Flashpoints in Hungarian Statehood

This event held a workshop with top experts on Hungary and Central Europe to examine issues central to Hungary in the twentieth  and twenty – first centuries.

 

  

Karl Marx posited that revolutions occur when the ruling classes cannot rule the old way and the people cannot be ruled the old way. In fact, revolutions are not governed by any law of history. Sometimes they happen when they are not supposed to and sometimes they don’t when they are supposed to. Why did the only violent revolution behind the iron curtain happen in Hungary and what was, if any, the relationship between 1956 and the so called “negotiated revolution”, a trailblazing event in the collapse of communism and the end of the cold war? Why did the 1989 transition happen and why did it remain peaceful? This contribution will attempt to identify unique features in Hungary and how they combined. Both 1956 and 1989 had a dual purpose: to remove foreign domination and to change the system of government. The talk made the case that the key to success was whether the rulers had an incentive to surrender power.

 

The lecture explored dominant master narratives over the communist past and the way they are implemented and “institutionalized” in museums of the Second World War and of communism, as part of more general governmental campaigns on “politics of history” in post-communist Eastern Europe. It surveyed a sum of the most representative museums of the Second World War and of communism in Eastern Europe, by inserting them into a larger comparison with global trends in museum, with a focus on communist regimes in Cuba, China, and North Korea, but also with memorial museums emerging around the world, from North and South America to Africa and Asia. Special attention was given to patterns of historical representation, capitalizing on a set of antithetic emotions, such as universalism vs. parochialism, pro- vs. anti-European feelings, attitudes of collaboration and accommodation vs. heroic resistance, and the pedagogy of “shame” and stigma versus the pedagogy of national pride, charisma, and messianic nationalism.

 

The emergence of illiberal democracies in Central Europe, particularly in Hungary and Poland, is commonly attributed to the transition from communism to capitalism and liberal democracy. However, viewed through a long-term historical lens, Viktor Orban's attempt to reshape the political community along illiberal lines represents a new phase in the enduring series of crises that this region has faced since the late 19th century. This ongoing historical context positions the area as a “crisis zone of Europe,” shedding light on the complexities of its political evolution and diverging from the conventional narrative of post-communist transitions.

 

This presentation was about how the interwar and postwar governments in Hungary politicized and shaped the film industry to do their bidding and how filmmakers, actors and actresses reacted to those political pressures. The archival files of the postwar certification committees provide significant historical insight into the leadership and political narrative of the entertainment industry. The political trials that unfolded in the late 1940s served the position and power of the new elites more than anything else. By the early 1950s, the Cold War took precedence over retribution following the Second World War. This work notably adds to the research and discussion of how to shape, and for what purpose, a nation’s memory of the war and postwar years.

 

Pók gave a short summary of the major events of 1968, from the perspective of a member of the so called 1968-er generation, himself. He argued that 1968 was a historical  turning point in the history of Hungarian statehood but as A.J. P. Taylor put it  in connection with 1848: history came to a turning point but failed to turn. This topic is part of a longer term research on The Fourth Reform Generation in Hungary, i.e. reform efforts of various segments of the Hungarian cultural, economic political elite from  the mid 1950s to the late 1980s.