engleski

The Hungarians of Slavonia and the problem of their allegiance

This work brings the short history of Hungarians in eastern Slavonia (most-eastern province of Croatia), mostly based on the church-provided sources and demography. The focus of the work is on the population of the four settlements whose existance dates back to Middle Ages – Hrastin, Korođ, Laslovo and Retfala. Development of their identity was quite interesting, as they became protestant Christians in 1541 and mostly stayed in that religion until the begining of the 20th century. At the eve of the First World War those settlements were surrounded with Catholic Croatian and German settlements and after the First World War with the newly founded Serbian Orthodox settlements. 'Allegience' of Hungarians in First World War wasnt so much questionable as it was afterwards, in the first years after the war, when the new state of Southern Slavs was formed and Slavonian Hungarians found themselves outside of their old country, and within the state in which they were proclaimed to be 'the enemy people of the state'. The consequences of that were those that the number of Hungarians in Slavonia fell drastically, partly due to the emigration and partly because of the assimilation. However, the mentioned four settlements remained populated mostly with Hungarians, while some other nearby Hungarian settlements, for example Antunovac and Vladislavci, almost entirely lost their identity.

Hungarians; Slavonia; World War One; national minorities

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