Growth vs. Equilibrium: Interim Reports
Györgyi Kocsis

In post-socialist economies, where social spending still exceeds almost half of GDP and where the state is still expected to be paternalistic, painful measures must be taken. The controversial "Bokros Package", a number of closely linked, severe measures and cutbacks aimed at achieving macroeconomic equilibrium and thereby growth, introduced in March 1995 by Lajos Bokros, the Finance Minister, seems to be working but long-term consequences are still difficult to predict. This article surveys three independent interim reports on the state and prospects of the economy and concludes that public confidence in economic improvement and a rising standard of living is still very low, albeit "the public, to say the least, is a key input factor."

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"To Unwork Agony"
On the Poetry of Ágnes Nemes Nagy
Mátyás Domokos

Ágnes Nemes Nagy (1922-1991), one of Hungary's finest modern poets whose reputation is growing outside the country, started publishing towards the end of the war and, after the collapse of the country and the siege of Budapest, was only able to enjoy three years of relative political and artistic freedom before the Stalinist dictatorship clamped down and silenced her along with all creative artists in the country. Unable to compromise, she became one of the very few who never made the slightest concession to politics; she only resumed publishing after 1956 when the Kádár regime mellowed to the point where it no longer demanded overt support and declarations of allegiance from writers. The essay, based on biographical fact and enlivened by many quotes from the poems and essays of Nemes Nagy, is a detailed profile of this brilliant poet, examining how she was able to cope with her own situation and how that in turn shaped her outlook and her convictions of what poetry must be. The high respect the subsequent generation of poets hold her in is shown by a poem of homage to Nemes Nagy written by Ottó Orbán, now sixty, a leading figure in that generation. A selection of recently published posthumous Nemes Nagy poems follows the essay, translated by George Szirtes, an Anglo-Hungarian, and Bruce Berlind, an American poet. Among them is On God, a true masterpiece, is given in both their translations.

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Transition and Privatization in Publishing
István Bart

The author, head of Corvina Press and a leading figure in Hungarian publishing, paints a vivid picture of the publishing scene in the post-socialist period when the government has withdrawn direct support, the big state-owned publishing houses have vanished or transformed, and several hundred new firms are fending for themselves in a rapidly shrinking, unregulated market. With production costs rising and the purchasing power in decline after harsh government cutbacks and other measures aimed at achieving macroeconomic equilibrium, and amid a general lack of capital, publishing is in a highly precarious situation. The decline in the total number of copies sold has been going on since 1989. Total output has been falling by an annual 10 million copies, and the average print run for titles is down by about 2,000 copies every year. While foolproof titles, trash and pulp fiction triumph, average print runs for Hungarian authors of fiction had dropped to 4,700 by last year, 4 below the technological minimum. This puts Hungarian literature into a near-impossible situation. Available support from various foundations and state endowments is inadequate and the prospects of quality publishing are grim indeed. Book distribution is likewise in total turmoil. The conclusion stresses the need for a total restructuring of the industry and predicts a none too rosy future even after that -- fierce competition, hostile bids, capital concentration, mergers and buy-outs.

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Transylvania: Managing within a Nation-State
An Interview with Béla Markó
László Hovanyec

Béla Markó is a leading poet who was elected President of RMDSZ, the Democratic Federation of Hungarians in Romania, in 1993 and re-elected in 1995. He acknowledges spectacular improvements in business life, the infrastructure, greater civic liberties, freedom of speech, much less drabness in Romania, but the situation is uneven and, he says, "what happened here has not really been a switch to a market economy -- it just has still not happened." As for the two million Hungarians in Romania, "the pseudo-privatization carried out by those who also held the political reins earlier, in the nature of things handicapped the Hungarian community." For example, among 206 privatization delegates placed at the head of state enterprises designated for privatization in Maros county in Transylvania, where almost 40 per cent of the population are ethnic Hungarians, a mere four or five were Hungarians. "In Romania we live in a society which traditionally identifies the state and the nation, the people and the country," he says. The interview also touches upon the rather sensitive relations between Hungary and Romania, the recent Education Act, President Iliescu's proposal for a historical reconciliation between the two countries, the half-hearted attitude of the Romanian government toward European integration, and the RMDSZ itself and its hopes for the future.

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Helping Self-Help
Interview with András Bíró, Winner of the 1995 Alternative Nobel Prize
Gábor Kereszty and György Simó

András Bíró is founder of the Autonómia Foundation of Hungary, launched five years ago. In 1995, he shared with three other activists the Swedish "Alternative Nobel Prize", an award that carries with it a considerable sum of money and great prestige. (This was the second time a Hungarian has received it.) Bíró talks about his foundation which relies mainly on donations from private American foundations. Seventy per cent of donations are used to support the projects of Gypsy organizations. In the field of environment protection, they are concerned with "sustainable growth", the use of alternative technologies. Their third concern is supporting training programmes for those active in voluntary organizations, "for them to learn what are the ways of locating funds, of drawing up projects H in a professional manner, establishing democratic rules, etc." Bíró sees the problem of the near 500,000 Gypsies in Hungary (five per cent of the entire Hungarian population), a time-bomb that could be an obstacle to democratic change. The life expectancy of Gypsies in Hungary is ten years less than the average. The foundation aims to help them earn money. "We lend money to village families or groups to buy a couple of pigs for themselves, to lease some land, to grow corn. Let the family make some kind of living from the piglets, killing the sow only at Christmas, not before." In addition, he says, "we ourselves want to formulate a Gypsy policy that could become the policy of the government." A comprehensive report on the five years of the Foundation's activities accompanies the conversation.

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Great Britain and Horthy's Hungary
The Memoirs of György Barcza
Miklós Szinai

My Memories as a Diplomat 1911-1945 (Excerpts)
György Barcza

György Barcza belonged to that generation of Hungarian career diplomats which began their service in the diplomatic corps of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After tours of duty in Athens and other European capitals, he climbed the ladder of promotions and finally arrived in London as Minister Plenipotentiary in 1938, at a most crucial time both in European history and in Anglo-Hungarian relations. An admirer of British political institutions and a patriot with strong anti-German feelings, he clearly saw the trap into which Hungary was being gradually led by the increasingly pro-German policies of Regent Horthy and his government, pressed by a pro-Nazi office corps and their own naive belief in Hitler's promises to restore chunks of former Hungarian territory in return for political and military services rendered to the Reich. Barcza openly professed his convictions to members of the British government he dealt with and was held by them in high esteem, while in the meantime he kept sending warning reports and messages to his government, describing the tragedy that would befall the country should they decide to enter the war on the German side. His memoirs, written in retirement in Australia in l946-47 and first published in Hungary in 1994 (reviewed in detail in No. 137 of this journal), survey his entire career. The excerpts selected here deal with this crucial period in London, describing his fight to achieve a change in Hungary's course, the policy of his friend, Count Pál Teleki, the Prime Minister, who would soon kill himself in shame for Hungary's violating Yugoslavia on Hitler's demand, Barcza's conversations with Eden, Halifax, Vansittart, Cadogan and Churchill, and describes diplomatic life in wartime London. Miklós Szinai, a historian, provides an informative introduction to this fascinating memoir.

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Bartók and the Third Reich
János Breuer

In an important and highly interesting contribution to one of the side issues in the Bartók literature, János Breuer surveys Bartók's responses to Germany. After making eight concert appearances as a pianist in Germany between 1930 and 1932, Bartók refused to go back there after the Nazi takeover in 1933, though he had to travel through that country on numerous occasions on his way to Belgium, the Netherlands, London and Paris. The article cites various instances when Bartók directly confronted Nazi authorities, for instance, when he refused to send his baptism certificate and other documents to disprove press allegations that he was Jewish. He also refused to attend concerts in Germany where his own works were performed. He took further and stronger steps after 1937. In that year, for instance, he forbid Hungarian Radio to release his piano recitals for broadcasting by German and Italian stations. In 1938 he protested against the Germans' paying him only a fraction of copyright fees for his transcriptions of folk songs, and prohibited any performance in Germany of these pieces. His anti-Fascist position eventually led him to leave Hungary in 1940 for exile in the US.