A History Of The Gypsies Of Eastern Europe And Russia, by David M. Crowe
Anyone who has read anything about the Gypsies can readily understand that the people has had a rather difficult time of it throughout their sojourning in Europe. And as they have lived far longer and in far greater amounts in Eastern Europe than in other places, it is perhaps unsurprising that their history has been more than usually tragic in this part of the world. This book certainly does a great deal to emphasize the difficulty that Gypsies have faced over the centuries up to the present day in many (but not all) of the countries of Eastern Europe, and if that is not the most enjoyable of reading it certainly is important reading for those who wish to know more about this people and their background. And admittedly, some of the suffering of the Gypsies appears somewhat monotonous as well, as no political system or governing nation has been immune from a tendency to deal harshly with the Gypsies and to be frustrated in attempts at providing for the well-being of the Gypsies and being responsive to internal political desires on the part of the people of various countries.
The book itself is a bit less than 250 pages and begins with a preface and acknowledgements before moving to an introduction and map before the author gives seven chapters on the experience of the Gypsies in various countries of Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Russia, and Yugoslavia, after which there is a conclusion, notes, bibliography, and then an index. The author goes into very deep detail about the experience of Gypsies in all of these countries, discussing their origins in the country, the various suffering they found as slaves and the way in which they were frequently the victims of popular hostility by the majority populations of all the countries of Eastern Europe. Each chapter is full of the names of demagogues and leaders who in some way or another sought to either exploit or attack the Gypsies, and occasionally even some discussions of ways that the elevation of the Gypsies, usually according to the standards of the country and sadly not the standards of the Gypsies themselves was attempted. Most of the time, alas, these efforts were not successful and usually led to further resentment of the Gypsies later on after the lack of success of elevating the culture and education of the Gypsies in the eyes of neighbors.
A great deal of the sadness of this book is the sheer monotony of reading about the suffering of the Gypsies. Whether one looks at their experience of being heavily taxed by the Turks, or their pretending to be one faith or the other based on how dominant it was, or their reduction to slavery or the various attempts of nations to make them sedentary or to expel them when feeling threatened by their numbers and their way of life, the Gypsies have suffered for a long time. It is hardly surprising that they view outsiders with a high degree of suspicion, even if their own private and alien ways equally predictably lead to the hostility of those around them. The experience of the Gypsy people is a reminder that knowing why there are difficulties in the relationship between peoples is not always a good enough clue as to how these difficulties can be overcome, not least when behavior is predictable and repetitive and yet tragic at the same time. If you want to read this book, prepare to find the Gypsy history sad but easy enough to understand.
