The analysis of internal developments of Hungarian and Romanian regimes, on the one hand, and of the external circumstances, on the other hand, offers us a background for examining the Romanian-Hungarian diplomatic relationship.
Romanian-Hungarian diplomatic relations have been one of the most troubled in East-Central Europe in the twentieth century. It is enough to mention the military conflict during the First World War, the Béla Kun Soviet Republic and the Romanian intervention which ended with the occupation of Budapest; Hungarian politicians never accepted the Trianon Treaty and the foreign policy of Hungary between the two World Wars was directed toward the reintegration of the territories lost by the stipulations of Trianon Treaty, most of which were incorporated by Romania; the permanent diplomatic conflict during the two World Wars finally expressed in the Vienna dictate from 1940.
During the Second World War, both countries fought on the same side; although allied, they were many times on the point of a conflict. After the Second World War, Romania and Hungary became again allies as members of the socialist camp. The new era of this relationship was based on the 20 years Treaty of friendship and collaboration which has been signed on 24 January 1948. It was the first one signed by Romania after the war with an East European country, even before the one with the Soviet Union on 4 February 1948. The new relations between Romania and Hungary were based on: the principles of Marxism-Leninism, socialist internationalism, respect for national independence and sovereignty, equality of rights, non-interference in domestic affairs and mutual advantage #1;. But from the very beginning it was clear that the implementation of a decayed Marxist ideology could not suppress national sentiments. After the First World War, on March 17/30, 1919 the Romanian socialist newspaper Adevarul warned the Hungarian socialists and communists, considering that they have the same nationalist views as the ruling class:
"It is better if they simply have their nationalist goals in view, that they do not play with socialism nor comprise the communist ideal, Let them step out manly and honestly and say before the public, 'we want a Greater Hungary', instead of hiding behind socialist ideas and trying to achieve their purpose with this mask on." #2;
Let's compare this quotation with another one, published after the Second World War, on 13 August 1946, this time in the Hungarian Communist Party's newspaper. It referred to the position of Hungarian diplomacy to obtain territorial concession on Transylvania, efforts supported by the Hungarian communist leader, Mátyas Rákosi, who made a political tour, together with the Prime-Minister Ferencs Nagy in Great Britain and USA #3; for presenting the Hungarian arguments in changing the Eastern frontier in Transylvania: "First of all, Hungary presented her territorial claims to Romania. We know that Romania contributed to Hitler's victory by fighting, whereas we contributed to it only by working. We are aware of the fact that the democracy in Romania, which is engaged in an extremely difficult struggle with the internal chauvinist reactionary forces, do not wish to bear the burden of territorial concessions. But you have to be aware that the democracy in Hungary is in the same situation, too. That is way the satisfaction of the modest and real minimal Hungarian territorial claims would best serve the interest of Romanian democracy, too." #4;
In fact, as we can see, the dispute has deep historical roots and the relationship between the two states did not improve with the adoption of Marxist-Leninist ideology but was even deteriorating in some aspects, having many critical points: 1971, 1978, and 1982. The Romanian-Hungarian dispute had the point of climax in the 1980's, when the diplomatically relations between the two countries reached the lowest level in the period after the Second World War.
Two major signs proved that the relation between Romania and Hungary did not enter into normality after the Second World War. First of all, we have to consider that the 20-year Treaty of Mutual Friendship Assistance and Co-operation between the two countries was never renewed. The old one, which expired in 1968, was prolonged automatically as neither part denounced it, but the renewing of the treaty, although was many times "in the air", was always postponed. An interesting example was the visit of the Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Peter to Bucharest, on November 20, 1971 at the invitation of his Romanian counterpart Corneliu Manescu. The talks were supposed to prepare the ground for a meeting Ceausescu-Kádár, which could have been the occasion for the signing of the much delayed new 20-year Treaty of Mutual Friendship Assistance and Co-operation between the two countries. Le Monde from 17 November even reported from Budapest that the two Party leaders are to meet at the border, on Hungarian territory before the end of the year, precedents for such a procedure being from the late forties #5;. But the bilateral meeting took placed only in 1977, and a new Treaty was never signed. More than that, on 21 December 1989, Hungarian Foreign Minister denounced the treaty. Nowadays the treaty is still an issue, at six years after the fall of N. Ceausescu.
Another indicator of the relation between Romania and Hungary could be the rate of bilateral meetings and exchange of delegations, especially that in the 1960's a new pattern of high level contacts among East European leaders occurred, as was outlined by the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Janos Peter in the Hungarian Parliament on January 29, 1966; he stated that the visit of party and state leaders had become less spectacular and simpler, while their efficiency had increased #6;.
The chronicle of these meetings could be relevant: in February 1958 , the visit of a Hungarian delegation, led by HSWP leader, Janos Kádár, to Romania; in September 1961 RCP leader, Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej led a party and Government delegation to Budapest;
The Hungarian-Romanian relations reached a low point in 1964. In that year Hungary exchanged high level Party and Government delegations with all European socialist countries - with the exception of Albania and Romania. T. Zhivkov visited Hungary in March, L. Khrushchev in April, M. Ulbrich in May, I. B. Tito in September and J. Novotny in October; while J. Kádár paid a visit to Poland in October. The only 1964 visit to Hungary from Romania was that of N. Ceausescu in July 1964;
From mid-1965 a significant intensification of high level contacts could be noticed: in June 1965 the visit of a top party delegation to Romania, led by Gyula Kallay, a full member of the Hungarian Politburo and Prime-Minister. He had participated in all high level Party and government talks since 1958, and he played a prominent role in Hungarian-Romanian relations under Kádár regime; in September 17-21, 1965 the visit of Romanian Foreign Minister Corneliu Manescu to Budapest; on 14 January 1966 , the Romanian Prime-Minister Ion Maurer came as G. Kallai guest; on 11 March 1966 J. Kádár and G. Kallai made a friendly visit to Romania; on May 1967 a new top-level Romanian-Hungarian meeting; on 25-27 October 1971 the visit of Romanian Party Secretaries Paul Niculescu Misil and Manea Manescu to Budapest; on November 20 1971, Hungarian Foreign Minister Janós Peter arrived in Bucharest at the invitation of his Romanian counterpart Corneliu Manescu; on July 1972 the visit of Prime Minister Gyorgy Lazar to Romania; on 1977 Ceausescu and HSWP CC first Secretary Janos Kádár meeting; following the agreements, in April 1980 a Hungarian consulate having been established in Cluj-Napoca and On 22 December 1981 a Romanian consulate was opened at Debrecen; 1979 Romanian Prime-Minister C. Dascalescu visited Hungary; January 1982, talks were held between Deputy Foreign Minister Constantin Oancea and Istvab Roska in Budapest; on June, 1982 a meeting between Prime-Ministers G. Lazar and C. Dascalescu at the CMEA Summit; end June 1982 a meeting between the two countries Defence Ministers, Constantin Olteanu and Lájós Czinege; Romania was among the few countries that conferred a high distinction of Kádár on his 70th birthday in May 1982;
The first conclusion to be drawn from this enumeration could be
that on the surface, Romanian-Hungarian relations functioned fairly
normally in the term of exchanges of delegations. But a counter
trend is evident: a gradual decrease in the number of the top-level
meeting, which were replaced with meeting of government members.
The meetings between the top leader were much more often in the
first half of the 1945-1989 period: in 1958, 1961, 1966 and 1967,
if compared with the second half: 1977 and 1988. After the meeting
of 1977 between N. Ceausescu and Janos Kádár, the
growing tension was revealed by the fact that the next meeting
took place only after 11 years, in 1988, at Arad. This fact revealed
a major change in the Romanian-Hungarian relation, as in the communist
quiet diplomacy the bilateral meetings were meant to solve the
disputes without publicity. Instead of solutions in bilateral
talks, the problems were raised in media or international forums.
In 1982, two signals prepared the stage for the mediatisation
of the conflict: the publication in the Hungarian party daily
Nepszabadsag of a satire clearly directed to Nicolae Ceausescu,
and the launching of a pamphlet entitled A Word on Transylvania
by the Romanian party activist Ion Lacrajan charging the Hungarian
leadership with revisionist intentions. This inaugurated a change
in the terrain of the dispute: media controversies and polemics.
The first stage was the use of historical polemics, as the rules
of communist diplomacy recommended the covering of real problems
in cultural polemics.
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