Századok – 2010

TANULMÁNYOK - Hermann Róbert: Az „Ellenőr" - egy ellenzéki zsebkönyv születése

AZ „ELLENŐR" - EGY ELLENZÉKI ZSEBKÖNYV SZÜLETÉSE 529 THE „ELLENŐR" - THE BIRTH OF AN OPPOSITION POCKET BOOK by Róbert Hermann (Summary) The study overviews the information concerning the origins and publication of an oppositional pocket book, which was edited by József Bajza and published early in 1848. Among its immediate antecedents the author examines the birth of political programs in 1846 and 1847; the formation of the Conservative Party and the launch of its program, followed by the publication of count István Széchenyi's work entitled „Politikai programm töredékek" (Fragments of a political program), inspired directly the emergence of the Oppositional Party and its Oppositional Declaration. Since the latter was prevented from publication in Hungary by censorship, an obvious solution was to publish the Opposition's program, as it had been done in similar cases before, abroad. A good occasion for this was offered by the so-called „Circle Album", initiated by the Pest Circle (Pesti Kör) late in 1846, which originally was destined to be a pocket book of literature. At the turn of 1846/1847 the leaders of the Pest Circle, and later of its successor, the Oppositional Circle, decided to shift for a political manual. The editor-in-chief, József Bajza, had already gathered the first manuscripts by that time. The contributors to the finally published volume represented all the wings within the Hungarian liberal opposition. Some of the writings were former parliamentary or academic speeches, but some of the authors, such as András Fáy, Kossuth, János Irinyi, Lajos Beniczky and Pál Hunfalvy, prepared their works for this specific occasion. The leading role in recruiting authors was played, alongside Bajza, by Kossuth himself. In the literary part we can find poems by Petőfi, Vörösmarty, Sándor Vachott, Péter Vajda, János Garay and János Erdélyi, some of which were also composed for the book. Bajza conspired with such perfection that the identity of the German publisher has remained a mystery until now. The first copies arrived around the middle of January 1848, and by the middle of February the whole country had been covered. Yet it was soon partially outdated by the appearance of Széchenyi's proposal on traffic, then by the parliamentaiy debates, and, finally, by the revolutionary events which ensued in March.