Washington, DC – The “Hungarian Review”, the English-language affiliate of the bi-monthly journal Magyar Szemle, edited by Gyula Kodolányi and John O’Sullivan, has published its first issue for 2017. As in the previous two issues, this one also has a section devoted to the 1956 Hungarian revolution, including a contribution by Julius (Gyula) Várallyay, Board Member of the Hungarian American Coalition (Coalition).
On the cover: Farmers distributing produce in Budapest during the Revolution. Photo: Fortepan.
The first article in this issue is by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán entitled “Hungary and the Crisis of Europe”. According to Prime Minister Orbán, “judging from population, natural resources, and human capital, the European Union should be the leading power of the world. For the moment, however, its stagnation obstructs its potential leadership. What we call the European Project has been stopped in its tracks. All that is bad enough. Worse, however, the EU is faced with a series of unexpected crises of the Euro, illegal migration, and geo-politics that threaten it with disintegration”.
The ‘Current’ section includes other contributions from Nicholas T. Parsons (“How Much is Too Much? – Reflections on Paul Collier’s Exodus”); Péter Ákos Bod (“The Parallel Worlds of Citizens”); and David Martin Jones (“Brexit and the Art of the Politically Possible”).
The section on ‘The Hungarian Revolution of 1956’ contains contributions from Peter Urwin (“Voice in the Wilderness: Imre Nagy and the Hungarian Revolution – Excerpt, Part II”); Géza Jeszenszky (“Liberation Cancelled! – US Policies Towards Central Europe in 1956 and After”); Gyula Várallyay (“Students of the Budapest Technical University in the 1956 Revolution”); and Donald E. Morse (“From the Streets to the States – Hungarian and American Poets View the ’56 Revolution”).
In October 1956, Gyula Várallyay was a second-year student at the Technical University in Budapest, worked for the Revolutionary Student Committee in the student dormitory where he lived, and also became a member of the National Guard. In his article, he describes the major role students played in the revolt, especially in the events leading up to its eruption. He notes that university students won extraordinary prestige and the solidarity of the Hungarian people. He wrote: “Personally, I took away from those fateful twelve days an improbable experience: strong bonding with strangers I had never met, with whom, I was certain, I shared the same goals, and that we all knew that we belonged together. This uplifting sentiment accompanied me throughout my life, first as a refugee, then as a citizen of my adopted country, and after 1990 as a restored Hungarian citizen”.
Finally, the Arts and Letters section features articles by Mátyás Sárközi (“On Parade – A Vignette from 1956”) and Pál Hegyi (“Homeward Bound – Luminism and Transcendentalism in László Paál’s Fontainebleau Forestcapes”).
Currently, 36 issues of the Hungarian Review from 2010 through 2017 can be ordered from amazon.com, or directly from the publisher, or by calling the Coalition office in Washington.
