Last updated Front page of Unirea for August 11, 1894
Unirea ("The Union") was a newspaper published at Blaj, in the Transylvania region, which was administered by the Kingdom of Hungary and eventually became part of Romania in 1920. Appearing between January 3, 1891, and March 24, 1945, it was an official publication of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church.[1]
Although belonging to the church and receiving an important part of its contributions from Greek-Catholic clerics and teachers at the local Romanian schools, Unirea, which billed itself as a "churchly-political broadsheet", avoided an excessive focus on theological and religious themes. Its editors instead preferred to discuss political matters, as well as the status of Transylvania's Romanians.[2] This orientation was particularly visible in late autumn 1918, in the period leading up to the union of Transylvania with Romania. Traditionally, the paper had been published in a weekly four-page edition, but an early November copy was written in red ink to emphasize its festive character. The occasion it celebrated was the recent establishment at Blaj of a Romanian National Council and National Guard, both of which held sway over Alsó-Fehér County. On November 28, the front page called Romanians to Alba Iulia, to the assembly that would ratify the union. Into 1919, the newspaper continued as a daily propagandistic organ;[2] taken over by the National Council, its director was Alexandru Ciura.[1] This period marked its apogee; it subsequently split into two publications, with the churchly-religious section continuing as Unirea, while the lay part was called Unirea poporului.[2]
Unirea was shut down by the new Romanian Communist Party-dominated government, which viewed the newspaper unfavorably, in March 1945. A newspaper with the same name was set up at Alba Iulia in 1967.[3]
Notes
1 2 3 I. Hangiu, Dicționarul presei literare românești: 1790–1990, p. 495. Bucharest: Editura Fundației Culturale Române, 1996
1 2 3 Nicolae Josan, "Cărturarii județului Alba și actul Unirii Transilvaniei cu România de la 1 Decembrie 1918", in Apulum: Arheologie. Istorie. Etnografie, pp. 190–91, vol. 37, nr. 2/2000
Alba Iulia is a city that serves as the seat of Alba County in the west-central part of Romania. Located on the Mureș River in the historical region of Transylvania, it has a population of 63,536.
The Romanian Greek Catholic Church or Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic, sometimes called, in reference to its Byzantine Rite, the Romanian Byzantine Catholic Church is a sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church, in full union with the Catholic Church. It has the rank of a Major Archiepiscopal Church and it uses the Byzantine liturgical rite in the Romanian language. It is part of the Major Archiepiscopal Churches of the Catholic Church that are not distinguished with a patriarchal title.
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod or Vaida-Voievod was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician who was a supporter and promoter of the union of Transylvania with the Romanian Old Kingdom. He later served as 28th Prime Minister of Romania.
Gheorghe Pop de Băsești or George Pop de Băsești, also known under the nickname Badea Gheorghe or Badea George was an Imperial Austrian-born Romanian politician, philanthropist and patriot, who served as vice president (1881–1902) and president (1902–1919) of the Romanian National Party at a time when Transylvania was part of the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary, and eventually as the president of the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia that declared the Union of Transylvania with Romania on 1 December 1918.
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Alexandru Sterca-Șuluțiu, also called Alexandru Sterca-Șuluțiu de Cărpiniș, was an ethnic Romanian Eastern Catholic cleric in Imperial Austrian Transylvania, and the Metropolitan of the Transylvanian Greek Catholic Church. He was the brother of 1848 revolutionary commander Ioan Sterca-Șuluțiu.
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Constantin Al. Ionescu-Caion was a Romanian journalist and poet, primarily remembered for his legal dispute with humorist Ion Luca Caragiale. He was a Symbolist, a disciple of Alexandru Macedonski, and a militant Francophile, as well as a leading opponent of literary tradition. His scattered work comprises essays, short stories and prose poetry, noted for their cultural references, but made little impact on Romanian literature. As a journalist, Caion prioritized scandals, accusing Caragiale of plagiarism and losing the subsequent celebrity trial of 1902, before partly recanting and winning the retrial. Despite his own coquetries with Romanian nationalism, Caion focused his verve on Transylvania's contemporary nationalist literary current.
Ion Agârbiceanu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian writer, journalist, politician, theologian and Greek-Catholic priest. Born among the Romanian peasant class of Transylvania, he was originally an Orthodox, but chose to embrace Eastern Catholicism. Assisted by the Catholic congregation of Blaj, he graduated from Budapest University, after which he was ordained. Agârbiceanu was initially assigned to a parish in the Apuseni Mountains, which form the backdrop to much of his fiction. Before 1910, Agârbiceanu had achieved literary fame in both Transylvania and the Kingdom of Romania, affiliating with Astra cultural society in 1912; his work was disputed between the rival schools of Sămănătorul and Poporanism. After a debut in poetry, he became a highly prolific author of novels, novellas, and other forms of prose, being rated as "Chekhovian" or "Tolstoyan" for his talents in describing the discreet suffering of common folk.
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Zenovie Pâclișanu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian historian, diplomat and cleric. A native of Transylvania, he completed a doctorate at Vienna, and during the 1910s was active in the cultural and religious life of Blaj. Following the creation of Greater Romania, which he enthusiastically supported, he became a civil servant, twice taking part in treaty negotiations. After World War II, the new communist regime suppressed his Greek-Catholic Church and threw Pâclișanu in prison, where he died. His work, banned under communism but partly re-edited in the years since, focuses on the history of Transylvania between the 17th and 19th centuries, particularly in the religious sphere.
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Alexandru I. Lapedatu was Cults and Arts and State minister of Romania, President of the Senate of Romania, member of the Romanian Academy, its president and general secretary.
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In Romanian historiography, the Great Union or Great Union of 1918 was the series of political unifications the Kingdom of Romania had with several of the so-called Romanian historical regions, starting with Bessarabia on 27 March 1918, continuing with Bukovina on 28 November 1918 and finalizing with Transylvania on 1 December 1918 with the declaration of the union of this region with Romania during an assembly at the city of Alba Iulia. Romanians also consider several other events as preludes to the Great Union, such as the unification of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 or the independence of the country and the annexation of Northern Dobruja in 1878, and also the occupation of Transylvania and Moldavia by the Prince of Wallachia, Michael the Brave, in 1600.
The Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia was an assembly held on 1 December 1918 in the city of Alba Iulia in which a total of 1,228 delegates from several areas inhabited by ethnic Romanians declared the union of Transylvania with Romania. It was summoned by the National Romanian Central Council. Regular ethnic Romanian civilians were also called to participate, and these came from all regions inhabited by Romanians; in total, the assembly was attended by some 100,000 people. The union of Transylvania with Romania was declared with the adoption of the Declaration of Alba Iulia during the assembly.
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