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 sixth 2014 issue.
On the cover: the Sevso plate’s centre medallion, with the distich. Unless stated otherwise, all photos of the Sevso treasure are by András Dabasi and Judit Kardos. Courtesy of the Hungarian National Museum.
The question whether the current post-1989 European political status quo is about to suffer the same erosion and eventual collapse that brought down the pre-1914 and post-1947 European orders runs ominously through this issue. As György Schöpflin puts it in his article entitled The New EU, or Is It?, the increase in the number of MPs elected for Eurosceptic parties has created a dilemma for Europe’s conservative and socialist blocks and “if the potential blocking veto by the Eurosceptics is to be evaded, then the largest Euro-friendly parties must come to terms with one another”. According to Dr. Schöpflin, the hard reality is that there are now sizeable forces on both the far-left and the far-right of Parliament, which either oppose integration in its entirety, or seek to claw back powers transferred to Brussels.
The ‘Current’ section also deals with the recent events in Ukraine and European deterrence against Russia. In his article entitled End of a Lull? European deterrence in the Putin Era, Gerald Frost emphasizes Europe’s failure to spend enough on defense to deter aggression. Regarding the relationship with of the U.S. and Russia he states “it would seem that while Putin’s understanding of power enables Russia to punch above its weight, Obama’s poor understanding of power ensures that America punches below its.” An article written by John O. Sullivan with the title of Culture and the Flag – Reflections after the Scottish Referendum completes this section.
The periodical then continues with an ‘Essays’ section in which authors also draw attention to the current political, economic and moral crisis in Europe. The essays are written by Ryszard Legutko: Our New Utopia – Excerpt from Triumph of the Common Man, Marek Zubik: Polish Constitutionalism and the Constitutional Judiciary in Poland and Emily Thompson: Milada Horáková – The Tragic Destiny of a Czechoslovak Proto-Feminist.
The ‘Histories’ section contains powerful memoirs of life during the worst days of Europe’s totalitarian nightmare with vivid personal accounts of how cruelly the collapse of empires and nations treats ordinary people. They are written by Árpád Kadarkay: War and Art – Memoirs of a Hungarian Childhood – Part I; János Horváth: The Student Resistance Movement, 1943-45; and Alaine Polcz: One Woman in the Front. Hungary 1944-1945 – Excerpts.
Finally, the ‘Arts and Letters’ section has articles by Donald Wesling: On Companion Animals in Krasznahorkai; László Krasznahorkai and Max Neumann: Animalinside – Excerpt; László Krasznahorkai: Satantango – Excerpt; and Mihály Nagy: Lifting the Curse on the Sevso Treasure – Part I.