Inhabitants Hungary naturally and organically combine healthy love of life and practicality with high spirituality and national romanticism. A careful observer will notice this. One has only to walk around Budapest - the most beautiful of the cities in the world, conveniently and comfortably arranged.
Hungary- land of music and dance. An incendiary mixture of original Hungarian music, with a subtle oriental tinge, and passionate gypsy motifs arose here. The melody inherent in it can be traced in the work of many European composers: Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms. Numerous music, theatrical, dance festivals and flower carnivals are held almost continuously in Hungary.
The culture of baths in Hungary has a two-thousand-year tradition. In fact, the whole country is a huge, comfortable balneological resort. During the time of the Romans, bathing culture reached an unprecedented flowering here, as evidenced by the excavations of Aquincum, a Roman city on the territory of Budapest. Although the Turkish occupation of Hungary in the 16th century caused great damage to the country, the bathing culture did not suffer. Moreover, the Turks - also great admirers of the baths - built new ones that were highly appreciated by their contemporaries.
Hungarian art and architecture are based on the Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Art Nouveau styles. In Hungary, folk art and crafts are well developed; utensils, embroideries, bone and wood products and wall panels are produced here. The country's musical treasury includes rhapsodies by Frank Liszt and operas by Franz Erkel, as well as gypsy and folk music. The literature of Hungary is inseparable from the history of the country, and therefore its main components are odes, heroic poems, realistic stories. Football is by far the most beloved sport, but chess is also popular.
In the rich folklore, songs and ballads stand out (for example, about the Betyar robbers), fairy tales, historical legends, and proverbs. Hungarian folk music is peculiar. Famous Hungarian dances are Verbunkos and Csardas.
Hungarians are very skeptical about the faith (perhaps this is why they have great achievements in science), but nevertheless, many call themselves Catholics, Calvinists or Lutherans. The country also has a Greek Catholic Church and an Orthodox Church, as well as a Jewish community in Budapest.
Almost the entire territory of the country is saturated with historical, cultural and natural monuments of world significance. Hungary ("Pannonia") was once the eastern border of the Roman Empire, and even before the arrival of the Hungarians, the Romans, Germanic and Slavic tribes lived in the middle reaches of the Danube. Treasure hunters are still looking for the grave of Attila, the legendary leader of the Huns, who visited here during the great migration of peoples, on the banks of the Tisza. In 896, Hungarian tribes came from the east to the Danube valley.
This small country holds many secrets. Here you will find wooded mountains, fast rivers, endless steppes without a horizon, parks and reserves with a mysterious world of plants and birds, small white houses with tiled roofs, millennial monasteries, centuries-old manors and palaces, underground caves with a kingdom of stalactites, lakes, countless healing springs breaking through to the surface from the hot underground sea, on the waters of which Hungary rests.
Hungary- a country of cordial hospitality.
Hungarian folk culture is a complex synthesis of the traditions of various ethnic components that formed part of the Hungarian people formed in the Middle Ages.
The rapid socio-economic development of Hungary after the establishment of a people's democratic system in it in 1945, which caused great changes in the entire life of the people, also contributed to the rapid transformation of traditional folk culture. However, this does not lead to the loss of national specificity: folk traditions only change, losing those features that have outlived their time, and taking on new forms that are more adapted to modern conditions of life.
So, from time immemorial, a prominent place in the country's economy was occupied by cattle breeding - the traditional occupation of the Magyar nomads even before they moved to the Danube. In the past, pastoralism was especially developed in the mountainous regions of Northern Hungary, the Alfölda, and the Hortobágy steppe, where it had an extensive grazing character. The vast Khortobad steppe with grass scorched by the sun, almost deserted, with crane wells sticking out in some places, to which shepherds dressed in picturesque costumes drove their herds to drink, often attracted many foreign tourists with its exoticism. Chikoshi, shepherds of horse herds, were especially peculiar. In smart white cloaks thrown over their shoulders - surahs - in black felt hats with fields, they rode around their herds on horseback. Cattle were grazed by guiashes, sheep by yukhas; large herds of pigs grazed in oak groves under the supervision of kondashi.
Lately, the life of the Hortobady Pusto has completely changed. The construction of the Eastern Canal made it possible to turn the arid steppe into fertile land. However, dairy farming, sheep breeding and pig breeding are still successfully developing in state and cooperative farms.
Pasture keeping of livestock has been everywhere replaced by stall keeping, but the old, most expedient methods of animal husbandry, kept by shepherds, are carefully studied and used.
An old branch of Hungarian agriculture is also viticulture. Previously, peasants made wines only for themselves, their commercial production began to develop only from the 19th century. And at present, the folk practice of making wines prevailing here is widely used in modern factories.
Folk traditions are being improved and developed in many crafts. Hungary is especially characterized by crafts associated with the old pastoral life: fuller, furrier, the production of wooden and bone products; Patterned weaving and pottery are also widespread.
If in the economy the specificity of the Hungarian folk culture manifests itself only sporadically, then the traditional national cuisine has largely been preserved. Although lately the menu of Hungarians - and not only in the city, but also in the countryside - has been replenished with new products (for example, rice), various dishes of European cuisine, national dishes are still preferred.
Among the inhabitants of rural areas, the preparation of food for the future, for the whole winter, is still practiced, often using very ancient recipes known to nomadic Hungarians. Such, for example, is dough (tarhonya) boiled in water in the form of peas and dried in the sun or in an oven, designed for long-term storage. Previously, the Alföld shepherds, like other nomadic peoples, prepared for the future cut into thin chips, boiled and dried meat.
In the Middle Ages, the Hungarians baked mostly unleavened bread, but already from the 16th century. it was gradually replaced by yeast. However, unleavened dough is still in great use in baking various confectionery products, especially during the holidays.
Folk Hungarian cuisine has some oriental features: Hungarians eat a lot of meat (mainly pork) with hot spices - black and red pepper (paprika), onions. Traditional folk dishes are variously prepared stew in tomato sauce (perkelt) and goulash, known in many European countries. But the real Hungarian goulash differs significantly from the dish of the same name, common in Europe. Hungarian goulash is a thick meat soup with potatoes and small dumplings seasoned with onions and plenty of red pepper. And nowadays, not a single family holiday is complete without folk food - paprikash (meat, often chicken, stewed in sour cream sauce with the addition of paprika and black pepper). Hungarians eat a lot of flour products (noodles, dumplings), vegetables (especially cabbage).
Of the alcoholic beverages, grape wine is most drunk, and sometimes palinka - fruit vodka. Citizens consume a lot of black, very strong coffee. You can always drink a cup of such coffee in numerous small cafes - espresso.
The remaining areas of the material culture of the Hungarians - settlements, housing, clothing - have undergone rapid changes in recent decades. Their transformation, of course, was greatly facilitated by the growth of the urban population.
In Hungary, two types of rural settlements predominate - large villages - falu and separate farms - tanya. The villages are different in shape: there are settlements of cumulus, circular and street plans. In Alföld, the star-shaped form of the village prevails: in the center is the market square, and from it the streets radiate in all directions. From the middle of the XVIII century. in the south of Alföld and in Dunantul (Transdanubian region), large villages of an ordinary plan began to be founded. The central axis of such a village is formed by a long street, on both sides of which houses are located closely adjacent to each other. Yards and land plots are located behind the houses, perpendicular to the street.
During the years of socialist construction, the appearance of Hungarian rural settlements has changed beyond recognition. In the center of each village, new administrative and public buildings of modern architecture appeared - the village council, the board of the agricultural cooperative, the House of Culture, a school, a shop. All major villages are electrified. In order to eliminate the negative aspects of the farm settlement system - the isolation of farm residents from the cultural and economic life of the country - special farm centers were created, in which trade, administrative, cultural and community institutions were opened to serve the farmers.
The rural buildings of the Hungarians have changed significantly. In the past, the walls of rural houses were, as a rule, adobe or made of adobe bricks; less often (in Alföld) there were wattle walls plastered with clay and whitewashed. Roofs - pillar or rafter construction - were usually thatched or thatched. The old, most typical Hungarian house is an elongated three-part building. Its characteristic feature is a narrow gallery running along one of the longitudinal walls. The continuation of one slope of the roof forms a canopy over the gallery, which is supported by several stone, adobe or wooden pillars, often decorated with carvings, modeling, and painting. From the gallery, the front door leads to the kitchen, on both sides of which there are doors to two rooms: the upper room against the gable wall and the back room, bedroom or pantry. Outbuildings are either located in a row behind a residential building (in most of the Alföld), partly under the same roof with it, or they are built separately in the yard. Barns often stand in groups at the edge of a village. An indispensable accessory of every farm and village is a well with a crane. The whole estate is usually enclosed by a fence, wattle fence, or bordered by dense shrubs and trees.
Similar in many respects in design, layout and building material, houses still have their own specifics in various ethnographic regions of Hungary. So, for example, the houses of the ethnographic group of palots living in the mountainous-hilly north are peculiar: log-house, with high thatched roofs, richly decorated with carvings on the pediment, two-part according to the plan (small cold vestibule and a room). Alföld is characterized by low three-part houses with adobe or wicker walls and thatched roofs. Shallow semicircular niches were sometimes arranged in the rooms. A stack-shaped stove with a wicker base stood in the room, but was heated from the kitchen.
And the old residential buildings in the village have now changed in many ways. First of all, their internal layout is changing - the living area is expanding due to the former utility rooms and the addition of new rooms. The appearance of old houses is especially changing. The former thatched or thatched roofs have already been replaced almost everywhere with iron or tiled ones, windows and doors are expanding, the facade is smartly decorated: it is plastered and painted with glue paint in soft colors - beige, cream, burgundy. It happens that the upper and lower parts of the walls are painted in different, successfully harmonizing colors. In the decorative decoration of the house, stencil painting of a floral or geometric ornament is often used. Becomes different and the interior of the home. Old peasant furniture has been almost completely replaced by modern factory furniture. But the folk specificity is still preserved in the traditional arrangement of furniture, in decorating rooms with national weaving products - tablecloths, towels, rugs, etc.
Every year the number of new houses in the countryside, built according to standard designs from modern building materials, in accordance with the economic and cultural needs of the population, is growing.
Back in the 19th century throughout Hungary, peasants wore traditional folk dress. The main parts of the women's folk costume were a short embroidered shirt with ruffles on the shoulders, with wide sleeves; a very wide and short skirt, gathered at the waist in gatherings or pleated, usually worn over several petticoats; a bright sleeveless jacket (pruslik), fitting at the waist and decorated with lacing, metal loops and embroidery, and an apron. Women's hats were very diverse: caps of various shapes, scarves tied in different ways. Girls tied their heads with a wide colorful ribbon, connecting its ends with a bow, or they put on a special solid hoop, decorated with beads, glass beads, ribbons.
The men's folk costume consisted of a short canvas shirt, often with very wide sleeves, tight black cloth trousers (in the east) or very wide canvas trousers (in the west), a short dark waistcoat trimmed with lacing and braid. High black boots were worn on their feet, and straw and felt hats of various shapes served as a headdress.
The upper men's clothing of the Hungarians is very peculiar. The so-called sur is especially famous - a kind of cloak made of thick white cloth with a wide turn-down collar, richly decorated with colored cloth appliqué and embroidery. It was worn thrown over the shoulders, with false sleeves tied at the back. They also wore a fur coat - a long sleeveless sheepskin cape, a lip - a simple cut short coat made of coarse-woolen cloth with a long pile.
In Hungary, there are many regional variants of folk costumes. Thus, women's clothing of the ethnographic group of palotsey was distinguished by great brightness and variegation. Their clothes were dominated by red tones; wide sleeves of the jacket, white shoulder scarves, caps were richly decorated with multicolor embroidery. The clothes of representatives of another ethnographic group of Hungarians - matio (Mezokövesd district) are very peculiar. They wore dark, long, bell-shaped skirts, gathered at the waist in small assemblies, and dark sweaters with short puffy sleeves. Especially elegant were their long black aprons, embroidered with bright multicolored embroidery and trimmed with long fringe. The same black embroidered aprons were a necessary accessory for the matio men's suit.
Even in the recent past, traces of the old patriarchal way of life were clearly visible in the family life of the Hungarians: the head of the family had great power, and the woman did not have any economic rights. In many peasant families, she did not sit down at the table with her husband, but ate standing behind him, walked behind him in the street, etc.
The position of a woman changed radically after 1945. By law, she received full equality with a man. The law of 1952 also abolished her subordinate position in the family. It states, for example, that in all matters of family life, in the upbringing of children, spouses have equal rights and obligations. The state is attentive to the needs of women mothers, and the benefits provided to them increase every year. A large number of women are actively involved in the public life of the country.
In the family life of the Hungarians, the old customs and rituals are still preserved, although in a significantly transformed form. Colorful, interesting are the wedding customs of the Hungarian people, in many respects similar to the wedding ceremonies of neighboring peoples. A week before the wedding, friends in folk costumes or, in some villages, a special “wedding headman” with a staff decorated with bright ribbons in his hand go to the houses of fellow villagers and invite them to the wedding. The invitees must deliver some food to the bride's house the next day (chicken, eggs, sour cream, flour, etc.).
The wedding procession usually goes to the building of the village council in a strict ritual order. Gypsy musicians play, sing ritual wedding songs, dance.
The highlight of the wedding is the wedding dinner. Even now, the wedding feast often ends with the old custom, according to which each guest has the right to dance one circle with the bride, paying some amount of money for this dance. In some places, the farewell of the bride to her parents and home and the solemn introduction of her into the new home by her father and mother are still accompanied by the old rites.
The social life of the Hungarian people became multifaceted. Numerous clubs and Houses of Culture play an important role in the organization of leisure and in the cultural education of the working people of town and country. They have lecture halls, amateur art circles, choral and dance ensembles.
A lot of the original, traditional is preserved in the calendar holidays of the Hungarians, in which old traditions are often intertwined with new rites, gradually taking root more and more steadily in the daily life of the people.
Of the holidays of the winter cycle associated with the day of the winter solstice, and now especially popular is Christmas, which has almost lost its religious character and has become just a common family holiday. On December 24, already in the afternoon, all theaters, cinemas, restaurants are closed, everyone is in a hurry to go home. Over time, this holiday acquires more and more pan-European features: Christmas trees decorated with shiny toys and electric lanterns in houses, on the streets, in shop windows, gift exchange, a festive family dinner, etc.
In the past, the New Year did not have the same significance for the Hungarians as Christmas, but now it is celebrated noisily and cheerfully, especially on the city streets. The old custom is still observed to present a porcelain or clay figurine of a piglet to relatives and friends for the New Year - “for good luck”. The black figurines of chimney sweeps, which are sold in the last days of the old year on city streets, are also considered a symbol of happiness (a custom apparently borrowed from the Germans).
The earliest and biggest spring holiday - Maslenitsa - is celebrated both in the city and in the village with ritual pancakes or pancakes, folk festivals, noisy processions of mummers in bizarre zoomorphic masks. So, in the city of Mohacs, young people participating in carnival processions for Shrove Tuesday put on wooden masks with horns attached to them and put on sheepskin coats turned inside out with fur and hung with bells.
Many different rituals were timed to coincide with the national holiday of the meeting of spring - May 1. By this day, houses in the villages are decorated with flowers and green branches. A “Maypole” is installed on the square - a birch or poplar, decorated with crepe paper, multi-colored ribbons. Around this tree in the evening, young people arrange dances and games. Guys put small May trees in front of the house of their girls; now, more often, instead of a “May tree,” they send a girl a bouquet or a painted pot of flowers. “May trees” are also often placed in front of the houses of persons especially respected in the countryside.
Since the end of the 19th century 1 May was also celebrated by Hungarian workers as International Workers' Day. The first May Day demonstration took place in 1890. Today, the May Day demonstrations of the Hungarian working people are very colorful. Often participants in amateur performances are dressed in picturesque folk costumes, representatives of various professions go to a demonstration in costumes characteristic of them.
In the villages, the end of the harvest ends with a great feast. In the old days, at the end of the harvest, smartly dressed girls with songs carried a “harvest wreath” skillfully woven from the last sheaf to the house of the owner of the field. Now in rural areas, on the basis of this old custom, new forms of celebrating the harvest day have been created. The "harvest wreath" is now usually presented by girls to the chairman of the cooperative. After harvesting is over, autumn festivals are often organized in individual villages, during which fun carnivals (for example, a fruit carnival) and folk festivals are organized. There is also a national Hungarian holiday of the new harvest, new bread. It is timed to coincide with August 20, the old national holiday of the Hungarians in honor of the founder of the Hungarian state, King Stephen I. In socialist Hungary, August 20 became the holiday of the Constitution and also the holiday of New Bread. On this day, large loaves are baked from the flour of the new crop, festive processions through the streets, folk festivals are organized.
The celebration of the Constitution and the New Bread is especially solemn in Budapest. In the morning, on the Danube, you can see a colorful water carnival, and in the evening, fireworks on Mount Gellert, which is clearly visible from almost all areas of the capital, are a striking sight.
The last autumn work in the open air in the villages of Hungary - the grape harvest, as a rule, takes place in a festive atmosphere. Neighbors and relatives come to help. At the end of the work, as well as after the harvest, a large, tied last bunch of grapes is carried to the owner's house on sticks. In some areas, these processions were very picturesque: guys in folk Hungarian costumes rode ahead on horses, and behind them in festive carts twined with vines, girls dressed all in white rode.
The gazebo or hall, where festive fun is held on the occasion of the end of the grape harvest, is decorated with bunches of grapes suspended from the ceiling. Guys compete in dexterity, trying to quietly pick a bunch for their girlfriend, but if they are convicted of this, they must pay a fine.
After World War II, the Hungarian people began to celebrate a number of new national holidays. Among them, the Day of the Liberation of Hungary from the fascist yoke - April 4, is especially solemn. On this day, wreath-laying ceremonies are held at the graves of Soviet and Hungarian soldiers, rallies and demonstrations are organized.
In modern Hungary, some branches of folk arts and crafts are developing. Among the country-specific types of such art, we should first of all note the products of shepherds made of wood, horn, bone, and leather. Shepherds have long decorated tools with beautiful geometric ornaments - sticks and whips with skillfully twisted leather weaving, made ax handles, ladles, pipes, wooden flasks, decoratively covered with leather, horns for wine, salt shakers, pepper shakers, caskets. When applying the ornament, various techniques were used: scratching, and then rubbing in paint, relief or bas-relief carving, and inlay.
Weaving belongs to the old branches of folk art. Hungarian fabric in terms of manufacturing technique, coloring and ornament has many pan-European elements: narrow and wide colored stripes, a simple geometric pattern, etc. The most common fabric colors are white, red, blue and black. Embroidery developed among the Hungarians later than weaving. The old embroidery was one-two-color with a simple geometric ornament. The new embroidery is multicolored, it is dominated by floral ornaments - motifs of realistic or stylized flowers.
The production of decorative ceramics is developed among the Hungarians: poured plates, jugs are usually decorated with floral or geometric ornaments. The peasants loved to decorate their homes with these bright pottery, hanging them on the walls, lining the shelves with them.
Products of potters from different regions of the country had their own specifics. So, in Mohacs, black jugs and jugs were made, in the southern part of the Alföld - tetrahedral painted bottles, bowls, clay human figures.
In the area of the city of Kalocha, a very interesting type of decorative and applied art is widespread - patterned painting of plaster walls. Kaloch women cover the plastered and whitewashed wall of the room with a continuous patterned ornament, exactly the same as is used in embroideries. Now the motifs of peasant wall painting are used on wallpaper materials.
In the era of capitalism, the folk art of the Hungarians fell into decline, but in socialist Hungary much attention is paid to its development. The Institute of Folk Art has been created, artisans are united in cooperatives; the best examples of folk art are widely used in applied arts and in light industry.
The most common genres of Hungarian folklore are fairy tales and songs. Fairy tales are especially numerous. They feel oriental motifs (for example, traces of shamanism) and at the same time have many features in common with the tales of other European peoples. There is also a significant group of household tales such as short stories and humorous tales, the so-called trufs.
And at present, the Hungarians have ballads and songs - lyrical, professional, ritual, etc. There are especially many historical songs that depict the heroic episodes of the national liberation struggle of the people, and beloved national heroes are sung - Ferenc Rakoczy, Lajos Kossuth, etc. A special group form robber songs and ballads, the so-called songs about betiars (robbers). Betyar, in the popular imagination, was a fighter against national and feudal oppression, a defender of the poor. Shepherd songs are very close to the songs about betiars: after all, the shepherds also lived a free, harsh life. Lyricism, a reflection of the subtle nuances of human experiences are characteristic of love songs, which make up, perhaps, the largest group.
Original Hungarian music differs from the music of neighboring peoples in an oriental tone. It is characterized by monophony, constant variation, pentatonic. In the future, the music of the Hungarians was greatly influenced by the gypsies. Starting from the 17th century. in the cities of Hungary, that Hungarian-Gypsy music became popular, which is widely known due to its processing by many European composers - Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and especially Franz Liszt. Gypsy music, gypsy orchestras are still very popular in Hungary. At present, a kind of gypsy-Hungarian music is widespread in cities and villages, along with well-known songs by Hungarian composers.
Franz Liszt was the founder of the Hungarian musical school. He created the most impressive examples of a peculiar Hungarian musical style ("Hungarian Rhapsodies", "Hungaria"). Liszt's followers: Ferenc Erkel, Béla Bartók, Zoltan Kodály are the founders of modern Hungarian music, closely related to folk music. The Hungarians made a great contribution to the creation of light music. Operettas by Hungarian composers Ferenc Lehar and Imre Kalman do not leave the stages of all theaters in the world.
Old folk musical instruments of the Hungarians - bagpipes (duda), flute, various types of plucked instruments (citera, tambour). In our time, other musical instruments known to all the peoples of Europe are more popular: the clarinet, the accordion, and especially the violin.
Of the folk dances, the most popular pair dance is the Czardash, which has many variants. It is willingly danced even now along with European dances.
During the years of people's power in the country, illiteracy has been eliminated, and the cultural level of the Hungarian working people has significantly increased. In this, the introduction of a single, truly popular system of education, which provides compulsory free education for children aged 6-16 years, was of no small importance. An eight-year basic school was established, from which students can enter either a four-year gymnasium, preparing for entering the institute, or four-year secondary vocational schools; in them, students receive, along with secondary education, a profession. A characteristic feature of Hungarian education is a developed network of schools and courses for adults.
The Hungarian people have a rich national culture, which they have the right to be proud of. Hungarian literature flourished especially at the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, during the period of the acute national liberation struggle. By this time, the work of the outstanding Hungarian poet Sandor Petofi, whose poems and songs were closely connected with folk art, dates back; Yanosh Aran - the author of historical and epic works; poet and prominent folklorist Janos Erdel; prominent playwright Imre Madach.
The treasury of Hungarian poetry includes works by Mihaly Chokonai Vitez, Mihaly Mörösmarty, Endre Ady. Hungarian writers of a later time are also known in Europe: Mor Yokai - a representative of the romantic trend, realist writer Kalman Miksat, author of historical novels by Geza Gardonyi, proletarian poet Attila Jozsef, major Hungarian novelist Zsigmond Moritz, poet and prose writer Gyula Iyes, who showed in his works the life of a Hungarian peasant in the first decades of our century, the author of laconic novels and short stories Dezhe Kostolani, referred to in his homeland as the "Hungarian Chekhov", famous poets Mihaly Vaci and Mihai Babich.
A certain influence on the development of Hungarian literature was exerted by writers who emigrated from Hungary after the defeat of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919: Bela Illes, Antal Gidash, Mate Zalka.
Since 1945, a new trend has been developing in Hungarian literature - socialist realism. The modern life of the Hungarian people was reflected in their works by Sandor Gergely, Peter Veres, Pal Szabo and many other writers.
Hungarian fine arts also achieved great success. Widely known outside the country are the realistic paintings by the great Hungarian artist Mihai Munkacsy, the colorful landscapes of Karoly Marko, paintings from the life of workers by Gyula Derkovich, historical paintings by Bertalan Székely, paintings by T. Chontvari, Jozsef Rippl-Ronai.
In this issue, the editors open the column "Essay" with a somewhat unusual article. It reflects a left-wing view of Hungary's cultural life. We have not practiced the publication of such materials and we will be glad if we learn the opinion of readers on the advisability of providing pages of the journal to such reviews.
We are proud that this new circle of publications is opened by Istvan Serdahein, one of the leading philosophers and writers of Hungary, for many years the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Kritika", then - "Uy Forum". I.Serdahein was also the editor-in-chief of the 19-volume encyclopedia on world literature (the largest encyclopedia of literature in the world), I.Serdahein was awarded in 1995 for his leadership in its creation. "Order of the Small Cross of the Hungarian Republic". He is the recipient of the Literary Prize. Attila Yosef, General Secretary of the “Literary Society named after. Nadia Lajosha”, author of monographs on aesthetics and literature. His scientific and literary publications comprise more than twenty volumes.
POSITION OF HUNGARY CULTURE *
Istvan Serdahein
It is a common truth of historiography that the definition of milestones in history is a very difficult issue.
In terms of political history, the prelude to the times in which we live is the elections held in the spring of 1990, which in turn were preceded by a short transitional period since the autumn of 1989. But a cultural-historical analysis of the moment when the forces that determined the state of modern Hungarian culture appeared brings us back to the mid-1970s.
This difference is also found at the terminological level: we usually call the period after 1956 the “epoch of Kadar”, in the field of culture the same time is called the “epoch of Acelius”. And not without reason: György Acel managed to achieve relative autonomy for the system of institutions under his leadership.
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Serdahein Istvan - Doctor of Philosophy, Secretary of the Society. Nadia Layosha (Hungary)
* Literary translation editors - Doctor of Philology Benyamin Sas, Doctor of Arts Victor Arslanov
The article was prepared for publication on the initiative and with the assistance of Doctor of Historical Sciences Tamas Kraus and Candidate of Philosophical Sciences Lyudmila Bulavka
In this review, there is no opportunity to analyze the complex personality and even more complex political activities of Atzel. Sandor Reves rightly says that although his monograph on Atzel (1997) is over 400 pages long, he set out to create a book that cannot be “written”. It would be a gross simplification to say that the policy of culture, which was generally headed, was not devoid of subjectivism and arbitrariness; moreover, by his amateurish, snobbish measures, by negative selection, he inflicted heavy damage on culture.
On the other hand, Atsil provided incomparably more favorable conditions for the development of our national culture than all previous and subsequent eras. In our time, it is already generally accepted that the time of Atsel was the “golden era” in the history of Hungarian culture. Acel successfully negotiated a compromise between the intellectual elites and the political leadership, minimizing the prohibitions arising from the political situation in Hungary (1).
Acel contributed to the expansion of publicity, pursued a cunning policy in the interests of financing culture.
However, censorship, although not legally formalized, as well as prohibited lists still existed. But it is also a fact that this censorship acted arbitrarily and, moreover, stupidly. She could easily be wrapped around her finger. In addition, the Great Liberty brought about by the change of order did not show the public a single work that deserved to be published earlier (2).
Since 1981, the shameless organ of the political opposition, Besele, has practically been a subscription publication, and only ridiculous false measures have tried to limit the number of subscribers.
It is quite characteristic that in the second half of the 1980s the opposition intelligentsia accused this policy of culture not of police-state dictatorship, but of so-called paternalism.
Looking back, we can say that signs of change appeared already in the early 80s. The reform technocratic economists then began to argue that cultural products are also a market commodity, and the cultural sector must be reorganized so that it becomes a self-financing industry that can withstand the world of market competition and does not need outside support. The discussion that arose on this occasion and continued in the country for the next half decade (see Gyorgy Radnai, 1986) proved that the sphere of culture could never and cannot be self-sustaining, that its financing not only does not interfere with the flourishing of the economic sphere, but, on the contrary, is a necessary condition for its development.
However, the leadership of the party and the government instead did quite the opposite. The result is obvious: the impoverishment and collapse of the system of cultural institutions, which today has reached its climax.
Turning houses of culture into eateries; competition of scientific works and poetry with detective stories and science fiction publications; lower wages for scientific researchers compared to even low-skilled workers - all this did not begin in 1990, but much earlier. I remember how in 1984, when I was appointed editor-in-chief of the country's leading cultural journalism, the Deputy Minister ridiculed me when he heard that I dreamed of a salary as a printing mechanic or "leftist worker". The victory of the technocratic-monetary direction shook not only the material base, not only the system of cultural institutions, but also the political system, at the same time accompanied by certain ideological consequences.
State patronage in the 1980s, and mainly since 1984 - with the appearance of the Soros Foundation - has significantly weakened and lost in the West in providing scholarships, scientific trips and other types of assistance. As a result, dual power already appeared in the sphere of culture, despite the fact that the monopoly of the state remained in politics for a long time.
At the same time, the face of education policy leadership has also changed. In the period from the mid-1960s. until the mid 70s. Hungarian intellectual life, although the last battles of sectarian-dogmatic forces were still going on, was going through an era of renaissance. A “window” was opened towards Western culture, but on condition that everything valuable in Marxism was preserved. It was agreed: if Marxism wants to play the role of hegemon in public life, then it must assume the functions of a truly open professional “normal science”. But this goal was not achieved: critical adaptation, thinking about problems immediately turned into imitation of fashionable Western trends, especially since this opened up profitable career opportunities.
The main reason for this was that the education of D. Atselya did not go beyond the scope of petty-bourgeois snobbery, and in theoretical and ideological issues he was simply illiterate (Sh. Reves, 1997). Speeches and articles were written to him by referents (advisors), whose opinion was decisive. The members of this circle changed from time to time, and Atzel adapted these changes to the one who was becoming popular and fashionable at that time. He supported these personalities under the sign of the “carrot” policy if they were openly in opposition. And since, since the mid-1970s, we have been sensationalized by the unusual ideas of imitators of Western subjectivist fashion, and postmodernism has spread in the 1980s (Peter Agardi, 1997), the palette of Atzel's personnel environment has also gradually changed in accordance with this.
By the mid-1980s, much testified that Atsel had already “rebuilt”, which is most obviously confirmed by those statements of his (D.Acel, 1986, 1987), in which he proclaimed the eclectic-idealistic works of the young D. Lukacs and his Marxist works. The wave of subsequent all-Hungarian discussion that began at that time (J. Serdaheik - K. Veres, 1957) made public the fact that in Hungarian intellectual life Marxism came under the crossfire of open attacks - as a result, he found himself in a position of defensive retreat, and his representatives either left him, having changed his beliefs like chameleons, or became victims of constant denigration and neglect (I. Serdakheyi, 1985; I. Serdakheyi-Karoy T. Keresh 1987).
Between the second half of the Atzela era and the current situation, a succession is clearly manifested. If we look at who are the people whom Sh. Reves (1997) writes about in his monograph in the 70s and 80s as the new advisers and consultants of Atsela, we will see that after the change in the social system, these cadres were all preserved without exception. their positions and today it is they who occupy leading positions in academies and universities, moreover, they can be seen on TV screens, they represent the elite in magazines, in book publishing. Left-wing Marxist public figures who almost did not oppose Atsel or were neutral towards him disappeared from the arena of actions, while Atzel’s cadres of the 70s and 80s survived, moreover, even those who actually died remained “alive”, for example, Eva Ancel , whose works are carefully republished today.
Since the regime change in Hungary did not take place at the behest of the masses, living in prosperity and political indifference, but as a result of a secret Soviet-American pact (3), the further fate of cultural life developed accordingly. This great-power pact was implemented as a deal between the younger generation of communist cadres and between modern opposition groups of various calibers urgently recruited from the fringes of intellectual life. Therefore, their positions expressed very different group interests, but not at all the natural interests of national culture or any other public interests. I remember that in the year of the change of regime, one frank Western observer expressed the following idea: the leading personalities of the Hungarian opposition may well be enough to create the editorial office of a good literary magazine, but hardly to create a government capable of anything. From this one could conclude that we will have enough other problems in the future, but the new representatives of power will at least stop the attack on culture, which was proclaimed by the cadres of the late Atsel era under the motto - "culture is also a commodity." But this our expectation, however, like many others, also turned out to be an illusion.
Specialists, of course, still tried to bring to the realization that only the development of a system of cultural institutions can save us from collapse (see Gyorgy Roza 1995), and this point of view was reflected in all government programs (see Peter Agardi, 1997) . But the implementation of these programs did not even enter the minds of the new ruling cliques, as well as the fact that all other pre-election assurances were demagogy that captivates the people. A redistribution of the audacity of today's politicians is the fact that the Minister of Culture and Education, who enforces the destruction and decay of the system of cultural institutions, arrogantly emphasizes the crucial importance of culture (see Balint Magyar, 1996).
Today it is already well known that the proclamation of the fundamental rights of freedom of culture is empty words, because the concentration of property that took place in the sphere of the press left the intelligentsia to the mercy of the “liberal dictatorship”, and the renaissance of cultural development was replaced by the collapse of culture (see Gaba Kenzel, 1996).
The very first was the attack on the internationally important Hungarian book publishing and cinema art, which, during the consolidation of the socialist system from the 1960s to the 1980s, reached the world level. As I already mentioned, the transition of this industry to market relations began already in the Atzel era, and the material possibilities of the local system of institutions narrowed more and more, their profile was more and more determined by servicing works of Western mass culture. The new regimes only accelerated these processes by the fact that the privatization of book publishing and film production (state property was partly transferred to the ownership of Hungarian clients of Western capital, and most of it was simply sold for next to nothing to Western owners of capital) immediately led to their collapse. A characteristic example of the local shamelessness is that even the publishing house of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was transferred into the hands of a Dutch company, which fired most of the editors of this publishing house and since then this citadel of Hungarian scientific book publishing, which has a century-old tradition, has been engaged only in alibi activities.
The result: the realization of those nightmarish pictures which at one time even I considered exaggerations and which Istvan Rehrmann (1967,1974) described in the 1960s and 70s. One need only glance at the city's bookstores to spot the dominance of sex publications, thrillers, and sugary novels that propagate that captivating illusion that if, as in any capitalist world, morality declines, families fall apart, younger generations become victims of drugs, Gangs of gangsters are shooting on the streets, then the trouble is by no means in the social system, but only in the behavior of individuals.
True, book stalls are full of a significant number of pleasing to the eye with their performance of popular science magazines and publications. But they, too, are tools of manipulation, since they combine political, scientific, artistic, etc. simplified for readers. information with gossip, bad taste, sensations about flying saucers, horoscopes, occult and mystical teachings, determine the general nature of the worldview based on irrationalism. Exactly the same trend pervades the repertoire of cinema and radio.
But even this false culture is very inaccessible to the Hungarian public. From 1990 to 1996, book prices increased more than 10 times (see Laszlo Peter Zentai, 1996), it is characteristic that the prices of textbooks increased at an even more staggering rate, by 1994 prices had increased compared to 1991 28 times (see Peter Agardi, 1997). At the same time, from 1985 to 1995, the number of cinemas decreased by 83%, viewers - by 80%, Hungarian films - by 50%.
It is a fact that under the current social order - unlike the previous one - there is no censorship (in the strict sense of the word) or official "forbidden lists". But there are sky-high paper prices, printing costs that are unthinkable to pay. “In the rule of law, money is a weapon,” wrote Attila Jozsef during the multi-party system under Horthy; this weapon is loaded in our time.
After all, in the whirlwind of the change in the social order, public money intended to finance culture has been merged into the clutches of a fund system that operates with a more indifferently cruel and uncontrollably arbitrary arrogance than the department of culture of the Central Committee of the party during Stalin's time (see Katolin Boschani, 1995; Laszlo Lendel, 1995; Jerzebet Salom, 1995; Istvan Serdaheyi, 1995; Gabo Juhas, 1996; Ivan Seleni, 1996).
This apparatus of terror can operate all the more effectively since the book trade system has also collapsed, fallen into the hands of the mafia, and therefore the corrective role of market competition cannot be played here. Moreover, this market cannot be represented by a significant demand of the majority of the traditional readership, namely the middle class, because the intelligentsia representing it has become impoverished, one might even say, has fallen into a period of danger - marginalization (Peter Agardi, 1997), it is burdened with daily worries about subsistence and cannot pay sky-high prices for books, which, in addition to everything else, still contain a general turnover tax , which clearly demonstrates the culture-hostile policies of the government.
This is how this situation has developed, in which even if some Hungarian writer, poet or scientist, changing days for nights, creates a significant work, then, unless he is among the favorites of the cultural dictatorship, and first of all, liberal circles, the foundation Soros - it is simply unthinkable for him to find a publishing house to publish his manuscript. Well, if somehow he manages to raise money to cover printing costs by refusing his own fee, he will still not get into the book market, since the book mafia trade prefer to distribute detective stories, sex publications and horoscopes. In any case, his work will not reach the reader, because. the latter will not have money to buy.
There may be hope for libraries that (although they have almost no money to buy new books) could accept these works as a gratuitous donation and thus make these works available to readers. But between 1990 and 1995, the number of public libraries decreased by more than 50%, and the membership fee for the Hungarian national library was recently raised to 2,000 forints ($1 = 200 forints, about 100 times what it used to be ( Peter Agardi, 1997) It is easy to calculate that not today or tomorrow the prices for entrance tickets to various museums and exhibitions will be as high as in the only spiritual conquest of the new social order - namely, in pornographic cinemas.
The attack on mass culture, as mentioned above, also began already in the era of Atzel, bringing the activities of cultural centers to market relations. Under the new regimes, these institutions came under suspicion as remnants of the communist system and only the opposition of local governments prevented their complete destruction, but the number of their employees has still decreased by 30% by now, and visitors - by almost 50% (Peter Agardi, 1997)
In 1990, the Christian-national course that came to power, in addition to gradually returning state schools to the hands of the church, at first did not dare to raise a hand against the education system. And the social-liberal government that replaced him in 1994 was not afraid of this either. In the first half of 1996, approximately 5,400 teachers were already unemployed (Peter Agardi, 1997), and university admissions and tuition fees, as a result of the latest measures, make them accessible almost exclusively to the “new rich” (see Maria Bonifert, 1996) .
So, the process began, which put invisible, but insurmountable barriers to familiarization with the culture of the lower strata of society, and intellectuals - as Istvan Hermann predicted in the works mentioned above - will be turned into trained, certified laborers under the rule of politicians who understand nothing and "clubs ” managers.
This cultural counter-revolution began in the summer of 1995, when it was announced not only that from next year intellectual labor would not receive a penny of tax benefits, but it also became clear that the new social order had no need for young specialists from the sphere of mental labor. The budget of universities and institutes was cut, the ranks of teachers were reduced, and students were told if they wanted to get a diploma, let them pay for it.
The ideology for this counter-revolution was provided by a summer statement by the “socialist” finance minister. In his opinion, all previous privileges of the cultural sphere should have been abolished, because “there is no difference between the mental work of the creative intelligentsia and the roofer of the lowest rank - the value of a penny in every pocket is the same, therefore nothing can justify the fact that the former should pay less tax from income than the latter”.
From this, on the one hand, it turns out that this minister is as uninformed about the state of affairs in the country as during the colonization of some English gentleman in the villages of African natives. After all, everyone except him knew that from the salaries or fees of mental workers, the cash desks in any case automatically calculate the amount due to the treasury. Conversely, if we need the work of a roofer - or any other craftsman - we can be sure that the amount agreed upon will go from pocket to pocket, the tax authorities will not receive a penny from it.
And although it is true that the value of a penny in the pocket of any person is the same, the essence of the matter is in what kind of work a person receives these pennies.
Knowledge workers need 5-10 years more training to start earning, and the starting salary of young specialists is considered good if it is the amount that more dexterous craftsmen can earn in 1-2 days. And behind this lies not an economic pattern, by virtue of which the activity of graduates from the point of view of the national economy is disproportionately less valuable than the work of craftsmen. On the contrary, as I have already mentioned, this fact has long been well known. that in the world market we can create demand only on the basis of the achievements of our mental creative work and creative minds.
From this it also becomes clear that the British colonialists, who gave orders to the African natives, had a clearer idea of the laws in the world market than the ministers planted on our necks, who did not even have such knowledge. And if they do, it is not in their interests to follow this logic, just as it was not in the interests of the English masters to create universities and public libraries in the African jungle, because their own children studied at Oxford or Cambridge.
An even more aggressive spokesman for this disastrous policy is former finance minister Laszlo Bekesy, who was already in office during the economic collapse of the Kadar system. His career is one of the steepest ascendants of the communist regime: having received diplomas from the Higher Political School and the Military Academy, he rose from the post of assistant to the tax department in the Village Council to the chair of the minister. In his program, he argued (see Maria Bonifert, 1996) that the various sections of the numerous camp - those who helped the socialist party to become the ruling party with their votes in the elections, were “certainly disappointed” with the activities of this government, but he did not want the election campaign to be fulfilled. promises, but that those who were brought to power under the sign of government responsibility openly break with left-wing values. The word "culture" does not appear at all in this scripture, but one of its expressions - "reducing the obligations of the state" - certainly alludes to a reduction in spending on culture, as well as an oblique allusion following from its other expression - "to help exports and investment at the expense of consumption." We are well aware of the beautiful sounding slogans - "implementation of successful accumulation of capital", "increase the competitiveness of the economy" - we are well aware of what they mean: bank boy swindlers and black economy mafiosi will continue to increase their previously successfully plundered millions and their competitiveness.
In any case, in the period from 1985 to 1995 in Hungary the number of scientific researchers decreased by 50% (Peter Agardi, 1997), and according to one of the radio messages made in October 1997, 40% of scientists engaged in basic research left the country - emigrated abroad.
At the sight of these frightening signs of a cultural counter-revolution, certain members of the new spiritual elite also have doubts, which they express from time to time in the press. Such protesting “liberal” publicists are usually called to order by advising the intelligentsia not to whimper, because. this is the price of our entry into the European Union. It would be easy to prove that this is demagogy: by destroying the system of educational institutions, the government is pushing us not to Europe, but to Central Africa.
And, on the other hand, the time has come to understand that the inspirers of this “Tatar invasion” of culture were given not by newly minted liberal publicists and brutalized chief accountants, but by those intelligentsia cliques that really now have no moral right to “whimper”. Promoted in the late Atsel era - and today with the exclusive right to speak on television screens - social scientists, who live on the fact that from university chairs, from the pages of special journals they propagate the ideas of postmodernism, serve the “new rich” more effectively than the demagogy of ministers of culture .
The apostles of these views have been drumming into the public consciousness for many years that no exact knowledge can be expected from the sciences they represent (Miklash Almasi, 1992), in them every thought is unstable by its inner nature, and is mainly suitable for, like the conversation of the deaf to engage in a dialogue that never leads to a strictly defined truth with other, similar theories (Ijozsef Seeley, 1992). And if this is true, the teaching of these sciences in secondary and high schools is completely redundant, and those who teach and promote them do not deserve a penny of help - aimless chatter is indeed a luxury.
If Aron Kibedi Varga, so revered by us, is right, then we are dealing with such an information society based on differences, about which the classics of postmodernism Lyotard and Vattimo speak in “their optimistic moments”. There will be no generally accepted scientific values, and each individual will himself make up his own temporary and different system of values, then those representatives of the domestic intelligentsia who, due to the destruction of our system of cultural institutions, the affairs of school education, sounded the alarm - turn out to be enemies of progress. After all, if in the “postmodern world” everyone is able to craft his own scientific and cultural value system, besides, in all respects, in a way that is temporarily valid at the moment, then there is no need for education, schools. An illiterate person is such a postmodern person who, in his current value system, does not have the ability to write and read among the necessary knowledge. And Vanechka, when he declares that two times two equals five, realizes the opportunity presented by this “information society”: “to make changes to the norms modified and independent of the individual”.
The same arguments were made in defense of the cultural counter-revolution by those literary theorists, critics and anti-aesthetics who were declared geniuses as representatives of postmodern rubbish - fiction of general phrases. If the difficulties of composition are resolved by the incoherence of the text, then meaninglessness is a sure sign of subtle modern irony, and the depiction of artistic truth is an old-fashioned aimless effort, compared with the ingenious discovery that is the stream of words written out from dictionaries of synonyms (see Erne Kulchar Sabo, 1994) .
So, the problem is not how we can fight back the financial illiteracy raised to the government program, but another - how long the Hungarian intelligentsia will put up with the fact that the tone is set by such authors of works who, behind fashionable, incoherent texts of false philosophies and estheticians mask the absence of their own concept. If in intellectual social life we cannot win the rights to a real system of values, we will not be able to restore the dignity of knowledge and learning, scientific knowledge, the honor of works of art that are aware of important social truths. then we can only blame ourselves for the loss of our national culture in the first place.
Concluding the analysis of our state of affairs, it is necessary to consider one more area of ideological culture, which, as is well known, to a large extent influences the main trends that manifest themselves in other areas of culture.
According to Peter Agardi (1997), summarizing the opinions of the best analysts of Hungarian political culture, domestic public thinking is determined by four main ideological currents:
A) conservative, Christian-national;
B) radical folk-national;
C) liberal, bourgeois-democratic;
D) left, socialist.
Their roots go back to the 19th century, but in 1948 (including a significant part of the left), with their dictatorial means, they were deprived of publicity. From the mid-60s they reappeared on the scene, and since 1988 they could act openly.
In the 1990 elections, thanks to their false promises and refraining from anti-communist incitement, a coalition of conservative-Christian, national and radical popular-national wing won, but, in my opinion, they still do not have a significantly developed ideology that goes beyond slogans, as well as their own influence spreading through the media, and which is hindered by the dominance of the ideology of “liberals” in them.
The ideology of the left socialists since the mid-1980s has been gradually destroyed, and there were many reasons for this (see I. Serdakhain, 1988). On the one hand, the official one, enjoying the privileges of "Marxism-Leninism" and the possibility of dissemination through the system of party education, until the 1970s for the most part remained outdated, bearing the features of the Stalin era. On the other hand, the party leadership imposed half-hearted economic experiments and a cavalcade of apologetic market theories on the country, completely abandoning political and ideological ones. As a result, by the second half of the 1980s, complete ideological chaos arose; Marxism has discredited itself; the ideology of Western neo-conservatism, the ideology of “de-ideologization”, has spread in wide circles, and irrationalism and mysticism have also spread among young people.
In 1989-1990 in the circles of the party leadership, a series of coups and coups took place, and the former communist party was reorganized into a right-wing social democratic party. After winning the elections in 1994, she carried out a radical conservative capitalist program.
The truly left-wing socialist intelligentsia has practically been expelled from the media, and their ability to express their position in the press in the current economic conditions is even more insignificant than those that the “persecuted” opposition had at the time of the liberalization of the Kadar era. The ranks of this intelligentsia were divided, disintegrated into small ones, incapable of ideological synthesis, or at least of sect solidarity.
Opinion manipulators suggest that Marxism collapsed along with the Soviet empire, that it no longer exists (for an exposure of these manipulations, see Laszlo Garay, 1995).
At the same time, it is worth noting that the fundamental ideas of the socialist-Marxist worldview, almost in folklore form, were organically integrated into the ideological culture of the masses.
The result of this, on the one hand, is that against the neo-conservative capitalist demagogy, these masses are armed in a certain way. And on the other hand, if not yet, then in the future there may be an increase in the danger of growing social demagogy of the radical people's national right.
In Hungary, the so-called liberal bourgeois-democratic trend, in fact, under the guise of liberalization, is even a very radical neo-conservative capitalist ideology. Despite the fact that in the elections of 1990, having caused mistrust with her hostile anti-communist-anti-socialist attacks, she was defeated, but with the help of foreign capital, the liberals were provided with leading positions in the elite sphere of cultural life and in the media.
In the elections in 1994, the bourgeois liberal-conservatives did not win more confidence, but as a coalition partner “the victorious socialist party at the moment not only takes part in the government of the country, but also determines the nature of this government.
"Liberal" ideology should be considered more closely. One of its main theorists - Eva C. Dimeshi - sets out the following train of thought. According to its definition, any ideology is the reaction of a class, a layer of a group living in a given socio-historical situation to the challenge of its position, and the situation was determined by the awareness of interests and the programmatic formulation of goals arising from this basic principle of action. Or we are talking about the fact that different ideologies are no worse and no better than one another, they only express different spheres of public interests” (p. 18). Perhaps, from this liberal eight-year-old student, if he possesses logical abilities, one can already expect such a judgment: although the life situation and interests of the murderer-sexopath and his victim are actually different, but in “human quality” they do not differ from each other, there is no difference between them .
Therefore, in accordance with this logic, there is no difference in moral and ideological relations between the gangster bourgeoisie and the main working population of the country (see Peter Agardi, 1997).
This “liberalism” cannot be attributed to the circle of fascist ideologies; it does not promote aggressive exclusivity. He is not at all opposed to the existence of an alternative ideology that would express the interests of the poor: it condemned unemployment, which during the period from 1990 to 1996 grew so much that it makes up 1/4 of the entire working population (see Peret Agardi, 1997) ; condemned the growth of impoverishment (in 1995, already one third of the country's population lived below the official subsistence level and an abrupt increase in the death rate of the population. Right-wing liberalism needs only that ideologies that express the interests of those who dismiss workers from work raise the death rate and for medicines would be qualified as equivalent, because this removes all barriers to layoffs and raising prices, because the “equivalence” of ideologies is combined with blatant material inequality: behind the “liberal” ideology is the power of capital, and behind the left is the ideology of empty pockets. in such a state of affairs there is no need for barbed wire and machine-gun towers, those dismissed from their jobs will receive their legal compensation, those living in poverty can openly criticize the existing system, and the free press, radio, television preach freedom, and death from disease is a natural death. No one violates or offends the basic principles of democracy and legal statehood.
The only problem is that, according to one of the leading representatives of Hungarian “liberalism”, Miklós Tamas Gaspar (1997), Hungarians still “hate democracy more than Szálasi, Kadar and Rakosi put together.” The author of this article is outraged by such a devastating opinion about the Hungarian people and their alleged hostility to democracy. Hungarians are not against democracy, but one of the signs of the wisdom of the Hungarian people and their political culture is that they appreciate this "liberal" democracy on merit.
Notes
1. The problems that were connected with the Versailles peace treaties signed after the 1st and 2nd World Wars and also with the nationalist peaces of the neighboring socialist “fraternal” countries: for several years after 1945, most of the Hungarian population in Czechoslovakia did not even have civil rights. This especially applies to Romania after 1956, where an aggressive, assimilating policy towards the Hungarians was pursued. In this regard, the Soviet Union was no exception: for example, after the census at the end of the 70s, the Hungarians were not included in the list of peoples living on its territory, while their number (200 thousand people) significantly exceeded the number of small nationalities with their own autonomous districts (editor's note).
2. In Hungary, the works and manuscripts of books published in newspapers, magazines did not have to be shown to any institution, i.e. censorship was virtually non-existent. Censorship was understood as something else: as in all socialist countries, all publishing houses were in the hands of the state and editors-in-chief were appointed by state authorities and received appropriate directives on publishing policy. And from above, lists were often “lowered” - which authors it is undesirable to publish or not to publish. And if the editor often violated these guidelines, he could be “removed” from his post. But the editor, as a rule, was interested in keeping his post. Those. the state exercised its censorship through the mechanisms of state ownership. But even when the political regime changed, this method of censorship was preserved, only the type of property changed: state property was replaced by private property.
3. During the period of so-called perestroika, Gorbachev and his American partners also discussed the fate of the European socialist countries. And the then "Soviet" leadership agreed to help America restore capitalism in these countries to the forces of the West. And for such assistance, US leaders promised the leadership of the Soviet Union certain economic benefits. It was in fact a secret pact. This is what the left-wing politicians of Western Europe say. America probably promised that these countries would not join NATO after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and promised to replace economic contacts in Central Europe with their own. Of course, after the collapse of the USSR, they considered it unnecessary to fulfill their promises.
In 1526, in the battle with the Turks at Mohacs, Hungary lost its state independence for three and a half centuries. Most of it until the end of the 17th century was under the yoke of the Turks; western Hungary, together with the Czech Republic, was under the rule of the Austrian Habsburgs. The country was divided into three parts, of which only the Principality of Erdey (Transylvania), maneuvering between two powerful rulers, retained relative independence.
During the 17th century, the Austrians gradually forced the Turks out of Hungary, but the national oppression did not weaken. The answer was numerous uprisings that shook the whole country. The most formidable was the war of the Kuruts (“crusaders” - mostly serfs), headed by the Transylvanian prince Ferenc Rakoczy II, which lasted eight years (1703-1711). Folk songs glorified the valor of the Kuruc army, and after the defeat of the uprising, they mourned the sad fate of the exiles.
Since 1784, throughout the Austrian Empire, German has been declared the official language - in this way the Habsburgs tried to subjugate the multinational country to their influence. This language was taught in Jesuit schools, in which only German-speaking children were accepted, theatrical performances were staged in this language. A powerful patriotic movement is rising in defense of the native language, embracing the most diverse segments of the population.
This movement coincided with a new wave of national liberation struggle, aggravated under the influence of revolutionary events in France. At the end of the 18th century, secret conspiratorial organizations arose in Hungary, aiming not only at liberation from the power of the Habsburgs, but also at the revolutionary reorganization of society, the establishment of a republican regime. The conspiracy was uncovered, many of its participants were executed, others were imprisoned or expelled from the country. Among them are the first Hungarian enlighteners: the translator of the Marseillaise, the poet Ferenc Vereshegy, poet and critic Ferenc Kazinci. Having escaped the death penalty and released from prison after a seven-year sentence, Kazintsi led the literary life of Hungary at the beginning of the 19th century.
A broad educational movement led to the emergence of a number of national cultural organizations:
1779 - The "Hungarian Patriotic Association" is organized in Pest.
1789 - the literary magazine "Hungarian Museum" is published in the native language.
1790 - performances of the Hungarian theater troupe are given in Buda (nineteen plays were staged in six weeks).
1793 - premiere in Buda of the first Hungarian comedy with music ("Prince Picco and Yutka Perzhi" by Jozsef Khudi).
1796 - the performances of the traveling troupes of the Hungarian "wandering theater" begin, the actors of which the people called "the apostles of the Hungarian language."
1819 - opens a conservatory in Kolozhvar (now Cluj - Romania).
1822 - the first Hungarian opera (on a historical plot) "The Flight of Bela" by Jozsef Ruzicka was staged.
1825 - The Hungarian Academy of Sciences is established.
The figures of the first wave of enlightenment - the movement for the "renewal of the language and the revival of literature" - are major poets and playwrights: Mihai Fazekas(1766-1828) - the author of the most popular anti-serfdom poem "Mati Ludash" (1804), which glorifies the mind, intelligence and resourcefulness of a simple peasant guy who takes revenge on the landowner for oppression; the name of this cheerful folk hero has become a household name in Hungary; Mihai Vitez Chokonai(1773-1805) - a playwright and poet who lived in poverty and died untimely from consumption, wrote poetry in the spirit of folk songs, the poets of the next generations called him their teacher; Ferenc Kolchei(1790-1838) - the author of patriotic poems, including "Hymn" (1823).
In the same period, the largest Hungarian playwright creates Jozsef Katona(1792-1830). His main work is the historical drama "Bank-ban" (Bank - Vegerian form of the name Benedict; ban - governor, ruler, governor.), in which the hatred of the people for foreign oppressors is captured with great force and for the first time on the Hungarian stage the image of a serf is displayed, angrily denouncing the rulers - the perpetrators of the disasters of his native country (This greatest achievement of Hungarian dramaturgy remained unknown for many years: the play, written in 1815 and revised in 1820, was first staged three years after Katona's death in a small provincial town and only in 1839 hit the stage of the National Theater in Pest, where it suffered It was only in the pre-revolutionary years that the play "Bank-ban" received recognition and was performed at the request of the people on the first day of the revolution - March 15, 1848.).
The second stage of the liberation struggle was called the "epoch of reforms" (1825-1848). In 1825, after a break of thirteen years, the Hungarian Diet met again; here the question of the rights of the Hungarian language was raised (officially recognized only in 1844). At the head of the liberals was the count István Szechenyi; Democratic wing led Lajos Kossuth(1802-1894) - the future leader of the revolution of 1848-1849. The poets and writers of this second generation are grouped around the almanac Aurora (1822). Their work marks the heyday of romanticism.
Among them Jozsef Eötvös(1813-1871), author of a historical novel about the largest peasant uprising led by György Dozi"Hungary in 1514", public figure, Minister of Education in the first Hungarian government after the revolution of 1848; Janos Garai(1812-1853), who embodied in two small poems the image of the most popular hero of folk tales - a retired soldier, braggart and liar Janos Hari (The comic opera Janos Hari by Zoltan Kodály (1926) was written on the basis of these poems.).
In the pre-revolutionary era, two major poets are put forward: Mihai Vörösmarty(1800-1855), in whose gloomy, tragic verses despair is peculiarly combined with faith in the coming revolution, and Sandor Petofi(1823-1849). “The beautiful, fiery Hungarian nation has no greater son than him,” wrote the Czech poet Jan Neruda about Petőfi. “If we knew nothing about this nation and knew only Petőfi’s poems, then by doing this we would have felt its finest nerves ". The brilliant poet of Hungary, Petofi gave not only his talent, but also his life to the cause of the revolution - he died in one of the last battles of 1849.
The rise of the liberation movement, along with the flourishing of literature and the theater, caused the growth of musical culture. A great event in the life of the country was the opening of the National Theater (1837), where opera and drama performances were staged in parallel in Hungarian. Following the conservatory in Kolozsvár, a conservatory was opened in Arad (1833) and, finally, in Pest (1840). The opening of the capital's conservatory took place thanks to the efforts of Liszt, who, on his first visit to his homeland, gave a number of charity concerts to fund the founding of the conservatory. It is led by the "Musical Society", headed by a folklorist Gabor Matrai, who published a collection of urban folk songs in the late 20s. Soon there will be other similar collections.
The defeat of the revolution and the onset of reaction slowed down the development of the national culture of Hungary. German was again declared the state language (until 1860). Leading works are banned, "Bank-ban" is removed from the stage (until 1858), many cultural figures are forced to emigrate. In literature, moods of despair, disillusionment, and tragedy sound louder and louder. They were most pronounced in the work of the outstanding playwright Imre Madach(1823-1864) and his best work - the philosophical drama "The Tragedy of Man" (1861), known far beyond the borders of Hungary.
In the 1960s, political unrest flared up again. Weakened by the struggle with the reuniting Italy (where the Hungarian detachment of Kossuth is fighting in the ranks of the Garibaldians) and rivalry with Prussia, Austria is forced to make concessions: in 1867, a dual Austro-Hungarian monarchy is formed, which lasted until 1918. National contradictions have not been eliminated, but temporarily muted. The country is undergoing intensive capitalist development, exacerbating social contradictions. Cities grow, in 1872 Buda, the ancient capital, located on the right bank of the Danube, merges with the left bank of Pest; the capital of Hungary becomes a major cultural center.
During this period, the realistic stream in literature is getting stronger. The most prolific author of multi-volume novels is nominated Mor Yokai(his pen also belongs to the drama about the peasant uprising - "Doge"), other novelists and playwrights who exposed the morals and mores of bourgeois society. There is a wide interest in Russian literature (the first critical article about it - "Russian Poetry" - appeared as early as 1828); in a short time, several hundred translations are published (Eugene Onegin, which has withstood several editions, enjoys special love). Hungarian painting flourishes. The biggest realist Mihai Munkacsy captured in his paintings the images of the destitute ordinary people of Hungary (he also owns a portrait of Liszt and the painting "Death of Mozart").
Interest in Russian folklore - both in folk poetry and in music - permeated the entire 19th century.
Folk music - peasant, kuruc, urban. Verbunkosh style
By the end of the 19th century, after the death of Moshonya, Liszt, Erkel, the situation in the musical life of Hungary became more complicated. Budapest acquired the importance of a major European musical center. But for the prosperity of the conservatory, the Academy of Music, the opera house, the philharmonic society, the strength of domestic musicians was not enough. As a result, these institutions ended up in the hands of foreigners, mainly Austrians, who to a large extent contributed to the improvement of the general musical culture of Hungary, but were not interested in and did not know its national treasure - folk music, did not understand and did not appreciate the “Hungarian” that they claimed in their work. Erkel and Liszt.
Thus, musical Budapest imperceptibly turned into a “Germanized” city, where the works of German and Austrian composers, primarily Wagner and Brahms, were intensively promoted, and Hungarian music meant only that which was performed by gypsy instrumental ensembles for entertainment purposes. Music for such ensembles was supplied by professionally insufficiently trained composers (“they didn’t even always know how to write down their melodies in notes,” recalled Zoltan Kodaly). But it was precisely in entertaining music, which was especially fond of the inhabitants of provincial towns, that the national traditions of Hungary were preserved, albeit in a salon refraction.
In order to bridge this gulf between cosmopolitan professionalism and national dilettantism, a great, comprehensively educated musician, devoted to his homeland, had to appear. This role fell to the lot of the outstanding composer of the 20th century Bela Bartok(1881-1945), whose first successes as a pianist and author of remarkable compositions come at the beginning of the 20th century. At the same time, the glory of Hungarian music was strengthened by Zoltan Kodai (1882-1967).
(The violinist and composer should also be named Yenyo Gubaya(1858-1937), who headed the Academy of Music in 1919-1934; pianist and composer Erno Donany(1877-1960) - a student of E. d "Albert, who, in turn, studied with Liszt, and others. We also recall that the conductor A. Nikish as well as violinists J. Joachim And L. Auer, were originally from Hungary.)
All his life, Bartók, in his own words, was worried about the "List problem", that is, the place that he rightfully should occupy in the culture of Hungary. With his work and theoretical research as a folklorist, the greatest connoisseur of folk art, Bartók proved Liszt's living connection both with Hungarian music, with its national traditions, and with our modernity, because the artistic ideals of the great Hungarian were directed to the future.
M. Druskin, A. Koenigsberg
The national culture has rich traditions, however, due to the country's peripheral position in Europe and linguistic isolation, relatively little is known outside of Hungary.
The birth of Hungarian culture coincides with the conversion of the Hungarian people to Christianity at the end of the 10th century. During the reign of King Stephen I (1000-1038), the state and society were rebuilt according to Western European models, the remnants of old traditions were eradicated, and any influence of Eastern culture was excluded. Latin, which was used by the Roman Catholic Church, became the "official" language of Hungary. This meant, especially in the Middle Ages, that the vast majority of chroniclers, scholars and educators were priests. During the Renaissance, Italian scholars and artists flocked to the court of King Matthias I Corvinus (1458-1490), who patronized the activities of the humanists.
Religion in Hungary
In Hungary, the relationship between church and state in the XX century. were quite complex. Although the 1949 Constitution nominally guaranteed religious freedom, the communist regime confiscated church property, persecuted the clergy, abolished religious orders, and nationalized parochial schools. Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty was imprisoned in 1949 for opposing these measures.
In the end, the religious organizations and the state reached an agreement in which they accepted the control of the regime. In return, the state allowed churches to hold services and pay for the maintenance of priests. The state administration for religious affairs could cancel appointments of church officials and priests. In 1964, the government entered into an agreement with the Vatican aimed at normalizing relations between the Hungarian Catholic Church and the state. Diplomatic relations with the Vatican were restored in 1978. In the 1990s, the churches reopened their schools and other institutions that had been closed during the communist dictatorship.
With legally guaranteed freedom of conscience, the church is separated from the state, but supported by it financially. Signed in 1997 the agreement with the Vatican provides for the return to the Hungarian Catholic Church of a significant part of the educational, cultural and social facilities and the payment of compensation for the rest. By analogy with this, it is meant to settle the corresponding problems with the rest of the churches.
There are about 260 cult organizations and religious associations in the country, covering 74% of the population with their influence. Among believers, 73% are Catholics and Greek Catholics, 22% are Reformed and other Protestants, and 4% are Evangelicals (Lutherans). Approximately 0.2% are Baptists, Orthodox of various persuasions, and Jews. There is a small Buddhist community.
Today, religious life in Hungary is regulated by the Law on Religion, adopted back in 1990. According to this law, in order to register any religious organization (which is referred to as a "church"), it is necessary that there be 100 followers, a leader, an organization center and a simple charter. In this case, the local court must register the organization as a "church". Each such “church” receives state subsidies for real estate, as well as for the maintenance of a comprehensive denominational school, if the organization has one. Believers can transfer 1% of income tax to their religious organization. The donations that the churches themselves collect from their believers are their private business, and officials do not control this process. The main requirement for all churches is that no church can engage in economic activity, that is, churches are not even allowed to rent out their buildings.
Material culture of Hungary
In modern Hungary, the traditional branches of folk arts and crafts have not been forgotten. The country-specific types of such art include shepherds' products made of wood, horn, bone, and leather. Since ancient times, shepherds have decorated with beautiful ornaments tools of labor - sticks and whips with skillfully twisted leather weaving, made ax handles, ladles, pipes, wooden flasks, decoratively covered with leather, horns for wine, salt shakers, pepper shakers, caskets. When applying the ornament, various techniques were used: scratching, and then rubbing in paint, relief or bas-relief carving, and inlay.
The production of decorative ceramics is also developed in Hungary: poured plates, jugs are usually decorated with floral or geometric patterns. Previously, peasants liked to decorate their homes with bright ceramic products, hanging them on the walls and laying them on the shelves.
Pottery had its own regional specificity, for example, black jugs and jugs were made in Mohacs, in the southern part of Alfeld - tetrahedral painted bottles, bowls, clay human figures.
In the area of the city of Kalocha, a very interesting type of arts and crafts is still widespread - patterned painting of plaster walls. The plastered and whitewashed wall of the room is covered with a continuous patterned ornament, the same as used in embroideries.
