The Policy of Budapest Governments towards Hungarian Communities Abroad

Principal investigator: Nándor Bárdi

Participants: Barna Bányai

Period: 2019-2021

Research questions and objectives:

By Hungarian policy we mean the policy of a government in relation to the Hungarian minority community (kin-sate policy). Part of the Hungarian policy in Hungary is the support policy, the system of contacts and the Hungarian-Hungarian relationship. The governments of neighboring countries are basically enforcing their intentions through language policy, education policy and in relation to the minority institutional system.
Crucially, we examine how the various domestic policy changes reshaped this policy: in the second half of the 1930s, between 1940 and 1944, after 1968 and 2010.

Research history:

In the 1990s, we sought to continue the research that explored the support of Hungarians living abroad between the two world wars and the work published in 2004 outlining the history of relations between the governments of Budapest and Hungarians abroad (Tény és való). In addition to the historical approach to the problem, we have analyzed the Hungarian political activity of the last decades in policy works.

We undertook the historical reconstruction of a policy (the Hungarian policy) which, before 1989, was not separated from the cultivation of foreign policy and international cultural relations. Between the two world wars, the revisionist policy and political vision tended to hide it, and for a while after 1944, during the peace negotiations between Hungary and its neighbors it was still a topic of how to reintegrate the Hungarian minority communities. After that, all this was subordinated to the bilateral relations of the Communist countries. Then, from the first half of the seventies, it appeared under the rhetoric of the accountability of Lenin's nationality policy, under the pressure of the Hungarian minority elites and the opposition groups in Hungary. reinterpreting the content of the plebeian concept of nation towards a new cultural concept of nation. After 1988, the Hungarian policy separated from the main directions of foreign policy and identity policy in the course of government work institutionalizing the management of the problems of Hungarians living abroad. Not least through the pressure of Hungarian groups abroad.

Research methods:

Exploration of sources in MNL OL in the materials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the archives of HTMH.

Budgetary statistical analysis of aid policy.

Recent results:

Bányai Barna: Magyarország határon túli magyarokat érintő támogatáspolitikájának átalakulása 2010–2018 (I. rész). Regio, 2020/1. sz.

Bárdi Nándor: Trianonon túl (manuscript)

Bárdi Nándor: Magyar stratégiák, elképzelések a határon túli magyarok helyzetének kezelésére 1918-2019 (forrásbibliográfia) 19 p.

Bárdi Nándor: 100 év - 100 könyv a magyar kisebbségek történetéről (válogatott bibliográfia) 7 p.

Bányai Barna: Támogatáspolitikai adatbázis, költségvetés 2010-2018

Bárdi Nándor: Az 1989 utáni budapesti kormányzatok magyarságpolitikája. In Gyurgyák János (szerk.): Emlékező Magyarország II. köt. Budapest: Osiris, 2020. 384-408.

Previous research results:

 2008

  • Stefano Bottoni: Komárom/Komárno. Hivatalos és informális kapcsolatok egy közép-európai ikervárosban (1960–1985) Regio, 2008. 2. sz. 27-47. p.

2009

  • Sárándy Tamás – Tóth Bartos András. „Kis magyar világ”, Észak-Erdély 1940–1944 között digitális szövegtár: http://www.adatbank.ro/belso.php?k=5
  • Bárdi Nándor: Sistemul instituþional ºi strategia de politicã maghiarã a guvernelor din Budapesta 1918–1938. In Vasile Ciobanu–Sorin Radu (szerk.): Partide politice ºi minoritãþi naþionale din România în secolul XX. Techno Media, Sibiu, 2009, 55-65. p.
  • Bárdi Nándor: The strategies and institutional framework employed by Hungarian governments to promote the “Hungarian minorities policy” between 1918 and 1938.
  • In Czech and Hungarian Minority Policy in Central Europe 1918–1938. Edited by Ferenc Eiler, Dagmar Hájková, Masarykùv ústav a Archiv AV ÈR -- MTA Kisebségkutató Intézet, Praha – Budapest, 2009, 33-53. p.

2010

  • Ablonczy Balázs –Bárdi Nándor: Határon túli magyarok: mérleg, esély, jövõ. In Határon túli magyarok a 21. században. Szerk. Bitskey Botond, KEH, Bp., 2010, 9-32. p.
  • Bárdi Nándor – Misovicz Tibor: A kisebbségi magyar közösségek támogatásának politikája. In Határon túli magyarok a 21. században. Szerk. Bitskey Botond, KEH, Bp., 2010, 66-76. p.
  • Stefano Bottoni: Komárom/Komárno. Offizielle und inoffizielle Beziehungen in einer ungarisch-slowakischen Zwillingsstadt (1960–1985). In Wlodzimierz BorodziejJerzy KochanowskiJoachim von Puttkamer (eds.): »Schleichwege«. Inoffizielle Begegnungen sozialistischer Staatsbürger zwischen 1956 und 1989. Wien-Köln, Weimer, Böhlau-Verlag, 2010, pp. 67-89.

2011

  • Bárdi Nándor: Ungaria ºi maghiarii de dincola de graniþã (1948–1989) In Studa Universitatis Cibiniensis, Series Historica VIII., Universitatea „Lucien Blaga” din Sibiu, Facultatea de Istorie ºi  Patrimoniu, Sibiu, 2011, 83–94.
  • Bárdi Nándor: Národna politika Madarska po roku 1989. In Neznámy sused. Dvadsat’rokov Mad’arska (1990–2010) Ed. Csaba Zahorán, István Kollai, Slávka Otcenásová, Terra Recognita  Alapítvány–Vydavatel’stvo Talentum, Budapest–Bratislava, 2011, 145–175.

2013