Hungarian Nationalists Alter Romania’s History on Wikipedia
A recent complaint on Reddit has shed light on a group of Hungarian nationalists who are allegedly rewriting history articles about Romania and the Romanian nation on the English Wikipedia. The group’s aim is to portray Romanians as immigrants in the Carpathian Basin, arriving from the Balkans only in the 12th century. This narrative contradicts the official Romanian historiography, which asserts that Romanians are descendants of the Romans who conquered Dacia in the 2nd century and remained there until 271 AD.
Romania is comprised of four historical regions: Wallachia, Moldavia, Dobruja, and Transylvania. Out of these regions, Transylvania belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary for over a millennium, from 896-1918, and was populated by Hungarians, Germans, and Romanians.
According to Romanian historians, Romanians were already present in Transylvania when Hungarian conquerors arrived in 896 during the Conquest of the Carpathian Basin by Árpád. However, Hungarian nationalists reference the Hungarian Anonymus’s Gesta Hungarorum, a historical account that depicts the conquest as battles against indigenous people, conveniently omitting Anonymus’s tendency to exaggerate events.
The official Romanian historiography supports the Daco-Roman continuity theory, which argues that the Romanized population of Dacia survived for centuries after the Romans left. Conversely, the immigration theory suggests that Romanians migrated to the Carpathian Basin from the Balkans in the 12th century and did not exist north of the River Danube before then.
Concerns have been raised about Hungarian Wikipedia users and admins who allegedly promote the immigration theory and spread false narratives about Romanians. According to the Reddit user, Hungarian users delete or rewrite information that contradicts their narrative, and even attempt to link the Romanian language to Slavic or Albanian origins.
The user pointed out specific instances, such as the editing of the “Vlachs” article on Wikipedia, where Hungarian users CriticKende and OrionNimrod made significant changes to support their theories. These actions have led to concerns that Hungarian nationalists are manipulating historical facts on Wikipedia to promote their agenda.
In conclusion, the Reddit user has highlighted the efforts of certain Hungarian Wikipedia users and admins to push the immigration theory and discredit Romanian history. This revelation raises questions about the reliability of information on Wikipedia and the potential influence of nationalist agendas on historical narratives.
