Page - 343 - in Österreich-Ungarns imperiale Herausforderungen - Nationalismen und Rivalitäten im Habsburgerreich um 1900

© 2020, V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847110606 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737010603 government party and held high-level positions within the county admin- istration. Romanians were important for the local nobility because of their significant role in theRomanianGreekCatholic church, too.TheMihalis from Aps‚a (Apsa) sentMembers of Parliament to Budapest (Tivadar/Teodor, P8ter/ Petru)andalsogaveanarchbishoptothechurchinthepersonofVictorMihali.31 The ‘deal,’ therefore, brought mutual advantages. In exchange for parlia- mentarysupportandpublic alignmentwith thegovernment’spolitics the local eliteretainedcontrolovertheadministrationandtheallocationanddistribution ofresources.Withinthisframeworktherewasnoplacetoexpressdeviationfrom the national politics,Maramures‚ county and its congregation supported rhet- orically thebuildingofaunitary,modern,Hungariannationstate.Butwithinthe county it rather meant the stability of a pre-modern elite that could rely on material and political support from Budapest while pursuing its local goals. Maramures‚eliteshadtoperformself-submissiontothecenter,butwereleftwith a freehandwithin theirmuchsmaller realm.32 Buttherealstrengthofthisarrangementwasrevealedafter thedissolutionof theMonarchy.WhentheRomaniantroopsarrivedatMaramures‚,andafter they declaredthesovereigntyof theKingofRomania, thecenter-periphery relations wereshaken.Although,forawhile, thelocal institutionsandfigurestriednotto severeconnectionswithBudapest, it turnedout tobeanimpossible task.State- owned institutionswere transferred to the Romanian state that imposed new ruleswithin,while theCalvinistschools lost theirstatesubsidies thateffectively keptthemabovewaterbefore1918.Duetovariousreasons–mostofthemrather pettyandpersonalones–authoritiesfinallyclosedtheCalvinisthighschooland theAcademyofLawandthe latterwas relocatedtoHungary.33 But behind the facade of quick and sweepingRomanianization, the former arrangementsheldupsurprisinglywell.Thebasis for suchanoutcomewas the continuingholdof the local elite ontheadministration.This continuationwas relativelyeasybecauseof the integrationofGreekCatholicsprior to1918.Most of thepublic servantsof thecounty in1925werepublicofficials alreadybefore 1918, althoughsometime theychanged theirnames tomoreRomanian-sound- 31 OvidiuEmilIudean,BetweenNationalSolidarityandLocalInterests.ThePro-Governmental PoliticalOrientationoftheRomaniansinHungary(theEndofthe19thCenturytheBeginning ofthe20thCentury), in:KonstantinosBratanis/DimitrisDranidis/PavlosKoktsidis/Lambros Lazouras/EftychiaNikolaidou(ed.),InfusingResearchandKnowledgeinSouthEastEurope. 7th annual SouthEast EuropeanDoctoral StudentCoferece, Thessaloniki 2012, p. 873–887. 32 Cieger,Prdekek8s strat8gi#k(seenote20),p. 100. 33 N#ndor B#rdi, Otthon 8s haza. Tanulm#nyok a rom#niai magyars#g tört8net8bo˝l, Cs&ks- zereda2014,p. 91–95;Balogh,Am#ramarosszigeti (seenote26);ArhiveleNat‚ionaleSect‚ia Judet‚eana˘Maramures‚, LiceulReformatdinSighet (ANSJMM). RegionalElites,NationalistPolitics, LocalAccommodations 343