Between Fear and Hope. Rural perspectives

Rural populations have always been affected by war, as they are responsible for supplying goods and men for armies; occasionally their living environment also is the location of military operations. Wartime is not only accompanied by fear, but also by hope that fighting may bring improvement for ones future existance. Eventhough the First World Wars 100th year anniversary brought numerous new research about, this particular issue featured within this project - despite its correlation - has never really been illuminated. Therefor this is an innovative approach, to turning the focus from statesmen, soldiers and urban societies to peasants and other rural social circles. As this subject is far too encompassing for one research project to handle, two regions have been chosen to feature as case studies. Both were multiethnic border areas affiliated to other states after the war. One of these regions is todays eastern area of Slovenia, whose affilitaion changed from the Habsburg Monarchie (Styria) to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croates and Slovenians (Yugoslavia). The other region is Transilvanias borderland (Siebenbürgen), which passed from Hungary to Rumania between 1918 and 1920. The goal of the project, led by the University of Graz, is to draw a conclusion from three comparisons, whose validity goes beyond just being case studies. The territorial comparison refers to both mentioned locations with, in each case, different rural structures. The chronological comparison intends to contrast the time before, during and after the war, taking into account the varied values of the different generations. The thematic comparison referes to the interplay between fear and hope, that the rural population had to undergo and which, in the light of the radical change prevailing during the great war, inevitably generated winners and losers. The questions raised by the projects approach will be answered by the project team, consisting of one Slovenian specialist (Christian Promitzer), one Rumanian specialist (Ionela Zaharia) and the East Central/South-East Europe expert (Harald Heppner), on the basis of the study of privat and offical text/picture sources. The findings will not only be communicated to an international expert audience, but also will be revealed to interested circles, especially in Slowenia and Rumania.

FWF Project P 32268-G28 Between Fear and Hope. Rural Perspectives in the Era of the Great War From the beginning of urbanisation and industrialisation, the rural world has receded into the background, not only functionally, but also as a subject of historiographical reflection. In addition, studies on the First World War only marginally deal with the perspectives of the rural people, although the events of the war and its consequences on the existence of the population exerted a high degree of influence. In addition, historical research usually focuses on real processes, but not sufficient attention is paid to emotional components that are decisive for people's thinking and behavior in all situations of life. The easiest way to explore this huge topic is through case studies. There was a choice of two regions, which today belong to Slovenia and Romania. At that time, they were populated by mixed languages, functioned partly as front zones and partly as a hinterland during the war years and were redesigned as a result of new spatial planning after 1918 - either by demarcation of borders (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) or by abolition of borders (Kingdom Romania). With such a territorial selection, the study focuses not only on the fate of rural people at that time, but also on the rule changes that took place after the end of the war. The analysis of the source material (memoirs, minutes, administrative files, print media, etc.) reveals that the emotional profile of the rural population depended - not surprisingly - largely on the here and now, i. e. that existential questions were almost always in the foreground, while issues beyond the rural horizon (fronts, state policies, Europe) touched to a lesser extent. This is probably the reason why no significant impulses could be identified to spontaneously make the fate of the local rural population to the subject of a narrative (e.g. village chronicle). The project, in the execution of which not all planned steps could be implemented due to the unforeseeable Corona-related restrictions, left questions answered in a non-sufficent manner, but they are part of the topic: What specific approaches to fear and hope characterised women? What perspectives of children living at that time can be ascertained without being retrospectives of an earlier childhood? What was the significance of socialist ideas in the village, which had a certain influence on politics in 1918/19 and even afterwards? Such questions must be reserved for further research projects.