„Audacious and Indefensible.” Additions to the History of the Slav Corridor
At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, one of the demands put forth by the Czechoslovak delegation was the creation of the so-called Slav Corridor. The two hundred kilometres long and seventy-five kilometres wide strip designed to connect Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia was meant to be formed from a part of the territory of four counties in western Hungary (Moson, Sopron, Vas and Zala counties). Its creation would have ensured the access of Czechoslovakia to the Adriatic Sea, and a coherent chain of Slav states could have been established in the area between the Baltic and Adriatic Seas. This study describes the genesis of the idea of the corridor, the various Czechoslovak (and Yugoslav) plans drawn up in connection with it, and the negotiations about the issue at the peace conference. The French delegation supported the plan of the corridor, but the American, British and Italian delegations rejected it because it was considered ethnically indefensible (the area was mainly inhabited by Germans and Hungarians) and was seen as a manifestation of pan-Slavic aspirations.
Know Your Beautiful New Homeland or Hungarian Internees in Ilava, Luhačovice and Theresienstadt in 1919
This study deals with one of the hitherto unprocessed episodes of the 1919 coup d’état, the internments by order of Vavro Šrobár, the then minister for the administration of Slovakia. The internment of persons deemed to be a threat to the internal order of the state became a standard practice in the countries of both belligerent parties during the First World War. In Slovakia, which was annexed to the newly proclaimed Czechoslovakia, internments took place in three major waves. During the weeks of the occupation of the former territories of northern Hungary, the Czechoslovak army arrested revered (mostly Hungarian-speaking or Israelite) citizens selected from each municipality, and interned them as hostages in Moravian camps. Under the martial law declared at the end of March, not only the leaders of the labour movement, but also the civil representatives of the Hungarian community´s public life were deported to Ilava, at the command of Šrobár. The third phase of internments took place in the weeks of the war between Czechoslovakia and Hungary in the early summer of 1919, when about two and a half thousand people were deported to Theresienstadt, in most cases without justification. This study presents the causes, course, and debates that accompanied the second and third waves of internments.
The History of the Gymnastics Association in Pozsony: 1880–1945
The period of dualism is considered the heyday of embourgeoisement in Hungary. Through their lively community life, the citizens of Pozsony (Slovak: Bratislava) founded a number of associations in the last third of the 19th century, including several organizations that played a decisive role in the city´s life for many decades. One of these was the Gymnastics Association in Pozsony (PTE), founded in 1880, about which, despite its importance, a Hungarian-language historical elaboration has not yet been made. In this work, I endeavour to fill this gap, presenting the history of the club’s development and the difficulties associated with the changes of sovereignty that the club members were able to successfully overcome by 1945. To prepare the study, I used the 18 PTE yearbooks found in the Kerezsi legacy of the Hungarian Olympic and Sports Museum, dating from the period before the First World War, the source material of the Bratislava City Archives, which contains fragments of documents of the association preserved from the Czechoslovak era, supplemented with information already known from the period press and academic literature.
The Bund der Landwirte and the Deutsche Christlichsoziale Volkspartei in the Years 1918–1938. – Addition to the History of Political Activism in the First Czechoslovak Republic
During its short existence, Czechoslovakia in the interwar period was characterized by a range of standard political parties, including not only right-wing, centre, and left-wing parties, but also political platforms set up on a national basis. The Bund der Landwirte (BdL) was the strongest civic party defending the interests of the Germans in Czechoslovakia during the entire existence of the First Czechoslovak Republic. The BdL was a leading promoter of German activism. About two and a half years after the war, it became apparent that cooperation was better than pursuing opposition policies against the Czechoslovak government, at least in the economic field. Representatives of the Deutsche christlichsoziale Volkspartei (DCV) also held a dialogue with Czechoslovak politicians, but the party´s departure from the government resulted in its gradual radicalization. The establishment and dominance of the Sudetendeutsche Partei (SdP) in the 1935 elections meant the fall of both activist parties.
National Identity and Census
The census is about the confession of one´s national identity. This study examines those forms and components of national identity that can influence our decision and whether there are any that offer Hungarians a new opportunity in Slovakia today. The author states that in our age, those who seal themselves off or let others seal them off in one nation, no longer own the future. The competitive situations of globalization are favourable for those who keep the values of their own culture but take the best from all the others too, adopting it combined with their own culture. They are precisely the ones whose work and performance can be outstanding, not those who give up everything that made them who they are. National identity has both individual and community implications. And in our age, the negative consequences of assimilation are evidently becoming personal, not only communal.
The Economy of Southern Slovakia During the Husák Period
Keywords: Southern Slovakia, Dél-Szlovákia, industrial production, normalization, Hungarians in Slovakia
The study deals with a period of two decades in the history of Czechoslovakia, which is also the final period of socialism. This period is known in Czech and Slovak historical science as normalization, but in Hungarian-language literature it is more often referred to as the Husák period. The term normalization is a euphemistic term coined by party propaganda of the period to reintroduce the old order and to abolish basic ideas of economic reform of 1965–68. The reference of Husák period used in Hungarian literature comes from the name of Gustáv Husák (1913–1991), who was the first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1969, and the general secretary from 1971 to 1987, and also served as president of the country between 1975 and 1989, therefore, his name and person were fully intertwined with the period analyzed. Communist ideology was present in all areas of life, including economic management and organization, and also determined development until the last moment of the system’s existence. The ideology was fully able to influence all strata of society as well as all parts of the country. In this study, I outline the economic development of Southern Slovakia using the analysis of industrial output during the normalization period. The work is basically based on the analysis of district-level statistics. In the paper, I would also like to point out how economic development was assessed by Hungarians, who make up a significant part of the region’s population.
Soaring of Geese (the Geese)
Many details are still unclear in Hungarian historiography of photography about the date of origin and the awarding of Ernő Vadas’s (1899–1962) famous photo entitled Geese. This study attempts to offer some clarifications of these uncertainties. Reasons for the success of “Hungarian style” photographs are also reflected upon by the author, who also shares current views on them.
