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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2009
In the first hours of the revolution in Budapest on March 15, 1848, a young radical historian, Pál Vasvári, warned a crowd of demonstrators that the strength of the absolutistic government of Vienna lay in its ability to set one people against another. Referring to the Italians, Austrians, Czechs, and Magyars, he stated: “We are all brother nations. By ourselves we are weak, but together, strong, powerful and invincible. … Therefore, long live brotherhood among the nations!
The material in this article and the results of further research on this topic are included in my book on The Radical Left in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 (New York: East European Quarterly and Columbia University Press, 1976).
2 Fekete, Sándor and László, József (eds.), Vasvári Pál válogatott irásai [Selected Writings of Pál Vasvári] (Budapest: Müvelt Nép, 1956), p. 286Google Scholar. In referring to “Budapest” the author is following a widespread usage already common in 1848. Actually, Buda and Pest still had separate municipal councils at that time.
3 For the role of the radical intellectuals in the March revolution, see the author's article on “The Committee of Public Safety in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848,” Canadian Slavic Studies, Vol. III (Fall, 1971), pp. 383–400Google Scholar.
4 Horváth, Mihály, Huszonöt év Magyarország törtenelméböl 1823–1848-ig [Twenty-Five Years of Hungary's History from 1823 to 1848] (3 vols., Pest: Ráth Mór, 1887), Vol. III, p. 399Google Scholar.
5 On the basis of language the population was divided into the following groups according to the 1846 census: Magyars, 5,413,327; Romanians, 2,477,611; Slovaks, 1,842,320; Croats, 1,263,908; Germans, 1,247,122; Serbs, 1,054,416; Ruthenians, 478,310; Saxons, 250,000; Slovenians, 49,600; others (Bulgarians, Italians, Armenians, Gypsies, and Jews), 476,957. Total: 14,553,571. Arató, Éndre, A nemzetiségi kérdés története Magyarországon [History of the Nationality Question in Hungary] (2 vols., Budapest: Tankönyvkiadó, 1961), Vol. I, p. 299Google Scholar.
6 For the texts of the formal demands, see Pap, Dénes (ed.), Okmánytár Magyarország függellenségi harczának történetéhez [Collection of Documents on the War of Independence in Hungary] (2 vols., Pest: Heckenast Gusztáv, 1868–1869), Vol. I, pp. 115–122, 179–181, and 265–266Google Scholar.
7 In a speech given to the Hungarian diet on April 8, 1848. See Barta, István (ed.), Kossuth Lajos az utolsó rendi országgyülésen [Lajos Kossuth at the Last Feudal Diet] (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1951), p. 732Google Scholar.
8 The radical Viennese newspaper Volksfreund hailed the victory of Windischgrätz over the Prague uprising in June, 1848. See Kohn, Hans, Pan-Slavism: Its History and Ideology (2nd ed., New York: Vintage Books, 1960), pp. 88–89Google Scholar. Similarly, the German liberals of Frankfurt initially favored the restoration of Poland's independence but behaved most selfishly toward their own Poles in Posen (Poznań). See Namier, Lewis, 1848: The Revolution of the Intellectuals (Garden City, N. Y.: Anchor Books, 1964), pp. 80–112Google Scholar.
9 Pap, , Okmánytár Magyarország függetlenségi harczának történetéhez, Vol. I, p. 47Google Scholar.
10 Marczius Tizenötödike, April 19, 1848, p. 119.
11 Ibid., August 15, 1848, p. 526. The italics are mine.
12 Horváth, , Huszonöt év Magyarország tönenelméböl, Vol. III p. 475Google Scholar.
13 Marczius Tizenötödike, June 8, 1848, p. 292.
14 Ibid., June 15, 1848, p. 314.
15 Ibid., May 26, 1848, p. 248.
16 Ibid., July 8, 1848, p. 397.
17 Ibid., June 3, 1848, p. 275.
18 Petöfi, Sándor, Összes költeményei [Complete Poetry] (2 vols., Budapest: Szépirodalmi, 1954), Vol. II, p. 569Google Scholar. Petröfi's sentiments were typical of those of the radical intellectuals. Mihály Táncsics, an early populist journalist, for instance, suggested that the land of the exterminated Serbs in the south should be given to landless Magyar peasants. See Munkások Ujsága [Workers' Newspaper], July 16, 1848, p. 240. land of the exterminated Serbs in the south should be given to landless Magyar peasants. See Munkások Ujsága [Workers' Newspaper], July 16, 1848, p. 240.
19 In September the radicals called for the use of terroristic methods not only against the insurgent nationalities who represented the foreign counterrevolution but also against those Magyars who were fighting the revolution.
20 The provisional government of Milan addressed the following proclamation to the Hungarian nation: “Ungarici fratres! Agitur de communi redemptione in libertate nostra: et proprium periculum quaerit, qui contra fratrem pugnat…Sqic iterum Italia et Ungaria inter nationes vocate, in osculum pacis et cinculo fraternitatis junctae, invincibiles forent ab inimicis gloriae et libertatis eorum. Ungarici! Quid vobis profecit pugnare ad definsionem Mariae Theresiae? Gratitudo Austriae? Dilegium et servitudo! Fragnite jugum et surgite!” Pap, , Okmánytár Magyarország függetlenségi harczának történetéhez, Vol. I, p. 48Google Scholar.
21 Hóman, Bálint and Szekfü, Gyula, Magyar történet [Hungarian History] (5 vols., Budapest: Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, 1935–1936), Vol. V, p. 499Google Scholar. Strictly speaking, Batthyány only fulfilled his legal obligation in promising aid against Sardinia. The Pragmatic Sanction, which was ratified by the Hungarian diet in-1723, provided for the succession of the female line of the House of Habsburg in Hungary, and the Hungarians promised to aid the ruling house against foreign aggression. See the full text in Stiles, W. H., Austria in 1848–49 (2 vols., New York: Harper, 1852), Vol. II, pp. 369–371Google Scholar.
22 Pap, Dénes (ed.), A magvar nemzeigyülés Pesien 1848-ban [The Hungarian National Assembly in Pest in 1848] (2 vols., Budapest: Ráth Mór, 1881), Vol. I, pp. 147–152Google Scholar. This work is a parliamentary diary and contains all the speeches and resolutions made at this assembly.
23 Marczius Tizenötödike, July 19, 1848, p. 431.
24 Ibid., July 20, 1848, p. 435.
25 Népelem Radical Lap (The Radical Democrat) informed its readers that Mór Perczel, a noted deputy, had resigned his office in the ministry of interior because he was unwilling to serve a government which would send mercenaries against a civilized cause. See Népelem Radical Lap, July 22, 1848, p. 73; and July 23, 1848, p. 80. Even Táncsics, who confined himself mostly to the problems of the peasantry, wrote in his Munkások Ujsága (Workers' Newspaper) that the government's Italian policy was bad and would lead nowhere. See Munkások Ujsága, July 30, 1848, p. 275.
26 While the Batthyáany government gave the right to vote to half of the adult male population, József Madarász's program called for the introduction of universal suffrage and the abolition of the upper house of parliament. It also demanded the expropriation of the vast church estates and the creation of a state-financed school system. His program was opposed to corporal punishment and capital punishment. It also urged the reduction of the term of military service from six to four years. Madarász, József, Emlékirataim [My Memoirs] (Budapest: Franklin Társulat, 1883), pp. 122–124Google Scholar.
27 Pap, , A Magyar Nemzeigyülés Pesten 1848-ban, Vol. I, pp. 155–159Google Scholar.
28 Ibid., pp. 212 and 256–257. The radicals were correct in their assessment of public opinion. Aid to Austria against the Italians was unpopular in the country, and the recall of Hungarian troops serving abroad was one of the original demands of the March revolution.
29 Ibid., pp. 210–211.
30 Ibid., p. 259.
31 Ibid., p. 181.
32 Ibid., p. 267.