The Hungarian Revolution/Chapter 5
CHAPTER V.
AFTERWARDS IT HAPPENS ALWAYS
DIFFERENTLY FROM WHAT ONE
THOUGHT AT FIRST.
The Revolution was a success.
What came to pass after the first days was a proof of the eternal truth that no event, of its own inherent contents, can go on prosperously to its maturity.
Hungary had shattered the fetters of an oppressive connection—the sick system of tutelage, suppression and blood-sucking was eliminated; but the recovery came with all the crises, the relapses of convalescence, and outside forces struck heavy blows at the hardly-tried land.
Only one who was present and saw the rising of despair, witnessed the flame of wrath, felt the sickness of languor, only such a one could truly affirm that all this emotion was genuine and human; only he will be able to realise that a falsification without parallel of facts and acts must necessarily shake the foundations of the thought and feeling of a country.
It began with the Czechs, who, in a frenzied rage of ambition, not only claimed frankly foreign provinces, but at once proceeded to the creation by force of the conditions they prescribed, and simply declared to be Czechish frankly Magyar, frankly German, frankly Slovak territory. To the lay mind I may perhaps illustrate these questions in this way. The Czechs maintain that the Slovaks are Czechs, and that Slovakia is Czechia. That is, translated into Western parlance: the Italians are Frenchmen, therefore Italy is France. One must cast one's mental functions to the winds! The deduction of the Czechs is somewhat as follows: Every eagle is a bird, and every sparrow is a bird, therefore every sparrow is an eagle.
Against the Czech aspirations is to be set, not only the matter of fact that Slovakia is by no means Czechia, but also the fact that at any rate a great majority of the Slovaks—in spite of the most furious instigation—do not at all wish to become Czechish, but desire an independent Slovak Republic, whose Government was, already constituted. As regards historical grounds, there is no precise relation at all between Slovakia and Czechia. It would be the wildest anachronism to go back hundreds of years; but the best of it is that such a going back—finds nothing in favour of the Czech claims.
The Roumanians did as the Czechs and as the Servians, and, in the name of national freedom and of interim occupations for the maintenance of order, the wildest national oppression was inaugurated. Frankly Magyar territory was occupied, a tyranny against these absolute majorities introduced. Hungarian newspapers forbidden, their importation stopped, and in the crassest contradiction to the clearest conditions of the armistice, a violent abrogation of the Magyar administrative authorities took place, which could not then but lead to unrest.
In Budapest these news arrived ever more inopportunely, and the voice of the capital and of the country became critical. Kàrolyi's Government had to threaten to dissolve and to hand over everything to the lovers of force; for the restraining of the rising fury of the people seemed to be growing well nigh impossible.
Brute force undisguised, scorn, derision, abuse, hailed upon the young Hungary, attacked for hoer past, although no land can more thoroughly expiate the sins of the past, and even herself judge them, than Hungary.
I had an opportunity in Budapest of studying at close quarters all questions of detail, and a residence of ten years in various states of the once Monarchy affords me the possibility of clear personal judgment. I hold, then, that the uncontested cultural superiority of the Magyars as compared with most of the minority nationalities—there were majorities in Hungary only in tho local sense, not on the whole—this superiority which by itself fashioned the Revolution, though the impulse to its explosion must have been given by the Nationalities, for from of old it is not the oppressor, the holder of power, who proceeds to revolution, but the Opposition—this superiority, I say, must form the basis for the settlement of the questions in dispute. Let it be clearly stated that in Hungary the Magyars themselves are a Nationality in the higher sense, who were forced into a union not wanted by them, hated, contested, by them; and that this led to the Revolution. Nor are the outcomes of the Revolution to be confined and pressed into narrow channels. The Entente should clearly understand that Hungary is the solidest of the fore-Balkan countries and, whatever the opinion may be at present, I hardly think that any one intimate with the facts could be found who would venture to deny that the Magyars are more culturally advanced than the Roumanians, Servians, Croats, Bulgarians, Slovaks and Mixed Races, more advanced, not only in respect of their knowledge of the alphabet, as clearly proved by statistics, but also especially as regards writing, newspaper circulation, respect for culture, and extent, of culture.
The Balkans were an eternal conflagration, while Hungary was the sure home of tranquility. A considerable railway system was operating beneficially in an industrial sense, a fast developing industry was improving the adjustment of imports and exports—and the root of the trouble was the conflict of nationalities, was the former oppression of them. Precisely this cardinal cause is now removed, is for ever put aside. The fullest autonomy is assured to the Nationalities.
If against all the arguments of reason and logic a chaos were created in Hungary, such a thing must result in an ever new conflagration. The intention of putting essentially Magyat districts under foreign rule, an intention evident enough in the violent steps then taken, will, if persisted, in, lead to the severest conflicts, and besides, stop development in the industrial direction. There will arise a new Balkans, a second Balkans, and therewith a second hot-bed of crises, and what this prospect promises for the future can be well enough measured by the past.
Men look like falling at present into the horrible mistake of driving a strong people to despair, of isolating, of strangling it, for the sake of certain systems—systems already shattered by the people itself—for the sake of certain persons or tendencies. The final consequence can only be pointed at as catastrophic.
What is at present being done by the small members of the Entente is a threat to European civilisation.
The Hungarian problem must be solved. The once Hungary is gone, and is most hated in Hungary itself. But let there be an insistence upon the principle set up by Wilson. . . ."A scrap of paper," occurs to me in regard to this: a scrap of paper, the tearing up of which invoked the greatest bloodshed of all times. Let men beware of such papers: and if to-day the Smallest of the Small with inflated arrogance regard the Fourteen Points, too, as merely "a scrap of paper," let not the catastrophe be lost sight of in the grotesque. A little more veering on the side of the Entente, a little more complacence and toleration must, as far as one can see, invoke an inner crisis in Hungary, essentially Hungarian and momentous, whose incertitudes the elements that aspire to Bolshevism will certainly take advantage of to their ends. This should be carefully noted.
***
On a somewhat frosty Sunday hundreds of thousands assembled at the Parlamentplatz, where what took place was without any special ceremony, so to say, springing out of a deeply-felt confession of faith. The day will be unforgettable to me, for through the humdrum old halls of the Parliament House blew the wind of a New Time, and it was a day of new men and new words, and something like a suppressed thrill filled the frame.
The Government, the National Council and the People had united here, and amid cares and trials, to support which a high love of country raises human strength, the foundation was laid on which is built Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
Old memories whirled through my head; I imagined I saw things unfolding before me; known faces passed before me; thoughts connected past and present; a warm emotion possessed all, and I saw people with hard features whose lip quivered. . . .I, as a Swiss, the free citizen of a free State, understood well the emotion which moved all these, who out of the darkness of an old century suddenly were stepping into the light of Democracy.
How well had all this come to pass, how much of incredibly noble and steadfast will was involved in it, how much anxious shrinking from the least Too-much among the crowd—how upon all lay Pain and Joy—welded in a single embrace, how out of a thousand dumb throats went up appeals to the Almighty, and how with the tumult of joy mingled for seconds the intense suspense of the listener who hearkens for tidings from afar—how trembled the million-fold heart of Budapest in its struggle to express the moment, the day. . . .the Future. . . .
Leaning on a pillar, I saw all this pass before me. I only dimly recall the details of what, as a whole, will never pass from my memory. Through sudden cries, through music and song, and gay men, and weary-grown thoughts, I made my way through to a better hope for the People, that is wondrous good in its heart and soul, that unspoiled and staunch and simple stands by its kind, that haggles in words, but is bountiful at heart, as once only sovereigns could be. . . .Ah, there appeared to me desert-sands, and then hill-lands alternated with blessed cornfields, glad streams wound through green regions, wine and corn smiled along the ways, and a hot sun blessed the midday.
A stream of men brought me back, lost in thought, to the day.
It was the 16th of November of the year of grace 1918.
The End