The
20th Century
As a consequence of the aggravating agrarian
crisis around 1890 in Hungary
hundreds of thousands of people emigrated from the area of the former monarchy
to the U.S.
and to various European countries. Between 1899 and 1913 about 25000 people
left Vas County. Most of them
coming from the district Szentgotthárd (6000). In this very
region the biggest emigration wave took place in 1901. From
Alsószölnök approximately a hundred inhabitants emigrated to
the U.S.
The First World War interrupted emigration overseas, which gained a new upturn
around 1920. Due to mass emigration, the American Congress decided to introduce
an immigration quota in 1921. For Hungary this quota amounted to 5638
people. Thus also the destinations of those willing to emigrate changed. Canada, Argentina,
Uruguay and Brazil became the new destinations for the
emigrants of Vas County. In 1869, about 4000 people were
living in the Slovene villages within the Raba Region. Until 1910 the population
figure decreased by 8 per cent. In 1910, the U.S. kept about 5000
Slovene-speaking immigrants, who had emigrated from the former Hungarian
kingdom. The Slovene-speaking Hungarians settled mainly in the state of Pennsylvania and in Chicago
and Bethlehem. In
these two cities the newspapers “Szlobodne Rejcsi/Free Words” and
“Amerikanski Szlovenczov glász/The Voice of the Slovenes in America”
were published. The emigrants returning to the Raba Region from the U.S. purchased
land, renovated their houses and kept distributing their American newspapers. In
order to be able to afford a ticket for the crossing to the U.S., the
emigrants had to work up to several months. Numerous emigrants left their homes
without valid travel documents and immigrated to their countries of destination
illegally or they made available passport with the aid of non-existing
destinations. To earn the necessary funds more quickly, the wives followed
their husbands, who had emigrated already some years before. However, since the
reason for many men to emigrate were their wives themselves, from 1926 on they
only received a passport when they could prove that they would take care of
their wives who had been left at home. Around 1923/24 a great deal of the
Slovenes who had emigrated returned to their homeland in the Raba Region. They
did not stay abroad for a long time because they planned to establish a life on
better terms.
The
First World War
The Slovenes from the Raba Region participated as Hungarian soldiers in the
First World War. Memorials in Apátistvánfalva,
Alsószölnök and Rábatótfalu commemorate the
numerous dead soldiers of this war. After the end of the First World War state
power in the Slovene Raba Region changed six times within ten months. Until
October 1918 this region belonged to Habsburg. From November 1918 until March
1919 it was part of the Republic Károly-Hungary. In early 1919 the
Slovene Raba Region was even under Jurišič’s power for one
week. Also the White Guardsmen usurped this area for a couple of days. From March
1919 until August 1919 it was part of the Hungarian
Soviet Republic
and in August 1919 it came under the control of the kingdom
Serbia-Croatia-Slovenia and with the peace treaty of Trianon in June 4, 1920
the Slovene communes definitively remained a part of Hungary. The Károly
government (1918-1919) promised the Slovenes in Zala
County and Vas County
cultural autonomy. However, mainly the Catholic Slovenes preferred belonging to
their mother country Slovenia.
After
“Trianon”
The borders between the kingdoms Hungary
and Serbia-Croatia-Slovenia were finally regulated by the so-called peace
treaty of Trianon, in Trianon castle not far from Paris on June 4, 1920. The water shed of the
two rivers Raba and Mura was considered as the borderline within Vas County.
The localities in the surroundings of Szentgotthárd remained further on
Hungarian rule. Through fusions the nine communes of the Raba Region
(Alsószölnök, Apátistvánfalva, Felsőszölnök, Orfalu, Permise,
Rábatótfalu, Ritkaháza, Szakonyfalu and Újbalázsfalva)
became six municipalities. Újbalázsfalva was associated to
Apátistvánfalva, Rábatótfalu to
Szentgotthárd, and Permise and Ritkaháza were united as
Kétvölgy. This so-called “vendvidék” was
consequently disunited: in the Mura Region (Prekmurje), which is a part of Slovenia and in the Raba Region (Porabje)
belonging to Hungary.
This separation introduced a new historical epoch for the Slovenes living in
the Hungarian Raba Region. From this moment forth the Mura Region and the Raba
Region developed separately and differently in terms of economy, politics,
culture and ethnicity. At the border triangle near Felsőszölnök
a pyramidal column bearing the emblems of Austria,
Hungary and Yugoslavia and
the date of the ratification of the peace treaty of Trianon was erected. Between
the two world wars, at the end of May, the Slovene-speaking students held an
annual memorial celebration commemorating the dead heroes of the First World
War at this very stone column. After the drawing of the “Iron
Curtain” after the Second World War this stone column was no longer
accessible. Since June 4, 1989 the border is open again and from this date
forth deputies of the three ethnic groups hold annual meetings at this stone
column, which symbolises the history of this region.
The
“Windish question”
During the invasion of the German troops in Yugoslavia
on April 6 1941 also Hungary,
as an ally of Hitler-Germany, joined Germany. In return for this help, Hungary
retrieved the Serbian Bácska, the Croatian Baranya and Medjimurje and
the Slovene Mura Region. These regions were affiliated to Yugoslavia
after the peace treaty of Trianon in 1920. One wanted to prove to the
inhabitants of the Mura Region that they were not Slovenes but descended from
the Celts. Sándor Mikola (1871-1945), a maths and physics teacher coming
from the Slovene Mura Region claimed during the times of the peace of Trianon
that the term “vend” did not mean “Slovene”. With his
opus “A Vendség múltja és jelene/The
past and present of the Wends” he propagated this perception. By means of
the theory of Sándor Mikola Hungarian policy tried to regain the Slovene
Mura Region at that time. However, also after the Second World War the Mura
Region remained a part of Yugoslavia
(Slovenia) and the Raba
Region a part of Hungary.
The
double identity
Between March 18 and March 23, 1946 all the ethnicities living on Hungarian
national territory were registered. Since the Slovenes from the Raba Region
were afraid of being migrated to Yugoslavia they avowed themselves
Hungarians but with Slovene mother tongue in this registration. They decided in
favor of the “double identity". The message, which was published in
the newspaper “Szabad Nép/Free People”, saying that the
Slovenes from the Raba Region had to avow themselves Slovenes to avoid being
displaced had a big influence on their decision in favour of the double
identity. What is more, this newspaper announced that if the Slovenes avowed
themselves Hungarians they had to settle for complete assimilation into
Hungarian culture. According to the newspaper “Szabad Vas megye/Free Vas
County” the deputies from Hungary
and Yugoslavia
were also discussing the resettlement and substitution of the respective
south-Slavic and Hungarian population within the two countries at the Parisian
peace talks. Within three years approximately 40000 people were to change their
residences. Luckily, this resettlement did not take place. During the
resettlement policy of the inhabitants of German origin from Hungary 200
people in Felsoszölnök were on a list destined for resettlement. However,
these people were deleted from the list due to their mixed marriages with
Slovenes or because of their lack of knowledge of the German language. In
Alsószölnök in 1941 325 people avowed being of German origin. The
“Volksbund” (union of people of German origin) had 360 members
among whom there were also numerous Slovenes. In Alsószölnök
also existed a not to be neglected number of
inhabitants of German origin. Some Slovenes joined the local German
“Volksbund” during the Second World War, because the people union
promised them an auspicious work in Germany. In 1946 the Hungarian
government displaced 103 people from Alsószölnök.
Land
partitioning, immigration and resettlement policy
In the villages of the Slovene Raba Region approximately two thirds of the
farmed land still remained privat property also after 1945. From the 85
families who asserted their claims to land 29 were assigned land. The
instructions for mandatory natural tolls and for food ration cards, which were
decreed after the Second World War during the years 1946 and 1956, derogated
also the Slovene peasants from the Raba Region. The peasants had to hand in a
part of their harvest to the state. These terms were often absurd. In parts the
debit of the natural tolls were that high that the harvest of some peasant
families having many children did not suffice to satisfy their own needs, and
that these families were obliged to (re)purchase the harvest in civil stores
with food ration cards or money. What is more, the instructions were not always
adjusted to the given agricultural orientation of the peasants. Even though the
peasants were more often working as chicken breeders, the national toll
ordinance dealing with fowl breeding instructed that also ducks and geese had
to be delivered. In 1948 the relations between Hungary
and Yugoslavia
worsened. In August 1951 the council announced that Slovene-speaking peasants
in the borderland of Yugoslavia
could not give a more worthily answer to Tito's cooperation with the west than
increasing the quota of the mandatory natural tolls. As a consequence of the
bad economic circumstances approximately 28 per cent of the Slovene inhabitants
left the Raba Region between 1949 and 1960. The Slovene peasant families, the
so-called “kulák” (= richer peasants) were put in labour
camps to Hortobágy in the Puszta. Also after 1953 many of these
resettled peasant families were not allowed to return to their home villages
but they could migrate to areas which were only about 60 to 80 km away. To some
extent this is the reason why also Slovene-speaking families settled down in
some parts of Vas
County. The Slovene Raba
Region was untroubled by acts of violence in the course of the Hungarian
uprising in 1956. On October 23, 1956 when the uprising broke out in Budapest, 83 soldiers of
the border patrol regiment of Alsószölnök left their frontier
posts and sided with the revolutionaries. The border sections to Austria and Yugoslavia, which were provided
with barbed wire, were dismantled by the Hungarian government already in summer
1956. One of the main destinations of many Hungarian refugees was the Austrian
border near Alsószölnök leading to the neighbouring Austrian
Neumarkt.
The
“Iron Curtain”
The term “Iron Curtain” was mentioned by Winston Churchill during a
speech in Fulton (USA) on May 5, 1946. He said that an “Iron
Curtain” was hanging down on Europe from the Baltic Sea (Stettin) to the
Adria (Trieste).
This “Iron Curtain” sealed the Raba Region off Yugoslavia and Austria from the second half of the
1940s until the early 1990s. In the beginning the “Iron Curtain”
consisted of wire obstacles, mine fields, foot print detection sectors, and on
the Hungarian side there were guards. In terms of border control the government
of Kádár affected the Slovene population in the Raba Region most.
Additionally, special alarm installations were used to secure the border, and
per instruction the peasants were forced to keep their land, the limit of which
was the border, free for border security. If an inhabitant of the Raba Region
had relatives or friends living in neighbouring Yugoslavia,
then they were considered unreliable and they ran the risk of being migrated to
Yugoslavia.
In between the two world wars not much attention was drawn to the fate of the
different ethnic groups in Hungary.
The isolation due to the “Iron Curtain” caused a great loss in
terms of the educational level and the migration of the Slovenes from the Raba
Region. In the 1960s, a certain industrial development, which affected also the
Raba Region, started because of the foundation of a blacksmith's store and a
weaving mill in Szentgotthárd. The Slovene population group found work
in the aforementioned enterprises. In the beginning, they commuted to work from
their villages to Szentgotthárd daily, later on a lot of them settled
down in the Hungarian-speaking city Szentgotthárd. The migration to
Hungarian-speaking cities compromised the continuity of the Slovene identity
within the Raba Region enormously. The then-socialist enonomic and social
system allowed hardly any separate initiative in order to preserve Slovene
peculiarity within the Raba Region. Only the constitutional
amendment in 1972 amitted the Slovene minority and other minorities in Hungary, of at
least a formal protection and use of their language. As from 1979 the
radio of Győr
broadcasted a programme in Slovene language 25 minutes per week, and in 1986
the museum of Szentgotthárd was named after
Pável Ágoston, a linguist and ethnographer of Slovene origin. Pável
Ágoston (1886-1946) dealt with the science of the Slovene language,
amongst others with the development of the language within the Mura Region.
Political
change and the Slovenes within the Raba Region
The peaceful change in Hungary
in the 1990s resulted in a constitutional and pluralistic state, a state with
parliamentary democracy, with a free market economy and a new social system. It
enabled also the minorities to develop and to rediscover their cultural
identity. In 1990, the Slovene association dealing with Szentgotthárd,
which has been publishing the small newspaper “Porabje” in Slovene
every two weeks since 1991, was founded in Felsőszölnök.
In addition, Hungarian TV has been broadcasting a programme called
“Slovenski utrinki/Slovene Mosaics” for the Slovene population
group in Hungary
for 25 minutes every two weeks since 1992. The rich tradition of the Hungarian
Slovenes is being looked after by a culture group that is integrated in the association
of the Hungarian Slovenes. The association of the Slovenes also adds a great
deal to the preservation of the Slovene language within the Raba Region. In
1993, the Hungarian Parliament introduced a law for the minorities and ethnic
groups living in Hungary,
which acknowledges 13 different minorities on Hungarian soil. Due to the
regulation about the autonomy of the ethnic minorities embodied in this very
law, self-administrations, which acted for the interests of the Slovene
population group, were created in the elections of 1994/95 within six of seven
Slovene-speaking settlements. Furthermore, due to the election results of 1998,
the Hungarian Slovenes could establish another three self-administrations in Szombathely, Mosonmagyaróvár and in Budapest. The
headquarters of the self-administration of all the Slovenes living in Hungary are
situated in Felsőszölnök. Such
Slovene associations exist in Budapest and Szombathely as well. In
Szentgotthárd, the Slovene culture and information centre and a consulate
of the Republic Slovenia were inaugurated in 1998. Since June 23, 2000 a radio
station in Szentgotthárd has been broadcasting daily programmes in
Slovene language.
The
relations to Slovenia
The bilateral agreements between the republics of Slovenia
and Hungary and the laws,
which had been introduced by Hungary
in the last couple of decades, enable the promotion and preservation of the
relations between Slovenes within the Raba Region and the mother country Slovenia. Particular
significance inheres in the law dealing with the rights of ethnic minorities in
Hungary, in the bilateral
agreement between Hungary
and Slovenia about the
securing of the rights of the Slovene population group in Hungary and the Hungarian population group in Slovenia, in
the cooperation treaties about education, culture and science. The resolution
made by the Slovene parliament with the neighbouring states Austria, Italy,
Croatia and Hungary, in
which Slovenes live as ethnic groups, bears a great significance for the
Slovenes within the Raba Region. This resolution grants the Slovenes from the
Raba Region a lot of support, which can be political, cultural, linguistic,
informal or scientific and financial. The Mura and Raba Region, which had been
separated by the “Iron Curtain” for decades, can return to their
common roots again. The opening of the border crossings Martinje-Felsőszölnök and
Čepinci-Kétvölgy and the railroad connection
Zalalövo-Hodoš accounted a great deal for this aim. In the last
couple of years, the relations between the Slovene population groups in Italy, Austria
and Hungary
were intensified. Numerous culture and sport events enabled these Slovene
population groups beyond the Slovene national borders to exchange views and to
get to know each other better. One has found out that, apart from the different
developments of this Slovene ethnic group, the basic questions about identity
and continuity are very similar.
Translated from German into English: Joël Gerber
The German text is based on: Mukics Mária, „A
Magyarországi Szlovének“; Press Publica, (2003)
"www.hu-embassy.si/Index_files/hu_files/magyar_files/Munda.htm"