The Activity of the Cluj County Branch of the Romanian National Party in the Spring of 1920 as Reflected in the Newspaper Patria

"This study aims to highlight the activity of the Cluj County Branch of the Romanian National Party (hereafter abbreviated as RNP) in the spring of 1920, covering the events from the fall of the government led by Alexandru Vaida–Voevod until the end of the parliamentary elections of May–June 1920. After the Great Union, the city of Cluj became the political capital of Transylvania, especially after the Ruling Council, which was the provisional executive body of Transylvania, moved its headquarters from Sibiu to Cluj. Iuliu Maniu, the President of the Ruling Council and of the R.N.P, who was elected at the Sibiu Conference of 9–10 August 1919, had settled in Cluj as well. Moreover, at the head of Cluj County Branch of the RNP were personalities with a rich history of struggle for the cause of National Liberation of the Romanians in Transylvania: Iuliu Coroianu, Emil Hațieganu, Aurel Socol, Sever Dan, Alexandru Rusu, Ioan Giurgiu, the Archpriest Ioan Pop of Morlaca, and the Priest‑Martyr Aurel Muntean from Huedin. After the dismissal of the Vaida government, the Central Executive Committee of the RNP convened a party congress for 24 April 1920, in Alba Iulia. Just before the congress, the Cluj County organization had started the election campaign. Meetings were organized in every town and village, aiming to elect representatives for the Congress in Alba Iulia. On 21 April 1920, a large assembly was held in Cluj, during which the deputies of Cluj presented their work in Parliament. Simultaneously, delegates were elected for the Congress of Alba Iulia. The RNP Congress adopted a draft resolution and the governing bodies were elected. Iuliu Maniu was re‑elected as President. Based on the decisions adopted at the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia on 1 December 1918, he adopted a working program, which was summarized in thirteen chapters. During the electoral campaign of 1920 two major political groups became polar opposites: the one around the People’s Party, which was in power, and the parties that formed the Parliamentary Bloc and had governed before. On the list of candidates of the Cluj County Branch of the RNP we can mostly find the former MPs of the party, as well as those who had filled various leadership positions within the Ruling Council. Following the electoral process, despite all the efforts of the People’s Party, in power at that time – especially those of Octavian Goga – to dispel the propaganda conducted by the RNP, the latter party managed to obtain 27 seats in the House and 14 in the Senate. This placed the RNP in second place among Romania’s political parties. The Cluj County Branch of the RNP was able to win two of the five electoral districts in the Chamber, as well as two in the Senate, out of the three allocated to the county. Another conclusion would be that, starting from these parliamentary elections, more and more parties from the Old Kingdom penetrated into Transylvania and Banat. They would achieve some success with the voters only when they came to hold power in the state and organize elections. Still, the RNP remained the party with the largest grip on the electorate of Transylvania and Banat, and Cluj became the political capital of Transylvania."

Medical Entrepreneurship in Cluj During the Interwar Period. Case Studies: The ‘Cosmuța,’ ‘Charité,’ and ‘Lengyel’ Sanatoriums

"Several private hospital ventures developed in Cluj, an important medical center, between the two World Wars. This article presents four case studies, namely private sanatoriums established in Cluj at the initiative of individual entrepreneurs: the ‘Cosmuța,’ ‘Park,’ ‘Charite,’ and ‘Lengyel’ Sanatoriums. Based on these, a number of characteristics of interwar Cluj medical entrepreneurship can be outlined."

"The House of Goldsmith Michael Lutsch. New Data on the History of a Pre-Modern Town House in Cluj"

"This study is dedicated to a building in downtown Cluj, located on the south side of today’s Memorandumului Street. Although the edifice features many aspects of the stylistic evolution of the architecture of Cluj (it was built in Gothic style, with considerable changes that pertained to the Renaissance and then the Baroque styles), the history of the edifice is almost unknown in the literature of local history. Our study aims to provide a detailed description of the building, to outline the various stages of its construction, and to identify the people who animated its spaces and contributed to the history of the building."

Ioan Lupaș – the maker and memorialist of the Union of Transylvania with Romania

A prolific historian, a professor of the Andreian Seminary in Sibiu, parish priest of Săliștea and an archpriest of Mărginimea Sibiului, a professor of the ‘King Ferdinand I’ University in Cluj, a titular member of the Romanian Academy, a talented publicist, a co-founder of the Institute of National History in Cluj, a deputy in the Parliament of Greater Romania, a minister in the Averescu and Goga-Cuza governments, a patriot and victim of the Bolshevik regime in the 1950s’ Romania, Ioan Lupaș is a scholar with the aura of a saint. Fr. Lupaș is part of the admirable generation of those who committed themselves with all their power and selflessness to the national movement of the Transylvanian Romanians, those who achieved the Union of Transylvania, Banat, Crișana and Maramureș with the Kingdom of Romania on 1 December 1918 and then fought for the consolidation of national unity during the interwar period. Lupaș is part of the leading gallery of the makers of Greater Romania, and one of the few historians-participants who later wrote relevant pages about the astral event in which they were active participants. The study provides a brief biography of Ioan Lupaș, focusing on the activity of the archpriest at the time of the First World War, his involvement in the organization of the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia, and the way in which he subsequently remembered the events and feelings experienced in the year of the ‘fortunate fulfilling of long-awaited goals’ and of ‘thoroughly well-deserved triumph’.

A few considerations concerning the presence of Hussite‑style war wagons as part of John Hunyadi’s army

The main objective of this paper is to bring forward a subject that was long neglected by the Romanian historiography and Slavic studies: the military importance of the contingents of Bohemian mercenaries within the army of John Hunyadi, and the extensive usage of the Wagenburg and the Hussite war wagons as part of the improvements of the armed forces in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary. These changes were made by John Hunyadi during the first half of the fifteenth century, in relation to the tactical and strategic necessities imposed by the wars fought against the Turks. My approach of the topic sheds light on the ability of John Hunyadi to use the offensive, defensive, and logistical potential of this rudimentary but extremely versatile and efficient war machine, and points out at the fact that the Kingdom of Hungary was, at that time, up to date with the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century military technologies. In addition, this paper explores a variety of Christian and Ottoman sources and compares these narratives in regard to the subject. The current Romanian historiography has failed to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Hussite-style war wagons, and thus the relevance of this paper is linked to broadening the perspective on the matter.

Repaired lacunae and reconstructed parts of a Bronze Age ceramic urn from the 1970s embodied in a new restoration process

This is an object which was restored in the 1970s by the restorers of that time. A fragment representing the bottom of the vessel was found inside the vessel, which was kept in the storage facilities of the National Museum of Transylvanian History. The vessel had white plaster reconstructed parts, reintegrating the original fragments existing at the time of restoration. The missing fragment, subsequently found, was thus integrated into the body of the vessel.

The problem of desertation in the army of the Habsburg Empire: from the reign of Maria Theresa of the first decades of the nineteenth century

The article analyses the problem of desertion in the army of the Habsburg Empire and in the regiments recruited from Transylvania in the eighteenth century, a century considered by the historiography of the last decades as the classic ‘era of deserters.’ The causes of desertion are varied and they concern mainly the mode of recruitment specific to those times, when most men did not freely choose to become soldiers. Discipline based on harsh physical punishment, the strenuous efforts to which soldiers were subjected, especially during campaigns, the very poor hygiene and sanitary conditions, alcoholism and mental illnesses (melancholia, Heimweh) and, last but not least, the desire for adventure influenced this phenomenon. There were young men who defected without any qualms of conscience, going from one regiment to another or even from another army to another. In theory, defection was punishable by death, but in practice there was a wide variety of mitigating circumstances in the application of punishments, and the number of those executed was very small in relation to the number of defectors

Fire prevention and firefighting as stipulated in the rules and regulations for the neighbourhoods of Sibiu

Fire was a constant imminent danger, not only for the Transylvanian communities, but for others as well; this article brings forward the way in which the neighborhoods of Sibiu, a model of social organization documented in Transylvania since the fifteenth century, were involved in fire prevention and firefighting by introducing rules and fines into their statutes of organization.