A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Historica 11. (Szeged, 2008)

MARJANUCZ László: Az Alföld '48-as függetlenségi hagyományainak társadalmi háttere

LÁSZLÓ MARJANUCZ DEVOTION TO THE IDEA OF INDEPENDENCE IN THE GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN 1848 and 1867 are years representing two significant events in Hungarian history. Relation to these two events marked the different sides of political movements in modern bourgeois society in Hungary. The devotion to the achievement of the revolution of 1848 meant the respect of the idea of independence, while devotion to the declaration of compromise signed between Austria and Hungary in 1867 symbolised the idea of giving up total independence. The political movement representing independence was overrepresented in the territory of the Great Hungarian Plain. The dominant social group of landed peasantry living in this area regarded themselves as successor of the serfs before 1848. It was Lajos Kossuth, leader of the war of independence in 1848-49, who provided them with landed property. Consequently they were bound to the memory of 1848 inseparably. As a result political movements fighting for independence strengthened in this area, as well as the political party representing this idea succeeded in the elections. Moreover, the idea of independence was supported by civil societies as well. Several of the freshly formed local societies represented the idea of independence, such as folk societies, reading associations and local clubs. Interestingly enough, peasants with small or no landed property also supported the idea of 1848, this way connecting themselves to the idea of the nation. At the same time they claimed their social demands. This social stratum was part of the well organized society of farmers and diggers, characterised by strong working class identity. The working class of the Great Plain consisted mainly of diggers. Thus they were not easy to be integrated into the struggle of the traditional political parties. Folk-art expressed the devotion to the idea of independence on the level of the individual, supporting the fact that the idea of the 1848 revolution was respected within the famüies, in the small world of the individuals irrespective of their social status.