Margit Slachta, a Christian Feminist Nun and the First Woman in the Hungarian Parliament

In contemporary Catholic social teaching, like Slachta’s reasoning, women are essentially other than men, and this otherness is articulated in the papal encyclicals in relation to women’s role in the family. In contrast, the Catholic nun’s view of the female otherness goes beyond this approach. Although she also emphasises the dignity of the female gender, for her, feminine otherness is the underlying motif of her thinking.

Hungarian Lt General Antal Annus (L) shakes hands with Lt General Viktor Shilov before the Soviet Commander of Southern Group of Forces leaves Hungary on 19 June 1991.

Day of Independence: The Final Days in Hungary of Lieutenant General Viktor Shilov

The presence of Soviet troops in Hungary was of course illegal. The Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, which ended the war, required them to be withdrawn from our country, and although the treaty allowed for the necessary number of soldiers to remain here to ‘maintain the lines of supply’, there were obviously many more than that. The ‘legalisation’ of the presence of the Soviet forces that crushed the 1956 revolution was carried out by the new, collaborationist Kádár government in 1957.

Diminished But Unbroken — The Fate of Hungarians Living along the River Garam

What does the lower reach of the River Garam mean to Hungarians? For some, it is just a region of the Uplands, for others, a beautiful, wide, flat, and fertile valley surrounded by hills, while many people do not even know where to look on the map when they hear its name. For ethnic Hungarian local historian Gábor Juhász, it represents his homeland, a place where his ancestors had lived for hundreds of years.

Hungary, the ‘Bulwark of Christendom’

The concept of the ‘Bulwark of Christendom’ appeared in all border areas where two civilisations and religions came into contact. However, the conscious and regular use of the term is linked to the Italian humanists of the 15th-century Renaissance, who greatly contributed to the formation of the modern image of Europe.

Memory Politics: A Cause for Disagreement Between Russia and Hungary

Hungary is not the only country in East-Central Europe that sees unwanted commentary and meddling by Russia with regard to interpretations of its history. The periods the evaluation of which is the most frequently contested by Russia are the Cold War era and World War II. While Russia glorifies the USSR’s effort to defeat Nazi Germany, CEE countries, including Hungary, highlight the 45 years the Red Army spent in Central Europe as an occupying force after the end of World War II.

The Rich Hungarian Folk Traditions of the Holy Week

A most typically Holy Week prayer, known as The Golden Lord’s Prayer, is one of the most beloved meditative prayers of the religious Catholic women of Hungary. In it, Jesus tells his mother, Mary what awaits him on the days of the Holy Week. As far as we know, the origin of the prayer is unclear, but it appears to have been already known by Hungary’s ethnic Germans as early as in the 15th century.

Hungary’s Thirst for Freedom in Politics and Daily Life

European debates tend to ignore the fact that Hungarian politics—sometimes peculiar and certainly unusual to many Western observers—is not meant to curb liberties or enable oppression but, on the contrary, to further freedom and efforts to attain it.