Nándor Bárdi
Research Institute of Ethnic and National Minorities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest
Ferenc Eiler
Research Institute of Ethnic and National Minorities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest
László Szarka
Research Institute of Ethnic and National Minorities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest
Miklós Zeidler
Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest Eva Irmanová
Institute of History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Prague Dagmar Hájková
Masaryk Institute and Archives, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Prague
Jan Rychlík
Charles University, Prague Zbynék A. B. Zeman
Oxford University, professor emeritus
Résumé
This monograph provides an insight into the way minority issues were dealt with in Czechoslovakia and Hungary from 1918 to 1939.
The first part of the book provides clear analyses of interwar minority policies in Czechoslovakia and Hungary by Eva Irmanová, Jan Rychlík and Nándor Bárdi. Eva Irmanová analyses the origins and foundations of Czechoslovak and Hungarian interstate relations, presenting the implementation methods and content of possible alternative solutions to the Slovak question within the framework of the new Hungarian and Czechoslovak states in the 1918-1919 crisis period. The author deals with the negotiations between Hungarian Minister for National Affairs Oskar Jászi and Czechoslovak ambassador plenipotentiary in Budapest Milan Hodia at the end of November and the beginning of December 1918. The study refers critically to the inability at the time to achieve a federative or cantonal reformation of the Hungarian state based on ethnic regions, as the Hungarian government had propo sedon the Swiss model. The study by Jan Rychlík sheds light on the ethnopolitical consequences of the disintegration of the Hapsburg Empire, stressing the illusory nature of attempts to create ethnically pure national states in multiethnic Central Europe. There were marked differences between the mino-rities in the new Czechoslovak state. The three-million-plus German minority had historicai roots in the historicallands of the Hapsburg Empire and its German, particularly Sudeten German, identity only developed under the Czechoslovak Republic. In Slovakia and Sub-carpathian Ruthenia, the Hungarian minority was historically, nationally, linguistically, culturally and politically connected to both the old and the new Hungary, so this issue posed a great challenge for Czechoslovak minority and foreign policy. International
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ments on minorities arising out of the Minorities Treaty conc1uded with Czechoslovakia at Saint Germain-en-Laye on 10th September 1919, as well as positive internal minority language legislation allowed for the creation of a relatively favourable political and IegaI environment for the development ofindividual minority communities in the Czechoslovak Republic. In addition to the language laws, minority schooling was managed fairly well, as were adu It education and culture, even though contacts wi th the "mother state" or "external homeland" were restricted. Rychlík also critically analyses the nega-tive aspects of interwar minority policies, such as the discriminatory solution to the issue of state citizenship, which had a negative impact on Hungarian minority elites.
Nándor Bárdi primarily highlights the institutional framework and the Budapest government's Hungarian national minorities strategy. He points out that the problem of revisionist foreign policy has previously been examined primarily at the level of political propaganda and that less attention has been paid to the issues surround ing Hungary's external national minority policy. The auth or presents a precise chronological overview of this external national minority policy, highlighting the special features of each individual stage and analysing the orientation of Hungarian government approaches to church and educational policy towards Hungarian minorities. He analyses in detail the strategic ideas behind official government policy, as well as unofficial and semi-official political aspirations. He c1early differentiates between the concepts behind revisionist foreign policy and Hungarian national minority policy and he describes the institutional network involved in governmental and non-governmental minority policy. Government policy was handled from the outset by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Mfairs. In the unofficial sphere a leading role was played for a long time by various societies that were closely connected to the government sphere. These inc1uded the Hungarian Revisionist League, the Union of Social Associations and various other pseudo-associations, whose activities revolved around particular Hungarian minorities: Rákoczi's Union for the Czechoslovak Hungarians, the People's Literary Society for Transylvania and Gellert's society for the Yugoslav Hungarians.
Dagmar Hájková presents the theoretical and practical standpoints assumed by the first Czechoslovak president T. G. Masaryk in dealing
with the minorities issue in Czechoslovakia in 1918. His wartime ideas of a federative arrangement for Central Europe and his focus on the principle of national self-determination were expressions of his understanding of a "new Europe" or a new Central Europe. Masaryk was aware of the advantages of a state inhabited by just one nation, but he was also well aware of the fact that in the context of ethnically very mixed territory this situation was irresolvable. At the same time he was also aware of the issues raised by the presence of national minorities in the newly created states. However, he was convinced that ensuring the solid economic performance of the state was the priority and that a demoeratic approach to the minorities on the basis of individual equal rights would guarantee the smooth operarion of the state. At the same time he believed that the southern Slovak border should run along ethnographic lines as much as possible and he did not advocate the creation of a large Hungarian minority on Czechoslovak territory. He very closely followed and guided the main trends in state nationalities policy, wishing to create a system in which the minorities would not be threatened by any pressure to assimilate and could develop their own cultural potential. In his speeches he expressed sympathy and an accommodating attitude towards the Hungarian minority, but insisted upon loyalty towards the new state.
Zbynek Zeman assesses the share of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the subsequent Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes in jointly creating an ethnopolitical model for the First Republic. He analyses Benes's stance towards the international system for protecting minorities at the League of Nations and he presents the President's reevaluation of minorities policy and his attitude to the multiethnic First Republic heritage during his wartime London exile.
Miklós Zeidler also touches on the foreign context of interwar Central European ethnic problems, referring to the connection between the petitioning activities of individual Hungarian minorities and the international minorities protection system. He has carefully documented the secret politicai support of the Hungarian "mother state" and the reactions and responses of the individual neighbouring states to which the accusations applied, i.e. Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia. The auth or refers to the pros and cons of this pro-tection system, the primary aim of which was to correct mistakes made by the peace settlement and to contribute towards peaceful coexistence. But in the Central European atmosphere of animosity