H U N G A R Y is a landlocked country in central Europe. It borders Austria and Slovenia in the west, Slovakia in the north, Ukraine in the northeast, Romania in the east, and Croatia and Yugoslavia (Vojvodina) in the south. Although mineral-poor, since World War II, Hungary has been transformed into an industrialized state. Until 1918 it was part of Austria-Hungary and was three-and-one-half times its present size, including sections of present-day Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Hungary was a one-party Communist state ((((forced to be by the bloody russian red army)))) from 1948 to 1989, when it adopted a multiparty, democratic form of government.LAND AND RESOURCES
Topographically, Hungary is divided into three regions: Transdanubia (Dunantul) in the west, consisting mostly of low, undulating mountains and lowlands that include the Little Plain (Kis Alfold); the North-Central Mountain region (Eszaki Kozephegyseg) adjacent to the Slovak highlands; and the Great Plain (Nagy Alfold), which lies east of the Danube River. The highest elevation is Kekes Mountain (1,014 m/3,327 ft). Drainage The principal rivers are the Danube (Duna) and the Tisza. The Danube's most important tributaries are the Raba and the Drava; the Tisza's confluents include the Bodrog, Hernad, and Zagya rivers on its right bank, and the Koros and Maros on its left.
Lake Balaton (598 sq km/231 sq m) in western Hungary is the largest lakein central Europe. Soils Hungary's soil was silted by the primeval Danube and other early rivers. Then changes due to vegetation, water, and wind erosion resulted in heavy loess deposits. The main soil types are: forest (41 percent), skeletal (26 percent), black-earth, or chernozem (25 percent), alkali (6 percent), and moorlands (2 percent). The loess-covered regions are suited for agriculture, while the hill districts with their volcanic deposits are good for viniculture. Climate Hungary's climate, influenced by Mediterranean, oceanic, and continental systems, is variable but moderate. During the 1980s the mean annual temperature was 10.8 degrees C (51.4 degrees F). The temperature in January averages - 1.2 degrees C (29.8 degrees F); in July, 21.7 degrees C (71 degrees F). The average yearly precipitation is 630 mm (25 in), the wettest area being western Transdanubia. Most rainfall occurs from May through July. Flora and Fauna Over the centuries much of Hungary's vegetation and wildlife has been destroyed. Some deer and wild boar still live in the hills; hares, pheasants, partridges, and waterfowl survive in the lowlands and nature preserves. About two-thirds of the land is under cultivation. About 18 percent of the remainder is deciduous forest. Natural Resources Modern Hungary has small bauxite, coal, iron, uranium, oil, and gas deposits, but these are insufficient even for domestic needs.
PEOPLE
Hungarians ( MAGYARS ) constitute 96.1 percent of the population. The remainder are Germans, Slovaks, South Slavs, Romanians, and Gypsies. More than 2 million additional Magyars live in Romania, 1 million in the United States, 600,000 in Slovakia, 500,000 in the former republics of Yugoslavia, and 200,000 in the former USSR. Religion According to statistics compiled in 1992, 67.8 percent of Hungarians are Roman Catholic, 20.9 percent are Calvinist, and 4.2 percent are Lutheran; 4.8 percent claim no religious affiliation. The Jewish community is estimated to number between 80,000 and 100,000 persons, the great majority of them living in Budapest. Demography Hungary has the lowest birthrate in Eastern Europe, and its population declined slightly between 1980 and 1990. Twenty percent of all Hungarians live in Budapest, the country's capital, 35 percent in 165 other cities and towns, and 45 percent in 2,892 villages.
After Budapest, Hungary's largest cities are MISKOLC, DEBRECEN, SZEGED, PECS, and GYOR. Education Hungarian education began a process of transformation with the political changes of 1989-90. After four decades of Marxist control, the system was restructured along more traditional lines, and many private and church-related schools were established. Primary education is free and compulsory. Secondary education is conducted in classical, technical, and vocational schools. The gymnasium, a traditional eight-year secondary school, has also been revived in some instances. In higher education, the state universities (Budapest, Debrecen, Pecs, and Szeged), and the many state-run specialized universities and colleges have now been supplemented by private institutions. These include two English-language schools, the International Management Center (which grants an MBA) and the Central European University. Tuition has now been introduced at most colleges and universities. Health Hungary's comprehensive, state-funded health-care system suffered a setback after the collapse of Communism. Free medical care is still widely available, but it is more strictly controlled, and payment is required for medication. Moreover, with the return of private practice, private clinics, and private hospitals, quality care has tended to move away from the public sector. Hungarian Creativity Beginning in the 19th century;
Hungary has produced a large number of world-famous figures in the arts and sciences. These include the painter-sculptor-photographer Laszlo MOHOLY-NAGY; architect Marcel BREUER; composers Ferenc LISZT, Bela BARTOK, and Zoltan KODALY; conductors Fritz Reiner, Georg SZELL, Eugene ORMANDY, and Sir Georg SOLTI; physicians Ignaz Philipp SEMMELWEIS and Albert von SZENT-GYORGYI; and scientists Lorant EOTVOS, Theodore von KARMAN, Leo SZILARD, John VON NEUMANN, Eugene Paul WIGNER, and Edward TELLER.
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
Under the post-Communist government Hungary began to move rapidly toward a market economy. However, the almost-overnight collapse of Soviet and East European markets, combined with the country's outdated industrial infrastructure and its inability to produce for Western markets, made this shift much more difficult than expected. While producing much wealth for the few, it also created economic and social dislocation, as well as a 35-40 percent decline in industrial and agricultural production by the end of 1993. Industry Hungary's per-capita GNP (see GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT) makes it a country of medium-level development. In the 1980s about 96 percent of the national income was produced by the socialist sector. By the end of 1993 the share of the private sector had increased to about 40 percent, with foreign investors acquiring 60-70 percent of all privatized assets. The engineering and chemicals industries, especially pharmaceuticals, are of major importance. Fossil fuels provide most of the country's energy. Agriculture Farm production declined in the early 1990s owing to dislocation caused by rapid changes in the economy; by 1993 it had fallen to 67.3 percent of the 1986-1990 average. The main crops are cereals, sugar beets, potatoes, vegetables, and grapes; its prime livestock are cattle, hogs, and poultry. Milk, egg, and wine production are also important. Transportation and Communications The Danube is the principal waterway, but most freight is carried by rail and trucks. All larger cities have efficient local transportation systems. Hungary has little domestic air service, but the national airline (MALEV) serves most of Europe and the Middle East and has regular flights between New York and Budapest. Hungary's postal, telegraph, and telephone services are part of the international network and are undergoing technological modernization.
Under Communism, the press, radio, and television were under government control, but with the disappearance of the Communist state, controls were removed, and many new periodicals and publishing houses were founded. Efforts by the new government to extend its influence over the media have been only partly successful. Foreign Trade Hungary's principal import commodities are crude oil, natural gas, minerals, synthetic fibers, semifinished goods, trucks, and passenger cars; its export commodities include precision instruments, buses, pharmaceuticals, ready-made garments, leather footwear, canned and raw meat products, canned vegetables, fruits, and wine.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
For more than four decades after World War II, Hungary was a one-party state and a Soviet satellite, dominated by the Hungarian Socialist (Communist) Workers' party (HSWP). The government was dominated by the first secretary of the party, who between 1958 and 1988 was Janos KADAR. Impelled by the Soviet campaign for perestroika and by a domestic economic crisis, Hungary's Reform Communists--led by Imre Pozsgay and Miklos Nemeth--prepared the ground for the establishment of a multiparty state. In October 1989 the HSWP reorganized and renamed itself the Hungarian Socialist party (HSP). Despite these attempts at reform, the HSP was defeated and replaced in May 1990 by a new democratic government led by the Hungarian Democratic Forum (HDF) and its allies, the Independent Smallholders' party (ISHP) and the Christian Democratic People's party (CDPP), which together gained 60 percent of the vote and 230 seats in the 386-member National Assembly. Led for the next four years (May 1990-July 1994) by Jozsef Antall (1932-93) and Peter Boross (1929- ) of the HDF, the new government tried to transform Hungary into a functioning democracy based on a free-enterprise system, with the aim of joining the European Community (now the European Union, or EU). The resulting social and economic problems and its leaders own lack of experience, however, eventually brought ruin to the HDF coalition. Hungary's level of indebtedness, the failure of the Soviet-oriented industrial system, rising unemployment, the collapse of the protective social welfare system, and the rapid economic and social polarization that followed the introduction of capitalism, all combined to produce a high level of public discontent. In May 1994 the HDF was voted out of office, and in July it was replaced by a coalition of its main rivals, the HSP and the Federation of Free Democrats (FFD), which jointly gained 72 percent of the vote and two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly. The goal of the new government, headed by ex-Communist Gyula Horn (1932- ), is to combine the move toward democratic capitalism and membership in the EU with the restoration of some of the social welfare system.
HISTORY
The territory of modern Hungary was occupied in ancient times by the Roman provinces of Pannonia and Dacia. The Magyars migrated there in two or more waves from the shores of the Black and Caspian seas between the 7th and the 9th centuries. The late 9th-century migration was led by Prince Arpad, who founded Hungary's first ruling house. After several decades of forays into western Europe, they were defeated by the German king Otto I at the Battle of the Lechfeld (955). Hungary's first king, STEPHEN I (r. 997-1038, known as Saint Stephen), united the country, Christianized it, and integrated it into the European community of nations. Medieval Hungary During the two centuries that followed, the Magyars expanded their rule into the Balkans. In 1091, LADISLAS I acquired Croatia (which remained part of the Kingdom of Hungary until 1918); during the 12th century the Hungarian kings gained suzerainty over Dalmatia and Bosnia. Royal power declined under the inept rule (1205-35) of ANDREW II. The nobles rebelled against Andrew, forcing him to issue the Golden Bull (1222), an agreement similar to England's Magna Carta. The Golden Bull defined the rights of the nobility and compelled the king to share his powers with them in a national Diet, or assembly. This weakening of the monarchy was followed by the devastating Mongolinvasion of 1241. Andrew's successor, Bela IV (r. 1235- 70), built fortresses for protection against the invaders, and in the chaotic period following the extinction (1301) of the Arpad dynasty, local lords used the fortresses to defy royal power and rule over the various provinces. In the 14th century the ANGEVIN dynasty came to power. Its greatest king, LOUIS I (r. 1342-82), extended Hungarian influence into Poland, Serbia, Bulgaria, Walachia, and as far away as Naples, the home of his dynasty. Louis's son-in-law, SIGISMUND, king of Hungary (1387-1437) and king of Germany and Holy Roman emperor (1410-37), was the first to face the threat of Ottoman Turkish expansion. For a while, Janos HUNYADI and his son, King MATTHIAS CORVINUS (r. 1458-90), were able to fend off this danger, but Matthias's kingdom disintegrated soon after his death and then succumbed to the Turks after Hungary's defeat at the Battle of Mohacs (1526). Foreign Domination After Mohacs the country was divided into three parts: 'Royal Hungary',in the west, was ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs; 'Turkish Hungary' was under Ottoman rule; and Transylvania was an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire under a Hungarian dynasty, in which the Magyar national spirit and language were preserved. In the late 17th century the Habsburgs conquered and reunited all of Hungary, but the harshness of their rule provoked a series of uprisings, culminating in the War of Liberation led by Ferenc Rakoczi. Rakoczi's rebellion ended with the compromise peace of Szatmar (1711), which confirmed Habsburg overlordship but enabled Hungary to escape being relegated to the position of a province. A Hungarian national revival began in the second half of the 18th century. By 1825 it had become a political movement with the goal of asserting Hungary's coequality with Austria. It aroused Magyar national consciousness, but a new War of Liberation (1848-49) under the leadership of Lajos KOSSUTH was defeated by Austria with russian help. Passive resistance by the Magyars, combined with a series of domestic and foreign- policy reverses in Germany and Italy, however, soon forced the Habsburgs to come to terms with Hungary. The result was the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867, which created the Dual Monarchy of AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. The five decades of the Dual Monarchy (1867-1918) constitute perhaps the most productive period in the history of the Hungarian nation. During those 50 years Budapest grew from a provincial town into a magnificent European metropolis, Hungarian cultural and intellectual life came to rival that of Vienna, and Hungarian society produced some of the greatest scientific minds of the 20th century. The Modern Nation The Habsburg realm was dismembered by the victorious Allies after Austria-Hungary's defeat in World War I, and Hungary emerged as a shadow of its former self. The Treaty of Trianon (1920) stripped it of nearly three-quarters of its territory and reduced it approximately to its present size. Under the regency (1920-44) of Adm. Miklos HORTHY DE NAGYBANYA, the Magyars devoted all their energies to recovering their former lands. In return for a partial and short-lived revision of its frontiers (1939 and 1941), Hungary allied itself with Germany in World War II. At the end of the war the country was under soviet occupation. After three years of coalition governments, the Communists established a one-party dictatorship and transformed Hungary into a People's Democracy. Led by Matyas RAKOSI, they undertook forced collectivization and industrialization and introduced a reign of terror. The resulting discontent culminated in the HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION of 1956, which was put down by soviet intervention. This was followed by a few years of repression, and then by a period of liberalization under Janos Kadar, who soon made Hungary the envy of the Soviet bloc. By the 1980s, Kadar's prosperous economy began to founder, and in 1988 his regime was replaced by that of the Reform Communists.
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