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RomaniaRomania (formerly sometimes spelled Rumania and Roumania) is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Ukraine and Moldova in the northeast, Hungary and Serbia in the west and Bulgaria to the south. Romania also has a small sea coast on the Black Sea.
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The Dacians were defeated by the Roman Empire in 106, which marked the beginning of succession of invasions of Romania, although the rulers usually allowed a high degree of autonomy.
In the Middle Ages Romanians lived in three distinct principalities: Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania. The first two would be under the influence of the Ottoman Empire, but with internal autonomy, the third at first belonged to Hungary, also having a large autonomy, then to Austria-Hungary.
The modern Romania was born when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia merged in 1859, and became independent in 1881. The country was expanded after World War I, when Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia were included.
Parts of Romania were incorporated by the Soviet Union in 1940, mostly comprising the present-day country of Moldova. After the Second World War, Romania became a communist nation under pressure of the Soviet Union.
The decades-long reign of president Nicolae Ceauşescu was ended with an uprising in late 1989, although ex-communists continue to be present in the democratically elected government.
The legislative part of the Romanian government consists of two chambers, the Senat (Senate), which has 143 members, and the Camera Deputaţilor (House of Deputies), which has 343 members. The members of both chambers are chosen in elections held every four years.
The president, the head of the executive branch, is also elected by popular vote, every four years. The president appoints a prime minister, who will head the council of ministers, whom are in turn appointed by the prime minister.
Romania is divided into 41 judeţe, or counties, and the municipality of Bucharest (Bucureşti) - the capital.
A large part of Romania's borders with Yugoslavia and Bulgaria is formed by the Danube. The Danube is joined by the Prut River[?], which forms the border with Moldova.
The Carpathian Mountains dominate the western part of Romania, with peaks up to 2,500 m, the highest, Moldoveanu, reaching 2,544 m.
Major cities are the capital Bucharest, Braşov, Timişoara, Cluj-Napoca, Constanţa[?], Craiova[?], and Iaşi (Jassy).
See also: List of Romanian Cities
After the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989-91, Romania was left with an obsolete industrial base and a pattern of industrial capacity wholly unsuited to its needs. In February 1997, Romania embarked on a comprehensive macroeconomic stabilisation and structural reform programme, but reform subsequently has been a frustrating stop-and-go process. Restructuring programs include liquidating large energy-intensive industries and major agricultural and financial sector reforms. In 1999 Romania's economy contracted for a third straight year - by an estimated 4.8%. Romania reached an agreement with the IMF in August for a US $547 million loan, but release of the second tranche was postponed in October because of unresolved private sector lending requirements and differences over budgetary spending. Bucharest avoided defaulting on mid-year lump-sum debt payments, but had to significantly draw down reserves to do so; reserves rebounded to an estimated $1.5 billion by yearend 1999. The government's priorities include: obtaining renewed IMF lending, tightening fiscal policy, accelerating privatisation, and restructuring unprofitable firms. Romania was invited by the European Union in December 1999 to begin accession negotiations.
The official language is Romanian, making Romania the only Eastern Block country where a Romance language is spoken. Sizeable minorities of Hungarian (about 8% of the population) and German descent, mostly in Transylvania, also speak Hungarian and German. Other ethnic groups include Roma gypsies and natives of Romania's neighbouring countries.
Most Romanians are members of the Romanian Orthodox Church[?], which is one of the churches of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Catholicism is also represented, mostly in the areas inhabited by population of Hungarian descent, mostly in the western part of the country. In Dobrogea, the region lying on the shore of the Black Sea, there is a small Islamic minority, a remnant of the Ottoman colonization of that province in the past.
See also:
| Date | English Name | Local Name | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1 | New Year's Day | Anul nou | |
| April/May | Easter | Paştele | Romanians celebrate the Orthodox Easter. The holiday is three days long |
| May 1 | Labour Day | Ziua muncii | International Labour day |
| December 1 | National Day (Unification Day) | Ziua Unirii | Celebrating the unification of Transylvania with Romania, December 1, 1918 |
| December 25, December 26 | Christmas Day | Crăciunul | Romanians celebrate two days of Christmas. |
on the bloodied ooze of fields plowed by the iron,
floating like cotton-down,
And that strange vibration at the roots of us...
And we heard
All the Red Cross bands on Fifth avenue
And children's harmonicas bleating
America!
And after...
The drollery of the wind on our faces,
And the terror of the plain
Under us--threshing and twanging
Burning so steadily
There are so many of you.
Altogether and with precision
Your tracery of light,
In glassware
And puddles
And here and there a diamond...
But you do not yet see.html">see me,
Flickering to a spark
Not mere tongues dividing, but soul.html">soul from soul,
To fashion one infinite, towering whole.
THE FIDDLER
In a little Hungarian cafe
Yellow wine in tall goblets.
Through the milky haze of the smoke,
Leans to his violin
Red hair kindles to fire
Where his white thin hand
Like a sliver of moonlight,
(Off what cool mattress of marsh-moss
Or niche of cliff under the eagles?)
So gay and tender and full of play--
Gathered and laid to dry on this paper, rolled out of dead wood?
I see you
And frisking away,
Prattling of fields
Did I stir on my pillow, making to follow you, Fleet One?
My dreams.html">dreams that crackle under your breath...
Do not tag me and dance away, looking back...
Eternal Child.
NORTH WIND
I love you, malcontent
Shaking the pollen from a flower
Scatter my sick dreams...
Envelop all my hot body...
Great, rough-bearded forests...
I would have the North to-night--
Whirling in spirals,
Ally, you will defend me--
Blowing on my eyelids.
.
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