Canadian-American Review of Hungarian Studies Special Issue: HUNGARIAN-CANADIAN PERSPECTIVES: SELECTED PAPERS Contributors: Robert Blumstock N. F. Dreisziger Martin L. Kovacs John Miska Edited by Martin L. Kovacs Vol. VII, No. ! Spring 1980 EDITOR The Canadian-American Review of Hungarian Studies Nandor Dreisziger Royal Military is a semi-annual, interdisciplinary journal devoted to the College of Canada publication of original articles and critical book reviews EXECUTIVE MANAGER relating to Hungary and Hungarians. Since its launching Michael F. Bordczki President, in 1974, the Review has been committed to the policy of HRS Inc. providing a non-partizan forum for the scholarly discussion and analysis of issues in Hungarian history, politics and EDITORIAL ADVISERS cultural affairs. Thomas Ac/cl University of Massa- chusetts The Review is published by the Hungarian Readers' Eva S. 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Congress Charles Wojatsek Bishop's Uni- versity Canadian-American Review of Hungarian Studies, Vol. VII, No. 1 (Spring 1980) Special Issue: HUNGARIAN-CANADIAN PERSPECTIVES: SELECTED PAPERS Edited by Martin L. Kovacs CONTENTS Guest Editor's Introduction 3 The Hungarian General Staff and Diplomacy, 1939 1941 5 N. F. DREISZIGER The Irrelevance of Ideology: The Fall of Marxism and the Rise of the Last Man 27 ROBERT BLUM STOCK Searching for Land: The First Hungarian Influx into Canada 37 MARTIN L. KOVACS Aspects of Hungarian Settlement in Central Canada, 1921-1931 45 N. F. DREISZIGER Early Hungarian-Canadian Culture MARTIN L. KOVACS Modern Hungarian Poetry in Canada 77 JOHN MISKA Concluding Remarks 85 OUR CONTRIBUTORS DR. ROBERT BLUMSTOCK is Associate Professor of Sociology at McMaster University. His articles have appeared in Szociologia, The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, and other journals. Recently he has published "Public Opinion in Hungary" in Public Opinion in European Socialist Systems (Praeger, 1977). He was in- volved in a project sponsored by the National Museum of Man, and edited a volume, Bekevar: Working Papers on a Hungarian Canadian Prairie Community (Ottawa, 1979). In the past year he has completed an extensive analysis of "Survey Research and Public Attitudes in Hun- gary," which is scheduled for publication in the fall of 1980, by Perga- mon Press. Dr. N. F. DREISZIGER is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario. Before joining that College in 1970, he had worked as a research officer in the Public Archives of Canada. His research fields are Hungarian diplo- matic history, Canadian-American relations and Hungarian Canadian studies. His articles and papers have appeared in several anthologies and periodicals, including the Journal of Modern History, Canadian His- torical Papers, East European Quarterly, New York History, etc. Dr. Dreisziger is the author of Hungary's Way to World War II (Toronto, 1968), and is the founding editor of the Canadian-American Review of Hungarian Studies. At present he is completing (in collaboration with M. L. Kovacs and others) a volume on the history of Hungarians in Canada. DR. MARTIN L. KOVACS, the editor of and one of the contributors to the present volume, is Professor of History at the University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan. His research interests include intellec- tual history, with particular reference to Renaissance, Reformation, (continued on page 88) Introduction A little-noticed and even less-advertised 'revolution'seems to be tak- ing place against the exclusiveness of old established academic disci- plines. Instead of adhering, for instance, to topical and time-structured history or the traditional confines of geography, literature, sociology, anthropology, and on occasion, linguistics, cross-sectional disciplines often referred to as "studies" seem to be emerging. Thus, some time ago, the Canadian Studies Association was established, apparently to pull together the various related disciplines in one great effort. In a note- worthy way, its objectives appear to encompass the discussion of groups of Canadians of non-British and non-French descent. Some years back the Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta was formed, following the setting-up by the University of Alberta of a Division of East European Studies. Of course, that Division was not the first of its kind. By 1976, the Central and East European Studies Association of Canada came into being and it was under its aegis that the first versions of the papers comprised in this volume were presented at two confer- ences. The term "Hungarian studies" has been known and applied loosely, depending on the context, for many years. One of its implications is the task for Hungarian Canadian and Hungarian American researchers of serving as mediators between their respective two cultures, "interpre- ters," if called upon in either direction. Until recently, this significant objective has not been carried out at all or only superficially. In fact, comparatively little is known about Hungarian Americans and Hun- garian Canadians, either as urban dwellers or rural settlers. Even today there is a tendency to reduce their rich culture to the presentation of a few popular dishes and some "folk" dances in colourful costumes, de- clared by their makers as authentically Hungarian. Not much considera- tion is given to the fact that practically every region in Hungary has had its own folkloric characteristics. The contributors to the present volume have been active for a com- paratively long time in reviewing Hungarian studies, the scope of which has included what might be referred to as "Hungarian-Canadian" and "Hungarian-American" studies. One may conclude from this practice that there is much common ground among these various types of "studies." Nevertheless, there are great differences as well. Thus, for our purposes, "Hungarian Canadian (American) studies" implies the effort better to understand the immigration, settlement, cultural, and social adjustments, as well as achievements in humanities, science and other fields, of Canadians (Americans) of Hungarian descent, with the help of the methodology of the appropriate branches of knowledge. One of the foremost objectives for a student of Hungarian Canadian (American) studies to attain is the accumulation of sufficient data and materials for the determination of the nature and direction of the above processes and the factors affecting them. M. L. Kovacs Canadian-American Review of Hungarian Studies, Vol. VII, No. 1 (Spring 1980) The Hungarian General Staff and Diplomacy, 1939-1941 N. F. Dreisziger The subject of the role of the Hungarian General Staff in the forma- tion of Hungarian diplomatic efforts on the eve of World War II has been at once neglected and abused. It can be regarded as "neglected" in that, despite the mass of literature dealing with Hungarian foreign policy before and during the War, only a handful of historians