002.
• “Regulation of Ethnic Relations in Post-Soviet Countries: the Cases of Latvia and Moldova Compared.” Constitutional, Legal, and Political Regulation and Management of Ethnic Relations. Ljubljana, 2000.
• “Moldova: Two Conflicts with Different Histories.” Societies in Conflict: The Contribution of Law and Democracy to Conflict Resolution. Council of Europe, 2000.