Hungarian Espionage Scandal (1880)

The Hungarian Espionage Scandal was an affair in the Kingdom of Hungary occured in 1880. It included King Ratko Nadj Szalay, General Sloven Selakov as well as an underground network of people supporting revolutions in different countries.

German newspaper article
On January 15, 1880, an anonymous journalist published an article in the German newspaper "Preussisches Allgemeines Reichsblatt". There he wrote:

"According to trusted sources, the incident in the former Hungarian royal residence city of Sopron in September of the past year, was not carried out by socialist forces. It is almost hundred percent secure that King Ratko Nadj Szalay planned this attack himself and instructed General Sloven Selakov to carry it out. He is aware that the Hungarian monarchy will sooner or later fall apart and yielded to the socialists. Perhaps Szalay is even a hidden sympathizer for socialism himself. And to hide this, he had his heir assassinated by the only man he still trusts. Or he knew about the plans by other sources and went to Africa. Our secret informants figured out that Selakov said in a meeting with a state officer on August 2, 1879: 'Maybe even I can gain power over this nation in case the king passes away. But of course, that's not possible. His son is still there.' – We also know that Selakov received some blueprints by Szalay showing military machinery, but also townscapes of new cities that are organized by fast accessibility and space-saving living structures, which are unknown to Hungary yet but perfectly familiar to the socialists. They look like plans of the Russian cities built now, but they are marked with 'EYES ONLY' and written in Serbian language. Reason enough to think about." ''(original: "Vertrauenswürdigen Quellen zufolge war der Vorfall in der ehemaligen Königlichen Residenzstadt Sopron im September vergangenen Jahres keine Tat sozialistischer Kräfte. Es ist zu annähernd hundert Prozent sicher, dass König Ratko Nadj Szalay den Angriff selbst geplant und General Sloven Selakov zu deren Ausführung instruiert hat. Er ist sich im Klaren darüber, dass die ungarische Monarchie über kurz oder lang untergehen und den Sozialisten zum Opfer fallen wird. Möglicherweise ist Szalay sogar selbst ein heimlicher Sympathisant des Sozialismus. Und um dies zu verbergen, ließ er den einzigen Mann, dem er vertraut, seinen Erben ermorden. Oder aber er wusste aus anderen Quellen von diesem Plane und ging nach Afrika. Unsere geheimen Informanten fanden heraus, dass Selakov in einem Treffen mit einem Staatsoffizier am 2. August 1879 sagte: ’Vielleicht kann ich sogar die Macht über diese Nation ergreifen, falls der König verstirbt. Doch dies ist selbstredend nicht möglich. Sein Sohn ist ja noch da.’ – Überdies ist uns bekannt, dass Selakov einige Blaupausen von Szalay erhielt, welche militärischen Anlagen zeigen, und auch Entwürfe für neue Städte, welche nach schneller Erreichbarkeit und platzsparenden Wohnstrukturen organisiert sind. Diese Strukturen sind Ungarn noch neu, den Sozialisten hingegen bestens bekannt. Sie sehen aus wie die russischen Städte, die derzeit entstehen, doch sind mit „STRENG GEHEIM“ ausgewiesen und in serbischer Sprache gehalten. Ausreichend Anlass zum Nachdenken.")''

 General Sloven Selakov, who represented King Ratko Nadj Szalay while he was in Africa, at once went to Vienna and gave a public speech, where he stated everything written in the article was wrong.

King Rudolf von Wettin I. von Brandenburg und Sachsen declared this as “nonsense” and offered his support within his possibilities. Also, King Alejandro of Portugal promised to come to aid in case of a rebellion.

Investigation
In the night to the 4th March, 1880, the Magyar Királysági Speciális Rendőrség (Royal Hungarian Special Police) coincidently got two suspects who tried to burgle into the Budapest city center and arrested them. It was the 24-year-old Spanishman Guillermo Sanchez Encinoso and the 21-year-old Japanese woman Kyouko Nakamura. They both illegally had entered Hungarian territory. Since Nakamura spoke Russian, the MKSR chief Mihály Beregszászi, who spoke Russian and a very bit of Japanese too, could do the interrogation in the early morning himself. 

Nakamura stated she and Sanchez Encinoso were “freedom fighters” without any special political attitude, but at least both were unsatisfied with the systems established in their home countries after they helped with the rebellions against the monarchies. Asked for their aids in the Sopron attack, Nakamura refused to say anything. Also she refused to number and locate the other members of their organization, but she talked about a big one, as they both did not speak German and must have had contacts in the HRE to publish what her organization thought about the Sopron attack and its real reason. She admitted to have had contact to General Sloven Selakov several times. When she was asked whether she also had had contact to King Ratko, there was an explosion in the interrogation room, after which both suspects disappeared.

Asked for his contacts to Sanchez Encinoso and Nakamura, Russian Chairman Ivan Petrow denied to ever have had anything to do with them. He even stated them as a danger for Russian homeland security and announced to persecute them.

Results
A conversation between King Ratko and Emissary Otto Fürchtegott von Stuhlweissenburg on the “S.S. Ratko” at their return to Hungary on October 4, 1880, got public, in which King Ratko seemed too sure that Hungary was safe now. When asked what he was planning next, he is stated to just have said, “No need to know.”

Until today, Ratko Nadj Szalay’s exact role in this affair has not been cleared up. Conspiracy theorists all over the world made up their own thoughts about how much Szalay was involved into these happenings, or if he even had planned them himself.