Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1979 (7. évfolyam, 19-22. szám)
1979 / 22. szám
HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER No. 22 ISSN: 0194-164X Winter 1979-1980 Published quarterly by the Hungarian Research Center of the American Hungarian Foundation: Winter, Spring (two numbers included), and Autumn. Founder and editor: Bela Charles Maday. Journal editor: Enikő Molnár Basa. Corresponding editor: Lorant Czigany (London). Communications concerning content should be addressed to the Editor, 4528-49th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20016. Communications concerning subscriptions, advertising, and circulation should be addressed to American Hungarian Foundation, 177 Somerset Street, P.O. Box 1084, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. Annual subscription in the U.S.A. $4.00. Abroad:$5.00. Current single copy $2.00; back issues $2.50 each. BOOKS (Continued) walking. He walked to Gottingen” and learned all that a student could learn about philology, geography, history and about Central Asia. When in India he studied the Tibetan language and produced two major works: A Grammar of the Tibetan Language in English, and Dictionary, Tibetan and English. Both published at Calcutta in 1834. He died and was buried at Darjeeling in 1842. The epithet on his tomb said: “Alexander Csorna de Kőrös, a poor lonely Hungarian, without money or acclaim but inspired by determination and staunch patriotism who sought to find the cradle of Hungarians, finally succumbed to the fatigues of his journey. He sleeps his everlasting dream far from his homeland, but lives in the heart of every good Hungarian.” Silnitsky, Frantisek, Larisa Silnitsky, and Karl Reyman, eds., COMMUNISM AND EASTERN EUROPE; a Collection of Essays. Karz Publishers, 320 West 105th Street, New York, NY 10025, 1979. 242 pages. $19.95 cloth; $6.95 paper. The 12 essays included in this volume were written by intellectuals of Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, and Poland, who were critical of the policies and practices of their governments. Most of them were deprived from their jobs and from access to the official media. Some emigrated to the West, others try to continue their criticism through clandestine publications. Essays originating from Hungarian writers cover 60 pages. A preface to the Hungarian section authored by Julian Schopflin, who also selected and translated the essays, tells us how political and economic unorthodoxy has been achieved in Hungary, and what are the taboos to criticism that still persists. Though most of such independent thinkers were “marginalized” by the government, they continue to reevaluate ideology and its application. Some advocate a reform or rethinking of Marxism, others reject it altogether. The four Hungarian essays include Debates and Trends in Marxist Philosophy by György Markus (former professor of philosophy at the Eötvös Lo'ránd U., since 1978 in Australia); After the Break by György Bence and János Kis (both, philosophers released from their jobs); What is My Position on Marxism Today by Zoltán Endreffy (resigned his chair at the Technical U. of Budapest, now working in a factory); The Science of Economics and the East European Systems by Tama's Bauer, (economist at the Institute of Economy, HAS); and What is Marxism? by Miklós Haraszti (a writer, see HSN no. 19-20, p. 3.) The Silnitskys are free lance script writers for Radio Free Europe, where Reyman is a program advisor. 2 Kovrig, Bennett. COMMUNISM IN HUNGARY: From Kun to Kádár. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, CA 94305, 1979. 544 pages, map, chart, appendixes, biblio. $10.95 paper. Hoover Institution Publication 211, in the Histories of Ruling Communist Parties series. General editor: Richard F. Staar. The volume presents a thorough and scholarly historical study of the development and present dynamics of the Hungarian communist movement, written by an outsider. It reaches back into the middle of the last century when many strains of utopian socialism and Marxism spread across Europe. The first evidence of organized labor in Hungary is traced back to the 1860s and to the creation of the Social Democratic Party in 1890. The reader is then led in much greater detail through the historical period which culminated in the Republic of Councils in 1919 and the consequent loss of short-lived power. “The familiar history of the interwar period is viewed from the unfamiliar angle of their underground activities, relations with the Comintern, attempts to form a popular front, and their fate during Stalin’s purges,” says Staar in the editor’s foreword. He concludes by saying “In brilliant detail, Professor Kovrig describes how the party eliminated adversaries and gained total control. In no other satellite did Stalin’s policies inspire such faithful imitation.. .Nevertheless, ...Hungarian society in the late 1970s continues to suffer from problems that official Marxist dogma cannot admit, let alone solve.” The volume includesa useful table of present office holders in the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party; Organizational Statutes of the party; party membership 1919-1976; list of principal party conferences, 1918-1975; and key economic indicators, 1938- 1975. The author is chairman of the department of political economy at the U. of Toronto. Enyedi, György, ed., URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN THE USA AND HUNGARY. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadd, 1978. 311 pages, maps, charts, tables. $27.00 cloth. No. 14 in the Studies in Geography in Hungary series published by the Research Institute of Geography, HAS. Formal meetings between American and Hungarian geographers began in 1972, upon the conclusion of an agreement on scientific cooperation between the KKI and the NSF was concluded in the same year (see HSN no. 3, p. 1). In 1975 a bilateral study seminar was arranged in Budapest to discuss similarities and diversities of urban development in the two countries. It turned out, to the surprise of no one, that the urbanization problems of the two societies are quite different. The differences were found to be due to the different pol itical-economic systems of the two countries and the vastly different historical antecedents and experiences. Such basic characteristics as highly centralized planning in Hungary versus virtually no comprehensive urban policy in the U.S., set the two systems apart. Differences in the interdependence of urban and rural development are also substantial. Trends in the U.S. are highly influenced by land values, while in Hungary the collectivization of agriculture and the diffusion of light industries have a major impact. Internal urban structures and the character of sub-urban development have taken different courses. American cities expanded into the suburban greenbelts, while Hungarian villages took up the role of urban bedrooms, both systems creating a host of transportation problems. The 11 American and 12 Hungarian contributors to this volume, try to cover such broad areas as metropolitan growth; urban structure (Continued on Page 3) NO. 22, WINTER 1979-1980, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER T
