Minorities in Hungary #7 – Slovaks

Slovaks arrived in Hungary relatively late in history, but it does not mean they did not affect Hungarian society greatly. Their first coming in large numbers dates back to the end of the 17th century with the mass migration towards the southwest. The Slovakian settlers moved to Hungary after the vanquishing of the Ottoman occupational forces, and they began to repopulate the abandoned South.

The dwellers of today’s Slovakia encountered Ottoman raids soon after the devastating defeat in Mohács, which caused great mass movements in the late 16th century. The threat from the South decreased the population of the territories close to the occupational zone’s borders. While the part of Hungary under Ottoman rule suffered losses in population due to the constant war, diseases, imprisonment and migration, the Slovakian area’s favourable circumstances resulted in overpopulation. When the southern territories were liberated, a vast number of Slovakian settlers arrived at the abandoned territories and repopulated them.

This process was enhanced by the greatest resettlement program of Hungary, which balanced the scales between the crowded North and the devastated South.

The descendants of these settlers live not only in today’s Hungary, but also in Romania and Serbia.

The other factor that brought many Slovaks to Hungary from the North was the promise of a better living, lower taxes and religious freedom. Most of them arrived as temporary workers, but they became settlers later. Their arrival proved to be useful in solving the critical labour shortage in the former Ottoman territories, which was urgent especially because these fertile lands needed people to cultivate it. Those Slovakian landlords who had properties in the North brought their servants to the South.

A Slovak family in Hungary in the early 19th century, coloured. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Most historians and sociologists differentiate three waves of Slovakian immigration. The first happened between 1690 and 1711 when the Northerner settlers moved to Komárom, Nyitra, Esztergom and Nógrád. The second wave came between 1711 and 1740 when they settled around Pest, Abaúj and Borsod County. Many of these immigrants were actually fugitive serfs.

Békéscsaba became a shelter for Evangelist Slovaks who were persecuted for their religion after 1717. The other great gathering point of Slovaks were the territories of Baron Harruckern, whose devastated properties in Szarvas were repopulated by the settlers. Many people were forced to move along later because of overpopulation, but Slovaks remained in the majority until 1731, when a mass of Hungarians arrived.

In the following decades, such events happened that lead to the fragmentation of Slovakian communities in Hungary.

The first was the peasant uprising in Békésszentandrás in 1735, which was caused by the heavy tax burdens and the frequent epidemics. In 1746, a conflict broke out between Evangelists and Catholics, so the former ones moved along. Nyíregyháza was also populated by Slovaks from Békéscsaba, Szarvas and Tótkomlós in 1754.