Summary of the Articles

Elek Csetri: Reform and Economy

The author tries to establish connections between the ideas of Miklós Wesselényi (1796–1850) regarding political and economic reform and his social activity. He demonstrates how Wesselényi’s activity as a reform politician reflects his beliefs and writes about the modernisation that he carried through at his estate (improving his stud-farm, marketing wool and silk cocoons, using threshing-machines etc.).

Ákos Egyed: Miklós Wesselényi and the Emancipation of Serfs
in Transsylvania

Beginning from the 1830s to 1848 Miklós Wesselényi supported the idea of a law that could regulate the duties of the serfs and made it possible for the farm labourers to benefit of a fee simple absolute. Due to different circumstances this law was not elaborated. After the outbreak of the revolution Wesselényi fought for the emancipation of the serfs. The legislative assembly of Kolozsvár passed such a law on the 6th of June 1848, and it came into force on the 18th of June the same year. Wesselényi had a leading role in the elaboration of this law which was a landmark in the dissolution of serfdom in Transsylvania.

Jenõ Nagy: About the German Interpretation of the Entries
in the Hungarian Historical Dictionary of Transsylvania

The Hungarian Historical Dictionary of Transsylvania is a monumental work of Attila Szabó T. and a large group of researchers. Among other merits it is also a reliable source of research concerning the relations between Hungarian and the other languages spoken in the area. The Dictionary (the volumes of which are still being continuously published, VIII volumes having appeared so far) lists near the Hungarian words their Romanian and German translation as well. The study deals with the specific lexicological and semantic problems of the German interpretation/translation of the Hungarian words and phrases.

Árpád Antal: The Spiritual Heritage of Bishop Áron Márton

The author reviews and analyses the educational activities of bishop Áron Márton. He presents his educational programme based on Neo-catholicism and the newest pedagogical ideas at the time adjusted to the needs of a minority situation. His educational programme was an organic part of a national minority life-strategy. The author explains how this programme became impossible to carry out in the conditions of a communist-nationalist regime. He speaks of the bishop’s declarations in favour of an independent Hungarian university at Kolozsvár as well as about some of the major issues of the Hungarian minority in Romania. In conclusion he outlines the main questions of the scientific evaluation of this rich life-work.

Ferenc Kovács: The Hundred Years of Árpád Bitay

The author presents the life and work of the versatile scientist Árpád Bitay who was born a hundred years ago, in 1896. After the change of power in 1919, Bitay learned Romanian so well that he graduated the History faculty of the Romanian University of Kolozsvár and became on of the most important scientist dealing with Hungarian–Romanian scientific and cultural relations. He published in both languages documents of the common past, he translated the works of Hungarian authors into Romanian and those of the Romanians into Hungarian. Until his death he held lectures at the Free Summer University of Nicolae Iorga, had personal contacts with leading Romanian Scientists and writers. In his 41 years of life he published 365 papers on historical themes, questions of the history of culture and literature and of the Moldavian csángos.

Jenõ Murádin: The Evaluation of the Work of János Thorma

János Thorma (1870–1937) was one of the founders of the most important school of painters in Middle and Eastern Europe that was founded at the end of the 19th century (1896). The author analyses Thorma’s artistic work, dealing with the questions raised by the less known and evaluated series of landscapes or compositions with landscape backgrounds and tries to establish their place near the great historical works in the artist’s oeuvre.

Katalin Fehér: The Older László Teleki, the Culture Politician

Several members of the Transsylvanian Teleki family have played an important role in the political or cultural life of Hungary in the past three centuries. The older László Teleki (1764–1821) was an important personality of the Hungarian Enlightenment who earned the respect of the succeeding generations with his literary works and cultural-political and educational activity. Like other great personalities of the Enlightenment, he promoted the cause of mother tongue in science and schooling, the academic ideal and the cause of a Hungarian theatre. The author refers to three works of Teleki and outlines the basic ideas that can be considered as very progressive a that time and which, had they been carried through, could have contributed to the development of a bourgeois civilisation in the country.

Pál Péter Tóth: The Sociological and Demographic Situation
of the Hungarian and Mixed (Hungarian–Romanian, Romanian–Hungarian) Families in Northern Transsylvania between 1942–1944

After August 30. 1940, following the second Vienna dictate, the northern part of Transsylvania was made again part of Hungary. At the beginning of 1942 a research work based on questionnaires was initiated in order to establish to what degree had the Romanians assimilated the Hungarians living in minority. The research was extended to nearly 13 000 Hungarian and mixed (Hungarian–Romanian, Romanian–Hungarian) families of 709 settlements. The author presents the historical background and the documents of the research and attempts to reconstruct the original its conception. He also writes about the actions which were intended in order to decrease the degree of assimilation.

English translation by Ágnes Pethõ