Államszövetség, nemzetállam, önrendelkezés. A szociáldemokraták monarchia jövőképe az első világháború alatt

Abstract

The study presents social democratic ideas and interpretations about the future of the Monarchy and Hungary during the First World War. The article analyses the writings of the prominent Social Democrats, Zsigmond Kunfi, Ernő Garami, Zoltán Rónai, Jenő Varga. The social democrats considered as the economic and social development of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy before the First World War optimal. The collapse of the Monarchy was seen as a real danger from the beginning of the war. Their program was aimed at the democratic transformation of Monarchy and Hungary through the political emancipation of people and the nationalities.
One of the most important questions during the World War I, if the federal framework or the separation of the nationality from the Monarchy will be realized.
Onto the end of the war the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy's disintegration turns into a fact, two alternatives have emerged for independent Hungary. It protects and preserves the Hungarian character of Hungary by rejecting democratic transformation in order to maintain Hungarian hegemony and assume the consequences of the continuation of war, or by the implementation of radical reforms, it places the country's future to a federal basis, accepting the right of self-determination of the nationalities of Hungary, including its territorial loss consequences.