Accepted Abstracts

Liberation or Occupation? Interactions between the Hungarian Minority in Czechoslovakia and the Occupying Forces of the Hungarian People’s Army (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In August 1968, almost exactly thirty years after the First Vienna Award, Hungarian troops marched into the southern part of Czechoslovakia. The country was in the middle of a democratization process called the Prague Spring, which seemed to be a chance for the Hungarian minority to settle the legal status of the national minorities based on collective rights or even self-administration. The Hungarian minority was shocked by the military intervention and protested against it in different forms. The aim of this presentation is to explore the demands of the nationalities regarding the regulation of minority rights, and the reaction of the party organs, the Czechoslovak press, and cultural organizations. I will discuss this process, based on the existing literature, as well as on primary sources available in the Archives of Forum Minority Research Institute in Šamorín (Slovakia), and how these relations were affected by the Hungarian People's Army’s invasion. I also conduct some examples of people-to-people contact between locals living in the region and soldiers of the occupying forces to demonstrate typical forms of reactions. Lastly, I illustrate how successful the nationalities’ initiative was, and which long-term results can be observed.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Péter Hevő is assistant professor at the Department of International Relations and European Studies, Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He received his Ph.D. in History from the same university in 2019. His research interests include diplomacy, German foreign policy, and contemporary political history with a focus on East-Central Europe. He has held fellowships in Berlin, München, Potsdam, Heidelberg, Washington, D.C. and Prague. He is also an editor of the online history journal, Újkor.hu, and author of the monograph Vissza a fegyverekhez? A hadsereg és külpolitika kapcsolata az újraegyesített Németországban.

---

A Volksbund és Kárpátalja. Adalékok a kárpátaljai németség 1938 és 1944 közötti történetéhez (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
A német kisebbség, bár számarányukat tekintve az 1941-es népszámlálás alapján a kárpátaljai összlakosság csupán 1,5%-át tette ki, de a területi revíziókat követően Délkelet-Európa legnagyobb német népcsoportjához tartozott. Ennek a népcsoportnak az érdekképviseletét volt hivatott ellátni a Magyarországi Németek Népi Szövetsége (Volksbund). A Volksbund kárpátaljai működésről mindazonáltal keveset tudunk. A régió 1938 és 1944 közötti történetét feldolgozó szakmunkákban legtöbbször csak említés szintjén foglalkoznak a kárpátaljai német kisebbséggel, és magával a Volksbunddal. Az előadás keretein belül így arra vállalkozom, hogy bemutatom a Volksbund kárpátaljai működését és tevékenységét a Kárpátaljai Területi Állami Levéltár forrásainak tükrében.
Although the German minority accounted for only 1,5% of the total population of Transcarpathia according to the 1941 census, after the territorial revisions it belonged to the largest German ethnic group in South-East Europe. The People’s Association of Germans in Hungary (Volksbund) was responsible for representing the interests of this ethnic group. However, little is known about the operation of the Volksbund in Transcarpathia. In professional works dealing with the history of the region between 1938 and 1944, the Transcarpathian German minority and the Volksbund itself are only briefly mentioned. Within the framework of the presentation, I undertake to present the activities of the Volksbund in Transcarpathia, based on the sources of the State Archives of Transcarpathia.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Erik Maruszics is a PhD student at the Doctoral School of History and Ethnology of the University of Debrecen. He works as an assitant lecturer at the Department of History and Social Sciences of the Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education. Previously, he graduated also from the Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education, where he was studying for six years. In 2022, he obtained a master's degree in History and Archeology from the College. The focus of his research interests is primarily the political history of Transcarpathia between 1938 and 1944, as well as the history of local towns and ethnic minorities.

---

The 1956 Hungarian Revolution's Handbook (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select): Book Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Eötvös Loránd Research Network's Institute of History published a handbook for researchers. The book contains papers about general questions and country specific studies of the reception of the 1956 Hungarian refugees. In my presentation I would like to introduce the book, what will be published in English in the following year.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
I am a Pro Scientia gold medalist, two times Countrywide Scienific Student Conference (OTDK) winner PhD-student of University of Pécs. I write my dissertation about the American, Canadian, Australian governmental reactions to the 1956 Hungarian revolution and refugee crisis. I participated in conference not just in Hungary, but in Canada and in France too. I published a Hungarian-German bilingual popular science oral-history book about the 1956 Hungarian refugees in Graz. I published book reviews or articles in Századok and Múlt-kor.

---

Different Traditions of Christian Democracy in Todays Hungary (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Since the regime change conservative thought and Christian democracy had a major impact on Hungarian politics. Two of recent Hungarian governments, the first freely elected Hungarian Prime Minister, József Antall, and the current Prime Minister have favoured the term Christian Democrat and have placed themselves in the heritage of this intellectual movement. The recent presentation tries to analyse the similarities and differences between the approaches of these two governements and find the roots of todays political Catholicism in Hungary.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Péter Krisztián Zachar, PhD, historian, associate professor at the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy, and vice dean for international affairs at the Faculty of Public Governance and International Studies, University of Public Service, Budapest. His major field of research is the political history of the 19th and 20th century in Central Europe, the history of international relations, the theoretical background of social partnership, the catholic social thought.

---