Studies
Salamon, Konrád
Directions and Misdirections: 1918-1920
Part 2: From the Hungarian Soviet Republic to the counter-revolutionary Restoration
The goal of this study is to present the events of the Bolshevik coup d’etat in March of 1919. After the victors came forward with new territorial demands against the backdrop of political tensions heightened by extreme forces, the government coalition formed by civic parties and the social democrats entered a crisis. A solution could have been the establishment of a government made up exclusively of social democrats, but the decisive majority of the party – behind the backs of the civic powers – had decided on the establishment of a joint government with the communists, as a result of which the Hungarian Soviet Republic was established. Following the Soviet example, the aim was to implement the goals of communism with a dictatorship of the proletariat and the Red Terror, provoking the counter-revolutionary White Terror which, starting in August 1919, made its purpose the elimination not only of the communist dictatorship but of all measures and provisions of the period of civic democracy which preceded. Thus the victorious counter-revolution re-established the conditions before the Aster Revolution and the First Hungarian People’s Republic, and implemented a conservative restoration averse to reforms.
Szenyéri, Zoltán
Ethnicity, nation, minority – an analysis of the most important categories of ethnic research
The issue of minorities is one of the most important of our age. Extreme attitudes related to the issue exist today, too. The Latin word natio already meant a common ancestry in the Middle Ages, but only the elite belonged to the nation. The notion of the nation as understood today only began to be shaped at the end of the 18th and early in the 19th centuries. The great historical cataclysms of the 20th century as well as contemporary processes have also favored certain changes.
This study clarifies the relationships between the concepts of ethnicity, nationality and minority. The separation of nationality and national minority is complicated and contradictory. In our region, the differences between the two are not necessarily well defined. The ties between the state and the area of the nation can be described with models. Nationalities may also be grouped on the basis of whether they have a homeland, whether this homeland has clear land boundaries and the scale of the populated area therein.
Latest issues
Görög, Álmos
The history of Monor between 1918 and 1920, or the impact of WWI and the (counter)revolutions on the life of the community
The local newspaper The Monor Sentinel has regularly published pieces on local history, thanks to the courtesy of the local historians László Németh earlier, and Dr. György Dobos later on. Reading this sparked the author’s interest in the past of his city of residence. Before preparing this study, the author was presented with a formidable challenge in the course of collecting materials: little useful information related to Monor could be found among the varied sources of interest pertaining to events such as the Aster Revolution, the Hungarian Soviet Republic, the National Assembly elections of 1920 and the period preceding the signing of the Treaty of Trianon.
The author set the following goals:
- Conjure up the mood in Monor in 1918-19 by striving to include a large number of sources from the period.
- Attempt to reveal in the most accurate manner possible the background of the local events (May 3, 1919 and August 3, 1919) that are still important in the public awareness of Monor.
- Show the impact of national politics, specifically the Aster Revolution and the Hungarian Soviet Republic, on Monor’s society and on local political relations.
Workshop
Salamon, Konrád
Statements concerning the republic, the death of Ady and the division of land
At the beginning of the collection of texts can be read statements affirming the establishment of the Hungarian People’s Republic on November 16, 1918. The most important figures of Hungarian intellectual life were in agreement that, in the aftermath of the defeat in WWI, a parliamentary democracy could be the most advantageous for Hungarians. Unfortunately, the agreement reached on the most important issues between all political leanings from the moderate left-wing to the moderate right-wing was to be a short-lived moment in our 20th century history. The Károlyi government put great effort into the legislation of radical reforms, and thus asked the opinion of the period’s professors of law on the establishment of the republic. Additionally, the enthusiastic opinion of society at the time is well reflected in the positions on the establishment of the republic taken by writers, as well as the oath to the republic volunteered by Archduke József Habsburg. Similar agreement among society is shown on the matter of land reform, too, which would have supported urbanization and strengthened the ability of villages to maintain their populations. All of this was made impossible by the communist coup d’etat which was eagerly awaiting the extreme left-wing era.
Petrikné Jánossy, Csilla
Issues of methodology in history teaching among children with cerebral palsy
The aim of this study is to identify the learning difficulties of students with cerebral palsy (CP) emerging in the course of their history studies at public schools, at the primary school and secondary school levels. It attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of methodological tools used with CP children in history courses.
We chose specifically children with CP because:
- their proportion among children with movement disorders with special education needs is high;
- no two types of central nervous system injury are the same, thus a single methodological toolkit may not necessarily be applicable in their education;
- their situation highlights that it would be appropriate to move public education in the direction of taking into account individual conditions, abilities and needs, rather than making efforts to centralise.