ABSTRACT
Numerous scholars have been concerned with Nicolae Ceauşescu’s flamboyant display of chauvinistic nationalism. Indeed, under the reign of Ceauşescu (1965–89), the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) adopted coherent strategies explicitly aimed at reinforcing the ethnic ties among the Romanian majority and assimilating the historic ethnic minorities.1 This project was heralded by the launch of the socalled “Theses of July 1971” and was followed by concrete measures for building an ethnically homogeneous “socialist nation” in Romania. Nonetheless, it was Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Ceauşescu’s predecessor, who initiated, after 1956, a return to the local traditions and thus to an ethnic understanding of the nation.
