Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1982 (10. évfolyam, 31-34. szám)

1982 / 31-32. szám

On p.2of no.29HSN reviewed a major work on the Roman Province of Pannónia which included what is now the Transdanubian Region of Hungary. The area is an archaeological gold mine. The latest publication on a recent excavation near the Danube River some 40 miles south of Budapest unearthed a Roman settlement called Matrica which included two cemeteries. Though modern earth moving machinery applied toward a construction project destroyed some 800 to 1,000 graves before archaelogists could stop the destruction, the author and her associates unearthed 213 graves in the southern cemetery. Evidence of post-Roman graves in the same area were abundant but could not be attended to. The excavated material seems to indicate that the burial place was used from the late first century to the end of the 3rd century, and was partially reopened in the middle of the fourth century. The catalog-text is complemented by hundreds of sketches of artifacts. Also discussed are burial rites, cremation and inhumation. A good bibliography and a list of abbreviations conclude the volume.

Volgyes, Ivan. HUNGARY: A Nation of Contradictions.

Westview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301, 1982. xii + 113 pages, map, biblio., illus. $16.50 cloth.

This book is unusual inasmuch as the author tries to give the broad topic a personal touch, projecting his personal experience into the narrative. “Thrust out of the body of the Hungarian nation as a Jew, having lost a part of my family --sent to the gas chambers by Hungarian fascists — I still returned from its ghettos in 1945 to be part of the new society.” But conditions were such in Eastern Europe, that efforts of the kind were not honored, and so “the forces of history” expelled him from Hungary to come to the U.S. and to obtain a Ph.D. at American U. The book treats Hungarian history in 20 pages, cultural geography in 8 pages, and an assessment of contemporary Hungary in 78 pages under such headings as “Bases of Politics in Hungary,” “Between Rags and Riches: The Economy of Hungary,” “From Class Struggle to Social Tension,” “Cultural Tradition and Cultural Change,” “International Politics: To Make the Twain Meet,” and “Whither Hungary?” To compress 1,000 years of history and an analysis of the contemporary state of affairs in Hungary into such a small volume has been quite an ambitious task, and perhaps responsible for the scores of factual inaccuracies and typos. The printer made efforts to use diacritical marks successfully with the exception of the long “Ó”, which appears in the short form throughout the text. The bibliography is useful, and translations of Hungarian literary pieces are helpful in providing a feeling for the cultural milieu in which the events have taken place or the author has lived. He concludes with quoting (in translation) from the national anthem: “The nation has suffered enough for the sins of the past and even of the future.”

The author is prof, of political science at the U. of Nebraska.

Wagner, Francis S., EUGENE P. WIGNER: AN ARCHITECT OF THE ATOMIC AGE. Highlights of a Career with a Comprehensive Bibliography. Epilogue by Edward Teller.

Research assistant: Christina Maria T. Wagner-Jones.

Rákóczi Foundation. P.O. Box 2727, Cleveland OH 44111, 1981. 80 pages, illus. $10.00 paper. (No. 1 in the Biobiographies of the Rákóczi Foundation.)

This is a brief life history of a scientist and thinker, who was born in Hungary in 1902, came to the U.S. in 1930, and won the Nobel Prize of Physics in 1963. He was professor of

NO. 31-32, SPRING-SUMMER. 1982 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER

physics at Princeton U., and during World War II was a consultant to the Office of Scientific Research and Development. In 1939 Szilárd and Wigner, urged by other scientists, prepared a letter to President Roosevelt warning him about the advances in nuclear physics which eventually could lead to the development of a very powerful weapon. The letter was signed by Albert Einstein, because he “was the only scientist who could influence President Roosevelt’s decision on this matter.” Wigner began his association with the Atomic Energy Commission in 1947, and became a member of its general advisory committee in 1952. The author depicts Wigner’s life with a broad stroke of his brush while making earnest efforts to illuminate the educational and intellectual atmosphere of pre-war Hungary in which the genetic and scientific roots of Wigner were so firmly established. He also endeavors to convey the basic philosophy which motivated Wigner in his work. The biographical part of the volume covers 27 pages, a bibliographical sketch 4 pages, and a bibliography of Wigner’s 10 books, 350 articles, and of 15 monographs about the Nobel Laureate and his accomplishments.

The author has retired from the staff of the Library of Congress. His Hungarian Contribution to World Civilization was reviewed in HSN no. 14, p. 4.

Wojatsek, Charles. FROM TRIANON TO THE FIRST VIENNA ARBITRAL AWARD: The Hungarian Minority in the First Czechoslovak Republic 1918-1938. M. Kolbe Editions, P.O. Box 2058, Sherbrook, QU JIJ 3YI, Canada, in behalf of the Institute of Comparative Civilizations, Montreal, 1981. vi + 231 pages, maps, biblio. Canadian $19.00 cloth; $13.75 paper.

Publications on the fate of Hungarian ethnic minorities in Romania proliferate while little has been written about Hungarians in Czechoslovakia. This volume is a historical account of the creation, doom, and recreation of the Czechoslovak state with special emphasis on the aggressive domination practices by the Czechs. It is also a passionate defense of human rights of ethnic minorities in the area. It condemns the policies and activities in Czechoslovakia and abroad by Beneáand Masaryk and explains the role of Czech and Slovak national councils who decided the fate of peoples without their consent or counsel. Chapters deal with Bohemia’s eastward expansion, oppression of German, Hungarian, Polish, Ruthenian and Slovak minorities, their activities in self defense and a discussion of internal and external forces proposing peaceful solutions of the problems, i.e., a peaceful revision of the Trianon boarders. The concluding chapter concerns itself with “the consequences of an absurd Czech imperialism,” as expressed by Benes and Masaryk who strived toward a monolingual Czech nation state. Now, even discussing the possible revision of CSSRHungarian borders is out of question as long as the Soviet Union pretends the absence of conflicts between Socialist states. The appendices present a score of relevant documents, such as the Minority Treaty of 1919; the protocol of Benes to the Peace Conference of 1919; petition from U.S. citizens to the League of Nations; the Runciman report; the Munich agreement of 1938; the First Vienna Award of 1938; and some statistical data on Hungary.

The author is prof, of history at Bishop’s U. in Canada.

Zaharia, G. and L. Vajda. THE ANTI-FACIST RESISTANCE IN THE NORTH-EAST OF TRANSYLVANIA (September

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