Activity

Summary of the achievements of the project

Over the past two decades, the Roma issue has become one of the most current topics in European public space and also became especially relevant in academia. Despite this, there are still under-researched topics, and such was until recently, the history of the Roma in the period between WWI and WWII and the appearance and development of social and political projects proposed by Roma. In this time span, Roma started to be politically institutionalised and, at the same time, also subjected to a variety of controversial policy practices. The project RomaInterbellum successfully accomplished the ambitious goal of filling in this gap.

Within both academia and public perception, as well as in the discourse of key political actors and Roma activists, one comes across the ingeminate statement that Roma history has been primarily written by non-Roma and that, because of the absence of a writing tradition, Roma voices have been widely left out of history and that Roma are nothing else but passive recipients of different state governments’ policies. Based on our in-depth historical research conducted throughout Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe so far, the project can offer a corrective point to this overarching narrative.

Through relying on documents, critical rereading and rethinking of historical sources and older research, this new approach, a norm in other fields of history, will overcome the legacy of a Roma history that stereotypes and myths have too often blighted. Through this, the project contributed to overcoming extant stereotypes present in society about Roma as a nation without history and even within academic circles, where a belief is met that there are not sufficient, preserved and written historical sources concerning Roma past to allow for the emergence of Roma History as a field in its own right.

In our research, we were able to discover a large amount of new, largely unknown sources which strongly contradict these claims. In the archives and libraries across the region, we have found numerous documents, written not only about Roma but also by Roma themselves, that shed light not only on wide-ranging Roma vision(s) about the problems of their time and desired future for their communities, and that also reveal their place and role in specific historical events which shaped the world after the Great War.

The project also created a publicly accessible database of sources representing Roma’s social and political endeavours. This, together with publications, is a major contribution to the study of the history of Roma movements and state measures towards them in the Interwar period.

The project team included five researchers: PI Elena Marushiakova, Co-I Vesselin Popov and three research assistants: Dr Aleksandar Marinov, Dr Sofiya Zahova, and Dr Raluca Bianca Roman.

The project team conducted 70 conference and archival and library field research trips. They made 19 invited presentations, participated in 37 conferences worldwide, participated in 18 international workshops (organised 2 of them), and organised six conference panels.

The project produced 36 journal publications and ten monographs.

The project team was directly supported by a network of 21 local researchers/ consultants across Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and attracted 25 collaborators worldwide. They consulted and supported the main team and were encouraged and supported to conduct their own research work. Thus, a mutually beneficial long-term cooperation was established.

During the project’s duration, we proved that the initial assumption about the availability of “Roma voices” in libraries and archives was correct. Contrary to the widespread belief that such evidence doesn’t exist, the project succeeded in discovering written heritage about the active participation of Roma in social life during the Interwar period. PI and her team discovered in libraries and archives thousands of documents proving that Roma were not only passive recipients of policy measures but also active architects of their lives. Along with this, the documents discovered show the contradictory policies of individual countries towards Gypsies (as they were called at that time) in which the discriminative and repressive measures were often combined with indifference and/or paternalistic approach for integration and efforts for welfare, health and educational improvement and even “affirmative action” in the early Soviet Union.

to

PI (Prof. Elena Marushiakova-Popova) manages, coordinates and organises the project and there are constant mutual exchange meetings with all members of the team for the purpose of brainstorming and sharing of resources. There are also regular working meetings with the team. These meetings, ever since the start of the COVID 19 pandemic, have been conducted online, by using the Microsoft Teams meeting software as a meeting facility. The PI also coordinates the research activities of the whole team while continuing to conduct her own research on Roma organisations, visionaries and literature. During the current reporting period, the PI continued to collaborate with the field-research consultants. Desktop research for Prof. Elena Marushiakova is an ongoing task; only the fieldtrips for research in archives, libraries and meeting local consultants were postponed because of the pandemic. The collecting, processing, classification and analysis of resources for the creation of a database has been an ongoing task also during this reporting period. There is, additionally, an ongoing publication activity – 6 articles (in co-authorship with SRF Prof. Veselin Popov, in scholarly journals) have been published during this reporting period, and (together with SRF Prof. Veselin Popov) the PI compiled, edited and wrote parts of a comprehensive book with selected historical sources, entitled: Roma Voices in History: A Source Book, which has already been published in open access. The PI and SRF were also editors and authors of a special issue on the topic of our project project for the Open Access Journal Social Inclusion which is also already published. Prof. Elena Marushiakova convened a special panel on the project’s topic for the Conference of the Gypsy Lore Society in 2020, which was postponed and will be realised in Sept. 2021, in Prague (in a hybrid form- in person, where possible, and online). The PI together with SRF are co-editors of the book “ROMA PORTRAITS IN HISTORY. ROMA CIVIC EMANCIPATION ELITE IN Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe from 19th Century Until the Second World War”, which is currently in preparation. The PI is also presently working on a monograph devoted to the life and work of Bulgarian Roma visionary Shakir Pashov.

The PI has also supervised ERC Visiting Fellow, Dr Tatiana Zahar Podolinska, from Slovakia, who visited the project from November 2019 to December 2019. PI consulted and hosted also the Roma PhD student from Masaryk University in Brno, Margita Racova.

The PI (together with SRF) organised 2 conference panels on the topic of the project, one for the upcoming conference of the Gypsy Lore Society in Prague (the Czech Republic) and one for the upcoming 14th Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia in Tomsk (the Russian Federation).

Senior Research Fellow (Prof. Veselin Popov) is supporting and assisting the PI in the management, coordination and organisation of the RomaInterbellum Project in all aspects. He also supports the PI coordinating the research and at the same time he conducts his own research. Furthermore, Prof. Popov continues with the collection, processing, classification, and analysis of resources for the creation of a database; also, he continues to work on publishing his work. Desktop research for Veselin is an ongoing task; only the fieldtrips for research in archives, libraries and conference participations were postponed because of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Prof. Popov’s ongoing publication activity is as follows - 6 articles (in co-authorship with the PI) in scholarly journals have been published. Veselin Popov, together with the PI, was the co-editor of the comprehensive book Roma Voices in History: A Source Book which contains selected historical sources; he also was the co-author of the special issue of the Journal Social Inclusion which are already published. Prof. Veselin Popov is the co-editor of the book on Roma Portraits which is in preparation but also of the book on the Bulgarian Roma visionary Shakir Pashov, work which is also in preparation.

Prof. Vesselin Popov takes part in the regular working meetings of the team and participates in the mutual exchange meetings for brainstorming and sharing of resources. Prof. Popov was also a co-convener of one special panel on Roma in the Interwar period. He is a co-convenor, together with the PI, of two panels at the upcoming international conferences in Prague and in Tomsk, mentioned above.

PDRF Dr Aleksandar Marinov took part in all activities of the project team. Aleksandar Marinov collaborates on a daily basis with PI Elena Marushiakova and SRF Vesselin Popov exchanging ideas, brainstorming and sharing resources. He participates actively in the regular working sessions and working meetings, since the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic online, several times a month. Dr Aleksandar Marinov has also his own individual responsibilities in the project – he is responsible for matters concerning the University’s Library and assists and collaborates with the IT technicians. Presently, he is working with them on the optimisation of the RomaInterbellum website and he is responsible for ensuring that the entries for the data-base are ready for uploading. A significant part of Dr Aleksandar Marinov’s working time is devoted to organising, translating and transcribing resources. With respect of his own research – he is carrying out desktop and library research; and works on the classification and analysis of resources from the Bulgarian archives. He wrote an article published in the thematic issue of the Open Access Journal Social Inclusion, one chapter for the Roma Literature book and he is currently working, together with the PI and SRF, on a monograph devoted to the life and work of Bulgarian Roma visionary Shakir Pashov.

PDRF Dr Raluca Roman works intensively on research of Roma civic activities in Romania and Finland. Before the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic, she took part in an international workshop at the University of Helsinki, titled ‘Nationalism in the Nordic National Sciences’, September 2-3, 2019 as main discussant/commentator and presented a paper on: ‘Roma voices in the national archives. From silence to agency.’ She presented her research in the frames of the project also at the ‘International Modern History’ seminar, at the University of Sheffield (February 19, 2020), with a paper titled: ‘For faith and country? Narratives of national belonging within Roma-led and Roma-focused publications in interwar Romania and Finland’. Later, Dr Raluca Roman took part in the ONLINE conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, originally intended to take part in Lisbon, Portugal (21-24 July 2020), with a paper titled ‘Traces of the past, visions of the future: the historical shaping of Roma mobilisation and the importance of ‘context’. Due of the ongoing pandemic, Dr Roman postponed her field-research trips and continues to search for additional source materials on-line and via local contacts. Dr Raluca Roman takes part in all activities of the project team and collaborates on a daily basis with PI Elena Marushiakova and SRF Veselin Popov exchanging ideas, brainstorming and sharing resources. She participates actively in the regular working sessions and working meetings, and assists with organising of the on-line meetings several times a month. Dr Roman has also her own individual responsibilities in the project – she is responsible for the parts of the project connected with the cases of Romania and Finland. She has published an article in the thematic issue of the Open Access Journal Social Inclusion, for the Roma Voices in History source book, she was responsible for organising the chapters on Romania and Finland and wrote her own parts. She wrote the chapters on Romania and Finland for the forthcoming Roma Literature book and was responsible for the coordination of the collaboration necessary in the preparation of individual chapters. Currently she is actively working on writing chapters for the Portraits book, she is responsible for the chapters concerning Romania and Finland and for the overall editing of the language editing. In addition, she is working on the ongoing task of preparation of entries of Romanian and Finnish sources for the database. She continues to work on individual articles and two more are forthcoming.

PDRF Dr Sofiya Zahova is working part time in the project, she is responsible for conducting research on Roma in interwar Yugoslavia and she maintains contacts with collaborators from Serbia. Along with this, she takes part in all activities of the project team and collaborates with PI Elena Marushiakova and SRF Veselin Popov in exchanging ideas, brainstorming and sharing resources. She participates actively in the regular working sessions and working meeting, online, since the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic.

Dr Sofiya Zahova has prepared for publication the chapter on Yugoslavia as part of the already published book Roma Voices in History. She wrote the chapter on Yugoslavia for the forthcoming Roma Literature book as well as its analytical and summarising Introductory chapter. Currently Dr Sofiya Zahova is preparing the Chapter devoted to Yugoslavia for the Roma Portraits book. She continues her activities for discovering and proceeding source data exploring the resources available on-line and with the help of local colleagues and collaborators.

She is also working on the preparation of primary materials and relevant metadata on Yugoslavia which are to be incorporated in the project’s database.

As supporting staff, working part-time, two IT specialists from the University of St Andrews are also included in the project’s team. Their work on including the sources and metadata in the data base is ongoing. 

The project team continues to be supported in the work by a network of local researchers/consultants and their number steadily increases. They all continue to conduct their research work and they manage to discover new source materials. They participate in joint publications, and also publish their own books and articles, inspired by their participation in RomaInterbellum project.

to

Prof. Elena Marushiakova (PI) and Prof. Veselin Popov (RF) completed several research trips across Europe and the Russian Federation including Sofia, Bulgaria; Budapest, Hungary; the Russian Federation –in the towns of Moscow, Smolensk, Velikiy Nogorod, St Petersburg, Petrozavodsk and the Solovetsky Islands.

They have also convened and participated in the 2019 Annual Meeting and Conference of the Gypsy Lore Society held in Reykjavik, Iceland. Elena and Veselin have participated in the academic committee for the preparation of the 2020 Annual Meeting and Conference of the Gypsy Lore Society to be held in Prague, the Czech Republic (September 16-18, 2020) and have convened a thematic panel on the Roma in the Interwar Period.

Elena and Veselin have been working on finalising a manuscript entitled “Roma Voices in History: A Source Book. Roma Emancipation in Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe from 19th Century until the Second World War”. Additionally, they have been involved in arranging a special issue for the Journal Social Inclusion where they have contributed with written editorials and an article.

During the period Professor Marushiakova and Professor Popov published several articles:

As well, two visiting scholars were hosted in 2019 by Elena and Veselin – Dr Egemen Yilgür from Istanbul, Turkey, and Dr Tatiana Podolinska, an ERC visiting fellow from Bratislava, Slovakia, who stayed for three months. Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov delivered а keynote speech at Roma in the Centre Workshop (Reykjavik, Iceland,14-15.06.2019. Keynote Speech: Roma Civic Emancipation until WWII: Historical Narrative as Center.

Last but not least, PI Elena Marushiakova delivered a lecture, entitled "Roma Voices in History: Roma civic emancipation from the 19th century till WWII” at Södertörn University in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 7, 2020 when she also received her Honorary Doctorate from the University for her great contribution to Romani Studies.

Raluca Bianca Roman

Throughout 2019, PDRF Raluca Bianca Roman has conducted desktop-based research, literature review, fieldwork and archival research trips in the UK, Romania and Finland. In conjunction with this, she has undertaken the collection of all materials relevant to the project theme and focus, through archival research trips within the UK (Cambridge, Bible Society Institute and Liverpool, Gypsy Lore Society Archive) and abroad: Finland (Helsinki and Mikkeli, National Archives and local archives), Romania (Bucharest, Cluj Napoca, Craiova and Arad, National Archives and Local/Municipal Archives).

Furthermore, she has participated in five international conferences/workshops (New York, USA, Reykjavik, Iceland - 2, Helsinki, St Andrews) and delivered an invited guest-lecture at the Romanian Research Institute for the Study of National Minorities, Cluj-Napoca (Romania). In terms of publications, she has thus far published three articles for the project and contributed two chapters (Romania and Finland) towards the publication of the manuscript entitled “Roma Voices in History: A Source Book. Roma Emancipation in Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe from 19th Century Until the Second World War” edited by Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov. In addition to this, she has submitted an article within the framework of the ERC project for a special issue of the Journal Social Inclusion, edited and contributed towards a second special issue (for the Journal of Finnish Studies), and is presently working on two additional articles, to be submitted in 2020. She is also contributing to the preparation of a collective monograph on Roma Literature during the interwar period, with two chapters (Romania and Finland).

Sofiya Zahova

As PDRF working on the topic of Romani publication and activism in interwar Yugoslavia, Sofiya Zahova continued her research through secondary literature review and a field trip to Belgrade, Serbia (in October 2019) where she researched the Archive of Yugoslavia, the Archive and Library of the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, the Archive of the City of Belgrade, the Special Collections Fund at the National Library of Serbia, and the Personal Archive of Dragoljub Acković.

Sofiya presented and discussed the results of her research in the paper “Romani self-representation in the ‘Gypsy newspaper’ of interwar Yugoslavia” (delivered at the 2019 Annual World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, Columbia University – New York, USA, 02-04.05.2019). She has also contributed with an article entitled “The question of improving our way of life is largely in our own hands: Roma inclusion as outlined in the Romani newspaper of interwar Yugoslavia” for a special issue of the Journal Social Inclusion. Dr Zahova has contributed in the preparation of Chapter “Yugoslavia” in “Roma Voices in History: A Source Book. Roma Emancipation in Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe from 19th Century Until the Second World War”, edited by Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov.

Additionally, she was involved in organising the academic review of abstracts for the 2019 Annual Meeting and Conference of the Gypsy Lore Society in Reykjavík, Iceland, and in preparing the programme of the panel “Roma in the Period between WWI and WWII”. As part of her administrative tasks, Sofiya Zahova participated in the project working meetings and the collective monograph authors´ meetings, taking minutes and communicating relevant decisions.

Aleksandar G. Marinov

Aleksandar conducted a field trip to Bulgaria – to the archives of Montana and Sofia. Since his return to St Andrews, he has been involved in the systematisation of all collected archival data in order to be integrated in the database of the RomaInterbellum’s website. He has prepared the gathered data from Bulgaria, relevant articles from the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society and the newspaper clippings from the archive of Scott Macfie held in the University of Liverpool. Apart from that, he has been working closely with the IT team in optimising the website. Marinov has been collaborating with his colleagues in the work related to the publication of “Roma Voices in History: A Source Book. Roma Emancipation in Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe from 19th Century Until the Second World War”, edited by Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov. He took part in the 2019 Annual Meeting and Conference of the Gypsy Lore Society in August in Reykjavik, Iceland (15-17 August 2019) and presented his paper “Images of Roma though the language of the Bulgarian State Archives”. This same paper was converted as an article which is under consideration for publication by the Journal Social Inclusion. Aleksandar’s chapter, “The Rise of Protestantism and its Role within Roma Communities in Bulgaria Between the World Wars”, was published in the book Between the World: People, Spaces and Rituals.

Beginning of project () to

PI (Prof Elena Marushiakova-Popova) worked on setting up the office and the project, worked on Recruitment of PDRF, identified and selected local consultants and did preliminary planning of the database. In collaboration with the IT technicians they also setup the Project’s web page. Elena manages, coordinates and organizes the project and there are constant mutual exchange meetings with the team for the purpose of brainstorming and sharing of resources. She also coordinates the research activities of the whole team while conducting her own research, including desktop research and research in archives and libraries in Bulgaria, the Russian Federation, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Greece, Hungary, France.

RF (Prof Veselin Popov) is supporting and assisting the PI in the management, coordination and the organization of the RomaInterbellum Project in all aspects. He assists the PI in the overall management and administration of the project. In collaboration with PI and IT technicians he was active in the initial setting up of the web page of the project; he also assists the PI coordinating the research of the whole team, and in supporting the career development of PostDoc Research Fellows in the project, while conducting his own research, including desktop research and research in archives in Bulgaria, the Russian Federation, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Greece, Hungary, France.

PDRF (Dr Aleksandar Marinov) was selected through open competition and joined the team on 1st of Sept. 2017. Immediately after joining the team, he took part in all joint activities. Dr Aleksandar Marinov has also his own individual responsibilities in the project – own research topic with focus on Bulgaria, he is responsible for matters with University’s Library and assists and collaborates with the IT technicians.

The team organised first public presentation of the RomaInterbellum project at, and took part, in Explorathon – European Researchers’ Night 2017 where the aims of the project were disseminated and discussed with the wider community at St Andrews. Dr Aleksandar Marinov prepared a poster and information stall.

From 1st of Sept 2018 two more PDRF, namely Dr Sofiya Zahova and Dr Raluca Bianca Roman joined the team, selected through open competition. Dr Sofiya Zahova is conducting research in countries of former Yugoslavia, and already conducted her first archival research trip in Serbia. Dr Raluca Bianca Roman’s research is focused on Romania and Finland. She already conducted her first research trips in archives in UK and in Romania.

Whole team collaborates on a daily basis with PI Elena Marushiakova and RF Veselin Popov exchanging ideas, brainstorming and sharing resources. All members of the team participate actively in the regular working sessions and working meetings, including on-line meetings and discussions, several times a month.

With respect of own research – all members of the team are carrying out desktop and library research; work on classification and analysis of resources, and are involved in gathering, processing, classifying and analyzing sources to be included in the database created by IT specialists of the project. All members of the team are developing own publications and papers for conferences.

The project team till now conducted 32 field trips for archival and library research in Bulgaria, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Greece, Hungary, Serbia, France, UK, Romania, made 6 invited presentations and participated in 7 conferences worldwide.

In 2018 the project’s first international workshop “Roma Civic Emancipation Between the Two World Wars: Challenges in Archival Research of Roma” took place in St Andrews (25th -28th October, 2018); with 21 participants (including project research team) from 13 countries.

At the 2018 GLS conference in Bucharest (Romania) the team of the project took part in thematic panel “Roma in the period between WWI and WWII”. 9 other participants from the UK, Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Hungary, Croatia and Turkey participated in the panel, which gave possibility for wide discussion of the project idea and first results.

PI organised a thematic panel “Roma Civic Emancipation between the Two World Wars” at the Association for the Study of Nationalities World Convention, which will be held on 2-4 May 2019, at Harriman Institute, Columbia University, New York, US. The whole team of the project will take part in this panel with individual presentations.

PI and RF organised also thematic panel of several sessions with a total of 17 paper presenters at the forthcoming GLS conference, which will be held at University of Iceland in Reykjavik in August 2019.

The project team is supported in the work by a network of 21 local researchers/ consultants across Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (from Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Greece, Latvia, Moldova, Ukraine and the Russian Federation). They not only consult and support the main team but are also encouraged and supported in conducting their own research work, thus a mutually beneficial cooperation is established.