Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1981 (9. évfolyam, 27-30. szám)
1981 / 27-28. szám
1 Donáth, Ferenc. REFORM AND REVOLUTION; Transformation of Hungary’s Agriculture, 1945-1970. Budapest: Corvina, 1980. 489 pages, tables. $6.20 paper. The land redistribution that followed World War II, eliminated large estates, and allotted land to some 642,000 landless peasants. The politically successful land reform set Hungarian agriculture on a course to near bankruptcy. While large-scale industrialization on the Soviet model received the highest economic priority, the consolidation of land into state farms and production cooperatives proved to be not a satisfactory answer to the problem without improvements in the entire infrastructure, technology, and without the provision of the necessary know-how and capital for agriculture. The author was one of the planners of the landredistribution reform and he was active in its implementation as well. He treats in this volume the economic transformation chronologically devoting a chapter to each of the following phases: the revolutionary land redestribution (1945-1949); the more efficiently planned and balanced evolutionary period in which technical, fiscal, and psychological factors received more equal consideration (1949-1956); and the development of agriculture during the 1960s and early 1970s, leading to the present relatively successful status of mixed production. The volume contains discussions on organizational and managerial problems, industrialization of agriculture, advantages and disadvantages of further consolidation of land, government overregulations, rising cost of production and declining efficiency, qualitative vs. quantitative aspects of production, relationship of labor and capital in terms of the private (household) sector and the public (state farms and cooperatives) sector. The author is an economist and politician formerly affiliated with the Inst, of Economic Sciences, HAS.. Dwyer, Joseph D., ed. RUSSIA, THE SOVIET UNION, AND EASTERN EUROPE; A Survey of Holdings at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, CA 94305, 1980. 233 pages. $18.95 cloth. A major difficulty confronting scholars in Hungarian related research is lack of comprehensive overview or catalog of available resources stored in hundreds of libraries and private collections in North America. Computerization of Hungarian related resources, though talked about, does not appear to become a reality in the immediate future. Thus, any work describing Hungarian related holdings is more than welcome. This volume describes the Russian and East European collections of the Hoover Institution. The emphasis of the entire collection is on twentieth century history, ideology, politics, and international relations. An essay on the Hungarian portion of the collection, written with the assistance of Adorján de Gallfy and László Horvath, describes it as consisting of 13,000 monographs, 200 periodicals, 42 newspapers, and a unique archival collection. First priority is given to the period from 1914 to the present, but holdings on the pre-1914 history of Hungary are substantial. The two world wars, revolutions (especially those of 1919 and 1956), labor movements, Hungarian Communist Party, social problems, nationalities in Hungary and Hungarian minorities in the successor states, and clandestine publications are represented. The foreword was written by Richard F. Staar, Associate Director of the institution. EDGE OF PARADISE. A Collection of color woodcuts by the NO. 27-28, SPRING, 1981, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER master woodcutter Joseph Dómján. Comments by Evelyn A. Dómján, quotations by Joseph Dómján from the Dómján work-in-progress diary. Dómján Studio. West Lake Road, Tuxedo Park, NY 10987. 104 pages, 32 woodcuts. $20.00 cloth. Some time during the stormy days of World War II, Dómján got into the basement of a small rural museum in a faraway bordertown of Hungary, where he stumbled upon a fading fragment of textile. It impressed him immensely. The design was in pale pink and blue colors, and it was so unusual that he named itth e Edge of Paradise. Not having a camera, he made a pencil sketch of it and 40 years later this simple design blossomed into a series of bewilderingly beautiful colored woodcuts by Dómján. Nothing is known of the symbolic motif. A three-winged bird occupied the center of the design. Three wings maybe an indication of the supernatural of the number three, or of the holy trinity, as opposed to even numbers. The master made this design into a spectacular collection of cuts printed in red ink in this publication; 30 altogether. The volume also contains a biography, prizes he won, listing of collections where his works are on display, and a bibliography of writings by and about him. Eternovich, Adam S. CROATIAN PIONEERS IN AMERICA 1685-1900. Ragusan Press, 936 Industrial Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94303, 1979. 192 pages, illus. biblio. N.p. This volume is another testimony of the ever increasing activities of Croatian- American organizations in America. (See also HSN no. 22, p. 7.) Identifying individuals of Croatian background is not a simple task, since Croatia has been part, voluntarily or not, of various empires during its history, thus Croatian immigrants were registered as their citizens (Venetians, Italians, Austrians, Hungarians, Turks). Nevertheless, the author who has spent some 20 years researching Croatian ethnics in America, presents here substantial lists of individuals and organizations representing that group and their deeds. It is aparently a select list of some 120,000 names of Croatian-Americans he and the organizations he is affiliated with keep on file representing Croatian-Americans between 1685 and 1910. Györgyey, Clara. FERENC MOLNÁR. Twayne Publisher (a division of G.K. Hall & Co.) 70 Lincoln Street, Boston, MA 02111,1980.195 pages, illus., biblio. $13.95 in the U.S. $15.95 abroad. Cloth. No. 574 in the Twayne World Authors Series; A Survey of the World’s Literature. This is a comprehensive biography of Molnár (1878-1952), who began his literary career in the fin de siede, and by the time he died, he left 72 volumes to posterity. This volume focuses on the years 1900-1920, when he was Budapest’s leading dramatist. The period between 1920 and 1940 received a more sketchy treatment. According to the author, Molnár had only friends or foes among the critics, and mostly emotional, enthusiastic friends among theater audiences the world over. Molnár’s works are discussed in a chronological order within chapters which are arranged according to genres story, novel, and drama. His masterpiece, Liliom, and his little known writings of his final years received special attention. Perhaps more works of Molnár were translated into English than any of his peers. Of course, this maybe due not only to the excellence of his work, but also to the fact that he was cosmoplitan in outlook, and he spent nearly 20 years in the U.S. The author is master teacher of modern English literature and drama for the Yale Teacher Preparation Program at North Haven High School. 3
