Methodological Guidelines

Methodological guidelines

1. Data filtering by respondents’ name, forename, file number, personal record number

- These values are automatically imported together with the personal records, named after the following path: Name, Forename- personal record nr and organized in folder named with the number of the archival folder.

- Where the name/forename of the respondent could not be 100% deciphered, a ? was added or just the Initial followed by “.” In the case where the responded indicates other names (nicknames, code names, maiden names, etc.) the respective name was written in parenthesis and it is possible to searched upon.

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- In the cases where the personal record number was missing, a conventional value (> 1000000) was added.

1. Data filtering by respondents’ sex

- it uses the values manually introduced by the data operator, who assigned a value after evaluating different pieces of information indicated by the respondent: the forename, but also the masculine/feminine form of the nouns indicating the profession and the civil status of the respondents (ex. croitor, croitoreasă; văduv/văduvă), as well as his/hers relationship with the CPoR before 23rd of August 1944 (simpatizant/simpatizantă; membru/membră, etc.).

- afterwards, the the data operator picked up an answer from a drop-down list with two

entries

1. Data filtering by respondents’ place of birth, as assigned by the data-system administrator based on the data introduced by the operator.

- It uses the values introduced by the operator, in accordance with the data indicated by the respondent in the triple: locality-country-country

- In the cases where the respondent did not indicate, or the operator could not decipher the information, the value necompletat/nedescifrat was indicated.

- During the data-normalization process the system administrator tried wherever possible to assign the respondents’ birthplace in a category of presentation.

- The categories of presentation of respondents’ birth places are of two types:

-Regions:Ardeal/Basarabia/Bucovina/Dobrogea/Moldova/ȚaraRomânească/ Străinătate/Nealocat)

-Historical provinces: Transilvania/Banat/Crișana_MM/Basarabia/Bucovina/Dobrogea/Cadilater/Muntenia/Oltenia/Moldova/ Austro-Ungaria/Rusia/Altele

- The conventions used in order to assign the respondent’s birth place, as shown uin the list of birth-places, are the following:

• Those who indicated that were born in a place situated on the territory belonging to Greater Romania after 1920, were assigned to the regions/ historical provinces of Romania, no matter if at the time of the respondents’ birth the respective territory belonged to a state other than Romania.
• Those who indicated that they were born in a place that was not situated on the territory belonging to Greater Romania after 1920 were assigned to the region Străinătate, or to the provinces: Austro-Ungaria /Rusia/Altele.
• Those respondents who couldn’t be assigned to the aforementioned categories, were assigned to nealocati, both for regins and provinces.

1. Data filtering by respondents’ ethnic origins :

- It uses the values introduced by the operator, in accordance with the data indicated by the respondent, with few data-normalization exceptions (the feminine/masculine forms were reduced to the masculine form of the noun and ‘neamt’, ‘sas’ and ‘german’ were equaled to `german`, while ‘maghiar’ and ‘ungur’ where equaled to maghiar)

1. Data filtering by respondents’ relationship to the Communist Party of Romania (CPoR) or to Workers’ movement before 23rd of August 1944, as assigned by the data-system administrator. This filtering has 3 associated research functions

- These research functions use the values introduced by the operator in accordance with some pre-established conventions: ‘Member of the CPoR’ is introduce onkly if the respondent indicates this explicitly. ‘Member of the CPoR (unspecified)’ is used if the respondent did not specify he was a member of CPoR but uses alternative answers: ‘member of the cell’/ ‘when I have entered the Party, etc.’ The `(unspecified) sympathizer’ is used for those who indicated just the type of the ations undertaken on the benefit of the Party.

- It resulted quite a large list ( see the list of respondents’ relationships with the CPoR and Workers’ Movement before 23rd of August 1944), whose entries were organized by the data-system administrator in 7 categories of presentation: Alte partide și organizații (comuniste), Alte partide și organizații (stânga), membru PCR, membru Sindical, Membru UTC, Partizan, Simpatizant.

- This question can have multiple answers, all of them were saved and taken into consideration. They are presented in accordance with the presentation category they fit in. For example: the respondent indicated that he was a member of the CpoR, a member of the French Communsit Party, a union member and a member of the Union of the Communist Youth: he will be presented in multiple categories of presentation: Membru PCR, Alte partide și organizații (com) (because he indicated he was a member of the French Communist Party), Membru Sindical, Membru UTC.

- Thus, if the respondent gave multiple answers at this question, he/she will be presented at all the corresponding categories of presentation. This is why the total amount of the answers given at this question is higher than the total amount of respondents, and the statistics are made in reference with the total number of answers and not the total number of respondents.

- At this question, the operator can also introduce some temporal variables, if they were indicated by the respondent:

1. Data filtering by respondents’ political activity after 23rd of August 1944, as assigned by the operator.

- These functions utilize the values manually introduced by the operator after the evaluation of the answers provided by the respondent, by choosing from a drop-down list with 5 variables: exclus/membru/neacceptat/neclar/necompletat.

- It is also possible to introduce temporal variables, of they were indicated by respondent

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- The information regarding the year of respondent’s entering into the party refers to the membership year assigned by the Party’s verification commission.

1. Data filtering of the respondents’ activities undertaken for the benefit of the CPoR and Workers’ Movement, as assigned by the data-system administrator.

- This question can have multiple answers, all of them were saved and taken into consideration. They are presented in accordance with the presentation category they fit in.

- It resulted quite a large list ( see the list of respondents’ activities), whose entries were organized by the adminsitrator in 13 categories of presentation: Acțiuni organizatorice,acțiuni electorale, acțiuni revendicative, culegere de informații, găzduire, întrajutorare, legături, muncă tehnică, pază/apărare, propagandă/educație, sabotaj, serviciu înarmată revoluționară, serviciu în armate străine.

1. Date filtering of the repressive actions suffered by respondents as a consequence of their political options and activities, as assigned by the administrator.

- This question can have multiple answers, all of them were saved and taken into consideration. They are presented in accordance with the presentation category they fit in.

- It resulted a list whose entries were organized by the data-system administrator in 10 categories of presentation: amendă, aministie, arestare, condamnare, domiciliu obligatoriu, internare lagăr, prizonier de război, proces, reținut.

1. Data filtering of respondents’ profession, as assigned by the data-system administrator

- It uses the data introduced by the operator, in accordance with the information indicated by the respondent.

- Minimal normalization of the data was undertaken by the administrator: the feminine /masculine forms were reduced to the masculine form of the noun (muncitor=muncitoare, agricultor=agricultoare), or different variants of the noun were reduced to a single one (brodeuză=brodeză). The regional variations were kept as such in the list ( cizmar=Pantofar, acs=dugher=tâmplar)

- It resulted a list with more than 500 entries, which were organized by the data-system administrator in 6 categories of presentation: profesiuni agricole, industrie și construcții, profesiuni comerciale, transport, corpuri speciale, instituții publice, diverse și nedeclarate).

1. Data filtering regarding respondents’ year of birth, as introduce by operator and assigned by the data-system adminsitrator:

- The date of birth is presented nominally, and can be ordered chronologically

- In the cases where the respondent dod not indicate his/her date of birth, the convention was to indicate the year 1000 as year of birth, in order to be able to save the information. The aberrant answers (such as year 1807 or year 1951) were introduced as such.

- On the basis of the data introduced by the operator, the data-system administrator constructed 6 categories of presentation (‘generations’). These ‘generations’ were built up in accordance with the following principles: the respondent was at least 14 years of age when a ‘significant’ event happened: 1921 (the founding of CPoR), 1924 (when CPoR was outlawed), 1936 (the beginning of the Spanish Civil War), 1938 (the beginning of personal dictatorship of Carol II), 1941 (the year when the Ribentropp-Molotov pact is broken by Germany), the rest. We decided upon the minimal age of 14 years because it represented the minimum age requested to enter the Union of Communist Youth, and in the same time, it represented the age when tje minor criminal responsability started.

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