Valedictory by Miklós Vajda
Miklós Vajda writes a brief parting note after stepping down as editor. He will continue as Editor Emeritus, editing the literary pages again, as he did when he came to the journal forty-two years ago.
ENDGAME IN BUDAPEST
A review, a memoir and an article cover Hungary 's participation in the Second World War, the catastrophic ending to it and the political division of Europe that followed .
Endgame in Budapest by István Deák
Krisztián Ungváry: The Siege of Budapest : 100 Days in World War II . New Haven , CT , Yale University Press, 2005, 475 pp. Krisztián Ungváry: A magyar honvédség a második világháborúban (The Hungarian Armed Foces in the Second World War). Budapest , Osiris, 2005, 604 pp.
In this lengthy review essay, the Hungarian born American historian outlines Hungary 's entry and participation in the war as an ally of Nazi Germany, in particular from the military aspect. "Following World War I, the victorious Entente allowed Hungary only a lightly equipped standing army of 35,000. The restrictions, forcibly incorporated into law, were respected only in their breach; still - as Ungváry well demonstrates - by 1941, Hungary was behind even its poorest neighbours in training, equipment and, as it soon turned out, command ability, as well as in the enthusiasm of the soldiers. Amply available, however, was the extraordinary conceit of the military commanders who demanded the creation of a fascist-type dictatorship, as well as the restoration of complete Hungarian territorial integrity."
The encirclement was completed at Christmas 1944, trapping some 80,000 German and Hungarian troops and 800,000 civilians within a city where order and authority had broken down: "district party and militia units were vying for power with the remnants of the state and municipal authorities, with the police, and with the commanders of the Hungarian and German military." Within all this the Jewish population of 120,000 had to face roving Arrow Cross gangs bent on random extermination of any they could lay their hands on. Professor Deák, who personally lived through the siege, adds some of his personal memories to his account.
Frivolous Confessions (excerpt) by Miklós Szentkuthy
In the autumn of 1944, at the age of thirty-six and by then well-established as a novelist, (" the sacred monster of Hungarian writing" as Pál Réz describes him in his article in this issue) was called up to serve on Air-Raid Precaution duty in Budapest . "Now that I look back on it, that ARP service was, I would say, for a while almost amusing. I was called up by the police, and from the very start that's where I belonged. Later on, it turned out that I also belonged to the fire service. Later on still, it turned out that I was also a member of the Hungarian army. Still later on, it turned out that I was also a member of the German Wehrmacht stationed in Hungary . By then I was a little bit giddy about what would be next... Would they rip me into pieces? As it was, since they were always saying four different things, different orders could be played off against one another. Admittedly, that led to major chaos, although I didn't have to contribute here since that developed quite nicely, automatically, of itself."
This is his account, in his own inimitable and often hilarious style, of how he saw the endgame in Budapest being played out, with his particular contempt reserved for the Arrow Cross who right to the end continued to believe in
Hitler's final victory. When the Red Army finally took the city, he emerged from the cellar he had been sheltering in to find himself again at the mercy of Arrow Crossers, as they swiftly transformed themselves into auxiliary police to help restore "order" to the ruined city.
What Happened at Yalta by John Lukacs
A myth has begun to emerge that Churchill and Roosevelt handed Eastern and Central Europe over to Stalin when the Big Three met at Yalta in February 1945. The Budapest-born American historian examines the post-war division of Europe by proceeding "from what it was that happened to when it happened, to how it happened, to why it happened."
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The Year of the Falling Star (excerpts from a novel) by Zsuzsa Rakovszky
The outstanding and widely translated poet's first novel was received with general acclaim when it was published in 2002 and has since been translated into German. These extracts come from her second novel which has just come out. The novel is reviewed in The Mother as Mystery by Gergely Angyalosi.
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Body and Soul: The Sculptor Béni Ferenczy (1890-1967) by Ildikó Nagy
This year saw a small exhibition mounted by the Ferenczy Family Foundation to honour the memory of the sculptor and his widow, who created the Foundation. Ildikó Nagy, who specializes in twentieth-century Hungarian art, takes the opportunity to look at the work and life of an artist whose studies and work had taken him to Florence , Munich , Paris , Vienna and Moscow before he finally returned to Budapest in 1938.
The article is accompanied by eight plates.
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Poems by Zsófia Balla
Transylvanian-born but now resident in Hungary , Zsófia Balla has had one selection of her poetry translated into Romanian and two into German. These translations are by George Szirtes.
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ON FILE
"I still contend that however dark and deep the well of the past might be, it is better to peer into it. Even if it will hurt," says Klára Tóth in the first piece in this section devoted to how the authorities spied on the youth and rock scene over thirty years before the system collapsed in 1989. There follows excerpts from a book that has rewritten the history of Hungarian rock - through the informers' reports held by the notorious III/III subdivision of the Budapest Police headquarters and a review of the same book.
It's Going to Hurt by Klára Tóth
The film writer and documentary editor was contacted by Tamás Szőnyei, who she did not know; he told her that he had come across secret police reports on her when collecting material for his book.
Examining the files, she discovered that there were lengthy reports on her attendance at the famous Kassák Club, where Ferenc Sebő was involved in running folk music and dance evenings. They emanated from a young man who appeared to be courting her. Even worse, she discovered on a website the name of one of her very closest girlfriends on a list of agents outed on the internet. She reflects on what happened thirty years ago. "We all have the right to know how we lived, who we lived amongst then, who we live amongst now and why, out of what interest or obligation, or perhaps out of what conviction, they falsified our most personal, intimate world."
Kept on File: The Secret Service and the Hungarian Rock Scene 1960-1990 (excerpts) by Tamás Szőnyei
In principle no song could be performed on stage, on record, on radio or television without being authorized by the "chanson committee', as it was literally called. For any band to receive money for an appearance, it had to undergo an audition from the National Programming Bureau, which provided (or not) a temporary or permanent licence to operate and determined the performance fee. All this was under Party control. Such were the considerations the music "industry" operated under in the Hungary up to 1990. Tamás Szőnyei has effectively written a history of Hungarian rock from an entirely novel aspect: that of the informers' reports held in the archives of the III/III subdirectorate of the Budapest police.
This was the Party's way of keeping an eye on the young, with the usual emphasis on "correct" behaviour and "correct" clothing - an obsession with the director of the largest outdoor venue in Budapest.
Particular attention was paid to the "dance house" network, in which the interest of young-city dwellers in folk-music - hardly surprising in the land of Bartók and Kodály - found an expression. The author found reports from no less than six different informers covering the Sebő group in one Budapest dance-house clubs.
If folk-musicians fell under suspicion, the authorities came down much harder on punk groups, with prison sentences actually being passed and served.
The Music is Over, and So Is the Text by Tamás Torma
Tamás Szőnyei: Nyilvan tartottak. Titkos szolgák a Magyar rock körül 1960-1990 (Kept on File: The Secret Service and the Hungarian Rock Scene 1960-1990). Budapest , Magyar Narancs, 2005, 828 pp.
The true extent of the operations of the III/III-B subdivision of Budapest Police Headquarters is slowly beginning to emerge as documents are accessed (or leaked), casting a different light on the 70s and 80s here in Hungary .
"In the 1980s, it was not unusual for there to be two informers within a single rock group who would - thanks to the discreet charm of the system - also inform on each other." A journalist and broadcaster, Tamás Torma here reviews a book on Hungarian rock music which we are providing extracts from in this issue. (See above.) Reflecting on his own young memories of the period, he sees the revelations in the book as affecting both past and present perceptions of the period. "Before this book came into my hand, I was talking about my connection with a certain rock band leader and someone interrupted me to say "But he was one of them!" "How do you know?" "I don't. Someone told me."
IN FOCUS: THE ROMA
Hungary 's most deprived minority is also looked at in this issue. An important survey on them is reviewed here and our film critic describes an important body of work by documentary film-makers covering the situation of the Roma in Hungary . We also include excerpts from a forthcoming autobiography that describes Roma life in a remote village near the Slovenian border. In addition, there are eight plates of a photographic essay by the husband and
wife team of György Stalter and Judit M. Horváth (herself of Roma origin), accompanied by an essay on their work by Sándor Szilágyi.
The Figures of Deprivation by Balázs Wizner
István Kemény - Béla Janky - Gabriella Lengyel: A magyarországi cigányság 1971-2003 (The Roma in Hungary, 1971-2003). Budapest , Gondolat, 2004, 192 pp.
"The most recent survey is likely to answer the question as to what the majority of the Roma should expect in modern democratic Hungary for some time to come. The diagnosis is anything but encouraging."
The sociologist Balázs Wizner describes what lies behind the discouraging statistics contained in a book summarizing "the results of at least five nationwide studies covering more than a century of social change." The factors that he identified include poverty, social disadvantages, ethnic discrimination, segregation in residence and education all forming a complex handicap for some six per cent of Hungary's population. These will have to be dealt through positive programmes for true integration to be achieved and discrimination overcome.
Caravans Without Wheels by Erzsébet Bori
Our regular film critic provides an analysis and a selection of important documentary films made on the Roma since 1962, a time when sociology "did not even exist as a discipline in the Eastern Bloc." She points out that feature films tend to exploit the traditional image of the happy-go-lucky Gypsy, whereas documentaries are reflecting the self-drive towards better education, better jobs, better housing conditions - and the appalling situation many of the Roma find themselves with the collapse of the old socialist-style agricultural sector.
Life in a Gypsy Colony (excerpt) by István Kalányos
"What was this? A teacher asking forgiveness of a Gypsy boy. This couldn't be real! It must be a dream! Yet it had happened."
Taken from his first, forthcoming, book, the fifty-three-year-old oil driller describes this, one of the defining events of his childhood spent in a village near the Slovenian border, to which he has returned and where he now heads the Roma Self-Government.
THEATRE ENCOUNTERS
Two articles look at theatre now: Gábor Zsámbéki is interviewed on his just-ended six years at the helm of that elite theatrical club, the Union of European Theatres and Tamás Koltai reflects on the recent national annual theatre festival, referring to the construction under which theatre operates in Hungary .
No Common European Theatre: Gábor Zsámbéki talks to Gábor Bóta
Budapest 's Katona József Theatre was one of the seven founding theatres of the Union of European Theatres when it was set up in 1988 and Gábor Zsámbéki went there soon after. Here he speaks on the Union 's work, his preference for festivals with a clear focus and for workshops, and argues that "the road the Union must take should not lead to unification but diversification."
Letter from the Pécs Theatre Festival by Tamás Koltai
Editor of the theatre monthly Színház and our regular theatre critic, the author questions the selection criteria for the country's annual showpiece festival (and the theatre world's annual chance to come together for ten days) but finds some of the year's important productions were invited nevertheless. He extends this to a discussion of where Hungary now stands, with the permanent company still a dominant feature. He goes on to point out the upside and downside of the whole system of subsidies granted to companies. (In Budapest alone, some thirty repertory or temporary companies receive funding from the state. This includes those putting on big commercial productions.) He sees a need to go to some sort of regional construction to allow companies to play to more widespread audiences.
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Spying on "Mr Bartok" in Wartime America by Nándor Dreiszeger
Béla Bartók arrived in the United States in October 1940. The following year he was approached by Tibor Eckhardt to join the Scientific and Artistic Committee of Eckhart's Movement for an Independent Hungary, intended to be the embryo of a Hungarian government-in-exile, should the need for such arise. Eckhardt aroused suspicion among Hungarian and other Central European émigrés because of his earlier involvement in right radical movements and in 1942 he agreed to resign as leader. Bartók, of all people, was asked to take over. His declining health and need to concentrate on his music led him to step down the following year.
All this had been shadowed by a branch of the OSS which maintained a check on foreign nationals in the United States .
Professor Dreisziger, of Hungarian birth and teaching history at the Royal Military College of Canada, has traced the documents of the Foreign Nationalities Branch concerning the MIH and Bartók's involvement in it.
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