School Centralization in Greater Romania: The Challenges of Cultural Inspectors in Bukovina, 1918–1928

Abstract

Abstract

Abstract This study examines the involvement of school inspectors assigned to oversee cultural activities in the process of integrating the schools of Bukovina into the education system of Greater Romania between 1918 and 1928. It also addresses inspectors’ role in the Romanianization of this territory. Rather than viewing these so-called cultural inspectors as simply agents of Romanian nationalism, this analysis views them as mediators between the central authorities and local communities. The methodological framework brings together aspects of nation-building and institutional peculiarities of local schools that influenced the trajectory of school centralization in interwar Romania. The article focuses on two phases of these inspectors’ presence in Bukovina. The first lasted from 1921 to 1922, the period when accelerated methods were used to dismantle regional administrative structures. The second phase, between 1927 and 1928, marked the emergence of a (new) interest in efforts to bolster Romanianization efforts. Although the inspectors’ mission targeted the educational sphere, their actions in parts of Bukovina with mixed populations meant that they occupied a complex position in relation to the interests of the Romanian state. Thus, this study distinguishes between the actual inspections and the perceptions of social and cultural realities that emerged from the inspection reports inspectors produced. Beyond their relevance to historical research, the inspection reports helped the central government formulate new strategies to redefine the Romanian nation.