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

contemplate – no matter how the craze of internationalism-globalism
propaganda rages today.
The author’s book, of course, does not address the fate of individuals (like
me) but collectively ours, the Magyars. Of that part of the country, which,
through more than three years of serious problems and ordeals, József Botlik
documents for us in a precise and factual manner, the Hungarian successes. In
the end, the Austrian demands were largely warded off between November
1918 and December 1921, thanks entirely to our efforts. The sole minor success
in the appalling mutilation of a country was won here as a sign of the nation’s
will of the day. It was all thanks to the diplomatic moves following the collapse
of Communism in Hungary; perhaps even more to the voluntary resistance,
military and civil. Among them, finally, was the compelling of the plebiscite,
the demand and resistance of the individual villages that fell into the border
zone. Not in last place, the stand taken by the Hungarian armed volunteers
(including in the Lajta-Banat) and the strength of the Western Hungarian
insurrection, which could successfully effect a change – after the signing of the
peace treaty! – from the astounding claim of 16,000 km 2 to a more modest
5,000 km 2 ?
The book, and its theme, exemplifies: No matter how much of a defeated
situation a community finds itself, if it does not give up, if it does not give in,
no matter how great its opponents, there always was, or could have, an
incentive for resistance, for defiance. What’s more, the effort may even bring
concrete results. But only if we make, are able to make, the necessary sacrifice,
as then in Western Hungary, the greatest one: the brave sacrifice of life. It is
thus, even if this heroic example failed to make much of a change in the
outcome of the terms of the dictated Trianon treaty or among the Austrians who
lost with us. In the newly annexed Burgenland province of Austria, 24,500
people claimed themselves as Hungarians (1910 census and 64,000 spoke
Hungarian, too). In our day, the number of indigenous Magyars is around
4,000. By proportion, this represents the greatest assimilation of a Magyar
minority, plummeting to 16% of its former number. Not to the great glory of
Austrian democracy and minority policies.
The name of the historian-author is known today among a wider public, not
just among those in the business. His earlier books and studies deal with
another, also annexed, region: Sub-Carpathia. They have found favor for a very
good reason. It is predictable that this book will also find favorable reception. It
is my belief that this book should not be recommended to the attention of
readers, rather, due to its subject, reasoning and good style should become
mandatory reading – primarily for our countrymen living in the West of Trans-
Danubia. And not just them but it would add to all of us with a hazy grasp of
history, to our collective Magyar national consciousness.
Lajos Für
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