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 2020.

On the cover: György Jovián, Demolition XI, 2013-14, oil on canvas, 150 x 200 cm. All color plates in this issue are reproduced by courtesy of György Jovián

This first issue of Hungarian Review for 2020 is published on the 100th Anniversary of Trianon Conference. In his essay entitled “A Nation Dismembered – The 1920 Trianon Treaty in Hungarian Poetry” Donald E Morse writes: “[…] between three to three and a half million Hungarians woke up the next morning to find themselves in a new, different, and mostly hostile nation with a distinctive new national language, history, and – quite often – a new state religion. […] Families were cut apart, children separated from their schools, villages and towns arbitrarily divided as new borders became implemented. Some people found themselves in three different countries within their lifetime, although they never moved from their native village.

Other major topics covered in this issue are Brexit and the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. In his article entitled “2020 – Birth of a Continental EU”, Boris Kálnoky writes: “Without the UK, the EU becomes a continental affair in which Germany’s relative weight will again increase. All eyes are on Berlin: how will Germany position itself? Historically, close cooperation between Germany and France has been the EU’s center of gravity. But that may change. Particularly, the Visegrad countries of East Central Europe (the V4: Poland, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia) are becoming a political and economic heavyweight, and they have been reaching out to Berlin for years to form a strategic alliance.”

The ‘Current’ section contains further articles by Nicholas T. Parsons (“The Boris Effect Reaches Those the Centrists Have Abandoned – A Footnote to the British Election of 2019”); László Lovászy (“What Few in the West Talk About – The Unexplored Relationship between Non-EU Citizens’ Migration and Robotisation in Europe”); Clark S. Judge (“Miracle or Necessity: Managing the Soviet Collapse – Ronald Reagan’s Conviction”); Imre Kónya (“The Birth of a Free, Independent and Democratic Hungary – Foundations of the Regime Change of 1989-1991”); and Ludger Kühnhardt (“Before and After – 1989 Began Before 1989 and Has Not Yet Come to an End”). 

The ‘Current’ section also features two messages, a letter addressed by former Minister of Foreign Affairs János Martonyi, and a talk delivered by Dr. András Koltay, Rector of the National University of Public Service (NUPS) to the audience celebrating the Day of Diplomacy at NUPS on November 19, 2019. Since 2012, the Day of Diplomacy has been celebrated on this symbolic date referring to the Congress of Visegrád on November 19, 1335.

The periodical then continues with a ‘History’ section with contributions by David A. Reynolds (“The Roots of Communist Hungary in the Allied Occupation – The Allied Control Commission of Budapest, Part I”); Gabor Bethlenfalvay (“In Search of an America – Part III”); Paul D. Mayle (“Hungary’s Path to Trianon”); and Donald E. Morse (“A Nation Disremembered – The 1920 Trianon Treaty in Hungarian Poetry”) followed by selected poetry.

Finally, the ‘Arts’ section features an article by István Árkossy (“My Beautiful Contemporaries – On the Art of György Jovián”).

This issue also contains a eulogy by Ferenc Hörcher on Sir Roger Scruton, philosopher and writer who passed away on January 12, 2020 entitled “Farewell to Roger Scruton – The Classic of Contemporary British Conservatism”.
 Currently, 54 issues of the Hungarian Review from 2010 through 2020 can be ordered from amazon.com; or directly from the publisher; or by calling the Coalition office in Washington.