Page:NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SURVEY 19 HUNGARY COUNTRY PROFILE CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110037-3.pdf/12

 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110037-3

are Saint Stephen, the enlightened monarch of the 11th century, who set up a viable state and placed it firmly within the domain of Western Christianity; King Matyas Corvinus, who brought the nation new standards of justice and culture in the 15th century; Gen. Janos Hunyadi and Ferenc Rakosi, who respectively warred against the Turks and Austrians; and, finally, the fiery political reformer Lajos Kossuth and great national poet Sandor Petofi, leaders of the revolt of 1848 against Habsburg domination. Those are some of the men who helped build and preserve the Magyar nation. More often than not their missions ended in tragedy. Thus, for some, the conclusion is almost inseparable that that Hungarian epic is a tale of lost causes. Yet the dream of an independent, free Hungary lives on in a triumph of idealism over political reality.

The reality is that Hungary has been a prey for its neighbors. In the 14th century, the expanding Ottoman Empire reached its southern borders and the Hungarians were called upon to defend Christian Europe against the infidels, eventually at the cost

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110037-3