Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1980 (8. évfolyam, 23-26. szám)

1980 / 26. szám

LUDANYI, ANDREW, “Titoist Integration of Yugoslavia: The Partisan Myth & the Hungarians of the Vojvodina, 1945- 1975,” Polity , 12 (Winter, 1979) 225-252.

Tito allowed a relatively high degree of cultural diversity while preserving political unity in Yugoslavia. The author gives an overview of the “legacy of conflict” that has characterized the region particularly since 1848-49, the creation of a “nation” in name only in 1920, and the rise of a communist party as a nationalistic South-Slavic group concerned with forging a unified country even at the expense of some autonomy granted to its “nationalists” [sic]. The majority of the Hungarians live in the Vojvodina (424,000 in 1971 out of a total population of 477,000 in an area where the ethnic ratio has changed between 1931 and 1948 as a result of the deportation and/or liquidation of some 282,000 Germans: from 1/3 German, 1/3 Hungarian, and 1/3 Serb, to about Vi Hungarian, over Vfe Serb and nearly Vi other South Slavs. World War II provided the setting for the birth of communist Yugoslavia by destroying the old Yugoslavia, and by forging a new myth of unity based on cooperation among national groups rather than domination — the Partisan Myth. While it is true that tens of thousands of Volksdeutsche and Hungarians were executed, and more were deported, these actions were motivated by “considerations of ideology and power” as much as ethnic animosity. The explicit statement of the Partisan Myth in the Constitution allows for the mention of the rights of self-determination and secession, although these are limited in principle to the nations of Yugoslavia (Serbs, Croats, Slovenes). In practice, selfgovernment is stressed on the local level while unity on the federal level. Nevertheless, the federal structure insures that some are more equal than others: only the South Slavs have republics, and thus self-government as national groups. The autonomous provinces are under the Serb Republic. Reality lags behind the idea. For example, Hungarians and other minorities have little voice in decision-making above the commune level. Furthermore, public opinion (e.g., the Serbian press) can effectively silence requests for compliance with the nationalities law. Still, the Yugoslav system is sensitive to the interests of the national minorities, and the easing of relations with Hungary has also benefited both sides.

The author is on the faculty of Ohio Northern U. (EMB) □

POLYPHONY, the Bulletin of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario (43 Queen’s Park Crescent East, Toronto, ONT M5S 2C3) published a double issue on Hungarians in Toronto: Vol. 2 (1979-80) no. 2-3. Issue editor is Susan M. Papp. The 114-page issue includes a score of articles by well-known Canadian Hungarianists. The papers encompass the historical periods in which Hungarian immigration peaked, i.e. 1920-30; post World War II; and post 1956. The sources for the issue were written, photographic, and oral testimony. The volume is generously illustrated, and it is the first in a series dedicated to the history of individual ethnic groups. □

Sólyom-Fekete, William. “Hungary” in The Constitutions of the Communist World by William B. Simons, ed. Sijthoff & Noordhoff, Wilhelminalaan 12,2400 MA Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands, or Sijthoff & Noordhoff, 1600 Research Blvd., Rockville, MD 20850. 1980, pp. 192-213.

The author provides a complete translation of the 1949 constitution of the Hungarian People’s Republic as amended during the past thirty years. In an introduction he says that

NO. 26, WINTER 1960-1981, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER

after 1972, when major amendments were made, the 1949 constitution remained the same in name only, “to stress the continuity of the present regime.” □

Szelenyi, Iván, “Social Inequalities in State Socialist Redistribute Economies,” International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 19 (March-June, 1978) 63-87.

Szelenyi argues that social inequalities are basically created and structured by redistributive mechanisms, citing examples of subsidized housing where this has the effect of allowing the professionals, managers and planners to keep a larger proportion of their salaries than blue collar workers. Education and health services work the same way. Furthermore, the higher status group receives urban housing while workers generally have to build their own homes. Similarly, price controls, particularly of the necessities, allow the higher-income groups to purchase more of the nonregulated “luxuries.” However, when state subsidies and fringe benefits are reduced, a freer market economy generally benefits the blue collar workers. In state socialist economies the price of labor is not subject to bargaining, and does not express potential value or surplus. Thus, the worker is at a disadvantage. Since the main purpose of state socialist redistributive economies is the maximization of redistributive power, it seeks to increase the amount of surplus available for redistribution. The reason why the Hungarian economic reforms of 1968 slowed down, and why even more restrictions began to be placed on the newly emerging system, is that the top managers felt their power threatened.

The author is at Flinders U. of South Australia. (EMB) □ The 1980-81 lectures of History Makers Give Witness, sponsored by the Hungarian Alumni Assoc, and Rutgers U’s Soviet and East European Studies Program (for program description see HSN no. 19/20, p. 13), included Sándor Kopa^s/’s paper on the 1956 events, and Eugene P. Wigner's presentation on the birth of the atomic age. For more information or copies of papers write to Hungarian Alumni Association, P.O. Box 174, New Brunswick, N.J. 08903. (EMB) □

Martin L. Kovács, prof, of history at the U. of Regina, whose recent book Peace and Strife is reviewed here on pg. 2, informed us of two papers he has presented in the recent past. He read Comparison of Hungarian Communities in Early Alberta and Saskatchewan at the Twelfth Annual Western Canadian Studies Conference, U. of Calgary, on February 15, 1980. While Lethbridge (Alberta) owed its site to the discovery of coal, the sites of the farming communities in Assiniboia-Saskatchewan — Bekevar, Kaposvár (Eszterhaz), and Stockholm — resembled the peasant communities of the old country. Thus, these settlements could represent, for the ex-miners of Lethbridge a pleasing compromise between their traditional lifestyle and the ways of their adopted country. In Lethbridge most Hungarians remained on the edge of the small core-community. There, prejudice against the customs and speech of Hungarian peasant immigrants tended to increase the latter’s feelings of inferiority and alienness, and caused them to look for and find emotional support among fellow-countrymen. This state of virtual segregation from society at large, contributed to the maintenance of their traditional cutlure.

The second paper, A Strange Case of Suicide, was presented at the Conference of the Central and East European Studies Association of Canada on March 14, 1980 in Edmonton, Alberta. The study delineates the early history of

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