Hungarian government 'traps' graduates

[Jaga]

Hungary has a very nationalistic goverment recently. It also experiences a deep economical crisis.

Hungarian government 'traps' graduates to stop brain drain

Hungarian students receiving state-sponsored university places have been told they must remain in Hungary for at least 10 years after their graduation - but does this move to halt the country's brain drain violate EU freedom of movement laws?

Gergo Birtalan watches the Danube flowing past with a glum expression.

We are on Margitsziget, the gorgeous green island in the middle of Budapest, where the authorities have laid on a giant party for school leavers.

Hundreds of young people are pouring across the bridge into a park where rock bands are setting up alongside snack stands and beer stalls.

Gergo has also just finished high school but he is not joining in the celebrations. He feels that his ambitions have been crushed.

This February, just a week before the deadline to apply for university, tens of thousands of Hungarian teenagers got a nasty surprise.

Student Gergo Birtalan discovered he would have to pay university fees in his final year of school
As part of its austerity measures, the right-wing government announced it was cutting the number of state-funded university places by almost 40%.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban argued that the country had too many graduates chasing too few jobs and announced that the state would continue to fund subjects like engineering, but would drastically reduce support for other subjects like economics and law.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19213488

[pieter]

Jaga,

Hungary today is seen by educated (academic) Europeans from other European countries as a xenophbobe, isolationalist, extremely nationalist and Populist country, because there is negative news anout the country in the international English speaking press, but also in the German, Dutch and French press. You have a rightwing conservative government which has nearly communist "one party state" tactics to silence the press of oponents, and you have a scary far right, fascist like party, Jobbik, The Movement for a Better Hungary (Hungarian: Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom), a Hungarian radical nationalist political party. Magyarország a Magyaroké, 'Hungary for the Hungarians' is the party slogan, and the party milita, Hungarian Guard (Magyar Gárda) looked like the old Arrow Cross men of the Hungarian national socialist Arrow Cross Party (Nyilaskeresztes Párt – Hungarista Mozgalom 1935-1945). The Hungarian Guard Movement itself claimed to aim at "defending a physically, spiritually and intellectually defenceless Hungary". Its opponents, such as Hungary's former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány and members of the international press have described the organization neo-fascist or neo-Nazi, similar to Hitler's brownshirts ("SA") in Nazi Germany and the fascist Arrow Cross Party in Hungary. The Hungarian Guard was founded through an "oath of loyalty to Hungary" by its members in Buda Castle, Budapest, on 25 August 2007. It was dissolved by the Budapest Tribunal on 2 July 2009.


Jewish victims of Arrow Cross men in the court of the Dohány Street Synagogue ((Hungarian: Dohány utcai zsinagóga/nagy zsinagóga), also known as the Great Synagogue or Tabakgasse Synagogue, is located in Erzsébetváros, the 7th district of Budapest.

The ideology of the Arrow Cross has resurfaced to some extent in recent years, with the Neo-Fascist Hungarian Welfare Association prominent in reviving Szálasi's "Hungarizmus" through its monthly magazine, Magyartudat ("Hungarian Awareness"). However, "Hungarism" is very much a fringe element of modern Hungarian politics; the Hungarian Welfare Association has since dissolved.

Reorganization Hungarian Guard

Since its dissolution ordered by the courts the Guard has attempted to reorganize itself as a civil service association, known as the Magyar Gárda Foundation, engaged in cultural and nation building activities rather than politics. It has held at least one "swearing in" ceremony and plans to expand its activities around the country.
Its renewed activities are opposed by the Hungarian authorities and prosecutors claim that the founding of the new organization is in contempt of previous court rulings. In February 2010 the Parliament passed a law which significantly raised the punishment for participating in a dissolved organization.

Links:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobbik / pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobbik
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_Cross_Party / pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strzałokrzyżowcy
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far-right_politics
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radykalna_prawica

[pieter]

[pieter]

New Hungarian Guard

„The ethnicity- and race-based opinions expressed at the demonstrations and events organized by the Hungarian Guard against »gypsy crime«, have in fact breached the basic principle of the right to human dignity. The Hungarian Guard has […] turned discrimination into an agenda. In order to express this, the Hungarian Guard has held intimidating demonstrations on several occasions.” – the Supreme Court expressed in its verdict approving the dissolution of the Guard. In 2011, as one of successors of the banned Hungarian Guard, the New Hungarian Guard hate group continues to organize such demonstrations.


A far-right paramilitary group in military formation at Jobbik's protest on January 14, 2012.


Far-right paramilitary group marching in Budapest, January 14, 2012. Note what appears to be another guardist formation behind this group in the background. Photo: Facebook.

On May 14, the New Hungarian Guard gathered once again, in a rural setting, after months of silence and persecution for a swearing in ceremony.

Despite police harassments, units of the New Hungarian Guard performed formal exercises in the morning hours followed by the the inauguration ceremony and the blessing of the flags by minister Lóránt Hegedűs.

After the swearing-in ceremony, Tamás Juhász, the captain of the New Hungarian Guard spoke to the assembly.



In his speech, he praised members of the guard, who remained loyal to the ideals of the movement operating under constant pressure and persecution. Despite the attacks coming from both inside and outside, the new Hungarian Guard still alive and growing said the captain. The community of patriotic Hungarians took a historic role on itself that is no less than saving the Hungarian nation from destruction. United we are invincible said Juhász. Solidarity is the most important weapon we have, said the captain. Tamás Juhász also remarked that the New Hungarian Guard considers all progressive political forces or civil organizations ally.

[pieter]

Csanád Szegedi



Csanád Szegedi (born 22 September 1982) is a Hungarian nationalist politician and elected Member of the European Parliament with the Jobbik - Movement for a Better Hungary.

Personal life

Szegedi was born in Miskolc. His father, Miklós Szegedi, is a famous wood carving sculptor, and his mother, Katalin Molnár (Meisels), is a software engineer.
Prior to the revelation of Szegedi's partial Jewish origin, Szegedi was notorious for his incendiary comments about Jews. In 2007, he was a founding member of the Hungarian Guard, a group with black uniforms and striped flags reminiscent of the Arrow Cross, a pro-Nazi party during WWII.
The Hungarian Guard was banned in 2009, at which time Szegedi joined the Jobbik party, the country's biggest far-right political force. Since 2009, he has served in the European Parliament in Brussels.
In June 2012, Szegedi revealed that he had recently learned that his grandparents on his mother's side were Jewish: his maternal grandmother survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, and his maternal grandfather was a veteran of forced labor camps. Under Jewish law this makes Szegedi a Jew. Szegedi was raised Hungarian Reformed (Protestant) and does not practice the Jewish religion. Szegedi said he defines himself as someone with "ancestry of Jewish origin — because I declare myself 100 percent Hungarian."

Political career

Szegedi has strong anti-EU, anti-Roma, anti-Romanian, anti-Semitic and anti-Slovak sentiments. As active Member of the European Parliament, he openly advocates leaving the European Union and as supporter of Hungarian Turanism establishing a "new Turanian alliance" with Central Asian states. Szegedi paid from the European Parliament budget three men – Előd Novák, Balázs Molnár and Roland Kürk – who according to Tamás Polgár, better known as Tomcat, were members of the editorial board of the kuruc.info, a racist website associated with Jobbik. All three received their salaries as "local assistants" to the member of parliament. Szegedi is also propagator of the Old Hungarian script.

Resignation from All Posts in Jobbik

On 28 July 2012, Szegedi released a statement to the press, which was reproduced on his party's website that he had with immediate effect resigned from all the various positions still held in Jobbik. Szegedi expressed his wish to remain a Member of the European Parliament.
The Jobbik statement confirmed that the news of his mother's Jewish ancestry "did not pose any threat to his positions in the party."
The Jobbik statement went on to say that "Last week, in July, media reported that the MEP [Szegedi] had known about his origin for longer than he previously stated. Allegedly, in 2010, the MEP tried to stop news published about his origin by offering money [bribe], which the MEP categorically denies. This prompted Jobbik vice-president Elod Novak to call for Szegedi's full resignation, describing the MEP's actions as a 'spiral of lies'." Jobbik says its issue is the suspected bribery, not his Jewish roots.
Jobbik will release a statement, regarding the issue of resignation and Szegedi's possible recall from the European Parliament.

[pieter]

I have mixed emotions about Hungary. I know about the old ties and good connections between Hungarians and Poles and between Hungary and Poland. I visited Budapest in 1995 and I loved the city immediately. But in the same time I don't like the way Hungarian politics goes, and the fact that both the far right and far left (former communists) have such a large influence and that the Russian maffia is present there and has connections with Hungarian politicians.

[pieter]

Jaga,

If you have the chance to visit Budapest it is worthwhile the trip.

The history of Budapest began with Aquincum, originally a Celtic settlement that became the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia.
The ancient city of Aquincum was situated on the North-Eastern borders of the Pannonia province within the Roman Empire. The ruins of the city can be found today in Budapest. It is believed that Marcus Aurelius may have written at least part of his book Meditations at Aquincum.


The Aquincum ruins in the North-Western Óbuda district within Budapest


The Óbuda district on the map of Budapest

Hungarians arrived in the territory in the 9th century. Their first settlement was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241-42. The re-established town became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture in the 15th century. Following the Battle of Mohács and nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule, development of the region entered a new age of prosperity in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Budapest became a global city after the 1873 unification. It also became the second capital of Austria-Hungary, a great power that dissolved in 1918. After the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, when Hungary lost 72% of its former territory, culturally and economically the country became wholly Budapest-dominated. The capital dominates the country both by the size of its population—which dwarfs those of Hungary's other cities Budapest was the focal point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, Operation Panzerfaust in 1944, the Battle of Budapest of 1945, and the Revolution of 1956.


The Hungarian Revolution of 1848


Béla Kun was the leader of the Hungarian Revolution of 1919


German Tiger II Tank in Budapest during Operation Panzerfaust in October 1944


Red army soldiers during the battle of Budapest in 1945


The Hungarian Uprising of 1956

Cited as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, its extensive World Heritage Site includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes' Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second oldest in the world. Other highlights include a total of 80 geothermal springs, the world's largest thermal water cave system, second largest synagogue, and third largest Parliament building. The city attracts about 2.7 million tourists a year, making it the 37th most popular city in the world according to Euromonitor.



Budapest is the capital and the largest city of Hungary, the largest in East-Central Europe and the seventh largest in the European Union.

Personally I liked Budapest, because it combined the oriental Ottoman empire atmosphere of Istanbul (Turkey) with the Central-European melancholy, romanticism, and culture of Vienna, Prague, Krakow and Warszawa and also a little bit of London due to the parlaiment buildings. Budapest and Hungary seems to lie on a border between the European culture and the Eastern oriental or Asian culture. The nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule is clearly visible in Budapest. I sometimes had the impression that some buildings might have been mosques or Ottoman buildings, quarters or pallaces? next to that there is the Gypsy influence, the Jewish infuence (the Sephardic jews or the Khazar Ashkenazim), the Austrian (Habsburg) influence and the Asian influence (mongols/tartars of the Sovjet-Union/Caucacus)?


Taking a bath here in Buda, you're transported back to the Ottoman period. Unfortunately I didn't, because I spend all my time in Pest.


When you are searching for a Turkish bath or spa then there is no better place than Budapest! Budapest Baths are ranked as having some of the best Turkish spas on the globe. Rudas baths and Király baths have remained as Turkish baths in style and atmosphere, so if you want to experience a real Turkish bath, these two are the ones to visit.

All of the original Turkish architecture of the ancient Ottoman Empire can be viewed at these baths such as colored glass windows, the spectacular octagon shapes of their pools and the domed structures atop buildings.

Hungarian is a Uralic language, more specifically an Ugric language; the most closely related languages are Mansi and Khanty of western Siberia. Hungarian is a Uralic language, one of the Ugric branch, spoken by the Hungarians. It is the most widely spoken non-Indo-European language in Europe, based on the number of native speakers. Hungarian is the official language of Hungary and is also spoken by Hungarian communities in Serbia, Rumania, Slovakia, the Ukraine, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and by diaspora communities worldwide.

It was just enjoyable to walk along the long streets and boulevards of Budapest (I spend most time in Pest and saw little of Buda) and take a bus or tram every now and then or the Metro. I loved both the Museum of Modern art and the Museum of ancient art and culture which laid just on the other side of the square with the grave of the unknown soldier. Like Warsaw, Krakow and Prague this city breathes history, culture and life.


The Palace of Art in the Pest part of Budapest, recently rebuilt in Pest. A modern art museum with a really good collection.


The Fine Arts Museum in Pest is dedicated to foreign works of Old Masters from the 13th to 18th centuries, ancient artifacts from Greece, Rome, and Egypt, and newer works. The Spanish and Italian collections are home to some big-name painters such as Leonardo and El Greco. I liked the Egyptian collection very much. And I saw the Egyptian collections of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Louvre in Paris and the ancient museum in Leiden (Netherlands) each of those collections were top collections of Egyptian sculptures, mummies, artifacts and etc. The Budapest collections was not less than the NY, Paris or Leiden ones.

Cheers,
Pieter

P.S.- Poland had also an Asian or Ottoman influence if you look at the dress of Polish nobelman in the 17th or 18th centuries.

[pieter]

This is a story that happened in the past so the content should be read from the perspective of the past tense, but I posted it to show the close ties and connections between Poland and Hungary, and the empathic feelings of Polish and Hungarians for the "other" people. My mother told me about the special historical relationship between Poland and Hungary, before I read about it or saw any documentry or tv program about it.



POLISH - HUNGARIAN FRIENDSHIP DAY 2011

MARCH 23RD IN POZNAŃ

UNDER HONORARY PATRONAGES OF THE

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND

AND the PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF HUNGARY

"Hungary and Poland are two eternal oaks. Each of them shot up a separate and distinct trunk, but their roots widely scattered in the ground are intertwined and knitted invisibly. Hence the existence and vigor of one is the condition of the other's life and health."

With these words, Stanislaw Worcell, nineteenth-century Polish political activist and journalist, described the specific nature of bond which unites Poles and Hungarians.


Stanisław Gabriel Worcell (1799-1857)

In the history of Europe it is a unique phenomenon. Repeated time after time, functioning in Polish and Hungarian, a popular saying about our relationship contains a lot of truth. For centuries, our nations combined affinities of royal families, struggled for common ideals, resistance to totalitarian rule. Interestingly, it appears that mutual amity between these two nations is both the result of political ambition and widely shared feeling of citizens.

The mutual positive attitude of our nations can be proved by the unanimous adoption of a resolution on the establishment 23rd of March Day of Polish-Hungarian Friendship by the Polish Sejm and the Parliament of the Republic of Hungary in 2007. This is important from the viewpoint of shaping our modern partnership. The event is celebrated alternately in Poland and Hungary. In 2011, the honor to host the participants of this prestigious meeting, fell in the share of Poznań.

The idea of annual event aimed at renewing and reviving Polish-Hungarian contacts was born in Györ which is twinned with Poznań. In 2006, during the Congress of Polish and Hungarian twin cities in Györ, where met the presidents and representatives of the governments of Hungary and Poland. The monument of friendship between two nations was veiled and Polish-Hungarian Historical Society of Piłsudski in Györ submitted a written proposal for Polish and Hungarian presidents.

The possibility of organizing this year's celebration of Friendship Day in Poznań is an honor granted for good cooperation of our city with the Hungarian partner. Györ representatives are regularly present in the Poznan International Fair of Books for Children and Youth, Tour Salon, John's Market (Jarmark Świętojański). In 2010, representatives of Poznań participated in Györ in the festival "The Magic of Baroque", the International Children's Olympiad, and at the International Exhibition of Books.

The official celebration of the Friendship Day will be held on the 23rd of March, but Hungary and its culture will be hosted in Poznań from the 17th of March. Main celebrations of the Polish-Hungarian Friendship Day will be accompanied by a number of side events. Various attractions await for the lovers of our country's "nephews" and the people who just begin to discover the richness of the Magyars' heritage. Up to 28th of March theatrical performances, debates, scientific sessions, an overview of the Hungarian movie, workshops, concerts, exhibitions, culinary presentations will be held
Traditionally, the Hungarian and Polish presidents, representatives of governments from both countries, NGOs, academic institutions and associations of the Polish minority take part in the ceremony. The Day of Polish-Hungarian Friendship is also a celebration of the inhabitants of Poznań. We invite you to participate in the interesting program and we wish you many extraordinary meetings and discussions dealing with our common history, culture and present.

We trust that in the year of Hungarian and Polish Presidency of the EU Council, Poznań's meeting of representatives of both countries with the highest authorities of the state will contribute to the consolidation of solidarity between our two cities, regions and countries.

[pieter]

Jaga,

Unfortinately Hungary is not the only European country which is faced with a deep economical crisis, nationalism and thus this rising unemployment. This rising unemployment and ongoing crisis makes people uneasy, restless and insecure. Fear creates people who look with suspicion at their political leaders, the political system and at the economy which they don't trust. The dreams and hopes of the past are gone. The certainty that there was progress, a growing economy, job opportunities and and education and future for the children is gone. This fear is a feeding ground for Euroscepticism or anti-European sentiments, populism, xenophobia, anti-establisment feelings and nationalism, Anti-European, anti-immigrants, isolationalist forces are gaining ground and the discrepancies between migrants' and native-born Europeans, 'poorer' people and 'richer' people is growing. leftwing and rightwing populist parties have started attacking Europe in the Dutch campaign for the elections for the parliament and government which will take place in September.
Politicians from across the Dutch political spectrum have fiercely criticised Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer for saying he would refuse to pay an eventual EU fine if the Netherlands did not comply with European budget rules. Emile Roemer is the leader of the large working class and middle class based and leftwing populist Socialist Party. The Socialist Party gaines votes from the traditional Social democratic working class party, the Dutch Labour Party, but also from the far right rightwing Populist Freedomparty (PVV) from Geert Wilders. Labour is losing election after election since the party had it's first large downfall in 2002 when the Populists for the first time beat them. Back then it was Pim Fortuyns LPF party which beat Labour and the rest of the left.


Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer

Roemer’s Socialists are enjoying high ratings in opinion polls in the run up to elections on 12 September. The latest figures suggest they could become the largest party in parliament, giving Roemer the right to try and form a government.

Speaking to the Financieele Dagblad (the Dutch Financial Times) on Thursday, the Socialist leader was damning of what he called Brussels' “obsession” with limiting the euro zone nations’ deficits.

“It is idiotic ... to focus on a maximum deficit of 3% in 2013,” he said. “The government has to get the country working again. And then paying a ridiculous fine because the deficit is bigger than 3%! Over my dead body.’ "

[Jaga]

Hi Pieter,

my father spent a couple of years in Hungary for a scientific stipend and he was in love with its culture. He even learned Hungarian.
I was in Hungary a couple of times. Budapest was unique, although much bigger than any other Hungarian town. I walked there during the day and in the evening on the bridges and the hills.

Hungarians and Poles are considered great friends, but this is probably due to the fact that they are separated by a third country

[pieter]

Aug 17, 2012 23:30:28 GMT -7 Jaga said:

Hi Pieter,

my father spent a couple of years in Hungary for a scientific stipend and he was in love with its culture. He even learned Hungarian.
I was in Hungary a couple of times. Budapest was unique, although much bigger than any other Hungarian town. I walked there during the day and in the evening on the bridges and the hills.

Hungarians and Poles are considered great friends, but this is probably due to the fact that they are separated by a third country

Jaga,

First of all, you made me smile with your mild humor. You are right, about the remark that when a country is separated from another country by a third country or a natural boundary then it is more easy to be a friend, than with a direct or semi-direct neighbour. I know that Polands relationship with it's direct neighbours is more complicated. With the Germans, Russians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Czechs and probably Slovaks too. It is a strange phenomenon that countries and people always have tensions or quarrels with direct neighbours. It's like a family with brothers who have some problems with eachother, Kane and Abel. There are two elements which could have decreased or lowerd the quality of the Polish Hungarian relationship and these are: Hungary was part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire that occupied Poland (Hungary had a different position in that state and empire than Poland), and secondly that Hungary was a close allie of Nazi-Germany (Axis-partner) in the second world war. But probably and luckily the centuries old bond was stronger than these less beautiful elements on the timeline of history.
The Austrian occupation was bad, but less bad than the Russian and Prussian ones.



Hungary–Poland relations


The Hungarian and Polish prime-ministers, Viktor Orbán and Donald Tusk at the ceremony in Warsaw where Hungary handed over the Presidency to Poland on 1 July 2011.

Hungary–Poland relations are the foreign relations between Hungary and Poland. Relations between the two states date back to the Middle Ages, with the two peoples enjoying a traditional close friendship.
Hungary has an embassy in Warsaw, a general consulate in Kraków and 2 honorary consulates (in Łódź and Poznań). Poland has an embassy in Budapest. Both countries are full members of NATO, joining it on the same day (March 12, 1999) and are also both members of the European Union.


Polish president Bronisław Komorowski and Hungarian president Pál Schmitt at the Polish-Hungarian Friendship Day in Poznań.

Historic relations

Good relations between Poland and Hungary date back to the Middle Ages. The Polish and Hungarian noble houses (as Piast dynasty or House of Árpád) often intermarried with each other. Louis the Great was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370 until his death in 1382. He was his father’s heir, Charles I of the House of Anjou-Sicily (King of Hungary and Croatia) and his uncle’s heir, Casimir III the Great (King of Poland - the last ruler of the Piast dynasty).


Tomb effigy of Casimir III the Great (Polish: Kazimierz Wielki) (30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370), last King of Poland from the Piast dynasty


Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland, on Heroes Square, Budapest

King Casimir had no legitimate sons. Apparently, in order to provide a clear line of succession and avoid dynastic uncertainty, he arranged for his nephew, King Louis I of Hungary, to be his successor in Poland. In the 15th century, the two countries briefly shared the same king again, Poland's Władysław III of Varna, who perished, aged barely twenty, fighting the Turks at Varna, Bulgaria. In the 16th century, Poland elected as her king a Hungarian nobleman, Stefan Batory, who is regarded as one of Poland's greatest kings.


Stephen Báthory (27 September 1533 – 12 December 1586) was the son of Stephen VIII Báthory and Catherine Telegdi, a member of the Somlyó branch of the noble Hungarian Báthory family, Prince of Transylvania (1571–1586) and King of Poland (1576–1586). Stephen Báthory is considered to be one of the most illustrious elected kings of Poland. This is a painting of Marcello Bacciarelli (16 February 1731, Rome - 5 January 1818, Warsaw) an Italian painter of the late-baroque and Neoclassic periods, who painted a set of the Polish kings and he was the Director there of the new set up Academy of Arts of Warsaw.

Hungarian Revolution of 1848

In the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, a Polish general, Józef Bem, became a national hero of both Hungary and Poland. He was entrusted with the defence of Transylvania at the end of 1848, and in 1849, as General of the Székely troops.


General, Józef Bem (March 14, 1794, Tarnów – December 10, 1850, Aleppo)

On October 20, 1848 Józef Wysocki signed an agreement with the Hungarian government to form a Polish infantry battalion of about a thousand two hundred soldiers. After agreement Wysocki organized in Hungary a "Polish legion" of volunteers which contained 2090 foot soldiers and 400 Polish uhlans. They took part in the siege of the Arad fortress in the spring of 1849 and participated in all important battles at Szolnok, Hatvan, Tapio-Biczke and Isaszegh. After the Battle at Temesvar in August 1849, and the Hungarian capitulation at Vilagos, eight hundred the remnants of the Legion escaped to Turkey.


General Józef Wysocki (1809, Tulchyn - 1873, Paris)

Polish Soviet war

During the Polish–Soviet War (1919-21), after the Bela Kun government in Hungary was overthrown, Hungary offered to send 30,000 cavalry to Poland's aid, but the Czechoslovak government refused to allow them through the demilitarized zone that had existed between Czechoslovakia and Hungary since the end of the Czechoslovak-Hungarian war a few months earlier. Nevertheless, some Hungarian munitions trains did reach Poland.
From the Middle Ages well into the 18th century, Poland and Hungary had shared a historic common border between Poland and Carpathian Ruthenia (also known as "Carpathian Rus"), governed by Hungary. In the aftermath of World War I, the victorious allies had, at Versailles, transferred Carpathian Ruthenia, with its Slavic population, from defeated Hungary to Slavic nascent Czechoslovakia. Following the Munich Agreement (September 30, 1938) — which doomed Czechoslovakia to takeover by Germany — Poland and Hungary, from common as well as their own special interests, worked together, by diplomatic as well as paramilitary means, to restore their historic common border by engineering the return of Carpathian Rus to Hungary. A step toward their goal was realized with the First Vienna Award (November 2, 1938).


Grave of a Hungarian Honved captain and six of his men who fell, fighting on the Polish side in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

Until mid-March 1939, Germany considered that, for military reasons, a common Hungarian-Polish frontier was undesirable. Indeed, when in March 1939 Hitler made an about-face and authorized Hungary to take over the rest of Carpatho-Rus (which was by then styling itself "Carpatho-Ukraine"), he warned Hungary not to touch the remainder of Slovakia, to whose territory Hungary also laid claim. Hitler meant to use Slovakia as a staging ground for his planned invasion of Poland. In March 1939, however, Hitler changed his mind about the common Hungarian-Polish frontier and decided to betray Germany's ally, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, who had already in 1938 begun organizing Ukrainian military units in a sich outside Uzhhorod, in Carpathian Ukraine, under German tutelage — a sich that Polish political and military authorities saw as an imminent danger to nearby southeastern Poland, with its largely Ukrainian population. Hitler, however, was concerned that, if an Ukrainian army organized in Carpathian Rus were to accompany German forces invading the Soviet Union, Ukrainian nationalists would insist on the establishment of an independent Ukraine; Hitler, who had designs on Ukraine's natural and agricultural resources, did not want to deal with an independent Ukrainian government.

World War II

Hitler would soon have cause to rue his decision regarding the fate of Carpatho-Ukraine. In six months, during his 1939 invasion of Poland, the common Polish-Hungarian border would become of major importance when Admiral Horthy's government, on the ground of long-standing Polish-Hungarian friendship, declined, as a matter of "Hungarian honor," Hitler's request to transit German forces across Carpathian Rus into southeastern Poland to speed that country's conquest. The Hungarian refusal allowed the Polish government and tens of thousands of military personnel to escape into neighboring Hungary and Romania, and from there to France and French-mandated Syria to carry on operations as the third-strongest Allied belligerent after Britain and France. Also, for a time Polish and British intelligence agents and couriers, including Krystyna Skarbek, used Hungary's Carpathorus as a route across the Carpathian Mountains to and from Poland.


Admiral Horthy and Adolf Hitler

Revolution of 1956

A student demonstration in Budapest in support of the Polish October and asking for similar reforms in Hungary was one of the events that sparked the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. During the uprising, Poles demonstrated their support for the Hungarians by donating blood for them; by 12 November 1956, 11,196 Poles had donated. The Polish Red Cross sent 44 tons of medical supplies to Hungary by air; still larger amounts were sent by road and rail.


Budapest in 1956


Budapest in 1956


Sovjet tanks in Budapest in 1956


Polish demonstration supporting the Hungarian uprising in Poznan in 1956


Poles giving blood for Hungary (1956)

Friendship Day

On March 12, 2007, Hungary's parliament declared March 23 the "Day of Hungarian-Polish Friendship", with 324 votes in favor, none opposed, and no abstentions. Four days later, the Polish parliament declared March 23 the "Day of Polish-Hungarian Friendship" by acclamation.
This Polish-Hungarian solidarity appears to extend to Poles' attitudes toward Romanians, with whom the Hungarians have been at odds for centuries. According to the poll conducted by CBOS in 2010, 36% of Poles declare neutral attitude towards Romanians, 26% view Romanians positively and 34% negatively.

Links:
National day of mourning for the Polish Smolensk tragedy in Hungary:
www.hungarianambiance.com/2010/04/national-day-of-mourning-for-tragic.html

Look at the left under at the photojournal:
www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/books/Heilbrunn.t.html?_r=1

[pieter]

Aug 17, 2012 23:30:28 GMT -7 Jaga said:

Hi Pieter,

my father spent a couple of years in Hungary for a scientific stipend and he was in love with its culture. He even learned Hungarian.
I was in Hungary a couple of times. Budapest was unique, although much bigger than any other Hungarian town. I walked there during the day and in the evening on the bridges and the hills.

Hungarians and Poles are considered great friends, but this is probably due to the fact that they are separated by a third country

Jaga,

Your fathers connection and relationship with Hungary is so wonderful and special. He had the time to integrate a little bit into the Hungarian society of the Hungarian capital. As a Polish intellectual and scientist, he probably lived and worked with Hungarian colleages. Scientists and students? It is nice to have time in another country to learn the culture, taste the food, and live like Hungarians.

It must have been good for your father to be able to spent a couple of years in Hungary for a scientific stipend. I can fully understand why he was in love with its culture and that he even learned Hungarian. I felt at home in Budapest, maybe more than in Prague, a city that I love too, dearly.

It is nice that you were able to visit Hungary a couple of times. I only know Budapest so I can't compare it to any other Hungarian town. We have some equal experiances, except that I did not walk the hils, because I was focussed on Pest in that one visit that I was there. So I have to go back one time to see Buda and the wonderful Turkish well or baths. I walked there as a student during the day, in the evening on the bridges, boulevards, little streets and squares. The city was magic and we went to the art academy, the museums, the typical Hungarian market with a roof, and to pleasent Hungarian style restaurants (eating Gulash and other Hungarian dishes) and pubs.
I was younger then and it will be different when I would visit the city today. But it is obvious that maybe a person with Polish blood feels at home in Budapest, due to the Central-European atmosphere, the relaxed cultural climate over there and the historical bond between Hungarians and Poles. I spoke with an older Hungarian guy in Arnhem who escaped to the Netherlands in 1956. He speaks with a very heavy Hungarian accent Dutch, but I was able to understand that he was very positive about Poles, and that in his personal history he met Poles and spoke a few Polish words.

Cheers,
Pieter