Austrian Galícia in the Memory of Hungarian Public Discourse of the Interwar Period

Abstract

   The subject of my study is the image of former Austrian Galícia in the interwar period Hungarian public discourse, focusing on two levels of that; the standpoint of the political elite and the influential right-wing, revisionist mass-movement leaders and intellectuals. The Hungarians, like the Poles, Ukrainians, Ruthenes and Jews of Galícia had been integral parts of the multinational Austria-Hungary. So, the first part of my paper deals with the place, role and character of Galícia in the Dual Monarchy, emphasizing her constitutional status and ethnic, cultural diversity phenomenas.

   The image of Galícia in the interwar period Hungary was strongly influenced by the permanent emphasizing of the „danger of Galícian Jews,” So, I try to give a little bit more detailed analyze of this, stressing on the argumentations of the two main opinion-making levels mentioned above. And in this context I will speak on the standpoint of the Hungarian Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy.

   The picture of Galícia in Hungary of the time was closely connected to the traditionally and historically good and well-grounded Hungarian-Polish relationship, so it is necessary to rewiev it, although in this sense I will concentrate on the period betweeen 1938 and 1941. Finally, I give a short summary on some aspect of the tragic fate of Galícian Jews stayed in Hungary, deported to and massacred in Kamenets Podolsk.

   According to the main hyphotheses of my paper is that although the image of Galícia in Hungary of the time overshadowed by the bad propaganda slogen of the „danger of Galícian Jews”, but at least until 1941 all of this was overrun by the strong Hungarian wish to keep up and further strenghten the close traditional Hungarian-Polish friendship. A historical precedent that strengthened the close Hungarian-Polish friendship and common destiny was the Austrian-controlled Galicia within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which of course did not give the Poles living there the same freedom as the Hungarians within the empire, but it did contribute to the nation-building of the Galician Poles.  On the other hand, the Trianon peace treaty[1]gave Poland only a negligible amount of territory and population from historical Hungary (580 km² and 23662 people), so the creation of an independent Polish state was a positive development in the eyes of the majority of Hungarians.

* The study is an extended form of the conference paper of the author given on the 4th International Congress of Polish History, 19-22. 10. 2022. Cracow.

[1] On the latest historical approaches of the Trianon peace treaty, see: Trianon 1920-2020, 2021. p. 254.