Körmöczi Katalin szerk.: Historical Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum 3 - From the End of the Turkish Wars to the Millennium - The history of Hungary in the 18th and 19th centuries (Budapest, 2001)

ROOM 14. Endurance, Compromise and Economic Boom "The Repudiation of That Which is Illegal is No Mere Option, But Rather an Obligation" (Ferenc Deák) (Katalin Körmöczi - Edit Haider)

At the end of the room, the pomp of the Millennium is encompassed by a social cyclorama of the fin de siècle, and by the bustling life of the capital, which was by now a European metropolis. THE REPRISALS A list of names of participants in the war of independence recalls the dry facts of the retribution in 1849. Next to the names there are remarks in German, and occasionally in Hungarian: death sentences, imprisonments, confiscations of property, forced enlistments in the Habsburg army. In a decree summoning individuals to appear before a military tribunal, the names of Lajos Batthyány, Lajos Kossuth, Gyula Andrássy, István Gorove, Lajos Beniczky, and Pál Almássy can be read, among those of others. Items which have become treasured relics are the following: the candlestick and penknife used in prison by Count Lajos Batthyány, head of the first responsible Hungarian government; his bullet-pierced waistcoat, and documents authorizing the removal and burial of his body. Splinters from the gallows of those executed at Arad commemorate the nation's martyrs. At Haynau's command, the executions also continued after October 6. Among those executed was Imre Szacsvay, secretary of Parliament's House of Deputies and the man who read out the Declaration of Independence; the pages of his farewell letter commemorate him and the other civilian victims. Symbols of prison and convict labour, as well as of national mourning, recall the spirit of the time. Among them is an armband, with the first letters of the nine words of a call (in German) for vengeance. It reads: P(annonia) (Pöltenberg) V(ergiss) (Vecsey) D(eine) (Damjanich, Dessewffy) T(oten) (Török) N(ie) (Nagysándor), A(ls) (Aulich) K(läger) (Kiss, Knézich) L(eben) (Lahner, Lázár, Leiningen) S(ie) (Schweidel) - that is, "Pannónia, never forget you dead; they live on as accusers". THE KOSSUTH EMIGRATION In August 1849, Lajos Kossuth left Hungary, crossing the border at Orsova (Orsóvá). He did not regard the achievements of 1848^49 as lost beyond recovery. "Even in its fall, our nation will rank among the vigorous factors which can and must be reckoned with in European historical developments," declared Lajos Kossuth, who remained the leading figure among the Hungarian emigres up until 1867. Kossuth conducted his political activity on the basis of the Declaration of Independence. His principal endeavour was to find foreign support and allies for the liberation of Hungary. However, the balance of power in Europe required the existence of the Habsburg empire. The emigres became divided in their views, scattered and then isolated. Mementos and documents present Kossuth active in politics as governor-president and head of state, in exile also. There are glimpses of the various centres of the emigration, and of political ideas and the personalities representing them. In addition to the minutes and seal of the London Association of Hungarian Political Refugees, visitors can see the seal of the Hungarian National Directorate, the emigre government formed in Paris in 1859 by Kossuth, Teleki and Klapka; mementos of