thumb|Béla Hamvas
Béla Hamvas (23 March 1897 – 7 November 1968) was a Hungarian writer, philosopher, and social critic. He was the first thinker to introduce the Traditionalist School of René Guénon to Hungary.
Biography
Béla Hamvas was born on 23 March 1897 in Eperjes, He was also well-versed in the works of René Guénon. In line with Evola's views, in which he incorporated a stronger emphasis on Christian beliefs, Hamvas strove for an undemocratic regime led by a small "enlightened" elite of intellectuals. To accomplish this goal, Hamvas and Károly Kerényi (who had been his closest friend since the 1920s) founded the Sziget ("Isle") circle in 1935, a literary group which also included figures such as the biological racist László Németh. However, Hamvas had a falling-out with Kerényi in the late 1930s. Despite the Soviet siege and repeated harassment by the authorities, 1945 to 1947 were his most fruitful years.
In 1948 he was placed on the b-list (banned from publishing) by the Soviet-installed socialist government, and was forced into retirement from his library job. This happened after Hamvas had started "an aesthetic and ideological discussion with György Lukács".
Throughout the post-war era, Hamvas communicated many of his ideas surrounding Traditionalism to the younger philosopher . The latter would go on to organize underground classes for groups of dissidents from 1975 onwards.
Legacy
After the fall of socialism, several Traditionalist groups sprang up in Hungary, often based on the teachings of Hamvas as these were transmitted by Lászlo. These included a Béla Hamvas Circle (Hamvas Béla Kör) as well as three "Evolian" groups (Kard-Kerezst-Korona Szövetség, Apokalipszis Iskolája and Árpád Szigeti's School of Tradition and Transcendence) and the Evolian printing house Arkhé.