The Fate of Western Hungary 1918-1921 - Corvinus Library ...

the United States, gave numerous signs of their devotion to Hungary in 1919,
and even afterwards. They held meetings and sent telegrams to the Supreme
Council in Paris and the American government demanding that the Lendva
region (by now called the Mura Region) be reunited to Hungary. Alas, their
actions remained fruitless.
To these, we must add that they happened more than a year after the signing
of the Trianon Peace Decree! This also proves our contention that, in the Fall of
1918, Hungary had vastly greater opportunities for armed resistance if then-
Prime Minister Mihály Károlyi, Béla Linder and their associates, believing in
the false Entente promises of a just peace, had not disarmed the 1.5 million
Hungarian army soldiers returning from the fronts (including 816,000
Hungarians and 46,000 Ruthenians/Rusyns). As it happened, in the middle of
November of 1918, the Károlyi government would have been able to field
200,000 – 300,000 Hungarian and Rusyn soldiers against an approximate force
of 4,000 Czechs, 4,000 – 5,000 Romanians and 20,000 South Slavs (mainly
Serbs). As they neglected to do so, Mihály Károlyi and his group committed a
treasonable act.
It is an undeniable fact, too, that well after the September 10, 1919 Treaty of
Saint-Germain and the June 4, 1920 Trianon Peace Decree, the armed
insurrection in Western Hungary of Pál Prónay and Iván Héjjas (August 28 to
November 4, 1921) and the proclamation of the independent state of Lajta-
Banate forced the holding of a plebiscite in Sopron and eight surrounding
settlements (December 14 – 16, 1921) that had a favorable outcome for
Hungary, allowing it to retain a territory of 256.82 km 2 intended for annexation
to Austria.
On the day of the ceremonial return of Sopron and the eight villages,
January 1, 1922, Austria’s ninth province, Burgenland, also came into official
existence. This, in spite of the fact that the final border adjustment between
Austria and Hungary was not finalized until December 22, 1922. The second
anti-Austrian Western Hungary uprising attempt in July had an important
impact on the adjustment process as the renewed struggle exercised a great
impact on the Paris decisionmakers. 516
With the revised border redrawing in 1922-1923, Hungary was able to
reclaim 113.7 km 2 and 5,383 people from what was annexed away by the
Trianon Decree – over and above the revision of Sopron plebiscite. (There was
a minor adjustment in favor of Austria of approx. 1,800 acres and 471
people. 517 ) The following villages were able to return to Hungary: Ólmod,
Kisnarda, Nagynarda, Felsőcsatár, Alsócsatár, Magyarkeresztes,
Németkeresztes, Horvátlövő, Pornóapáti and Szentpéterfa. 518 The end result
was that, through tough negotiating, Hungary was able to retain 8.1% of the
516 Botlik, József: Az őrvidéki magyarság sorsa 1922–1945 [The fate of the Magyars of
the Borderland]. Magyar Nyugat Könyvkiadó ,Vasszilvágy, 2011, pp. 119–147.
517 Villani, 1923, op. cit., p. 87.
518 Ibid, pp. 63, 69–71; Schlag, 2001, op. cit., pp. 496–498.
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