Hungary's Cities and Regions at the Turn of the Millennium
by György Enyedi
Substantial changes have taken place in the urban and regional structure in Hungary over the last decade. These changes are examined from five aspects: inequalities, the long-standing urban/rural dichotomy, changes within the urban system, transborder effects and directed legislation. The notion of the gateway city (such as Barcelona, Lyons or Lisbon) and its functions is described, before measuring Budapest against the criteria for this status, including infrastructure, quality of life and openness towards multiculturalism. Finally György Enyedi examines the subnational administrative units ( the counties) in the light of the policy push towards reorganizing into regions in order to access various EU structural funding.
A Transylvanian Bestiary
by Zsolt Láng
An excerpt from the much acclaimed historical novel, published in 1997 by this Transylvanian author. (The translator, Tim Wilkinson contributes an appreciation of the work elsewhere in this issue.)
Poems
by Ferenc András Kovács
These poems mark the first appearance in English by the Transylvanian poet, in David Hill's translation.
Their Man in Budapest
James McCargar in Interview with Márta Pellérdi
James McCargar was posted as Second Secretary to the US Legation in Budapest in 1946 and was also charged with running an escape route to help key non-communist figures to flee the country. A revised version of his book, A Short Course in the Secret War, has recently been published in Hungarian, in which he provides details of the intelligence gathering and secret programmes he was responsible for. In this interview he describes the Communist campaign against Hungarian post-war democracy, the willingness of Hungarian patriots to keep the Legation informed on the political scene, details on some of the escapes and even the infamous "blue card election" in which, despite massive electoral fraud the Communists still failed to achieve a plurality.
Governing the New Economy
by Pál Réti
The current coalition government, which came into power in 1998, was the first post-transition administration that "inherited a fully operating market economy". Pál Réti looks at their performance over the last three years, bearing in mind that unpredictable factors such as severe flooding, meant that their proactive ambitions were thwarted by having to be more reactive than they would have wished.
A Thousand Years on Display
by Pál Lővei
Hungary has a double millennium to celebrate: in addition to the third in the Christian calendar, the country is also marking the foundation of the Hungarian kingdom in the year 1000. A leading art historian here looks at several exhibitions that have been and are being mounted. Among those highlighted are the last year's "History-Image" in the Hungarian National Gallery, "Sealed History" (based on medieval seals) at Esztergom Cathedral and drawing on the Primate's Archives and a joint Czech-Polish-Hungarian-German-Slovak touring exhibition. In the case of the latter, "Europe's Centre Around 1000", he finds a particular reading of the region's history.
Assimilation and Identity
François Fejtő in Interview with Endre T. Rózsa
Long resident in Paris, the author's Hongrois et Juifs has just been brought out in Hungarian. This radio interview explores what the author called "un couple singulier" in his French sub-title.
They Never Used the 'C' Word
by Jack Thompson
A distinguished BBC journalist recalls the last Warsaw Pact summit, in Bucharest during the last year of Ceausescu's regime, a summit in which Gorbachev made it clear that there would be no further interference in the internal affairs of the bloc countries.
At the Great Divide
by László Medgyessy
Subcarpathia marks the faultline dividing the Latin and the Greek Churches. The US based theologian here describes, within an historical context, the core identity the Reformed Church supplies to the Hungarians living here.
"The Fowles of Heauen" - Transylvanian Style
by Tim Wilkinson
Tim Wilkinson writes on the novel by Zsolt Láng, an extract from which appears in his translation in this issue.
"It's Not My Ears That Do My Hearing"
György Kurtág interviewed by Bálint András Varga
György Kurtág is notoriously reticent and reclusive. This is believed to be the first ever interview he gave on his work and his life, describing early experience of music, his life in Transylvania, his fascination with birdsong and the difficult process that led him to composing. We include here Bálint András Varga's account of the difficulty in persuading Kurtág to engage in an interview.
Hungaroton's Verdi Recordings
by Géza Fodor
Professor of Dramaturgy and opera critic, Géza Fodor recounts the story of the honourable and valiant series of complete Verdi opera recordings made in the 1980s by Hungaroton, then a state-owned and subsidized company, finding them genuine documents of "a Golden Age".
Hungarian Ritual
by Tamás Koltai
Our theatre reviwer looks at a selection of recent productions, seeing them as attempts to avoid the naturalist trap that Hungarian theatre found itself in for much of the twentieth century. In particular he takes pleasure in new work by the young director of an alternative theatre group, Béla Pintér.
In the Shadow of a Masterpiece
by Erzsébet Bori
Erzsébet Bori reports on this year's Budapest Film Week, the masterpiece she refers to in her title is Béla Tarr's stunning Werckmeister Harmonies (on which she will write in our next issue). Against a background of underfunding, conflict between politicians and the film world, she finds it heartening that the veteran Miklós Jancsó can come up again with a good movie and welcomes the arrival of two young directors, Ágnes Incze (with I Love Budapest) and Ferenc Török (with Moscow Square, set in the far-off days of 1989).
