KOSSUTH, LAJOS. – Patriot and statesman, born at Monok in northern Hungary on 17 September 1802, died in exile at Turin on 20 March 1894. A brilliant orator, lawyer and journalist, he was arrested in 1837 for clandestinely publishing the proceedings of the Diet, which had been banned by Metternich’s censorship. After receiving an amnesty, in 1841 he took over the editorship of the daily *Pesti Hirlap*, where he championed reform of the ancient constitution along the lines of national liberalism. He engaged in bitter controversy with Count István Széchenyi, leader of the moderate reformist faction, who believed it wiser to confine national aspirations within economic and cultural limits so as not to expose the country to civil war.
In March 1848 he became Minister of Finance, but was opposed by the radical left wing; in July he succeeded in preventing further Hungarian troops from being sent to Lombardy, and in October 1848 he recalled his compatriots from Radetzky’s army. When the Viennese court revoked constitutional freedoms and unleashed a race and nationality war to crush the Hungarian movement, K., as head of the “Committee for the Defence of the Fatherland,” raised an army that defeated the Austrians, who in turn called in Russian troops.
K. concluded an alliance with Manin and, with the help of the Italian Legion organized in Hungary, prepared an expedition to free Venice from its siege; but after defeat, General Artúr Görgey surrendered on 13 August 1849, and K. fled to Turkey.
In 1850 K. began corresponding with Mazzini and adhered to the democratic programme, leaving the future form of government to the Hungarian people. Travelling to England and America as champion of constitutional liberties and of a nation oppressed by reaction, in the summer of 1852 he settled in London, where he argued for coordinating the Italian Risorgimento uprisings with a new Hungarian insurrection.
In 1859, having parted ways with Mazzini, he approached Napoleon III, Victor Emmanuel II and Prince Jérôme Bonaparte to persuade them to extend military operations to the Dalmatian coast so as to liberate Hungary as well. Disappointed by the Armistice of Villafranca, he returned to London; but in September 1860 in Turin he reached an agreement with Cavour, offering the Hungarian Legion to help liberate Venetia, while exiled generals Türr and Klapka prepared a Garibaldi landing at the Danube mouth to spark an insurrection in Hungary via Transylvania.
After the 1867 Compromise between Hungary and the Habsburg dynasty, in the famous *Cassandra* letter addressed to Ferenc Deák, architect of the settlement, he condemned the dualist regime and foresaw the inevitable collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Elected a deputy, he refused an invitation to return home and remained in Italy until his death.
Among his achievements was the securing, in 1848, of legal peasant ownership of the lands they had hitherto cultivated for feudal lords. Thanks to his leadership, the 1848–49 Hungarian uprising did not degenerate into revolutionary excesses. When the House of Habsburg was declared deposed from the Hungarian throne (14 April 1849), K. prevented the establishment of a republic that would have split national unity. Though a Protestant, he showed deference to the Catholic majority of his country.