Rodion Markovits
Encyclopedia
Rodion Markovits was an Austro-Hungarian
-born writer, journalist and lawyer, one of the early modernist
contributors to Magyar literary culture
in Transylvania
and Banat
regions. He achieved international fame with the extended reportage Szibériai garnizon ("Siberia
n Garrison", 1927–8), which chronicles his own exotic experiences in World War I
and the Russian Civil War
. Locally, he is also known for his lifelong contribution to the political and cultural press of Transylvania. A Romania
n national after 1920, Markovits divided himself between the Hungarian Romanian
and Jewish
communities, and was marginally affiliated with both the Ma art group and the Erdélyi Helikon writers.
Rodion Markovitz was seen by his contemporaries as an eccentric, and some of his colleagues believed him a minor and incidental writer. He was also noted for his leftist inclinations, cemented during his personal encounter with Bolshevism but toned down during the final decades of his life. Although he continued to publish short stories until the 1940s, and wrote the sequel novel Aranyvonat ("Gold Train"), his work never again matched the success of Szibériai garnizon. His final home was the Banat city of Timişoara
, where he worked for the Romanian and Hungarian press, and eventually became a grassroots activist of the Hungarian People's Union
.
extraction, and socially belonged to the lower classes. His background may have been Jewish assimilation
ist, and he regarded himself as ethnically Hungarian, but his interest in maintaining links with secular Jewish culture
put distance between him and the more committed assimilationists. Historian Attila Gidó nevertheless includes Markovits among the most prominent Jews who helped promote, from within, the Hungarian urban culture of Transylvania.
The writer's home village was Kisgérce
, in the Transylvanian ethnographic region of Avasság-Oaş
. He spent part of his childhood in Szatmárnémeti (Satu Mare), the local urban center, where he attended Catholic school
and then the Kölcsey Calvinist College. Young Markovits went on to study Law at Budapest (Eötvös Loránd) University, but mainly focused on his budding career as writer and cultural journalist, publishing with left-leaning or satirical periodicals such as Fidibusz, Népszava
, Független, Ifjú Erők, Korbács, Szatmár és Vidéke and Márton Lovászy
's Magyarország. Upon graduation, he also worked as a lawyer.
Romanian literary historian Cornel Ungureanu refers to World War I as Markovits' "first great journalistic adventure". Markovits was mobilized into the Austro-Hungarian Army
a few months into the conflict. In early 1915, he was sent with the 12th Royal Hungarian Army infantry regiment to the Eastern Front
, and was captured by the Russian military
during summer 1916. His account places this event at the peak of Russia's Brusilov Offensive
. Also according to Markovits, the column of Hungarian captives (including much of the 12th) was ordered to the transit camp of Darnytsia
(Kiev
), then his contingent was carried by train to Kineshma
and by boat to Makaryevo. Their rest was interrupted by news that they were to be moved into Siberia, and eventually they were relocated to the banks of the Usuri River, on Russia's nominal border with the Republic of China
.
—first as a prisoner of war, then as a drifter. He was notably held in Krasnaya Rechka prison camp, where he founded a newspaper for Hungarian captives, Szibériai Újság. Here, the Austro-Hungarian captives were reached by news of the February Revolution
, and began organizing themselves into political or national factions even before the October Revolution
sparked chaos in their captors' ranks. Nominally free, the prisoners were left to fend for themselves: after the Russian Civil War
began, they purchased a train and, with it, made is far west as Samara
, passing by Bolshevik units and Czechoslovak Legions
, and being then pushed back into Siberia by the war tide; some Hungarians left the convoy to join the Bolsheviks' Red Guards
.
Markovits was held an isolated and improvised camp near Krasnoyarsk
, where life conditions became brutal and the rank structure collapsed entirely. From this location, the entire group of Austro-Hungarians witnessed first hand the mutiny of Russian soldiers from the 30th Regiment, its repression by the White Army
, followed by the mass murder of all disarmed rebels and the selective killing of Hungarians who supposedly helped them. According to Markovits, the camp population took its revenge by firing on the retreating Whites of Aleksandr Kolchak
, capturing some 8,000 men—an action which had the unwanted effect of bringing typhus into the camp.
Markovits survived the outbreak and joined the newly created Red Army
, where he became political commissar
at a brigade level. According to his own fictionalized account, he volunteered to help with the coal transports organized by the Red squadrons, and was rewarded with repatriation (through the Baltic states
, East Prussia
and then Poland
).
By the time Markovits returned to Transylvania, the entire region had been united with Romania
. He decided to settle in Satu Mare, where he opened a law practice and continued work for the local Hungarian press—as editor of Szamos daily and correspondent for Cluj
's Keleti Újság. He made his return to literature with short stories, grouped as Ismét találkoztam Balthazárral ("Once More, I Ran into Balthazar") and published in 1925.
The former prisoner had remained a committed follower of Leninism
, as described by Ungureanu: "Taking his place on the left's barricades, living intensely the utopian illusions of communism
, Markovits was to illustrate, in the early 1920s (like Malraux
, Wells
, Shaw
, Panait Istrati
, Gide
etc.), the frenzy of enrollment." In the early to mid 1920s, Rodion Markovits came into contact with the socialist art magazine Ma, published in Vienna
by Lajos Kassák
and other leftist writers who opposed the regimes of Regency Hungary
. Also left-leaning, the Romanian monthly Contimporanul
paid homage to Ma as the regional ally of its own avant-garde
program: "The reddish air of revolution has braided together the youth of Ma artists and the ideology of a revolution that might have realized their ideal. And the world awaited for the new Christ. But once the White reaction
took over, Ma exiled itself to Vienna [...] A new period, a new foundation, a new language emerge with the adoption of collective Constructivism
." Between the Constructivist cells of Ma and Contimporanul, and ensuring that the Hungarian and Romanian avant-gardes remained in contact, there was a cosmopolitan group of Transylvanian leftists: Markovits, Aurel Buteanu, Károly Endre, Robert Reiter and Julius Podlipny
.
, for Vossischen Zeitung and later for Ullstein-Verlag
. The 1929 English version by George Halasz was published in the United States
by Horace Liveright
, and the first print was exhausted over a few months. A French
translation was published by Éditions Payot in 1930.
The books were translated into some 12 other languages before 1933, reaching as far as Asia and South America and making Markovits an international celebrity of the interwar period
. According to cultural historian Ivan Sanders, Markovits was, "for a time, the best-known Transylvanian writer in the world." As commentators have since noted, Szibériai garnizon also announced to the world that Hungarian literature in Transylvania was coming of age, even though its subject and content were largely dissonant with the aims of Transylvania's existing literary clubs.
In the larger context of Hungarian literature as divided by the interwar borders, Markovits has drawn parallels with the war-themed literature of Géza Gyóni
, Aladár Kuncz, Máté Zalka and Lajos Zilahy
. According to Ungureanu, solid links exist between Markovits and an entire category of Austro-Hungarian intellectuals who turned into revolutionaries. Ungureanu concludes: "Settled in the 'once upon a time' provinces of the Empire or wandering the world in search of a 'juster' cause, [these authors] give name to a finality — a shipwreck."
Following the international confirmation, Markovits attracted interest among Transylvanian and Romanian writers of all cultures. The Bucharest
daily Dimineaţa featured the serialized Romanian-language version shortly after its German edition saw print. Meanwhile, the Transylvanian Hungarian editors of Erdélyi Helikon review asked Markovits to join their literary club and, in 1929, he visited them at Marosvécs-Brâncoveneşti
. Helikon contributor Ernő Ligeti left a memoir of the meeting, in which Markovits comes off as the uncommunicative eccentric. The puzzled and (according to Sanders) envious Ligeti noted that Markovits did not live up to the respect of his "penniless" fans, did not show any interest in Helikons educational agenda, and only "opened his mouth" to impart "droll anecdotes".
, having been granted an editor's position at Temesvári Hírlap (the Hungarian and liberal daily of László Pogány). This relocation, Ungureanu notes, was the end of his communist engagements, and his reinvention as "a reasonable newspaperman". Markovits' writing was later featured in the Romanian-language magazine Vrerea, put out by the left-wing poet Ion Stoia-Udrea. Their common agenda, also shared by Timişoaran intellectuals Virgil Birou, Zoltán Franyó, Andrei A. Lillin and József Méliusz, defined itself around notions of multiculturalism and class conflict
.
These years saw the publication of Markovits' two new books: the novels Aranyvonat and Sánta farsang ("Limp Carnival"), and the short prose collection Reb Ancsli és más avasi zsidókról szóló széphistóriák ("Stories About Reb
Anschl and Other Jews from the Mountains"). According to Ivan Sanders, "Markovits's subsequent novels were not nearly as successful as Siberian Garrison." Ligeti, who recalled that Markovits fared badly in his journalistic career, mentions that Reb Ancsli... required its author to peddle his way back to the publishers' attention.
Markovits survived World War II
from his new home in the Banat, while Regency Hungary incorporated his Northern Transylvania
n place of birth. By 1944, Romania had control over both regions, and a transition to communism was first envisaged. At the time, Markovits became a volunteer activist of the Hungarian People's Union
, a regional and ethnic partner of the Romanian Communist Party
. He resumed his journalistic activity, writing for various Magyar papers in Romania and the Republic of Hungary (Képes Újság, Szabad Szó
, Utunk, Világ), gave public readings of his newer works, and lectured at the Bela Bartók
Summer University. For a while, Markovits was also president of the Association of Banat Hungarian Writers.
Rodion Markovits died unexpectedly, in his sleep, on August 27, 1948, and was buried at the Timişoara Jewish Cemetery.
of these Siberian memoirs, written with coffee house negligence, was not a good recommendation." By contrast, Szibériai garnizon survives as Markovits' one great book. Chinezu even ranks it better than the period's other war novels (All Quiet on the Western Front
), since, beyond "fashion and psychosis", it "has remarkable qualities". An editorial review in the US Field Artillery Branch Coast Artillery Journal also noted: "Siberian Garrison, by sheer force of merit, has become the literary sensation of Europe".
Overall, reviewers agree that the volume is hard to classify in the grid of established genres. Although often read as a novel (a "documentary novel
", Sanders suggests), Szibériai garnizon carries the subtitle of "collective reportage". It is a second-person narrative
focused on a Budapest
lawyer, very likely Markovits' alter ego
, who interprets things around him through the grid of objectivity, common sense and boredom. Coast Artillery Journal described Markovits' "unforgettable" creation as "in a class of its own": equal parts novel, diary, historical account and "war book".
Szibériai garnizon, Chinezu notes, lacks all the formal qualities of a novel and veers into "clicking monotony", but, "for all its longueurs, is lively and propels itself into the reader's awareness." Similarly, La Quinzaine Critique columnist André Pierre reported: "The work is located outside the frame of literature, and constitutes a seething document of life, rich in hallucinatory visions." Reviewer Al. Simion writes that the book has as its fortes the "concreteness of images", a "gentle or not so gentle" irony, and, overall, "a limpidness reminding one about the clarity of deepest wells"; the book's universe, he argues, is "flat perhaps, but transparent". Coast Artillery Journal found the narrative to be "distinctly Slavic
", "introspective, analytical, sometimes morbid, with a fatalistic acceptance of the inevitable".
To the background of historical events, Szibériai garnizon explores existential themes. According to Chinezu, the text is important for showing the alienation of a prisoner, the man's transformation into "anonymous digit", and the apathetic crowd into which he submerges. Characters fall into two main categories: those who conveniently forget their countries of birth for the duration of their ordeal, and those who miss them so much that they risk escaping and making the perilous journey across Asia. The one sustained effort against apathy is mounted by a militaristic
and loyalist group of prisoners, who establish a Siberian branch of Turul Society. Markovits retells the dramatic failure of their honor system
, and the ridiculousness of their cultural endeavors, with subdued irony (over what Chinezu calls his "many acid pages"). Al. Simion also notes that, in their Siberian exile, the prisoners come to understand the fragility of their own Empire.
Beyond commentary on the "burlesque bankruptcy of militarism", the reportage is a humorous critique of capitalism
. Chinezu reads this in Markovits' depiction of officers, including aged ones, who quickly retrain and build themselves lucrative careers as shoemakers or shopkeepers. The Romanian critic concludes: "the eternal opposition of exploiters and exploited takes its form here, in the heart of Asia." The spark of revolution achieves the destruction of social convention, but also replaces monotony with the presentment of doom. "At one with the events," Simion writes, "the individual or collective dramas and tragedies unfold in accelerated rhythms, in an often demented cavalcade. The extraordinary, the apocalyptic are metamorphosed into diurnal experience." According to Pierre, Markovits' literary effort is on par with the published diaries of another Siberian captive, Edwin Erich Dwinger. Dwinger and the Hungarian author depict "the same destitution, the same sexual perversions, a disruption of ideas and convictions after the Russian Revolution
, the camp's transformation into a workers' phalanstère
."
With Reb Ancsli és más avasi zsidókról szóló széphistóriák, Markovits alienated his Hungarian Romanian public, a fact noted by Ivan Sanders. "This curious collection", Sanders writes, "is indeed much closer in spirit and style to popular Yiddish literature
than to Transylvanian Hungarian writing, and [Ernő] Ligeti notes this, too, with a mixture of amusement and disdain."
authorities, even as the diplomatic contacts with Hungary
began to worsen. Around 1968, the Romanian regime promoted Markovits, Jenő Dsida, Sándor Makkai, Aladár Kuncz and some others as the canonical authors of Hungarian-Romanian literature, but, Hungarian observers wrote, it remained silent about the more unpalatable political stances these authors took. In a 1981 review of Hungarian Romanian literature, published by the Romanian Communist Party
's Era Socialistă, Kuncz and Markovits were introduced as authors of "anti-militarist
novels [...] unmasking the cruelty of World War I".
A Romanian edition of Szibériai garnizon was eventually re-translated by Dan Culcer, and published with Bucharest's Editura Kriterion. After being researched and collected by writer János Szekernyés, Markovits' articles were grouped in the 1978 volume Páholyból ("From the Booth").
Markovits' work continued to be revered even after the Romanian Revolution of 1989
toppled communism. Editura Dacia
republished Garnizoana din Siberia, and his work was included in a commemorative anthology
of writers from Satu Mare County
. The writer's home in Gherţa Mică
is preserved as the Rodion Markovits Memorial House.
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
-born writer, journalist and lawyer, one of the early modernist
Modernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
contributors to Magyar literary culture
Hungarian literature
Hungarian literature is literature written in the Hungarian language, predominantly by Hungarians.There is a limited amount of Old Hungarian literature dating to between the late 12th and the early 16th centuries...
in Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
and Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
regions. He achieved international fame with the extended reportage Szibériai garnizon ("Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
n Garrison", 1927–8), which chronicles his own exotic experiences in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
. Locally, he is also known for his lifelong contribution to the political and cultural press of Transylvania. A Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n national after 1920, Markovits divided himself between the Hungarian Romanian
Hungarians in Romania
The Hungarian minority of Romania is the largest ethnic minority in Romania, consisting of 1,431,807 people and making up 6.6% of the total population, according to the 2002 census....
and Jewish
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
communities, and was marginally affiliated with both the Ma art group and the Erdélyi Helikon writers.
Rodion Markovitz was seen by his contemporaries as an eccentric, and some of his colleagues believed him a minor and incidental writer. He was also noted for his leftist inclinations, cemented during his personal encounter with Bolshevism but toned down during the final decades of his life. Although he continued to publish short stories until the 1940s, and wrote the sequel novel Aranyvonat ("Gold Train"), his work never again matched the success of Szibériai garnizon. His final home was the Banat city of Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
, where he worked for the Romanian and Hungarian press, and eventually became a grassroots activist of the Hungarian People's Union
Hungarian People's Union
The Hungarian People's Union was a left-wing political party active in Romania between 1934 and 1953, claiming to represent the Hungarian community...
.
Early life and World War I
Culturally and ethnically, Markovits was of Hungarian JewishHistory of the Jews in Hungary
Hungarian Jews have existed since at least the 11th century. After struggling against discrimination throughout the Middle Ages, by the early 20th century the community grew to be 5% of Hungary's population , and were prominent in science, the arts and business...
extraction, and socially belonged to the lower classes. His background may have been Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation refers to the cultural assimilation and social integration of Jews in their surrounding culture. Assimilation became legally possible in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.-Background:Judaism forbids the worship of other gods...
ist, and he regarded himself as ethnically Hungarian, but his interest in maintaining links with secular Jewish culture
Secular Jewish culture
Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena; above all, it is the international culture of secular communities of Jewish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of individuals who identify as secular Jews...
put distance between him and the more committed assimilationists. Historian Attila Gidó nevertheless includes Markovits among the most prominent Jews who helped promote, from within, the Hungarian urban culture of Transylvania.
The writer's home village was Kisgérce
Gherta Mica
Gherţa Mică is a commune of 3,270 inhabitants situated in Satu Mare County, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Gherţa Mică....
, in the Transylvanian ethnographic region of Avasság-Oaş
Oas Country
Oaş Country is an etnographic region of Romania located in the North-East part of Satu Mare County, 50 km from the city of Satu Mare...
. He spent part of his childhood in Szatmárnémeti (Satu Mare), the local urban center, where he attended Catholic school
Catholic school
Catholic schools are maintained parochial schools or education ministries of the Catholic Church. the Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system...
and then the Kölcsey Calvinist College. Young Markovits went on to study Law at Budapest (Eötvös Loránd) University, but mainly focused on his budding career as writer and cultural journalist, publishing with left-leaning or satirical periodicals such as Fidibusz, Népszava
Népszava
Népszava is a Social-democratic newspaper established in 1877 in Budapest by Viktor Külföldi. It was the official newspaper of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party until 1948....
, Független, Ifjú Erők, Korbács, Szatmár és Vidéke and Márton Lovászy
Márton Lovászy
Márton Lovászy was a Hungarian politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1919. He was one of the leaders of the Independent Party during the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. He did not support the First World War and the alliance with the German Empire...
's Magyarország. Upon graduation, he also worked as a lawyer.
Romanian literary historian Cornel Ungureanu refers to World War I as Markovits' "first great journalistic adventure". Markovits was mobilized into the Austro-Hungarian Army
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...
a few months into the conflict. In early 1915, he was sent with the 12th Royal Hungarian Army infantry regiment to the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...
, and was captured by the Russian military
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
during summer 1916. His account places this event at the peak of Russia's Brusilov Offensive
Brusilov Offensive
The Brusilov Offensive , also known as the June Advance, was the Russian Empire's greatest feat of arms during World War I, and among the most lethal battles in world history. Prof. Graydon A. Tunstall of the University of South Florida called the Brusilov Offensive of 1916 the worst crisis of...
. Also according to Markovits, the column of Hungarian captives (including much of the 12th) was ordered to the transit camp of Darnytsia
Darnytsia
Darnytsia , is a raion of the Ukrainian capital Kiev.It is the southeastern raion of Kiev located on the left bank of Dnieper river. It borders Dnieper to its west with Holosiiv Raion of Kiev is lying across it, Dnipro Raion of Kiev city to its north, and Boryspil Raion of Kiev Oblast to its east...
(Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
), then his contingent was carried by train to Kineshma
Kineshma
Kineshma is the second largest town in Ivanovo Oblast, Russia, which sprawls for along the Volga River. Population: -History:Kineshma was first noticed as a posad in 1429. In 1504, Ivan III gave it to Prince Feodor Belsky, who escaped to Moscow from Lithuania and married Ivan's niece...
and by boat to Makaryevo. Their rest was interrupted by news that they were to be moved into Siberia, and eventually they were relocated to the banks of the Usuri River, on Russia's nominal border with the Republic of China
Republic of China (1912–1949)
In 1911, after over two thousand years of imperial rule, a republic was established in China and the monarchy overthrown by a group of revolutionaries. The Qing Dynasty, having just experienced a century of instability, suffered from both internal rebellion and foreign imperialism...
.
Revolutionary politics
Markovits spent the next seven years of his life in Siberia and the Russian Far EastRussian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
—first as a prisoner of war, then as a drifter. He was notably held in Krasnaya Rechka prison camp, where he founded a newspaper for Hungarian captives, Szibériai Újság. Here, the Austro-Hungarian captives were reached by news of the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
, and began organizing themselves into political or national factions even before the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
sparked chaos in their captors' ranks. Nominally free, the prisoners were left to fend for themselves: after the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
began, they purchased a train and, with it, made is far west as Samara
Samara, Russia
Samara , is the sixth largest city in Russia. It is situated in the southeastern part of European Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Samara Rivers. Samara is the administrative center of Samara Oblast. Population: . The metropolitan area of Samara-Tolyatti-Syzran within Samara Oblast...
, passing by Bolshevik units and Czechoslovak Legions
Czechoslovak Legions
The Czechoslovak Legions were volunteer armed forces composed predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks fighting together with the Entente powers during World War I...
, and being then pushed back into Siberia by the war tide; some Hungarians left the convoy to join the Bolsheviks' Red Guards
Red Guards (Russia)
In the context of the history of Russia and Soviet Union, Red Guards were paramilitary formations consisting of workers and partially of soldiers and sailors formed in the time frame of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
.
Markovits was held an isolated and improvised camp near Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk is a city and the administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. It is the third largest city in Siberia, with the population of 973,891. Krasnoyarsk is an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and one of Russia's largest producers of...
, where life conditions became brutal and the rank structure collapsed entirely. From this location, the entire group of Austro-Hungarians witnessed first hand the mutiny of Russian soldiers from the 30th Regiment, its repression by the White Army
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
, followed by the mass murder of all disarmed rebels and the selective killing of Hungarians who supposedly helped them. According to Markovits, the camp population took its revenge by firing on the retreating Whites of Aleksandr Kolchak
Aleksandr Kolchak
Aleksandr Vasiliyevich Kolchak was a Russian naval commander, polar explorer and later - Supreme ruler . Supreme ruler of Russia , was recognized in this position by all the heads of the White movement, "De jure" - Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, "De facto" - Entente States...
, capturing some 8,000 men—an action which had the unwanted effect of bringing typhus into the camp.
Markovits survived the outbreak and joined the newly created Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, where he became political commissar
Political commissar
The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
at a brigade level. According to his own fictionalized account, he volunteered to help with the coal transports organized by the Red squadrons, and was rewarded with repatriation (through the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
, East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
and then Poland
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
).
By the time Markovits returned to Transylvania, the entire region had been united with Romania
Union of Transylvania with Romania
Union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia.The national holiday of Romania, the Great Union Day occurring on December 1, commemorates this event...
. He decided to settle in Satu Mare, where he opened a law practice and continued work for the local Hungarian press—as editor of Szamos daily and correspondent for Cluj
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
's Keleti Újság. He made his return to literature with short stories, grouped as Ismét találkoztam Balthazárral ("Once More, I Ran into Balthazar") and published in 1925.
The former prisoner had remained a committed follower of Leninism
Leninism
In Marxist philosophy, Leninism is the body of political theory for the democratic organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party, and the achievement of a direct-democracy dictatorship of the proletariat, as political prelude to the establishment of socialism...
, as described by Ungureanu: "Taking his place on the left's barricades, living intensely the utopian illusions of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, Markovits was to illustrate, in the early 1920s (like Malraux
André Malraux
André Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...
, Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
, Shaw
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
, Panait Istrati
Panait Istrati
Panait Istrati was a Romanian writer of French and Romanian expression, nicknamed The Maxim Gorky of the Balkans. Istrati was first noted for the depiction of one homosexual character in his work.-Early life:...
, Gide
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...
etc.), the frenzy of enrollment." In the early to mid 1920s, Rodion Markovits came into contact with the socialist art magazine Ma, published in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
by Lajos Kassák
Lajos Kassák
Lajos Kassák was a Hungarian poet, novelist, painter, essayist, editor, theoretician of the avant-garde and occasional translator, was the father of many modernisms....
and other leftist writers who opposed the regimes of Regency Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)
The Kingdom of Hungary also known as the Regency, existed from 1920 to 1946 and was a de facto country under Regent Miklós Horthy. Horthy officially represented the abdicated Hungarian monarchy of Charles IV, Apostolic King of Hungary...
. Also left-leaning, the Romanian monthly Contimporanul
Contimporanul
Contimporanul was a Romanian avant-garde literary and art magazine, published in Bucharest between June 1922 and 1932...
paid homage to Ma as the regional ally of its own avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
program: "The reddish air of revolution has braided together the youth of Ma artists and the ideology of a revolution that might have realized their ideal. And the world awaited for the new Christ. But once the White reaction
White Terror (Hungary)
The White Terror in Hungary was a two-year period of repressive violence by counter-revolutionary soldiers, with the intent of crushing any vestige of Hungary’s brief Communist revolution. Many of its victims were Jewish.-Background:...
took over, Ma exiled itself to Vienna [...] A new period, a new foundation, a new language emerge with the adoption of collective Constructivism
Constructivism (art)
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...
." Between the Constructivist cells of Ma and Contimporanul, and ensuring that the Hungarian and Romanian avant-gardes remained in contact, there was a cosmopolitan group of Transylvanian leftists: Markovits, Aurel Buteanu, Károly Endre, Robert Reiter and Julius Podlipny
Julius Podlipny
Julius or Iulius Podlipny was an Austro-Hungarian-born Czechoslovak and Romanian artist, best known for his work in drawing and his long period as teacher at the Art Lyceum in Timişoara...
.
Literary prominence
Szibériai garnizon was originally serialized by Keleti Újság during 1927. The next year, it was reissued as two volumes. These caught the eye of fellow writer Lajos Hatvany, who undertook their translation into GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, for Vossischen Zeitung and later for Ullstein-Verlag
Ullstein-Verlag
The Ullstein Verlag was founded by Leopold Ullstein in 1877 at Berlin and is one of the largest publishing companies of Germany. It published newspapers like B.Z. and Berliner Morgenpost and books through its subsidiaries Ullstein Buchverlage and Propyläen.The newspaper publishing branch was taken...
. The 1929 English version by George Halasz was published in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by Horace Liveright
Horace Liveright
Horace Brisbin Liveright was an American publisher and stage producer. With Albert Boni, he founded the Modern Library and Boni & Liveright publishers. He published books from numerous influential American and British authors...
, and the first print was exhausted over a few months. A French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
translation was published by Éditions Payot in 1930.
The books were translated into some 12 other languages before 1933, reaching as far as Asia and South America and making Markovits an international celebrity of the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
. According to cultural historian Ivan Sanders, Markovits was, "for a time, the best-known Transylvanian writer in the world." As commentators have since noted, Szibériai garnizon also announced to the world that Hungarian literature in Transylvania was coming of age, even though its subject and content were largely dissonant with the aims of Transylvania's existing literary clubs.
In the larger context of Hungarian literature as divided by the interwar borders, Markovits has drawn parallels with the war-themed literature of Géza Gyóni
Géza Gyóni
Géza Gyóni was a Hungarian poet under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He died in a Tsarist prisoner of war camp during the First World War.-Early life:...
, Aladár Kuncz, Máté Zalka and Lajos Zilahy
Lajos Zilahy
Lajos Zilahy was a Hungarian novelist and playwright. Born in Nagyszalonta in Transylvania, then part of the Kingdom of Hungary, a province in Austria-Hungary, he studied law at the University of Budapest before serving in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War, in which he was...
. According to Ungureanu, solid links exist between Markovits and an entire category of Austro-Hungarian intellectuals who turned into revolutionaries. Ungureanu concludes: "Settled in the 'once upon a time' provinces of the Empire or wandering the world in search of a 'juster' cause, [these authors] give name to a finality — a shipwreck."
Following the international confirmation, Markovits attracted interest among Transylvanian and Romanian writers of all cultures. The Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
daily Dimineaţa featured the serialized Romanian-language version shortly after its German edition saw print. Meanwhile, the Transylvanian Hungarian editors of Erdélyi Helikon review asked Markovits to join their literary club and, in 1929, he visited them at Marosvécs-Brâncoveneşti
Brâncovenesti, Mures
Brâncovenești is a commune in Mureș County, Romania.The commune is composed of five villages: Brâncovenești, Idicel, Idicel-Pădure, Săcalu de Pădure and Vălenii de Mureș....
. Helikon contributor Ernő Ligeti left a memoir of the meeting, in which Markovits comes off as the uncommunicative eccentric. The puzzled and (according to Sanders) envious Ligeti noted that Markovits did not live up to the respect of his "penniless" fans, did not show any interest in Helikons educational agenda, and only "opened his mouth" to impart "droll anecdotes".
In Timişoara
After February 1931, Rodion Markovits moved to the Banat's cultural center, TimişoaraTimisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
, having been granted an editor's position at Temesvári Hírlap (the Hungarian and liberal daily of László Pogány). This relocation, Ungureanu notes, was the end of his communist engagements, and his reinvention as "a reasonable newspaperman". Markovits' writing was later featured in the Romanian-language magazine Vrerea, put out by the left-wing poet Ion Stoia-Udrea. Their common agenda, also shared by Timişoaran intellectuals Virgil Birou, Zoltán Franyó, Andrei A. Lillin and József Méliusz, defined itself around notions of multiculturalism and class conflict
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
.
These years saw the publication of Markovits' two new books: the novels Aranyvonat and Sánta farsang ("Limp Carnival"), and the short prose collection Reb Ancsli és más avasi zsidókról szóló széphistóriák ("Stories About Reb
Reb
Reb is a Yiddish honorific traditionally used for Orthodox Jewish men. It is not a rabbinic title; it is the equivalent of the English "mister"...
Anschl and Other Jews from the Mountains"). According to Ivan Sanders, "Markovits's subsequent novels were not nearly as successful as Siberian Garrison." Ligeti, who recalled that Markovits fared badly in his journalistic career, mentions that Reb Ancsli... required its author to peddle his way back to the publishers' attention.
Markovits survived World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
from his new home in the Banat, while Regency Hungary incorporated his Northern Transylvania
Northern Transylvania
Northern Transylvania is a region of Transylvania, situated within the territory of Romania. The population is largely composed of both ethnic Romanians and Hungarians, and the region has been part of Romania since 1918 . During World War II, as a consequence of the territorial agreement known as...
n place of birth. By 1944, Romania had control over both regions, and a transition to communism was first envisaged. At the time, Markovits became a volunteer activist of the Hungarian People's Union
Hungarian People's Union
The Hungarian People's Union was a left-wing political party active in Romania between 1934 and 1953, claiming to represent the Hungarian community...
, a regional and ethnic partner of the Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
. He resumed his journalistic activity, writing for various Magyar papers in Romania and the Republic of Hungary (Képes Újság, Szabad Szó
Szabad szó
Szabad szó was a Hungarian newspaper, and was the central organ of the National Peasants Party. It was published daily from April 19, 1945 to June 4, 1950, and weekly from June 1950 to February 1952. The last issue was published on February 3, 1952...
, Utunk, Világ), gave public readings of his newer works, and lectured at the Bela Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
Summer University. For a while, Markovits was also president of the Association of Banat Hungarian Writers.
Rodion Markovits died unexpectedly, in his sleep, on August 27, 1948, and was buried at the Timişoara Jewish Cemetery.
Literary work
Ismét találkoztam Balthazárral was in fact Markovits' earliest account of his Siberian trek. Writing in 1930 for the Transylvanian periodical Societatea de Mâine, literary critic Ion Chinezu argued that the volume was merely negligent: "The mannerismMannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
of these Siberian memoirs, written with coffee house negligence, was not a good recommendation." By contrast, Szibériai garnizon survives as Markovits' one great book. Chinezu even ranks it better than the period's other war novels (All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front.The...
), since, beyond "fashion and psychosis", it "has remarkable qualities". An editorial review in the US Field Artillery Branch Coast Artillery Journal also noted: "Siberian Garrison, by sheer force of merit, has become the literary sensation of Europe".
Overall, reviewers agree that the volume is hard to classify in the grid of established genres. Although often read as a novel (a "documentary novel
Non-fiction novel
The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figures and actual events narrated woven together with fictitious allegations and using the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherwise loosely-defined and flexible genre...
", Sanders suggests), Szibériai garnizon carries the subtitle of "collective reportage". It is a second-person narrative
Second-person narrative
The second-person narrative is a narrative mode in which the protagonist or another main character is referred to by employment of second-person personal pronouns and other kinds of addressing forms, for example the English second-person pronoun "you"....
focused on a Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
lawyer, very likely Markovits' alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
, who interprets things around him through the grid of objectivity, common sense and boredom. Coast Artillery Journal described Markovits' "unforgettable" creation as "in a class of its own": equal parts novel, diary, historical account and "war book".
Szibériai garnizon, Chinezu notes, lacks all the formal qualities of a novel and veers into "clicking monotony", but, "for all its longueurs, is lively and propels itself into the reader's awareness." Similarly, La Quinzaine Critique columnist André Pierre reported: "The work is located outside the frame of literature, and constitutes a seething document of life, rich in hallucinatory visions." Reviewer Al. Simion writes that the book has as its fortes the "concreteness of images", a "gentle or not so gentle" irony, and, overall, "a limpidness reminding one about the clarity of deepest wells"; the book's universe, he argues, is "flat perhaps, but transparent". Coast Artillery Journal found the narrative to be "distinctly Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
", "introspective, analytical, sometimes morbid, with a fatalistic acceptance of the inevitable".
To the background of historical events, Szibériai garnizon explores existential themes. According to Chinezu, the text is important for showing the alienation of a prisoner, the man's transformation into "anonymous digit", and the apathetic crowd into which he submerges. Characters fall into two main categories: those who conveniently forget their countries of birth for the duration of their ordeal, and those who miss them so much that they risk escaping and making the perilous journey across Asia. The one sustained effort against apathy is mounted by a militaristic
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
and loyalist group of prisoners, who establish a Siberian branch of Turul Society. Markovits retells the dramatic failure of their honor system
Honor system
An honor system or honesty system is a philosophical way of running a variety of endeavors based on trust, honor, and honesty. Something that operates under the rule of the "honor system" is usually something that does not have strictly enforced rules governing its principles...
, and the ridiculousness of their cultural endeavors, with subdued irony (over what Chinezu calls his "many acid pages"). Al. Simion also notes that, in their Siberian exile, the prisoners come to understand the fragility of their own Empire.
Beyond commentary on the "burlesque bankruptcy of militarism", the reportage is a humorous critique of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
. Chinezu reads this in Markovits' depiction of officers, including aged ones, who quickly retrain and build themselves lucrative careers as shoemakers or shopkeepers. The Romanian critic concludes: "the eternal opposition of exploiters and exploited takes its form here, in the heart of Asia." The spark of revolution achieves the destruction of social convention, but also replaces monotony with the presentment of doom. "At one with the events," Simion writes, "the individual or collective dramas and tragedies unfold in accelerated rhythms, in an often demented cavalcade. The extraordinary, the apocalyptic are metamorphosed into diurnal experience." According to Pierre, Markovits' literary effort is on par with the published diaries of another Siberian captive, Edwin Erich Dwinger. Dwinger and the Hungarian author depict "the same destitution, the same sexual perversions, a disruption of ideas and convictions after the Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution can refer to:* Russian Revolution , a series of strikes and uprisings against Nicholas II, resulting in the creation of State Duma.* Russian Revolution...
, the camp's transformation into a workers' phalanstère
Phalanstère
A phalanstère was a type of building designed for an utopian community and developed in the early 19th century by Charles Fourier. Based on the idea of a phalanx, this self-contained community ideally consisted of 1500-1600 people working together for mutual benefit...
."
With Reb Ancsli és más avasi zsidókról szóló széphistóriák, Markovits alienated his Hungarian Romanian public, a fact noted by Ivan Sanders. "This curious collection", Sanders writes, "is indeed much closer in spirit and style to popular Yiddish literature
Yiddish literature
Yiddish literature encompasses all belles lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus for centuries in Eastern Europe, is evident in its literature.It is generally described...
than to Transylvanian Hungarian writing, and [Ernő] Ligeti notes this, too, with a mixture of amusement and disdain."
Legacy
In Communist Romania, Rodion Markovits' overall work was considered for translation and republication during the mid 1960s—a project of the state-run ESPLA Publishing House, with assistance from his former Timişoaran colleagues Zoltán Franyó and József Méliusz. Markovits continued to be respected by the national communistNational communism
The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....
authorities, even as the diplomatic contacts with Hungary
Hungary–Romania relations
Hungarian-Romanian relations are foreign relations between Hungary and Romania. Relations between the two states date back from the Middle Ages. Both countries established diplomatic relations in 1920....
began to worsen. Around 1968, the Romanian regime promoted Markovits, Jenő Dsida, Sándor Makkai, Aladár Kuncz and some others as the canonical authors of Hungarian-Romanian literature, but, Hungarian observers wrote, it remained silent about the more unpalatable political stances these authors took. In a 1981 review of Hungarian Romanian literature, published by the Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
's Era Socialistă, Kuncz and Markovits were introduced as authors of "anti-militarist
Antimilitarism
Antimilitarism is a doctrine commonly found in the anarchist and, more globally, in the socialist movement, which may both be characterized as internationalist movements. It relies heavily on a critical theory of nationalism and imperialism, and was an explicit goal of the First and Second...
novels [...] unmasking the cruelty of World War I".
A Romanian edition of Szibériai garnizon was eventually re-translated by Dan Culcer, and published with Bucharest's Editura Kriterion. After being researched and collected by writer János Szekernyés, Markovits' articles were grouped in the 1978 volume Páholyból ("From the Booth").
Markovits' work continued to be revered even after the Romanian Revolution of 1989
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
toppled communism. Editura Dacia
Editura Dacia
Editura Dacia is a publishing house based in Romania, located on Pavel Chinezul Street 2, Cluj-Napoca. Named after the ancient region of Dacia, it was founded in 1969 by a group of Transylvanian intellectuals, and printed works in Romanian, German and Hungarian.According to its official site,...
republished Garnizoana din Siberia, and his work was included in a commemorative anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
of writers from Satu Mare County
Satu Mare County
Satu Mare County is a county of Romania. The capital city is Satu Mare. Besides Romanians , Satu Mare features a significant ethnic minority of Hungarians .-Demographics:...
. The writer's home in Gherţa Mică
Gherta Mica
Gherţa Mică is a commune of 3,270 inhabitants situated in Satu Mare County, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Gherţa Mică....
is preserved as the Rodion Markovits Memorial House.