Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1982 (10. évfolyam, 31-34. szám)

1982 / 33. szám

“It is irrelevant whether individuals believe in the dogma as long as the unity of power and ideology is preserved and the effective power of enforcement by the leadership, acting as the only authentic representative (vanguard) of the working class, is maintained. The essence of these Soviet-type regimes in Eastern Europe which the Communists call ‘socialist’ still lies in the fact that statements on any issue of political significance which the leaders declare to be the doctrinal truth at any given moment must be accepted by theirsubjects. Any questioning of ideology would undermine the monopoly of power.” Thus, “The main function of the media is not to inform the public, but to serve the ruling party, which in turn maintains its claim to being infallible.” Hungarian references are plentiful, and his criticism of the Western media is not inferior to that which he launches at the Communist press.

The author is a journalist who left Hungary in 1957 and now lives in Vienna, Austria.

McEvedy, Colin. THE PENGUIN ATLAS OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY. Penguin Books, 625 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022, 1981. 96 pages, maps, figures. $4.95 paper.

First published in 1961 and reprinted fourteen times, this handy reference book can be a useful aid to Hungarianists or others interested in the history of the years between 360 A.D. and 1478 A.D. Forty maps, each with its own detailed commentary, tell the story of conquests and defeats, of long vanished empires and some survivors, all of which have had a marked influence on our own culture. The series of atlases provide a framework for those fragments of history we all know but are sometimes unable to put into context. Hungary is referred to in about 20 instances. No reference is made to Romania with the exception of a footnote which says “The Latin-speaking Wallachians and Moldavians, inhabiting modern Rumania, are first mentioned at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Their later claim to be descendents of the Roman colonists planted there in the second century A.D. seems tendentious and improbable, for the Roman’s withdrawal from Rumania (270) and the appearance of the Vlach states are separated by a millenium in which the country was the property of Slav and nomad and which is devoid of all evidence of Roman survival. Almost certainly the Vlachs came from the western Balkans and only migrated into Rumania as the nomads abandoned it in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century.”

Mee, Charles L. Jr. THE END OF ORDER; Versailles 1919.

E.P. Dutton, 2 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016,1980. xvii + 301 pages, notes, biblio. $15.95 cloth.

The HSN recently reported on a book which proved how an individual, if properly motivated, skilled,and determined, can influence decisions involving millions of lives. (HSN no. 30, p. 1.) Now, here isavolume which in its totality describes the psychological and cultural factors that have influenced decision-makers at the 1919 peace negotiations. A young English liberal diplomat, Harold Nicholson, for example, is quoted to have said that “I confess that I regarded, and still regard, that Turanian tribe [the Hungarians] with acute distaste. Like their cousins the Turks, they had destroyed much and created nothing. For centuries Magyars have oppressed their subject nationalities. The hour of liberation and retribution was at hand.” Transylvania was referred to as “that chunk of Hungary." Likes and dislikes based on emotional motivation, gossip, prejudice and ignorance played a heavy role in the peace-making process, especially in that

with Germany. Once this had been signed, the fun was taken out of the game, the conference adjourned leaving the “minor” treaties to a council of the League of Nations to complete. It becomes also evident from the volume, that the principal Allied leaders had actually never seen the whole text. Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson said that “the prime minister could not read passages from the treaty itself because ‘no one ever has seen it in its completed form, for it does not exist’.” He realized that the Allies were going to hand over the terms of the treaty to Germany “without reading ourselves first. I don’t think in all history this can be matched.”

His related books Meeting at Potsdam and Seizure were very well received.

Mukerjee, Hirendra Nath. HUNGARY; Past and Present.

Sterling Publishers, AB/9, Safdarjang Enclave, New Delhi, India 110029, 1980. 154 pages, tables, illus. Rupies 40.00 cloth.

The writer retired from academe some 20 years ago occupying himself with national and party politics as a member of the National Council of the Communist Party of India and other important political posts. Hence, he does not claim scholarship and original research in writing this volume. The author was still in his teens when he became so excited about the dedicated life of the great Hungarian Indologist, Csorna de Koros that “I wrote about him in my college magazine in Calcutta (1926). . . The Hungarian embassy, discovering its existence, reprinted it (1977) in a special brochure.” From the volume under review we can learn that “pro-pagan outbursts in the 11th century must also have coincided with the people’s various discontents...” and that under King Matthias “absolute monarchy was for that period a progressive political recipe.” But also that “Hungary walked happily into the Anti-Comintern Pact,” and that in 1939 “with Hitler’s specific consent, the Hungarian army marched across and annexed the rest of the Carpatho- Ukraine.” In the same year “the Hitler hordes marched through Hungary to the Polish front.” Teleki tried a friendship treaty with Yugoslavia but was driven to play third fiddle in Hitler’s assault on Yugoslavia unwilling to toe the Axis line.” The 1956 “counter-revolutionary uprising” is characterized as an “ugly jolt,” a concentration of all the forces of reaction. “Hungary knows however that the ‘West’ has not forgiven the way she delt with the 1956 tumult.”

The author is a former professor of history and politics at Calcutta U. and author of many books and articles in Bengali and English.

Ortutay, Gyula ed. CONGRESSUS QUARTUS INTERNATIONAL^ FENNO-UGRISTARUM: Budapestini Habitus 9- 15 Septembris 1975. Pars IV. ActaSectionisEthnographicae. Edited by Attila Paládi-Kovács and János Gulya. Budapest: Akadémiai kiadó, 1981. 240 pages, tables, musical notes, illus. $16.00 paper.

The fourth volume of the congressional proceedings presents ethnographic-folkloristic papers in three sections: (1) The Structure of the Literary Genres in Finno-Ugric Folk Poetry. Of the 14 lectures, 3 are in English. Those by Vilmos Voigt on The Finno-Ugric Genre System in Flungarian Folk Literature, and S. Reynold's paper on Flungarian Influence on the Carpatho-Ruthenian Byzantine-Slavonic Chant, are of interest to the Hungarianist. (2) The Social Function of Folk Customs among the Finno-Ugric Peoples. Of the 9

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NO. 33, AUTUMN 1982, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEW5LETTER

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