Hungarians are a recognized ethnic minority in Serbia.[3] According to data from the 2022 census, the population of ethnic Hungarians in Serbia is 184,442, constituting 2.7% of the total population, thus being the second-largest ethnic group in the country behind Serbs and the largest ethnic minority group. The vast majority of them live in the province of Vojvodina, where they make up 10.5% of population.
Overwhelming majority of Hungarians in Serbia are Catholics, while some 5% are Protestant (mostly Calvinist).[4]
History
Kingdom of Hungary
Present-day northern Serbia were included in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary in the 10th century, and Hungarians then began to settle in the region, which before that time was mostly populated by West Slavs. During Hungarian rule of the area, from 10th to 16th century, Hungarians formed the largest part of population in the northern part of the present-day Vojvodina, while southern parts were populated by Slavic peoples.
Ottoman Empire
Following the Ottoman conquest and inclusion of Vojvodina into the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, most Hungarians fled the region. During Ottoman rule, the Vojvodina region was mostly populated by Serbs (Great Migrations of the Serbs) and Muslim Slavs.
Catholic Hungarians originated mostly from Transdanubia, while those of Protestant faith originated mostly from Alföld. Between 1751 and 1753, Hungarians (originating mostly from Szeged and Jászság) settled in Mol and Ada. In 1764–1767, Hungarians settled in Subotica, Bajmok and Čantavir, and in 1770 again in Kanjiža, Mol, Ada and Bačko Petrovo Selo, as well as in Bačko Gradište, Srbobran and Turija.
In the 19th century, the Hungarian expansion increased. From the beginning of the century, small groups of Hungarian settlers from Alföld had been constantly immigrating to Bačka. In the first half of the 19th century, larger and smaller groups of the colonists settled in Mol (in 1805), as well as in Bačko Gradište, Temerin and Novi Sad (in 1806). In 1884, Hungarian colonists settled in Šajkaška and in Mali Stapar near Sombor. In 1889, Hungarians were settled in Svilojevo near Apatin and in 1892 in Bogojevo, while another group settled in Gomboš in 1898. Many Hungarian settlers from Gomboš moved to Bačka Palanka. After the abolishment of the Military Frontier, Hungarian colonists were settled in Potisje: Čurug, Žabalj, Šajkaš, Titel, and Mošorin. In 1883 around thousand Székely Hungarians settled in Kula, Kanjiža, Bečej, and Titel.
In 1800, smaller groups of Hungarian colonists from Transdanubia settled in Čoka, while in the same time colonists from Csanád and Csongrád counties settled in the area around Srpski Itebej and Srpska Crnja, where they at first lived in scattered small settlements. Later they formed one single settlement – Mađarska Crnja. In 1824, one group of colonists from Čestereg also settled in Mađarska Crnja. In 1829 Hungarians settled in Mokrin, and in 1880 an even larger number of Hungarians settled in this municipality. In 1804, Hungarian colonists from Csongrád County settled in Filić, as well as in Sajan and Torda. Even a larger group of Hungarians from Csongrád settled in 1804 in Debeljača. In 1817–1818 Hungarians settled in Bikač, and in 1820–1840 smaller groups of Hungarians settled in Novi Bečej. In 1826, colonists from Jászság and Kunság settled in Arač near Novo Miloševo. In 1830, Hungarians from Alföld settled in Veliki Lec, in 1831 in Ostojićevo, in 1832 in Malenčino Selo near Veliki Gaj, in 1839 and 1870 in Padej, in 1840 in Jermenovci and Mihajlovo, in 1840–1841 in Banatski Dvor, in 1841 in Hetin, in 1859 in Sanad, in 1869 in Skorenovac, and in 1890 in Mužlja. In 1883-1886, Székely Hungarians from Bukovina were settled in Vojlovica, Ivanovo, and Skorenovac. The total number of Székely colonists was 3,520.
In the southern region of Syrmia, the first Hungarian settlers moved there during the 1860s from neighbouring counties, especially from Bačka.
According to the 1900 census, the Hungarians were the largest ethnic group in the Bács-Bodrog County and made up 42.7% in the population (the second largest were Germans with 25.1%, and the third largest group were Serbs with 18.2%). The Hungarians were third largest group in the Torontál County (largely, present-day Serbian Banat) with 18.8% (after Serbs with 31.5% and Germans with 30.2%).[5] According to data from the 1910 census, Hungarians were the largest ethnicity in the Bács-Bodrog County with 44.8% in the population (followed by Germans with 23.5% and Serbs with 17.9%), and the third largest in the Torontál County with 20.9% (followed by Serbs with 32.5% and Germans with 26.9%).[5]
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
After World War I, the new borders established by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 put an end to Hungarian immigration to the area. The present-day Vojvodina was included into the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), and many Hungarians wanted to live in the post-Trianon Hungarian state; thus, some of them immigrated to Hungary, which was a destination for several emigration waves of Hungarians from Vojvodina. As a result, the interwar period was generally marked by a stagnation of the Hungarian population: they numbered around 363,000 (1921 census) – 376,000 (1931 census), constituting about 23-24% of the entire population of the territory of present-day Vojvodina.
World War II
The Hungarian Civil Victims in the World War II Memorial in Subotica
The outbreak of the World War II caused tensions between the Hungarian and Serb communities. Nazi Germany, in accordance to its "Operation Punishment", invaded Yugoslavia, and subsequently, Axis Hungarian forces occupied Bačka. Hungary annexed this region, and it was settled by new Hungarian settlers, at which time the number of Hungarians in the area grew considerably. In contrast, at the same time, many Serbs were expelled from Bačka. The brutal conduct of the Axis Hungarian occupying forces, including the Hungarian army and Royal Hungarian Gendarmes, has antagonized Serb community. Under the Axis Hungarian authority, 19,573 people were killed in Bačka, of which the majority of victims were of Serb, Jewish, and Roma origin.
Although most of the local Hungarian population supported Hungarian Axis authorities, some other local Hungarians opposed Axis rule and fought against it together with Serbs in the Partisan resistance movement organized by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. In some places (such as Bačka Topola and Senta), most of the members of the communist party were ethnic Hungarians. In Subotica, the party secretary and most of the leadership were either ethnic Hungarians or Hungarian-speaking Jews. In the Bačka Topola municipality, 95% of communists were ethnic Hungarians. One of the leaders of the partisan resistance movement was Erne Kisz, an ethnic Hungarian, who was captured by the Axis authorities, sentenced to death by the court in Szeged and executed.
Among the other actions of the resistance movement, the first corn stacks were burned near Futog by five communists, of whom two were ethnic Hungarians – brothers Antal Nemet and Đerđ Nemet. Antal was killed there, together with his Serb comrade, fighting against gendarmes. At the same time, his brother was captured and killed in Novi Sad because he refused to reveal any information about the resistance movement. The corn stacks were soon also burned near Subotica. The communists that burned these corn stacks were arrested, tortured and sent to court. Two of them were sentenced to death (Ferenc Hegediš and Jožef Liht), while five others were sentenced to prison because they were underage.
The Axis authorities also arrested a sizable number of Hungarian communists in Bačka Topola, Čantavir, Senta, Subotica, and Novi Sad. Many of them were sent to the investigation centre in Bačka Topola, where some were killed, while some committed suicide. Because of the size of the communist movement among Hungarians, new investigation centers were opened in Čantavir, Senta, Ada, and Subotica. In the investigation centre in Subotica, almost 1,000 people were tortured, and part of them killed, among whom were Maćaš Vuković and Daniel Szabo. Among those communists sentenced to death were Otmar Majer, Rokuš Šimoković, and Ištvan Lukač from Subotica, Peter Molnar from Senta, as well as Đula Varga, Rudi Klaus, Pal Karas, and Janoš Koči from Novi Sad. In Bačko Petrovo Selo, Mihalj Šamu was killed during his attempt to escape. These actions of the Axis authorities were a hard strike on the resistance movement in Bačka, especially on its Hungarian component which could not recover until the end of the war.
In 1944, the SovietRed Army and the Yugoslav partisan took control of Vojvodina. New communist authorities initiated purges against one part of the local population that either collaborated with the Axis authorities or was viewed as a threat to the new regime. During this time, Partisans brutally massacred about 40,000 Hungarian civilians.[6] In October 1944, 3,000 inhabitants of Hungarian ethnicity in Srbobran were executed by the communist partisans. In Bečej, killing of the Hungarians began on 9 October 1944. In Sombor, the murdering of the Hungarians started at once based on the death list previously made; the Hungarians were taken to the Palace of Kronich and next to the race-course, the common graves were dug in which 2,500 Hungarians were buried. In total, 5,650 Hungarians were executed. A Soviet officer in Temerin prevented the extermination of the whole Hungarian population of the village; Hungarian human loss of the village was 480 people. During the first week, about 1,500 Hungarians were shot down into the Danube in Novi Sad. On 3 November 1944 in Bezdan, Hungarian male inhabitants of the village between 16 and 50 years were driven to a sports ground and 118 men were shot down by machine pistol to the Danube by the 12th "Udarna" Brigade of the 51st Division of Yugoslav Partisans. On 3 December 1944, 56 Hungarian citizens were executed on the bank of the Tisza river in Adorjan. In Žabalj, 2,000 Hungarians were killed.[7][8] In Subotica during the 1944-45 period, about 8,000 citizens (mainly Hungarian) were killed by Yugoslav Partisans as retribution for supporting Hungarian occupation of the town. At the end of the war, detachments of Yugoslav Partisans occupied Čurug and murdered 3,000 inhabitants of Hungarian ethnicity; the rest of ethnic Hungarian residents of the village were deported to detention camps and were never allowed to return.[9]
Socialist Yugoslavia
Since the end of the World War II, the population of Hungarians in Serbia has been steadily declining, mainly due to low birth rates and emigration. In 1974, the Yugoslav constitution was modified, giving Vojvodina a very high autonomy and local Hungarians participated in provincial administration. The Hungarians were also allowed to keep their culture and language alive; they had their own schools and cultural institutions.
Breakup of Yugoslavia
As the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s were raging, more Hungarians left Serbia. Although Serbia was spared direct armed conflict, it felt the indirect effects as large influxes of Serb refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, settled in Vojvodina (primarily Syrmia and southern Bačka) significantly altering the demographic and social makeup of the province. At the same time, significant number of Hungarians emigrated to Hungary due to economic and political challenges, including disproportionate conscription into the Yugoslav People's Army during the Croatian War of Independence, prompting many young Hungarians to emigrate in order to avoid being drafted.[10]
Demographic trends of Hungarian community in Serbia are characterized by high emigration and low birth rates – the Hungarian population has fallen from 343,800 (3.5% of total population) in 1991 to 184,442 (2.8%) in 2022.
Almost all Hungarians in Serbia are to be found in Vojvodina, and especially in its northern part (North Bačka and North Banat districts, respectively) where majority (61.2%) of them live.[11] The municipalities with Hungarian ethnic majority are: Kanjiža (83.1%), Senta (75.7%), Ada (72.7%), Bačka Topola (55.6%), and Mali Iđoš (51.8%). The municipality with relative Hungarian majority is Čoka (44.8%). The city of Subotica has the largest number of ethnic Hungarians in the country, standing at 37,200 although they make up only 30% of city's population. Protestant Hungarians form the majority of population in the villages of Stara Moravica, Pačir, Feketić, and Novi Itebej, while in Debeljača they are plurality of local population.
Map of the proposed Hungarian regional autonomy in northern Vojvodina
The National Council of the Hungarian Ethnic Minority in Serbia is a representation body of the Hungarian ethnic minority in Serbia, established for the protection of the rights and the minority self-government of Hungarians in Serbia.[12]
There are four Hungarian ethnic minority parties representing interests of Hungarians in Serbia:
Some of these parties advocate establishment of territorial autonomy for Hungarians in the northern part of Vojvodina, which would include the municipalities with a Hungarian ethnic majority.
Radio Television of Vojvodina, regional public broadcaster, runs a Hungarian-language Radio Novi Sad 2 radio station as well as RTV2 multilingual television channel (with significant airing time in Hungarian language).
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Vojvodina 
