Perceptions and problems of Hungarian nationality and national identity in the early 1990s

International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society

Volumn 12, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 307-325

  Deme, Laszlo ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 34247431676     PISSN: 08914486     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1025951523380     Document Type: Article

References (70)

1. MDP Központi Vezetōségének Oktatási Osztálya [Department of Education of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Workers Party] Hazafiság és nemzetkoziség [Patriotism and Internationalism] Budapest, 1949?) 9-10.
2. Belügyminiszterium Közrendészeti Fōosztálya [Ministry of the Interior, Public Order Head Section] Hazafiság [Patriotism] (Budapest, 1952?) 20. The pamphlet quoted the ideas of Márton Horváth, a member of the Central Committee of the MDP, the Hungarian Workers Party and a noted communist ideologue of the Stalinist period.
3. Erzsébet Andics, A nemzetiségi kérdés és nemzetiségi politika [The Nationality Question and Nationality Politics] (Budapest, 1947) 8.
4. A nemzetiségi kérdés és nemzetiségi politika [The Nationality Question and Nationality Politics] Ibid., 40.
5. Társadalmi Szemle [Review of Society] 1959, 8-9: 33.
6. Társadalmi Szemle [Review of Society] Ibid., 37.
7. Társadalmi Szemle [Review of Society] 1974, 10: 32-47.
8. For the development of official "socialist patriotism" see: George Barany, "Hungary, From Aristocratic to Proletarian Nationalism" in Peter F. Sugar and Ivo Lederer, eds. Nationalism in Eastern Europe (Seattle, 1969); 259-309;
9. Peter Pastor, "Official Nationalism in Hungary Since 1964" in George W. Simmonds, ed., Nationalism in the USSR and Eastern Europe in the Era of Brezhnev and Kosygin (Detroit, 1977) 410-419;
10. Tibor Frank, "Nation, National Minorities, and Nationalism in Twentieth Century Hungary" in Peter F. Sugar, ed., Eastern European Nationalism in the Twentieth Century (Washington, D.C. 1995) 205-242
11. Antal Bōhm, Nemzettudat a nyoclvanas évek második felében [National Consciousness in the Second Half of the 1980's] Kritika May, 1987
12. György Csepeli, Pál Péter Tóth, "Nemzet tudat, magyarság" [National Consciousness, Hungarianness] Táradalomkutatás [Social Research] 1987/4:31
13. Sándor Kurtán, Péter Sándor, László Vass, eds., Magyarország politikai évkönyve, 1988 [Political Yearbook of Hungary, 1988] (Budapest, 1989) 742.
14. Országgyülési értesitö, [Parliamentary Bulletin] May 15, 1990 column 151; The Parliamentary Bulletin is the record of everything stated in the Hungarian Parliament based on stenographic transcription.
15. Gyula Horn, leader of the Socialists, for instance, stated in an interview in 1994 several months before the Socialist electoral victory, "I consider all matters 'national' which touch upon [the problems of] a significant part of society [or] country . . . Our national consciousness has its traditions. The populist-national trend in Hungary, so often mentioned these days, started on the Left and its values, aims, even its representatives were leftists." In László Kasza, Metamorphosis Hungariae (Budapest, 1994) 143-4. The title of the interview is "I Would Like to Know Why We are Not National!"
16. József Antall, Modell és valóság [Model and Reality] (Budapest, 1994), 2 vols. 2:9. Speech given at the first national congress of the Hungarian Democratic Forum, March 13, 1989.
17. József Antall, Modell és valóság [Model and Reality] Ibid., 2:268-74. St. Stephen's Day became the official state holiday in 1990. Antall's speech was delivered August 20, 1992 at the Statue of St. Stephen in the historic castle district of Buda.
18. See also in newspapers Magyar Nemzet (hereafter MN) August 21, 1992;
19. and Magyar Hirlap (hereafter MH) August 22, 1992.
20. The concept of the "martyr nation" appears repeatedly in Antall's speeches. On March 15, 1991 he said that the Hungarians at one time had been as numerous or larger than the present-day leading nations of the continent. It was in the process of fighting and sacrificing their blood for Europe that they had become a small nation. (MN, March 15, 1991).
21. He also quoted Franz Joseph Strauss, President of the Bavarian CSU to the same effect (Modell . . . , 2:182).
22. Antall, Modell . . . , 2:270.
23. MN, March 16, 1992.
24. MN, March 11, 1992.
25. The views of the Liberal Left of the 1930's were contained in a collection of essays (no editor), Mi a magyar most? Tanulmányok a magyar jelen legfontosabb kérdéseirōl [What is the Hungarian Now? Studies on the Most Important Questions of the Hungarian Present] (Budapest, 1937, reprinted 1990).
26. More traditional ideas were voiced in a volume edited by the leading Hungarian historian of the interwar years: Gyula Szekfü, ed., Mi a magyar? [What is the Hungarian?] (Budapest, 1939, reprinted 1992).
27. MN, July 20, 1992 and July 30, 1992.
28. Gyula Fekete, Véreim, magyar kannibálok! Vádirat a jövō megrablásáról [My Blood Brothers, Hungarian Cannibals! Indictment against Robbing the Future] (Budapest, 1992).
29. Gyula Fekete, Véreim, magyar kannibálok! Vádirat a jövō megrablásáról [My Blood Brothers, Hungarian Cannibals! Indictment against Robbing the Future] Ibid., 342.
30. "Da sind sie [i.e. the Magyars] jetzt unter Slawen, Deutschen. Wlachen und andern Völkern der geringere theil Landescinwohner, und nach Jahrhunderten wird man vielleicht ihre Sprache kaum finden." Quoted by George Barany, in Sugar and Lederer eds., Nationalism . . . , 264.
31. For the population figures see Magyar statisztikai zsebkönyv. 1993 [Hungarian Statistical Pocket Book] (Komárom, 1994), 9 and the bilingual Monthly Bulletin of Statistics 1994/8:6.
32. The above arc authoritative publications of the Central Statistical Office in Budapest. See also East European Studies January-February 1998.
33. Abortion statistics have been exceptionally high in Hungary for over a decade. In 1990 there were 125,679 live births and 90,394 abortions; in 1991: 127,202 vs. 89,931; in 1992: 121,724 vs. 87,065; in 1993: 117,033 vs. 75.258. For an excellent study of recent immigration into Hungary see Pál Péter Tóth, Nemzetközi vándorlás - Magyarország [International Migration - Hungary] (Budapest, 1993).
34. The above is Research Report #49 of the Demographic Institute, Central Statistical Office in Budapest. The best recent work on Hungarian population is Pál Péter Tóth and Emil Valkovics, eds., Demography of Contemporary Hungarian Society (Boulder, 1996).
35. MN, July 16, 1992.
36. MN, August 1, 1992.
37. MN, August 10, 1992.
38. MN, August 31, 1992.
39. Csoóri's suggestions resemble those of an 18t century German nationalist, Friedrich Karl von Moser (1723-98) who advocated German spiritual and cultural unity in an age when political unification was not feasible. See Robert Reinhold Ergang, Herder and the Foundations of German Nationalism (New York, 1966-first published in 1931) 41-46. There is no evidence that Csoóri ever read Moser but the improbability of the political unification of all Hungarians led him to a similar advocacy of cultural and spiritual unity.
40. Csoóri's ideas were first advanced to American-Hungarians during his tour in the US in May 1992. Full text in MN August 15, 1992.
41. Csoóri became President of the Hungarian World Association, which promotes solidarity among all Hungarians and attempts to protect minority rights, interestingly, in a lecture to Hungarians living in London Csoóri said the revision of Hungary's present frontiers was only a "rainbow dream" and Hungarians will improve their situation only in cooperation with other peoples (MN June 22, 1992).
42. Interview in MN, July 3, 1993
43. MN, July 27, 1992.
44. The word used was "fülolaj", literally translated "ear oil", a rather unusual figure of speech.
45. MN, September 12, 1992.
46. MN, March 18, 1993.
47. MH, April 29, 1993.
48. Interview in MN, August 18, 1992.
49. MN, August 27, 1992.
50. MN, August 18, 1992;
51. similar ideas were expressed in an interview in MH, August 19, 1992.
52. Magyar Fórum, August 20, 1992.
53. A bilingual, Hungarian-English edition of the text appeared later as a booklet together with supporting comments by others. István Csurka ed., Néhány gondolat és nyolc társgondolat [A Few Thoughts and Eight Companion Thoughts] (Budapest, Magyar Fórum Könyvek, no date 101 p.) For quotations from his article the English translation in the booklet was used.
54. Csurka, ed., Néhány gondolat . . . 61.
55. Néhány gondolat . . . Ibid., 43.
56. Néhány gondolat . . . Ibid.,
57. Néhány gondolat . . . Ibid., 40. Csurka continues (in 1945-46) . . . "Vorosilov's Allied Control Commission and the Red occupation army stood behind communist henchmen, murderers, and people who urinated in peoples' mouths and tore out their fingernails; today IMF stands behind the financial elite of the era of the system change."
58. Néhány gondolat . . . Ibid., 41, 43.
59. Néhány gondolat . . . Ibid., 49.
60. Néhány gondolat . . . Ibid., 58.
61. Néhány gondolat . . . Ibid., 59.
62. Néhány gondolat . . . Ibid., 57.
63. Néhány gondolat . . . Ibid., 56, 53.
64. For right wing anti-Semitism see further, Ivan T. Berend, "Jobbra át! [Right Face'] Right-Wing Trends in Post-Communist Hungary" in Joseph Held, ed., Democracy and Right-Wing Politics in Eastern Europe in the 1990s (Boulder, 1993), 105-34.
65. U. S. Congressional Record-House, September 23, 1992, H9267-H9276.
66. September 20, 1992.
67. István Elek, a Member of Parliament and a liberal opponent of Csurka in the Democratic Forum, stated in a newspaper interview that if the Forum membership voted on the pamphlet without preliminary discussion. "Csurka would undoubted receive a majority." (MH, August 28, 1992).
68. Despite this pessimistic assessment, Elek and other national liberals denounced Csurka's article as laying the ground work for Nazi ideology and called upon him to give up "his monstrous brainchild". (Népszabadság, August 26, 1992).
69. János Kecskés and György Németh, eds., Országgyülési választások 1994 [Parliamentary Elections, 1994] (Kiskunlacháza, 1994) 403.
70. On May 24, 1998, in the first interview after his electoral victory, Viktor Orbán, leader of the Young Democrats, was asked whether he wished to become the Prime Minister of 10 or 15 million Hungarians. The question was significant because József Antall stated in 1990 that he wanted to be the "spiritual Prime Minister" of 15 million Hungarians which meant the inclusion of ethnic Hungarians in the adjacent countries in the national community. Cautiously and diplomatically. Orban answered: "I have always held the opinion that the Hungarian state and the Hungarian nation do not coincide. The next government, however, will be part of the Hungarian nation." MN Online May 25, 1998.