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

ascertain the proportion of Magyars among the demobilized. Relying on them,
it is felt that the Károlyi government could have organized a national armed
resistance for the defense of the country, if it was their intention to do so. All
the more so since the strength of the enemy armies were – as shown later –
extremely modest, considering their military objectives.
The territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, including Transylvania – minus
the previously departed allied country of Croatia-Slavonia and the territory of
Fiume – was 282,870 km 2 , with a population, according to the 1910 census, of
18,264,533. The ethnic distribution was: Hungarian 9,944,627 (54.45%),
Romanian 2,948,186 (16.14%), Slovak 1,946,357 (10.66%), German 1,903,357
(10.42%), Ruthenian 464,270 (2.54%), Serb 461,516 (2.53%), and Croat
194,808 (1.07%). Thus, the proportion of non-Hungarians is 45.55%. 40
Drawing a conclusion from the census data and the national composition of the
population – after the departure of the Slovak, Serb and Romanian soldiers to
their mother countries – the number of Hungarian soldiers can be calculated
accurately, which we will disclose in rounded numbers. In the two months,
ending in December of 1918, of the returning 1.5 million soldiers – given the
ethnic proportions – 816,000 were ethnic Hungarians. Of all the nationalities
that have lived for centuries together in the Carpathian basin with Hungarians,
only Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II’s (1676-1735) most faithful people (gens
fidelissima), the Ruthenians (Rusyns), could be given Hungarian weapons
because they did not attack Hungarians in the back as the Slovaks, Serbs and
Romanians have done for centuries. The Rusyns fought in the 1848-1849
Freedom Revolution – the “Kossutova vojna’’ (Kossuth War) as they called it –
on the Hungarian side. By the end of 1918, 46,000 Rusyn soldiers returned
from the fronts. By the way, the overwhelming proportion of the Germans of
Hungary (Schwabians, Zipsers, Saxons) were not hostile toward Hungary, as
proven by their voluntarily becoming Hungarians in great numbers and of
whom about 190,000 soldiers saw active duty. In total then, 862,000 soldiers
(816,000 Hungarian and 46,000 Rusyn) could have been fielded to face the
intruding Czech-Slovak, Romanian and Serb forces. This number would have
to be, of necessity, lowered by several tens of thousands who were seriously
injured and maimed but it still represented a sizeable force.
The former Marxist-Communist, and the current Left-Liberal,
historiography has for decades spread the lie that the Hungarian-speaking
soldiers returning from the fronts in November-December of 1918 were
exhausted and did not want to fight on in defense of the country. The reality
was that (as we wrote earlier) the overwhelming majority returned to the
country in disciplined formations, with their weapons and artillery, under the
command of their officers. What gives a lie to the Marxists’ and Liberals’
40 Lőkkös, János: Trianon számokban. Az 1910. évi magyar népszámlálás anyanyelvi
adatainak elemzése a történelmi Magyarországon [Trianon in numbers. The analysis of
the data of the 1910 census by mother tongue in historical Hungary]. Budapest, 2000,
pp. 197, 236.
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