Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1981 (9. évfolyam, 27-30. szám)

1981 / 30. szám

tendencies of the local intellectual strata. (Carpatho-Rusyn American) □

Minard, Lawrence, “The Hungarian Exception,” Forbes (May 11, 1981)119-128.

Hungary has become “an Eastern bloc economic laboratory whose experiements have won... approval of... Brezhnev.” But Western confidence is no less significant: loans are considered secure, and export products equal Western goods in quality. Food and consumer goods are plentiful. Food is produced in three sectors, on household plots, in cooperatives, and on state farms. Farmers use Western knowhow, appropriate modernization, apply hard work, something worth doing now that the reward is right. The "second economy” as it is called, extends into other areas, providing a margin the socialist sector cannot. E.g., over 50% of the housing units was built privately. Consuming 15% of total working hours, the “second economy” provides 30% of the income of the population. Hungary has few natural resources. It must trade to survive, and its trade volume of $20 billion in 1980 constituted a higher percentage of the GNP than that of Japan’s. Most of its raw materials come from COMECOM countries, which also provide a market for Hungarian products. The change, which begun in 1968 from a centrally controlled economy, now reflects the cost of production. There has been belt-tightening since 1979, and the 1981- 1985 five-year plan projects an increase in real income of only 7%. But plans call for a 39% increase in exports, and strengthening of managerial autonomy. The pay system is already geared to reward merit, and while the new system may lead to economic and social differences, this, and the belt-tightening are generally accepted as a necessary price for continued economic prosperity, Western contacts, and a relative freedom of movement.

The above article is followed by one on Romania by the same author: "A Balkan Despotism: Compared with Hungary, in Many Ways a Modern, Progressive Country, Neighboring Romania is an Anachronism" (131-136). (EMB) □

THE VASVARY COLLECTION:

A Progress Report

As theHSN reported in earlier issues (p. 6,no. 5; p. 16, no.11; and p. 6, no. 14) the Edmund Vasvary Collection of 450 loose-leaf notebooks with longhand notes, citations, manuscripts, news clippings and pictures of Hungarians in America, was the life work of Reverend Edmund Vasvary (1888-1977). This historian by avocation devoted nearly 50 years of his life to researching the history of Hungarian immigrants, and in his will donated the corpus of the collection to the Somogyi Library at Szeged, Hungary. (With a Rockefeller Foundation grant the American Hungarian Foundation prepared a microfilm copy of the collection, which is available to researchers at the foundation’s library in New Brunswick, New Jersey.) The collection also comprises several hundred of relevant books and a biographical and bibliographical index of some 12,000 entries. While trying to be as broad as possible, Vasvary collected data on outstanding personalities and events pertaining to Hungarians in America, such as Colonel Michael Kováts’ role in the War of Independence, Louis Kossuth’s tour of the U.S., or Hungarian participation in the Civil War.

Indexing is now in progress, and so is the preparation of a publication of Vasvary’s selected writings entitled “Magyar

NO. 30, WINTER, 1981-1982, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER

Amerika” [Hungarian America], The project is sponsored by the Historical Inst, of the HAS and the Somogyi Library. Continuous donations from individuals, and systematic acquisition of relevant items keep increasing the usefulness of the collection which has become one of the centers for American studies in Hungary. It has already attracted a number of scholars and writers. In February 1981 it was the subject of a Hungarian television program featuring the most interesting documents to a nation-wide audience. The curator of the Collection is András Csillag, himself a historian, who wrote his dissertation on the Early Hungarian Travelogues on The United States (in Hungarian, at the József A.U. Szeged, 1978). His address is Somogyi Könyvtár, Vasvary gyűjtemény, Pf. 441, Szeged, Hungary 6701.

MEETINGS

The American Hungarian Educators’ Association held its 6th annual conference at Kent St. U. during April 30 and May 3, 1981. The formal sessions were devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution of 1956. The session on LITERATURE presented papers by Ivan Sanders (Suffolk County Comm. Coll.), Tamás Aczál (U. of Massachusetts) and Karoly Nagy (Middlesex County Coll, and Rutgers U.) who gave a historical survey and discussed the significance and philosophical impact of the revolution. Dalma Hunyadi Brunauer (Clarkson Coll.) was the commentor. In another session Zsuzsa Körösi (Columbia U.) spoke on the intellectual and political role of the workers councils; Michael Sozan (Slippery Rock St. Coll.) surveyed rural transformation; and Paul Underwood (Ohio St. U.) acted as commentator, giving also a synopsis of Nándor F. Dreisziger’s (Royal Military Coll, of Canada) paper on the impact of 1956 on the West. Denis Sinor gave personal reminiscences. In the session devoted to the ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF 1956, Paul Jónás (New Mexico U.) gave an account of the role student unions have played as early as in 1948-1950, and the role of the Petőfi Circles in 1956. Barnabas A. Racz (Eastern Michigan U.) and Janos Horvath (Butler U.) concentrated on the beneficial but potentially unhealthy aspects of the New Economic Mechanism. Short-term gains vs. longterm dangers were hotly debated. Janos Decsy (Greater Hartford Comm. Coll.) served as commentator. A session on ETHNIC ARCHIVAL RESOURCES incorporated papers by John Gabrowski (Western Reserve Historical society), John F. Cadzow (Kent St. U.), and August J. Molnár (American Hungarian Foundation), stressing the need for communication between collectors, and institutions holding resources. AMERICAN SETTING AND HUNGARIAN CULTURE was a session in which Shirla R. McClain (Kent St. U.) discussed opportunities for local, state and federal aid in institutionalized multicultural education programs; Frank Horvay (Heidelberg Coll.) spoke on the Debrecen Summer School, and Agnes H. Vardy (Robert Morris Coll.) on László Pólya. TEACHING HUNGARIAN AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES was discussed by Daniel M. Abondolo (Columbia U.), Miklós Kontra (Kossuth L.U. and Indiana U.), and Marta Pereszlényi Pinte'r (Ohio St. U.). Peter Basa (National Institutes of Health), Ruth Biro (Duquesne U.), and Bertalan Kormán (American Hungarian Folk Life Centrum) discussed research and resources for Hungarian studies, while Hungarian studies programs were debated by George Bisztray (U. of Toronto), Steven B. Vardy (Duquesne U.), Denis Sinor (Indiana U.), and Julianna N. Ludanyi (Portland

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