Page:NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SURVEY 19 HUNGARY COUNTRY PROFILE CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110037-3.pdf/10

APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110037-3

the historical Hungary. Small villages abound, with their unpaved roads, baroque churches, bullock carts, flocks of geese, and nesting storks. Scattered, low-lying abodes are frequently no more than white-washed mud-brick cottages—a tradition in construction dating back to the Turkish occupation when their destruction was frequent and widespread. And like their distinctive dwellings, the peasants themselves evoke the past in their holiday dress and observance of ancient religious customs.

Isolated from the sea, Hungary is situated in a broad basin of south-central Europe that has been traversed and contested by disparate peoples over the centuries. Once dominant over the entire area, Hungary now shares the basin with Romania and Yugoslavia which, along with Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the U.S.S.R., comprise a girdle of alien cultures. Comparable in area to Portugal or the state of Indiana, present-day Hungary extends only 280 miles from east to west and 122 miles from north to south. Cultural isolation and compactness of shape tend to reinforce Hungary's identity and integrity as a political entity. Location astride major east-west land routes has compensated in some measure for the limitation of size and has permitted extensive external ties that have enabled Hungary to progress beyond the limits of its own natural resources.

The Danube River, more than any other physical feature, unifies the country. It provides access to the industrial and commercial heart of Europe and to the ports of the Black Sea. It is the core of the natural drainage system, and as it meanders across the land it evokes the free-flowing spirit of a restless people. Balaton, Europe's largest warm water inland sea, is a mini-Riviera for Hungary.

Hungarians still require the ego massage they give themselves, for in various ways their small nation is the "poor boy of the neighborhood." Among the states bordering Hungary, it outranks only Austria in size and population. Since losing 70% of its territory following World War I, it has lacked naturally defensible borders. And, in contrast to neighboring states, it features a relatively level terrain. Approximately 60% of the area consists of flat to rolling, practically treeless plains. A narrow chain of low mountains and hills extends across the northern part of the country, and a small, low mountain mass occurs in the southwest. Less than a third of the country is over 1,000 feet above sea level. The highest elevation, 3,300 feet at Kekes, occurs in the Matra mountains northeast of Budapest.

Climatic conditions in Hungary, like the moods of its people, vary considerably. Hungary is subjected to the mild oceanic climate of the northwest, the Mediterranean climate of the south, and the continental climate of the east. On average, winter is dismal—cloudy and cold—but the unpleasantness of that time is compensated by long, warm summers when, in the heat of midday, a mirage

4

APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110037-3