During 40 years of compulsory studying of Russian language, it had not been very popular. The method of teaching was not the best, either: the stories about Lenin and the Aurora cruiser were not proper for language studying.
After the transition of regime (1989), learning Russian was no more compulsory, so it necessaarily declined in Hungary.
However, recently young people seem to be more and more interested in products of Russian culture: they say Russian movies are more exciting than American ones, as well as Russian sci-fi, and PC games developed by Russian developers are brilliant.
A cult of Russia has not developed yet, but e.g. our Csokonai Theatre presents plays by Russian authors in every season.
Students can learn Russian in high school, as a second facultative language. As a language teacher seys, cyrillic letters are interesting for the students, as well as Russian culture. She also says that it is easier now to teach, as it is not compulsory any more, so only the interested start to learn it.
In Debrecen, some of the language schools offer the possibility to learn Russianm but the interested can find many private advertisements of language teacher as well.
