Hungarian Intellectuals Research Articles

In the lure of Geistesgeschichte: the theme of decline in Hungarian historiography and historical thinking in the first half of the twentieth century

Decline was the fundamental issue in Hungarian historiography and historical thinking between the two world wars. This article primarily analyses the views of historian Gyula Szekfű, the writers and essayists Dezső Szabó and László Németh, and those of philosophers Lajos Fülep and György Lukács. In this period, the so-called spiritual history (Geistesgeschichte) prevailed in Hungarian intellectual circles, in which the themes of decline and even fall were fundamental. Of the most important representatives of Geistesgeschichte, Spengler, Ortega, Huizinga, Croce and Maritain had significant influence on the authors mentioned above. Historians were ready to reject the ideas of these thinkers regarding the criticism of culture, and rather followed the power- and state-centred streams of Geistesgeschichte, conceived by Ranke, Troeltsch and Meinecke. At the same time it is also true that the decline and generation theory developed by the historian Gyula Szekfű (e.g., in his book Three Generations), is one of the most original interpretations of modern Hungarian history. It was shared by many Hungarian intellectuals of the period. Paradoxically, the theme of decline also appeared in the views of the so-called ‘Századok’ (Centuries) circle, mainly in the writings of the historians István Hajnal and István Szabó. They rather followed the social-history-oriented French Annales School, and even attempted to offer a solution to the problems of the so-called ‘third way’ alternative. Almost all of the above-mentioned concepts were tied in the later political discourse to the so-called right-wing tradition of Hungarian political–historical thinking, but the author also touches briefly upon the notion of decline in the leftist (Marxist) tradition of György Lukács, whose ideas had an impact on the beginnings of the Frankfurt School. The article also offers a brief overview of the main ideas of spiritual history/Geistesgeschichte, since the author suggests that this was a common feature in all the interpretations of decline in the period treated here.

Living Mitteleuropa in the 1980s: a network of Hungarian and West German Intellectuals

This paper investigates the parallels between intellectual biographies and the conceptual re-emergence of Central Europe in the 1980s. It contextualises the origins of a distinct vision of the region within the life experiences of non-conformist intellectuals in East and West Europe. By the 1980s, these intellectuals had developed a transnational informal network which facilitated the flow of ideas across a porous Iron Curtain. A closer look at the biographies of György Konrád and György Dalos as well as Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Karl Schlögel makes this network, its specific understanding of Mitteleuropa in the 1980s, and the ideas subsumed under this umbrella term apparent. Subordinated to a later narrative of European Union integration, the concept has lost its original character as a possible alternative to the bipolar world – that is, Western capitalism and Eastern socialism. This paper re-constructs Mitteleuropa through the biographies of its creators, and recalls moments of mutual influence. Additionally, it looks at historical narratives competing with Central Europe in the 1980s and scrutinises its legacy today. It therefore contributes to the history of ideas, and is part of the emerging field of New Cold War Studies.

The Hungarian Tragedy

In the eyes of many Hungarians, what unfolded in the twenty years since state socialism was liberal democracy—and it has failed. In other words, the perception is that Putinization, a combination of somewhat authoritarian politics and state-supervised economics, is the only model that will ultimately work for ordinary people. In fact, some leading Hungarian intellectuals seem now to have all but accepted the notion that the country was never really democratic and might never get rid of the legacies of feudalism, self-pitying nationalism, and paternalistic state socialism. Some time ago, Tamás regretted that the seeming triumph of the dissidents' human-rights-centered liberalism in the early 1990s went hand in hand with inattention to the plight of the victims of postcommunism and thus sowed the seeds of its own destruction. As he put it in 2009: "We, the froth at the top of it, were celebrating the triumph of freedom and openness and plurality and fantasy and pleasure and all that. That was frivolous, and I am deeply ashamed." That sense of the discrediting of the highest liberal ideals—that it's all just capitalism, in its worst, corruption-ridden form to boot—is the final element of the Hungarian tragedy.

Blame the Messenger? Bucharest and Its Bungling Diplomats in 1956

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 remains one of the most thoroughly researched areas of Hungarian history. However, the Romanian involvement in, and responses to, the events in Budapest have received far less scholarly attention. Secondary sources have tended to focus either on the Romanian communist party leadership and its role in incarcerating the Imre Nagy group, or on the revolution’s impact on the Hungarian minority in Romania. However, this article investigates the perceptions and performance of the Romanian diplomats and intelligence officers stationed in Budapest during the uprising. Foreign ministry telegrams reveal the extensive misperceptions of, and logistical difficulties faced by, the diplomats, especially Ambassador Ion Popescu. The diplomats inflated the Hungarian dictator Mátyás Rákosi’s alleged popularity, blamed the situation on imperialist plotters outside Hungary, underrated the dissent of Hungarian workers and intellectuals, and exaggerated the threat of Transylvanian irredentism. The exiguous, biased reports from the Budapest embassy, among other factors, arguably propelled the Bucharest leaders to take an active stance in containing the “counterrevolution” on their western border.

Bene vixit qui bene latuit

This article deals with the last will of Ferenc Csaszar, one of the prominent Hungarian intellectuals of his day and editor in chief of the important newspaper Pesti Naplo. At the very end of this will, a reference can be found to the Epicurean ideal of an ‘unnoticed life’. A correct understanding of Csaszar’s own position presupposes a thorough insight into Epicurus’ ideal, which is discussed first. It is argued then that Csaszar did not adopt the Epicurean point of view, but that his position recalls important aspects of the views endorsed by Cicero, Ovid, and Seneca.

Politics and literature: A case study

As a contribution to a larger theoretical discussion of the relationships between literature and political context, this paper offers an examination of the reception of the works of Hungarian poet and novelist Dezső Kosztolányi during the communist period, drawing particular emphasis to the origins of several misunderstandings. Over the past several decades Hungarian Marxist literary theorists, influenced by the philosophical and aesthetical heritage of György Lukács, have thought of artists as having a revolutionary role in society and literature as having an important role as a means through which to educate the nation. Kosztolányi’s concept of art for art’s sake did not minister to this ideological and political system, and as a consequence his reception and reputation suffered. Not only were critical evaluations of his writings, both literary and theoretical, distorted and crafted with the intention of creating a misleading image of the author, but the editions of his texts were also censored. It is not mere accident or circumstance that the critical edition series of his works could not be edited and research groups and projects dealing with an edition of his life’s work were not financed under the communist regime. Hungarian intellectuals have yet to raise the question as to why open discussion of the beginning of the 20th century (when events took place that continue to exert an influence on conceptions of culture today) remains a taboo. Why are there no (or few) critical editions and anthologies or studies dealing with the period? Twenty years have passed since the political transition and the situation remains essentially the same. Hungarian philologists who deal with Kosztolányi’s oeuvre must address these questions and challenge the Marxist axioms and stereotypes if they hope to further the development of Kosztolányi’s reception. Relying on postmodern theories is not sufficient if there is little fundamental research.

Anti-metaphysical reasoning and sociological approach: roads from nationalism to regionalism in the 19th–20th century Hungarian intellectual tradition

Some central issues of fin-de-siecle Hungarian philosophy and intellectual tradition can be retrieved from the writings of Jozsef Eotvos and his mid-nineteenth century contemporaries. An ambiguous attitude towards metaphysics, emphasis on sociological issues as well as a regional perspective are apparent in his texts prior to the emergence of the great fin-de-siecle generation of Hungarian intellectuals. They survived the Habsburg Empire thanks to the post-Monarchical literary tradition and Peter Esterhazy’s works; they provided an adequate vocabulary for the Central European experience following the Soviet Era.

Lee Congdon: Seeing red. Hungarian intellectuals in exile and the challenge of communism

Lee Congdon: Seeing red. Hungarian intellectuals in exile and the challenge of communism

Erdélyi Fiatalok: The Hungarian village and Hungarian identity in Transylvania in the 1930’s

The Erdélyi Fiatalok (Transylvanian Youth), a group of young Hungarian intellectuals in Transylvania, undertook in the 1930s “to know” the Hungarian village. They did so in order to know themselves better as Hungarians because they were convinced that the essential qualities of the “race” had been preserved in their purest form in the village, far removed from the cosmopolitan, modern city. Just as urgent, in their minds, was the need to establish close links between the intellectuals and the rural population, if the Hungarian community in Transylvania was to survive. Their way of achieving their goals was to carry out the systematic investigation of village life in all its diverse aspects and to base their work on up-to-date sociological theory and research methods. While drawing on the experience of their Hungarian colleagues elsewhere, they were perhaps most indebted to the ideas and practices developed by the sociological school of Bucharest, headed by Dimitrie Gusti, professor of sociology at the University. Gusti and his team of researchers welcomed the participation of the Transylvanian Hungarians in their work, and the resulting common labors offered an encouraging example of Romanian-Hungarian cooperation. In the end, the initiatives of the Erdélyi Fiatalok were thwarted by events beyond their control and perhaps by their own idealism.

Macar Ulusal Kimliğinin Oluşumunda Türk Etkisi

The history of relationship between Hungarians and several Turkish tribes goes back to the 5th century. We may call the relationship between Hungarians and Turks a kind of symbiotic relationship till 896 when Hungarians settled down in the Carpathian Basin. Also so many Cumanian and Pecheneg tribes settled down in Hungary after the Magyar conquest. The last period of the historical relations between the two nations is the Ottoman rule era in Hungary. From the 5th century to 1686 when Hungarians reoccupied Budapest is the period of the direct Turkish influence on the Hungarian national identity. The process of nation building, especially in the 19th century, made Hungarians compelled to reconsider their national identity. The Hungarian national identity is formed differently from other European nation because of their eastern origins, their non-indo-european language and so-called Turkic origins. Hungarian intellectuals were divided into two camps in 19th century on account of so-called Turkic origins of Magyars. Some of them believed that the ancestors of Hungarians are Turks and the other group believed that the ancestors of Hungarians are Finno-Ugrians; so this is what I call the indirect Turkish influence on the formation of Hungarian national identity.

"Problem of generations": Origins, content and continuing relevance of Karl Mannheim’s article

The article presents a brief history of the concept of generations. It focuses on Karl Mannheim?s article "Problems of Generations" (1928), its social origins and theoretical content. Mannheim?s role was crucial in 20th century development of the (new) concept of generation. In order to understand the problem of social (historical) generations and evaluate Mannheim?s position within the concept?s development, several points are discussed in more detail: the history of the concept of "generations", the relationship between class and generation, and how ideas about the formation of generations help us to understand social dynamics over time. In doing so we assume that the origin of Mannheim?s lecture lies in the generational experience of Hungarian intellectuals during the collapse of the old order of the Dual Monarchy and the Revolution of 1918-19. The Budapest intellectual life in the 1910s was important for Mannheim?s "Problems of generations", as well as A. Weber?s cultural sociology. Finally, the article analyzes the migration of the generations concept from one culture (Germany) to another (the United States), and from one discipline (sociology) to another (memory culture).

Captive Minds and Scapegoats in Stalinist Hungary

This paper makes an attempt to analyze the mindset of creative Hungarian intellectuals who accepted various influential roles in Stalinist Hungary. It uses contemporary and other Hungarian and non-Hungarian patterns of intellectual behaviour as a basis of comparison. The argument is shaped with the help of the conceptual framework of scapegoating.

Lee Congdon. Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2001. xii, 233 pp. $40.00.

"Lee Congdon. Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2001. xii, 233 pp. $40.00." published on 01 Jan 2006 by Brill | Schöningh.

Goodness Is Elsewhere: The Rule of European Difference

Reflecting on European colonialism in 1950—at a time when discussions about what we now know as the European Union emerged in western Europe—Aimé Césaire wrote, “… Europe is morally, spiritually indefensible.”2 This idea is fairly commonplace in much of the post-colonial world and it has some purchase within certain academic and intellectual circles elsewhere. And yet, in the process of denouncing the widely noted3 presence of racism in Hungary, thirty-six leading Hungarian intellectuals have, in a recent public document, felt compelled to thank France, and through France, a generic, trans-historical notion of “Europe,” for what they saw as the latter's profound, longue-durée goodness.

L'Europa centrale. Conflictualità e progetto: Passato e presente tra Praga, Budapest e Varsavia by Francesco s> Leoncini (review)

REVIEWS 975 Leoncini, Francesco.L'Europa centrale. Conftictualita eprogetto: Passato epresente tra Praga,Budapest e Varsavia. Libreria Editrice Cafoscarina, Venice, 2003. 332 pp. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Documents. Appendix. ?15.00 (paperback). THIS is a collection of essays by an Italian historian of Central and Eastern Europe, written over the period from the middle I970s to 2000. The focus is nominally about the whole region of 'Mitteleuropa', but the concentration is primarilyon whatwas once Czechoslovakiaanditscentralrole in the unhappy fate of the region. There are many interestinginsightsand speculationsabout the personalitiesand the course of events thereinwhich are worthy of serious consideration even where the reader may disagree with some of Leoncini's emphasis and conclusions. The coverage of the essays encompasses a wide range of topics, from the role ofJan Hus in the evolution of Bohemian and Moravian national identity, the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the perennial tensions between German and Slavic aspirationsin the region, the career of Tomas G. Masarykin the emergence and governing of interwarCzechoslovakia,the background of the historic interwar agreements of Rapallo and Locarno, to the Hungarian, Polishand CzechoslovakianrebellionsagainstMuscovite rule in the I95os and I960s, the SolidarityMovement in Poland in I980-8 I, the collapse of the Soviet Communist empire and the most recent effortsat postCommunist transformationin the former Warsaw Pact zone. It is a massive canvas, indeed, but the individualessaysare eloquent and thought-provoking, if generallydiscursivein a decidedly non-Anglo-Saxon way. Throughout, Leoncini leaves no doubt where his sympathiesand antipathies lie, although there are a few noteworthyshiftsin perspectiveand emphasis over the quarter-century covered by the essays. His primary ideological affinityis with the 'socialism-with-a-human-face'programmesof the intellectuals associated with the Hungarian and Polish revolutions of I956 and especially with the aspirations enunciated by those involved in the Prague Spring of I 968. He professes to find similarcommitments to liberal socialist values in the Polish SolidarityMovement. Indeed, in the most recent period he criticizesthe formerleadersof these movements for neglecting such values once they achieved power in the post-Communist realignments throughout the region. He is also highly attractedto a Masarykianvision of a reintegrationof the emergent small states after achieving ethno-national independence. (Surprisingly , he barely mentions the writings of his countryman Mazzini in this connection.) In a document of post-war aspirations by exile Hungarian intellectuals in I944, there is a call (p. 296), which Leoncini obviously endorses, for a kind of expanded Danubian Confederation to maximize the leverage of these mini-states and to guard against any renewed threat of German domination. Leoncini argues elsewhere for a similaramalgamation, but now against the EU and NATO, both of which he sees as vehicles for the subordination and marginalization of the multitude of mini-states resulting from the breakupof multi-ethnic conglomerationslike the formerYugoslavia. Thus, while Leoncini is quite positive in his assessment of the Wilsonian 976 SEER, 82, 4, 2004 dream of self-determination,he wishes to go a step furtherby amalgamating these self-preoccupied, often conflicting, newly independent statelets, thus enhancing their ability to defend themselves against the indifference, not to say neo-colonial greed, of the major Westernpowers seeking to extend their domination throughoutthe region. Among his principal betenoiresis the historical, quasi-elemental power of Germanic dominance in the region. Here, Leoncini is sometimes ambivalent. On the one hand, he showsa good deal of sympathyfor the Sudeten Germans of Bohemia under the Czechoslovak constitution which Masaryk, albeit reluctantly, was forced to accept for his new state. Given their numerical, economic, and financial significancein Czechoslovakia, Leoncini argues that they shouldhave been grantedsome sortof federalstatusas a statenation. On the other hand, he recognizes in many of the later essaysthat the culturaland political aspirations of the Germans were fundamentally incompatible with those of the Slavicpeoples of the region. Indeed, he blamesthe Germanization of the Austro-Hungarian Empire resultingfrom the Ausgleich of I867 for the enforced Germanization (andMagyarization)of that multi-nationalaggregation and the consequent upsurge of ethno-national secessionist movements which led to the outbreakof WorldWar One and then the fragmentationof Mitteleuropa. He treats Germanic domination as almost a force of nature, espoused equally by such diverse political figures as Bismarck,von Bulow, Walther Rathenau and Adolf Hitler. He has some interesting observations...

Lee Congdon — Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism

Lee Congdon — Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism

Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism

Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism

Lee Congdon, Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2001. 235 pp. $40.00.

Lee Congdon, <i>Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism</i>. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2001. 235 pp. $40.00.

Lee Congdon. &lt;italic&gt;Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism&lt;/italic&gt;. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. 2001. Pp. xii, 223. $40.00

Journal Article Lee Congdon. Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. 2001. Pp. xii, 223. $40.00 Get access Congdon Lee. Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. 2001. Pp. xii, 223. $40.00. Paul Breines Paul Breines Boston College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 107, Issue 4, October 2002, Pages 1322–1323, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/107.4.1322 Published: 01 October 2002

Reviews of Books:Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism Lee Congdon

Reviews of Books:Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism Lee Congdon