Hungary: the Uncompromising Compromise

Abstract

A little more than one thousand and ten years ago, theannus mirabilisof Otto I taught the unruly Magyars that “nomadism in one country” was not a workable proposition2and that they had to make adjustments if they wished to belong to the nascent European community. A little less than ten years ago, the Hungarians received another object lesson suggesting that too much emphasis on western civilization might become another source of danger. Since they were separated by a whole millennium, the meaning of the two events is certainly very different. But both were results of a mis judgment of domestic forces and international relations—a phenomenon which was far from uncommon in the history of Hungary.