Hungarian Crisis Research Articles

Doris Lessing's Personal Pilgrimage From Communism To Sufism

This paper chronicles Lessing's journey from her early involvement in the London Communist Party to her disillusionment with Marxist theory after the Hungarian crisis of 1956. It discusses her major works, such as "The Grass Is Singing" and "The Golden Notebook," which challenged traditional narrative structures and investigated the complexities of identity and consciousness. With vivid imagery and symbolism, the abstract highlights Lessing's ability to depict diverse domains, including colonial Africa, social disintegration, and mental breakdown. The contributions of Lessing to literature are recognised, and her unique perspective as a Marxist feminist author is emphasised. The abstract also discusses her 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature and her reactions to it, illuminating her independent and unyielding nature. Lessing's writing voyage paralleled her personal development throughout her life, from political activism to a profound exploration of inner and outer space, which ultimately led her to Sufism.

Waging the Cold War: the origins and launch of Western cooperation to absorb migrants from Eastern Europe, 1948–57

ABSTRACT This article reconstructs the gradual process leading the Western powers to cooperate to absorb migrants from Eastern Europe, from the February 1948 Czechoslovak coup d’état to the 1956–57 Hungarian crisis. This study reveals that cooperation to manage migration became a major component of Western Cold War strategy. Centred on the German predicament, it was first a way to contain the Soviet Union by reducing the pressures affecting Western countries bordering Eastern Europe. It also became an offensive strategy aiming at encouraging outflows from Eastern Europe to weaken Communist governments. Only cooperation at a Western level could achieve those objectives.

Greece and the 1956 Hungarian Crisis: Perceptions, Analysis and Politics

Greece’s exposed strategic position in the Balkans and its strained relations with its Western allies due to the Cyprus dispute make this country an interesting case study of small states position in the Cold War. This article discusses the motives and perceptions that shaped the country’s stance vis-à-vis the Soviet Union in view of the Hungarian crisis and examines how it dealt with the dangers and opportunities that emerged. Motivated by pragmatism and a will to adopt a more ‘independent’ stance in foreign affairs, the Greek policymakers tried to reshape relations with the Soviets, but the historical experience and the perceived Soviet internal and external threat had already set the limits. Additionally, they attempted to take advantage of the twin crises in order to promote the Greek cause in Cyprus, but the country was subject to ‘multiple dependencies’ and faced dilemmas that stemmed from the conflict between national and Atlantic priorities. Cold War considerations were also important. The country’s inability to understand and respond to international pressures was partially counterbalanced by its participation in the Western Alliance. However, the most lasting consequence of the crisis for Greece was on the regional level. The Greek-Yugoslav rapprochement aimed at redressing the unfavourable strategic balance in the Balkans and ameliorate Greece’s perennial security problem.

Religion, European Elections and EU politics

L’objectif de cet article est de mieux saisir la résurgence de la religion dans l’agenda politique d’une Europe laïque. L’accent est placé ici sur l’Union européenne (UE). Le facteur religieux est envisagé tour à tour comme un facteur d’influence sur les attitudes et les comportements politiques, comme une composante idéologique et partisane, et en tant qu’enjeu politique controversé. Nous analysons ainsi les effets du facteur religieux lors des précédentes élections européennes en tant qu’élément cadrant la perception de l’intégration européenne ainsi que le vote. Nous documentons ensuite la crise qui affecte la famille démocrate-chrétienne incarnée par le Parti populaire européen (PPE) et les récits concurrents sur la religion visant à revendiquer le leadership dans la redéfinition de l’idéologie centrale et des démarcations de cette famille politique. Deux études de cas sont développées : la « crise hongroise » et la politique identitaire promue par Viktor Orban ; et le processus Spitzenkandidaten destiné à sélectionner le candidat du PPE briguant la présidence de la Commission européenne. Enfin, nous étudions le traitement de la religion comme une question politique au sein du Parlement européen (PE), et l’envisagerons aussi en tant qu’éventuelle pomme de discorde pour la législature 2019-2024.

Religion, European Elections and EU Politics. A Resilient Second-Order Factor for a Second-Order Polity?

The purpose of this article is to make sense of the resurgence of religion on the political agenda of a secularizing Europe. The focus is placed on the European Union (EU). The religious factor is considered alternatively as an influence on political attitudes and behaviours; as an ideological and party component; and as a controversial policy stake. We analyse the effects of the religious factor in past European elections as an element framing the perception of European integration and voting. We then document the crisis affecting the Christian-Democratic family incarnated by the European People’s Party (EPP) and competing narratives about religion to claim leadership in the redefinition of the core ideology and the boundaries of this political family. Two cases studies are developed: The ‘Hungarian crisis’ and identity politics promoted by Viktor Orban: the Spitzenkandidaten process to select the EPP candidate running for the presidency of the Commission. We finally study the treatment of religion as a policy issue within the EP and as a potential bone of contention in the incoming term.

Exploring Christian Song ed. by M. Jennifer Bloxam and Andrew Shenton

Reviewed by: Exploring Christian Song ed. by M. Jennifer Bloxam and Andrew Shenton Daniel Jay Grimminger Exploring Christian Song. Edited by M. Jennifer Bloxam and Andrew Shenton. New York: Lexington Books, 2017. [xix, 238 p. ISBN 9781498549905 (hardcover), $100; ISBN 9781498549912 (e-book), $95.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index. In the 1990s, a group of scholars who believed that the study of music and theology was being excluded from meetings of the American Musicological Society gathered to create a forum to support dialogue on the topic. They were scholars with a personal commitment to Christian faith, something that is disregarded in the scholarly world, yet this detail is a significant part of these scholars' work and identity. In March 2002, a steering committee met in Philadelphia to plan a conference for the next year. The Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship was born. The name would later change to Society for Christian Scholarship in Music. A number of prestigious scholars have been among its ranks ever since. Exploring Christian Song is a Festschrift in honor of this organization. It brings together keynote addresses from the organization's first fifteen years of meetings. But the real value of this collection of essays lies in the fresh, alternative approaches employed by the ten authors. To look yet again at the controversial subject of the role theology played in Johann Sebastian Bach's compositional conventions might seem to be reinventing the wheel. The work of Alfred Dürr and Georg von Dadelsen are well known to the musicological community as is the theological work of Jaroslav Pelikan. But Stephen A. Crist embraces a via media resulting from his analysis of cantata arias. Crist sees Bach's compositional conventions more as a result of his "encyclopedic approach to the conventions of aria form" than of the "theological content of the texts" (p. 91). Markus Rathey views oratorios of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann as part of a larger paradigm shift that pulled on "images of devastating events" (e.g., earthquakes), which "were invoked to teach proper moral values and patriotic behavior" (p. 123). Scholarly literature on medieval and Renaissance music is voluminous. Source critical, notational, and repertory studies abound. M. Jennifer Bloxam puts this early music in the context of lived experience. By focusing on Jacob [End Page 137] Obrecht, she sees early sacred music as a direct result of the daily encounter with the cantus of Mass, daily office, and processions. Obrecht and other cleric-composers "would not have needed to open a book to recall their texts or tunes" (p. 35). As a result, cleric-composers were exegetes and "musical celebrant[s]" (p. 45). Similarly, the familiarity of sixteenth-century people with the Divine Office had an influence on motet printing, namely that of Ottaviano Petrucci, whose "early motet prints encouraged sixteenth-century readers to approach the prints with a devotional inflection that mirrored the reading of contemporaneous horae … these books (horae and motet prints) 'rubbed shoulders' with each other … readers approached and engaged with Petrucci's prints with an attitude of reverence granted to the 'Middle Ages Best Seller'" (p. 53). Melody March-man Schade studies this relationship from the standpoint of spirituality, grasping the devotional function of the motet that has been overlooked by more traditional musicological analysis. Study of Calvinism's radical stance on music in the liturgy and its psalm tradition usually centers on the sixteenth century. Timothy H. Steele uses Zoltán Kodály's Geneva Psalm 50 as a window into twentieth-century Calvinism. Part of this choral work's context is the church-state crisis of 1940 in Hungary. Conversely, it is a gloss on this Hungarian crisis through the lens of reformed theology. "Kodály's Geneva Psalm 50 was an appeal not only to Calvinists but also to the nation as a whole … [in the psalm] God brings a charge against his own, the church, but the warning is universal" (p. 144). Andrew Shenton writes about Arvo Pärt's Magnificat, combining a semiotic approach à la Umberto Eco with key Eastern Orthodox theologies, which are operative in Pärt's personal faith (i.e., kenosis, catharsis, hesychasm, theosis, theoria, and...

Венгерский кризис 1956 года и начало формирования румынской национальной модели коммунизма

Венгерский кризис 1956 года и начало формирования румынской национальной модели коммунизма

The 1956 United Nations Film Out: A Filmic Discourse of Displacement and Global Ethics

ABSTRACTThis article offers critical historical reflection on the filmic public information relations narratives used in the 1956 United Nations film Out, which advocated peace and international cooperation to care for refugees.I discuss the different filmic genres used to convey the UNHCR's desired transnational public information narrative in relation to the Hungarian refugee crisis in 1956.The article also addresses how the “problem” of refugees was visualized and solutions prescribed, in the hope that this analysis may be useful in guiding current communication projects relating to refugee matters.

Promjena sistema u Austriji i Mađarskoj 1918. – 1919. Usporedba političkih aspekata austrijske i mađarske krize uprave

Promjena sistema u Austriji i Mađarskoj 1918. – 1919. Usporedba političkih aspekata austrijske i mađarske krize uprave

The Hungarian Model: Hungarian Crisis Management in View of the Mediterranean Way

This paper examines the crisis management measures used by Mediterranean euro area countries and Hungary. Such a comparison is justified, because in certain periods of the crisis these countries faced similar challenges necessitating rapid economic policy intervention as previous practices proved to be unsustainable. However, the tools used – and thus also the results – were different. After 2010, Hungary sought to achieve economic balance by improving employment and growth, mainly driven by a tax reform and structural reforms of the budget and, from 2013, after the turnaround in monetary policy, also supported by targeted measures of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (the Central Bank of Hungary). Overall, the harmonisation between the two main branches of economic policy gave rise to an innovative, growth-friendly economic policy, which since 2013 has created a balance between macro-financial equilibrium and growth not seen for a long time. By contrast, the Mediterranean countries using the euro basically opted for traditional crisis management: they sacrificed growth for balance, yet even the latter was achieved much later than in Hungary. In their case, recovery was also hampered by monetary policy constraints due to euro area membership. The targeted Hungarian steps may provide a good example to other countries facing similar challenges.

The Influence of the Media on Policies in Practice: Hungarian Refugee Resettlement in the Netherlands in 1956

This article analyses newspaper coverage, government policies and policy practices during the 1956 Hungarian refugee crisis. There were surprisingly few differences between newspapers in the coverage of this refugee migration, and few changes over time. The role of the press was largely supportive of government policies, although the press did criticise the selection of refugees. According to official government guidelines, officials should not have selected, but in practice this is what they attempted to do. The refugees who arrived in the Netherlands did not live up to the image the press, in its supportive role, had created: there were too few freedom fighters, women and children. This article shows that the press had an influence because policy makers did make adjustments. However, in practice selection was not what the media assumed it was, and the corrections were not what the media had aimed for.

1956: Mao's China and the Hungarian Crisis by Zhu Dandan

1956: Mao's China and the Hungarian Crisis by Zhu Dandan

Sovereign CDS Instruments in Central Europe – Linkages and Interdependence

In the article, linkages among sovereign CDS instruments in Central Europe are investigated. Special attention is paid to the change of causality patterns during the Hungarian and Greek crises. The results of the research reveal that the expectations do play a role in determining the prices of the contracts, as well as that there exist regional causality relationships between the instruments. The strength of causality between the volatilities of Polish – Hungarian and Czech - Hungarian CDS prices weakened during the Hungarian crisis, while the volatilities of the three time series reacted rapidly and strongly to the Greek one. This suggest that the European events should play more important role in determining the dynamics of the contracts than the problems of the country of the weakest fundamentals in the region.

Between Scylla and Charybdis: Austria's First Test Case of Neutrality during the Hungarian Crisis, 1956–57

Although the Hungarian revolution of 1956 ultimately shaped Austria's new identity as a uniquely neutral – yet not ‘spineless’ – country that could now help other countries in need, it also unravelled the earlier Austrian rapprochement with Hungary and the USSR that had facilitated the signing of the Austrian State Treaty on 15 May 1955. The uprising and subsequent Soviet crackdown revived Austrians' fears and memories of their own occupation by the Soviet Union and three Western Allies, stymied diplomats in Budapest, and gave communist authorities an excuse to accuse Austria of violating its oath of neutrality, stressing the issues of espionage and anti-communist propaganda. The crisis arguably gave the Khrushchev leadership second thoughts about the wisdom of withdrawing Soviet troops from eastern Austria. To pass its first test of neutrality, the Austrian government conducted its foreign policy discreetly, striving neither to coddle nor to offend the communist world and the ‘free world’.

“Ask for Bread, not Peace”

In contrast to restless students in Bucharest, Cluj, Iasi, Timiş oara, and other cities, who tried to organize rallies calling for government reforms in the fall of 1956 but failed, Romanian workers and peasants expressed their feelings about the revolution in nearby Hungary by going on feverish shopping sprees; stockpiling food staples; writing anonymous leaflets and graffiti; spreading rumors; and engaging in arson, vandalism, and physical brawls. The Hungarian crisis aroused in some citizens fears of a World War III, for others a war over Transylvania, and for still others a Hungarian-style revolt in Romania. A survey of published Securitate reports written between 26 October and 23 November 1956 shows that the three most frequent oral comments recorded were those complaining about the economy, those predicting that “what happened in Hungary will happen in Romania,” and those asking “why was the Soviet intervention necessary?” The economic complaints outnumbered the other two types of comments. Political messages, oral and written, spanned the spectrum, from fascist, Iron Guard songs, monarchist comments, to procapitalist slogans. Although most irredentist comments, oral and written, originated from cities in Transylvania, more than half of the incidents of physical aggression, including arson and other acts of sabotage, occurred in non-Transylvanian regions. Although the Securitate sometimes exploited ethnic tensions to gain recruits, Romanian citizens expressed more rage toward the communist dictatorship than against ethnic Hungarians.

Austria's Report Card on Neutrality during the Hungarian Crisis of 1956

The Hungarian revolution of 1956 tested the Austrians' ability to exercise neutrality for the first time, while simultaneously rendering humanitarian aid to Hungarian refugees. Needing to justify the invasion of a Warsaw Pact ally, communist authorities exploited issues like border incidents, espionage, repatriation of refugees, and favouritism toward organisations to “prove” Austria's breech of neutrality. The Raab government — which signed the State Treaty only one year earlier — prudently weighed every move, passing the test admirably.

Forewarned is Forearmed: How the Hungarian Crisis of 1956 Helped the Romanian Leadership

This article examines how the Hungarian crisis and Soviet interventions strengthened the position of the Romanian communist leadership. First, it eroded the respect of several Bucharest officials for the Soviet army, reinforcing their desire to see Soviet troops leave Romania. Second, the crisis brought back memories of earlier historical events that seemed to provide ‘proof’ of Hungarian bellicosity, which the Romanian leadership used to discriminate against ethnic Hungarians in Romania. Third, the crisis aroused fears of Transylvanian irredentism, which Bucharest used to control the population. Fourth, by incarcerating Imre Nagy, Bucharest leaders could witness his suffering, which motivated them to avoid his fate.

Hungary, 101: Seven ways to avoid a revolution and Soviet invasion of Romania

Drawing on Romanian archival documents, memoirs and recent scholarship, this article argues that the Hungarian crisis functioned as a godsend for the Romanian leaders by justifying a closing of the ranks, as a course on how to prevent a revolution and Soviet invasion, and as a stimulus for coaxing Soviet troops out of Romania. The Dej regime extracted seven lessons from the crisis, namely: avoid isolation from the masses, do not rehabilitate political prisoners, maintain tight control over the press, take military precautions, be tactful to avoid needless alienation of the people, and eschew being perceived as a Soviet puppet.

New Evidence for China's Role in the Hungarian Crisis of October 1956: A Note

(2009). New Evidence for China's Role in the Hungarian Crisis of October 1956: A Note. The International History Review: Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 558-575.

Transnational Christian Charity: The Canadian Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, and the Hungarian Refugee Crisis, 1956–1957

Canada's response to 1956-1957 Hungarian refugee crisis has generally been treated by scholars as a highpoint in Canadian immigration history. In late October 1956, pro-democracy, anti-Soviet demonstrations directed at Soviet-backed government of Erno Gero broke out in Budapest. Fearing that its control of Warsaw Pact was unraveling, Kremlin ordered Red Army to put down revolution. On 4 November, events turned violent. Soviet forces clashed with protestors, prompting hundreds of thousands of Hungarians to flee across border into Austria and Yugoslavia. (2) For its part, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was unprepared to intervene militarily for fear of provoking a conflict with USSR. (3) NATO members were, however, able to relieve pressure placed on Austria. In days and weeks after invasion, Canadian immigration officials reinforced number of immigration officers at Canadian Embassy in Vienna, loosened normal requirements concerning proper travel documentation, medical exams, and security clearances, and enlisted commercial airplanes to transport refugees out of Austria. These initiatives produced impressive results: by end of 1957 more than 37,000 Hungarians had been accepted into Canada. But government actors were not solely responsible for this shift in policy; indeed, response was truly a national one and would not have been possible without support and assistance of a whole host of voluntary organizations from a wide range of sectors of Canadian society, all of which contributed greatly to resettlement (4) Most scholars of immigration, such as Gerald Dirks and Robert Key-serlingk, underline importance of reception of Hungarian refugees as having a liberalizing impact in immigration policy arena in Canada, serving as a useful precedent for other refugee migrations during times of crisis. (5) The Hungarian situation also had an immediate impact on operation of Canada's refugee program, as Freda Hawkins notes: ''Briefly, during Hungarian crisis and refugee movement, there was a glimpse of what better leadership and a much more co-operative approach to immigration in Canada might achieve. (6) N. F. Dreisziger makes a crucial distinction, however, by detailing not only cooperative efforts between Canadian government and welfare agencies, but also role of Hungarian Canadian community in refugee reception. (7) Forgetting Canadian contributions to resettlement of displaced persons in Europe following Second World War, Michael Lanphier describes Canadian response to Hungarian refugee crisis as the first ever crisis to demand Canada's participation in international resettlement effort. (8) It is also interesting to note that while some of above-mentioned scholars claim that decision to accept a significant number of refugees was reached only after pressure was exerted on policymakers from within and beyond federal government, they do not indicate either methods by which such pressure was applied or international characteristics of pressure itself The Canadian Council of Churches (CCC) was one of a number of voluntary organizations in Canada that offered assistance to refugees during Hungarian refugee crisis. (9) Like other domestic groups, it both assisted with material needs of Hungarians once they arrived in Canada, and lobbied Ottawa to include not just most able in its selection of refugees. But what separates CCC from other groups in Canada is larger transnational context in which that agency advocated on behalf of Hungarian refugees. Throughout period from 1956 to 1958, it worked closely with its sister council in Europe, World Council of Churches (WCC), which had direct contact with Hungarians. The WCC worked on an international level to achieve a more efficient and judicious handling of refugee crisis by lobbying governments, non-governmental organizations, and particularly its member groups, such as CCC. …