Transylvania: Its Past and Present
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Hungarian Studies Review, Vol. XXXVI, Nos. 1-2 (2009) Special Issue: Transylvania: Its Past and Present Edited and introduced by Nándor Dreisziger Articles, review articles etc. by STEPHEN JOBBITT BALÁZS ABLONCZY LÁSZLÓ DIÓSZEGI NÁNDOR DREISZIGER PAUL DIÓSADY LÁSZLÓ KÓSA ANDREW LUDÁNYI MARIO FENYO Hungarian Studies Review, Vol. XXXVI, Nos. 1-2 (2009) Contents Preface ........................................................................................................ 5 Transylvania in Hungarian History: An Introduction NÁNDOR DREISZIGER ............................................................... 7 Remembering Szatmár, Remembering Himself: The Geography of Memory and Identity in Ferenc Fodor’s “Szatmár Földje, Szatmár Népe, Szatmár Élete” STEVEN JOBBITT ......................................................................... 15 Promoting Tourism: Hungarian Nation-Building Policies in Northern Transylvania, 1940-1944 BALÁZS ABLONCZY ................................................................. 39 A Story of Survival: the Hungarians of Romania, 1919-1989 LÁSZLÓ DIÓSZEGI ..................................................................... 65 Transylvania in International Power Politics during World War II NÁNDOR DREISZIGER .............................................................. 85 Escape from Transylvania: September-October 1944 From the Diaries of Paul Diósady .............................................. 115 ABOUT BOOKS Hungarians Beyond the Borders: Diaspora existence in Transylvania and Elsewhere LÁSZLÓ KÓSA ........................................................................... 123 Controversies about the History of Transylvania Revisited (1986-2004) ANDRÁS LUDÁNYI .................................................................. 131 The Székelys: Ancestors of Today's Hungarians? A New Twist to Magyar Prehistory NÁNDOR DREISZIGER ........................................................... 153 OBITUARIES Mária Krisztinkovics (1918-2008) ............................................................ 171 László László (1925-2008) ....................................................................... 173 Béla Király (1912-2009) Improving the Image of Hungary in the English-Speaking World: Béla Király's Lifelong Passion MARIO FENYO ............................................................................ 175 OUR CONTRIBUTORS ………………………………………………….185 4 Hungarian Studies Review, Vol. XXXVI, Nos. 1-2 (2009) Preface The present collection of essays on the subject of Transylvania and its peoples, especially the Székelys, has been in the making for a long time. While a few of the papers in this anthology are the results of recent research, others have been in the editing process for nearly a decade. And it is an eclectic selection. A few of the papers deal with very specialized subjects while one of them, Dr. Diószegi's, is an overview of nearly a century of evolution. One paper belongs to the field of biography, or more precisely still, historical diaries. The focal point, if the volume has one, is the period of the Second World War, perhaps the most traumatic age in modern Transylvania's history. In the book review section an even larger period is covered, ranging from the twenty-first century, in Dr. Kósa's essay, all the way back to the early medieval period in the review of recent literature, including genomic research, related to the ethnogenesis of the Székely people, in fact of the entire Hungarian nation. If apologies have to be made in connection with this volume they are due to a few of the collections' authors who had waited an inordinate amount of time to see it through the translating and editing process. If gratitude has to be expressed it should go to people who ave helped with editing and proofreading, above all Dr. Jason Kovacs of the University of Toronto. Even greater appreciation has to be conveyed to Mrs. Éva Tömöry, of the University of Toronto's Hungarian Program, who put aside her numerous duties and took time out from her work of her doctoral thesis to help with the resolution of major computer problems the editor of this volume experienced during the preparation of this collection of essays. In the meantime work on another special volume of this journal, a collection of papers and readings on the modern art of László Moholy-Nagy continued to stall. I and the chief editor of that volume, Professor Olivér Botár of the University of Manitoba apologize for these delays to the contributors of that volume. It would perhaps not be appropriate to talk about the affairs of the Hungarian Studies Review in this preface as the situation can change in the months that this volume will await being printed. But a few notes might be 6 appropriate. Our journal has signed an agreement with EBSCO communications company to the effect that current volumes of our journal will be made available on the internet through EBSCO to the students and faculty of a great many English-speaking universities. At the same time we have a promise from the management of the National Széchényi Library of Hungary that past volumes of our journal, those not already on a website, will be archived and made available on the internet. Whether our journal will survive until these two developments take effect remains to be seen. Nándor Dreisziger Kingston, July 2009 6 Hungarian Studies Review, Vol. XXXVI, Nos. 1-2 (2009) Transylvania in Hungarian History: An Introduction Nándor Dreisziger Few words arouse stronger emotions among Hungarians than the name Erdély or Transylvania. While for most people in the English-speaking world “Transylvania” conjures up the image of Dracula, for Hungarians it is associated with a proud and time-honoured national past, as well as a real and tangible present. This circumstance should not surprise anyone. Transylvania is home to the largest Hungarian community living outside of Hungary. In fact this community is one of the largest minorities existing in any country that is a member of the European Union. Transylvania is also the place where Hun- garian presence had existed uninterruptedly for at least eleven centuries, and it is the place where Hungarian culture flourished even in times when in other Hungarian lands it languished because of Ottoman Turkish or Austrian Habs- burg rule. The geographic limits of the land known as Transylvania have changed with the passage of time. Before 1920 this term was used to designate an area of the Carpathian Basin that was smaller than what the word describes nowadays. For most Hungarians, the word Erdély today signifies the lands that had been transferred from Hungary to Romania as a result of the Treaty of Trianon ofJune1920. Mostofthetime this rather inaccurate and unhistorical definition will be used in this volume. When it will not be used, the context and meaning will be explained. Although Transylvania had always held a significant connotation for Hungarians, it is since 1920 that they think of this land with an especially heavy heart. It was in the post-World War I peace settlement, in particular in the above-mentioned Treaty of Trianon, that the transfer of this land to Roma- nia was inscribed into international law. The background of this event is complex and is rooted in centuries of history. 8 Nándor Dreisziger Early in the second century a.d. the Romans added this land to their expanding empire and called it Dacia. Some fifteen decades later, in the early 270s a.d., they Romans evacuated the province. From that time on, and espe- cially since the time of the barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire a century-and-a-half later, until the thirteenth century, there is little concrete evidence of peoples speaking a Romance language (similar to Latin, Italian, French, Spanish etc.) in what is now Transylvania. Romance-speaking peoples, in particular the Vlachs, did live in the central mountains of the Balkans. In fact, maps of this age place the putative ancestors of the Roma- nians south of the lands of the Bulgarians, exactly the opposite as we know the locations of Bulgaria and Romania in the Modern Age.1 From their Balkan homeland the Vlachs began their migrations north in the thirteenth century, migrations that were accelerated no doubt by the beginning of Ottoman Turkish expansion into the Balkans. By the time of the following century, they established themselves as the dominant ethnic popula- tion in what became known as Wallachia, the land between the Transylvanian Alps and the Lower Danube River. Here they converted to the eastern branch of Orthodox Christianity. Their priests used Church Slavonic as the language of liturgy. Under various leaders they at times served as a client state of the Kingdom of Hungary, or acted as an independent principality. One of the most famous, one might say infamous ruler of Wallachia was Vlad III “the Impaler” (ruled in 1448 and from 1456-62). Myths and legends about this man probably inspired the main character in the nineteenth century English author Bram Stoker's book Dracula (1897). This work, along with its Hollywood-produced film incarnations, did more than any other media to immortalize this notorious individual. Prince Dracula's connections to Transylvania were tenuous, even though he was born there and grew up there.2 Whether he was mentally de- ranged or only a ruthless ruler can be the subject of debate. According to one legend, after coming to power for the second time in 1456, he wished to impose order in a realm that had experienced much anarchy and rampant crime as a result of internecine fighting