TEACHING SLAVIC HISTORY IN ROMANIA IN 2017

must lectures, their structure, the sources we discuss in the seminars, and the literature offered to the students for reading.

Петербургские славянские и балканские исследования Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana programs that gave momentum to the development of Slavic Studies 7 . Ioan Bogdan was a truly representative personality in the field, the actual founder of Romanian Slavic Studies, who asserted himself through the courses, publications and not least through his students who continued his researches 8 . That was the moment when Slavic Studies became established as an interdisciplinary, historical, and philological discipline in the environment of academic research in Romania. The organization of the two departments of the universities of Bucharest and Iaşi has led to the development of the field of studies through the students who followed it and took it forward, through the taught courses and seminars, and through the publications of both professors and students that have led to the formation of a body of specialized literature 9 . During the 20 th century and the beginning of the 21 th century, Slavic Studies in Romanian universities inherited and developed the discipline and the interests and research directions of those who founded it around the year 1900.
After 1918, Slavic Studies in Romanian universities went through great developments and became more diverse. New departments were created, besides those in Bucharest and Iaşi: at the universities in Chernivtsi (Rom. Cernăuți, Germ. Czernowitz) (two Slavic Studies departments existed there ever since the time of the old «Franz Joseph» University) 10 and in Cluj (the South-Eastern European History department). In various institutional forms, the Slavic Studies departments provided courses and seminars of Slavic philology, literature, history, culture and not least of Slavic languages (Russian, Polish). Among the professors who honored this discipline one can mention philologists and historians such as Petre Cancel, Ecaterina Piscupescu, Petre P. Panaitescu (Bucharest), Ilie Bărbulescu, Margareta Ştefănescu (Iaşi), Iosif Popovici, Theodor Capidan, Emil Petrovici, Silviu Dragomir, Mihail P. Dan (Cluj), and Ioan Nistor (Chernivtsi).
Slavic Studies grew in Romania after 1944, following the country's occupation by the Red Army and the onset of the Communist regime 11 . One of the cultural leitmotifs of the new regime was the ancient character and consistency of the historical and cultural Romanian-Slavic connections, especially of the Romanian-Russian link. This cultural line was, among other things, visible in the unprecedented development of Slavic and Russian Studies in the universities of Romania. For example, departments of Slavic Studies, Russian language and Russian literature functioned after 1948 at the University of Bucharest, though they went through several transformations over the decades. This was the age of great professors, such as Gheorghe Mihăilă 12 ,Emil Petrovici,I. C. Chiţimia,Pandele Olteanu,and Lucia Djamosee: Linţa E. (ed.). Din istoricul slavisticii româneşti. București, 1982;Mihăilă G. O sută de ani de studii slavo-române la Universitatea din Bucureşti // Romanoslavica. 1992. Vol. XXIX. P. 15-56. Diaconiţă, who have not only developed Slavic Studies in general, including Slavonic language, literature, and culture 13 , but also the teaching of modern Slavic languages and literatures: Polish, Russian, Czech and Slovak, Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian etc. 14 During the 1980s, the teaching of Slavic Studies went through a great crisis period in Romanian universities due to the lack of political support, the lack of interest in the Slavic area (especially the Soviet one) among the students, though one could note this lack of interest among the entire Romanian society as well. The situation was partially remedied after 1989: the teaching staff was refreshed there were new perspectives, more foreign lectors came, and Romanian society experienced a great opening. Anyway, the number of students currently interested in the field is small. A department of Russian Philology 15 and a department of Slavic Philology currently function part of the Foreign Languages Faculty in Bucharest 16 .
The same trends can be noted among the other Romanian universities where Slavic Studies (languages) were taught. In Cluj, the central personality of Slavic Studies was member of the academy Emil Petrovici, active since the 1930s, rector of the university (1945)(1946)(1947)(1948)(1949)(1950)(1951) during the new regime (the current Babeş-Bolyai University). In 1948, Silviu Dragomir, a great historian and slavist was abusively retired. In this context one should also mention historian Mihail P. Dan. Today a Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures exists part of the Faculty of Letters of the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj. This department teaches courses and seminars in Slavic Studies in general, but the focus is on Russian language and literature. There is also a section of Ukrainian language and literature 17 . The university also hosts a Centre of Polish Language and Culture and a Russian Cultural Centre.
In Cluj, like in other universities from Romania, Slavic Studies have been appropriated through tradition (at least until the 1960s-1970s) not only by faculties with a philological profile, but also by faculties of history. For example, representative personalities of Romanian historical writing after 1918 were directly connected to the field of Slavic Studies, such as Silviu Dragomir and Mihail P. Dan from the university in Cluj. Silviu Dragomir completed his university studies in Chernivtsi, performed research in archives and libraries in Belgrade, Sremski Karlovci, andMoscow (1910-1911), and taught courses of Romanian Church history and courses regarding the Romanic population in the Balkans, in direct connection to the Slavic Studies at the Theological Academy in Sibiu and then at the University of Upper Dacia in Cluj (currently the Babeş-Bolyai University) 18 . Historian Mihail P. Dan's career peaked during the 1950s-1970s when he taught several courses dedicated to the Slavic area, such as the one lingvistică şi filologie. Timişoara, 1981; 4) Între Orient şi Occident. Studii de cultură şi literatură română în secolele al XV-lea -al XVIII-lea. Bucureşti, 1999;5) Langue et culture roumaine dans l'éspace sud-est-européen. Bucureşti, 2001. 13 See : Olteanu P. (ed.). Slava veche şi slavona românească. Bucureşti, 1975. 14 Geambaşu C. (ed.). Catedra de limbi şi literaturi slave. Scurt istoric. Bucureşti, 2008. P. 7-11. 15  Unfortunately, the organic connection between philologists and historians, vital to the researches in the field of Slavic Studies, was broken starting with the 1960s-1970s and today there is no institutional tie to connect those interested in Slavic Studies. Such specialists are left with joining the same symposiums or conferences, publishing studies, articles and book reviews in the prestigious periodical Romanoslavica from Bucharest, symbol of Romanian Slavic Studies, published uninterrupted since 1958 20 , or with other collaborations under the patronage of the Slavic Association of Romania 21 .
I thus believe that presenting and discussing a course dedicated to the history of the Slavs, currently available at the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj, is both interesting and relevant.
Returning to the questions mentioned in the beginning of the present paper, one should dwell on the current academic, cultural, and political context. First of all, one should mention the fact that this context is far from the «favorable» era of the 1950s, when such courses were often included in the teaching programs of many faculties and universities in Romania. Nowadays, Romania has abandoned its «traditional connections» to Russia, has left the «Warsaw Pact» (1991), and is a member of NATO and the EU (still, together with many Slavic states!). What is more, we live in a globalized society that no longer stresses ethnic associations and solidarities, where the general interests of Romanian society, including those of the students to whom such a course is addressed, have changed radically.
The education of the future students does not focus on what is traditionally called «general knowledge». The education in history, geography, and world literature that Romanian primary and secondary school pupils receive is modest, thus there is little chance they possess minimal data on the Slavic world. Thus, the first activity part of the course «The Slavs and Slavonism in the Medieval and Early Modern History of the Romanians» consists of administering students a questionnaire with general questions on the Slavic peoples, their geographic location, their historical connections to the Romanians, on historical personalities and events in the Slavic world, and specialized terms 22 .
Three-year Bologna-style university studies provide history students with a strictly general education, as specialization only truly starts with the master and doctoral studies. It is the reason why faculties can only offer few very specialized courses and students have low expectations.
Thus the question: is there any point in teaching such a course?
The answer is affirmative. Such a course is necessary in the history students' curriculum for several reasons. These reasons remind of the considerations expressed more than a century ago by the founders of the university departments in Bucharest and Iaşi, Ioan Bogdan and Ilie Bărbulescu, who stressed the usefulness of Slavic Studies in the research of both past and present 23 . The reasons have largely remained unchanged. First of all, the historic and linguistic connections to the Slavic world are fundamental to understanding the key historical processes of the Romanian Early Middle Ages (such as ethnogenesis and the formation of the Romanian language), the social, cultural, institutional, and religious history of the Romanians during the Middle Ages, their connections to the South Slavic area (Bulgaria, Serbia), and to the Polish, Russian-Ukrainian, and Western Slavic areas. The history of medieval Romanian literature or Church cannot be understood without knowledge of Slavonic culture, language, and literature. One cannot ignore either the historical Romanian-Polish or Romanian-Russian relations during the Modern Era, Romania's inter-war connections with Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland and, why not, the connections of Romania with the Slavic countries after 1944.
There are then the challenges of the present, that make Slavic Studies interesting and useful: the historical developments in the Balkans over the last 25 years (the crises of the Yugoslav area), the international presence of Russia in the South-Eastern and Eastern European area and globally, the challenges that Ukraine faces -Romania's Northern neighbor -and even the Republic of Moldavia and its political tendencies. One cannot ignore either the multiple forms of cooperation (economic, cultural) inside the European Union between Romania and Slavic countries. Last but not least, one must mention the fact that numerous Slavic minorities currently live in Romania (Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Polish, Lipovan Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Ukrainian) 24 , who have well established places in present-day Romanian society and the historical, linguistic, and cultural connections of which to the Romanians are accepted, affirmed, and intensely studied.
For all these reasons I believe that a university course dedicated to the history of the Slavs is always welcome in the teaching programs of the history faculties in present-day Romania.
I shall subsequently present the topics of the lectures. From the beginning, one must state that there is no clear distinction between lectures (the course) and the seminar activities, but that they are intertwined. Course activities often look like a seminar. Another important observation envisages the way lectures are structured. I tried to have a balance between general lectures, focusing on the history of the Slavs, and particular lectures dealing with the historical Romanian-Slavic relations, so that the enlisted students receive both a general historical background and elements directly connected to the Romanian area.
The first lecture is the Introduction. It clarifies the specialized terminology (Slavistics, Slavic Studies, Slavonism, Common Slavonic, Church Slavonic, modern Slavic languages), the aims, topics, and bibliography of the course, the way in which the activities are set to take place and how students will be evaluated (topic I). Then follows a lecture on the history and historiography of Slavic Studies: Slavistics in Europe and Romania (topic II), discussing the beginning of academic interest into the past, languages, and culture of the Slavs and non-Slavs among the Romanians. It also provides students with case studies regarding the beginnings of Slavistics in Romania, Russia, and the Habsburg Empire. For this topic, several students have to prepare papers on the introductory lectures of Ioan Bogdan and Ilie Bărbulescu delivered at  Morfill (1834Morfill ( -1909, delivered at the University of Oxford (1890) 26 . Starting from this discussion, the students are encouraged to meditate and discuss the significance of Slavic Studies in the present and to enquire as to their opportunity. Eventually, the students must write, for the subsequent meeting, an essay entitled «What are (should be) the priorities of Romanian Slavistics today?» Then there are the general lectures, dedicated to the history of the Slavs. The three lectures bear the common title The Entry of the Slavs into European History, that is a paraphrase of A. P. Vlasto's famous 1970 work 27 . One of the lectures discusses the Migration and Settlement of the Slavs in the Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern European areas. History of the Slavic Peoples during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era (topic III). This includes addressing issues such as the theories regarding the origin of the Slavs: the classical theory of the migration from the original country and their settling in the territories of Central and Eastern Europe, but also the «revisionist» theories, such as that of Florin Curta 28 . The lecture dwells on the cultural analysis of the arguments supporting each theory, on issues of language, historical geography, culture, acculturation, and two-way influences. One fundamental aspect is to place the early history of the Slavs against the geographic setting of medieval Europe (Central Europe, the Lower Danube, the Balkan Peninsula), of the Byzantine Empire and of the Byzantine Commonwealth 29 . This lecture requires students to write an essay on «The Slavic Expansion into the Balkans (6 th -8 th centuries)», i. e. the arrival of the Slavs around Thessaloniki starting from one of the era's significant written sources -Miracula Sancti Demetrii (dated to the 7 th century) 30 . The essay is a pretext to evaluate the political, demographic, and cultural impact of the Slavs on the Byzantine provinces from the Balkans, but it also reveals a spectacular medieval historical source. One of the course's assumed goals is precisely the intimate understanding of medieval sources.
The subsequent lecture continues with the period of adopting Christianity and the organization of the first medieval states, presenting the history of the Slavs until the Early Modern Period (topic IV). Considering the structure of the course, one finds it impossible to go into details, so that the presentation is general in nature, though it dwells more on Bulgaria, Serbia, and Poland with which the Romanian area had close ties throughout the centuries. The subsequent lecture is a seminar activity, dedicated to several interesting case 25  The following series of lectures is dedicated to the historical Romanian-Slavic connections. The shared title is «The Slavs in the Romanian Area» and the series provides three perspectives. The first is the archaeological perspective (topic VI). The presentation follows the main directions of archaeological investigations of the Slavic presence on the Romanian territory from the Migrations Period until the 10 th -12 th centuries, in settlements and cemeteries, especially in settlements from the Lower Danube, in Byzantine context, and in other settlements in which Slavic material coexists with autochthonous (post-Roman) material. At this point, the course discusses the challenges that archaeologists face in dealing both with written sources and political power. Besides, part of the lecture is dedicated to the ideological charge of Slavic archaeology in Romania throughout the Communist Regime 31 .
The second perspective is the linguistic one (topic VII), starting from the premise of the significance of linguistics in the historical research of the periods with few historical and literary sources (Late Antiquity, Migrations Period, the spread of Christianity, the early period of the medieval states). The course discusses the consequences for the Romanian language under formation of the meeting between the Romanic population North and South of the Lower Danube and the Slavs, the levels of influence between the Slavic languages and Romanian (the idioms of the Slavic peoples that settled in the Romanian territory during the 6 th -8 th centuries, the influence period of Slavonic, the two-way character of these influences). The lecture then signals the categories of Slavic terms that entered the Romanian language, the geographic origin of these categories of words (from Slavonic 32 , Middle Bulgarian, Serbian, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian etc.), but also the Romanian terms adopted in some of the Slavic languages (see the Romanian pastoral vocabulary adopted into Polish, Czech and especially Slovak) 33 . A significant part of the lecture is dedicated to an introduction in etymology 34 , with a discussion of toponymy and hydronymy 35 , topics to which the students' attention is especially drawn. In the end of the lecture, they each present a toponym or hydronym that is the result of Slavic-Romanian linguist cohabitation.
The third perspective presented is the cultural one (topic VIII), discussing in general the consequences of the influence of the Slavic factor, of Slavonic language, and of Slavic liturgy At this point the course also discusses the (approximate) chronology of these aspects (Church, language, Cyrillic writing, influence of Slavonic literature), stressing the Byzantine-Slavic (Slavic-Byzantine) character of medieval Romanian culture. The concept of «cultural Slavonism» introduced by historian Petre P. Panaitescu is also discussed 36 .
The lecture detailed above is completed by a seminar-type meeting entitled Romanian-Slavic cultural connections. Slavonism as part of Romanian medieval and Early Modern culture (topic IX), during which students present several essays on interesting topics. The first essay discusses «The Slavic Influence in Transylvania», starting from an inciting and controversial article published by Pandele Olteanu 37 . The second is called «Roman and Vlahata vs. Vita Constantini et Methodii» and attempts to establish connections between a theory regarding the origin of the Romanians (in the so-called Gesta of Roman and Vlahata from the Moldavian-Russian Chronicle written in the beginning of the 16 th century) and the Lives of Constantine and Methodius. This essay aims at drawing attention to the circulation of texts and ideas in the area of Eastern Europe and on the official character of some medieval sources 38 . The third essay is also connected to the previous lecture. It discusses «The Crisis of cultural Slavonism» during the 17 th and 18 th centuries. Starting from contemporary sources (The Cazania of metropolitan Varlaam, Foreword to Antim Ivireanu's Slavonian Grammar, Udriște Năsturel's Foreword to the Slavonic translation of De imitatione Christi of Thomas a Kempis), the essay must discuss the process of degradation of Slavonic culture, of the use of Slavonic language, and the introduction of Romanian language in culture, literature, Church etc.
The course's subsequent topics deal with the historical connections of the Romanians with the neighboring Slavic peoples and they are also structured as lectures and essays. The first topic is dedicated to the connections with the South Slavic area (topic X). Several essays are presented after the introduction that sets the research directions (political, institutional, and social history) of the connections between the Romanian territories on the one hand and Bulgaria and Serbia on the other 39 , including after the Ottoman conquest. The first essay is on the theory of «Bulgaria from North of the Danube», a discussion on an older study published by Petre P. Panaitescu under pseudonym in 1950 40 . The topic of the essay is relevant for the 36 Panaitescu P. 1) Contribuţii la istoria culturii româneşti. Bucureşti, 1971; 2) Interpretări româneşti. Studii de istorie economică şi socială. Bucureşti, 1994. 37 Olteanu P. Aux origines de la culture slave dans la Transylvanie de Nord et le Maramureş // Romanoslavica. 1958. T. I. P. 169-197. 38 Pecican O. Troia, Veneţia, Roma. Studii de istoria civilizaţiei europene. Cluj-Napoca, 1998. P. 103-112; Alzati C. În inima Europei. Studii de istorie religioasă a spaţiului românesc. Cluj-Napoca, 1998. P. 92-100. 39 Dvornik F. Slavii în istoria şi civilizaţia europeană. Bucureşti, 2001. P. 80-106; Rezachevici C. Istoria popoarelor vecine şi neamul românesc în evul mediu. Bucureşti, 1998. P. 298-380. Also see: Relaţii româno-bulgare de-a lungul veacurilor (sec. XII-XIX). Vol. I. Bucureşti, 1971. discussion started by the historian starting from the Byzantine sources that spoke of a Bulgaria North of the Danube during the first Bulgarian Tsardom; the theory has been controversial in Romanian historiography during the 1930s-1940s, when recognizing Bulgarian rule over the territory North of the Danube had been a problem. The ideological charge of the research and even of the publication of Panaitescu's study in an aggressive political context (the first years of the Communist Regime) is also interesting. Another suggested essay is dedicated to the personality of scholar and diplomat Grigore Țamblac (Grigorij Camblak) (14 th -15 th century), who has been assumed by several historiographies: Bulgarian, Romanian, Serbian, Russian, and Ukrainian. The final essay is entitled «Folklore as historical source», inviting students to discuss the Romanian -South Slavic cultural connections on the level of folklore.
Topic XI is dedicated to the historical connections to Poland, extremely close and tight throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period especially with Moldavia (including the issue of how Moldavia was founded, its vassality to Poland, the issue of Pokuttya / Pokutsia, the Moldavian-Polish relations regarding the Ottoman issue, political, cultural, social, institutional tis etc.). One of the essays discusses «Who was "Iațco the beekeeper"»? The question arises from reading an episode in Grigore Ureche's Letopiseț, interpolated by Simion Dascălul (17 th century). The episode mentions how the legendary Dragoș, native of Maramureş, reached Moldavia while hunting and met Iațco, «a Rus' from the Polish country» 41 . This legend probably started from the cultural and political choices of some groups of Moldavian boyars from the 14 th century, as historian Ovidiu Pecican attempted to interpret them 42 . The other essay presents «Poland in the writings of Grigore Ureche and Miron Costin», namely the biographical, political, and cultural connections of the two chronicler boyars with Poland during the 17 th century and the way in which Poland was regarded.
The final topic of «The Slavs and Slavonism in the Medieval and Early Modern History of the Romanians» course and seminar is dedicated to the historical connections to the North and East Slavic areas (Russia, Ukraine, the Kazakhs) (topic XII), through a general presentation of the subject and through essays. The first part discusses the early period of Moldavia, the first connections to Kievan Rus', the time of Stephen the Great, the connections during the 16 th -17 th centuries, the role that Kazakhs played in the history of Moldavia, and the time of Peter the Great 43 . The topics of the essays suggested to the students are related to subjects of interest: «The image of the Kazakhs in the writings of Miron Costin» 44 , «Nicolae Milescu Spătarul in Russia», and «Dimitrie Cantemir in Russia». The essay focusing on Nicolae Milescu follows his diplomatic career, especially in the service of Russia, and his diplomatic mission to China, Петербургские славянские и балканские исследования Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana described in a spectacular travelling account 45 . As for Dimitrie Cantemir, the focus is placed on the period he had spent in Russia, around Tsar Peter the Great. We are interested not in Cantemir's political, but in his scientific activity, in his interest for the Ottoman Empire and the Orient, his capacity of Orientalist and the books he wrote in Russian context 46 .
I would now like to make several bibliographic observations. The course has a general bibliography and an additional bibliography and there are specific bibliographies for each course / seminar topic, just as there is one for essays and presentations. A rich bibliography on the topic is available in the Romanian context. Naturally, it will never be sufficient, but it does cover the requirements of the course on the history of the Slavs. One can turn to studies, articles, and books by Romanian authors or to Romanian translations of foreign authors (such as Dimitri Obolensky, Francis Dvornik, and Florin Curta), but I did not avoid suggesting titles of works in international languages (English, French, and German). As a general principle, I tried to offer to the students a balanced bibliography, as much as possible (Romanian vs. foreign authors), and as easily accessible as possible (books available in public libraries or online publications). I sometimes privileged older works (published during the 1950s and the 1960s), since I try to convince my students to read older texts as well, not only the literature of the last 15-20 years.
There is no general work on the history of the Slavs written by a Romanian author, just the translations of the known synthesis by Francis Dvornik or of Florin Curta's work, besides Dimitri Obolensky's excellent work on the Byzantine Commonwealth. In Romanian language general literature on the history of the Slavs is lean, but I compensated with the great synthesis works published by F. Dvornik, F. Comte, and A. V. Vlasto and with studies and articles dedicated to certain topics or aspects from the history of the Slavs. Romanian historiography is richer on topics regarding the connections between the Romanians and the Slavs, such as Constantin Rezachevici's synthesis on the subject. In order to encourage students to read, I did not stress the large syntheses that would have easily provided them with the necessary information, but I encouraged them to use a lot of secondary literature instead. This is visible in the extremely varied bibliography suggested for each course or seminar topic.
For some of the topics the bibliography includes medieval sources, some of which are anyway part of the material discussed during class or of the seminar activities. As the course is general in scope and in order to ease the students' access to information, I have provided sources in Romanian and international languages, not in their original languages.
The lectures are delivered with the aid of projected PowerPoint presentations in order to aid the students remember ideas, names, and images. Excerpts from the written sources are similarly presented, so that the texts are read and commented upon together. I must also note the large number of maps employed for a better understanding of the historical processes in their geographic contexts (the migration of the Slavs, maps of Central and Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Empire, Kievan Rus', the First Bulgarian Tsardom, medieval Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Great Moravia, Poland-Lituania). I also discuss with my students the ideological charge of historical maps.

Commentarii / Статьи
In the end of my presentation I shall draw several conclusions. As one can note, the university course dedicated to «The Slavs and Slavonism in the Medieval and Early Modern History of the Romanians» is based on an analytical and not on a chronological approach, with topics of general history (the general history of the Slavs) backed by subjects regarding the history of the Romanians (in direct connection to the history of the Slavs). For didactical reasons I preferred to stress the great historical processes, mainly those that are connected to the history of the Romanians. The topics are thus structured with a mind towards the beneficiaries of this course -the students and their needs -providing an introduction into the history of the Slavs and their historical connections to the Romanians, through modern concepts and issues and with the aid of equally modern working tools.