Péter Csunderlik
Hungarian historian, assistant professor at Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest), research fellow at Institute of Political History (Budapest), and Junior Joint Budapest Fellow at IAS CEU (January - June 2024)
Péter Csunderlik, Phd (1985), wrote his doctoral dissertation on the history of the atheist, left-wing radical student group "Galilei Kör" (Galileo Circle) (1908 - 1919), and he received his PhD degree in 2016 at Eötvös Loránd University, where he have been teaching since 2017. He is particularly interested in the history of left- and right-wing radical movements at the turn of 20th Century, in the history and remembrance of the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, and in the history of the United States in the 20th Century. In 2023 he was SUSI scholar at the University of Delaware by the grant of the US State Department. He is the author of academic monographs on the history and memory of the Galileo Circle and the Hungarian Soviet Republic, his latest book is a biography of the Hungarian historian Péter Hanák (1921 - 1997), one of the "founding fathers" of the Central European University (CEU).
Anti-Westernism fueled by Historical Traumas – The Illiberal Memory Policy of the Orbán Regime
In my lecture I would like to provide an overview about how the illiberal regime of Vikor Orbán uses and abuses history in its memory policy in order to gain historical legitimization for its Anti-Western, Pro-Authoritarian trajectories. I will illuminate how the memory policy of the Orbán Regime has been capitalizing the "cultural trauma" (Jeffrey C. Alexander) that the dissolution of Greater Hungary after the WWI, the disruptive events of the revolutions in 1918 - 1919 (including the Hungarian Soviet Republic) and the Trianon treaty has meant for the Hungarian society. With the Trianon treaty in 1920 the Western victorious powers of the WWI imposed a humiliating peace on Hungary which lost the two-thirds of its territory – collectively traumatizing the Hungarian public. During the Counter-Revolutionary regime of admiral Miklós Horthy
(1920 - 1944) the "Trianon trauma" provided a basis for a right-wing, revisionist policy and irredenta campaigns.
Since 2010 the Orbán Regime has been revitalizing the former Counter-Revolutionary memory policy of the Horthy Regime, "National-Christian", Counter-Revolutionary monuments from the period 1920 - 1944 were reerected, primarily around the Hungarian parliament, in the Kossuth Square where the time was turned back (see the re-erection of Monument to the National Martyrs in 2019, commemorating the 'victims' of the "red terror" of 1918 - 1919 revolutions, originally inaugurated in 1934), but a "brand new" Trianon-memorial was also built for the centenary of the peace treaty in 1920.
Like the Conservative historians of the Counter-Revolutionary Horthy Regime did, the memory policy of the Orbán Regime has linked the dissolution of Greater Hungary not to the loss of the WWI, but has explained with – historical untruly – the "betrayal of Hungary" one the part of those international, leftist politicians who came to the power in 1918 (e. g. Mihály Károlyi, the "red count" – whose memorial was removed from the Kossuth Square in 2012), and allegedly "sold the country", or at least "naively believed" to the promises of Western, liberal politicians. This propagandistic narrative has been used for discrediting the Left as a dangerous alternative to the Right.
For the Orbán Regime "Trianon" as a symbol represents the usable politics of historical grievance, which can be turned into anti-Westernism. The anti-EU and anti-Western rhetoric of the Orbán Regime has been capitalizing the Hungarian perception that the West has always betrayed Hungary (so in 1920, as well in 1956, when the West did not support the Hungarian anti-Soviet rebellion, and even in the revisionist history of the WWII is represented Hungary as a victim of Germany), despite the Hungarians' permanently efforts to protect the West and Western Christianity from the Ottomans until the migration crisis in 2015. According to this logic, the West has never appreciated the positive role of Hungary in European history.
(1920 - 1944) the "Trianon trauma" provided a basis for a right-wing, revisionist policy and irredenta campaigns.
Since 2010 the Orbán Regime has been revitalizing the former Counter-Revolutionary memory policy of the Horthy Regime, "National-Christian", Counter-Revolutionary monuments from the period 1920 - 1944 were reerected, primarily around the Hungarian parliament, in the Kossuth Square where the time was turned back (see the re-erection of Monument to the National Martyrs in 2019, commemorating the 'victims' of the "red terror" of 1918 - 1919 revolutions, originally inaugurated in 1934), but a "brand new" Trianon-memorial was also built for the centenary of the peace treaty in 1920.
Like the Conservative historians of the Counter-Revolutionary Horthy Regime did, the memory policy of the Orbán Regime has linked the dissolution of Greater Hungary not to the loss of the WWI, but has explained with – historical untruly – the "betrayal of Hungary" one the part of those international, leftist politicians who came to the power in 1918 (e. g. Mihály Károlyi, the "red count" – whose memorial was removed from the Kossuth Square in 2012), and allegedly "sold the country", or at least "naively believed" to the promises of Western, liberal politicians. This propagandistic narrative has been used for discrediting the Left as a dangerous alternative to the Right.
For the Orbán Regime "Trianon" as a symbol represents the usable politics of historical grievance, which can be turned into anti-Westernism. The anti-EU and anti-Western rhetoric of the Orbán Regime has been capitalizing the Hungarian perception that the West has always betrayed Hungary (so in 1920, as well in 1956, when the West did not support the Hungarian anti-Soviet rebellion, and even in the revisionist history of the WWII is represented Hungary as a victim of Germany), despite the Hungarians' permanently efforts to protect the West and Western Christianity from the Ottomans until the migration crisis in 2015. According to this logic, the West has never appreciated the positive role of Hungary in European history.
Péter Csunderlik
Hungarian historian, assistant professor at Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest), research fellow at Institute of Political History (Budapest), and Junior Joint Budapest Fellow at IAS CEU (January-June 2024)
Péter Csunderlik, Phd (1985), wrote his doctoral dissertation on the history of the atheist, left-wing radical student group "Galilei Kör" (Galileo Circle) (1908-1919), and he received his PhD degree in 2016 at Eötvös Loránd University, where he have been teaching since 2017. He is particularly interested in the history of left- and right-wing radical movements at the turn of 20th Century, in the history and remembrance of the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, and in the history of the United States in the 20th Century. In 2023 he was SUSI scholar at the University of Delaware by the grant of the US State Department. He is the author of academic monographs on the history and memory of the Galileo Circle and the Hungarian Soviet Republic, his latest book is a biography of the Hungarian historian Péter Hanák (1921-1997), one of the "founding fathers" of the Central European University (CEU).
Anti-Westernism fueled by Historical Traumas –
The Illiberal Memory Policy of the Orbán Regime
The Illiberal Memory Policy of the Orbán Regime
In my lecture I would like to provide an overview about how the illiberal regime of Vikor Orbán uses and abuses history in its memory policy in order to gain historical legitimization for its Anti-Western, Pro-Authoritarian trajectories. I will illuminate how the memory policy of the Orbán Regime has been capitalizing the "cultural trauma" (Jeffrey C. Alexander) that the dissolution of Greater Hungary after the WWI, the disruptive events of the revolutions in 1918-1919 (including the Hungarian Soviet Republic) and the Trianon treaty has meant for the Hungarian society. With the Trianon treaty in 1920 the Western victorious powers of the WWI imposed a humiliating peace on Hungary which lost the two-thirds of its territory – collectively traumatizing the Hungarian public. During the Counter-Revolutionary regime of admiral Miklós Horthy (1920-1944) the "Trianon trauma" provided a basis for a right-wing, revisionist policy and irredenta campaigns.
Since 2010 the Orbán Regime has been revitalizing the former Counter-Revolutionary memory policy of the Horthy Regime, "National-Christian", Counter-Revolutionary monuments from the period 1920-1944 were reerected, primarily around the Hungarian parliament, in the Kossuth Square where the time was turned back (see the re-erection of Monument to the National Martyrs in 2019, commemorating the 'victims' of the "red terror" of 1918-1919 revolutions, originally inaugurated in 1934), but a "brand new" Trianon-memorial was also built for the centenary of the peace treaty in 1920.
Like the Conservative historians of the Counter-Revolutionary Horthy Regime did, the memory policy of the Orbán Regime has linked the dissolution of Greater Hungary not to the loss of the WWI, but has explained with – historical untruly – the "betrayal of Hungary" one the part of those international, leftist politicians who came to the power in 1918 (e. g. Mihály Károlyi, the "red count" – whose memorial was removed from the Kossuth Square in 2012), and allegedly "sold the country", or at least "naively believed" to the promises of Western, liberal politicians. This propagandistic narrative has been used for discrediting the Left as a dangerous alternative to the Right.
For the Orbán Regime "Trianon" as a symbol represents the usable politics of historical grievance, which can be turned into anti-Westernism. The anti-EU and anti-Western rhetoric of the Orbán Regime has been capitalizing the Hungarian perception that the West has always betrayed Hungary (so in 1920, as well in 1956, when the West did not support the Hungarian anti-Soviet rebellion, and even in the revisionist history of the WWII is represented Hungary as a victim of Germany), despite the Hungarians' permanently efforts to protect the West and Western Christianity from the Ottomans until the migration crisis in 2015. According to this logic, the West has never appreciated the positive role of Hungary in European history.
Since 2010 the Orbán Regime has been revitalizing the former Counter-Revolutionary memory policy of the Horthy Regime, "National-Christian", Counter-Revolutionary monuments from the period 1920-1944 were reerected, primarily around the Hungarian parliament, in the Kossuth Square where the time was turned back (see the re-erection of Monument to the National Martyrs in 2019, commemorating the 'victims' of the "red terror" of 1918-1919 revolutions, originally inaugurated in 1934), but a "brand new" Trianon-memorial was also built for the centenary of the peace treaty in 1920.
Like the Conservative historians of the Counter-Revolutionary Horthy Regime did, the memory policy of the Orbán Regime has linked the dissolution of Greater Hungary not to the loss of the WWI, but has explained with – historical untruly – the "betrayal of Hungary" one the part of those international, leftist politicians who came to the power in 1918 (e. g. Mihály Károlyi, the "red count" – whose memorial was removed from the Kossuth Square in 2012), and allegedly "sold the country", or at least "naively believed" to the promises of Western, liberal politicians. This propagandistic narrative has been used for discrediting the Left as a dangerous alternative to the Right.
For the Orbán Regime "Trianon" as a symbol represents the usable politics of historical grievance, which can be turned into anti-Westernism. The anti-EU and anti-Western rhetoric of the Orbán Regime has been capitalizing the Hungarian perception that the West has always betrayed Hungary (so in 1920, as well in 1956, when the West did not support the Hungarian anti-Soviet rebellion, and even in the revisionist history of the WWII is represented Hungary as a victim of Germany), despite the Hungarians' permanently efforts to protect the West and Western Christianity from the Ottomans until the migration crisis in 2015. According to this logic, the West has never appreciated the positive role of Hungary in European history.