Balázs Eszter: Art in action. Lajos Kassák's Avant-Garde Journals from A Tett to Dokumentum, 1915-1927 - The avant-garde and its journals 3. (Budapest, 2017)
Eszter Balázs: Avant-Garde and Radical Anti-War Dissent in Hungary-A Tett (1915-1916)
Eszter Balázs AVANT-GARDE AND RADICAL ANTI-WAR DISSENT IN HUNGARY - A TETT (1915-1916) Kassák launched his first journal, A Tett [The Action], on 1 November 1915. It was the first Hungarian-language avant-garde journal, and it took a radically antiwar stance. The choice of the name for an art-based journal ironically echoed the usage of the same word in the war-party discourse, where the “act of war" (battlefield) was contrasted with the “word” (hinterland). For A Tett, it alluded to the creative nature of the artistic process, the way art connects to ordinary life and helps shape society, and the anti-war stance of the editors. By taking up the international orientation of pre-war modernism, the journal was a rare example of resistance to the intellectual isolationism encouraged by the wartime atmosphere. Its direct source of inspiration may be traced to the German Expres- sionistand anti-militarist weekly Die Aktion [The Action], [Fig.l] A Tett’s founder, editor-in-chief and publisher, Lajos Kassák, was already well-known in literary circles for his poetry and short stories. [Fig. 2] The journal’s editorial staff included several young poets, critics and social scientists at the start of the careers, although some were already quite well known. They included Mátyás György, Aladár Komját, József Lengyel, János Mácza, Tivadar Raith, Vilmos Rozványi, Imre Vajda, and Kassák’s sister Erzsi Újvári. Its readers were mainly freethinking-radical young people, some with a Marxist orientation, who had gathered together to agitate against the war in the Galileo Circle. The journal had a print run of 500-1000 and maintained itself almost exclusively from the cover price, as it had almost no advertisers. The authorities first imposed restrictions on its distribution, and after a year of publication, in autumn 1916, when censorship was tightened in wartime Hungary, finally banned it. KASSÁK’S ROAD TO LAUNCHING A TETT Leaving school early, Kassák started work as an apprentice blacksmith at the age of twelve, and between 1905 and 1909 worked in factories in Győr and the outer districts of Budapest, Újpest and Angyalföld. He joined one of the workers’ associations of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party, but according 1 1 The German expressionist journal Die Aktion (1911-1932) was the most prominent anti-militarist press organ in the First World War. Its founding editor was Franz Pfemfert. The inference that it was the main intellectual model for Kassák and associates is drawn mainly from writing published in A Tett. 33
