Gheorghe A. Lăzăreanu-Lăzurică

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Gheorghe A. Lăzăreanu-Lăzurică
Lăzurică and wife in Kowno, 1936.png
Marta and Gheorghe Lăzurică in Kaunas, 1936
Leader of the General Union of Roma in Romania
In office
September 1933 – May 1934
Personal details
Born
Gheorghe Lăzărescu

1892
Dieddate unknown
NationalityRomanian
ProfessionBusinessman, journalist, novelist, poet

Gheorghe A. Lăzăreanu-Lăzurică or George Lăzurică, also known as Lăzărescu-Lăzurică or Lăzărică (1892 – ?), was a leader of the Romani (Gypsy) community in Romania, also remembered for his support of Romania's interwar far-right. Originally a musician, he became active within the General Association of Gypsies in Romania, but broke away to establish the (eventually more powerful) General Union of Roma in Romania. From September 1933 to May 1934, he was also a "Voivode of the Gypsies", recognized as such by various local tribes. He and his followers came to resent ethnic designation as "Gypsies", and pleaded for the usage of "Romanies". Lăzurică also tried to introduce the term Zgripți as a reference to the people's legendary ancestors.

Though credited with inventing Romani political symbolism and noted for invoking a worldwide tribal identity, Lăzurică and his followers abstained from Romani nationalist activism, preferring to focus on social reform, and accepted some measure of integration with mainstream Romanian society. The General Union cooperated with the Romanian Orthodox Church, spreading Christianity among nomads whom it helped to settle, and competing for baptisms with the Romanian Greek Catholics. From 1933, Lăzurică blended his Romani identity with Romanian nationalism, and finally with fascism: he campaigned for the National Agrarian Party and maintained contacts with the Iron Guard, while allegedly imitating Adolf Hitler in his public persona.

Lăzurică was sidelined by the General Union in 1934, after a violent conflict during which he was forced to deny his belonging to the Romani ethnicity. He soon recanted and involved himself in other projects, with reports suggesting that he was planning a research trip to the British Raj, or that he declared himself "President" of the Romanian Romanies. He still attempted to rally support for his politics, and in 1937 became leader of the Citizens' Association of Roma in Romania. This group was more explicitly far-right and antisemitic, viewing the Romanians and Romanies as people of a "shared destiny", equally threatened by foreigners. By 1938, it was openly supporting the fascist National Christian Party, of which Lăzurică himself became a member. In the final known stages of his career, Lăzurică became a critic of Orthodoxy, reporting on its slave-owning practices and drawing suspicion that he had converted to Catholicism.

Activities[]

Rise to fame[]

Reportedly born as Gheorghe Lăzărescu in 1892,[1] the future activist belonged to the musicians' tribe of the Romani community, or Lăutari; one report of 1934 suggests that he was still an outstanding performer.[2] While sometimes introduced as "Mr. Lăzurică the lawyer",[3] he had in fact graduated from the Higher Commercial School of Bucharest, and, by 1933, was running his own forestry warehouse in that same city.[4][5] Lăzurică's main activity was as a journalist, published by both Universul and Adevărul,[6] though he also contributed poetry.[7] In addition, he wrote and published a number of "Roma historical novels".[5] Lăzurică wrote in Romanian, but expressed his pride at having Romani heritage, and some time after 1930 changed his name to the hyphenated form, with Lăzurică sounding more like his Romani vernacular[1] (as reported by sociologist Ion Duminică, this was originally a nickname used by his Romani grandfather).[5] Gheorghe also married a Czechoslovakian Romani, Marta. Little is known about her background, other than her ethnic origin, her claim to speak 5 languages, and her qualification as a stenographer.[8]

Lăzurică's life and career coincided with the earliest attempts to create a Romani political caucus. Some of the first steps in this direction occurred in 1919 Transylvania, which was in the process of uniting with Romania. "Gypsy gatherings", which demanded increased rights and sedentarization of the Romanies within Greater Romania, were nevertheless forgotten by the public, as even some of the active participants refrained from discussing them later in the interwar.[9] A first documented effort of organizing the Romanies into a political body occurred in 1926, with Lazăr Naftanailă's Neo-Rustic Brotherhood, centered on Calbor.[10] Naftanailă was among the first activists to advocate the creation of another ethnonym to replace țigani ("Gypsies", from Athinganoi), and tried to impose "Neo-Rustics", or "new peasants", as a non-discriminatory alternative.[11]

The following year, a Lăutari syndicate, Junimea Muzicală, applied for registration in Ilfov County. This became the nucleus for the much larger General Association of Gypsies in Romania (AGȚR), unofficially formed by in April 1933.[4][12] The following month, featured Lăzăreanu's review of Șerboianu's "interesting book", Les Tziganes. At the time, he took no issue with Șerboianu being a non-Romani (or gadjo), commending his ability to converse in the "High Gypsy language". Lăzurică estimated the total of Romanies in Romania at 800,000, and chided the author for estimating it at less than half that number; however, he himself noted that "our Gypsy minority assimilated so much into the native population that it is about to lose its language and customs."[13]

Lăzurică's induction by the AGȚR, which came soon after the review had appeared, was part of Șerboianu's attempt to cultivate a genuinely "Gypsy" activism. According to historian Petre Matei, "Șerboianu declared that although he was not a Gypsy, he pretended to be one because he wanted thus to win the trust of the people he hoped to organise. At the first meeting with G. A. Lăzurică, [he] did not pretend to be more than a sympathiser of the Gypsies."[14] Lăzurică and Gheorghe Nicolescu (or Niculescu) are both recorded as AGȚR militants, and soon after as factional leaders; the schism between them and Șerboianu is most precisely dated to September of the same year.[15] As reported by ethnologist Gabriela Boangiu, this was the peak of a feud between Șerboianu and one of the AGȚR's "main leaders", Lăzurică.[16] Șerboianu continued to preside over one of these organizations, which still used the AGȚR title. Most of its membership was absorbed by Lăzurică's more competitive General Union of Roma in Romania (UGRR).[17] This was run from Lăzurică's single-room apartment on Sârbească Street, Bucharest, and included his wife Marta as Vice President of the Female Section.[18]

As seen by Boangiu, Lăzurică was "as quaint a figure as he was important for the associationist phenomenon of the Rroma [sic] ethnicity."[19] Also known as the General Union of the Romanian Gypsies,[20] Lăzurică's group held congress on October 8 at Ileana Hall, in the Bucharest neighborhood of Moșilor.[4][21][22] In November, Lăzurică applied for the UGRR to be recognized as a juridical person under Romanian law, but this process stagnated upon revelations that six of its founding members were either registered with fictitious addresses or had criminal records.[4] Researcher Ilona Klímová-Alexander writes that Lăzurică managed to "hijack" Șerboianu's plans, "traveling all over the country, establishing local branches and emphasizing their relationship to the centre; he also visited universities and persuaded Romani students to attend."[23] Claiming to be the first-ever assembly of the Romanies in Romania, this caucus proclaimed Lăzurică its "Voivode";[24] Șerboianu was marginalized, and his supporters, mostly based in Transylvania, were barred from attending the UGRR meeting.[21]

Congress[]

Bicolor version of the Romani flag, reportedly used by the UGRR

In July 1934, the UGRR entered Șerboianu's fief in Târnava-Mică County, opening its own chapter with a festivity on Liberty field.[3][25] In October, the Union organized an international congress of the Gypsies.[26][27][28] Held out in the open in one of Bucharest's Romani suburbs, it reportedly used the slogan "Gypsies of the World unite", calling on all nomads to "organize themselves into a race-conscious and stable community." Its organizers promised that the Romani community had entered the age of "national dignity".[26] Lăzurică was then tasked with representing the General Union at any future international meeting.[29] Both he and Șerboianu were members of the Gypsy Lore Society.[30]

Historian highlights Lăzurică's debts to "romantic literature", reflected in his use of "Voivode". This title had never been claimed by any Romani tribal leader in Romania, where preference had been given to lesser ones, including and .[31] The same is argued by researchers Daniel Dieaconu and Silviu Costachie, who see Lăzurică as having embraced a "romantic myth" of purely Western European extraction.[32] Scholar Mihaela Mudure also notes that the usage of "Voivode" was meant to evoke a "romanticized version of Gypsy leadership" and command "feudal" loyalty from UGRR members; "democratic practices", she argues, "were very limited."[33] While the 28-member executive committee worked pro-bono, Lăzurică, as the UGRR acting president, received unconditional refunding for all his expenses.[23] Lăzurică surrounded himself with distinguished members of the community: violinist Grigoraș Dinicu assisted him as honorary chairman, though he had initially resisted his own appointment;[27] historian George Potra and musician D. Panaitescu were members of the UGRR committee.[21] Lăzurică extended an offer to the incumbent Bulibașa, who was living "somewhere in Bessarabia", and could not be found in time for the selection.[27] The Voivode also increased grassroots representation, being the first Romani leader to encourage the participation of women, who formed their own corps within the UGRR.[34]

Lăzurică now claimed to be leader over 1 million Romanies, which was probably double the number of Romanies existing in Greater Romania.[35] The Voivode's legitimacy was still challenged by the other Romani groups resulting from the AGȚR schism—although, according to Mudure: "the agenda of these organizations was pretty much the same. They were interested in creating educational opportunities for the Gypsies, welfare benefits, settling down the nomadic Gypsies, and improving the image of the Gypsies in the media."[33] The two bodies had virtually identical agendas, though with some major differences of political vocabulary.[36] In Oltenia, a third group, headed by Aurel Manolescu-Dolj, collaborated with both national organizations in pursuing immediate objectives.[37] Manolescu-Dolj, who also styled himself "Voivode", rallied with the UGRR; his associate, Constantin S. Nicolăescu-Plopșor, published a corpus of Romani mythology for the Union's newspaper, O Ròm.[38]

One of the key goals of the UGRR was in convincing members and outsiders to use romi ("Romanies") over țigani, which it viewed as derogatory.[39] News reports of the 1933 congress and its aftermath used the term, but often in quotation marks, indicating that it "was not fully accepted by the Romanian public opinion."[40] Lăzurică himself extended the neologism to mean "freedom-loving man", rather than simply "man", and claimed that it had etymological links to Ramayana.[41] As argued by Matei, he had had no objection to using țigani as an endonym during his association with Șerboianu, and had left several written statements describing himself as a "Gypsy".[42] Matei notes that the term was most likely suggested to him by Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, the Romanian head editor at Adevărul. In his column of September 5, 1933, Batzaria had chided Șerboianu for using an implicitly demeaning and hostile term, arguing for romi as both authentic and preferable.[43] Lăzurică's first documented use of romi is dated by Matei to October 1933, in a manifesto which repeats Batzaria's attack on Șerboianu.[44] His newfound appreciation for the term was challenged by the more senior activist Naftanailă, who, by 1934, had reconciled with the word țigani and was using it in the title of his rival newspaper, Neamul Țigănesc.[45] Naftanailă was nevertheless also mentioned as leader of the UGRR branch in Transylvania.[46]

Generally, Lăzurică and his followers were primarily interested in cultural, spiritual, and especially social goals, which took precedence over shows of Romani nationalism; historians describe the view the UGRR as mixing social integrationism and cultural separatism.[47] He took distance from Romani internationalism, asking Romanian authorities to ban "foreign" Romani orchestras from performing in the country, hoping to have the trade monopolized by Lăutari.[48] The UGRR banner displayed the symbols of Romani trades, which Lăzurică wanted protected and promoted, alongside the coat of arms of Romania; at least 36 other banners existed, each representing an UGRR affiliate group.[49] Proposals were accepted which were to create a national flag of the Romanies. Historian Ian Hancock claims that it was a horizontal bicolor, and as such a predecessor for the current Romani flag. However, this interpretation remains disputed.[50]

Integration and nationalism[]

The UGRR's newspaper, Glasul Romilor, declared that the community would defend the Romanian state and its Kings "until death. Within our brother Roma[ni] we have never found of traitor to the State." Subsequent articles "focused on the same three overarching themes of God, King and Country".[51] In its program, the Union pledged to support the Romanian Orthodox Church against proselytizing "sects", and promised to oversee Romani processions on Dormition Feast (August 15, chosen by the UGRR as a "National Day").[52] This goal was tempered by other public statements, with Lăzurică reassuring his followers that they would have freedom of worship.[3][25] As noted by Klímová-Alexander, the Voivode was spuriously accused by other Romanies of wanting to make his community an appendage of official Orthodoxy; in fact, he "could have used the support and resources of the Church to further [his] own mobilization goals."[53]

On February 6, 1934, Lăzurică was granted a missionary card, which he used as his ID, notably during trips to Hunedoara County in October 1934.[54] He managed to settle some nomads on land purchased by the UGRR, persuading them to undergo baptism and church marriage, also setting up a workers' co-operative and Romani-staffed schools.[55] Despite its close association with Orthodoxy, the UGRR was also routinely accused by Șerboianu of being a proxy for the Romanian Greek Catholic Church.[56] Himself suspected of being a pro-Catholic who would endorse the "Romanies' Catholicization", Șerboianu had lost Orthodox support, which allowed the UGRR manifestos to be printed in the Church's official press.[57] The Church also provided Lăzurică with funding for his 1933 Congress.[58]

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Already in 1933, comments in the Western press described Lăzurică as a quasi-fascist, and an "exceptionally good impersonator" of Adolf Hitler.[26] While the program also promised that Romanies would remain "aloof from all extremist parties" and "politically non-aligned",[59] in practice the UGRR was intimately associated with the far-right fringes of Romanian nationalism, including fascists. The group's first congress was reportedly attended by 20 members of the Iron Guard.[60] Romanian Police reported on a correspondence between the Voivode and the Guard's "Captain", Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, while also noting that Lăzurică had secured support from the Police's own chief, Gavrilă Marinescu.[61]

Matei proposes that anti-Romanyism had no significance to the interwar's far-right in Romania, since "Romanian nationalists defined themselves through antisemitism". As he notes, Romanian right-wing radicals of the day could be simultaneously antisemitic and pro-Romani.[62] Codreanu personally promised to support the General Union,[63] and helped with isolating Șerboianu.[64] The UGRR then gave honorary membership to Codreanu and other figures on the far-right, including Nae Ionescu and .[65] However, similar honors were bestowed on apolitical figures, including writers Adrian Maniu and .[66]

Ouster and return[]

The UGRR and its rivals were equally involved in canvassing votes for Romanian parties. Months before the general elections of 1933, Lăzurică was an agent for the hard-right National Agrarian Party (PNA), instructing the Romanies to cast their vote for its candidates.[67] The AGȚR noticed such developments, accusing Lăzurică of acting as a tool of the PNA leader, Octavian Goga. In turn, Lăzurică depicted Șerboianu as an apostate of Orthodoxy, deflecting the charge of Greek Catholic proselytism toward the AGȚR itself.[64]

However, by the time of the actual vote, he himself had switched sides, opting for the more mainstream National Liberal Party and asking that all Romanies do the same.[68] Lăzurică was appointed to lead an UGRR delegation expressing support for Prime Minister Ion G. Duca, while also pressing him to respond favorably to the Romanies' demands.[69] At the same time, Manolescu-Dolj and his followers took a different path, and canvassed for the Georgist Liberals.[70] As read by Mudure, these strategies meant "offering to certain Romanian mainstream politicians the support of the Gypsy vote in exchange for affirmative action policies for the Gypsies."[33]

On March 18–25, 1934, Lăzurică organized at Omnia Cinema, Bucharest, the Festival of Art and Culture of the Roma in Europe, where he himself lectured on the "Origin, History and Emigration of Roma in Europe".[71] His final work within the General Union was a massive effort to bring Transylvania's Romanies into the Orthodox church, which included reversing their Magyarization. This culminated with a mass baptism at Blaj on May 28, 1934.[72] Immediately after, on May 29[4][73] or May 31,[74] Lăzurică was toppled from the UGRR chairmanship and then expelled altogether. His downfall was precipitated by the spread of rumors, nominating him as a "fraud" and "Jew", and claiming that the "ex-Voivode" had defrauded a veterinary doctor.[75] Lăzurică had also recruited the brothers Gheorghe and Nicolae Nicolescu as the UGRR sponsors, but then saw them turning against him.[76] The Nicolescus engineered Lăzurică's downfall, reportedly brutalizing him until he signed a document in which he falsely denied that he was a Romani. Denying him his ethnicity was a ruse not anticipated by their rival, who had otherwise made the position of chairman intangible.[74]

Lăzurică's replacement as UGRR leader, and also as Voivode, was Gheorghe Nicolescu, who served until 1941.[77] Despite this change, the group continued to display fascist sympathies: according to one report, the 1935 Romani congress in Bucharest, presided upon by Nicolescu, was held in a hall decked with portraits of Hitler.[78] According to a notice in Unirea Poporului newspaper, Lăzurică was supposedly invited to attend this meeting, which would have also offset any dispute between the two main factions by allowing attendees to elect their leadership.[79] Nicolescu managed to obtain official recognition from the Romanian government, which Lăzurică had been unable to secure, and by 1939 commanded the loyalties of some 400,000 to 800,000 Romanies, grouped into 40 regional branches.[80]

Although marginalized, Lăzurică remained active in the community, organizing rallies at Diciosânmartin (October 1934) and Ploiești (April 1935),[81] and often pursuing his own ideas on Romani ancestry. As noted by Matei, he produced a "national Romani mythology" with echoes from "Indianism",[44] centered on a pseudohistorical ethnicity and ancestor of the Romani tribes—called Zgripți. In August 1934, he was approached by English and American Romani associations, who asked him to join an anthropological expedition to study the people's origins on the Indian subcontinent. He reportedly accepted, claiming that such investigations would provide Romanies with a "Palestine of their own".[2][82] Historian Raluca Bianca Roman concludes that both Zgripți and the expedition story were "a mystification which appeared in 1934 in the international press", possibly invented by Lăzurică himself.[83] A year later, he declared his intention to merge the world's Romanies into a single nation, announcing that he would set up his newspaper to promote his goal. He also stated his new conviction, namely that the Romani "tribe" was of ancient Egyptian origin.[7] L'Intransigeant reporter René Benazec claimed that, in 1935, Lăzurică was already styling himself "President of the Romanies' Republic", but that this title too had been usurped by a third Romani leader, who also stole and used Lăzurică's business card.[84]

PNC alliance[]

Also in 1935, Lăzurică had formed a "Civic Organisation of Roma in Romania", of which he was also the president; he then rejoined the AGȚR, now styled "General Association of the Roma", with Marta serving on its Central Committee.[85] Lăzurică and his wife then attended the 1936 Romani Congress of Kaunas as Romanian delegates, and proposed founding an international Romani newspaper.[86] Gheorghe Lăzurică still supported Orthodox missionary work, and was again involved with the far-right, caucusing with the National Christian Party (PNC) and contributing to its newspaper, .[87] The PNC doctrines implied that Romanies were a traditional and assimilable minority, which, unlike the Romanian Jews, posed no threat to the "Romanian bourgeoisie", and were even "useful to the Romanian nation".[88] In a February 1937 article for Manolescu-Dolj's newspaper Timpul, he stated a revised account on the Zgripți origin, depicting them as Bactrians who had rejected Brahmin customs to continue their nomadic lifestyles, and who were famed throughout Asia for their military prowess and courage. They had only been driven out of their homeland by Mongol invasions, splitting into three groups, only one of which was Egyptian.[89]

From August 5, 1936, Lăzurică was an honorary chairman of Apostol Matei's new group, called "Redemption of the Romani Men and Women in Romania";[4] he was colleagues there with Miron Cristea, the Patriarch of All Romania. The "Redemption" expanded on the UGRR goals, promising protectionism for Romani traders, in preference to "foreign" ones, as well as envisaging full equality of treatment between Romanies and Romanians.[90] Lăzurică was also in a position to destabilize Nicolescu's relationship with the Church, obtaining that UGRR men be stripped of their positions as Christian missionaries.[91] Nevertheless, Nicolescu was able to win over the Church, slowly pushing it away from its endorsement of Lăzurică.[92]

In July 1937, writing for the Romani edition of Țara Noastră, Lăzurică attacked Romanian Jews, or "kikes", for being "alien to the problems and national interests of the Romanian nation, playing the communist tune"; Romanies, on the other hand, were loyal.[93] He also announced the creation of a Citizens' Association of Roma in Romania (ACRR), which he insisted was not a separate ethnic party. It immediately formed a cartel with the PNC for the , being promised that every commune would have at least one Romani councilor.[94] This alliance was ridiculed by the PNC's rivals from the National Peasants' Party, but Țara Noastră defended it as a natural outcome: the Romanies and the Romanians "shaped each other through a shared destiny".[95] Writing in the left-wing Peasantist Adevărul in August, Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște noted that Lăzurică was a self-declared "enemy of democracy", and argued that this was a paradox—since Romanies owed their emancipation to democrats. According to Teodorescu-Braniște, the move to incorporate the ACRR into the PNC was a sign that the latter was "abandon[ing] racist principles", adding: "We have received numerous letters asking us if this [alliance] was real, if it was not a fabrication of ours."[96] That same month, La Tribune Juive reported that "a new acquisition was made" by the PNC, arguing that the "extraordinary numerous Romanian Gypsies" would be directly useful in applying anti-Jewish terror. As noted by the paper, Romani protectionism was now explicitly directed against Jewish musicians, and, "for the first time in history, an anti-Jewish journal has appeared in the Gypsy language."[97]

(left) and Lăzăreanu-Lăzurică on the nameplate of 's weekly Romani issue (edition of August 1, 1937)

This affiliation also reunited the deposed Voivode with rivals Șerboianu and Manolescu-Dolj, all of whom were accused by the UGRR of seeking to present themselves as PNC candidates in the general election of December.[98] The ACRR recruited its members in Dolj and Ialomița;[99] the former branch was under his direct supervision.[100] The UGRR press reacted against this new competitor, reviving claims that Lăzurică was a crypto-Catholic who had personally promised Pope Pius XI that he would convert Romania's Romanies.[101] In September 1937, news agencies reported that Lăzurică had been poisoned with hemlock by "Left Wing Gipsies", for being an "ardent Nazi".[102] This detail was not present in reports published in Nazi Germany, which instead detailed: "The candidate for the throne of the Romanian Gypsies, 'Prince' Georg Lazurica, has been defeated by political opponents. [...] It is believed that the deadly poison was poured into his wine at a wedding party."[103] Boangiu writes that, as the conflict between the two Voivodes was turning bitter, both figures engaged in "obvious manipulation" of the truth.[104]

In his first-ever Țara Noastră editorial, Șerboianu, passing himself off as a member of the Romani community, reported that he had always fought alongside "the Roma comrade G. A. Lăzurică, who was not overcome either by intrigues, either by the lures or the cowardice of some of our brethren."[105] Their platform, also taken up by another Romani contributor, C. Mirmillo, simply denied that Romanies were an ethnic minority, generally describing them as a variety of the Romanian people; they also argued that, being "too good Romanians", they would limit Romani-language content to just one page of the newspaper.[106] As noted by Matei, Lăzurică and Șerboianu had fully reconciled and "could pass for Romani leaders" when negotiating with their PNC counterparts, Goga and A. C. Cuza; instead, the UGRR remained tied to the mainstream National Liberals.[107] The PNC government, appointed after the 1937 election, imposed laws for the "Romanianization" of Romania's economy, including the ouster of "racial" minorities; the Romanies, however, were entirely spared.[108] At an ACRR rally held at Craiova on February 2, 1938, Lăzurică announced that he had joined the PNC and, again, that he supported its antisemitic doctrines.[109] He described Romania as invaded by Jewish "lice", and praised the PNC leadership for clamping down on the "kikes' newspapers".[110]

Aftermath[]

Soon after, the activities of all Romani groups were curtailed by the imposition of an authoritarian Constitution and of a single-party rule by the National Renaissance Front (FRN).[111] Nevertheless, the UGRR was still tolerated, the regime having concluded that it "did not do anything which threatened the security of the state".[112] Its entire leadership, Nicolescu included, joined the Front as early as March 1938.[100] During the same month, Marta Lăzurică published in Timpul her open letter "To the Roma Women", urging them to maintain the AGȚR–ACRR structures and endorse her Gheorghe's efforts: "I make an appeal to you, my Roma sisters, to urge your husbands, your sons and your daughters to support my husband, to prove that the Roma are not a people who lack solidarity, discipline and devotion."[113] The authoritarian drive pushed her husband away from Patriarch Cristea, who had been appointed Prime Minister after the PNC's recall. Both he and Șerboianu came to display their Catholic sympathies. In one such show of support for Catholicism, Lăzurică abandoned references to the Dormition as a Romani holiday, and proclaimed the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul as the new date of reference.[114]

With articles in Țara Noastră and Timpul, Lăzurică endorsed claims that Orthodoxy was a traditional persecutor of the Zgripți and Romani people, which it had kept as church slaves.[115] Cristea reacted by having Lăzurică removed from the ranks of its missionaries, citing concerns that he had converted. Lăzurică informed his readers that he handed in his card myself, and that he felt "sickened" by the affair.[116] As late as July 1940, Orthodox dignitaries still complained to the authorities about Lăzurică and the ACRR having "insulted the Church". Their reports were most likely anachronistic, as neither the group nor its leader were still active by then.[116]

The FRN's one measure against any Romanies was taken in December 1939, when nomads were forced to submit to inspections by public health officials.[117] Although it banned all Romani organizations, the National Legionary State, established by the Iron Guard that September, also remained generally tolerant of the Romanies as a group. However, the influence of Nazi Germany and scientific racism began seeping into its official propaganda.[118] The subsequent period saw the emergence of a strong anti-Romanyism in Romanian society, and the degeneration of relations between Romani activists and the Romanian far-right. Shortly after his clash with the Iron Guard, dictator Ion Antonescu singled out the Romanies as fundamentally anti-social.[119] According to Mudure, Lăzurică's activities, and the impact they had on Romani visibility, had unwittingly contributed to this conceptualization of a "Gypsy problem".[33] This discourse was eventually adopted by the Antonescu regime, and produced the deportation of over 20,000 Romanies into the Transnistria Governorate.[120] For those Romanies who were deemed as more compliant, deportation was advertised as a work of colonization, granting each family a plot of land and a ready-built house.[121] Around 1943, Romanian authorities began circulating the notion that the usage and recognition of romi was a liability, since it introduced confusion between Romanians and "Gypsies".[122]

In November 1942, the "Association of the Roma in Romania", headed by Nicolescu, made efforts to curb the Transnistrian deportations, appealing directly to King Michael.[123] Following Antonescu's toppling in August 1944, the UGRR was reestablished, with Nicolescu as its leader, and with the specific goal of assisting deportees making their way back home.[124] Renamed Romani People's Union, it survived for less than five years. In 1949, the new communist regime began investigating its activities, noting that, although useful in combating "panhandling and theft by some of the Gypsies", it was politically suspect—with one board member alleged to have been active within the Iron Guard.[124] Nicolescu had by then been compromised for associating the UGRR with National Liberal Party–Bejan. In January 1949, he was deposed and replaced with Petre Rădiță, himself a lapsed member of the Democratic Nationalist Party.[125] The UGRR and all other community organizations were outlawed that same year, as part of a process which ended in its refusal to recognize Romanies as a distinct minority.[126] Lăzurică's own fate in that period is unknown: in his 1973 dictionary of pen names, literary historian Mihail Straje provides only his birth date (as 1893).[127]

Notes[]

  1. ^ a b Williams, p. 23
  2. ^ a b Michel Condrus, "Une mission va rechercher aux Indes les orgines de la race tzigane", in Le Journal, August 27, 1934, p. 4
  3. ^ a b c "Știri mărunte. Locale", in Unirea. Foaie Bisericească-Politică, Issue 29/1934, p. 4
  4. ^ a b c d e f (in Romanian) "27 august – Ziua Mișcării Romilor din România. Ziua Activistului Rom", in Pata-Cluj. Buletin Informativ, July 18, 2016
  5. ^ a b c Marushiakova et al., p. 332
  6. ^ Williams, p. 23. See also Marushiakova et al., p. 332; Matei (2012), p. 57
  7. ^ a b "Cigansko Ljudstvo je iz dobe faraonov", in Glas Naroda, Issue 158/1936, p. 3
  8. ^ Marushiakova et al., pp. 451–452
  9. ^ Petre Matei, "Adunările țiganilor din Transilvania din anul 1919", in Revista Istorică, Part I: Vol. XXI, Issues 5–6, 2010, pp. 467–487; Part II: Vol. XXII, Issues 1–2, 2011, pp. 135–152. See also Matei (2012), pp. 30–31, 56
  10. ^ Achim (2004), p. 154; Dieaconu & Costachie, p. 184; Klímová-Alexander, pp. 168–169, 201; Marushiakova et al., pp. 326, 393, 430–431; Matei (2012), pp. 31, 56–57, 66; Williams, p. 23
  11. ^ Matei (2012), pp. 56–57
  12. ^ Matei (2012), p. 57; Marushiakova et al., pp. 327, 330
  13. ^ Marushiakova et al., pp. 329–330
  14. ^ Marushiakova et al., p. 331
  15. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 169, 201; Marushiakova et al., pp. 330, 367
  16. ^ Boangiu, pp. 712–713
  17. ^ Klímová-Alexander, p. 204
  18. ^ Marushiakova et al., pp. 332, 362
  19. ^ Boangiu, pp. 712
  20. ^ Mudure, pp. 64–65
  21. ^ a b c "Și țiganii își au asociația lor. —În loc de una însă au două, dar nu se pot înțelege împreună", in Unirea Poporului, Issue 40/1933, p. 7
  22. ^ Marushiakova et al., pp. 343, 349
  23. ^ a b Klímová-Alexander, p. 169
  24. ^ Achim (2004), p. 155; Klímová-Alexander, p. 169; Marushiakova et al., pp. 367, 368; Mudure, pp. 64–65
  25. ^ a b "Romii la Blaj", in Unirea Poporului, Issue 29/1934, p. 4
  26. ^ a b c "Unique Congress of Gypsies Urges All Nomads to Unite", in The Laredo Times, November 19, 1933, p. 2
  27. ^ a b c Alex F. Mihail, "Poporul enigmatic. Cine sunt țiganii, de unde vin și ce obiceiuri au?", in Realitatea Ilustrată, Vol. VII, Issue 351, October 1933, p. 352
  28. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 172–173, 203–204; Mudure, p. 65
  29. ^ Klímová-Alexander, p. 173
  30. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 203–204; Williams, pp. 23, 25–26
  31. ^ Achim (2004), pp. 157–158; Marushiakova et al., p. 368
  32. ^ Dieaconu & Costachie, p. 184
  33. ^ a b c d Mudure, p. 65
  34. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 170, 202
  35. ^ Dieaconu & Costachie, p. 181. See also Duminică, p. 95
  36. ^ Klímová-Alexander, p. 171; Matei (2012), p. 59; Williams, p. 23
  37. ^ Achim (2004), pp. 156–157; Klímová-Alexander, p. 174; Marushiakova et al., pp. 377, 388, 416; Matei (2012), pp. 65–67; Mudure, p. 65
  38. ^ Achim (2004), pp. 156–157; Boangiu, pp. 713–715; Dieaconu & Costachie, pp. 185; Klímová-Alexander, p. 174; Marushiakova et al., pp. 391, 465; Matei (2012), p. 67
  39. ^ Dieaconu & Costachie, p. 184; Klímová-Alexander, pp. 170, 202; Marushiakova et al., pp. 342, 353, 416–417; Matei (2012), pp. 57–67; Williams, p. 23
  40. ^ Marushiakova et al., p. 352
  41. ^ Matei (2012), pp. 60–61, 64–65. See also Dieaconu & Costachie, p. 184; Duminică, p. 95
  42. ^ Marushiakova et al., pp. 330–331; Matei (2012), pp. 57–60
  43. ^ Matei (2012), pp. 59–60, 62
  44. ^ a b Matei (2012), p. 60
  45. ^ Marushiakova et al., pp. 397–398, 401, 414–416; Matei (2012), pp. 56–57, 62, 65–66
  46. ^ Marushiakova et al., pp. 366, 393
  47. ^ Achim (2004), pp. 156–157; Klímová-Alexander, pp. 171, 176–177; Williams, pp. 23–26
  48. ^ Dieaconu & Costachie, p. 182
  49. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 170, 202. See also Marushiakova et al., pp. 364–365, 370–371, 463–464
  50. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 172, 202; Marushiakova et al., pp. 463–464
  51. ^ Williams, p. 25
  52. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 169–170, 176; Matei, "Raporturile", p. 171
  53. ^ Klímová-Alexander, p. 176
  54. ^ Matei, "Raporturile", pp. 165–166, 169
  55. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 171–172; Williams, pp. 24–25. See also Achim (2004), p. 156
  56. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 176, 201
  57. ^ Matei, "Raporturile", pp. 162–164. See also Marushiakova et al., pp. 331, 340, 441
  58. ^ Matei (2012), pp. 58–59
  59. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 170–171, 202. See also Marushiakova et al., p. 343
  60. ^ Oprescu, p. 33; Matei, "Raporturile", p. 165; Williams, p. 24
  61. ^ Dieaconu & Costachie, pp. 184–185
  62. ^ Matei (2012), pp. 67–68
  63. ^ Matei, "Romii în perioada interbelică", p. 31 and (2012), pp. 67–68
  64. ^ a b Varga, p. 631
  65. ^ Oprescu, p. 33. See also Marushiakova et al., pp. 362, 367; Matei, "Romii în perioada interbelică", p. 31 and (2012), pp. 67–68; Williams, p. 24
  66. ^ Marushiakova et al., p. 362; Williams, p. 24
  67. ^ Oprescu, pp. 32–33; Varga, pp. 631, 632
  68. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 202–203; Oprescu, p. 33; Varga, p. 632
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  74. ^ a b Matei, "Raporturile", p. 167
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  76. ^ Matei, "Raporturile", pp. 166–167
  77. ^ Achim (2004), pp. 155–156; Klímová-Alexander, pp. 172, 173, 174, 204–205
  78. ^ Nicholas Saul, Gypsies and Orientalism in German Literature and Anthropology of the Long Nineteenth Century, p. 161. London: Legenda (Modern Humanities Association), 2007. ISBN 978-1-900755-88-7
  79. ^ "Știrile săptămânii. Romii iarăși se mișcă", in Unirea Poporului, Issue 42/1935, p. 7
  80. ^ Achim (2004), p. 156; Dieaconu & Costachie, pp. 181, 186; Klímová-Alexander, p. 173. See also Boangiu, pp. 712–713; Matei, "Raporturile", p. 162; Varga, p. 633
  81. ^ Matei (2012), pp. 64–65
  82. ^ "Ali dobe cigani svojo Palestino?", in Slovenski Narod, Issue 221/1934, p. 5; Marushiakova et al., p. 414
  83. ^ Marushiakova et al., p. 414
  84. ^ René Benazec, "Chez les pharaons des grands chemins. Les vrais Tziganes. VI. – Trois présidents pour un roi", in L'Intransigeant, April 19, 1935, p. 2
  85. ^ Marushiakova et al., pp. 367, 377, 452
  86. ^ "Congresul internațional al Romilor", in , Vol. X, Issue 489, June 1936, p. 5
  87. ^ Achim (2004), pp. 158–159; Dieaconu & Costachie, p. 185; Klímová-Alexander, pp. 175, 201, 203; Matei, "Romii în perioada interbelică", pp. 31–34
  88. ^ Matei, "Romii în perioada interbelică", pp. 31–35
  89. ^ Duminică, pp. 94–95
  90. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 174–175
  91. ^ Varga, p. 633. See also Matei, "Raporturile", p. 169
  92. ^ Matei, "Raporturile", pp. 168–170
  93. ^ Matei, "Romii în perioada interbelică", p. 33
  94. ^ Matei, "Romii în perioada interbelică", pp. 33–34
  95. ^ Matei, "Romii în perioada interbelică", pp. 34–35
  96. ^ Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște, "Partidul național-creștin-musulman...", in Adevărul, August 6, 1937, p. 1
  97. ^ "Informations du monde entier. Les tsiganes roumains achetés par les partis antijuifs", in La Tribune Juive, Vol. 19, Issue 32, August 1937, p. 484
  98. ^ Achim (2004), pp. 158–159; Dieaconu & Costachie, pp. 185–186
  99. ^ Klímová-Alexander, pp. 175, 201
  100. ^ a b Dieaconu & Costachie, p. 186
  101. ^ Klímová-Alexander, p. 201
  102. ^ "Hemlock in Wine. Gipsy 'Prince' Poisoned", in The Age, September 3, 1937, p. 12
  103. ^ "Der vergiftete Zigeunerprinz", in Der Oberschlesischer Wanderer, Issue 260/1937, p. 5
  104. ^ Boangiu, p. 713
  105. ^ Marushiakova et al., p. 439
  106. ^ Marushiakova et al., pp. 443–448
  107. ^ Matei, "Raporturile", p. 171
  108. ^ Achim (2004), p. 163
  109. ^ Dieaconu & Costachie, p. 186; Oprescu, p. 33; Varga, pp. 633–634
  110. ^ Oprescu, p. 33; Varga, pp. 633–634
  111. ^ Achim (2004), p. 156; Klímová-Alexander, p. 173
  112. ^ Klímová-Alexander, p. 205
  113. ^ Marushiakova et al., p. 451
  114. ^ Matei, "Raporturile", pp. 171–172
  115. ^ Matei, "Raporturile", pp. 171–172. See also Duminică, p. 95
  116. ^ a b Matei, "Raporturile", p. 172
  117. ^ Oprescu, p. 33; Varga, pp. 634–635
  118. ^ Achim (2004), pp. 166–167
  119. ^ Achim (2004), p. 168. See also Oprescu, p. 34
  120. ^ Achim (2004), pp. 167–185; Mudure, pp. 65–66; Oprescu, p. 34; Varga, pp. 635–641
  121. ^ Oprescu, p. 34
  122. ^ Matei (2012), pp. 69–70
  123. ^ Marushiakova et al., p. 465
  124. ^ a b Achim (2010), pp. 452–454
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  126. ^ Achim (2004), pp. 189–190 & (2010), passim
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