European Identity – A Set of Questions
Citizen´s identity in the modern states is made up of several components, not only of a single one. Therefore, the conception of European identity also must integrate several components of political mainstreams. And, behind them, there also must be different interpretations of society, as well as different images of man. The present state of Europe is a state of gradual lagging behind other regions of the world. Staying behind on national level, of course, cannot be a national interest, especially not in the age of globalization. Therefore, the real dilemma of European nations lies not in the maintenance of their traditional sovereignty or in their submission to the European Union. The real dilemma is whether they, standing together, will be able to overcome challenges of this age, or they will keep up the root causes of lagging behind.
The election to the Carpatho-Ukrainian Soim in February 1939 (Part I.)
The study analyses the elections to the Carpatho-Ukrainian Soim in February 1939, mainly the declaration of elections, the campaign, the minority aspects, and the results of the elections. Avgustyn Voloshyn’s pro-Ukrainian government made the running of the other political forces in the elections impossible by playing the game of scheduling the elections, by banning political parties and by rejection of the opposition’s list of candidates. Out of the 32 candidates on the list of the governing Ukrainian National Union (UNO), there was one representative of the German, Czech and Romanian minorities each. Representation of the Jews, the largest minority, was not even considered by the government, and the leaders of the Hungarian minority not only failed to participate on the list of candidates but they even requested Hungarian voters to reject it. All this was connected with the unfriendly relations of the Carpatho-Ukrainian government and Budapest, resp. the Hungarian minority in Subcarpathia, as well as with Hungary’s efforts to seize the territory of Subcarpathia. The election campaign did not differ from the procedure proven in the totalitarian regimes. According to the official results, 92.4 per cents of the voters approved the election list of the UNO. The minorities, including the Jews, who did not want to be accused from opposing the Carpatho-Ukrainian regime, mostly also supported the check list. Most of the votes against were given by Hungarian voters.
Guardian of the Carpathians and Iron Turul. The Rebirth of a First World War Statue Type with an Updated Ideological Message
During World War I, there was an initiative starting in Vienna to set up a wooden statue for charitable purposes, for which people could buy nails or sheet irons for different sums, and the money thus collected was used to support war orphans, war widows, disabled veterans etc. The Austrian example was followed on the territory of Hungary too, and, among others, in Kolozsvár there was set up a statue named “Guardian of the Carpathians”, and the “Iron Turul” in Nyitra. After the war these statues were removed by the new power and were forgotten by the public as well. However, over the last few years we can witness a kind of rebirth of the statues: they have been remade – the Guardian of the Carpathians even in several (3) copies – on the basis of utterly different ideological considerations, and set up elsewhere than at their original place. The very first copy of the Guardian of the Carpathians in Hungary (in Szilvásvárad) gained a new function as a symbol of national cohesion, the second one, in Dunakeszi, as a Trianon memorial, while the third one, located in Szeklerland, Romania (in Csíkcsomortán), commemorates the Battle of Pozsony. The Iron Turul of Nyitra was set up again in Alsóbodok, a village situated in the Zobor Region, Slovakia. This study examines these new statues, explores the old and new myths and rituals they are associated with, and looks into the message etc. they transmit.
The Formation of the Collection of Folk Poetry of Nagytárkány. (The Collection of Péter Lázár and the Folklore Fellows in Eger, 1913–1914)
Roman Catholic priest Péter Lázár (1893–1942), as a student, in the years 1913 and 1914 carried out a collection of folk poetry in his native village of Nagytárkány. The framework of this activity had been provided by a national programme lasting several years. The collection starting in 1912 was organized by the Hungarian Ethnographical Society and the Hungarian Department of Folklore Fellows among secondary school and university students. The winning project of Péter Lázár has been preserved in an excellent condition in two handwritten booklets of 301 pages, and can be found in the Ethnological Archives of the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest. The beautiful handwritten, orderly collection classified according to theme and genre, contains folk songs, ballades, description of customs and folk beliefs, as well as texts of children´s folklore. In addition to materials of Nagytárkány, the manuscript has included texts from further municipalities too, such as from Keresztespüspöki, Eger, Parád, Ajak and Vásárosnamény. The publication entitled Nagytárkányi népköltési gyűjtemény (English: A Collection of Folk Poetry of Nagytárkány) is an equivalent critical edition of the entire manuscript. The introductory study presents the story of the collection and the biography of Péter Lázár. The collection of more than 500 texts complemented by notes and first line index helps to preserve text tradition, and contributes to further comparative research.
The Friendship of Ármin Schnitzer and Gábor Pap in the Light of Schnitzer´s Memoirs
My paper, based on the memoirs of Ármin Schnitzer—recently published in Hungarian as well —presents the relationship and friendship of two 19th century churchmen bound to Komárom: Neolog rabbi Ármin Schnitzer, and Bishop of the Reformed Church Gábor Pap. The original German-language recollections were published in Vienna in 1904 (Jüdische Kulturbilder. Aus meinem Leben) in the genre „scenes of life”, typical of its time. Then, almost one hundred years later, in 2015, the Jewish Community in Komárno published the memoirs again, in the local Hungarian and Slovak. In the first part of the paper, based on the above mentioned reminiscences, I present the career of Ármin Schnitzer, in particular as regards his self-reflection on the Jewish communities of Hungary standing “between two worlds” in the times of emancipation and modernization. After this I analyse the chapters of the book devoted to the friendship of the two churchmen.
The Question of the Cooperative Centres of the Hungarian Minority in Czechoslovakia between the Two World Wars
This study explores the building of ethnic-based centres within the Czechoslovak cooperative system between the two world wars, with special regard to the Slovakian conditions. The author focuses on Hungarian initiatives of establishing cooperative centres in the early 1920s, and the loss of position of the Hangya Consumption Cooperative of Budapest. The organizations in question can be interpreted as a response to the centralizing policies of the Slovak Ústredné družstvo (Central Cooperative). The new cooperative centres were set up—or attempts receiving assistance of the political opposition in Hungary have been made to set them up—on a regional basis, especially in the Gemer and Novohrad regions, such as the Association of the Slovakian and Ruthenian Cooperatives (Szlovenszkói és Ruszinszkói Szövetkezetek Szövetsége), and the Provincial Credit Cooperative of Farmers (Gazdák Országos Hitelszövetkezete). The most successful cooperative network of the Hungarians in Slovakia, the Hanza Goods Centre (Hanza Szövetkezeti Áruközpont) based in Galanta, was established in 1925. Its foundation can be regarded both as a lucky economic-commercial constellation, and, at the same time, as a compromise with the Central Cooperative, which had eventually been a functioning project until 1938.
Evaluation of the Correctness of Some Verb Forms
In my paper I study attitudes towards language correctness. Based on prescriptivist writings and laymen’s comments, I present opinions connected to Hungarian verbs felolt and odaad. Using collected texts I examine how people argue for or against the correctness of the chosen verbs. Despite of being characterized as illogical, the verb felolt is the product of an existing word formation process in Hungarian. By analysing the prescriptivist comments on felolt and other similar verbs, we can see that their rejection originates in different language ideologies. Laymen deny felolt mainly because they are not aware of the fact that Hungarian verbal prefixes can change the verbs’ meanings to their opposite. The use of odaad, referring to the first person, is highly criticized by both prescriptivist linguists and ordinary speakers. However, literature and empirical data prove that the arguments against its correctness are scientifically groundless and this use of prefix oda appears not only in combination with the verb ad but also with ítél and ajándékoz.
