Baják László Ihász István: The Hungarian National Museum History Exhibition Guide 4 - The short century of survival (1900-1990) (Budapest, 2008)

Room 16. From the Belle Epoch to the Collapse of the Monarchy (1900-1919). László Baják

orld War front souvenirs ous assembly was shocked when, as the war heroes arrived to be dubbed goiden-spurred knights, instead of martial sons of war a row of disabled human ruins materialised. Charles IV would have liked to make a separate peace, but seeing their greater reserve of strength the Entente was intent upon the utter destruction of their enemy. Although the fronts stretched far away from the borders of the Central Powers, the hinterland suffered increasingly. In Hungary, on the basis of the effective bills passed by István Tisza, political rights had been curbed and a wartime economy had been introduced, which spread from price regulations by the authorities to the centralised management of raw materials to forced labour. A system of military plants was formed (by the end of the war 900 factories were under military supervision) and in 1915, due to a food shortage, a voucher system was introduced. Year after year war bonds repeatedly made their appearance, along with numerous other forms ;ontribution to the war effort. The Statue of Willing National Sacrifice was erected in Pest's Square in order to immortalise the memory of the donors, while in >rder to reduce the lack of raw materials, copper kitchen utensils were gathered in, gold dinner services were replaced with iron ones and church bells were melted down. The effect of the difficulties was to augment social unrest, which the reviving political opposition led by Count Mihály Károlyi endeavoured to exploit. However, the most acute problem was the changing behaviour of the minorities. Initial loyalty was fading. Soldiers from the ethnic minorities were deserting from the army en masse. It is estimated that by the autumn of 1917 600,000 soldiers of ethnic minority surrendered to the Russians alone, while the number of deserters reached 80,000. Already in 1915, the number of southern Slavs and Czechs who were migrating heralded the disintegration of the Monarchy. In 1918 their dogged agitation was crowned with success when