Egy lovagiatlan ügy. Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Endre és Szabó Dezső afférja(i)

Abstract

During his 1934 lecturing tour, Dezső Szabó read out a declaration on his 7th November presentation – coming as a surprise to the outsiders – in which he accused with peculation the so-called “Slovak Politician”, Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky, who had also been severely criticized for his political activity. The threads lead to the cooperation of Bajcsy-Zsilinszky and Szabó in 1928, and to the ambiguous sponsorship of the newspaper, Előörs (Outpost). In my study, I analyse the (changing) ideologies of these two bilious public figures and the meeting points of their lives, and then I detail the legal proceedings initiated by Bajcsy-Zsilinszky and his circle. Besides the fact that litigation gives insight into the functional mechanisms of public life of the day, the particular identity of the seething studentship of the 30s (which is hard to describe using traditional political categories, and which is usually depicted in a distorted manner in reminiscence) is outlined from the judicial materials of the lawsuits in Debrecen and the press reception of the period.