The collection of the Tóth family came into being during the years of their emigration to Hungary, Sweden and Canada. However, its roots can be found in the cultural, public and “underground” roles assumed by its creators in Romania during the 1970s and 1980s. Thus, three successive stages in the history of this collection can be identified: (1) the pre-history of the samizdat publication, which partially corresponds to the nonconformist activities of Antal Károly Tóth in the context of the Ady Endre Literary Circle in Oradea; (2) the history of the production of Ellenpontok and of the repressive reactions caused by this samizdat calling for the observance of human and minority rights; (3) the post-history of the samizdat, which corresponds to the time when the authors exiled themselves from their native country.
I. Initially, the life of Antal Károly Tóth, who lived in Romania until July 1984, followed the traditional life path of Hungarian minorities in Romania: after graduating from university he found employment, got married and in his spare time attended the cultural events organised in Oradea. In the vivid cultural life of the time, it was the Ady Endre Literary Circle in Oradea that primarily attracted Tóth (Gittai and Szűcs 1998). For the most part, these events (which resembled a workshop) involving 15–30 persons served as a setting for discussing the works of local writers and authors. In addition to this, such meetings also offered an opportunity to invite local Hungarian intellectuals and prominent cultural figures, who gave presentations relating to their professional fields in front of an audience that often numbered more than a hundred members. His experience gained as president of the circle between 1976 and 1978, including the organisation of circle events and activities, which had to comply with the conceptions of the local authorities, encouraged Tóth to become more and more involved in public life (statement of Antal Károly Tóth). Examining his life path, Tóth’s “radicalisation” can be traced back to 1979; however, prior to February 1982 his radical attitude only manifested itself in actions that were legal. Several episodes are known in this respect.
On 27 November 1979, as a teacher at School no. 1 on Str. Cluj in Oradea, Tóth addressed a memorandum of protest to the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, the Ministry of Education, and the Bihor County School Inspectorate, in which he drew attention to the unpaid salaries covering the summer exam session at his former workplace (School no. 7 on Str. Griviței), and made allusion to provision no. 7033/79 of the Ministry of Education (ACNSAS, I210560/1, 158–163). Tóth and the school headteacher were summoned to the county School Inspectorate where at an impromptu meeting chaired by the chief school inspector it was explained to him that as a teacher he had no right to contact the competent ministry in any matter whatsoever. This was not Tóth’s first memorandum. In a motion submitted earlier, he had raised the deplorable state of the historic fortress in Oradea and the partial destruction of its moat. This letter, also signed by several Romanian colleagues, was left unanswered (Tóth 1994).
In December 1979, together with his wife, Tóth initiated and participated in a series of events referred to as the “circle explosion,” which resulted in the dismissal of Róbert L. Nagy, the leader of the Ady Endre Literary Circle, on the grounds of his unprincipled compliance with the cultural authorities. At the same time, they managed to make the authorities approve the change – a victory for circle members – which meant that from then on the literary circle was administered by a board of directors (Gittai and Szűcs 1998). In 1980 the Tóths also supported the initiative to launch a Hungarian cultural magazine in Oradea – an idea that eventually proved unsuccessful. At the common initiative of Sándor Bölöni, leader of the Literary Round Table of Oradea, Gábor Varga, a chemical engineer, and journalist Imre Robotos, they submitted a motion to the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) as well as to the Writers’ Union in Bucharest, requesting the authorisation of an independent magazine similar to Korunk (Our time) in Cluj or Igaz Szó (True Word) in Târgu Mureș. Taking into consideration a possible rejection they also proposed a second alternative, namely, that the planned cultural magazine should be created in the form of a supplement (or sister paper) to the Romanian cultural and literary magazine Familia. This initiative also enjoyed the support of the members of the Ady Endre Literary Circle. Furthermore, the Tóth family took part in a nationwide effort to collect signatures, which involved travelling to various places (Cluj, Baia Mare, Satu Mare, Carei, Valea lui Mihai, Săcueni) and asking local public figures to support the case by providing their signatures (statement of Antal Károly Tóth and Ilona Tóth; ACNSAS, I210560/1, 254–262v).
On 5 April 1981 at a conference of Hungarian journalists from Cluj county, Tóth took a radical public stance and pointed out that the most serious problem concerning Hungarian youth was the gradual decrease in the number of Hungarian schools (ACNSAS, I210560/2, 126). He expressed his opinion that journalists should primarily focus on this issue as well as on the chances of self-fulfilment of Hungarian youth in Romania.
II. The lack of effectiveness of motions and letters of protest, the failure on the part of Transylvanian Hungarian cultural leaders invited to the Ady Circle Literary Circle to provide answers to concrete problems faced by the Hungarian minority (the role of the minority as a bridge, the importance of individual responsibility), and the so-called “external futility” resulted in the search for other forms of expression – the samizdat, the product of a handcuffed society (Tóth 2000, Molnár 1993). In February 1982, the philosopher Attila Ara-Kovács, member of the directory board of the Ady Endre Literary Circle, spoke to the Tóths about his plan to launch an underground paper that would carry the name Ellenpontok (Counterpoints). He had already mentioned his intention to the Cluj-based poet Géza Szőcs as well as to János Molnár, a Reformed pastorserving at the time in Tămașda; both Szőcs and Molnár promised to offer active support. At that time Tóth still believed that he had not entirely exhausted the possibilities of legal action, however, his wife’s positive reception of the idea of a samizdat, together with the book of the Romanian writer Ion Lăncrănjan Cuvînt despre Transilvania (A Word About Transylvania), which illustrated that hostility towards Hungarians still existed among a part of the Romanian population, eventually convinced him to become involved in the project.
The actual editing work of the samizdat began in February 1982. For the most part, the texts were acquired by Ara-Kovács with the help of his own contacts. Apart from editing and reproduction, the Oradea-based editors also undertook the distribution of the magazine both in Oradea and in Hungary (by lending the paper to different people). Géza Szőcs agreed to distribute the samizdat in the rest of Transylvania. The basic concept behind the samizdat was to openly discuss the everyday life conditions of the Hungarian community. Ara-Kovács wrote a text conveying a general message which appeared on the second page of each edition, the first half of which could also be interpreted as an ars poetica: “COUNTERPOINTS is a samizdat magazine. It is issued occasionally. Its purpose is to spread knowledge about the deprivation of human rights in Eastern and Central Europe, and, more particularly, about the political, economic, and cultural oppression of Transylvanian Hungarians.” The paper was inspired by the Hungarian and Polish samizdat publications existing at the time. Although its creation was justified by the need to defend ethnic interests, the magazine aimed to achieve more than that by highlighting the inhuman character and destructive nature of communist ideology, at the same time displaying sympathy with the Romanian opposition (statement of Antal Károly Tóth and Ilona Tóth).
The first six issues were reproduced in five copies with the help of a typewriter secretly acquired from Hungary. Since the machine was not registered with the Militia, identification by letter type was not possible. The first five issues were edited by Ara-Kovács; Ilona Tóth helped with the reproduction. The sixth edition was typed and edited by Antal Károly Tóth. The seventh and eights issues were reproduced by the Tóths in fifty copies in their underground flat, using paper stencils and a Polish “ramka” duplicator. The ninth edition published in January 1983 was the work of Attila Ara-Kovács who, after the events of November–December 1982, made sure that the articles included in the last edition reached Hungary (Tóth and Tóth 2017).
For the most part, the nine editions can be considered thematic for they focus on the situation and the specific problems faced by the Hungarian minority in Romania. Their length varied between fourteen and fifty-six pages. The articles were organised in columns entitled “Documents,” “On this Side of Censorship,” and “Reportedly”. András Keszthelyi, who at the time was a student in Cluj, also contributed to the editing of this last column, which was dedicated to news that could not be published officially. In order to mislead the Romanian secret police, the Securitate, the first issue of March 1982 was antedated December 1981, while the second, April, issue was dated March 1982 (Tóth 2000).
The first issue dedicated to human rights was based on the open letters which the Romanian Hungarian communist politician Károly Király wrote in 1979 and 1980, sent to the Romanian party leadership, and addressed to international organisations and to international public opinion. In these letters, the author expressed his protest against the ethnic policy and the measures taken by the Romanian state which made the situation of Transylvanian Hungarians more difficult. The second issue focusing on human rights published a translation by the Reformed pastor János Molnár of the open letter which the Romanian dissident writer Paul Goma addressed to Pavel Kohout and his friends in 1977, together with fragments from the French original of Goma’s Winter Diary. The third issue, dated May 1982, is the so-called Lăncrănjan-issue, which included translations of long extracts from the volume Cuvînt despre Transilvania (A Word About Transylvania), in which the author adopted an openly anti-Hungarian tone which stood in contrast with both the official party policy and the constitution of the Romanian Socialist Republic. Furthermore, the edition included a letter of protest containing information on two collective motions triggered by Lăncrănjan’s book, signed by Hungarian intellectuals from Cluj-Napoca and Târgu Mureș and addressed to the Central Committee of the PCR and personally to Ceaușescu. The fourth issue, published in June 1982 is dedicated to religion and clerical matters. This issue includes Reformed pastor László Tőkés’s article concerning the situation of the Reformed church in Romania at that time. The fifth issue, published in July 1982, contains a detailed article on the discrimination of minorities, together with related excerpts from the transcripts of the Fifth Congress of the Communist Party in Romania from 1931. The sixth issue, published in August 1982, discusses what the Ellenpontok editorial team consider to be the traditions of Romanian state policy, based primarily on Alexandru Papiu-Ilarian’s Memoirs and Grigore Moldovan’s work Românii (The Romanians), published in 1895 in Nagybecskerek. The seventh issue, published in September 1982, is the one that most resembles a periodical. Although it does not feature the column called “Documents,” several articles on the destiny of Transylvanian Hungarians are included as a compensation that discusses the possibilities and alternatives of emigration. The seventh issue also includes the only text signed by Géza Szőcs, a two-page article entitled Erdélyt vissza, mindent vissza? (Transylvania Back, Everything Back?) which analyses the on-going situation and draws the conclusion that the editors and distributors of the samizdat put their own lives at risk by founding the first samizdat in Romania. Furthermore, this edition features interviews with members of the Romanian emigration in Paris, Mihnea Berindei, Paul Goma, Virgil Ierunca, Mihai Corne, and Monica Lovinescu, which were broadcast during the Romanian programmes of Radio Free Europe, and then transcribed and edited by Antal Károly Tóth under the title “Parisian Interview.” The eighth, October 1982, issue, which includes the “Memorandum” and the “Programme Proposal” was aimed at “finding a remedy to the deprivation of the rights of the Hungarian minority in Romania” and was edited by Antal Károly Tóth alone. During the consultations regarding the “Programme Proposal” Géza Szőcs proposed several modifications, which were registered in writing by Ilona Tóth. This issue is the most widely known since their English-language versions were sent to the embassies of several countries as well as to the participants at the European Conference on Security and Cooperation, which oversaw compliance with the Helsinki Convention and was at the time held in Madrid. The January 1983 issue, the ninth, was edited and reproduced in Hungary, contrary to the information provided on the third page indicating Transylvania as the place of publication and reproduction. This edition discussing the situation of Transylvanian Hungarians was organised around the speech about minorities given by Emil Dandea, a liberal politician and member of the Romanian Parliament from Mureș county, during a session on 31 October to 1 November 1928. The ninth edition promised that the following (tenth) issue would touch upon the retributive measures taken against the editors of Ellenpontok; however, this did not happen since the magazine ceased to exist (Tóth 2000).
The eight issues published in the interval March–October 1982 feature a total of sixty-five articles on 293 typed pages. This number is further enriched by the ninth edition counting 24 pages. One third of the texts consist of documentary materials and articles borrowed from foreign publications. More than half (almost two-thirds) of the articles consist of first publications by Transylvanian authors. Attila Ara-Kovács proved to be the most prolific among the authors, having written about half of the original articles. Six articles were by Antal Károly Tóth; as the length of these exceeds that of an average text, his contributions account for almost one fourth of the overall extent of the first publications (Tóth 1994).
The fact that Ellenpontok became widely known was not a result of local distribution, considering its limited editions. A major role in this can be assigned to the Hungarian opposition, the Hungarian emigration press, the Western media, and above all Radio Free Europe, which in November–December 1982 broadcast the texts of both the “Memorandum” and the “Programme Proposal” on multiple occasions. Although the Securitate’s interventions in November–December 1982 were followed by investigations which led to the “acquittal” of the editorial team of Ellenpontok in May 1983, this experience did not have a reassuring effect on the editors who eventually chose the path of emigration.
III. The Tóth family’s emigration to Hungary in July 1984 marked the starting point in the creation of the collection. In response to the investigations carried out by the Securitate in the fall of 1982, they did not preserve any copies of the samizdat. Consequently, it came as a nice surprise to them when they received photocopies of all editions of Ellenpontok as a present from Árpád E. Varga, the renowned expert in Transylvanian demography. The collection was acquired from an authentic source, namely, János Rékasi, a sociologist who played a significant role in the dissemination of the samizdat and in the related events of 1982. The eighth issue was the only one that was not a photocopy but a reprint made in Budapest. This samizdat collection that later became an indispensable part of the family’s luggage together with the materials preserved from the “Oradea period” served as a foundation for the Göteborg collection (Tóth 2000).
In the course of 1984–1985 Antal Károly Tóth revised the entire samizdat material with the help of Attila Ara-Kovács, who moved to Hungary in May 1983, and added indications of the authors’ names in brackets at the end of each article published anonymously by the Transylvanian writers. Another significant event with regard to Ellenpontok consisted of a conversation recorded on the nights of 18–19 and 20–21 September 1986 in Budapest when the former editors – Attila Ara-Kovács, Géza Szőcs (who was about to emigrate to the West), Ilona Tóth, and Antal Károly Tóth – discussed the major events linked to the samizdat at a distance of four years from the occurrences (Tóth and Tóth 2017). In the following years, the evolution of the collection was determined by the various phases of emigration – Hungary: July 1984 to March 1988; Sweden: March 1988 to March 1989; Canada: March to December 1989; Sweden: December 1989 to present (Tóth 2015; statement of Antal Károly Tóth and Ilona Tóth).
The conscious collection of documents directly linked to Ellenpontok, such as foreign publications discussing the samizdat and the events of the time, writings with documentary value, calls and articles, implied the acquisition of indirectly related materials. In this respect, beside the necessary official documents, such as letters or work contracts, the collection includes tape-recorded interviews made with Transylvanian refugees or public figures, and with Antal Károly Tóth prior to 1989. There are also sound recordings made during the summer camp at Tångagärde organised by the Hungarian Self-Study Group in Sweden between 1990 and 2001, which contain the presentations given by Hungarian speakers invited from the Carpathian Basin and Sweden. Further items featured in the collection are various letters together with photos of friends and acquaintances of the Tóth family and pictures of public figures and other well-known persons. Despite the difficulties involved, the couple managed to gain access to Hungarian periodicals and books both in Sweden and in Canada. Thanks to this, today the collection includes a series of specialised books on ethnic and minority subjects, featuring, besides Hungarian-language volumes, also works written in English, German, French, and Romanian (statement of Antal Károly Tóth and Ilona Tóth).
The materials pertaining to Ellenpontok and the documents directly related to it housed in the Tóth Private Collection in Göteborg can be considered as the most complete samizdat collection from Romania. The items included in the collection serve as illustrations of the “independent publication,” of the illegal issue that in 1982 dared to defy the official ideology and “break the wall of silence.” Its editors proved that thinking differently was possible even in Romania amidst the escalation of repressive measures and that it was not only the solitary hero who could represent the opposition (Molnár 1993). The fact that the system, thanks to the influence of international public opinion, failed to subject the samizdat editors to criminal proceedings, made it possible for Ellenpontok – beginning with the mid-1980s – to serve as a reference point, strengthening civil courage among the Hungarian minority in Romania. Eloquent examples of this are the cultural opposition activity carried out by the Cluj-based Hungarian linguist and literary historian Éva Cseke Gyimesi, the Limes Circle comprising a group of Hungarian intellectuals which “held illegal meetings” from 1985 to 1987, and the Cluj-based samizdat publication known as Kiáltó Szó (Screaming Word), published in 1988–1989.
