Submitted Papers - 2017

National Tragedy and Urban Development: The Influence of the Trianon Peace Treaty on Debrecen

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The paper treats the history of Debrecen after World War I, through the prism of new advantages, which were used to rebuild the educational and cultural infrastructure of the city. In the shadow of a national tragedy the city of Debrecen benefited a lot from the new political situation. I will examine that process using the example of University of Debrecen and Deri Museum of Debrecen.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Janos Angi is Associate Professor of History at University of Debrecen and also director of Deri Museum of Debrecen. His special interest is the history of Eastern Europe in the 18th-20th centuries. He is author of some articles, coauthor, editor and coeditor of several books, textbooks, including the volume, Hungary Through the Centuries: Studies in Honor of Professors Steven Béla Várdy and Ágnes Huszár Várdy (with Richard P. Mulcahy and Tibor Glant).

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The Nationality Problem and the Compromise.

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The unsuccessful 1848 revolution left many theories of the causes of its fall. One of them was not being able to mitigate and solve the discrepancy between what the Hungarian nobility was ready to give to satisfy the need of the nationalities. The recognition of this failure made the majority of Hungarian statesmen to deal with the problem and try to find solution. Whether to treat the nationalities on an equal basis, or from the position of power by satisfying minimal rights divided the political arena.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Education: Columbia University Library Science; 1988 Eötvös Loránd University, Ph.D History; 1981;
Work: Long Island University, Brooklyn
Publications:
The Fate of Hungarian Jewish Dermatologists during the Holocaust at "Clio Dermatologica" Volume 34(2016): 216-298.
Famous Hungarian Jewish Doctors in the Shadow of the Holocaust (In Hungarian) at "Remény" Volume 3 (2010) 3.
The Holocaust in Hungary: A Selected and Compiled Bibliography 2000-2007 edited by Randolph L. Braham and Julia Bock. [New York]. The Rosenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies. Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2008.

Miscarriage of Justice: The Elimination of Jewish Attorneys in Hungary During the Holocaust. The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, 2006.
Article on Holocaust for the new edition of New Book of Knowledge. Danbury, CO: Grolier Pub. Co., 2002. V.8. p. 172-173.

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Teaching Political Violence: the Memory of the Hungarian Civil War (1918-1921) in High-School and University Textbooks, 1945-Present

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This presentation examines the memory of the post-WWI period through the prism of high-school and university textbooks from 1945 to the Present. It touches on such import issues as: changing personnel and editorial policies; history education under Communism; political reforms and the memory of the civil war after 1956; and the transformation of the education system after 1990. However, the focus of the presentation will be on language: on emotionally and ideologically-laden words, sentence fragments and semantics used to convey the basic tenets of competing ideologies and political interests. Special attention will be paid to what is not in the texts: to omissions, deleted sentences, absent images and taboos which are meant to hide, sweep under the carpet or push into the collective subconscious the memory of events, which the elites and the population are unable or unwilling to face. What events have become taboos after 1945 and how the list of taboos has changed in the last seventy years are the subjects of the presentation.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Béla Bodó was born in Hungary, and completed his undergraduate education at the University Debrecen and the University of Toronto in 1990. He received his Ph. D. from York University in Toronto, Canada in 1998. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Bonn, Germany. His latest book, Paramilitary and Mob Violence in Hungary after the First World War is scheduled to appear in 2018.

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Ervin Sinkó's Path to Communism, 1914-1919

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Ervin Sinkó was a Hungarian writer born in Szabadka in 1898 and died in Zagreb in 1967 after a peripatetic and in some ways emblematic twentieth century life. He was an active participant in the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, an experience about which he wrote his best known work, Optimists. Sinkó was only 20 years old when the events described in that book took place. His experiences in World War I, before he was drafted and after, when he served on the Russian Front, were critical in setting him on the path to Revolution.

My presentation, in preparation for what might eventually become a biography of Sinkó, will explore in some detail aspects of Sinkó’s life during the war. Most of this material will be taken from Sinkó’s diaries, his newspaper articles, and from his fictional account in Optimists (to the extent that we can verify from other sources that the events described are based on real experiences). My intention is to see how the precocious, adolescent Sinkó’s political opinions developed. I will explore the following questions and issues: Sinkó’s positive and negative attitudes towards military service; his years of service behind the lines as well as his time at the Russian Front in 1917-1918; was Sinkó redeployed to the Italian Front after the war with Russia had ended following Brest-Litovsk; how did the war turn Sinkó towards Lenin’s project of world revolution; and finally, what role, if any, did Sinkó’s Jewish background play in this trajectory.

I would like to propose a paper for the section on World War I, in which Peter Pastor will also be presenting a paper.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
76 Florissant Ave.
Framingham, MA 01701 (USA)
deakgy62@gmail.com
508 877-6937

Education:

B.A. in History from University of Chicago, 1971
Ph.D. in History from Columbia University, 1980

Dissertation topic:
Industry and Politics: The Hungarian National Association of Industrialists, 1902-1914.

After earning my doctorate, I switched fields to Computer Science and worked as a programmer and later as a manager in industry between 1980 and 2011, at which point I retired from the field of information technology and commenced my work as a historian.

Teaching:

Adjunct instructor at University of Massachusetts, Lowell from 2011-2015:
Courses in Modern World History, Russian History, Modern Revolutions.

Currently working on a translation of Sinko’s Novel of a Novel (Egy Regény regenye).

Papers:

Short comment on Sinko’s “Novel of a Novel” at the VIII. Nemzetközi Hungarológiai Kongresszus at Pécs, Hungary, in August, 2016. An expanded version of this paper will appear in print in 2017 in a book edited by Pál Pritz.

Paper entitled “Ervin Sinkó's Search for a Universal Identity: A Hungarian Jewish path to Communism and Beyond.”, ASEEES Conference, November, 2016.

Publications:

The Economy and Polity in Early Twentieth Century Hungary, The Role of the National Association of Industrialists, Boulder: East European Monographs, (Distributed by Columbia University Press) 1990

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Survey of the Historiography of Unconventional Explanations of the "Hungarian Conquest" by Hungarian Academics Since 1867

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The survey would start with Laszlo Rethy's theory, published in 1871, that the Hungarian language evolved in the Carpathian Basin in the millennium before 895, and probably end with Imre Farago's theory, published recently, that Hungarian place names have thousands-of-years of presence in the Carpathian region of Central Europe. (Réthy was a member of Hungary's National Museum and Farago teaches at ELTE).
My list of scholars is too long to have their theories described in a conference paper but I will try to keep my presentation to 20 minutes.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
From 1970 to 2008 Nándor Dreisziger taught history at the Royal Military College of Canada. He has published widely on North American and East European subjects. Since 1974 he has been editing the Hungarian Studies Review. His most recent field of interest is Hungarian ethnogenesis.

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The Long Road of Paul Samuelson’s Economics, an Introductory Textbook, to Hungary

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Paul A. Samuelson (1915-2009), was the first American Nobel laureate in economics and one of the foremost academic economists of the 20th century. He is quoted as saying” "I don't care who writes a nation's laws, or crafts its treatises, if I can write its economics textbooks," and he did. Paul Samuelson’s Economics is one of the most successful textbooks ever published in the field. The first edition was published in the USA in 1948. It immediately became a bestseller with sales of more than 120,000 copies in the first year. While this text, in various editions, was used in the majority of American colleges’ introductory economics courses, students in Hungary remained cut off from the concepts and theories described in the book. This presentation will look at two interrelated issues; the long road the book had to travel before it reached Hungarian college students in 1976, by then the 10th edition of the American textbook hit the US market; and the discrepancies between the English text and the Hungarian translation. The paper will also look at the Hungarian reception of the textbook.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Professor of Economics, St. John's U. in NY.

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Portrait of an Abusive Relationship. Parliamentary Sovereignty vs The Rule of Law in Hungary.

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In line with this year’s conference theme of “Sovereignty and Compromise” this paper addresses the conflict between the Rule of Law and Parliamentary Sovereignty, and the challenges of achieving an acceptable compromise between the two concepts that are the foundations of modern democratic governance. It is acknowledged, that even under the best of circumstances, the relationship between parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law, is problematical. Wherever parliament is sovereign, such as the British system, or Hungary, the rule of law must be given special protection against potential abuses by parliamentary majorities. Parliamentary sovereignty must be counterbalanced by rigorous systems of public scrutiny (in and out of parliament), and must be exercised in a manner that respects the basic principles of justice and constitutionalism. This paper looks at the state of the “marriage” between parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law in Hungary, a Central European country that is a member of both the European Union and the North Atlantic Community. The author argues that in the case of Hungary, the “marriage of convenience” between parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law has broken down. It details how the government of Viktor Orbán, elected to office in 2010 and re-elected once again in April 2014, abuses the rule of law, via its supermajority in parliament. How to achieve a balance, or a compromise, how to put an end to this abusive relationship ? The paper argues that political leadership and accountability play a strategic role in the re-establishment and maintenance of the needed compromise. New mechanisms of accountability, nationally and internationally, must be put in place and followed, in order to uphold the “original marriage contract”. Without appropriate leadership and accountability, the abuse will continue, and there will be no compromise. The paper begins with a conceptual “re-boot” of the values that Europe and the North Atlantic Community claim are the cornerstones of their constitutional democracies. It then moves on and examines the salience of these values in Hungary’s political culture. The third part of the essay focuses on the political leadership of the Orbán regime vis á vis these values and the political-cultural challenges this poses for democratic governance. In the final section, the paper outlines the leadership strategy and the mechanisms of accountability that Hungary and the European Union together could implement in order to restore harmony, between the rule of law and parliamentary sovereignty.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. András B. Göllner is Emeritus Associate Professor of Political Science at Montreal’s Concordia University. His field of experties is political economy, political communications, Central and East European affairs. He received his Ph.D. in political economy from the London School of Economics and higher degrees in International Relations from Carleton University and the Université de Montreal. Dr. Göllner played a prominent role in Hungary, during that country’s attempt to create the foundations of democratic governance and a free market system between 1990-2010. He is the author of three books and hundreds of articles in scholarly journals and mainstream media worldwide. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences on both sides of the Atlantic.

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The 1867 Austro-Hungarian Compromise from the Slovak and Czech Point of View

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
* Czech idea of the reconstruction of the Habsburg Monarchy in the 60th : federalization of the state based on the so-called “historical nations” (Palacký: The Idea of the Austrian state), dualism can only mean the end of the monarchy
* Slovak idea of the reconstruction of the Habsburg Monarchy in the 60th : centralization: all nations under one centre in Vienna (equality of rights), dualism can only mean the end of the Slovaks
* 1867 as a result of the “divide et impera” policy
* The consequences: Slovaks without Czechs and the Emperor and under the pressure of Hungarians; Czechs tried to push for the coronation of the Austrian Emperor to the Czech King
* The Czechs refused to participate in the 1867 Slovak idea of reconstruction of the Habsburg Monarchy in the 60th : centralization: all nations under one centre in Vienna (equality of rights)
* Compromise – the making of a modern Hungary or
* The Austro-Hungarian Compromise and Dualism as an example for the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Roma Holec is a full professor at the Faculty of Art of Comenius University and Research Fellow of the Institute of History of Slovak Academy of Sciences, both in Bratislava, Slovakia. His scientific interests are Economic and Social History, Environmental History and History of Aristocracy – all from 1848 till 1945 in Central-Europe. An author of 17 books, he has more than 240 conference presentations and invited lectures (from them 140 in abroad)and participated in many study visits at European universities and international projects. (f. e. European Science Foundation, Kommission für die Geschichte der Habsburgermonarchie, Volkswagen-Stiftung).

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National Self-Defence and Imperialism. The Balkan Policy of István Tisza’s Hungary during World War I

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
My paper to be presented at the 2017 AHEA conference deals mostly with the political views of Count István Tisza on the Balkans. Count Tisza was the most prominent Hungarian politician of the examined period. From 1913 he was the prime minister of Hungary, the ”strong man” who dominated Hungarian parliamentary life. He also enjoyed the full confidence of the Emperor-King Francis Joseph. Tisza’s views, therefore, can be considered as the official position of the Hungarian government and the political establishment.
His Balkan policy was influenced shaped by a three-pronged consideration: the economic interests of Hungary, rather than Austria-Hungary; the maintenance of Hungarian supremacy in the multi-national Hungarian Kingdom and lastly security of the Dual Monarchy.
It is worth to notice that the Hungarian political elite showed little interest towards foreign affairs before the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 since it was a common assumption that it is useless to deal with international relations as long as problematic issues of domestic politics remain unresolved. This point of view changed rapidly following the outbreak of the Balkan Wars and led to Tisza’s reformulation of Hungarian goals in the Balkans which were backed by most of the Hungarian establishment.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Arpad Hornyak is associate professor of history at the University of Pécs (Hungary) and senior research fellow at the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He gratuated at University of Pecs where he also obtained his PhD in history. His specialty is the history of the Balkans during the nineteenth and twentieth century, and twentieth-century Hungarian foreign policy. He has numerous essay publications that appeared in scholarly journals. He has a monograph publication that also appeared in English under the title Hungarian-Yugoslav Relations, 1918-1927 (2013) distributed by Columbia University Press. He recently edited a collection of articles written by Hungarian scholars and edited a volume of documents on Hungarian-Yugoslav relations.

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Who Was Hungarian or a Hungarian Citizen Before 1948, According to the Documents of the Ministry of the Interior

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Many Hungarian writers, historians, sociologists have asked the question, who is Hungarian. A possible answer to the question is given in the title of this presentation. That is, who can be considered a Hungarian citizen by the Hungarian State or by the Hungarian authorities?
After the Compromise with Austria in 1867, the need emerged in the Kingdom of Hungary that the state should regulate who qualifies to be viewed as a Hungarian citizen, as previously Austrian law and customary laws had been applicable. “Hungarians” still had to wait another 12 years to adopt the first Hungarian citizenship law, but three laws had also addressed the issue of the so-called “Village residence” before.
These may be considered essentially the precedence of the citizenship law. This presentation analyzes the 1879 Citizenship Law, which was valid until 1948. Thus, during all the great cataclysms of the Hungarian history – the Trianon Peace Treaty, the Holocaust and the population exchanges – the law had to be interpreted and applied. We shall show how the application of the law was implemented by the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior, especially if decisions had to be applied using the narrowest definitions. We shall also address how other laws overwrote the Citizenship Law during and after the Second World War, like for example to justify the deportation to Kamenets-Podolsk and/or the forced population exchanges after the war. The presentation addresses, amongst others, which departments dealt with citizenship issues within the Ministry of the Interior and also the activities of the National Central Authority for Controlling Aliens (NCACA, well-known Hungarian abbreviated name KEOKH), established in 1930. The timeliness of the topic is based on the event that NCACA’s successor organization will hand over its documents to the National Archives in 2017.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Kovacs Tamas earned a MA and a Ph. D (in history) from University of Pecs. He worked for Holocaust Memorial Center (2003-2008), currently work for National Archives of Hungary as vice-head of the Department of pre 1945 Governmental Organ. In addition, he teaches at the University of Pannonia. His special field the Hungarian Ministry of Interior, police, military and civil secret service during Horthy era and the holocaust in Hungary.

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War and Collective Remembrance-Cemetery of Heroes. Channels of Representation in Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Recently, the first steps of preparation have been made for the Centenary of World War I (2014-2018) on both international and Hungarian grounds. There has been a government committee founded to address the various duties in respect to the centenary.

Since until 2013 even the number of wartime burial places had not been cleared, the Hungarian Ministry of Defense initiated a national wartime burial place and War Memorial Survey Program. With the participation of the Ministry of Domestic Affairs all the local governments were contacted to collect the relevant data and the processing of the collected information is in progress. It is planned that by the end of the centennial of World War I in 2018 the data pool containing the Hungarian military losses will be completed.
With its specific GIS representation experience a development team based in the city of Debrecen contributed greatly to the works significant from the points of view of collective remembrance and identity.

The Cemetery of Hungarian Soldiers, or as many of the local civilians call it, the Cemetery of Heroes is one of the most respected eternal treasures and memorials of the city. The first dead buried here were the fallen soldiers of the battle at Debrecen on August 02, 1849 during Hungarian Revolution and Freedom Fight 1848-1849.
The cemeteries were re-opened again at the time of WW I and WW II to bury the heroes who died on the battlefield and in local hospitals.
Under the trees of the Cemetery of Hungarian Soldiers and the Cemetery of Heroes rest the 112 soldiers of the 1849 War of Independence, 634 soldiers of the Tsar Army and other Hungarian and German soldiers who fell at the time of WW I and WW II.
Roughly, an estimated 4,000 people lie here in peace.

The 5. István Bocskai Marksmen Brigades of the Hungarian Army and the Debrecen Organization of the Army & Society Friends’ Circle (HTBK DSZ) are renowned for their outstanding tradition-bound works to pay tribute to the deceased. Besides, in communion with the above organizations, upon civil initiation a program was started entitled “The resting heritage of the City of Debrecen” that primarily addresses the processing and accessing the data of the Cemetery of Hungarian Soldiers and the Cemetery of Heroes by up-to-date information technology.
Our presentation is aimed at the description of this GIS representation project aimed at the continuous rekindling of the collective remembrance concentrating to the burial places of World War I.

(Access in Hungarian: http://gis.erda.hu/erda/html/projects/temeto_debrecen_hosok/honvedtemeto/)



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
János Mazsu is Professor of Social and Economic History at Debrecen University Faculty of Economics and Business Administration), Debrecen, Hungary. He is an expert in Social and Intellectual History, he served as Ránki György Chair (Indiana University) and has been active in the Jean Monnet program. Selected publications: "The Social History of the Hungarian Intelligentsia, 825–1914". Atlantic Research and Publications, Boulder. Atlantic Studies on Society in Change 89. New York, Columbia University Press, 1997. 292.p. G. Szabó-Módi-Mazsu. "Debrecen, a cívis város" (Debrecen, the civis city). Hungarian, English, German). Budapest, 2003. 320.p. "A jó polgár" (The good citizen) with Setényi János. Debrecen, 1996. "Iparosodás és modernizáció" (Industrializations and modernization) ed. and co-author, Debrecen, 1991. "Tanulmányok a magyar értelmiség társadalomtörténetéhez". Gondolat.Budapest, 2012. 250.p. “ Jewish settlement in banned cities: Jewish immigration in Debrecen (Hungary) in the periods between 1790-1870”.Metszetek: 2014/1
„Piac, kereskedelem, kapitalizálódás és piactér Debrecenben a 19. században I-II.” (Market and marketplace – forms and spatio-structural reprezentations of capitalism in Debrecen),2012/2-3, 2013/4

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Hungarian Freedom Fighters in America -- An Oral History

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):

On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the 1956 uprising and freedom fight the Hungarian House of New York organized an oral history research that was followed by an exhibit depicting the stories of the freedom fighters and immigrants, displaying their personal artifacts and portraits from 1956. Our goal was to contribute in this way to deepening awareness the stories of Hungarians living as immigrants. The 1956 uprising and freedom fight is a pivotal point not only in the history of Hungary but in the history of American-Hungarian immigration as well. Of the 200,000 people who left Hungary then, 60,000 found a new home in North America. 1956 remains ever a keystone of respect accorded Hungary on the international plane. During the time of the Hungarian uprising the public in the West observed with helpless amazement as the people in a country behind the Iron Curtain rose up against the far stronger Soviet super power, putting their lives, their families and their livelihoods at risk in a heroic, tragic, according to the prevailing political logic irrational, struggle for freedom. Fighting for the same ideal which in the West is "the most abstract, but at the same time, the most indispensable" (Csaba Békés). The West received the refugees coming from Hungary with open arms. And in turn, the refugees became rapidly and successfully integrated into American society while, at the same time, they played and continue to play an active role in creating institutions, which preserve the social life of their local American-Hungarian communities.

This presentation describes how this project was accomplished and analyzes the results, comparing the lives and perspectives of Hungarians from the New York area who participated.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Ildikó Nagy has a degree in sociology from ELTE. She is curretly the managing director of the New York Hungarian House.

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Heritage and Repatriation in the History of Habsburg and Hungarian Archives

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
How long has Hungary had a national archives? It’s a trick question: the Hungarian National Archives (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár) was created only in 2012 with the integration of the central repository of the country (Magyar Országos Levéltár) and the county archives. The Országos Levéltár arose by stages beginning in 1723 as the repository of the state offices of the country. Formal definition of “the country” became more complicated after 1918, but Hungary’s archives fared better than those of Austria in the sense that Hungary retained possession of major bodies of public records for regions that were now part of neighboring countries—whereas many of the records in Vienna were “repatriated” to Austria’s successor states. The aspiration to create an archives “of the nation” arose well before 2012. Today’s nation is cultural and sociological more than administrative, and the archives increasingly shared the ambition of the National Library to document Hungarians everywhere. Repositories in Hungary have accepted donations by Hungarians in the diaspora for decades, but especially since the establishment of the Mikes Kelemen Program in 2014 for the shipment to Hungary. My paper will examine the results of the program and the disadvantages of separating the national heritage of diaspora populations from that of their host countries.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
James P. Niessen earned his Ph.D at Indiana University with a dissertation on religion and politics in Transylvania during the 1860s. He has published various studies on Hungarian religious history, libraries and archives, and most recently on refugees from the Revolution of 1956. He is World History Librarian at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, external public member of the Hungarian Academy, and currently serving his second term as President of AHEA.

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Yet Another North American Editor Opposes Kossuth: James Watson Webb

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In my previous AHEA papers I discussed the opposition of two editors to Kossuth and the Hungarian War of Independence 1848-49: Francis Bowen, editor of the North American Review, and Orestes Brownson, editor of Brownson’s Quarterly Review. The third member of the trio of editorial opponents was James Watson Webb, of the New York Courier and Enquirer (Q&E). The Q&E was a commercial paper, which Webb had edited since the late 1820s. Although Q&E mostly consisted of advertisements and business news, a considerable space was devoted to foreign news by the 1840s.

Webb was appointed by President Zachary Taylor to be Charge d’Affaires to Vienna in 1849. (He believed his early support of Taylor earned him a diplomatic post and was disappointed to be appointed to what was considered a minor post). However, Webb neglected to wait for confirmation by the Senate, and took up residence in Vienna. When the Senate rejected his appointment by a 34-7 vote, an embittered Webb was obliged to return to the United States. The public reason given was that the Senate intended to keep the post vacant as a “punishment” for Austria’s brutal suppression of the Hungarian rebels after their defeat in August 1849. A secondary (or perhaps primary) reason was that Webb, an outspoken, pugnacious character, had many political enemies. Upon Webb’s return, the Courier’s coverage of Hungary and Kossuth turned negative. Although he was one of the invited speakers at New York City’s Municipal Dinner for Kossuth in December 1851, the crowd shouted down the unpopular Webb both times as he attempted to give his speech. Webb’s opposition lasted throughout Kossuth’s time in the United States, and when Kossuth returned to Europe in July 1852, Webb claimed to find incriminating documents that Kossuth left behind.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Kenneth Nyirady is Reference Specialist for Hungary in the European Division, Library of Congress, a position he has held since 1990. From 1983 to 1990 he was a research analyst in the Library's Federal Research Division. He received an M.A. in history from the State University of New York at Binghamton (now Binghamton University) in 1976, and an M. Phil. in Uralic Studies from Columbia University in 1979.

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1867: Compromise – Coronation – Union

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
With Compromise from 1867, Transylvania’s more than three century-long separate status and development came to an end. The union of Transylvania with Hungary was concomitantly the precondition for the Compromise and its direct consequence. Also as a consequence of the Compromise Franz Joseph was crowned in Pest-Buda as King of Hungary. “The Compromise and Coronation completed a shift in Hungarian loyalty, after which Franz Joseph and Elisabeth were commonly referred to in Hungary as ‘King’ and ‘Queen’” – as Alice Freifeld emphasized – and the alliance between the dynasty and the Hungarian political elite had been reinvigorated. The new concept of the state was visualised by the coronation ceremonies.
The presentation will mainly focus on the ceremonies associated with the coronation hill. All the counties and cities were asked to send earth for the coronation hill from “historically important” places. The hill was intended to symbolize the unity and extent of the state, and it was supposed to summarize the whole of Hungarian history. It also had to legitimize the new situation created by the Compromise. The coronation was a splendid opportunity for the application of a whole range of political symbols, on the other hand it increased the aversion and nationalist feelings of the marginalized nationalities (in Transylvania the Romanians and Saxons).


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Judit Pál, PhD, is a Historian, professor at Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj (Romania), Faculty of History and Philosophy. She specializes in the history of 18th and 19th century Transylvania, in urban history, social history (elite history), and in the history of Armenians.
Author and editor of several volumes. Some recent volumes: András Vári, Judit Pál, Stefan Brakensiek, Herrschaft an der Gränze. Mikrogeschichte der Macht im östlichen Ungarn im 18. Jahrhundert. Köln – Weimar – Wien, Böhlau, 2014. (Adelswelten, 2.); Pál Judit, Vlad Popovici (eds.), Elites and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe (1848−1918). Frankfurt am Main etc., Peter Lang, 2014; Judit Pál, A Habsburg Monarchia története, 1526−1848 (The History of the Habsburg Monarhchy). Kolozsvár, Mega, 2014.

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The Politics of Retribution Through the Lens of Igazoló Bizottságok [Certification Committees] in the World of Stage and Screen in Hungary, 1945-1947

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This presentation will examine what happened after 1945 within the world of stage and screen in Hungary. Who was left alive? How did individual actors/actresses situate themselves? How did the politics of retribution unfold in the reorganization of the field of theatre and film in Hungary? Who never worked again? What happened to the film community when Communism became firmly entrenched in Hungary?
This chapter will examine the inner workings of one such certification committee, the Magyar Szinészek Szabad Szakszervezete Igazoló Bizottság (Hungarian Actors Free Union Certification Committee), the union that was established to examine the details of the activities of actors, actresses and technical workers in the theatre and film world and to determine whether they would be certified to work again. For actors and actresses, to obtain certification was a matter of primary importance. This paper will examine the inner workings of the certification committee through the historical lens of the post war era and the methodology and decisions of the examiners. It will also look at the language utilized in their interviews, and why certain individuals were certified quickly and with very little administrative process, while others received several months or years or lifetime ban from acting in film and/or stage again.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Susan M. Papp, Director/Producer, earned a Master of Arts in North American Social History at York University in Toronto in 1985. She began her career in journalism at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Drama department in 1981 as a historical researcher. In 1988, Ms. Papp became a current affairs producer in the regional news department at the CBC. Susan Papp developed a profile and reputation as an on-camera current affairs reporter specializing in social issues for CBC TV. In 1991, she was chosen to work as field producer for The Journal, and its subsequent retitled version Prime Time News. While at the CBC, she was awarded two of the top journalism awards in Canada: The Michener Award and the Best Investigative Award by the Canadian Journalists Association.

In 1993, while on leave of absence from the BBC, Ms. Papp founded her own television production company, Postmodern Productions, and has since produced documentaries for CBC, BRAVO, WTN, Discovery Channel and OMNI Television. She has published extensively in the field of Hungarian immigration and settlement in North America. Presently, Ms. Papp teaches Hungarian Studies at the Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.

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The Hungarian Home Front during the Great War

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne Francis Ferdinand and his wife, Sophia while they were on a ceremonial visit to the Bosnian Capital Sarajevo. The nineteen year old Bosnian Serb youth was a member of a group of conspirators whose weapons were supplied by officials of the Serb state who were also members of the nationalist Black Hand (otherwise called Union or Death) organization. A month later Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, but within days the local war developed into a World War due to the bipolar nature of the alliance. Though the belligerents expected the war to end by winter, it lasted for four years. The conflict evolved into total war with the successful mobilization of the home front was crucial for sustaining the fighting at the war front. The history of the Hungarian war front indicates that although prewar problems came into sharper focus, the home front was able to hold; it collapsed into revolution only following military defeat at the war front.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Peter Pastor is Professor Emeritus of History at Montclair State University, New Jersey. His special interest is the history of diplomatic and military relations between Hungary and Russia/USSR. He is the author of numerous articles, a monograph, and editor or coeditor of several books, including the 2012 publication, Essays on World War I (with Graydon A. Tunstall).

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Romantic Elements of Hungarian Nationalism and Their Transformations in the Compromise Era

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Nationalism as a coherent idea emerged at the beginning of the 19th century under the inspiration of romantic worldview in Hungary. However, numerous concepts and elements, which romantic nationalism developed, survived the founding period of the so-called “reform era” and occurred later at crucial moments of national history. From time to time they served as a mobilizing force and symbols of national unity, but sometimes they changed their face and became bases of political, cultural or social exclusions.
In my contribution I’d like to present and follow the history of some of the substantive romantic ideas of Hungarian nationalism as they were used and instrumentalized in the Compromise era with an outlook to their later use. Romantic worldview influenced most of the Hungarian national symbols and cults, but its influence has also been significant in the history of Hungarian national identity. The evolving political romanticism of the late 19th century used the elements of the national past to visualize a triumphant national future, developed the contradictory concepts of state and cultural nationalisms, presented the cult of the Hungarian national mythology in an era of economic and social change. As a consequence, the originally liberal nationalism was channelled to the neo-conservative political ideas by the end of the Compromise era.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Éva Petrás made extensive researches in the field of 20th century church history in Hungary. She obtained her PhD at European University Institute, Florence (Italy), dealt with the intellectual and social history of the Hungarian Catholic church between the two world wars. Since January 2009 she is a researcher in the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security, Budapest, and conducts researche in the history of the Catholic Church after World War II.

Dr. Petrás also spent three years of research in a scientific research institute in Budapest, which hosted researches in the field of comparative history of ethnic and national minorities. She dealt with the problem area of Hungarian national consciousness and with the comparative analysis of Hungarian and Slovakian national concepts, controversies of national pasts. Since then, she is also a dedicated researcher of Central European nationality questions.

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