A monumental figure

On March 15, Hungarians the world over commemorate the outbreak of the momentous Revolution of 1848, which sought to throw off the chains of some 350 years of oppression by the Austrian Habsburgs.

The ceremonies have centered on the romantic figure of the young, handsome poet Sándor Petőfi, around whose statue the citizens of Budapest gather to lay their wreaths of homage at March 15 Square in District V.

Petőfi was undoubtedly a key figure, igniting the revolt in Budapest with his declamation, "Rise up Hungarian, do you want to be slaves or free…", which inspired the group which came to be known as the "March Youth" to call the population to rise up against their oppressors.

Sadly, Petőfi died the following year on the battlefield aged 24, leaving behind him a collection of moving poems and a legend which has grown with time.

In the background, however, is the monumental figure of the politician Lajos Kossuth who, with his theories, activism, publications, speeches and military participation, actually set in motion the mechanisms of the dramatic events which began on March 15, 1848.

The image of Lajos Kossuth, with his characteristic mutton-chop beard, was the subject of numerous prints, posters and statues set up throughout greater Hungary and by Hungarian emigrants the world over, during the 20th century.

A radical reformer and Calvinist, he was a rabid anti-monarchist who admired the ideals of the French Revolution. A Free Mason, he wished to emulate the democratic theories of America’s Founding Fathers in what he perceived to be an ideal egalitarian state.

Kossuth came to personify the strivings of the Hungarian people for economic and political independence and liberty from Habsburg oppression.

On March 15 street vendors will be proferring pins with the characteristic Kossuth Coat of Arms, that is, the Hungarian insignia but without the Royal Crown, symbolizing the new Republic of Hungary of Kossuth’s dreams.

It is this crest that the Revolutionaries of1956 adopted as their own, in their struggle against the Soviet oppressors.

Although Kossuth served as President of Hungary from 1848-1849, his life’s work – speeches, articles, letters and memorabilia – is still largely unpublished.

Last year saw the 200th anniversary of his birth, which has spawned a renewed interest in the figure of Kossuth, to such an extent that this year Speaker of the House Katalin Szily is spearheading a delegation of pilgrims to the United States to retrace Kossuth’s original trip in 1851-52.

Kossuth was born in 1802 in the town of Monok in Zemplén County, in a traditional anti-royalist Calvinist family with an age-old noble title from pre-Habsburg times, who were wine cultivators in the Hegyalja region. While studying law he was greatly influenced by liberalism and romanticism.

In 1832 he entered political life and became a Member of Parliament (which then met in Pozsony) and, by 1836, had become known as the leading opposition-Liberal in the reform movement in Parliament, which was subsequently disbanded. Kossuth was then arrested, tried and imprisoned in 1837 for sending out his Tudósítók which called for radical reforms. He spent three years in prison, during which time he formulated his political theories and also mastered English, using a dictionary and a volume of Shakespeare.

Upon his release in 1840 he became the editor of the Pesti Hírlap, which shot him to fame as a leading figure of the Hungarian reform movement.

His theory was that the reform leading to Hungary’s self-government must start at the level of the Vármegye (County Seat), with an electorate in Parliament, cooperation with other self-governing states and an alliance with Germany against Russia.

A convinced egalitarian, he favored freeing the serfs – carried out in 1848 – and industrialization, in direct opposition to Count István Széchenyi, who saw Hungary’s future in agrarian development and favored retaining the large estates of the titled aristocracy, mainly created by the Habsburgs.

In 1847 Kossuth launched a vitriolic attack against the Habsburgs and on March 3, 1848, inspired by news of a revolt in Paris in February, he called for the abolition of the Habsburg Empire, demanding constitutional rights and self-government for Hungary.

In a dramatic scene on the eve of March 14, 1848, Kossuth presented Count Batthyány as Hungary’s future Prime Minister, from the balcony of the Zöld Fa inn in Pozsony. Intimidated, Ferdinand Habsburg accepted and on April 7 named Kossuth Minister of Finance, thus plunging Kossuth into a position of great power which allowed him to arm and mobilize the army in order to win freedom and form a liberal, democratic, self-governing state.

In summer 1848 he was named Speaker of the House and then President of the newly-declared (brief) Republic of Hungary, whose affairs he conducted from Debrecen.

Kossuth also joined the army and took active part in the decisive military events, especially in Aprilis spring campaign, but with the defeat at Világos on August 11, 1849, he transferred his power to General Gőrgey and fled to Turkey where, under pressure from the Russians and Austrians, he was arrested and interred.

Indefatigable, he continued his activities from exile. Always an admirer of "the American Giant" as described by the writings of vintner Ágoston Haraszthy, Count Miklós Wesselényi and Alexis de Tocqueville, he jumped at the chance when in 1851 he was invited to visit the US, which sent the USS Mississippi for him.

From September 1851 to July1852 he toured the Eastern seaboard and the Midwest, always to tumultuous welcoming crowds and great press coverage. He delivered more than 1,000 speeches in English, which reeked a bit of Shakespearean archaisms.
A monumental figure

On March 15, Hungarians the world over commemorate the outbreak of the momentous Revolution of 1848, which sought to throw off the chains of some 350 years of oppression by the Austrian Habsburgs.

The ceremonies have centered on the romantic figure of the young, handsome poet Sándor Petőfi, around whose statue the citizens of Budapest gather to lay their wreaths of homage at March 15 Square in District V.

Petőfi was undoubtedly a key figure, igniting the revolt in Budapest with his declamation, "Rise up Hungarian, do you want to be slaves or free…", which inspired the group which came to be known as the "March Youth" to call the population to rise up against their oppressors.

Sadly, Petőfi died the following year on the battlefield aged 24, leaving behind him a collection of moving poems and a legend which has grown with time.

In the background, however, is the monumental figure of the politician Lajos Kossuth who, with his theories, activism, publications, speeches and military participation, actually set in motion the mechanisms of the dramatic events which began on March 15, 1848.

The image of Lajos Kossuth, with his characteristic mutton-chop beard, was the subject of numerous prints, posters and statues set up throughout greater Hungary and by Hungarian emigrants the world over, during the 20th century.

A radical reformer and Calvinist, he was a rabid anti-monarchist who admired the ideals of the French Revolution. A Free Mason, he wished to emulate the democratic theories of America’s Founding Fathers in what he perceived to be an ideal egalitarian state.

Kossuth came to personify the strivings of the Hungarian people for economic and political independence and liberty from Habsburg oppression.

On March 15 street vendors will be proferring pins with the characteristic Kossuth Coat of Arms, that is, the Hungarian insignia but without the Royal Crown, symbolizing the new Republic of Hungary of Kossuth’s dreams.

It is this crest that the Revolutionaries of1956 adopted as their own, in their struggle against the Soviet oppressors.

Although Kossuth served as President of Hungary from 1848-1849, his life’s work – speeches, articles, letters and memorabilia – is still largely unpublished.

Last year saw the 200th anniversary of his birth, which has spawned a renewed interest in the figure of Kossuth, to such an extent that this year Speaker of the House Katalin Szily is spearheading a delegation of pilgrims to the United States to retrace Kossuth’s original trip in 1851-52.

Kossuth was born in 1802 in the town of Monok in Zemplén County, in a traditional anti-royalist Calvinist family with an age-old noble title from pre-Habsburg times, who were wine cultivators in the Hegyalja region. While studying law he was greatly influenced by liberalism and romanticism.

In 1832 he entered political life and became a Member of Parliament (which then met in Pozsony) and, by 1836, had become known as the leading opposition-Liberal in the reform movement in Parliament, which was subsequently disbanded. Kossuth was then arrested, tried and imprisoned in 1837 for sending out his Tudósítók which called for radical reforms. He spent three years in prison, during which time he formulated his political theories and also mastered English, using a dictionary and a volume of Shakespeare.

Upon his release in 1840 he became the editor of the Pesti Hírlap, which shot him to fame as a leading figure of the Hungarian reform movement.

His theory was that the reform leading to Hungary’s self-government must start at the level of the Vármegye (County Seat), with an electorate in Parliament, cooperation with other self-governing states and an alliance with Germany against Russia.

A convinced egalitarian, he favored freeing the serfs – carried out in 1848 – and industrialization, in direct opposition to Count István Széchenyi, who saw Hungary’s future in agrarian development and favored retaining the large estates of the titled aristocracy, mainly created by the Habsburgs.

In 1847 Kossuth launched a vitriolic attack against the Habsburgs and on March 3, 1848, inspired by news of a revolt in Paris in February, he called for the abolition of the Habsburg Empire, demanding constitutional rights and self-government for Hungary.

In a dramatic scene on the eve of March 14, 1848, Kossuth presented Count Batthyány as Hungary’s future Prime Minister, from the balcony of the Zöld Fa inn in Pozsony. Intimidated, Ferdinand Habsburg accepted and on April 7 named Kossuth Minister of Finance, thus plunging Kossuth into a position of great power which allowed him to arm and mobilize the army in order to win freedom and form a liberal, democratic, self-governing state.

In summer 1848 he was named Speaker of the House and then President of the newly-declared (brief) Republic of Hungary, whose affairs he conducted from Debrecen.

Kossuth also joined the army and took active part in the decisive military events, especially in Aprilis spring campaign, but with the defeat at Világos on August 11, 1849, he transferred his power to General Gőrgey and fled to Turkey where, under pressure from the Russians and Austrians, he was arrested and interred.

Indefatigable, he continued his activities from exile. Always an admirer of "the American Giant" as described by the writings of vintner Ágoston Haraszthy, Count Miklós Wesselényi and Alexis de Tocqueville, he jumped at the chance when in 1851 he was invited to visit the US, which sent the USS Mississippi for him.

From September 1851 to July1852 he toured the Eastern seaboard and the Midwest, always to tumultuous welcoming crowds and great press coverage. He delivered more than 1,000 speeches in English, which reeked a bit of Shakespearean archaisms.

His aim was to raise funds in America for a new uprising. Although his expectations of the gallantry of Americans fell short, he did put Hungary on the map. He returned to Europe, settling in Turin, Italy, in 1865. Here, he joined forces with Garibaldi against the Habsburgs’ absolutism. At his death on March 20,1894, the Turin daily Il Fischietto ran a picture of "mourning Hungary and Italy".

In April 1894 his remains were brought back to Hungary and, with great pomp, he was laid to rest in an elaborate tomb in the Kerepesi Cemetery in Budapest.

In the US, he declared that "there has been no cause more just than the cause of Hungary" and in 1882 he expressed his dream that it become a truly European nation, stating "Hungarians must retain and demonstrate their unique culture and habits and at the same time must operate on a European level, as European-Hungarians whose culture is national-Hungarian, in all its brilliance, but is at the same time, European!"
His aim was to raise funds in America for a new uprising. Although his expectations of the gallantry of Americans fell short, he did put Hungary on the map. He returned to Europe, settling in Turin, Italy, in 1865. Here, he joined forces with Garibaldi against the Habsburgs’ absolutism. At his death on March 20,1894, the Turin daily Il Fischietto ran a picture of "mourning Hungary and Italy".

In April 1894 his remains were brought back to Hungary and, with great pomp, he was laid to rest in an elaborate tomb in the Kerepesi Cemetery in Budapest.

In the US, he declared that "there has been no cause more just than the cause of Hungary" and in 1882 he expressed his dream that it become a truly European nation, stating "Hungarians must retain and demonstrate their unique culture and habits and at the same time must operate on a European level, as European-Hungarians whose culture is national-Hungarian, in all its brilliance, but is at the same time, European!"

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