In 2018, as part of centenary observances of World War 1, a monument unveiled at Fiume Road Graveyard in Budapest.  This became the first national memorial erected commemorating the efforts Hungarians undertook during the Great War.  Government officials noted the memorial was in line with a fundamental theme of the nation: to restore historical continuity broken during the Nazi and Communist occupations.

FIUME ROAD CEMETERY

Fiume Road – Fiumei úti nemzeti sírkert – packs Hungarian history into its grounds.  Opened in 1847, just before the civil war – War of Independence. The cemetery includes a Who’s Who of modern Hungary. People from the Austro-Hungarian period, through the Communist years.  The cemetery resembles the nation’s history in a nutshell. A situation found in other national cemeteries like Vienna Central Cemetery – Wiener Zentralfriedhof – partner capital of the empire/kingdom, Pére Lachaise in Paris, Novo groblje – New Cemetery – in Belgrade, La Recoleta in Buenos Aires to give but four widespread examples. 

You will not find any Hapsburgs buried here – even though they ruled Hungary as Kings until 1918.  There also is no interwar Regent Admiral Miklós Horthy. He lies in his hometown of Kenderes about thirty miles east of the capital.  You will find Lajos Batthyány, Ferenc Deák, and Lajos Kossuth. These three big movers in separating Hungary from Austria between 1848 and 1867 lie in separate mausoleums, the major memorials in the cemetery.  Several Communist leaders lie buried, as well. One large corner of the cemetery devotes to Russian soldiers who died during the World War 2 fighting here. A large monument remembers their sacrifices of Mother Russia.

COMPLICATED MEMORY – A WAR LOST

Memory of the Great War became complicated following the war for Hungary.  First, the country suffered a major defeat. The Treaty of Trianon gave a large portion of its former lands to Romania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and even Austria.  The country mobilized 3.8 million men for the war. Those men suffered 661,000 dead, 743,000 wounded. Another 734,000 had spent time as prisoners of war – many never to return.

COMPLICATED MEMORY – RED TERROR

Second, during confusion at the war’s end, Belá Kun arrived to lead a Communist takeover.  He served in the army during the war only to become captured in 1916.  During his time in the Urals, he embraced Communism and came back with Soviet support to Budapest in November 1918.  Kun did not sustain his time at the top. His regime became deposed by local unrest and an oncoming Romanian army after only four months.  Red Terror – over 500 died – became followed by two years of White Terror. Here up to a thousand were killed for being supporters of Kun.

Sidebar:  Kun lies in one of the mass graves at the Butovo Shooting Range Memorial outside of Moscow.  Fleeing back to Russia by way of Vienna, he was directly responsible for the deaths of 50,000 to over 100,000 civilians and White Russian prisoners of war who had surrendered after being promised amnesty.  A career in international communism slammed short in 1937 after running afoul of others in the Comintern and Stalin.  Included in the vast purges of the late 1930’s, Kun was arrested by the NKVD. After a proper beating, and a quick trial with a pre-odained verdict of guilty, he gained a spot at the wrong end of a firing squad shot later in the day. Following the sentence, he joined others thrown in a grave – Russian generals, priests and others who displeased the Stalinist regime. At least almost 21,000 met similar ends here at the Shooting Range.

INTERWAR HUNGARY

Hungary spent much of the interwar years trying to establish itself in some form of normality.  Slowly, the economic picture improved through the 1920’s under Prime Minister István Bethlen.  Following his resignation in 1931, Gyula Gömbös de Jáfka took the country in a hard right direction.  Gömbös publicly went back on his strong anti-Semitic views in return for Jewish support for his leadership.  He brought the country close to both Italy and Germany going so far as to coin the term “Axis”.  He died in 1936 and lies buried at Fiume Road. 

A series of men succeeded to the prime minister’s office following Gömbös’ death.  Each of them, except for one, would die. They died either at their own hand or following a trial by Communists regaining power at the end of the Second War.  Remembering Bethlen and Kuno Klebelsberg, Bethlen’s cultural minister – a proponent of Magyar supremacy versus the other ethnic minorities of the former kingdom – Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s present prime minister noted that thanks to men like those “history didn’t bury us under the weight of the lost war …”

TRIANON

There was not much time or desire for memory – memory always seemed to collide with the results of the Treaty of Trianon truncating the kingdom without a king – in the interwar period and even less so with the Communists.  Like in the Soviet Union, memory of World War 1 did not exist.  They considered the war not as a people’s war but a capitalist program.  Those who died were simply serving the wrong masters and did not deserve remembrance.

Trianon still dominates the thought of many Hungarians.  How can a solid and loyal Hungarian army come to have its achievements taken away and the country stripped of its territory in such a brutal manner if not by – like in German memory – a stab in the back?  Post-communism, a spirited discussion exists in Hungary between the political right and left on how to remember World War 1.  The right seems to want to blame the great powers, liberals, etc.  The left blame capitalists at home and abroad.  Both sides do come together thinking Trianon did nothing good for Hungary.

MEMORY COMES ALIVE

Several programs were instituted over the course of the Centenary of the War.  The central war monument went up at Fiume Street – and military cemeteries reconstructed, both in 2018.  A database of war losses was recreated – original lists were burned in the 1950’s during the Communist rule.

A special exhibition train made its way to former battlefields in Poland, Slovenia, and Italy.  A special ceremony of remembrance was held at the cemetery in Modrecje, Slovenia where 1,600 Hungarian soldiers lie.  The first “Isonzo” train made several seasonal trips from 2015 to 2019. Stops in Austria and Hungary became added along the way.  Commemorative stamps were printed, conferences held, special exhibits held in different museums along with musical events of memory.

HUNGARIAN MEMORY OF THE CARSO

Over 1,110 words into this and now I come to Hungarian memory on the Isonzo fronts.  As an observer from the far side of a continent separated from Europe by an ocean, I cannot attempt to know the intricate details of how memory has developed – mostly in the 21^st century – for Hungarian efforts on the battlefields of the Isonzo.  What I can do is observe.

Over the last twenty years, I made several trips to Slovenia and Italy with even a brief sojourn to Budapest.  Always at Austro-Hungarian military cemeteries, I have noted tri-colored ribbons – Hungary’s flag – draped around a headstone or two.

Just north of Gorizia, near the road branching off to Sveti Gora, there is an official monument to Fallen Hungarian Soldiers erected as part of a larger Park of Nations.  Dedicated only in 2021, the monument features large metal walls etched with soldiers peering from a trench.  The new monument stands in the little pass between Monte Santo-Sveti Gora and Sveti Gabrijel. There is a similar monument remembering the overall Austro-Hungarian commander on the Isonzo-Soča Svetozar Boroević nearby – with similar monuments soon. The real Hungarian memory occurs further south in the Carso – Doberdo to Hungarians. 

MEMORY IN THE FIELD – A SMALL CHAPEL

Maybe this monument will take on more meaning with time. For me, Hungarian memory starts with the restored military chapel found in the little town of Visintini.  The Carso-Kras Plateau – known in Hungary as simply Doberdo – standing between Gorizia to the north and Trieste to the south. It is relatively flat, except for a deep trench cutting through, carved out of the limestone by a former tributary of the Vipava River.  The Vallone literally means “deep valley” in Italian. This, the site of rear area support services first for the Austro-Hungarians and later for the Italians.  Two nearby Austro-Hungarian cemeteries lay just northwest on the hamlet’s edge,

In the center of the small settlement on the main road is the ruins of a horse trough built by men of the Italian army.  Just off the road on the east side is a small alley leading to the chapel.  Tricolored wreaths and ribbons bedeck the chapel front and the iron gate.  The chapel was renovated in 2009 by Hungarian entities with the collaboration of locals.  The dedication was overseen by Hungarian President László Sólyom on a trip where he also visited the summit of Monte San Michele – more on that in a moment – and the large Austro-Hungarian military cemetery at Folgliano near the huge Italian ossuary in Redipuglia.

chapel reborn

The chapel – Capella Ungherese – originally started building in 1916 by Hungarian troops.  Before its completion, the war ended with the chapel unfinished.  Finally in 2008, monies from the Széchenyi Scientific Association and the city of Újfehértó, work on the chapel – dedicated to Saint Benedict – began again.  The chapel remembers 27 soldiers of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg – the small county in northeastern Hungary where Újfehértó is located – who died in the fighting in the nearby Doberdo region to the immediate southeast of Visintini. 

DOBERDO TREE

Probably the most famous Hungarian memorial of World War 1 is the Doberdo Tree.  Doberdo is again the Hungarian name of the Carso-Kras lying south of Monte San Michele and west of the Vallone.   Hungarian troops fought long and hard on the Isonzo front as they did elsewhere in the many theaters of the war involving the Hapsburg armies.  Doberdo became synonymous in Hungary for the Carso. 

The remains of the tree came off the Doberdo plateau where many Hungarian soldiers fell.  Transported to Szeged in 1916 and then placed in the Móra Ferenc Museum where it sits today.  The Doberdo tree stripped of its branches by the furious gunfire memorialized the efforts of Hungarian troops on the Isonzo front.  Szeged was the prewar home of both the 46^th Honved Brigade and the 5^th Honved Regiment as well as the 46^th Infantry Regiment of the Common Army – KuK.  As part of the 17^th Infantry Division, the men of the 46^th IR fought on the Italian front from 1915 until 1918.

FOURTH HONVED REGIMENT MONUMENTS

The 4^th Honved Regiment was led by Colonel Károly Kratochvil, a graduate of the Austro-Hungarian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt.  He and his men fought long and hard on the heights of Monte San Michele in 1915 and 1916.  There uniforms caked in the dirt of the Kras gave rise to a new nickname for the regiment, the Claymen.  Eventually, in 1929, Kratochvil would gain the Knight’s Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa.

In late 1917, the battle of Caporetto regained Doberdo for the Austro-Hungarian side. Men of the regiment built a truncated pyramid in remembrance of their efforts earlier on the mountain. This, one of several other such monuments.  Emperor Karl visited the site of the monument accompanied by Kratochvil on 17 November 1917. 

a new monument

Today’s monument is a replica of the original rebuilt by a local Alpini group in 1993 and again restored in 2019.  The original built from stones taken from a local church destroyed by Italian artillery who thought the church served as an observatory for the Austrian side.

Another monument erected in memory of the 4^th Honved sits hidden away in the trees above Peteano.  I did not have time to track it down, only to note it on my hiking map. 

Google Maps shows a slight clearing in the trees on the northern slopes of Mont San Michele. Lying underneath some power lines with a path coming off Via Peteano. A little sign notes the path to the 4^th Honved monument – “Monumento ai Caduti Ungheresi 4^th Honved”.  There is parking space for a couple cars along the road. 

MONTE SAN MICHELE

Since 1922, Monte San Michele has been designated a zona sacra. Here lies memory central for Italy.  Only after six offensives and with thousands of Italian lives lost or permanently altered did the summit fall to the men of the Third Army.  A surfeit of monuments reveals themselves not only at the summit but scattered among the woods surrounding the peak.  The few Austro-Hungarian monuments erected here during 1918. Their other positions became left and forgotten for years until after Hungary was able to throw off its imposed communistic government. 

Following 1989, Hungary has been among in the forefront of former countries of Austro-Hungary in belatedly remembering the sacrifices of so many of her soldiers.  Hungarian soldiers played a major role in denying Italian successes here on Mont San Michele and the rest of Doberdo until the end of the Sixth Isonzo Offensive in mid-August 1916.

The Italians had managed to gain the summit in previous offensives. Austro-Hungarian counterattacks always drove them back down the hill.  At the time of the 6^th Isonzo, Austro-Hungarian reserves found themselves already engaged on Sabotin on the north side of Gorizia.  With no one left to try and push back here, the lines moved eastwards across the Vallone.

GENERAL LUKACHICH AND THE 20TH DIVISION

Hungarians played a large role in defending here on Mont San Michele.  Their efforts finally rediscovered in recent years.  A major part of the Austro-Hungarian defense became played by the 20^th Honvéd Division under the command of General Géza Ákos Dezső Lukachich de Somorja.  Lukachich graduated from Dadettenschulen in Temsvár in 1883 joining the 62^nd Infantry Regiment of the Common Army – K u K.  He went on to serve on the General Staff and taught at the Maria Theresa Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt and the Honvéd Ministry in Budapest.  Promoted to colonel in 1911, Lukachich became commander of the 38^th Infantry Regiment – K u K – with its main garrison in the Hungarian capital.  At the outset of the war, he commanded the 1^st Mountain Brigade fighting on the Drina in Serbia. 

20th honved

His brigade fought here atop the mountain throughout 1915 – he was now a generalmajor.  A tour on the Russian Front before returning as commander of the 20^th Honvéd Division, he led division here atop Monte San Michele.  For his efforts, he earned the Officer’s Gold Knight’s Medal and with entrance into the Order of Maria Theresa in August 1917, the title of Baron of Somoja.   

A garrison commander in 1918, he gained a final promotion to Feldmarschalleutnant 9 March 1918.  As commander of the military district of Budapest, he found himself arrested at the end of October unable to suppress the Communist takeover of Hungary.  During the revolution which broke out, he reported to Archduke Joseph – the Hapsburg commander in Hungary at the time, he did not bother to send troops into the streets because of the unreliability of the men.  Released the following year, he retired from the army.

TUNNELS

Just west of the summit – Cima 3 – you find the ruins of a tunnel – Cave of General Lukachich – used by Hungarian troops to reach the front lines just to the north – on the other side of the road, Via Sacre.  Entry into the actual tunnel today closed off due to the nature of the terrain.  The 20^th Honvéd Division lost over two-thirds of its force in the fighting here.  The mountain also known as the Hungarian Golgotha. 

A newer summit memorial dedicates to both Italian and Hungarian soldiers who fought here on the mountain.  Next to that monument lies an earlier one dedicated to the 7^th Infantry Regiment – K u K – originally recruiting men from the region of Carinthia.  This monument dates to 1918 like the original monuments to the 4^th Honvéd.

Walk farther to the east following the signs to the restored Schönburgtunnel and keep walking towards Cima 2.  Here you can find another tunnel opening created by engineers of the 4^th Honvéd again leading from the rear to the front lines further to the north.

HUNGARIANS AND CEMETERIES

With well over 600,000 Hungarians dying in World War 1, the country represents well in the many Austro-Hungarian military cemeteries found in both Italy and Slovenia.  One of the largest contingents of dead Hungarians lies further north at Modrecje near Tolmin where many died defending the Tolmin bridgehead.  My first encounter with Hungarian graves was at the cemetery at Bovec.  Most of the names on the headstones have not survived with time, but the little Hungarian tricolored ribbons give some clues.

graves on Doberdo

There are a lot of cemeteries on the Kras.  The largest cemetery lies again just north of the Redipuglia at Fogliano.  The best preserved and one of the most mythical is the cemetery at Gorjansko.  Hungarian memory seems the strongest of all the republics created out of the collapse of the Empire judged solely on the number of green-white-red ribbons found on the headstones or cemetery entrances.

The entire southern section of the Soča Front became named Doberdo by the Hungarian military, because in this foreign geographical name reminiscent of drumming, the terrible gunfire and cruel massacres accompanying the battles here found association in the popular contemporary song I go to Doberob.  Slovenes had their own song commemorating their sacrifices on these hills – Oj, Doberob.

EXPLORING TODAY

Essentials for rediscovering the Kras: a good local road map – I used a 1:50,000 scale hiking-tourist map Slovenska Istra, Kras in okolica; for walking in the western areas of the Kras – Carso since it is Italy, now, Carso Triestino Gorziano e Sloveno a 1:25,000 scale map. ; Carso Triestino-Kras Triestino-Skocjanske Jame is another option though it only includes mostly ground in Italy. For websites, the Walk of Peace – Pot miru – is a very good place to begin your virtual explorations from.