Diószegi László:
" The Past and Present of the Csángós of Moldova"

The Hungarians of Moldavia, or the Csángó people, are concentrated in two regions: around Szucsava (Suceava) and Románvásár (Cordun Roman) to the north, and around Bákó (Bacau) and the banks of the Tatros (Tîrgu Totrus) and Szeret (Siret) rivers in the south.

How Many of Them Are There?

A dearth of reliable sources makes determining the population of Moldova's Csángós a difficult task.
Census records compiled by travelers in the Middle Ages indicate that the vast majority of Moldavian Roman Catholics had Hungarian names and spoke Hungarian. The first official census held in the Principality of Moldavia, in 1859, reveals that in Bákó and Roman counties, where the Csángós lived in greatest numbers, 90% of Roman Catholics were of Hungarian ethnicity. According to a publication that appeared in Bucharest at the end of the nineteenth century, "There are entire villages of Csángó families whose inhabitants speak not a word of Romanian, for example Forrófalva [Faraoani] and Klézse [Cleja]".
The 1930 Romanian census recorded 23,000 Hungarians in Moldavia. Even taken alone, this figure contradicts both earlier statistics and reports from the scene. Add to this the fact that the 1930 census revealed only one Hungarian each in Forrófalva and Klézse, and it is clear that the 1930 census figures were distorted. Even amid forced assimilation, it is impossible that these two villages - where, according to credible sources, the Csángós who lived there didn't even speak Romanian at the turn of the century - could have turned completely Romanian by 1930.
Post World War II census figures effectively swept the Csángós under the rug. The Magyar Népi Szövetség (Hungarian People's Alliance) estimated in the 1950s that there were around 60,000 ethnic Hungarians in Moldavia. But such estimates were in vain: official census figures put their number at 17,105 in 1956; 8,332 in 1966; 4,258 in 1977; and 2,165 in 1992.
What, then, might be the number of those Moldavian Csángós who today still speak Hungarian and profess themselves as ethnically Hungarian? Based on on-site experience and findings of researchers, it is clear that the number of present-day Moldavians who can be regarded as Hungarian is still around 50,000-70,000. However, vigorous assimilation is diminishing this number day by day.

Who Are the Csángos?

Research by folklorists and official records have long proven that the Csángós arrived in Moldavia from the Carpathian Basin to the west. It is today likewise beyond doubt that the first Moldavian Csángó settlements were established by Hungarian kings. Border-guard settlements were established in the thirteenth century on the Szeret (Siret) river to beat back Tatar incursions. Settlements in the northern reaches of Moldavia comprised people from the Szamos (Some?) river valley, whereas settlements in the south derived from the Székelyföld (Székely land) of eastern Transylvania. Voluntary waves of eastward emigration in the ensuing centuries steadily augmented the number of Csángós.
Those who found refuge among the Csángós included the Hungarian Hussites, who fled southern Hungary in the fifteenth century and whose priests completed their translation of the Bible in their new land.
The Csángó population further grew with the arrival of refugees from the Rákóczi rebellion at the turn of the eighteenth century and of Székelys fleeing border-guard service, a hard fate as serfs, and destitution.
Archival sources, including parochial records and other documents, show that Hungarians were living in Moldavia much earlier than the seventeenth century, indeed, that they were there from the beginning of the thirteenth century.

Their Fate

The assimilation of the Csángós was in fact underway before the nineteenth century. At that time, however, this ill-fated Roman Catholic people was not under ethnic oppression vis-ŕ-vis the region's majority population but, rather, under religious oppression. Catholic priests were not exactly keen on venturing out to the perimeter of the Roman Catholic world, amid a majority Eastern Orthodox population, and those priests the Vatican did send on occasion nonetheless devoted their energies not to the faithful but to their own enrichment. Indeed, most Roman Catholic priests sent to Moldavia were not even Hungarian, but Italian, Bosnian, or Polish; they neither spoke Hungarian nor were they interested in learning the language during their few years of service there. And so the Csángós, who at that time spoke only Hungarian, prayed in their own churches in a language they didn't understand, and it was likewise in an alien tongue that they received absolution for the sins they confessed.
The nineteenth century was a time of emerging national consciousness, and this meant newer challenges to the Csángós. In particular, fast-spreading Romanian nationalism essayed to Romanianize the Moldavian Hungarians using all available means. Not only were Hungarian schools prohibited but so too was speaking Hungarian in government offices.
After centuries of oppression and abandonment, the most encouraging phase in the history of Moldavia's Csángó people began after World War II.
In Romania during this time, the Csángós were treated as part of the country's ethnic Hungarian population. Hungarian-language divisions thus began in schools, and a Hungarian-language teachers training program was established in Bákó. Roman Catholic priests who emerged from among the Csángós themselves heard confessions in Hungarian, and Hungarian could again be heard openly in the churches. The Hungarian People's Alliance was able to open an office in the region to represent the interests of the Csángó people.
However, this period of positive developments was short-lived. From the mid-1950s onward there ensued assimilation measures that were unimaginably heavy-handed and unprecedented in Europe at the time. Hungarian schools, including even nursery schools, were shut down, and speaking the "devil's tongue" in church was prohibited. Files were kept on those Csángós who professed to be Hungarian, and such people were persecuted and otherwise intimidated. Contact with ethnic Hungarians from either Hungary proper or even Transylvania was prohibited or severely curtailed. Police checkpoints turned back those arriving from Hungary, and even Transylvanian Hungarians could enter Csángó villages only under constant supervision. What with an anti-Hungarian church as well as a complete absence of Hungarian schools, Hungarian newspapers, Hungarian books, and Hungarian media, the Csángós inevitably lost their Hungarian-speaking intellectual base. For decades, this people was undefended, unrepresented, and under constant intimidation.
The 1989 revolution in Romania brought with it hopes of changes for the better for the Csángó people of Moldavia. Indeed, the Csángós promptly made the best of their newfound opportunity to organize on their own behalf; they formed Csángó interest groups, took steps to establish a Hungarian-language newspaper, and petitioned both the church and the state to guarantee both religious services and schooling in Hungarian. However, experience of recent years has shown that while such initiatives and petitions may be in harmony with both European norms and with Romanian laws, the local administration sabotages their realization one by one.