MINELRES: The Romanian Minority in Ukraine
MINELRES moderator
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Wed Nov 24 18:45:09 2004
Original sender: Ionas Aurelian Rus <[email protected]>
I have received this text from the Center for the Prevention of
Conflicts and Early Warning from Bucharest, Romania on August 13, 2004.
It was apparently written on June 19, 2004.
Ionas Aurelian Rus
Policy Paper nr.704R/19 Iunie
The Romanian Minority in Ukraine
- 150.989 are Romanian ethnics (0.33% of the country�s population) and
258,619 are Romanians/"Moldavians". Non-devised artificially in two
ethnical groups, the Romanian speaking population would have been placed
on the third position, after Ukrainians and Russians.
- The numerical distribution of the Romanian ethnics on regions and
localities:
- In Cernauti region � 208,800 Romanian speaking population (19.78% of
the region�s population) out of which 141,600 (12.5%) declared to be of
Romanian ethnical minority and 67,200 Moldavians.
- In Transcarpatica region � 32,152 Romanian ethnics � mainly living in
Teaciv rayon � 21.3 thousands of persons (12.4% of the rayon population)
and Rahiv � 10.3 thousands of persons (11.6% of the rayon population).
- In Odesa region � 724 persons declared to be Romanians and 123.751 �
Moldavians.
A small number of Romanian speaking population live in different other
places from Ukraine.
The editing of the books in Romanian for the Romanian teaching schools
in Ukraine is being done by the Printing House "Svit" from Lvov. This is
also printing books in Polish and Hungarian. The editorial office for
the books in Romanian is in Cernauti: chief editor (Director) Mihai
UNGUREANU.
The books in Ukrainian are being translated for all the subjects,
including the history books (the translators Ştefan BROASCĂ,
Dumitru COVALCIUC, Ştefan LAZAROVICI, etc).
The books of Romanian language and literature are edited in Cernauti,
the authors being teachers of Romanian origin from Cernauti.
For the elementary school:
Romanian language, IInd grade, Alexandrina CERNOV
Reading book, IInd grade, Alexandrina CERNOV
Romanian language, IIIrd grade, Natalia CIURIM
Reading book, IIIrd grade, Ilie LUCEAC
Romanian language, IVth grade, Ion BEJENARU
Reading book, IVth grade, Alexandrina CERNOV
For the elementary school (the Ukrainian language, Romanian language and
the reading books) the Editorial House Bureek has also printed books,
their author being Mrs. Serafina CRIGAN.
The Romanian companies are being allocated in Cernauti region, an amount
of approximately 22,000 grivne (almost 4,150 US Dollars) that their
leaders consider insufficient.
The status regarding the education on Romanian in Cernauti and
Trancarpatica regions
In Cernauti region:
In the pre-school education, 1400 children are educated in Romanian
language, within 33 pre-school permanent institutions and 175 within
seasonal institutions.
In Kindergarten no. 1 of Cernauti, there is a group of 20 children of
Romanian ethnical minority.
In the school education, during 2003-2004, in four rayons (Herţa,
Hliboca, Noua Suliţă şi Storojineţ) and in Cernauti
there are:
- 82 general schools, with Romanian as teaching language, where there
are 20,837 students studying, in 1075 classes;
- 10 mixed schools with 130 classes with Romanian as teaching language,
where there are 2,246 students studying.
In the schools and classes with Romanian as teaching language, all
subjects, except for "the Ukrainian Language and Literature" are taught
in Romanian.
Other 363 pupils in the general schools from the region study in
Romanian as a compulsory subject and 750 � as optional.
In the schools with Romanian as teaching language there are 2118
educators teaching (19.2% of the total number of educators in the
region.
The Romanian language and literature are being taught by 225 teachers.
The universities
The teachers for the schools having the Romanian as teaching language
are trained in the National University "Iurii Fedkovici" and at the
Pedagogic College from Cernauti, as well as in high education
institutions in Romania and Republic of Moldova.
At the Philology Faculty of this university, there is the Department of
Romanian and classical Philology, 92 students.
At the Faculty of Mathematics, there are 39 students studying in
Romanian groups.
At the Pedagogical College within the mentioned university, educators
and teachers are being trained for the education institutions with
Romanian as teaching language � 94 students.
In Transcarpatia region
There are 13 general schools in the 13 localities with population of
Romanian ethnical minority.
In Teaciv rayon, Slatina locality, there are:
- a high-school � boarding school, human sciences and exact sciences
base, with 31 students Xth and XIth grades;
- a middle school of general knowledge with teaching in Romanian
language, with 24 classes, 530 pupils.
There are general schools in several localities: Apsa de Jos (4
schools), Stramtura, Carbunesti, Boutul Mare and Boutul Mic.
In Rahiv rayon: At biserica Alba, Apşa de Mijloc, Plaiuţul,
Dobric.
Totally there are 4,317 students and almost 380 teachers, in the
pre-school education there is a kindergarten with teaching in Romanian
language, with 40 children, in Slatina.
In the universities, there is the state University from Ujgorod, the
Faculty of Foreign Languages, the Germanic Languages Department, the
Romanian language Department, with 10 students.
- Annually, there is a contest for selecting the candidates who wish to
study at the high education institutions in Romania and Republic of
Moldova.
- During the last 5 years, through such selection of the Education and
Science Department of Cernauti, 186 candidates have been admitted for
studying in Romania and 104 for Republic of Moldova.
In Odesa region there are 9 national schools (174 classes) and 9 mixed
schools (122 classes) with teaching on Romanian language (Moldavian
language). In 7 schools with teaching in Ukrainian, 1715 pupils were
studying Romanian language as compulsory suibject, and 500 � optional,
totally over 8000 pupils were studying the Romanian language (2.5% of
all pupils in the region). From statistic data it results that only 42%
of the Moldavians� children are educated in Romanian language.
In the village Novoseolovka, Sarata rayon, Odesa region, there was a
middle general school with 11 classes, with Romanian as teaching
language ("the Moldavian"), with 494 pupils and 48 teachers.
As per provisions of the Collaboration Protocol in the field of
education, between the Ministry of education and Research in Romania and
the Education and Science Ministry in Ukraine, for the years 2002/2003,
starting with September 1, 2003, this school was to be transformed into
a high-school.
Starting with the educational year 2003-2004, the progamme of the school
was added the functioning, based on the options freely expressed by the
students, two classes of Xth grade with teaching in Romanian language,
one with human sciences profile, with 15 students and one with a
mathematics profile, with 17 students. Under this circumstance it cannot
be considered that in Novoseolovka there is a high-school with teaching
in Romanian language.
X
One of the main objectives of the foreign policy of the Romanian
government is the keeping of the identity of the Romanian communities
located outside the boarders of the country, the maintaining and keeping
of their connections with the Romanian state, totally in accordance with
the provisions and principles of the international law. The issue of the
development and consolidation of the relations with the Romanian
communities, represents, within the Governing Programme for the years
2001-2004, a priority field, pursuing mainly, "the active support of the
interests of the Romanian citizens, of the co-nationals outside the
boarders and the encouraging of their relations with the country".
As far as the relations with the Ukrainian side is concerned, the issue
of protecting the Romanian minority in Ukraine was constantly on the
agenda of the official bilateral meetings, including at the highest
level, pursuing the settlement of the existent problems, by bilateral
dialogue, in the spirit of the European legal order.
Thus, on the occasion of the official visit in Romania of Mr.
Konstyantyn Grischenko, the minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine,
which took place on February 18, this year, the Romanian party requested
the Ukrainian authorities to prove a wider availability for settlement
of the problems of the Romanian minority in Ukraine, among which the
returning of some buildings that used to belong to the Romanian cultural
institutions until 1944, the representation of the Romanian minority in
the Superior Rada in Kiev, more substantial support regarding the
publishing of some books in Romanian; there was also discussed the
problem on the difficulties that the Romanian party has faced due to the
blocking of the donations, especially the ones concerning Romanian books
for the Romanian community in Ukraine. These issues are actually
permanently on the agenda of the Joint Romanian-Ukrainian Commission for
national minorities.
The Romanian party transmitted to the Ukrainian one, a
Romanian-Ukrainian Action Programme for Europe, containing a number of
concrete proposals regarding the protection of the Romanian minority in
Ukraine, including by building monuments or memorial houses or the
retrocession of some assets, such as: the building of the monument of
Stefan cel Mare si Sfant in Codrii Cosminului, the establishing of the
memorial museum "Mihai Eminescu" in Cernauti; the transforming of the
headquarter of the present General Consulate of Romania in Cernauti
(subsequent to its moving in another place), into House of the Romanian
Culture, library or cultural center of the Romanians; the retrocession
of some immovable from Cernauti, which until 1944 belonged to the
Romanian cultural institutions (the house of Aron Pumnul, the National
Palace, the Cultural Palace).
The programme for the year 2004 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
regarding the relation with Ukraine, there are in this respect a number
of concrete actions, such as:
- building again the bust of the national poet Mihai Eminescu in Odesa;
- setting up some commemorative plaques on he locations where
personalities of the Romanian history and culture had lived in Bucovina
and naming some streets in Cernauti after them;
- Building a monument of Stefan cel Mare si Sfant in Codrii Cosminului;
- Setting up bilingual signs in the rayons Herta and Noua Sulita from
Bucovina and in the regions with Romanian compact population from
Transcarpatia (Slatina, Rahiv, etc.)
- Setting up the museum "Mihai Eminescu" in the House "Aron Pumnul" from
Cernauti;
- Opening the "Romanian Library in Cernauti", with the support of the
County Library "Gheorghe Asachi" from Iasi;
- Building monuments for the Romanian heroes who had died during the
second world war in some localities of Bucovina � actions for marking
and arranging the places where heroes of the Romanian Army had been
berried;
- Renovating the crypts of the Romanian rulers: Stefan Petriceicu and
Constantin Serban from the Monastery Starai Stambir from Lvov Region;
- Proceedings for the reconstruction of the former monastery "Peri" from
the village Grusevo- Transcarpatia � the oldest Romanian foundation
where the first church books had been printed in Romanian language.
Romania pursues the preservation of the cultural and linguistic identity
of the Romanian communities in Ukraine, including of the spiritual and
cultural Romanian patrimony which is in the neighboring country, in
compliance with the provisions of the bilateral legal frame and
international provisions in the field, in force.
The diplomatic missions of Romania in Ukraine organize different actions
for commemorating the memory of the ancestors, through commemorative
gatherings, religious services, wreaths, etc.