National geographic atlas of the Socialist Republic of Romania

Summary

This review examines two significant scholarly works on Romania's geography and rural history. The first is the *National Geographic Atlas of the Socialist Republic of Romania*, which follows the standards of the International Geographical Union's Commission on National Atlases. Planned to comprise seventy-six plates across thirteen chapters, it covers physical geography (geology, geomorphology, climate, hydrology, soils, biota) and human-economic themes (history, ethnography, population, industry, agriculture, transport), with multilingual notes on each plate. The first fascicle, printed in 1972-1973, notably features a distinctive map of karst relief processes, though the overall cartographic style remains conventional. The second work is Henri Stahl's *Les Anciennes Communautés villageoises roumaines*, a multidisciplinary study of over 600 villages in Moldavia and Wallachia. Drawing on archaeology, archival analysis, statistics, genealogies, and oral surveys, Stahl traces the evolution of village communities from free status to seigneurial servitude and capitalist penetration, offering critical perspectives on Eastern European agrarian history, including the nature of the second serfdom and the rejection of "oriental despotism" theories.