The extraordinary Hungarian author Mór Jókai, also known as the ‘great storyteller of Hungary’, was born exactly 200 years ago today. Already as a boy he was blessed with a fertile imagination and was deeply intrigued by the arts.

Ex-S&D politician and former MEP Maria Arena has recently been charged with participating in a criminal organization. The Belgian politician is joining the line of former MEPs who are facing formal accusations of making political favours for countries such as Qatar and Morocco in exchange for monetary reward.

Much like in many European countries, marzipan enjoys a great popularity in Hungary, too. Marzipan first attained admiration in the Hungarian Kingdom under the rule of the Renaissance king, Matthias Corvinus. According to historic records, a chessboard from brown and white marzipan was the eighth course on King Matthias’ wedding with Beatrice of Naples in 1477.

In recognition of her accomplishments in organizing the feminist Congress in Budapest, Schwimmer was asked to join the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in its London office as a press secretary. Soon after her arrival to the United Kingdom World War I broke out, where Hungary and the UK found themselves in opposing trenches. Shaken by the news of war, Schwimmer committed herself to bringing together feminist and pacifist leaders to stop the bloodshed.

While the prospect of North Korean soldiers arriving at the front lines is alarming, there are already many foreign mercenaries fighting on the Russian side in Ukraine. Moscow has trained mercenaries near Aleppo, with at least 100 Syrians believed to have joined the Russian army. A couple of months ago, the government of Nepal has demanded the Kremlin stop recruiting Nepalese into its military. Since the Crocus City Hall terror attack in Moscow, the Kremlin has also been recruiting Central Asian migrants, presenting them with the option of either serving in Ukraine or being deported back to their countries.

‘Disillusionment in the West with Ukraine’s performance and ability to win the war has been rising for over a year. While a lot was expected from last year’s Ukrainian counter offensive, it ended up recapturing less than half the land Russia took in 2023. This year’s balance is not much better. Albeit it is true that Ukraine made an extravagant capture of lands in Kursk, on its own sovereign lands it claimed few to no successes.’

‘Albeit few expected Mongolia to actually make the arrest, the case is nevertheless indeed a blow to the ICC’s credibility and generally to the Western institutional system. The unsurprising development of Putin walking away free exposes the fallacy of Western international institutions of having based their policies in the past couple of years on morality. The reality is that countries pursue their self-interest first and foremost, rather than doing “the morally right thing”.’

The 1838 flood, commemorated by many memorial plaques and water level signs in the centre of the city, was not only a natural disaster but a tragedy that brought the country together. The heroism of Baron Miklós Wesselényi (1796–1850) for instance is kept in high regard to this day. The young baron gained national recognition for rowing around the flooded city rescuing people. His boat was equally open to the poor and the rich survivors of the flood; many were pulled from the water, others were save from rooftops.

The best-known Hungarian language youth novel, The Paul Street Boys, written by Ferenc Molnár, was first publish in 1907 and it has enjoyed unbroken popularity ever since.

On the European level, the representatives of Poland and Slovakia often share concerns and vote together with Hungary, especially Poland—at least, it did so until now. While Bratislava is most likely to develop even closer cooperation with Budapest with Fico’s victory, Warsaw will most certainly cease to be the staunch ally it used to be.

Although the revolution and freedom fight was crushed, 15 March is not a day of mourning, but of delayed victory. While the defeat of the Revolution and Freedom Fight was followed by ruthless retaliation and even more oppression, eventually the Habsburg Empire was forced to reform and bow to many of the demands of the revolutionaries.

Many of those deported did not even make it alive to their destination, but died on the way to the Soviet Union. These people were not even registered, so there is no information about how many they were. The purpose of their abduction was to rebuild the Soviet infrastructure that had been practically destroyed in the war, so to use them for free slave labour.

The losses that the Hungarian Second Army sustained in January-February 1943 represent one of the largest death tolls in Hungarian military history.

Our readers’ top five and the editorial team’s top five articles of 2022 covered a wide range of topics, from political analyses and film reviews to the discussion of the nature of conservatism.

As his main research interest was the Austro-Hungarian Empire and he had also extensively written on Emperor Franz Joseph, it was András Gerő who first initiated the establishment of the Institute of Habsburg History.

Studies have found that the belief in a supranatural being that watches our decisions encourage prosocial behaviour and therefore, contributes to large-scale societal cooperation.

It is incorrect to believe that protests took place only in the final years of the USSR. Demonstrations and rebellions were an integral part of Soviet history from the very birth of the Empire.