Location: The Hungarian people, originally the Magyars, came from Asia during the population migrations of the Middle Ages. They are small in stature with dark hair and eyes. They settled in the Carpathian Basin, along the Danube River, north of the Black Sea and founded the Hungarian state in the ninth century, before Europe became Europe as we know it.
Language: The Hungarians do not belong to the three principal linguistic families of Europe, (Germanic, Latin and Slavic), but are of Finno-Urgic ancestry, related to Finns and Estonians through common linguistic and anthropological heritage. Historically, Hungarians called themselves Magyars to distinguish Magyars from non-Magyar speaking peoples.
The Hungarians of today are multiethnic people, resulting from the conquests and assimilation of Turks, Ottomans, Slavs and Russians, and yet they are the only European culture transplanted from Asia to have retained their language. Hungary shares borders with Austria, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Ukraine. Currently the population of Hungary is 10 million, while another 5 million people in other countries identify themselves as Hungarian.
History: The Hungarians adopted Christianity about 1000 A.D., attaching themselves to the Roman Catholic Church rather than the eastern center of Byzantium, securing their place in Western civilization and development. They became part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire in 1867, while retaining national independence. However, after the end of World War I, Hungary was systematically carved up as punishment for being allied to Germany, and the Austrian-Hungarian monarchies disintegrated. As a result, there are many Hungarians living in the once broad scope of Hungary, in the areas now called Transylvania, Slovakia (formerly part of Czechoslovakia), Yugoslavia, and Carpatho-Ukraine.
In 1944, the Soviets liberated and subsequently occupied Hungary. This action, combined with the Fascist seizure of power in Budapest, led to Joseph Stalins control of Hungary in 1947, and its Communist, Eastern Block status. The Hungarians suffered terribly under Stalin. Communist Russia demanded taxes, quotas and systematically used threats, coercion and violence to assert its authority. Stalin also used torture, trials, executions, deportation and military occupation as weapons of intimidation against the Hungarians. These atrocities and inter-party power struggles led to a thirteen-day anti-Communist revolution beginning October 23, 1956. Demonstrators marched on the Parliament Building. Thousands were shot at resulting in hundreds of casualties. On the thirteenth day, Soviet tanks entered Budapest and retook the Parliament Building. By 1965, the Iron Curtain restrictions began to loosen. In 1999 Hungary became a full member of NATO, and October 23 remains a national holiday.
Lifestyle: Today Hungarians enjoy the lifestyle of other industrialized nations, while united in their shared heritage. Hungarians are known for their literature, folk art, dance, music, but mostly for their spicy and flavorful cuisine. Hungarian food is not for the faint of heart or the mild palette. Hungarians are famous for the quality they demand and care they take in preparing food. School lunches and street vendors offer freshly baked bread and sausage pies. Most Hungarian dishes contain the staples of paprika, garlic and hot peppers which are native to their region.
Resources
Borsody, Stephen, The Hungarians, A Divided Nation. New Haven: Yale Russian and East European Publications,1988.
Kosary, Dominic G, A History of Hungary. Cleveland:Benjamin Franklin Bibliophile Society, 1941.
Sugar, Peter F, A History of Hungary. Indiana University Press, 1990.
The Hungarian Home Page. http://www.fsz.bme.hu/hungary/homepage.html 1999.
Sara Diedrich