Comrade Baron : a journey through the vanishing world of the Transylvanian aristocracy

Author(s)
Bibliographic Information

Comrade Baron : a journey through the vanishing world of the Transylvanian aristocracy

Jaap Scholten ; translated by Liz Waters

Helena History Press , Central European University Press, c2016

  • : [pbk]

Other Title

Kameraad Baron : een reis door de verdwijnende wereld van de Transsylvaanse aristocratie

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Note

Originally published: Amsterdam : Atlas Contact, 2010

Includes bibliographical references (p. 397-401)

Description and Table of Contents

Description

In the darkness of the early morning of 3 March 1949, practically all of the Transylvanian aristocracy were arrested in their beds and loaded into lorries. That same day the Romanian Workers' Party was pleased to announce the successful deportation and dispossession of all large landowners. Communism demanded the destruction of these ultimate class enemies. Under the terror of Gheorghiu-Dej and later Ceausescu the aristocracy led a double life: during the day they worked in quarries, steelworks and carpenters' yards; in the evening they secretly gathered and maintained the rituals of an older world. To record this unknown episode of recent history, Jaap Scholten travelled extensively in Romania and Hungary and sought out the few remaining aristocrats who experienced the night of 3 March 1949. He spoke to people who survived the Romanian Gulag and met the youngest generation of the once distinguished aristocracy to talk about the restitution of assets and about the future. How is it possible to rebuild anything in a country that finds itself in a moral vacuum?

Table of Contents

Note to the English edition Comrade Baron - Introduction Part 1 They were counted The song of thorn birds Nicolai the pet bear Where the moon took us The wolves come up to the monastery wall You're an ambassador, I'm a minister Back to her father's country The honeymoon is over Puss in Boots After his death, wagonloads of books kept arriving Purdeys, plus fours and whist Forbidden love For four years we did nothing but dance The hand-kiss Part 2 They were divided I heard the dogs barking Charlady offers her services Bridal suites and celibacy tax The destruction of the elite Seventeen truckloads of Banffy treasures You can dump us at the North Pole and we'll still survive It is part of me Thursday afternoon, five o'clock The horses were eaten Looking at cellars No one in Armenierstadt speaks Armenian now I shared a bed with the archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church Enemies of the people Scapegoats and informants Kis contesa A workers' paradise without workers The Danube - Black Sea Canal Part 3 They were found wanting Beetroot and champagne Castles returned Hunting for truffles with the new generation The Transylvanian Chambord Take the battery out of your phone The Romanian nouveaux riches anno Everyone talked about that fairytale Bear hunting with Ceausescu Staying with the Prince of Wales I have to look into her soul for the secret A class dying out Back to Bonchida and Zabola A well-mannered bear I am the last Appendix Acknowledgements Bibliography Photographs and illustrations Chronological overview Glossary Important geographical names Main figures and interviewees

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