AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1959. Budapest (1961)

IV. Könyvtár- és művelődéstörténeti tanulmányok - Summaires

Hungarian newspapers in the European region of the Soviet Union in the period ipiy to 1921 L. TERBE In continuation of the bibliography published in the 1958 volume of the National Széchényi Library's yearbook (258—284 pp.) entitled "Szibériai magyar lapok" (Siberian newspapers in Hungarian)

, this article actually is the bibliography of newspapers printed in the Hungarian language which appeared in the European region of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1921. Hungarian workers, poor peasants and members of the intelligentsia who became prisoners of war during the first World War, formed party organizations and participated in every movement of the Russian proletariat in the time of the Great October Socialist Revolution. They also organized internationalist regiments for the struggle against counterrevolutionaries, to uphold the achievements of the revolution and the power of the councils. With a view to enlightening the masses of the prisoners of war and promoting their revolutionary education, furthermore, to urge them on to armed struggle, the party organizations of prisoner of war camps in certain towns published Hungarian newspapers with the support of the Russian town council and party organization. The masses of the Hungarian prisoners of war looked to the revolution for their liberation and many of them went over to the side of those fighting for the power of the councils, mainly on the basis of the propaganda exercised by the party organizations through the newspapers. The revolutionary newspapers were read with keen interest by all the prisoners of war, as this was the only source of information open to them at such distances from their homes. In the time between December 1917 and October 1921 altogether 44 different Hungarian newspapers appeared in the various towns of Russia: 30 in Siberia and Turkistan, 14 in the European region. The author accompanies his description of the Hungarian newspapers published in the European region with many annotations, both regarding form and text. The Moscow Vörös Űjság (Red Paper) appeared in 12,000 copies, the Penza Világszabadság (World Liberty) in 20,000 copies. Owing to the return home of the prisoners of war, by the autumn of 1921 these newspapers gradually ceased to be published. At the same time in every country where greater masses of these former prisoners of war settled down, there began to appear Hungarian communist newspapers: in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Roumania. The revolutionary newspapers that appeared in the Hungarian language in Russia played an important role in preparing the ground for communism in Hungary in 1919; they offer very interesting source material to researchers on the history of Europe. The greatest part of the single issues of these newspapers perished. The bibliography enumerates the issues of the individual titles that are still extant, and also mentions where they can be found in the Budapest collections. In view of the fact that the Hungarian and German revolutionary press underwent parallel stages of development in Russia, in his opening chapter on press history, the author indicates the more important revolutionary newspapers in the German language in the period under review: there were altogether 12 titles in German. He also indicates the titles of communist newspapers in the Hungarian language that were published in Austria, Czechoslovakia, in the United States of America, Yugoslavia and Rumania in 1921. 405