New history books feature Hun approach instead of Finno-Ugric one
The new National Core Curriculum was accepted in January, and the materials were rewritten and changed accordingly within months. Now fifth and ninth graders are learning from new history books, or at least the demo version of them.
There has been an intense debate about the new history textbooks and their content, and that might be one of the reasons why the new books are only available in a demo version to teachers exclusively, reported Index.
Nóra Berend, who is a professor at the University of Cambridge, has reviewed one of the textbooks in an article on the Society of History Teachers’ website, in which she says, that the book is “not to teach, but to ideologically form in a direction that is opposite of both democracy and healthy intellectual development.”
Berend points out that the textbook, which was written by Péter Gróf and György Szabados,
- attaches greater importance to the Hungarians and their fictional ancestors than in reality,
- praises them for imaginary achievements, although period Western yearbooks make it clear that the “ancestors” of Hungarians were robber mercenaries, who would make a contract with anyone for the right amount of money,
- portrays monopoly as a better political system than democracy,
- emphasises the truth and realness of Christianity.
According to Telex, those are not the only reasons why the new textbooks are criticising. They are also under fire for presenting the Finno-Ugric language kinship as only one of the theories, and for accepting the idea of Hun-Hungarian continuity and the theory of double conquest.
The Association of History Teachers held a conference because of the tensions regarding the new textbooks. Still, only György Szabados accepted his invite, and as one of the authors of the book, he kept defending his work. “The Hungarian prehistory of the past decades has been dominated by Finno-Ugric theory, from which the field must be liberated,” said the employee of the Hungarian Research Institute.
The Hungarian Research Institute was established in the spirit of Minister Miklós Kásler, who is personally obsessed with Hungary’s prehistory and Hun origins, and the textbooks clearly reflect these views. Telex has reported in detail about the conference, where the atmosphere was very tense, and the topic at hand was said to be highly politicised.
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Source: index.hu
3 Comments
It’s not the first time Hungarians have tried to rewrite history while ignoring facts.
Hungarians love fairy-tales. Nothing bad about it. However, when fiction enters History school texts, and it replaces facts, that is bad, and consequences can be dangerous.
P.s. Hungarians have nothing to do with the Huns, but even if they did, there would be nothing to be proud of.
Saying Hungarians were robber-bandits is illogical because no group of bandits in history has ever been able to form a city, let alone a nation lasting almost 2000 years. She is merely parroting some other anti-Hungarian dogma. After hearing this, this academics criticisms should not be taken seriously. It is obvious she is biased.
The Hun Empire is a reality, and not imaginary, as there were numerous Roman, Arabic, Byzantine and other records of them. At worst, the Hungarians made up the people, together with the Goths, Slavs and Germans, of this empire. It is also important to remember that the structure of the empire was not Slavic, Germanic, or Gothic. It was run entirely differently and the current Hungarians are at worst “different” in terms of language to their neighbours. No German, Russian, Pole or Frenchman claims ancestry from the Huns and they are still seen as different and as an otusider who invaded them.
The origins of Hungary are politicised because many fear that it could have ramifications for the political structure of Europe, like how it was feared in Soviet times. Because of this there will always be a cloud over the real evidence of your origins. In this light there is a real danger that the Hungarian culture will be forced to disappear and assimilated into your Slavic and Germanic neighbours who number 10-20 times more than you. This has happened to many historically extinct cultures in central and eastern Europe. If your identity becomesSlavic/Germanic, then Hungary will no longer exist, because there is no reason for it to exist. This will be a real pitty.
One of the best ways to do this is by creating a generation of Hungarians who do not know or are not curious of their history.