In order to assert anything about the Hungarian civil society in Romania one should know whether in the background of the overpoliticized publicity and the making of minority politics which is always in a state of alert, briefly, within the minority society of Hungarians in Romania there are civils at all. Active ordinary people with everyday problems and anxieties, plans and achievements, deceptions and joys, more briefly people with personal, separate existences. Or there are only potential heroes, inhabitants of division-lines dividing the battle-fields of the collective existence called in doubt who are but committed and intrepid reservists in the static warfare of nerves ready for deployment and execution of all tasks. And if we tried to answer the question with a shrug accompanied with a legere wave of hand thus indicating our indignation over the positing of the question we would have to face immediately the next embarrassing question: if there are civilians, in comparison to who and what are they civilians? Compared to the central governmental power instigated by extremist nationalists aiming at the destruction of the collective existence of the minority or compared to their own representational organisation which is likewise organised in the manner of the structures of state political bodies ?

If the curiosity of the highly estimated reader was excited by the above questions we had to add at once that it would be a fallacious hope to expect satisfying answers to those questions on the next few pages. What follows is in itself a series of questions and starting-points for further investigation in the field rather than answers resolving the dilemmas and bringing along settled tranquillity.

Behind the experiment which resulted in this study there are of course the unsettled, unresolved and undecided issues touched upon. Moreover it seems to be more than that. It is a presentiment of a new, approaching turn-about in the history of the Hungarians in Romania. Sooner or later the positing of the question would be inevitable whether this separated part of the nation goes towards the right direction and whether it follows the right way chosen by the leading political power of it and which has been joined by publicity and all the representatives of it. After six years the positing of the purposeful question which is not satisfied with resolute circumlocution seems unavoidable. The question should concentrate on what results can this political attitude display, what could it achieve for the Hungarians living in Romania in its conflicts with a hostile governmental power.

The answers have to be preceded of course, by thorough-going and careful analyses which should be made by reliable, objective and professionally well-trained persons who are in suitable position for the execution of that task. It would not be wise thus to come to conclusions before these analyses are carried out. One "achievement" is however manifest even by an approximate approach to the problem and it seems to penetrate gravely the layers of public life. The attitude and the policy of the political leadership resulted in a judgement on the part of the Romanian public opinion, and it is important to stress that not the political but the civil is meant here, that on the basis of it without the suspension of the rules governing democratic coexistence the successful achievement of ambitious political aims can hardly be imagined. Sooner or later, however, without changes even the everyday peaceful, civil coexistence may be endangered, particularly if it meets the interests of some extremist Romanian political power.

It seems thus that we are again, for the third time in this century, in a situation when we have to consider serious admonitions written down earlier: "those fundamental concepts and convictions which Hungarians in Transylvania inherited from their old life are not any more compatible with life and reality itself". This is the warning of Sándor Makkai from 1931. László Németh highlighted the same problem in 1935 following his journey to Romania in a report which excited much discussion and he stated that concerning Hungarians in Transylvania there is an immense gap between the external changes and the dominant general feeling among them. But we can quote the statement of Iván Boldizsár also from 1935 and not less scandalous for the contemporaries than that of László Németh. According to Boldizsár the Hungarians in Transylvania have to decide just as somebody thrown into the water whether he wants to learn swimming or decide "to remain a creature living on the land and not to imitate any of the motions of those living in the water".

This particular issue of the periodical "Korunk" which is exceptional in many respects wishes to be a starting-point for further analyses and answers to be worked out. Following the spirit of the proclamation of Károly Kós: "We have to evaluate our power, organise the work and know the goal which we are to achieve...", this issue raises questions in connection with the existence, state, productivity and achievements in the recent of the Hungarian civil society in Romania and presents a basis for a future formulation of responsible answers.

The results of the work are as yet naturally rough and not worked out in details and the initiative may reach its purpose only if they will be a safe basis for further considerations and analyses and conclusions published here which could be capable even of influencing the realm of political decisions.

Within the framework of the periodical there are three units to be distinguished. A discretely tinged experiment aiming at the clarification of concepts is followed by two studies introducing problems which determine the starting-points according to the dominant criteria of the interpretation of the situation. The bulk of the periodical consists of a block which can be said empirical and which on the one hand supports and complements the introductory parts interpreting the situation on the other hand it contradicts some of their conclusions. The empirical block can itself be divided into three sub-units. It includes first of all a study summarising the results of a sociological survey elaborating the data of 289 Hungarian foundations and unions in Romania registered as legal persons. The survey was carried out and prepared together with young sociologists and social organisers actively participating in the life of associations of Hungarians in Romania in the summer of 1995. There are short case-studies trying to highlight the activities of a few more representative and more important organisations. These constitute the second important sub-unit of the empirical block. Finally, expert commentaries prepared to the sociological description and a sketch of a study analysing the symbolism of the unions complete the central part of the periodical; the function of which is revealing factual material. The periodical is closed by a document destined to facilitate the orientation of the reader concerning the theoretical and practical bearings of the civil sphere. It is up to the reader and Hungarian publicity in Romania to evaluate the outcome of this experiment. To pick up or step over the glove lying in the dust.

To disclose to some extent the "ideological" direction of the enterprise, we confess to have had the intention of making manifest the conclusions. The message of which is that an indispensable presupposition for the achieving of the large-scale aims of the community is positing of objectives on a smaller scale which are precisely determined and the experience obtained during the successful execution of them. The work we have done wishes to indicate as well that there are already young experts, a young intellectual layer in Transylvania which is susceptible of being commissioned with serious tasks and from which we can expect qualified work and results. This may be a much more effective device in preventing them from emigration than the speeches ringing the bells and appealing on their conscience, exhorting them to perseverance "under all circumstances".

And finally a more personal note. Nearly one year has passed since the name of the author of these lines disappeared from the colophon of the periodical "Korunk" as a consequence of long struggle which preceded the personal decision, demission. All this happened silently, unnoticed, without any commentaries from the part of the redaction or the author. This resulted in conjectures and suspicions which to a certain extent were evaluating the conditions of public life of Hungarians in Romania. After appeasing of the passions raised, speaking already in a comfortable situation, now when our further co-operation is definitely facing total separation I deem it important to add that were it not for the dominant state of affairs and my undertakings chosen with a faulty sense of proportion, I would have initiated and carried out such and similar activities as editor. There is nothing else left to me than to express my wishes for success to my ex-periodical the "Korunk" in executing more and more similarly fruitful enterprises. I hope as well that the periodical will succeed in finding its place fitted to its fame in the Hungarian publicity in Romania which experiences a revival after recent changes as well as in the fields of public and scholarly life.