Man Of The Year: THE LAND & THE PEOPLE

ACCORDING to legend, the Hungarians are descended from Noah's grandson Magyar. The Magyars of Hungary bear no ethnic kinship to their Slavic neighbors in the Balkans, and of all Europe's peoples are related only to the Finns and Estonians. Latecomers to Central Europe, fierce fighters and skillful horsemen, they were driven southward over the centuries from their early home on the slopes of Siberia's Ural Mountains, and in 895, under the leadership of their tribal chief Arpad, crossed over the Carpathian Mountains into the great plain that is now Hungary.

Crossroads. A vast...

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