“Hungary Exposed”: Hungarian Surveillance, Pan-Slavism, and the American Front of Identity Politics, 1902-1903

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Emigration to the United States opened a new front for identity politics of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The years 1902-1903 are an illuminating moment in the decades-long debate in the New World between multiethnic cooperation and increasing separatism. After the turn of the century, Hungarian government officials and leaders of minority nationality communities in the United States became embroiled in a new round of church politics and an accompanying press war to influence national feeling. The Hungarian Ministry of Religion and Instruction, citing the threat of Greek Orthodox propaganda leading Roman Catholics astray and the disorder wrought by “pan-Slav sympathizing priests,” took a renewed interest in overseeing the spiritual and political welfare of Catholic emigrants from the Kingdom of Hungary. In response, a group of Slovak and Ruthenian priests published the pamphlet “Hungary Exposed,” in which they identified themselves as the oppressed “Irish of Hungary” and revealed the government’s “secret” plan to use espionage against them. Using the pamphlet and relevant documents from the Hungarian National Archives (MOL) and the American press, this paper will explore the different arguments of Hungarian authorities and Slovak-American leaders in advancing their interests and courting immigrant and American public opinion. Furthermore, it will discuss the unique conditions of the United States as venue in Austro-Hungarian minority relations.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Kristina Poznan is a Ph.D. candidate in History at The College of William and Mary in Virginia, specializing in the transnational history of the United States and Central & Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She earned her M.A. from W&M in 2011 and a B.A. from Vassar College in History and Education in 2008. Her dissertation will explore cooperation and conflict between different ethnic groups from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the United States and the continuing role of the Hungarian government in emigrants’ lives abroad. During the 2009-2010 academic year, she was the Fulbright Visiting Lecturer in English Studies at Károli Gáspár Református Egytem in Budapest.