What happens when nation-builders in an independent state imagine themselves to have fallen behind kinfolk living under imperial oppression, and how does this affect their vision of a future of national unity? This paper explores the shapes that critical self-comparison could take among Romanians in the Kingdom of Romania around the turn of the twentieth century by considering three interconnected vignettes. First, it outlines the context in which politicized notions of mutual interdependence between the Kingdom and Transylvania allowed for comparison as self-criticism to take root and gain salience in the public sphere. It explores the implications that comparison as self-criticism had on ascribing agency and apportioning blame for causes of the disparity between state and kinfolk. Second, it examines two Transylvanian travelogues produced by major political and cultural figures on the fringes of the Romanian establishment, and, in a reflexive move, contrasts their politics of comparison. Third, it offers a grassroots perspective on how the travelogues of teachers and priests, as rank-and-file nation-builders, expressed these topoi. The article contributes to the nascent trend of considering historical comparisons in actors’ own terms, and as historical processes unto themselves.

当一个独立国家的建国者想象自己落后于生活在帝国压迫下的同胞时，会发生什么？这会如何影响他们对民族团结未来的愿景？本文通过考虑三个相互关联的小插曲，探讨了二十世纪之交罗马尼亚王国的罗马尼亚人可能采取的批判性自我比较的形式。首先，它概述了王国和特兰西瓦尼亚之间相互依存的政治化概念允许自我批评在公共领域扎根并获得显着地位的比较的背景。它探讨了作为自我批评的比较对于对国家与亲属之间差异的原因进行归因和分配责任的影响。其次，它考察了罗马尼亚建制派边缘的主要政治和文化人物所写的两篇特兰西瓦尼亚游记，并本能地对他们的政治进行了对比。第三，它提供了一个草根视角，了解作为普通国家建设者的教师和牧师的游记如何表达这些主题。这篇文章推动了一种新兴趋势，即以行动者自己的角度来考虑历史比较，并将其视为历史进程本身。