Stephen Borsody: The Hungarians: A Divided Nation

1920 June. Under the provisions of the Peace Treaty of Trianon, Czechoslovakia annexes 63,999 sq. km. of Hungary's territory with a total population of 3.5 million of which (according to the 1910 census) 1,071,000 are Hungarians

July. A Hungarian People's Association is formed at Komarom (Komarno), but the authorities, by refusing to ratify its statutes, prevent it from functioning. A Hungarian Society for Promoting the Theatrical Art in Slovakia, formed at the same time, will receive official authorization five years later (in 1925)

1922 February. The Associated Hungarian Opposition Parties of Slovakia, with headquarters in Losonc (Lucenec), open their central office in Kassa (Kosice); the organization comprises the National Christian Socialist Party, the National Hungarian Smallholders' and Farmers' Party, and the Hungarian People's League of Czechoslovakia

June 1. Pragai Magyar Hirlap, principal newspaper of the Hungarians in Czechoslovakia, begins publication in Prague. Leftist exiles from Horthy Hungary start publishing the daily Reggel in Bratislava (Pozsony)

1923 March 23. Defense of the Republic Act is promulgated, enabling the Czechoslovak authorities to curtail the rights of the opposition; newspapers can be confiscated and suppressed for shorter or longer periods of time according to the severity of the case 1924 The "Kazinczy Tarsasag," to rally the forces of Hungarian literary life, and its Book-lovers' Club, to promote Hun garian book publishing, are founded in Kassa (Kosice)

1925 Parliamentary elections are held in which Hungarian parties are for the first time allowed nationwide participation. The

National Christian Socialist Party and the Hungarian National Party gain a total of 237,000 votes and send 10 dep uties and 6 senators to the Prague Parliament. Czechoslovak parties, such as the Agrarian and Socialist parties, also receive Hungarian votes. The Hungarian Cultural Society of Slovakia is founded with headquarters at Komarom, but the authorities delay its ratification till 1928. The Association of Hungarian University Students is founded with chapters in Prague, Brno, and Bratislava (Pozsony)

1928 January 28-29. The country,s Social Democratic parties, including Hungarian Social Democrats, proclaim their unity at their congress in Prague

August 3-13. At the Gombaszog camping of Hungarian scouts, young intellectuals start Sarlo, a leftist youth movement with Communist overtones. Also, the Communist party of Czechoslovakia has a Hungarian section of some significance.

Summer. The Association of Hungarian Choral Societies, with headquarters in Bratislava, starts operations with five great song festivals. The Hungarian Society of Physical Education is founded

1929 Vetes, periodical of Hungarian university students at Bratislava, publishes the program of "Sarlo" drawn up by Edgar Balogh, a Communist

1930 Increase of technical education for Hungarian youth is demanded. According to official statistics, among the 4,166 classes of the country's technical schools only 9 are taught in Hungarian; by virtue of their numbers, the Hungarians would be entitled to at least 300 classes

December. The official census reveals that there are 719,569 Hungarians in Czechoslovakia 1931 As a concession to demands for a Hungarian university, a Hungarian Scientific Academy is founded in Bratislava with a gift by President Masaryk, hence its name: Masaryk Academy; it has no university status or functions

1933 October. Law on the suppression and dissolution of political

parties is enacted; its target: the activities of the opposition parties and their press To replace the defunct Reggel, the daily Magyar Ujsag, finnanced by the Czechoslovak government, is launched in Bratislava

1935 Three leading cultural societies (Toldy Circle, Kazinczy Society, and Jokai Club) are united in a Hungarian Literary Association of Czechoslovakia Magyar Nap, a daily of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia, begins publication in Moravska Ostrava

1936 May. The State Security Act is promulgated to watch over the "untrustworthy" (i.e., minority) citizens

June. The National Christian Socialist Party and the Hungarian National Party are merged into a United Hungary Party; its leaders: Janos Esterhazy and Andor Jaross, as well as Geza Szullo, a foreign policy expert

1937 February 18. Government declaration on the fair treatment of minorities, followed by promises of a "Minority Statute." It is in response to growing agitation by the Sudeten Germans, led by Konrad Henlein.

Hungarian grievances are centered on lack of cultural autonomy. An example in the field of education: among 239 middle grade schools, with 1,841 classes, only 13, with 135 classes are Hungarian administered; by virtue of their numbers, the Hungarians would be entitled to at least 40 autonomous middle grade schools

1938 Rapidly growing domestic and international crisis. The Hungarians, too, are campaigning for more language rights but without emulating the Nazi pattern of Sudeten German political radicalism. Hungarian "activists," supporting the government, take an antifascist stand

March 21. In districts with a Hungarian ethnic majority, villages are granted the right to use Hungarian as an official language

July. Lord Runciman arrives at Prague as the British government's "unofficial mediator," but fails to ease the growing Sudeten German crisis

September 29. The Four-power Munich Agreement yields to Hitler's demand for the annexation of the Sudeten Germans, but leaves the Hungarian question in Czechoslovakia unresolved

October. Direct talks between Czechoslovakia and Hungary fail to reach agreement on frontier rectification according to ethnic principles

November 2. The First Vienna Award of the Axis powers: Hungary regains an area of 11,927 sq. km. from Czechoslovakia with 869,299 inhabitants of whom 86.5 percent are Hungarians and 9.8 percent Slovaks. The Hungarian minority in Slovakia is reduced to less than 100,000; the number of Slovaks in Hungary is increased by about 200,000

1939 Slovakia becomes an independent state under Hitler's auspices

1941 December 18. The Slovak National Assembly votes for the deportation of Slovakia's Jews; the only vote against it is cast by Janos Esterhazy, representative of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia

1944 November 23. The London-based Czechoslovak government in-exile petitions the Great Powers to approve the expulsion of the Hungarian minority from Slovakia

1945 April 5. The program of the postwar Czechoslovak government is made public in Kosice (Kassa). Declaring the Hungarians responsible for the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, it deprives them of citizenship rights; so called "active antifascists" are exempted, but only follow ing an investigation of their political past from the point of view of Slovak national interests

May 18. A decree of the Slovak National Council excludes the Hungarians from membership in all political parties (with the exception of the "active antifascists"). Another decree bans all Hungarian printed matter in Slovakia

May 30. All civil servants, including professors and teachers, of Hungarian nationality are summarily dismissed by a

decree of the Slovak National Council. Subsequently, most of them will be expelled from the country

August 21. The Potsdam Conference rejects the request of the Czechoslovak government for summary expulsion of the Hungarians from Czechoslovakia but approves a population exchange

1946 February 27. Agreement between Hungary and Czechoslovakia on population exchange

June 17. The Slovak National Council issues a decree on "re-Slovakization" of Hungarians of presumed Slovak origin

November 19. Deportation begins of Hungarians from the solidly Hungarian Csallokoz region to the depopulated Sudetenland. The compulsory resettlement lasts until February 25, 1947

1947 February. Signing in Paris of the Treaty of Peace with Hungary. The 1938 frontiers are restored; three additional Hungarian villages, the so-called Bratislava bridgehead, are annexed by Czechoslovakia

September. Janos Esterhazy, a prisoner of the Russians, is sentenced in absence by a Bratislava court to death by hanging for "treason." His death sentence commuted for life, he dies in 1957 in a Czechoslovak prison

1948 February. Following the Communist takeover in Prague, Uj Szo, a newspaper in Hungarian, begins publication in Bratislava

October 12. A decree of the Czechoslovak Council of Ministers restores the citizenship and civil rights of Hungarians

November 28. The Hungarians settled in the Sudetenland are allowed to return to their original places of residence in Slovakia

1949 March 5. Formation in Bratislava of CSEMADOK, the Cultural Association of Hungarian Workers of Czechoslovakia

September 1. Instruction in Hungarian begins in primary schools

1950 March 31. According to the census, carried out under a continuing reign of terror in Slovakia, only 367,733 people are registered as Hungarians in Czechoslovakia

September 1. The first postwar Hungarian secondary school opens in Komarno. Also, a Hungarian department is established at the Teacher's Training College in Bratislava

1952 July 1. Bilingualism is decreed in the Hungarian-inhabited areas of southern Slovakia

1953 A Hungarian publishing house begins operations in Bratislava (Pozsony). A Hungarian regional theater is founded in Komarno (Komarom)

1954 April 8. The Central Committee of the Slovak Communist party declares the re-Slovakization decree of 1946 null and void

1959 February 5. Decreed that acts of Parliament and other provisions of law are to be made public in the Hungarian language

November. Irodalmi Szemle begins publication

1960 September 1. Visa requirements for travel between Hungary and Czechoslovakia are abolished

1961 March 1. According to the census, there are 533,934 Hungarians living in Czechoslovakia. The 230,000 increase since the last census is due to the 1954 annulment of the 1946 re-Slovakization decree

1968 January. The "Prague Spring" is ushered in by a decision of the Plenum of the Czechoslovak Communist party on the necessity of democratization

March 12. In accordance with the January Plenum decision, CSEMADOK, representing the Hungarians in Slovakia, submits a proposal for solving the nationality question

April 1. A proposal on solving the nationality question drawn up at the request of the Slovak Communist party by the Hungarian branch of the Slovak Writers' Union is published in Bratislava. The Hungarian proposal calls for selfmanagement of educational affairs, founding of a Hungarian scientific institute, a Hungarian central library, and an independent Hungarian publishing house

April 10. The Czechoslovak Communist party's Action Program is made public. In addition to solving the relations between Czechs and Slovaks, the program also deals with

the solution of the national minorities' question; its thesis: "The nationalities shall be entitled to self-government in matters concerning them"

August 21. Soviet military intervention stops the Communist reform movement

September 8. At a CSEMADOK meeting, Gustvav Husak, the emerging new Communist leader, promises recognition of the right to autonomy by speedy promulgation of a Nationalities' Act

October 17. The Slovak National Assembly adopts the Na tionalities' Act but without the provision of cultural au tonomy. It approves only the formation of a Nationalities' Council, which includes representatives of the nationalities

October 28. On the fiftieth anniversary of Czechoslovakia's founding, the new federal constitution recognizes two equal republics: one for the Czechs, the other for the Slovaks

November 23-24. Conference of the Hungarian intellectuals makes new proposals on the nationality question in the Slovak Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia

December 7. A Hungarian Youth Association is allowed to be set up in Bratislava

1969 January. The "Madach Hungarian Book and Newspaper Publishing Company" begins operations in Bratislava Laszlo Dobos becomes a Hungarian member of the first government of the Slovak Socialist Republic as Minister with out Portfolio. The newly formed Slovak Trade Union Council disregards the legally stipulated principle of proportional representation of the minority nationalities

March 17. CSEMADOK holds an extraordinary meeting under its new president, Laszlo Dobos, and passes a resolution to function not merely as a cultural but also as a socio-political association representing the Hungarian minority as a whole

April 8. Council of Nationalities is formed as an advisory organ of the Slovak government; among its fifteen members there are five Hungarians

1970 April 29. Minister without Portfolio Laszlo Dobos resigns; his post in the government is abolished. Also Rezso Szabo, Hungarian Vice-President of the Slovak National Council, is relieved of his post

June. The Hungarian regional theater of Kassa (Kosice) be gins performances

December 1. According to the census there are 621,588 persons in Czechoslovakia whose "mother tongue" is Hungarian and 572,568 whose "nationality,' is Hungarian. The census also reveals that 422 communities have lost their Hungarian majority

1971 March 29. CSEMADOK president Laszlo Dobos resigns his post. An additional twenty-five members of the leadership are dismissed. CSEMADOK is forced to give up its coveted status as a socio-political organization representing the Hungarians in Slovakia Teaching of the Slovak language in Hungarian kindergartens and in the first two grades of general schools is made obligatory. Slovak-language courses in all Hungarian schools are increased

1972 April 15-16. At its general meeting, CSEMADOK nullifies its 1969 resolution on cultural autonomy. CSEMADOK is excluded from the National Front of Slovakia and is placed under the authority of the Slovak Ministry of Culture

1975 It is disclosed that during the past five years government in vestments in Hungarian-populated southern regions of Slovakia have been 70 to 75 percent less than in other parts of the country

1976 Slovakia's central educational authorities are planning to reduce by fifty percent the enrollment of pupils in Hungarian schools

1978 The Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Hungarian Minority in Czechoslovakia, an underground civil rights organization, is founded; its leading member: Miklos Duray

1979 Slovakia's new Educational Act provides that each administrative district can have only one Hungarian secondary school

Kalman Janics's book, Hontalansag evei, on postwar persecution of Hungarians in Czechoslovakia is published in Munich by the Bern-based European Protestant Hungarian Free University; an English version of the book, Czechoslovak Policy and the Hungarian Minority: 1945-1948, is published in New York in 1982

1980 November. According to the census, the number of Hungarians living in Slovakia is down to 559,800

1981 A comprehensive memorandum on the situation of the Hungarians in Slovakia is prepared by the Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Hungarian Minority in Czechoslovakia. It is published in Paris in 1982 by Dialogues Europeens in Hungarian only, Szlovakiai jelentes. A magyar kisebbseg allapotarol

1982 November 10. Miklos Duray is arrested and charged with slandering the Republic at home and abroad

1983 January 31. The Duray trial begins in Bratislava

February 24. Duray is set free without a verdict

1984 February-March. Massive Hungarian protests against the planned Slovak school reform bill

April 2. Yielding to Hungarian protests, the Slovak National Council revises the school reform draft

May 10. Duray is rearrested under reinstated charges of "activities contrary to the interests of the state"

1985 May 10. After a year in detention without a trial, Duray is set free with all charges dropped under the provisions of a general amnesty issued on the fortieth anniversary of VE-day

1986 March 8. In Bratislava, buildings and offices of Hungarian cultural institutions are vandalized.

March 27. Charter 77 condemns the anti-Hungarian "acts of terrorism"

1920 June. Under the provisions of the Peace Treaty of Trianon, Yugoslavia annexes 21,000 sq. km. of Hungary's territory with a population of 1.6 million of which (according to the 1910 census) 465,000 are Hungarians

August. Under the law on secularization of education, 751 privately run Hungarian schools are closed and their property seized without compensation

1921 January. According to the census, 467,568 Hungarians are living in Yugoslavia

1922 September. At Zenta, the National Hungarian Party of Yugoslavia is formed

1929 January 6. A royal dictatorship under King Alexander I is instituted. All political parties are disbanded and Parlia ment dissolved. The Hungarian minority is left without a party and parliamentary representation

October 3. With Pan-Serb national interests in mind, Yugoslavia is divided into ten administrative units. Vojvodina is incorporated into the Danube Banat. The ratio of Hungarians in this new administrative unit decreases from 27.2 to 18.3 percent

1931 November. The new trade law bans the use of Hungarian public signs and labels in the Danube Banat

1932 In Ujvidek (Novi Sad), Kalangya, a literary review, is started

1933 March 14. Self-government of villages is restored and municipal elections are held, thus the Hungarians regain some voice in communal affairs

1934 In Szabadka (Subotica), H'd, a literary and artistic periodical is started

September. A parallel Hungarian branch is set up at the Belgrade Teachers' Training College; it will be closed in 1935, but reopened in 1937

1937 September. The participation of at least 300 members is re quired for the formation of purchasing, marketing, and consumer cooperatives; this new law discriminates against the many small Hungarian communities

1938 February. A law issued by the Ministry of Justice, in conjunction with the Ministries of Agriculture, Home Affairs, and National Defense, restricting the sale of real estate, prevents the Hungarians from acquiring new properties and in some areas dispossesses them for alleged reasons of national security

1939 June. Under a by-law on municipal administration, Hungarians are barred from training courses for municipal officials in the Danube Banat

1940 March. An Association of Hungarian Cultural Societies of Croatia is formed with headquarters at Zagreb, while the overwhelming majority of Hungarians living in the Danube Banat remains deprived of such an organization

1941 March. A military coup in Belgrade brings a Serb nationalist regime to power which opposes Yugoslavia's joining the Tripartite Pact of the Axis powers. After demanding free passage of German troops through Hungary, Hitler invades Yugoslavia and dismembers it.

April 11. Hungary occupies the Bacska, the Baranya triangle, and the Mura region. A territory of 11,417 sq. km. with a population of 1,025,508, of which 36.6 percent are Hungarians, is reannexed by Hungary

1942 January 4. Hungarian gendarmerie and army units commit massacres in Ujvidek, Zsablya, and surrounding areas; Yugoslavs and Jews are the victims

1945 Yugoslavia is liberated by the Soviet Red Army and Tito's partisans. Yugoslavs take revenge for the Ujvidek-Zsablya massacres

June. A Hungarian Cultural Association is founded in Ujvidek; its task is to organize cultural societies, libraries, book publishing and distribution, and to participate in managing Hungarian educational affairs. Magyar Szo, a Hungarian-language daily of the Yugoslav Communist party, is licensed

August. The law on land reform and settlement is enacted. Some 50,000 Serbs with their families are settled in the Vojvodina

September. In the newly constituted province of Vojvodina, 34,782 pupils are enrolled in 732 Hungarian elementary schools and 6,082 in eight secondary schools

In Szabadka, the Hungarian Theater of Vojvodina is opened; in 1951, it will be merged with the Croatian People's Theater

1946 The Yugoslav Federal Constitution promulgates the principle of national equality

October. At the Teachers, Training College of Ujvidek, a Hungarian department is opened

1947 February. The Peace Treaty with Hungary signed in Paris restores the pre-1938 frontiers

1948 According to the census, there are 496,492 Hungarians in Yugoslavia

In the Republic of Croatia, a Hungarian Cultural and Educational Association is founded, later called the Association of Hungarians in Croatia

1949 November. Ujvidek (Novi Sad) Radio starts broadcasting in Hungarian

1952 January. The Hungarian Literary Society, a division of the Cultural Council of Vojvodina is founded in Ujvidek (Novi Sad) Magyar Kepes Ujsag, a biweekly, is started in Zagreb

1953 The census reveals that 502,175 Hungarians live in Yugoslavia

1958 The Seventh Congress of the Yugoslav Communist party con firms the policy toward the nationalities based on the principle of national equality

1961 According to the census, the number of Hungarians reaches 504,368 in Yugoslavia

1962 May 13. The new statute of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina enters into force; minority rights include the official use of nationality languages

1964 January. The Hungarian Philological Society of Yugoslavia is founded in Szabadka (Subotica)

1965 Uj Symposion, a Hungarian avant-garde periodical, begins publication

1966 February. Visa requirements for travel between Hungary and Yugoslavia are abolished

1967 The Forum Hungarian Publishing House is founded in Ujvidek (Novi Sad)

1968 According to official statistics, the ratio of white- to blue collar workers among Hungarians is 18:82, whereas among the country's South Slavs it is 30:70

1969 February. An Institute of Hungarology is founded at the Uni versity of Ujvidek (Novi Sad)

1974 The new Yugoslav Federal Constitution reconfirms the principle of equal rights of "nations" and "nationalities" in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

1975 Communal Hungarian Educational and Cultural agencies are formed in villages with mixed populations in Slovenia. Also, a nationality commission is established at the Slovenian House of Representatives

1977 April. A resolution of the House of Representatives of the Socialist Federal Republic of Slovenia guarantees the equality of languages in both private and public life

1978 Statistics of the 1977-78 academic year show that there are 172 Hungarian schools with 33,200 pupils, whereas in 1953-54 there had been 285 such schools with 50,000 pu pils. Also, the census registers a steady decline in the num ber of Hungarians in Yugoslavia over the last two decades

1981 According to the census, the country's Hungarian population has fallen to 427,000

1984 May. The editor and the entire editorial staff of Uj Symposion is dismissed under charges of "ideological insensitivity and political immaturity"

E. Hungarians in Sub- and Trans-Carpathia

1920 Under the provisions of the Peace Treaty of Trianon, of the over one million Hungarians who were incorporated into Czechoslovakia, about 150,000 are in the autonomous territory of Subcarpathian Ruthenia (Podkarpatska Rus)

1924 Barred from the elections of 1920, the Hungarians now send representatives to the Prague Parliament for the first time

1928 The Hungarian Cultural Society of Sub-Carpathia, a division of the Hungarian Cultural Society of Slovakia, is founded

1934 Hungarian Association of Choral Societies of Sub-Carpathia is founded

1938 November 2. Under the provisions of the First Vienna Award, the predominantly Hungarian areas of Sub-Carpathia are returned to Hungary, including the capital Uzhorod (Ungvar) where the Hungarians are a minority

1939 March 15. Hungary annexes the entire territory of Subcarpathian Ruthenia: 12,171 sq. km. with 496,000 inhabitants including 63,000 Hungarians (12.7 percent of the total pop ulation)

1940 July 23. A bill on the autonomy of Ruthenia, submitted by Prime Minister Pal Teleki, is withdrawn 1944 October. The liberation of Ruthenia by the Soviet Army is completed

November 26. At Mukacevo (Munkacs), the formation of Carpatho-Ukraine is proclaimed. The name of Sub-Carpathia is changed to Trans-Carpathia

1945 June 29. By virtue of an agreement with Cechoslovakia, the USSR annexes the Carpatho-Ukraine

A Hungarian edition of the Ukrainian Zakarpatska Pravda is published, called Karpati Igaz Szo A Hungarian section of the Textbook Publishing House of the Ukrainian Republic at Uzhgorod (Ungvar) is set up

1946 January 22. Carpatho-Ukraine becomes a district (oblast) of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic with Uzhgorod as its capital

1947 February. The Peace Treaty of Paris confirms the annexation of the Carpatho-Ukraine by the Soviet Union

September. Teaching in Hungarian begins in the general schools of the Hungarian-inhabited areas of the Carpatho Ukraine

1953 Two Hungarian secondary schools open, in Nagydobrony and Beregszasz

1959 According to the census, there are 154,738 Hungarians in the Carpatho- Ukraine At Uzhgorod (Ungvar) a Hungarian cultural magazine, Kar- patok, is launched; it is suspended after the appearance of the first issue

1963 September. At the University of Uzhgorod, a Hungarian de partment is opened

1966 The Transcarpathian regional television begins broadcasting a Hungarian program

1967 Forras Studio, a magazine of young writers, is founded 1969 According to educational statistics, there are 93 Hungarian schools operating in the Carpatho-Ukraine: 17 four-grade, 58 eight-grade, and 18 secondary schools, with a total of 22,807 pupils and 1,433 teachers. A Hungarian theatrical group at Beregszasz (Berehovo) is made into a "people's theater"

1970 According to the census, there are 166,000 Hungarians living in the USSR - their overwhelming majority in the Carpatho-Ukraine

1971 Following an attack by Karpati Igaz Szo, denouncing the writers of Forras Studi6 as "alienated" from society, the magazine is suppressed; Jozsef Attila Studio, under the control of Karpati Igaz Szo, takes its place

1980 According to the census, the population of the Carpatho Ukraine is 1,157,400, of which 171,000 are Hungarians*

Stephen Borsody: The Hungarians: A Divided Nation