Modernism: The Creation of Nation-States

István Bibó: On European balance and peace

ISTVÁN BIBÓ: ON EUROPEAN BALANCE AND PEACE Title: Az európai egyensúlyról és békéről (On European balance and peace) Originally published: written in 1942–1944, in its own time it remained unpublished , though many of its arguments were merged into his essays, published between 1945 and 1947 Language: Hungarian The excerpts used are from the edition Válogatott tanulmányok (4 vols.) (Budapest : Magvető, 1986–1990), vol. I., pp. 327–364. About the author István Bibó [1911, Budapest – 1979, Budapest]: philosopher of law, political thinker, politician. He came from a Calvinist middle-class family of civil servants and intellectuals. He studied law at the University of Szeged, and specialized in the philosophy of law. In the late 1930s, he was a member of the populist movement, which had strong roots in Szeged. He was a close friend of the sociologist Ferenc Erdei, who was the most important left-wing ideologue of the populists. After the occupation of Hungary by German troops in March 1944, Bibó was involved in the underground resistance. In the democratic interlude after 1945, Bibó published a series of highly original essays on the key problems of Hungarian politics and history . After serving for a short while in the Ministry of Interior under Erdei, he acted as the head of the ‘Pál Teleki Research Institute’ (later renamed the ‘Eastern European Research Institute’) between 1946 and 1949, and became a prominent figure of the Nemzeti Parasztpárt (National Peasant Party). He also taught political sociology in Szeged. His most important works, analyzing the problems of nationalism in Central Europe and the chances of democratic development in Hungary, were published in this short period. After 1950, he was marginalized. In October 1956, he was a delegate for the Petőfi Party (the reformed National Peasant Party) in the revolutionary government of Imre Nagy. After the fall of the revolution, he wrote a series of memoranda to the international community justifying the revolutionary government ’s actions and seeking to find an acceptable compromise respecting the Soviet geo-political interests but safeguarding the democratic and pluralistic political system that had emerged during the revolution. In 1957, he was arrested and was condemned to life imprisonment for his ‘counter-revolutionary activities.’ He was released in the 1963 amnesty, and worked as a librarian until 1971. His works were rediscovered in the 1970s, and became crucial references for the emerging opposition movement. He is considered the most important Hungarian political thinker of the twentieth century. 292 “NATIONAL PROJECTS” AND THEIR REGIONAL FRAMEWORK Main works: Kényszer, jog, szabadság [Enforcement, right and liberty] (1935); A magyar demokrácia válsága [The crisis of Hungarian democracy] (1945); A keleteur ópai kisállamok nyomorúsága [The misery of the Eastern European small states] (1946); Zsidókérdés Magyarországon 1944 után [The Jewish question in Hungary after 1944] (1948); The Paralysis of International Institutions and its Remedies (1976). Context During the first four years of the Second World War, although actually participating in the war on the side of the Axis powers, Hungary seemed to be an island of peace compared to most other countries in the region. It managed to retain a certain degree of autonomy, and the government of Miklós Kállay (March 1942 – March 1944) in particular sought to establish secret links with Allied diplomats, with the intention of maneuvering the country out of the war. In this relatively optimistic atmosphere, the Hungarian public followed the discussions published in the Western press about the plans for a post-war reorganization of Eastern Europe. The general direction of these plans, seeking to solve the endemic nationality question, was towards the federalization of the region (see Milan Hodža, Federation in Central Europe). The central concern of the mainstream nationalist public was securing the territories of historical Hungary that had been regained with the help of the Germans from Romania (Northern Transylvania), Serbia (Vojvodina) and Czechoslovakia (some of the southern regions of Slovakia and CarpathoUkraine ). In contrast, the populist, leftist and liberal intellectual circles tended to sympathize with the federalist option. Seeking to provide a historical and legal framework for a possible post-war consolidation and democratization of the region, István Bibó also entered the discussion on federalization , proposing, however, a radically different solution. In his lengthy manuscript, which was written during the Second World War and which served as a basis for his famous essays published after 1945, Bib...