Baranya-Baja Republic
Encyclopedia
The Serb-Hungarian Baranya-Baja Republic (Hungarian
: Baranya-Bajai Szerb-Magyar Köztársaság, Serbian
: Српско-мађарска република Барања-Баја, Srpsko-mađarska republika Baranja-Baja) was a short-lived, Soviet-oriented mini-state, proclaimed in Pécs
on 14 August 1921, on occupied Hungarian territory during the peacemaking aftermath of the first World War, tolerated and fostered by the newly-proclaimed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Its territory included the geographical region of Baranya
and the northern part of Bačka
region.
from Novi Sad
. Since the defeat of Béla Kun
's Hungarian Soviet Republic
in summer 1919, many communist dissidents from Budapest
, escaping from the "white terror" of admiral Horthy
, emigrated to Baranya, where Béla Linder
, mayor of Pécs, gave them refuge. Béla Linder
, the military attaché of the Hungarian Soviet Republic based in Vienna
in Austria
, became finally the mayor of Pécs
in September 1920.
In the Great People's Assembly of Pécs on August 14, where in front of 15-20000 people painter Petar Dobrović
suggested the formation of independent republic that would include region of Baranya and northern part of Bačka around Baja
.P etar Dobrović became president of executive committee of the new Republic.
The lobbying
at the peace conference in Paris under the Belgrade-appointed Yugoslav Prefect Pandurovitch, it is said to have included two great Hungarian landowners, Count Pavao Keglević
and Count Ivan Drašković
, in addition to the leading Baranya jurist Tivadar Andrits, a former member of the Hungarian Parliament. Due to a miscarriage of justice
Ivo Andrić
was arrested some years before. Laszlo Pandurovitch certainly did not know this Pavao Keglević personally. Živko Petričić a far relative of this Pavao Keglević was the chief-negotiator of the Yugoslav peoples committee of the Croatian Parliament with the Government of Hungary. This Pavao Keglević (1911–2004) was one of the grandsons of the wholesaler of pork Franjo/Ferenc Keglević/Keglovich(1859(baptized 1864)-1916) who in 1905 had emigrated from Hungary to Croatia and changed his name from Ferenc Keglovich in Franjo Keglević, and was at that time about 8 years old. It came to an inquiry in Hungary on this Committee of Pandurovitch, because Pandurovitch was an Austro-Hungarian officer. The members of his alleged Committee Iván Gróf Draskovich, Pál Gróf Keglevich, Tivadar Andric, Vladimir Stojcsics and Koszó Gyorgyevics were summoned, but this two alleged counts alias
Draskovich and alias Keglevich quickly disappeared again, it was not established their true identity.
However, the authorities of the new republic did not manage to gain international recognition of their independence
, and since the republic was under protection of the Serbian army, after withdrawal of this army from Baranya, Horthy
's forces entered into region and put an end to the Republic.
On August 21–25, 1921, the territory claimed by the Republic was divided between Hungary, as was previously decided by the Treaty of Trianon
of 1920.
On 12 October 1921 Ferenc Fischer
, the tutor
of Paul Keglevich (1911–2004), became the supreme governor of Baranya County. Furthermore, the history of Paul Keglevich is very controversial (see: Controversy (law)
) and not well researched, may be because of the changes in 1918 in the Tatra (company), with which he was familiarly connected, or may be because tutor Fischer had financed the so called zeleni kadar (green cadres
), which both became the reasons for the compulsory purchase of Paul Keglevich by his tutor Fischer. The newspapers in Pécs have written in the year 1930, when Paul Keglevich became 19 years old, that he would have been a traitor of his country. May be because he was poor, what was better for his protection in those times. Or because he lived in Yugoslavia near Legrad
, but the name of the trainstation in Hungary was until a few years ago also Legrad even if Legrad was not in Hungary. Or because of the upcoming nationalistic propaganda among Germans in Hungary in 1930, or because of the upcoming Nazi propaganda
against also his surname in Austria. Pesti Hírlap with the Legrady brothers wrote in 1930 in Budapest: "Justice for Hungary! The Cruel Errors of Trianon." Miroslav Krleža
wrote later that Josip Broz Tito
was an illegitimate child of the above mentioned Franjo Keglević.
This differences clearly demonstrate the Serb efforts of annexation, moreover, at the Serbian Census, they had to calculate the members of the Serbian Army into the census because there was a classified order about this.
(1890–1942), an ethnic Serb.
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
: Baranya-Bajai Szerb-Magyar Köztársaság, Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
: Српско-мађарска република Барања-Баја, Srpsko-mađarska republika Baranja-Baja) was a short-lived, Soviet-oriented mini-state, proclaimed in Pécs
Pécs
Pécs is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economical centre of Baranya county...
on 14 August 1921, on occupied Hungarian territory during the peacemaking aftermath of the first World War, tolerated and fostered by the newly-proclaimed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Its territory included the geographical region of Baranya
Baranya (region)
Baranya or Baranja is a geographical region between the Danube and the Drava rivers. Its territory is divided between Hungary and Croatia...
and the northern part of Bačka
Backa
Bačka is a geographical area within the Pannonian plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east of which confluence is located near Titel...
region.
History
It was established on 14 August 1921 and was ceased on 20 August 1921. The area of southern Hungary was occupied by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes' army and was administrated by the people's administrationBanat, Backa and Baranja
Banat, Bačka and Baranja was a de facto province of the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes between October 1918 and March 1919...
from Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
. Since the defeat of Béla Kun
Béla Kun
Béla Kun , born Béla Kohn, was a Hungarian Communist politician and a Bolshevik Revolutionary who led the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919.- Early life :...
's Hungarian Soviet Republic
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
in summer 1919, many communist dissidents from Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, escaping from the "white terror" of admiral Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
, emigrated to Baranya, where Béla Linder
Béla Linder
Béla Linder , Hungarian colonel of artillery, Secretary of War of Mihály Károlyi government, minister without portfolio of Dénes Berinkey government, military attaché of Hungarian Soviet Republic based in Vienna, finally the mayor of Pécs during the period of Serb occupation.-Secretary of War for...
, mayor of Pécs, gave them refuge. Béla Linder
Béla Linder
Béla Linder , Hungarian colonel of artillery, Secretary of War of Mihály Károlyi government, minister without portfolio of Dénes Berinkey government, military attaché of Hungarian Soviet Republic based in Vienna, finally the mayor of Pécs during the period of Serb occupation.-Secretary of War for...
, the military attaché of the Hungarian Soviet Republic based in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, became finally the mayor of Pécs
Pécs
Pécs is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economical centre of Baranya county...
in September 1920.
In the Great People's Assembly of Pécs on August 14, where in front of 15-20000 people painter Petar Dobrović
Petar Dobrovic
Petar Dobrović was a famous Serbian painter and politician born in Hungary.A proponent of Serbian colorism, he was known for portraits and landscapes...
suggested the formation of independent republic that would include region of Baranya and northern part of Bačka around Baja
Baja, Hungary
Baja is a city in , southern Hungary. It is the second largest city in the county, after the county seat at Kecskemét, and is home to around 37,000 people....
.P etar Dobrović became president of executive committee of the new Republic.
The lobbying
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
at the peace conference in Paris under the Belgrade-appointed Yugoslav Prefect Pandurovitch, it is said to have included two great Hungarian landowners, Count Pavao Keglević
House of Keglević
The House of Keglević is a Croatian noble family originally from Dalmatia, their members were pointed out in public life, also as soldiers...
and Count Ivan Drašković
House of Draškovic
The House of Drašković, also spelled Draskovich in English, is one of the oldest Croatian noble families, originally descended from lower-rank nobility of the Lika region.There are no reliable data on them before the 15th century...
, in addition to the leading Baranya jurist Tivadar Andrits, a former member of the Hungarian Parliament. Due to a miscarriage of justice
Miscarriage of justice
A miscarriage of justice primarily is the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. The term can also apply to errors in the other direction—"errors of impunity", and to civil cases. Most criminal justice systems have some means to overturn, or "quash", a wrongful...
Ivo Andrić
Ivo Andric
Ivan "Ivo" Andrić was a Yugoslav novelist, short story writer, and the 1961 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His writings dealt mainly with life in his native Bosnia under the Ottoman Empire...
was arrested some years before. Laszlo Pandurovitch certainly did not know this Pavao Keglević personally. Živko Petričić a far relative of this Pavao Keglević was the chief-negotiator of the Yugoslav peoples committee of the Croatian Parliament with the Government of Hungary. This Pavao Keglević (1911–2004) was one of the grandsons of the wholesaler of pork Franjo/Ferenc Keglević/Keglovich(1859(baptized 1864)-1916) who in 1905 had emigrated from Hungary to Croatia and changed his name from Ferenc Keglovich in Franjo Keglević, and was at that time about 8 years old. It came to an inquiry in Hungary on this Committee of Pandurovitch, because Pandurovitch was an Austro-Hungarian officer. The members of his alleged Committee Iván Gróf Draskovich, Pál Gróf Keglevich, Tivadar Andric, Vladimir Stojcsics and Koszó Gyorgyevics were summoned, but this two alleged counts alias
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Draskovich and alias Keglevich quickly disappeared again, it was not established their true identity.
However, the authorities of the new republic did not manage to gain international recognition of their independence
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....
, and since the republic was under protection of the Serbian army, after withdrawal of this army from Baranya, Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
's forces entered into region and put an end to the Republic.
On August 21–25, 1921, the territory claimed by the Republic was divided between Hungary, as was previously decided by the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
of 1920.
On 12 October 1921 Ferenc Fischer
Ferenc Keresztes-Fischer
Ferenc Keresztes-Fischer was a lawyer and a Hungarian politician. He was an advisor of the Pécsi Takarékpénztár Rt. / Pécs Savings Bank Corp. Before he became prefect of Baranya County 1921-1931, prefect of Somogy County 1925-1931 and Interior Minister twice; between 1931-1935 and 1938-1944...
, the tutor
Tutor
A tutor is a person employed in the education of others, either individually or in groups. To tutor is to perform the functions of a tutor.-Teaching assistance:...
of Paul Keglevich (1911–2004), became the supreme governor of Baranya County. Furthermore, the history of Paul Keglevich is very controversial (see: Controversy (law)
Controversy (law)
In jurisprudence, a controversy differs from a case; while the latter includes all suits, criminal as well as civil, a controversy is a purely civil proceeding....
) and not well researched, may be because of the changes in 1918 in the Tatra (company), with which he was familiarly connected, or may be because tutor Fischer had financed the so called zeleni kadar (green cadres
Green cadres
Green cadres consisted of Croatian deserters from the Austro-Hungarian Army who, during World War I due to the harsh conditions of warfare and poor motivation, hid in the woods, as outlaws. In the villages they had supporters who have sent them food and clothing, and they often robbed traders and...
), which both became the reasons for the compulsory purchase of Paul Keglevich by his tutor Fischer. The newspapers in Pécs have written in the year 1930, when Paul Keglevich became 19 years old, that he would have been a traitor of his country. May be because he was poor, what was better for his protection in those times. Or because he lived in Yugoslavia near Legrad
Legrad
Legrad is a municipality in northern Croatia, located north of Koprivnica and east of Ludbreg in the Koprivnica–Križevci County. There are 2,764 inhabitants in the municipality, absolute majority of which are Croats, besides whom there is also a Hungarian minority...
, but the name of the trainstation in Hungary was until a few years ago also Legrad even if Legrad was not in Hungary. Or because of the upcoming nationalistic propaganda among Germans in Hungary in 1930, or because of the upcoming Nazi propaganda
Nazi propaganda
Propaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
against also his surname in Austria. Pesti Hírlap with the Legrady brothers wrote in 1930 in Budapest: "Justice for Hungary! The Cruel Errors of Trianon." Miroslav Krleža
Miroslav Krleža
Miroslav Krleža was a leading Croatian and Yugoslav writer and the dominant figure in cultural life of both Yugoslav states, the Kingdom and the Republic . He has often been proclaimed the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century.-Biography:Miroslav Krleža was born in Zagreb, modern-day...
wrote later that Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
was an illegitimate child of the above mentioned Franjo Keglević.
Population
Most of the inhabitants of the republic were ethnic Hungarians, while other ethnic groups that lived in the area included Croats, Serbs, Šokci, Bunjevci, Germans, Romanis, Banat Romanians, Germans, Slovaks and others.- According to the Serbian census in 1919, population of Pécs was consisted of 14485 south Slavs, 17901 Hungarians, 14549 Germans
- According to the Hungarian census in 1920, population of Pécs was consisted of 45 Serbs, 326 Croats, 40655 Hungarians, 5034 Germans
This differences clearly demonstrate the Serb efforts of annexation, moreover, at the Serbian Census, they had to calculate the members of the Serbian Army into the census because there was a classified order about this.
President
The President of the Executive Committee (14–20 August 1921), i.e. president of the republic, was Petar DobrovićPetar Dobrovic
Petar Dobrović was a famous Serbian painter and politician born in Hungary.A proponent of Serbian colorism, he was known for portraits and landscapes...
(1890–1942), an ethnic Serb.
Sources and references
- Dimitrije Boarov, Politička istorija Vojvodine, Novi Sad, 2001.
- Leslie Charles Tihany, The Baranya dispute, 1918-1921: diplomacy in the vortex of ideologies, East European quarterly, distributed by Columbia University Press (Boulder [Colo.], New York), 1978
See also
- Baranya (former county)Baranya (former county)Baranya is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in southern Hungary and northeastern Croatia . The capital of the county was Pécs.-Geography:Baranya county was located in Baranya region...
- Baranya (county)Baranya (county)Baranya is the name of an administrative county in present Hungary, in the Baranya region, and also in the former Kingdom of Hungary ....
- Banat RepublicBanat RepublicThe Banat Republic was a short-lived state proclaimed in Timişoara on November 1, 1918, the day after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Recognized only by Hungary, the republic was invaded by the army of neighboring Serbia on November 15...
- Republic of PrekmurjeRepublic of PrekmurjeThe Republic of Prekmurje or Mura Republica was an unrecognized state in Prekmurje, an area traditionally known in Hungarian as Vendvidék ...
- Former countries in Europe after 1815Former countries in Europe after 1815This article gives a detailed listing of all the countries, , that have existed in Europe since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to the present day...
- List of historical unrecognized countries
