In the first half of the nineteenth century, Hungarian national awakening took a new direction. Writers stood at the head of that trend of the Hungarian Enlightenment which discovered our language. In our country, Latin was the traditional and second mother tongue of the nobility -Horace was a frequently quoted "domestic" poet, almost a family member in most country seats of the nobility and since the sixteenth century, the pressure to make German the official language of the state kept reviving. But could it be possible for Hungarian to remain the poor, tolerated third language in its own country! Let it take its rightful place everywhere! And if to this end it must be developed, then the writers will invent and form new words and make this language suitable not only for the national literature but also for the purposes of science and state life.

The giant of this period, the first half of the nineteenth century, was an aristocrat with an athletic build and a noble, sharp‑featured face, Count István Széchenyi. His father had already founded two of our major public institutions with generous donations, the National Museum and the National Library that today bears his family's name. Széchenyi himself gave an almost extravagant sum for the establishment of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. But this was only one episode in his life. How numerous are the themes of his written lifework extending over countless volumes: improvement of waterways, a bridge, a stone theater, agricultural knowledge including horse breeding and racing, industrial manufacturing and commerce, just to name a few. We also regard István Széchenyi as the father of inland steamboat navigation.

Younger than he by a decade and more radical (perhaps merely apparently so) was Lajos Kossuth, a member of the gentry who built first a provincial and then a parliamentary career for himself. With him ‑ and the dispute about Széchenyi and Kossuth still the subject of heated debates, today ‑ we arrive at the Hungarian chapter of the 1848 wars of independence in Europe.

In the middle of the century, youthful parliamentarians - delegates, secretaries, and deputies‑ law students, young writers, and other intellectuals introduced into Hungary the ideas that roused even a whole series of capital cities between Paris and Prague even to the point of revolution at the end of winter and in the spring of 1848.

In Hungary, the sparks of ideas flying back and forth between Vienna and Pest ‑and Pozsony, where Parliament was in session - detonated the popular movement on March 15, 1848.

"What do the Hungarian people want? Let peace, liberty, and harmony prevail!

1. We want freedom of the press, the abolition of censorship.
2. A responsible Ministry in Buda and Pest.
3. An annual parliamentary session in Pest.
4. Civil and religious equality before the law.
5. A National Guard.
6. A joint sharing of tax burdens.
7. The cessation of socage.
8. Juries and representation on an equal basis.
9. A national bank
10. The army to swear to support the constitution, our soldiers not be dispatched abroad, and foreign soldiers removed from our soil.
11.The freeing of political prisoners.
12. Union with Transylvania. Equality, liberty, and fraternity!"

These were the Twelve Points. The twin of the Twelve Points is Sándor Petöfi's "National Song", written in the course of the night of March 15, 1848, which opens on this high-sounding note:

Rise Hungarians, your country calls!
The time is now, now or never!
Shall we be slaves or free?
This is the question, choose!
To the God of the Hungarians
We swear,
We swear we shall slaves
No longer be!

A responsible Hungarian government was formed, in which both István Széchenyi and Lajos Kossuth occupied posts as Minister of Public Works and Transportation and Minister of Finance respectively. The Prime Minister was Count Lajos Batthyány, who did not really want a post so open to many pitfalls but who, precisely because of his well‑known unparalleled integrity and composure, enjoyed wide confidence.

Austria of course did not see these events with agreement, but for a while they did not know what to do with the newly formed Hungarian independence.  Then, slowly, but surely forces against the young Hungarian freedom were gathering their strength, and eventually the Czar of all the Russians, Nicholas I, offered armed assistance to the Austrians. At their meeting in Warsaw, Francis Joseph I publicly thanked him by kissing his hand.

The czar's army, made up mainly of Cossacks, forged ahead, not without forced delays but enjoying superiority nevertheless, against the Hungarian forces caught between two fires, who sometimes fought magnificently, but sometimes were demoralized. On August 13, Görgey, invested with full powers, surrendered with the main Hungarian army to Russian troops at Világos, in Arad County.

The czar's army marched out of Hungary. The Austrian Field‑Marshal Haynau - who was also called Hyena of Brescia because of his earlier atrocities in Italy - had command over life and death in the country. On his orders, the death sentence was carried out on October 6 in Arad against thirteen generals by a hangman or -out of mercy‑ by a firing squad. Another hundred or so died and thousands were imprisoned, while tens of thousands drafted as common soldiers had to serve unpredictable numbers of years in the godforsaken spots of the empire.  On October 6, 1849, the Austrians also executed in Pest Count Lajos Batthyány, the former Prime Minister. 

The hope for Hungarian independence died yet again, but the spirit of March 15, 1848 will live forever.

By Peter Vali

Source: István Lázár: HUNGARY - A Brief History. Budapest: Corvina, 1993