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 issue for 2018.
Memory and culture are the key themes running through this issue.
In his editorial note entitled ‘Remembrance, All Souls and Heroes’ John’O Sullivan writes: “We wrote in the previous Review that we would restore the balance between the cultural and the purely political in later issues. It is neither possible nor desirable, of course, to omit the purely political in any review of contemporary European life. (…) Yet as Ryszard Legutko points out in his indignant but coolly-reasoned article, politics at the European level increasingly bursts out from its own legally-defined sphere to intrude upon the spheres of culture, religion, morality and even sexuality where it speaks with assumed but dubious authority. “European values’’ have thus turned into demands of radical leftist social engineering”, he writes, against what the authors of the EP resolution call “outdated and conservative moral beliefs” such as conventional marriage and policies to strengthen the traditional family. The fact that these are matters reserved for national parliaments by the founding European treaties does not deter them. Nor that they are the profound moral beliefs of a majority or large plurality of Europeans.”
The ‘Current’ section contains articles by Ryszard Legutko (“The European Union’s Democratic Deficit – After The Strasbourg Vote On Hungary”); György Schöpflin (“What If?”); György Csóti (“The Spirit Of Ceauşescu In Romania – Unprecedented Show Trial In Szeklerland, In 21st Century Europe”) and Orsolya Pacsay-Tomassich (“Freedom And Integrity – Denmark And Povl Bang-Jensen, The Danish Hero Of The 1956 Hungarian Revolution”).
The periodical then continues with a ‘Histories’ section with contributions by David A. J. Reynolds (“Invasion 1968 – The Intentions Of Intervention And The Shadow Of 1956 – Part I”); Gordon McKechnie (“Prague Revisited – Part I”); Botond Gaál (“Colonel Koszorús “Has Written His Letter””) and Tamás Magyarics (“”…[A] Riddle, Wrapped Up In Mystery, Inside An Enigma…” – A Review Of Two Nixon Biographies”).
The ‘Histories’ section is followed by an ‘Essays’ section which includes articles by László Csaba (“A Reckoning Of Accounts – Thoughts On Péter Ákos Bod’s Book”); David L. Dusenbury (“The Cage Of The Visible”: György Spiró’s Captivity”) and Norbert Haklik (“The Travels Of Tariménes In The Afterlife – A Bitter-Sweet Memory Of Tamás Kabdebó”).
Finally, ‘The Arts’ section features articles by Géza Antal Entz (“Foreword To Gyula Illyés’s In Answer To Herder And Ady”); Gyula Illyés (“In Answer To Herder And Ady (1977)”); Paul Sohár (“Hungarian Transylvanian Poets – Part I”) and Sándor Kányádi (“Three Poems, Translated By George Gömöri And Clive Wilmer”).
This issue also contains an open letter by Géza Jeszenszky, former Foreign Minister of Hungary to H. E. Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission entitled ‘What The European Union Could Do’. “On 23 October 2018, the very day when Hungarians and many others remembered the 1956 uprising of the Hungarians against the Communist dictatorship, you called the unification of Transylvania, a province which had belonged to the Crown of Hungary for a thousand years, with the Kingdom of Romania “a great moment in Romanian history and a great moment in European history”.” – begins Mr. Jeszenszky, and finishes the letter by saying “Hungarians of Romania demand rights to use their language, to administer their own affairs and to cultivate their own culture. The European Commission, presided by Your Excellency, can do a lot for that legitimate aim”.
Currently, 47 issues of the Hungarian Review from 2010 through 2018 can be ordered from amazon.com; or directly from the publisher, or by calling the Coalition office in Washington.