Category: VOLUME II, No. 6

FIRST BIRTHDAY EDITION

With this edition of Hungarian Review we celebrate one year of our journal’s existence, and look forward with hope to many more. We believe we have proved the need for a calm, measured, and conservative – in the best sense of the word – voice from Central Europe, and we extend special

A NOT TOO ORIGINAL SIN: HUNGARIAN INDEBTEDNESS IN FOREIGN CURRENCY

The context Every third Hungarian family services a loan denominated in foreign currency, predominantly in Swiss francs (CHF), drawn either to buy a house or a car. The whole stock of foreign exchange (FX) household mortgage loans amounted approximately to CHF 22 billion, that is 18 per cent of Hungarian

‘SOMETIMES WE DO REACH CONSENSUS’

The 45-year-old Fidesz politician hails from Veszprém in western Hungary, and trained as a lawyer. He has represented the Veszprém constituency in Parliament since 2006, when he also became leader of the Fidesz Parliamentary faction, then in opposition. In April 2010 he was named Minister of Public Administration and Justice,

RESTITUTION OF HARTED, OR RESTITUTION OF MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING?

On the 2011 Serbian Act on Restitution – from the Angle of History of my Home Town My father and I were born in the same house. (Literally, since in our part of the world, giving birth in hospitals became a common practice only later.) Yet, we were not born

‘NOBODY LIFTED A FINGER’

On 25 October 2011, King Michael I of Romania celebrated his 90th birthday in Bucharest, with a speech to Parliament, a gala performance in his honour in the Opera and other public and private festivities. Crowned king of Romania first as a child in 1927, then as a young man

OFFICIAL ENEMIES, SECRET ALLIES PART II

V. Negotiations Stall In late 1943, the Allies were on a roll. Italy no longer carried weight as Germany’s principal European partner, and the Allies built up Joseph Broz-Tito’s ragtag bands of communist outlaws to the point that they challenged German control over a sizeable chunk of prewar Yugoslavia. The

CURRENTS OF A SECRET LIFE

István Bibó and Bernard Crick An Internal Exile István Bibó (1911–1979) led what could well be called a secret, even hidden life. This is true to some extent of all true intellectuals, for introspection and contemplation are indispensable to their calling. When the demon of inspiration has roused the mind,

INTRODUCTION TO ISTVÁN BIBÓ

When three years ago two chapters of this book and a table of contents were shown to me, I immediately saw, despite what was then merely a quick and literal translation, that this was a work of real importance, and I was determined that it should be properly published. Now,

THE PRINCIPLE OF SELF-DETERMINATION AS A SPUR TO NATIONALISM

Nation, fatherland, and national consciousness Critics of the concept of self-determination argue that it gives certain groups the right to become nations and establish national states – which fosters nationalism; and they argue that nationalism is anti-progressive, aggressive, oppressive and war-prone, and that it should be wholly suppressed for the

FROM ZUGLIGET TO LONDON

Zugliget presents a rather curious geographic formation on the edge of Budapest. With its hillocks and dales it shares a certain similarity with the Austrian Tyrol. Half-way up the hill stood my mother’s little cottage, where I lived from the age of twelve, when we lost our villa due to