Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1979 (7. évfolyam, 19-22. szám)

1979 / 21. szám

preschool education in Hungary, their qualities and the potential for adopting the best features into Canadian education. George Nagy, president of the Canadian Hungarian Federation, submitted a plea (pp. 176-179) to the conference in which he expresses hope for equal treatment of the French and the Hungarian minorities, should Canada change its constitution to accommodate multiculturalism. - Vol. Ml contains again two relevant papers: Fred Dreisziger, Royal Military Coll, of Canada, writes on The Growth of Hungarian Settlements in Central Canada (p. 27-42), concentrating on Hungarian immigrant history of the 1920s. He points out that of the some 132,000 Canadian Hungarians (as of 1971) most live in urban settlements not unlike the immigrants of the 1920s. Leslie László, Concordia U., under the title of Subversion or Bridge-Building? - A Study of the Communist Use of the Churches for Propaganda Abroad and its Effect on the Hungarian Communities in Norths America, (pp. 89-102) describes the “love-hate” attitudes of Canadian Hungarians toward present-day Hungary and the role of the churches in Hungarian communities, heavily influencing those attitudes. Vol. IV contains Robert E. Blumstock’s, McMaster U., essay on The Irrelevance of Ideology: The Fall of Marxism and the Rise of the Last Man (pp. 1-14). He focuses on the changes observed in Eastern Eruope with specific interest in the Hungarian scene where "relative affluence has had a greater impact in calling into question the traditional controls than any other single result of the technical efforts.” Musical presentations were made by Béla Biro' and Marta György.

McCagg Jr., William O. STALIN EMBATTLED, 1943-1948.

Wayne State U. Press, The Leonard N. Simons Building, Detroit, Ml 48202,1978.423 pages, notes, biblio. $18.95 cloth.

Western and Communist literature about the Cold War has traditionally depicted Stalin as a revolutionist who in 1945-46 dropped the pragmatic guise with which he had long deceived the West. The author asserts that Stalin, a true pragmatist, assumed the guise of a revolutionary in order to deceive unruly Communists. He bases his study on archival material not available to historians of the past. Among the sources are unpublished notes Ernő' Gerd made when negotiating the “armistice” (as quoted in M. Korom “Az ideiglenes nemzetgyűlés és a kormány létrehozásának előkészítése” [The preparations for the establishment of the provisional national assembly and government], Párttörte'neti Közlemények XX(1974) pp. 102-135 . Gero'was second in command in the Hungarian Communist Party in 1944 when Soviet rule began to establish itself in Eastern Europe. “GerÓ's notes confirm that Stalin initially regarded the countries of the region as subject to the same conditions of development as the West European countries liberated by the Americans and the British and that he was not always honest with his fellow Communists.” According to the Foreign Affairs (57:2, Winter 1978-79) McCagg has “undertaken an expedition into the dark recesses of Soviet politics and of Stalin’s mind and come up with an extraordinary reappraisal of Stalin’s policy toward the West.”

The author is prof, of history and director of the Russian and East European Program at Michigan St. U.

Stadtmüller, von Georg et al, eds. UNGARN-JAHRBUCH; Zeitschrift für die Kunde Ungarns und verwandte Gebiete

[An Annual Journal for Hungarian Studies and Related Areas] Vol. 8 (1977). Published by G. Adriányi, H.GIassl.and E. Völkl

for the Ungarisches Institut, 8000 München 40, Clemenstrasse 2, West Germany, 1978, 332 pages, DM 64.00 cloth.

This issue of the prestigious yearbook (for a previous volume see HSN no. 16, p. 6) was prepared with the cooperation of Imre Boba, Thomas von Bogyay, Edgar Hösch, László Révész, and László' Szilas. It contains seven major articles mostly on historical topics. Among them one is in English the others are in German. The English paper is on Hungarians in Modern Romania: from Autonomy to Assimilation (pp. 175-194) by Martin I.E. Krai (Chicago). Two major research reports are Ungarn im Rahmen der Habsburger Monarchie [Hungary in the Habsburg Monarchy] (pp. 195- 230) by Horst Glassl (Munich), and Bemerkungen zur Soziologie in Ungarn [Comments on Sociology in Hungary] (pp. 231-246) by Helmut Klocke (Poking). The remainder of the volume incorporates 76 reviews of noteworthy books on Hungarian subjects in several languages, but mainly in German and Hungarian. Grouped by topics, they include books related to the general Hungarian field, early history and the Middle Ages, Ottoman rule, Reformation, Enlightment, Restoration, 1848-1945, since 1945, and to other topics. The concluding portion of the volume reports on three conferences; on Hungarian language and identity (held in Germany, 22 to 26 August 1977); on Karl Kere'nyi and Humanism (held in Switzerland, 29 October to 1 November 1977); and the third on the role of the University Press in Buda in regard to the social, cultural and political development of the peoples of East Europe between 1777 and 1848 (held in Budapest 4 to 8 September 1977). For those with German reading knowledge the volume makes accessible a good number of important writings in other languages.

Volgyes, Ivan ed., THE PEASANTRY OF EASTERN EUROPE, Vol. Il/20th Century Developments. Pergamon Press, Maxwell House, Fairview Park, Elmsford, NY 10523,1979.232 pages, charts, tables, notes. $20.00 cloth. In the Comparative Rural Transformation Series.

This collection of 12 essays by well-known scholars of the field is a sequel to Vol. I (see HSN no. 19/20, p.6). The volume isdivided into Part I. The Russian-Soviet Model: Theoriesand Realities: Part II. Economic and Political Aspects of Rural Change; and Part III. The Peasantry in a Comparative Perspective. A summary on the peasantry under communism concludes the book. Two essays relate directly to Hungary. Peter S. Elek (Villanova U.) writes about Agro Mass Production and the Private Sector in Hungary, stating that the peasantry is rapidly disappearing as a socioeconomic class; that the rate of transformation is a function of the market, of technology and of mobility of labor force; the future of agricultural production hinges on two sectors, the massproducing state sector and the private plot. He says that the price of affluence will be born by the disappearance of the household plot and the convergence of cooperatives into state-owned ventures. Finally, he writes of the emergence of a new type of man, the post-urban man: “an exurban resident, who by employment may be tied to the farm, the mine, industry, or town, with no particular class or location loyalty.” The other essay of interest is by Joseph Held (Rutgers U.) on Some Aspects of the Transformation of the Hungarian Peasantry in the 20th Century. After discussing economic modernization, internal and external factors of influence, causes of development and its pace, technical problems and the impact of the Depression, the populist

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