The Berkeley Guides:
Berkeley Guide to Europe:
Hungary:
Background Information for
Hungary
By Pamela Whitney
Visitors to Eastern Europe may want to start their travels in Hungary. The culture shock is far less pronounced here than in some other Eastern European countries, in part because Hungary is comparatively unscarred by the legacy of Communism. Even during the height of the Cold War, Hungary attempted a kinder, gentler totalitarianism, which encouraged certain types of private enterprise and rejected the collectivization of the land. This "goulash communism," as it came to be called, wasn't freedom, but it sure wasn't Romania.
As Hungarian Communism differed from the other Eastern European models, so Hungarians as a people differ from other East Europeans. Whereas most of this part of the world is Slavic, the 10.5 million Hungarians are Magyars, descendants of an Asian tribe that arrived in Europe in the 9th century. Hungarians' closest relatives are the Finns, the Estonians, and the Vogul and Ostiak peoples of Siberia. The most obvious reminder of this unusual genealogy is the language, a tongue so unlike any other in Europe that even its closest relative, Finnish, is less similar to it than Italian is to German. Their language gives the Hungarians a sense of national identity--and national isolation--that helps insulate them from the tensions that have ripped apart more ethnically diverse Eastern European nations.
When the Eastern European economy collapsed in the late 1980s, it dragged the Hungarian Communist party down with it. Hardline leaders were removed in May 1988, a multiparty system was introduced in October 1989, and Hungary's first free elections in more than 40 years were held in 1990. Free elections don't automatically put food on the table, however, and like the rest of Eastern Europe, Hungary remains beset by economic problems, including rampant unemployment and inflation. On the bright side, foreign investment is pouring hard currency into the economy, and the country has been tagged for membership in the European Union. For travelers, Hungary provides the opportunity to witness a society in transition to democratic capitalism. What will emerge from the clash of Eastern heritage and Western aspirations remains to be seen.
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