Hungarologische Beitrage 10. Universität Jyväskylä (1997)

Epilogi - Liitteet - English summary

of the present history culture (Geschichtskultur) are analysed. Two concepts are suggested to focus on the means which keep the past alive in the present: history as a political argument and politics of the past. First, the concept of revolution is analysed in both the European and Hungarian context. Dictionaries compiled by linguists and political scientists have been analysed in conceptual history. Additionally, the actual empirical section of the book is distinguished by three main time periods: 1956, Kádár era and the time before the first free elections. At first, the autumn of 1956 is researched from the contemporary point of view. Each day of the conflict is researched separately. Particularly, the rhetoric of the speeches made by the leading politicians is analysed. The resource material used included excerpts from leaflets, Hungarian radio programs and newspapers which originated during the uprising and appeared again during die Hungarian system change in 1989-1991. The second section of the research emphasizes the interpretation of the 1956 events as a counterrevolution during the Kádár regime. Five books which dealt with the recent past were chosen from a bibliography, first distributed as samizdat in 1986 (1956 a forrada­lom kronológiája és bibliográfiája). Additionally, the so-called "White Books", the first account of the events written already in 1957 by Hungarian officials, were reread again. All material is analysed using textual methods and by summarizing the construction of the cronolocigal narrative. A general account about the movies, literature and two textbooks used in the Hungarian schools is also included. The political culture during the Kádár era is seen in the context of the memory of "1956" and the impacts it made. Viewpoints of the commemorations by the ruling Socialist Workers' Party and the political nonconformists were chosen. Primary sources contain, for example, the map of Budapest and the party newspaper Népszabadság from the most important anniversaries from 1957— 1988. The third section of the book focuses on "1956" in (post-Kádárism) as it was reported in three main Hungarian newspapers: Magyar Hírlap, Magyar Nemzet and Népszabadság. Initally, new opposition organizations, their relation to "1956" and their demands

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