Publisher: Fórum Kisebbségkutató Intézet

"Akaratunk ellenére..."

Dokumentumok a csehszlovákiai magyarság történetéből 1918-1992

Author(s): / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2020

In the year 2020, the Hungarian nation throughout the world commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Trianon. As a result of the diktat designed with reference to the right of nations to self-determination, but at the same time defying this principle, not only the borders of Hungary were changed, but—against their will—one third of the Hungarian nation was driven into minority position, including the Hungarian population of Upper Hungary. The Treaty of Trianon, signed on 4th June 1920, thus provided a decisive contribution to the birth of the Hungarian minority community in the former Czechoslovakia, the present Slovakia.To date, no comprehensive monograph or collection of documents on the history of the Hungarian nation´s segment falling under Czechoslovakia has been published. This prompted the Forum Minority Research Institute to gather and present to readers in one volume the most important sources on the history of the Hungarian minority community now living in southern Slovakia, from the founding of the Czechoslovak state in 1918 until its dissolution in 1992.The size constraints did not, of course, allow the publication of all the documents considered important, so documents consisting of only a few lines on the one hand and the too voluminous ones on the other hand were left out of the volume. The published documents were selected in such a way that they provide a comprehensive picture of the history of the Hungarian minority community and present the most important issues of its seventy-five years existence within the Czechoslovak state. Some of the omitted documents are presented in the form of illustrations.The vast majority of the documents included in the collection come from the archives of Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, and partly from the contemporary Hungarian press in Czechoslovakia. Some of them have already been published in various collections of documents, but there are some among them which have been unknown not only to a wider readership, but also to historians. Most of the documents come from the most dramatic and hectic periods in the history of the Hungarian minority, i.e. the years following the formation of the Czechoslovak state, the period of the first Vienna Award, the years of post-World War II disenfranchisement, the Prague Spring and the regime change.The volume consists of five chapters, adapted to the general historical eras of Czechoslovakia. The first chapter contains documents on the First Republic, the second on the Slovak autonomy and the Slovak State, the third on the years after the Second World War, the fourth on the decades of the communist dictatorship, and the fifth on the years between the regime change and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Each document is preceded by the place and time of its origin, followed by a brief introduction to interpret and place the document in historical context. The documents are followed by references indicating their current location. At the end of the collection, there is a selected bibliography containing the most important pieces of academic literature on the history of Hungarians in Czechoslovakia.

A (cseh)szlovákiai magyarság történeti kronológiája 1914–1945

Author(s): Gyula Popély / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2020

The Historical Chronology of Hungarians in (Czecho)Slovakia in the Period of 1914–1945 is a result of many years, or rather, many decades of research work by the author, Gyula Popély. It also fits well into the portfolio of the Forum Minority Research Institute, as it complements and forms a unified whole with the chronology by Árpád Popély, published by the institute in 2006, which processed the history of Hungarians in Czechoslovakia between 1944 and 1992. The present volume brings closer to the reader the first two periods of the history of Hungarians in Slovakia in the form of factual descriptions in chronological order: the history of the years between 1914 and 1938, and between 1938 and 1945. The volume has been divided by the author into five structural parts. The descriptions of the first thematic and temporal unit show the path of Hungarians leading to the position of a national minority, starting from the outbreak of the First World War to the signing of the Treaty of Trianon. This section deals with, among others, the formation and establishment of the Czechoslovak statehood, the peace conference, the period of the Soviet Republic of Hungary, and the conclusion of the Trianon peace. The second chapter of the volume is entitled The Hungarian Multiparty System in Czechoslovakia (1920–1936). Measured in time, this is the book’s most voluminous and least dramatic part. It shows how the Hungarians fit into the Czechoslovak state and how they fought their political struggle with the Czechoslovak state power. The third structural part is entitled Under the Flag of the United Provincial Christian Socialist Party and Hungarian National Party (1936–1938) and covers the events of the period from the formation of the United Hungarian Party to the first Vienna Award, assigned to specific dates. It is a chronicle of a serious time of crisis, at the end of which the majority of Hungarians in Slovakia became citizens of Hungary again as a result of the first Vienna Award. The fourth chapter only covers the events of just over 6 months, in essence, the period of Slovak autonomy. This and the next chapter—which is a coverage of the period from March 1939 to the spring of 1945—present in parallel the life of Hungarians left in Slovakia and those who, as a result of the First Vienna Award, became nationals of Hungary. It is a chronicle of a tragic era when events such as the devastation by World War II and the tragedy of the Holocaust frame the story.The volume is closed with a personal name and place name index.

A szlovákiai magyarok politikai identitása 1989–1990-ben

Author(s): Zsuzsanna Lampl / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2020

The monograph deals with the subject-matter of the political identity of the Hungarian political elite and Hungarian voters in Slovakia in the period from 17 November 1989 to the end of 1990.In the author´s view, political identity is a four-dimensional phenomenon. It consists of a dimension of values, opinions, actions and self-affirmation.In the first chapter, the author analyzes the conditions and background of the emergence of the first post-November Hungarian political elite, i.e. the Hungarian Independent Initiative (MNI), the Együttélés Political Movement and the Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement (MKDH). She deals with their values and ideological profile, views presented in the form of political programs, statements and press appearances, their typology and fault lines.The second chapter describes the ideas of the people of Czechoslovakia, the ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia and the November political elite (Civic Forum (OF), Public Against Violence (VPN) and the Hungarian Independent Initiative) in November 1989 about the future, to what extent their visions corresponded, how the views of the political elite gradually changed and how these departed from the ideas of the majority of citizens.The third chapter discusses in what political actions were the values and views of the political elite manifested, in what fundamental political-economic changes they were translated into and what were the societal impacts of these changes.The central theme of the fourth chapter is the transformation of living conditions and value orientations of the population—especially of citizens living in the Slovakian part of the country—, which part was affected by the consequences of the political elite´s above-mentioned political and economic decisions and their implementation. At the same time, in this chapter we get a picture of how people—both Slovaks and Hungarians—lived through these changes and what they thought about them.The fifth chapter deals with the increasingly pressing national minority issue, which manifested itself in the form of Czech-Slovak and Slovak-Hungarian tensions. The analysis concerns both forms of nationality issues, both from the perspective of the political elite and of the Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian public.In the sixth chapter, the author seeks an answer to the question, what mirror did the citizens hold up to the political elite in the first free parliamentary and municipal elections. Given the election results, how did the political identity of the voters and that of the political elite converge in them?The final, seventh chapter outlines the typology of the political elite´s political identity and that of the voters belonging to the Hungarian national minority from the end of 1989 to the end of 1990.

Cena víťazstva. Odvlečenie obyvateľov z územia Československa, Maďarska a Poľska do Sovietskeho zväzu v rokoch 1944-1945

Author(s): / Language(s): Slovak / Publication Year: 2017

This publication, the subject of which is the Gulag phenomenon and the mass abduction of citizens from Central Europe to Soviet labour camps, mostly consists of written versions of conference papers. The conference entitled „The Price of Victory“. Abduction of Citizens from Slovakia and Neighbouring Countries to the USSR in 1944–1945 was held in Košice on 24 November 2016, and its organizers—the Forum Minority Research Institute and the History Department of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice—invited experts on the theme from four countries (Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Ukraine).

Csak álltunk és sírtunk. Az első bécsi döntés napjai a kortársak szemével

Author(s): / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2018

This book describes the daily life in southern Slovakia in the period of the decision made on the First Vienna Award and of its enforcement as reflected in contemporary texts (diaries, memoirs) and photographs. The volume contains 19 texts and is illustrated by about 180 photos reporting on the processes taking place in southern Slovakia in the autumn of 1938. These mainly reveal pre-war tention in the first days of the Munich Agreement, the expectations surrounding the Hungarian–Slovak border talks, and the delight of the Hungarian population living here over return to Hungary.

Dokumentumok az Országos Magyar Kisgazda Földmíves és Kisiparos Párt és a Magyar Nemzeti Párt történetéhez 1920-1936

Author(s): Béla Angyal / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2017

For exploring the history of Hungarian parties in Czechoslovakia between the two world wars, it is indispensable to get acquainted with the original sources and documents. After the Second World War, following the measures affecting the Hungarian minority, the archives of these parties were lost or scattered, therefore the search of documents relating to them has been a difficult task for historians. Information on the history of these parties can only be traced out of various domestic and foreign archives and of different types of funds, and by gathering news and reports after reading dozens of contemporary newspapers.In this collection of documents I have included 53 documents on the second strongest party among the Hungarian civic parties in Czechoslovakia between the two world wars: the Provincial Hungarian Smallholder Agrarians’ and Craftsmen’s Party (Hungarian: Országos Magyar Kisgazda Földmíves és Kisiparos Párt), as well as on its successor, the Hungarian National Party (Hungarian: Magyar Nemzeti Párt) established in 1925. This volume is closely linked to my collection of sources published in 2004, entitled Documents on the History of the Provincial Christian Socialist Party 1919–1936 (Hungarian: Dokumentumok az Országos Keresztényszocialista Párt történetéhez 1919–1936), and the book called Interest Protection and Self-organization. Chapters on the History of the Hungarian Political Parties in Czechoslovakia 1918–1938 (Hungarian: Érdekvédelem és önszerveződés. Fejezetek a csehszlovákiai magyar pártpolitika történetéből 1918–1938). The former collection of documents contains sources on the other significant political platform of the period, the Provincial Christian Socialist Party. The present book follows the proven editorial principles of the latter.In the introductory study I briefly summarize the history of the party, present its program and its role in the Hungarian minority politics. I deal more specifically with the party’s election results and the party-related press.While selecting the documents, I sought to publish those introducing the events taking place within the party and the processes going on in domestic politics. The smallholders’ party had not only changed its name over its 16 years of independent operation, but had politicized along various programs and strategies until the summer of 1936 when it merged with the Provincial Christian Socialist Party. In the introductory study, as well as in the comments and notes attached to the documents, I refer to each turning point separately.The documents are presented in a chronological order, marked with Arabic numerals. The serial number is followed by a short regest, which indicates the date and place of origin of the document. In the rest of the regest, the reader is provided with information about the contents of the document without evaluation or classification. I sought to communicate the full text of the sources. Where it was not possible because of the extent of the document or for reasons of substance, I applied partial publication, while indicating the omissions with a square bracket [...]. In case of articles taken over from the press, the text is preceded by the article´s original title. The text of the document is in all cases followed by a mark indicating the location of the document. Then I give the type of the document (clarification, phrasing, copy) and the method of its production (handwritten text, typed, printed text). In case of articles taken over from the press, I refer to the title of the paper, page number, and the author’s name. Each document is followed by a commentary. In some sentences I introduce the document’s author(s), its production and other related documents, as well as the relevant literature.The understanding of the collection’s documents is supported by a wide range of notes and by names register. In addition, the volume is complemented by a rich photographic material aiming to give a well-rounded picture of the era.

Európai identitás

Author(s): László Öllös / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2019

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.

Fórum Társadalomtudományi Szemle

Frequency: 4 issues / Country: Slovakia

Gömör szíve

The Heart of Gemer

Author(s): Annabella Gecse / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2021

This work is a publication of the results of a research that was undertaken with the support of the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in the period between 2011 and 2014. During my research, I examined the 20th century folk religiosity of nine Hungarian villages in southern Slovakia: Abafalva (Abovce), Baraca (Barca), Cakó (Cakov), Füge (Figa), Méhi (Včelince), Rimaszécs (Rimavská Seč), Sajószentkirály (Kráľ), Uzapanyit (Uzovská Panica), and Velkenye (Vlkyňa). The area is one of the Catholic regions of the ethnically, linguistically and religiously mixed Gemer, mostly in a Protestant environment.In the introductory chapter of my work, I interpret the concept of folk religiosity and religious ethnography with an overview of academic literature, and then—also with previous research results—I outline the important features of the research area. I divided the folk religiosity of the nine villages into two large units by village. I presented a picture of the folk religiosity of the first half of the 20th century on the basis of records deposited with the Episcopal Archives in Rožňava. As far as possible, I analyzed the data, which developed mostly from Hungarian, and to a lesser extent Slovak, documents on the basis of the same aspects, I tried to capture the relationship and dialogue of the “official” church, the perception of religious practitioners and parishioners and cantors of each other. Specific data for this interpretation were provided by the conflict situations: the two world wars, the expulsions and resettlements, the population exchange, and finally the constraint of the churches after the Second World War. The researchability of ecclesiastical archival sources ends in the early 1950s, so I have expanded the interpretation of the concept of “religiosity of today” from this period to the present day. I obtained data on the folk religiosity of the other time unit by village through field research, ethnographic collecting and participant observation. In the process, I was able to capture the image of the examined villages about each other, and also the characteristics that serve as the basis of the opinions. By analyzing these, the interpretation of the data obtained by the two methods ends. Subsequently, I compiled the archival sources in a separate chapter entitled Data Archive, particularly due to the relatively difficult access to the Episcopal Archives in Rožňava. Here, too, I arranged the documents by village, sometimes only describing their content, but most of the time I published the texts literally, in their entirety, from the analysis of which chapters dealing with the first half of the 20th century were composed. During the field research, I prepared a survey of small sacral relics in all villages. The photographic, measured drawing and text presentation of these forms the next chapter of my work, I have edited the descriptions, drawings and photographs of slightly more than fifty roadside crosses and sculptures into a data repository based on uniform aspects. Finally, for two full years, 2011 and 2012, I compiled the annual order of the spiritual folk songs performed at the Sunday and festive masses in Baraca. In the second year, I also filmed about 50 hours of mass. These recordings are available in the book using QR codes.In the course of my work, the strongest characteristics of the folk religiosity of the examined villages had unfolded. Archival sources provided data on what is the basis of the image of a village in the others. As much as I got a colourful picture of the first half of the 20th century, it is so much common the most defining feature of the religiosity of today. In all villages it could be proved that the official ecclesiastical persons have a much smaller influence on the practice of religion than the so-called laymen, who in all cases are local members of the community (unlike parishioners), native Hungarian speakers (often unlike parishioners) and key persons in religious life. These key people are often amateur cantors, ecclesiastical omnivores in one person, who still keep up the repertoire of folk songs, eulogies, the order of ceremonies, and forms of religious conduct of the 1940s.

Gyűlölködés helyett összefogás. Adalékok a két világháború közti csehszlovákiai magyar értelmiségi és diákmozgalmak történetéhez

Author(s): Imre Molnár / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2016

The interviews in this volume have been produced by the oral history method based on individual life story telling. The primary objective of making them was to gain detailed impression on this forgotten form of the Hungarian minority´s social life in Czechoslovakia between the two world wars, as it had been experienced by the interviewees. They had not only recalled the past events so important from their point of view, but they also “commented” and supplemented them. During the interviews they spoke with strong feeling, reliving their stories with intense emotions, thus helping us gain a more direct, privileged insight into the micro-historical processes of the interwar period, and enabling us to recreate our concept about this historical moment, and assess its significance.Obviously, this does not mean that we could reasonably expect the recallers to objectively remember the past events in precise details. For this reason, besides readers interested in the topic, we recommend this book as a kind of source publication especially to historians dealing with the era. We believe that the period between the two world wars, and within that the history of the Hungarian youth movements, have many unexplored spots rich in values which certainly deserve further historical research. This book is about an almost forgotten part of history of the Hungarians in (Czecho)Slovakia and this, as such, could provide many good examples for the current generation of young people having taken responsibility for their national identity. The main actors of this volume have already become historical figures whose entirely different stories have one important thing in common: they all have devoted their lives to the service of the part of the Hungarian nation disintegrated from Hungary and annexed to (Czecho)Slovakia. And, they have largely remained steadfast in their youthful determination. As a legacy for posterity, they have left an excellent example of humanity, patriotism, and love for one´s nation. Will there be current followers of the past legendary generations?

Kis lépések nagy politikusa

Szent-Ivány József, a politikus és művelődésszervező

Author(s): Attila Simon,László Tóth / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2016

József Szent-Ivány (1884–1941) was one of the most important personalities of politics, public life and cultural learning of Hungarians in Czechoslovakia of the interwar period. After his death in 1941, however, he was forgotten by historiography, and his name also disappeared from public consciousness. As a consequence, we do not really know the due weight and significance of József Szent-Ivány´s person and example in such detail and context as he would deserve it. This book endeavours to explore József Szent-Ivány´s career according to the present state of research, and it undertakes to add many, yet unknown or little known data, facts, and new dimensions about him, and also about the epoch.

Komárom emlékjelei az államfordulatok és rendszerváltások tükrében

Author(s): Ilona, L. Juhász / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2018

This book introduces memorials erected from the beginning to the present in the Slovakian part of Komárom (Komárno), situated on the left side of the Danube river. As the town changed hands several times during the 20th century, various political turns and ideological changes also affected memorials, in the sense that, upon the turns, new monuments were put up, the ones erected in the previous era were removed, and those removed were re-established again. The currently existing memorials are located in different places, some in a public space, some in a closed place (yard, garden, various buildings, etc.). In addition to the objects we can find in the town today, the book enumerates those that no longer exist or those having been planned but never completed. The memorials related to Judaism are discussed in a separate chapter. The volume includes a repository of memorials, as well as a rich appendix of newspaper articles related to some of the objects, occasionally showing the process of their establishment from idea to realization, and, many times, their removal and restoration. The appendix also contains ceremonial speeches given during inaugurations of the memorials and later commemorations of events they are linked to. These speeches reflect political turns and ideological changes the most. Many important events and constitutional changes related to the town can be traced through the history of memorials inaugurated in Komárom. Through their story, it is possible to recall the history of the town, as well as the decisive events concerning the fate of the Hungarians in Slovakia. The second volume of the book is currently under preparation, it will contain a repository of the memorials in the Hungarian (southern) part of Komárom, situated on the right bank of the Danube. The theoretical section will concern both volumes, and it will also include an analysis of the rites, celebrations, speeches, occasional poems, etc. related to each object.

Ma este indulunk a frontra…

Felvidékiek naplói és memoárjai a második világháborúból

Author(s): Zoltán Kőrös / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2019

In his work, the author worked up the theme of the Second World War and the military captivity of people from southern Slovakia, which was annexed to the Kingdom of Hungary in November 1938. The source basis of the work is a selection of the most interesting war diaries and later written memoirs, which the author managed to collect during the past seven years of field research, some stories are supplemented by information from oral history interviews. It contains the experience of the generation of inhabitants of southern Slovakia who were most affected by the war—soldiers deployed on its battlefields. The war memoirs and diaries contained in the publication are a unique reflexion on the events at the time and offer an insight into the thoughts and emotions of their authors. The publication opens with a short introduction followed by the main part of the book, the memoirs and diaries themselves, which the author complemented with annotations. Specifically, these are the stories of six members of the Hungarian Armed Forces and one civilian. Two of them (Nándor Juszkó, József Kemény) were soldiers deployed on the Eastern Front, but most of them were forced to withdraw during the last months of the war to the territory of the Third Reich. Of course, their stories did not end on May 8, 1945, most of them fell into military captivity: the Soviet one (Nándor J uszkó), but most of all, into the captivity of the Western Allies. For each story, there is added a short biography of the originator of the diary or memoir. The publication also includes photos and samples of original war diaries or memoirs.

Nyelvalakítás és nyelvi problémák

Author(s): István Lanstyák / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2018

The book contains a Foreword and 12 chapters based on studies published between 2009 and 2016. Their common denominator is the question of language problems from various aspects, the most important being the linguistic, the language ideological, the interventional and the general problem-managing aspect.The chapters are organized into four main topics. The first has the title Language Management and is an introduction into the world of language problems. It provides theoretical foundations for the question of language problems and language ideologies utilizing the Theory of Language Management. The second topic is entitled Types of Language Problems and is devoted to the language problems themselves. The main aim of their categorization is to enable the separation of the specific features of individual language problems from the features common to a whole group of language problems. This should enable both to get to know these problems better and to find the best ways of managing them. The third topic has the title The Ways of Managing Language Problems. It analyses the ways of dealing with various types of language problems including problems of proper names and problems concerning language standardization. The fourth topic is entitled Language Problems of the Hungarian Speech Community in Slovakia. It gives an overview of the most important language problems daily faced by the Hungarian minority community in Slovakia.

Nyelvhasználat kétnyelvű környezetben

Tanulmányok a magyar–szlovák nyelvi kapcsolódások köréből

Author(s): Katalin Misad / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2019

The book on linguistics contains sixteen studies. The writings presenting the results of predominantly empirical research can be related to four research topics. The first theme is language policy, the content of which provides lessons not only for linguists, but also for those dealing with legal regulations of multilingual societies in general, including the majority–minority linguistic coexistence in Slovakia, and the contexts of taking advantage of the existing language rights. A further part of the studies deals with linguistic topics that attest to the specific reflection of linguistic relations in the linguistic system and induce a theoretical study of linguistics. The next research topic closely related to the previous one, is the presentation of the spelling level of Hungarian writing practice in Slovakia from different aspects. The fourth series of studies of the volume deals with the general problems of Hungarian-language education in Slovakia and with the specific problems of teaching Hungarian as a mother tongue in a minority status.

Nyugati fogságban. Felvidékiek amerikai, brit és francia fogságban

Author(s): Zoltán Kőrös / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2016

The second book of Zoltán Kőrös is actually a continuation of his previous volume Muszkaföldön on prisoners of war in Russia. This time he presents interviews with soldiers and leventes (members of paramilitary youth organizations) from Upper Hungary forced during the last winter of World War II to the Third Reich where they were captured by the Western powers. Although not to such extent as war captives of the Soviets (not speaking about the dreadful fate of the Soviet soldiers in German captivity), the recallers were exposed to hunger, adverse weather conditions, diseases, and death also in the American, British, and especially in the French detention camps. In his large-volume introduction based on recalls, the author vivifies this world slowly passing into oblivion, and the roads leading to captivity. Both the captives and the captors are also touched on in the book, as well as the often burdensome, hindered return of the Hungarian captives to their homeland, to the towns and villages of the present South Slovakia. The main part of this publication is constituted of eight individual stories considered by the author as the most special, which describe to us the more or less forced journey of the captives to the Third Reich, until their return home.

Szlovákia lakosságának községsoros nemzetiségi összetétele az 1970. évi és az 1980. évi népszámlálás adatai alapján

Author(s): László Gyurgyík / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2017

The significance of the publication entitled Szlovákia lakosságának községsoros nemzetiségi összetétele az 1970. és az 1980. évi népszámlálás adatai alapján [Municipality-based Ethnic Composition of Slovakia´s Population According to the 1970 and 1980 Census Data] lies in the fact that the municipality-based data of the two censuses relating to the ethnicity of the population have not been published up to date. The interpretation of data is supported by an introductory study presenting a detailed analysis of the main features of the municipality-based ethnicity numbers from the 1970 and 1980 censuses. The appendix contains various indicators that help the reader compare census data while taking into account changes in settlement patterns in the years 1970, 1980 and 2011.