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The More it Changes, the More Hungarian Nationalism Remains the Same

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

Peter F. Sugar
Peter F. Sugar
Affiliation:
Professor of History at the University of Washington, Seattle WA 98195
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Extract

The literature dealing with Magyar nationalism is extensive. The general impression created by its manifestations during the last roughly two and a half centuries has been that it had been aggressive and disrespectful of the rights of other nations living in the lands of historical Hungary, occasionally even bordering on the criminal. This evaluation did not originate with R. W. Seton-Watson, but was certainly disseminated widely by the works he published under the pen names of Viator and Scotus Viator.2 While some of the judgments passed on Magyar nationalism were exaggerated and even unjustified, the correctness of the general picture cannot be denied. The actions of Hungary's politicians and the views expressed by the country's publicists and literary figures support the negative evaluation of some of the most crucial manifestations of Magyar nationalism. The following pages are presented not in an attempt to excuse the general tone and occasional excesses of Hungarian nationalism, but to try to answer only one question: why did Magyar nationalism take the forms that it did?

Type
Forum: Hungarian Nationalism
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 31 , January 2000 , pp. 127 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2000

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References

1 The comprehensive footnotes in George, Barany, “Hungary from Aristocratic to Proletarian Nationalism,” in Nationalism in Eastern Europe, ed. Sugar, Peter F. and Lederer, Ivo J. (Seattle, Wash., 1969,1994), 259–309,Google Scholar add up to a perfect bibliography of Hungarian nationalism.Google Scholar

2 Two of Seton-Watson's, three studies on the subject were published in London in 1908. These are Political Persecution in Hungary: An Appeal to British Public Opinion and Racial Problems in Hungary.Google Scholar The most influential study was published in 1911: Corruption and Reform in Hungary: A Study of Electoral Practices. His Absolutism in Croatia (London, 1912) is also relevant.Google Scholar

3 Király, Béla K., Hungary in the Late Eighteenth Century: The Decline of Enlightened Despotism (New York, 1969), 37;Google Scholar Horst, Haselsteiner, Joseph II und die Komitate Ungarns (Vienna, 1983), 18.Google Scholar

4 Macartney, C. A., Hungary: A Short History (Chicago, 1962), 111,Google Scholar states that at the end of the eighteenth century only 108 Hungarian families belonged to the titled nobility—2 princes, 82 counts, and 24 barons.Google Scholar Haselsteiner, , Joseph II, 19, estimates the number of magnate families to be between 200 and 300.Google Scholar On the Habsburgs's, policy of raising middle-level nobles to the rank of titled nobility, see Zsigmond Pál Pach, gen. ed., Magyarország története tiz kötetben (The history of Hungary in ten volumes), vol. 4:Google Scholar Magyarország története, 1686–1790, ed. Győző Ember and Gusztáv Heckenast, 2 vols., 1:683, 703.Google Scholar

5 Haselsteiner, , Joseph II, 22.Google Scholar

6 Some of my previous treatments of this subject are “External and Domestic Roots of Eastern European Nationalism,” in Nationalism in Eastern Europe, ed. Sugar and Lederer, 3–54;Google Scholar the introduction and “Nationalism, the Victorious Ideology,” in Eastern European Nationalism in the Twentieth Century, ed. Sugar, Peter F. (Washington, D.C., 1995), 1–20, 413–30;Google Scholar and “From Ethnicity to Nationalism and Back Again,” in Nationalism: Essays in Honor of Louis L. Snyder, ed. Michael, Palumbo and Shanahan, William O. (Westport, Conn., 1981), 67–86.Google Scholar

7 There were numerous reasons that Eastern European nationalism took this form One of these is well explainedGoogle Scholar by Janos, Andrew C. in The Politics of Backwardness in Hungary, 1825–1945 (Princeton, N.J., 1982), 69.Google Scholar Given the multinational character of the country, Janos, writes, Hunprogarians devised “a new formula that assigned historical primacy to the state over the nation, arguing that the state was not so much a product as a producer of national sentiment.”Google Scholar

8 Although concentrating on a somewhat later period, Friedrich, Walter, “Die Wiener Südostpolitik im Spiegel der Geschichte der zentralen Verwaltung,”Google Scholar in Die Nationalitätenfrage im alien Ungarn und die Südostpolitik Wiens, by Friedrich, Walter and Harold, Steinacker, Buchreihe der Südostdeutschen Historischen Komission, vol. 3 (Munich, 1959), 7–28, deals with this double problem.Google Scholar The broader implications are well analyzed and explained by Ingrao, Charles W., In Quest and Crisis: Emperor Joseph I and the Habsburg Monarchy (West Lafayette, Ind., 1979).Google Scholar

9 Bálint, Hóman and Gyula, Szekfű, Magyar történet, 6th ed., 5 vols. (Budapest, 1939), 5:35.Google Scholar

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11 See Haselsteiner, , Joseph II.Google Scholar

12 This was already clearly understood one hundred years ago.Google Scholar See Vilmós, Fraknoi, Martinovics és társainak össTxesküvése (The conspiracy of Martinovics and his associates) (Budapest, 1880).Google Scholar

13 The other coauthor of Nationalitätenfrage cited in n. 8,Google Scholar Harold, Steinacker, discussed these years on pp. 29–67 of that work under the title “Das Wesen des madjarischen Nationalismus.”Google Scholar George, Barany did the same in “The Age of Royal Absolutism, 1790–1848,” in A History of Hungary, ed. Sugar, Peter F., Peter, Hanák, and Tibor, Frank (Bloomington, Ind., 1990), 174–208.Google Scholar

14 Hóman, and Szekfű, , Magyar történet, 5:156.Google Scholar

15 Ibid.., 5:195.

16 On the 1825–27 Diet,Google Scholar see ibid.., 5:194–95; Ervin, Pamtényi, ed., A History of Hungary (London, 1975), 222–23;Google Scholar Barany, , “The Age of Royal Absolutism,” 188–91; and Pach, gen. ed., Magyarország töténete tiz kötetben (The history of Hungary in ten volumes), vol. 5:Google Scholar Magyarország törénete, 1790–1848, ed. Gyula Mérei and Károly Vörös, 2 vols., 2:632–34.Google Scholar

17 On Széchenyi's, career prior to 1848,Google Scholar see George, Barany, Stephen Széchenyi and the Awakening of Hungarian Nationalism, 1791–1841 (Princeton, N.J., 1968).Google Scholar

18 “a vér pedig, melyet a függetlenségért és önfentartásért öntöttunk, nem volt elég tiszta, hisz egy elasszonyodott társadalmi osztály privilégiumaiért folyt ki, nem pedig az ország egyetemes szabadságáért”; quoted in Hóman and Szekfű, Magyar történet, 5:979.Google Scholar

19 Johann Gottfried, Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, pt. 4, chap. 2, in Herders Werke, ed. Eugen, Kuhnsmann (Stuttgart, n.d.), 77:660ff.Google Scholar

20 Mérei, and Vörös, , Magyarország története, 1790–1848, 2:979.Google Scholar On Wesselényi, see Miklós, Asztalos, Wesselényi Miklós, az elsó nemzetiségi politikus (Miklós Wesselényi, the first politician of nationality) (Pécs, 1927).Google Scholar

21 “Ezek nélkül… ma már Europában lehet gyarmat, lehet népfaj, de nemzet nem. A magyar pedig nemzet akar lenni, nemzet a XIX. század kellékeinek értelmében”; Hetilap, no. 12 (1845),Google Scholar quoted in Mérei, and Voros, , Magyarország története, 1790–1848, 2:978.Google Scholar The literature on Kossuth is enormous. Practically every one of his actions produced a special study. See the extensive bibliographies in Hóman, and Szekfű, , Magyar történet, 5:624–80, and for newer works,Google Scholar see István, Deák, The Lawful Revolution: Louis Kossuth and the Hungarians, 1848–1849 (New York, 1979), 392–99.Google Scholar Yet I cannot recommend a single volume that deals in a satisfactory, scholarly manner with his entire life and career.Google Scholar

22 Mérei, and Vörös, , Magyarország története, 1790–1848, 2:1357.Google Scholar

23 Sugar, et al. , A History of Hungary, 255.Google Scholar

24 For the confederation, see, among others, Domokos, Kosáry and Steven Béla, Várdy, History of the Hungarian Nation (Astor Park, Fla, 1969), 154–55;Google Scholar Barany, , “Hungary from Aristocratic to Proletarian Nationalism,” 275;Google Scholar Éva, Somogyi, “The Age of Neoabsolutism, 1849–1867,” in A History of Hungary, ed. Sugar et al., 246–47;Google Scholar and Pach, gen. ed., Magyarország története tiz kötetben, vol. 5:Google Scholar Magyarország története a dualizmus elsó negyedszáradáben, ed. Endre Kovács and László Katus, 2 vols., 1:709–12.Google Scholar

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27 Király, , Ferenc Deák, 159.Google Scholar

28 Ibid.., 193; Gábor, Vermes, István Tisza (New York, 1985), 28.Google Scholar

29 Mérei, and Vörös, , Magyarország története, 1790–1848, 2:1360.Google Scholar

30 We need a good biography of Kálmán Tisza.Google Scholar His role as prime minister is covered by Friedrich, Gottas, Ungarn im Zeitalter des Hochliberalismus. Studien zurTisza-Äre (1875–1899) (Vienna, 1976).Google Scholar

31 Janos, , The Politics of Backwardness, 126.Google Scholar

32 Ibid..,129.

33 See Attila, Pók, “Nemzet és nemzetiség Grünwald Béla gondolkodásában” (Nation and nationality in the thinking of Béla Grünwald), in Polgárosodás Közép-Európában (The embourgeoisement in Central Europe), ed. Éva, Somogyi (Budapest, 1991), 215–28.Google Scholar

34 “A jővő nemzedék jobban fogja magasztalni politikai bölcsességünket, ha egy compact, erős magyar államot fog tölünk örökölni, néhány nekünk szabadelvünek Iátszó intézmény nélkül, mintha szabadelviségünk hirét hagyjuk rá—a magyar állam nélkül”; Pók, “Nemzet és nemzetiség,” 217.Google Scholar

35 In 1880, in the first post-Ausgleich census, 41 percent of greater Hungary's population was counted as Magyar. In the last prewar census, in 1910, their percentage was up to 48.1.Google Scholar See Péter, Hanák, Tibor, Erényi, and György, Szabad, Magyarország története, 1849–1918 (The history of Hungary, 1849–1918) (Budapest, 1972), 619. This is the fourth volume of the official university textbook.Google Scholar

36 On the assimilation of Jews, see William O, McCagg, Jewish Nobles and Geniuses in Modern Hungary (Boulder, Colo., 1972),Google Scholar and idem., A History of the Habsburg Jews, 1670–1918 (Bloomington, Ind., 1989), esp. 123–39,187–95.Google Scholar Also of interest are Janos, The Politics of Backwardness, 112–13, 223–26, and Vermes, István Tisza, 153–55.Google Scholar On 283–84 and in table 39 on p. 282 Janos shows that of the seven prime ministers between 1932 and 1944, four—Gömbös, Darányi, Imrédy, and Sztójay—used Magyarized names. He identifies ten additional cabinet ministers whose families were of non-Magyar ethnic origin. It is well known that the original family name of Ferenc, Szálasi, the “leader” of the ArrowCross Party and after 1944 of the short-lived Hungarian Nazi state, was Salosjan.Google Scholar

37 On István Tisza, see besides the already cited volume by Gábor, Vermes, Gustáv Erényi, , Graf Stefan Tisza (Vienna, 1935),Google Scholar and Ottokar, Czernin, Emlékeim Tisza István Grófról (Budapest, 1925), although these are much less scholarly than the Vermes volume.Google Scholar

38 Vermes, , István Tisza, 117.Google Scholar

39 Ibid..,139.

40 Ferenc, Pölöskei, Kormányzati politika és parlamenti ellenzék, 1910–1914 (Governmental politics and parliamentary opposition, 1910–1914), (Budapest, 1970), 51:Google Scholar “Nemzeti szempontbó1 semmi esetre sem kivánatos bármilyen tiszta nemzetiségi iskola engedélyezése, s különösen nem az északnyugati tót vármegyekben, melyek amugy is melegágyat képeznek a pánszálvizmusnak.”Google Scholar

41 Ibid.., 50: “A délszláv eszme a valóságban nem létezik, s csak az egyetemeken tudnak róla. Nagyszerbia, Ausztria és Magyarország szlávjai szemében utópia, amelynek csak igen kevés hive van.”Google Scholar

42 Vermes, , István Tisza, 101.Google Scholar

43 Pölöskei, , Kormányzati politika, 51:Google Scholar “könnyebb eloszor nyugvopontra vinni az erdé1yi románok ügyét, mint tartósan békét kötni pánszláv agitációtó1 nehezen eszigelheto, Szerbia közelében é1ó délszláVokkal.”Google Scholar

44 Miron, Constantinescu, Stefan, Pascu, O, Bányai et al. , Unification of the Romanian National State (Bucharest, 1971), 89.Google Scholar Pölöskei, , Kormányzati politika, 51, agrees with this statement. For the demands of the Romanian negotiators, see Constantinescu et al., Unification, 89ff.Google Scholar

45 Vermes, , István Tisza, 154.Google Scholar

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49 The Holy Crown theory is presented by Kelleher, Patrick J, The Holy Crown of Hungary (Rome, 1951),Google Scholar and Charles, d'Eszlary, Histoire des institutions publiques hongroises (Paris, 1963), 2:7–15.Google Scholar

50 Ignáz, Romsics, István Bethlen: A Great Conservative Statesman of Hungary (Boulder, Colo., 1995);Google Scholar Péter, Sipos, Imrédy Béla és a Magyar Megujulás Pártja (Béla Imrédy and the Party of Hungarian Regeneration) (Budapest, 1970);Google ScholarLoránt, Tilkovszky, Pál Teleki (1879–1941) (Budapest, 1874);Google Scholar Éva, Teleki, Nyilas uralom Magyarországon (Arrow Cross rule in Hungary) (Budapest, 1974);Google Scholar Elek, Karsai, ed., Szálasi Ferenc naplója (The diary of Ferenc Szálasi) (Budapest, 1978).Google Scholar

51 The term state-nationalist nationalism, used by Gyorgy Ranki, ed., in vol. 9,Google Scholar Magyarország története, 1918-1919,1919-1945, of Magyarország története tiz kötetben, Pach, gen. ed., p. 812,Google Scholar denotes the same phenomenon described by Janos, , Politics of Backwardness, 69 (see n. 7 above).Google Scholar

52 Klebelsberg, first published his definition of Hungarian “neonationalism” in a newspaper article on January 1,1928.Google Scholar For a full English translation, see Sugar, ed., Eastern European Nationalism, 208–11.Google Scholar

53 See the excellent section, “Bethlen and the Jews,” in Janos, , Politics of Backwardness, 222–28.Google Scholar

54 On these three ideologies, see ibid.., 256–78.

55 The literature on Hungarian “fascism” is extensive and includes Miklós, Lackó, Nyilasok Nemzeti Szocialisták, 1935–1944 (Arrow Cross. National Socialists, 1935–1944) (Budapest, 1966);Google Scholar Nagy-Talavera, Nicholas M., The Green Shirts and the Others (Stanford, Calif., 1970);Google Scholar Szöllösi-Janze, M., Die Pfeilkreutzlerbewegung in Ungarn (Munich, 1989); György Ránki and George Barany, “Hungary,” in Native Fascism in the Successor States, 1918–1945, ed. Peter F. Sugar (Santa Barbara, Calif., 1971), 63–82;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Eros, J., “Hungary,” in European Fascism, ed. Woolf, S. J. (New York, 1969), 111–45;Google Scholar and István, Deák, “Hungary,”in The European Right, ed. Hans, Rogger and Eugene, Weber (Berkeley, Calif., 1966), 364–407.Google Scholar An excellent short summary is “Hungary,” in Payne, Stanley G., A History of Fascism, 1914–1945 (Madison, Wis., 1995), 267–76.Google Scholar For a practically complete bibliography, see Szöllösi-Janze, , Die Pfeilkreutzlerbewegung, 9–16.Google Scholar

56 The first catastrophe was the Mongol invasion, 1241–42, and the second was the long Ottoman occupation of central Hungary, 1526–1699.Google Scholar

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63 The list of literature dealing with 1956 in Hungary runs into several printed pages Included areGoogle Scholar Tamás, Aczél and Tibor, Mérey, The Revolt of the Mind (New York, 1960);Google Scholar United Nations, General Assembly, Report of the Special Committee on the Problems of Hungary (New York, 1957);Google Scholar Zinner, Paul E., Revolution in Hungary (New York, 1962);Google Scholar Kiráy, Béla K. and Paul, Jonás, eds., The First War between Socialist States (New York, 1983);Google Scholar Ágnes, Heller and Ferenc, Fehér, Ungarn 1956, Geschichte einer anti-Stalinistischen Revolution (Hamburg, 1982);Google Scholar Lasky, Melvin J., ed., The Hungarian Revolution: A White Book (New York, 1957);Google Scholar László, Beke, A Student's Diary (New York, 1957);Google Scholar and Tibor, Mérey, Thirteen Days that Shook the Kremlin (New York, 1959).Google Scholar

64 Paul, Latavski, ed., Contemporary Nationalism in East Central Europe (New York, 1995), 93.Google Scholar

65 József, Antall, “We Make a Difference between Sacred Dreams and Reality,” Hungarian Observer 5, no. 9 (Sept.-Oct. 1992): 14–15.Google Scholar

66 Latavski, ed., Contemporary Nationalism, 96.Google Scholar

67 Vladimir, Tismaneanu, “The Leninist Debris; or, Waiting for Peron,” East European Politics and Society 10, no. 3 (Fall 1996): 504–35, discusses this problem on 510.Google Scholar

68 Sugar, Peter F., “Contemporary Problems in the Balkans,” in Der Balkan. Friedenszone oder Pulverfass, ed. Valeria, Heuberger, Arnold, Suppan, AND Elisabeth, Vyslonzil, Wiener Osteuropa Studien, vol. 7 (Frankfurt am Main, 1998), 22.Google Scholar

69 See Fischer, Bernd J., King Zog and the Struggle for Stability in Albania (Boulder, Colo., 1984),Google Scholar and idem, “Albanian Nationalism in the Twentieth Century,” in Eastern European Nationalism, ed. Sugar, 21–54.Google Scholar

70 Mérei and Vórós, Magyarország tórténete, 1790–1848, 2:731,Google Scholar and Lóránt, Czigány, The Oxford History of Hungarian Literature (Oxford, 1984), 116.Google Scholar

71 Czigány, Hungarian Literature, 117.Google Scholar

72 Nyerges, Anton N., Poems of Endre Ady (Buffalo, N.Y., 1969), 110, 338.Google Scholar

73 Sugar, ed., Eastern European Nationalism, 220–21.Google Scholar