Tuesday, May 8, 2007

W 084 F

Introduction
This paper is based on the articles of Hungarian newspapers from the 15th March 1978. Almost every article in these newspapers is about the achievements and actions, of outstanding communist organisations in Hungary. But there are some articles about historical and cultural subjects, that are worth writing about.

The aim of this research is to find out, how the view of history in those days differed from that of today. Both of the newspapers included a long article, which is connected with the national holiday of the 15th March. The content of these articles shows, if there are differences between the commemorations of those days and today.

Method
The newspapers of 1978 I have read were Dunántúli Napló and Népszabadság. I chose the
Dunántúli Napló, because this is the only newspaper I also read regularly today. I decided to read Népszabadság too, because it is widely read in the whole country. A newspaper of my region, and a national one could give a clear description of that particular day.

After the selection of the newspapers, I started to read the articles. Most of them were boring; I read only the articles about history and culture with pleasure. Therefore it was very difficult to find a research question. I had to set up a thesis, and do research work based on this thesis. Because I found only these cultural articles worth writing about, I defined my research question based on them. But I also mentioned some other important articles in my paper.

I read these articles very attentively, underlined what I found important and made notes. I also jotted down what occurred to me while reading the articles. I wrote down the content of these articles, with quotations from the original writing. Then I tried to search for parts in the article, that seemed to be written obviously in 1978, and could not have written today. I summarized my findings and gave an answer to my research question in the conclusion.

Results and Discussion
One of the most important pieces of news of the 15th March 1978 should have been, that the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party held a meeting. Anyway, that was the first short article at the top of both newspapers. Apart from this, the style and the aims of the newspapers seemed to be quite similar. The authors tried to speak highly of their country and region and to write about its developments and successes in the Dunántúli Napló. That was the task of all newspapers at that time. The aim of Népszabadság was the same, but on a national level.

However, the 15th March 1978 was an important day in Hungary: it was the 130 years anniversary of the revolution in 1848. The newspapers should have written about this too. I found articles about this too, that took up a whole page in both newspapers.

I could read about a Hungarian soldier of 1848 in the Dunántúli Napló. The article is based on his memoirs. He wrote it in the middle of the 1850's, thinking back on his youth and the battles. The article was written by Tibor Tüskés, who is a famous writer in Baranya. According to him, historians treated this age enough, but the memoirs of Vinkovics can still tell new and interesting facts (6). Mainly because he tells the story from the point of view of a young soldier. He writes down the soldier-songs, the moments of billeting, the jokes, the fibs, the bragging of the soldiers, the teasing of the landladies (6). It is very exciting, as he writes down his first battle in Tokaj, when he was wounded but managed to escape.

His descendants told about his later life as a district notary. He lived and died in Gyöngyösmellék, in Baranya. Tüskés accomplished deep research in the topic, he even went to Gyöngyösmellék, where no road is leading through; it is a small and unimportant village, but it was a well-off, lively chief town; famous for its past markets (6). Two old women showed him the grave of Vinkovics; the gravestone was demolished and lay on the ground.

Tüskés leaves the village in the hope that the tombstone of the soldier of 1848 will be rebuilt in a more worthy way. I found this article different from the others in Dunántúli Napló, because I almost forgot while reading it, that it has been written twenty years ago. I think it could also be published today.

The article in Népszabadság was quite different. It was written by György Szabad, another famous person in Hungarian politics. This article is more political than the one in Dunántúli Napló and gives an answer to Szabad's question: what do we celebrate on the 15th March (5). Szabad writes about this day as a change of fortune, which has an epoch-changing significance (5). We have to be aware of what we are celebrating. According to the author, we celebrate first of all, that there were people in 1848 who dared to do something, when the international and domestic circumstances gave a chance to an action (5). The author also pointed out, that the omission of this chance would have been more dangerous than the defeat: It could cause increase in the backwardness of the country, which was quite big even then.

We should think about what could have happened, if nobody did anything in 1848. When we imagine that, maybe we realise the importance of 15th March, and understand what Szabad meant by the epoch-changing significance.

The author also discusses the demands and the achievements of the revolution, from among which the emancipation of serfs is the most significant. He stresses the importance of Kossuth's actions, the revolution in Vienna and the politics of interest-combination. The aims of reformists and revolutionists were not the same, but they had one common aim, which was the most important for both of them: overthrowing the existing regime. Szabad writes down the course of the whole revolution, and in the end he stresses the importance of that day again.

I could recognise more easily that this article was written in the communist regime, not because the content could not be written today. But the style and use of grammar is somewhat different to today. The sentences are too long and sometimes hard to understand. After reading some other articles, I came to the conclusion, that authors wrote clutter more often than today.

I found a good critical article in Népszabadság. It is an article by Ervin Havas, who introduces a book by Endre Várkonyi; the title is: Történelem jelen idõben (History in present time). It is about the time between 1944-1945. Várkonyi collected twenty-five portraits of people, who stood in the front line of social fight and constructive work after the liberation (7). We can read about people who came from the working-class movement as communists, from the army of Horthy and others.

The article had an effective introduction: the own thoughts of the author about history. He discusses where present begins, where past finishes. Who is the historian hero: somebody who is already dead, or who is still living, but contributed to the history with his intention and actions (7). He also remarks here why people – born in the same year – understand each other in half words. The answer is, that they lived through the same history, they have common experiences: fascism, world-war, liberation. This is their common past.

This article is a good critic about the book. I think there were not any bad critics at that time at all, because if a book was not written in the spirit of communism, it could not have been published at all.

There are some other articles about cultural topics on this page of Népszabadság, for example an article about Boris Zsigmondi, who died in that year. She was a photographer, a camerawoman and a director. Her career began when she was studying at the university in Prague, and became the member of St. George Circle. The author, Ferenc Vadász, introduces the activity of this circle: the members go to villages, to discover how the poor nation lives; study their life and look for the way out from crisis of capitalist society (7).

The photos of Zsigmondi extended the effect of this work. Zsigmondi became propagandist of the working-class movement and from this time onward she set all her talent in the service of the revolutionary working-class movement (7). She took photos of the demonstrations and meetings of workers; spread the illegal leaflets of the party and took them from Prague to Vienna and Budapest. She came to Hungary after the liberation and started to work as an editor of news and documentary films. After that she worked as a director of documentary films at the Hungarian Television, and made live-programs of lasting value. She was an active member of the party through fifty years, and stayed a communist even in the hardest parts of her life.

This article is typical for those years: it is more important, that Zsigmondi was an active communist than her art. This is a difference between those days and today. I think, the political thinking of an artist is not very important today.

Conclusion
There are a lot of differences between newspapers of today, and those of 1978. At least the articles about 15th March are more or less similar. Accomplished facts can not be changed, even in twenty years, so we celebrate the same today, as in 1978.

As history consists of accomplished facts, the views on it can not change very much after twenty years. But there are still differences, because of the change of the political system. Journalists tried to stress the importance of communism in every historical and cultural article, as we can see it in the last two writings. Writers were influenced by politics and so the articles too. Communism stood above everything. Politics does not influence the cultural articles in the newspapers today. I think this is the main difference.

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