A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Historica 12. (Szeged, 2009)

MIKLÓS Péter: Kecskemét dualizmuskori sajtótörténetéhez. A Kecskeméti Lapok 1875 és 1918 közötti történetéről.

PÉTER MIKLÓS TO THE PRESS HISTORY OF KECSKEMÉT IN THE PERIOD OF DUALISM When the first weekly paper, entitled Kecskeméti Lapok, was launched in Kecskemét in 1868, it was without any rivals. However, from the 1870s several new periodicals were published in Kecskemét. Consequently, by the end of the 19

th century a many-sided press publicity had formulated in the city representing different opinions and aspects. This competitive situation encouraged also the editors of Kecskeméti Lapok to write more consciously and purposefully. The liberal weekly entitled Kecskemét was launched in January 1873, and for a short while another weekly, the Kecskeméti Vidéki Közlöny was also published. The periodical entitled Kecskemét és Vidéke (later called as Pestmegyei Hírlap), representing the political view of the opposition, was published in 1889. After its cessation the newspaper entitled Függetlenség took over its role. This paper published the daily entitled Kecskeméti Friss Újság as a side paper between 1900 and 1904. When - due to financial reasons - the Kecskeméti Friss Újság ended, the weekly Kecskeméti Lapok was turned into a political daily. The daily had a column which provided the readers with literary works, written not only by citizens of Kecskemét (including teachers, lawyers, representatives of local intelligentsia), but also by poets and writers of nationwide fame, such as Kálmán Mikszáth, Endre Ady, Gyula Krúdy. Moreover, works of foreign writers were also published in Kecskeméti Lapok, such as Anatole France, Anton Pavlovics Csehov, Jerome K. Jerome. In 1908 the so far liberal paper changed its political tone and became the official paper of the Independence and 1848 Party. In the first days of the bourgeois democratic change and the revolution in October 1918 Kecskeméti Lapok reported on the national political events on its front page. The victory of the revolution and the declaration of Hungarian independence meant a victory for the paper, too, since it had represented the political ideology of the independence for already 10 years. Besides studying local historian literature, the author of present study did basic research in the field. Present paper used the documents of the County Archives of Bács-Kiskun County, as well as articles of contemporary newspapers as a source.