Hungarian Conservative

The Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet talked to József Horváth, senior security policy fellow at the Center for Fundamental Rights, about former CIA agent and whistleblower John Stockwell’s revelations about the American intelligence agencies’ nefarious practices and collaborations with the mainstream media.

Although the legendary Hungarian footballer was born on 1 April 1927, he always celebrated his birthday on 2 April, as he did not like the fact that it happened to fall on April Fools’ Day. He captained the legendary Mighty Magyar side of the 1950s, leading them to an Olympic gold and a World Cup final. He won the European Cup with Real Madrid three times, scoring four goals in the 1960 final—a record unbroken since.

Deputy State Secretary Miklós Dukai led the event honouring the around 38,000 civilian victims who perished during the Siege of Budapest in 1944.

Sándor Kereki took these intriguing photos as a teenager, and they remained unpublished for decades.

‘My whole life has always been guided by a sense of duty to my family. Now we might as well go home, but we wouldn’t be any happier there…Here we are part of our family and can help if needed. We live in a Hungarian community; we are happy here. If only we didn’t miss Hungary so much…’

The Second Hungarian Army, during the autumn and winter of 1942, prepared to hold up the incoming Soviet offensive coming from the direction of Stalingrad. As the Germans lost the siege of the city in all but theory, it was practically sure that the Soviets would advance toward the River Don. Thus, the Hungarian troops were left to defend the bridgeheads from the Soviets, who outnumbered them seven to one.

The catastrophe of the Second Hungarian Army at the River Don is a well-known and traumatic memory for most Hungarians. The army formation was deployed near Stalingrad, and was almost entirely destroyed by the Soviets in 1943, leaving many Hungarian families with deceased relatives.

‘The duality of God and man is the most fundamental reality of existence: a reality which can structure and constitute all relations of human beings. This principal duality is the source of everything: epistemology, ontology, moral philosophy, politics, and—of course, as Martin Buber said before—the “Ich und Du” relationship is the source of the true philosophy of religion and theology. This point of view is close to the most fundamental personalities of modern Catholic thought, and the philosophy of neo-Thomists such as Jaques Maritain and Étienne Gilson. According to Molnar, this “I and Thou” is the message which the true Christian philosopher has to protect against modernity’s aggressive immanentism, which could be materialist or spiritualist, too. The essence of this immanentism is the dissolution of transcendence into man’s imaginary “divinity”—to reach the deification of the world.’

‘What better explains the atrocities committed: coercion or the individual’s capacity or inclination for cruelty? Perhaps both, but to varying proportions.’ Author and historian László Borhi points out in his 2022 book The Strategies of Survival that, in his research, it was not always possible to draw a clear line between the different roles. ‘Several were convicted of collaborating with the Nazis and collaborating in atrocities, while other witnesses claimed that the person in question saved their lives’.

Gloomy Sunday, which became to be known as the ‘Hungarian Suicide Song’ was originally released in 1933. The words were written by poet László Jávor, while the music was composed by Rezső Seress, born 124 years ago today. Seress ended up taking his own life himself, at age 68.

We are familiar with the phenomenon of Westerners embracing Eastern fighting traditions such as Wushu, Aikido, Japanese fencing, Filipino martial arts, and more. These people seek some rich traditions to connect to, and oftentimes romanticize them as being spiritually superior to the Western martial arts. Whereas there is nothing wrong with getting acquainted with other cultures, there’s no necessity to travel half of the globe in search of intricate, deep, and time-tested martial traditions spanning centuries.

Over 30 years after the regime change, there are still hundreds of public places in Hungary named after people involved in the introduction and maintenance of 20th-century totalitarian regimes.

Béla Bartók, one of the greatest musical geniuses of the 20th century, and his friend, another world-renowned giant of Hungarian music, Zoltán Kodály undertook together their major endeavour of national significance—collecting and publishing the full corpus of Hungarian folk songs.

The 26th President of the United States, one of the most popular and influential people to hold the office, Theodore Roosevelt became the first US President, incumbent or former, to set foot on Hungarian soil when he gave a speech in the Hungarian Parliament in 1910. He was invited by his friend Count Albert Apponyi, whom he had hosted in the White House for lunch in 1904.

István Bethlen was a dominant figure in early twentieth-century Hungarian politics. Contemporary conservatives have much to learn from him regarding consolidation, pragmatism, and opposing radicalism.

The birth of an ever-changing art, modern photojournalism is linked to a world-famous Hungarian: Robert Capa. A permanent exhibition in Budapest introduces visitors to his exceptional life and work.

At the historic 1926 event, the Hungarian men’s water polo team got the gold by beating all other teams in the tournament, while swimmer István Bárány triumphed in the 100-metre freestyle competition.

The Hungarian American media mogul donated $1 million of his own wealth to Columbia University to establish a Journalism School exactly 120 years ago today. Pulitzer went through a lot to amass that wealth, having arrived in the United States as a foreign recruit for the Union Army in 1864, penniless and barely speaking a word of English.

István András Kiss spent many years playing for the Kolozsvár (Cluj) team CFR; he even won the national youth league with their youth team in 1985. In this interview he speaks about what it was like to be an ethnic Hungarian football player in Communist Romania, where ‘class warfare and chauvinism could easily co-exist’.

Jewish-Hungarian MP from the Horthy era Béla Fábián was held as a POW in Russia in World War i, and was taken to a concentration camp in World War II. He became an avid critic of the Hungarian Communist Party while living in exile in the 20th century, for which the Kádár regime subjected him to a smear campaign, claiming that he actually served as a ‘kapo’, a prisoner-turned-guard in his camp. Here’s the story of the extraordinary life of a special man.

In the third and fourth decades of the 21st century, national–conservative forces will have a chance to end the left-liberal cultural hegemony that has been dominating for a hundred years now. This is where the natural alliance between right-wing party politics and the national intelligentsia takes on historic significance.

In contemporary Catholic social teaching, like Slachta’s reasoning, women are essentially other than men, and this otherness is articulated in the papal encyclicals in relation to women’s role in the family. In contrast, the Catholic nun’s view of the female otherness goes beyond this approach. Although she also emphasises the dignity of the female gender, for her, feminine otherness is the underlying motif of her thinking.

This piece provides an overview of the ‘Goulash communism’ times of Hungarian history, while attempting to answer the question: why do some Hungarians appear to be nostalgic about the Kádár era?

Karinthy is best remembered for his comedic masterpieces, such as the collection of literary parodies, Így írtok ti (That’s How You Write!), and the collection of sketches about secondary school life, Tanár úr, kérem! (Please, Sir!). Every year, the best comedian in Hungary is rewarded with the Karinthy Ring. However, the man himself was not the exuberant, fun-seeking personality his best-known works may suggest.

The book’s greatest value can undoubtedly be found in its historiographical sections, which present the historical assessment of the Soviet Republic and the Horthy system. It is in these that the author utilises the largest literary material and provides the widest overview.

After it was tragically blown up during World War II, the complete restoration of today’s Petőfi Bridge took more than seven years. It was handed over at last on 22 November 1952, and was named after renowned Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi.