Polylingual Hungarian Nationalism in History and Historiography

Historians of nineteenth century Hungary typically trace the development of Hungarian nationalism from the noble natio hungarica through the transient Hungarus concept, both associated with the Latin language, to the Hungarian-language speaking Magyar nemzet, often imagined as the Magyar politikai nemzet, the “Hungarian political nation,” which simultaneously used Hungarian as the state language yet included non-Hungarian citizens of the Hungarian kingdom. Central European historiography typically judges such nationalism harshly, associating it with chauvinism and ethnic intolerance. The Hungarus concept, however, also led the Kingdom’s non-Hungarian speaking minorities to develop visions of multiethnic and polylingual visions of “Hungarian nationalism.” This paper traces the history of what might be called the hungar nemzet nationalism, taking the Hungarian nationalism of Slovak-speakers as a case study. It describes the differentiation between “Hungarian” and “Magyar,” documents non-Magyar enthusiasm for Hungary, and contrasts Hungary’s 1868 “nationalities law” with proposed alternate laws drafted from a hungar nemzet perspective. Final remarks suggest reasons why hungar nemzet nationalism has featured so rarely in East European historiography. The existence of polylingual Hungarian nationalism sheds new light on key events of nineteenth-century Hungarian history, notably the 1848 revolution, and scholars should rethink the meaning of “Hungarian” nationalism.