"Hungary and Poland are two eternal oaks.
Each of them shot up a separate and distinct trunk,
but their roots widely scattered in the ground
are intertwined and knitted invisibly. Hence the existence and vigor of one is the condition of the other's life and health."
Stanlislaw Worcell (1849)
Each of them shot up a separate and distinct trunk,
but their roots widely scattered in the ground
are intertwined and knitted invisibly. Hence the existence and vigor of one is the condition of the other's life and health."
Stanlislaw Worcell (1849)
Polish-Hungarian Brotherhood (00:06:45m)
On March 23, 2007 the Polish Sejm and the Parliament of the Republic of Hungary unanimously approved the adoption of the resolution establishing March 23rd as the Day of Polish-Hungarian Friendship. This Act reaffirms the unique relationship between the Polish and Hungarian peoples that has been in existence since the Middle Ages and which continues to forge the bonds of common ideals, mutual respect and affection, and shared political ambitions. Such a relationship is a veritable phenomenon that is unparalleled in any other two nations throughout history.
Polish-Hungarian Friendship Day is celebrated concurrently in Poland and Hungary. This year the honour of hosting festivities is bestowed upon the city of Poznan in which the richness of the Magyar heritage will be celebrated. Though the official Day is March 23rd, Polish-Hungarian Friendship Day has already begun (on the 17th of March) and will continue until March 28. Among the many events scheduled are theatrical performances, films, exhibitions, concerts, workshops, scientific exhibitions, and much more.
Polish and Hungarian Presidents, representatives from governments of both countries, and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and associations all take part in a bi-national annual celebration of a common history and culture, past and present.
The "twin cities" of Györ and Poznan have demonstrated mutual co-operation and support for exhibitions and fairs; for example Györ representatives regularly attend the Poznan International Fair of Books for Children and Youth, Tour Salon, John's Market (Jarmark Świętojański). Conversely, last year Poznan representatives participated in Györ's festival of "The Magic of Baroque", the International Children's Olympiad and the International Exhibition of Books.
Moreover in the light of the Polish and Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council, theirs is a fervent commitment to consolidate the solidarity between their two nations, its cities and regions.
Good relations between Poland and Hungary date can be traced back to the Middle Ages. In fact in the 15th century the two countries shared a Polish king, Władysław III of Varna, who at barely twenty years of age, died in battle, fighting the Turks at Varna, Bulgaria. His name lives on today. There is a boulevard in Bulgaria and a district named after Vladislav Varnenchik and even a professional Bulgarian football team which in earlier years was named after him. There is also a symbolic cenotaph bearing his name in an ancient park at Varna.
King of Poland and Hungary Władysław Warnenczy
1440-1444
In the 16th century, Poland elected Stefan Batory, an Hungarian nobleman as their King. Batory came to be regarded as the greatest King in Polish history.
King of Poland Stephan Batory
During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Józef Bem, a Polish General became a national hero for both Hungary and Poland.
General Jozef Bem
During the Polish–Soviet War, (1919-21), Hungary was prepared to dispatch 30,000 cavalry troops to Poland's aid. However the Czechoslovak government refused to allow their passage through the demilitarized zone. (The zone had been created just several months earlier at the end of the Czechoslovak-Hungarian war.) Nevertheless, some Hungarian munitions trains did manage to reach Polish troops.
Up until the 18th century, Poland and Hungary shared an historic common border between Poland and Carpathian Ruthenia (also referred to as "Carpathian Rus") and governed by Hungary. But after World War I, the Allies transferred Carpathian Ruthenia from defeated Hungary to Czechoslovakia. In the months leading up to World War II, the area became known as "Carpatho-Ukraine" because of its large population of Ukrainian nationalists.
On September 30, 1938, following the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia was slated for takeover by Nazi Germany. It set into motion diplomatic and paramilitary collaboration between Poland and Hungary in an effort to restore their historic common border. They realized their first goal, with the First Vienna Award on November 2, 1938.
A demonstration in favour of the common Polish-Hungarian border in Budapest, October 1938 (00:01:11min)
Polish - Hungarian border in March 1939 - chronicle (00:1:02min)
Na granicy Polsko Węgierskiej A Lengyel Magyar határon On the Polish Hungarian border (00:02:27min)
Germany was opposed to the existence of a common Polish Hungarian border but in March 1939 Hitler suddenly changed his stance and authorized Hungary to take control of the remainder of Carpatho-Rus (a territory which began to refer to itself as "Carpatho-Ukraine"). However the remainder of Slovakia was off limits despite Hungary's claim to its territory.
Hitler planned to strike Poland from a staging ground in Slovakia but changed his mind about the common Hungarian-Polish border. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) were amassing ever-larger military troops along the southeastern border of Poland which placed Poland in imminent danger. Though the OUN were allies of Germany, Hitler suspected that should they join German troops in the planned invasion of the Soviet Union, the OUN would surely demand their independence. (Moreover, Hitler had designs on Ukrainian natural and agricultural resources.)
Carpathian Rus became a sore point for Hitler. He realized his error when his request to transport German forces across Carpathian Rus into southeastern Poland was denied by Admiral Horthy's government as a matter of "Hungarian honour". The common Polish-Hungarian border based on their long-standing friendship, presented itself as an obstacle.
Admiral Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya
Regent of Hungary 1920-1944
By refusing German passage, the Hungarian government allowed members of the Polish government and tens of thousands of Polish military troops and personnel to escape from Poland into neighboring Hungary and Romania. From there the Poles made their way to France and French-mandated Syria to continue their military operations. At that time, Poland was the third-strongest Allied nation, after Britain and France. For a period of time, many Polish and British intelligence agents and couriers, including Krystyna Skarbek, were able to access Hungary's Carpathorus as a route to cross the Carpathian Mountains to and from Poland.
Grave of a Hungarian Honved captain and six of his men who fell, fighting on the Polish side
in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
1956 - Hungarian Revolution (00:02:26min)
After World War II, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Polish people demonstrated their support for the Hungarians by donating blood for them. By November 12, 1956, over 11,000 Poles had donated blood. Massive shipments of medical supplies, totaling 44 tons were shipped by the Polish Red Cross to Hungary by air and even larger shipments by trucks and rail.
Lengyel, magyar — két jó barát,
együtt harcol s issza borát.
Polak, Węgier — dwa bratanki,
i do szabli, i do szklanki,
oba zuchy, oba żwawi,
niech im Pan Bóg błogosławi.
 |
| Monument of Polish Hungarian Friendship in Gyor |
Translations:
From Polish to English
Pole and Hungarian cousins be,
good for fight and good for party.
Both are valiant, both are lively,
Upon them may God's blessings be.
Both are valiant, both are lively,
Upon them may God's blessings be.
From Hungarian to English
Pole and Hungarian — two good friends,
joint fight and drinking are their ends.
Sources:
Wikipedia
Suggested Links:
were the first to uncover the secrets of the Enigma. They laboriously studied the Enigma and developed solutions, techniques, and specialized instruments to crack the codes. Meanwhile French and British Intelligence remained clueless never suspecting that the Poles had already cracked the Enigma code. In fact the Poles had been deciphering and reading secret German messages for years, right up to the eve of the Invasion of Poland.
as being "manual and tedious" and, like the later Cryptologic Bomb, as being "based... on the fact that the plug connections [in the Enigma's commutator, or "plugboard"] did not change all the letters." Unlike the bomb, however, "the grill method required unchanged pairs of letters [rather than] only unchanged letters."
machine was reset by its operator every day using a different trigram key, for example, FED, which determined the way the machine was to be set up before use: the rotor order, which rotors to install, which ring setting for each rotor, the initial setting for each rotor and the settings on the stecker plugboard. The operator would then select a trigram for each message, say, "BGK" which would be typed twice and encrypted using the daily key. Then the message would be typed using the same key.
discovered that the first letters of a message were actually the same as the second three, he was able to determine the internal wirings of the Enigma machine and thus reconstruct the device. It was easy to determine the general traits of the machine from examining the commercial model of the Enigma however the military versions were markedly different and presented an entirely new set of problems to resolve. It was becoming an increasingly difficult task decrypt Enigma messages due to the increasing frequency with which changes were made to the complexity of the machine, its keying procedures and more particularly the existence of thousands of keys to choose from.
in October 1938 and used to decrypt messages enciphered on the Enigma. The device was comprised of 26 perforated sheets for each of the six possible sequences for inserting the three rotors into the Enigma machine's scrambler. (Later the sequence increased due to the implementation of additional rotors.)
. Throughout history there has been an endless array of techniques devised and used by the military, government, and business to encrypt important information. It's as old as ancient history. We have come a long way since Herodotus in the fifth century B.C. when he tattooed a secret message on the shaven head of a slave, under regrown hair. Or Julius Caesar who was reported to have used cryptography in his communications during the course of his battles, and often relied on what we consider to be its most simplest form - substitution cyphers
by an Arab mathematician, Al-Kindi
, that such classical cyphers could easily be broken.
lay the groundwork for the eventual development of the famous Enigma Machine. The polyalphabetic system was first described by Giovan Battista Bellaso
in his 1553 book about ciphers, however, through misattribution, it was called the Vigenere cipher
, after the French diplomat and cryptographer, Blaise de Vigenere. The "Vigenere" cipher was the first one of its kind to employ multiple substitution alphabets, albeit in a simplistic form. The Enigma, though also based on the same principle, is far more complex.
that preceded its inception, the Enigma
also featured a complex mechanical and electrical system. It included elements of a keyboard, a set of rotors (rotating disks attached along a spindle, and components that turned one or more of the rotors one full stop which each press of the keys. While one rotor may turn with every key press, another rotor may turn with less frequency which resulted in a far more complex encryption process.
was designed so that whenever a key is pressed, the electrical current flows through the wiring and illuminates one of the display lamps to indicate the output letter. For example, let's say you were to encrypt a message beginning with the letters "FED" - pressing "F" would light up a lamp indicating the substitution perhaps "M", then pressing "E" followed by "D" which would result in substitution letters for each. Considering that there are 26 lamps and 26 keys, several plugs and rotors, the combinations were virtually infinite.
during WWII. While British Intelligence
remained baffled as to the alphabetic configuration, the problem was easily resolved by Marian Rejewski 
(Model C) the reflector could be inserted in all 26 positions, (though stationary) or, as in case of the Abwehr Enigma, the reflector stepped during encryption in the same way as did the other wheels.
. It was a small printer which could print the 26 letters on a narrow strip of paper ribbon. It was placed on top of the Enigma machine and was connected the lamp panel, however, its installation required that the lamp cover and light bulbs all be removed. The printer eliminated the necessity of having a second operator present to write down each letter. Moreover, it provided operational security as the printer could be installed remotely so that the signal officer no longer had to see the decrypted plaintext information.
messages were broken due to the design weakness of the Enigma as well as operator sloppiness in applying these indicator procedures.
, and its allure continues to grow. It has been dramatized in many fictional productions, the most controversial being the 2001 British film called "Enigma"
(based on Robert Harris' 1995 novel
of the same title). The screenplay for the film was written by Tom Stoppard, produced by Mick Jagger and Lorne Michaels, directed by Michael Apted and starred Kate Winslet and Dougray Scott. (Incidentally, Mick Jagger owns one of the Enigma machines.)
