English
Magyar
Gergő Bendegúz Cseh
Documentary Legacy of Former Dictatorships
Remembering, Forgetting, Documents
The article examines the dilemmas of coming to terms with the past following the fall of dictatorial regimes in the second half of the 20th century, with particular regard to the fate of the archives of the enforcement organizations and secret services. It highlights that issues of memory and forgetting, amnesty and accountability are deeply determined by historical and political factors, and that different societies have responded differently to these challenges. The paper examines the regulation of the preservation and accessibility of archival documents in the light of various international examples (e.g. South Africa, Spain, Greece, Germany) and documents from international human rights, cultural, and archival organizations. The article attempts to provide a comprehensive picture of the role of archival records in transitional justice, freedom of information, and historical memory, while also highlighting how the right to know about the past becomes a fundamental condition for the functioning of the rule of law and social reconciliation.
Adrienn Marschal
“They Want to Give a Sign to Begin a New Revolution”
István Szelepcsényi and his Fellows
István Szelepcsényi was a rebel from his childhood, and he consistently opposed the communist regime. He collected firearms, destroyed the tomb of three communist martyrs, and damaged the Budapest rack railway with his friends. When he stole his parents’ jewellery, he was sentenced to reformatory and later to prison. After his second release in 1953, he completed his compulsory military service, married, and had two children. He participated in the 1956 revolution as a militiaman. After the Soviet army crushed the fight for freedom, he organized a movement with his colleagues and prison friends. They devised minor conspiracy plans, listened to Radio Free Europe, tested a firearm, and distributed 300 flyers to mailboxes in Budapest. However, an informant reported him, and the authorities arrested the entire group. The court sentenced Szelepcsényi and Lajos Ács to death in 1959, because they were ideal subjects for the Hungarian totalitarian system to create a perfect example of the “enemy of the regime”. Their case became “the sample”, and some years later the Ministry of the Interior included it in an internal educational material and showcased it at an exhibition.
Gábor Szabó
The Wieser Case, 1940–1943
In addition to an account of Jenő Wieser’s life, the article attempts to present his espionage activities in Great Britain assumed by the British secret services in the second part, it provides additional information on Loránd Utassy de Újlak General Staff Major, later General Staff Colonel, military attaché in London and Washington (1937–1941), Mexico City (1941–1942). The article examines the circumstances surrounding his expulsion from Great Britain and concludes by reconstructing the events leading to the establishment of the Hungarian legation in the United States and Lisbon in 1941. Utassy enjoyed diplomatic immunity, so Jenő Wieser was closely monitored by the British Military Intelligence Service (mi5) in order to obtain confidential information about what confidential information the military diplomats of the second Teleki government and the Bárdossy cabinet had passed on to the Third Reich (German Empire). We know about Utassy that until the outbreak of the war there was a close relationship between Anton Reichard Freiherr von Mauchenheim Bechtolsheim (born Bechtolsheim), the German military attaché accredited to London, and Wehrmacht captain Albrecht Soltmann. After the suspension of Hungarian-British diplomatic relations, the activities of the networks operated by Hungarians in London increased significantly in Great Britain, which the Foreign Office and M5/SIS could not turn a blind eye to. The diplomatic affair of the expulsion of Wieser and Utassy fits into the history of the deterioration of diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Hungary.
Péter István Pap
“To Keep Everything Flowing”
Gábor Karátson and the Danube Movements, 1985–1998
The protests against the Gabčíkovo–Nagymaros Waterworks and the resulting Danube movements occupy a special place in the historical narratives of the 1980s and 1990s. The contribution of the protests against the dams to the transition of 1989/90 is mentioned by almost all authors, but a deeper analysis of the movement and the personal and social history of its leaders is rarely presented. What makes it difficult to research and discuss the topic is the fact that no comprehensive monograph has yet been written, and therefore the conceptual apparatus and contextual knowledge of the subject is fragmented and its coverage is still rather patchy.
This article aims to contribute to this historical discourse through the work of Gábor Karátson (1935-2015), a prominent but now largely forgotten figure of the Danube movements. After a very brief biography of Gábor Karátson and the history of the anti-dam protests, the article, based largely on the private legacy of the protagonist, deals with Karátson's specific activities and roles within the movement until 1998, when the nature of the movement, and thus Karátson's role, changed.
Adrienn Joó
A Family Story in the Current of History
Letters of Miksa Róth and the Internment of Erzsébet Róth
The article presents the correspondence between stained glass artist Miksa Róth and writer and art historian Artúr Elek. Through their letters, readers gain insight into the lives of both the “magician of colours” and Elek. The tragic end of Artúr Elek’s life – due to the Holocaust – is closely linked to the death of Miksa Róth, who may also be considered an indirect victim of the Shoah. The article also examines the internment of Róth’s daughter, Erzsébet Róth, drawing on sources from the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security (ÁBTL).
János Miklós Kollár
About the Untold Right-wing Tradition
A BOOKREVIEW ON
Underground Streams: National-Conservatives after World War II in Communist Hungary and Eastern Europe.
Edited by János M. Rainer
Central European University Press, Budapest – Bécs – New York, 2023. 353 p.
Underground Streams is the English name of the so-called “Búvópatakok” research project on the right-wing legacy, is a collection of studies that presents the most important results of the research conducted between 2012 and 2015 at the independent 1956 Institute and, after the Institute lost its independence, at the National Széchényi Library. The work, edited by János Rainer M. in 2023, is the conclusion of the process of bringing the results of the project to the public. The research attempts to present the "underground streams" of the Hungarian conservative-right traditions, thinking, and values between the two world wars and from 1945 until the political changes of 1989. Since there are very few Hungarian publications in foreign languages on the Hungarian political right in the 20th century, the significance of this book is even more evident. The English-language publication of the “Búvópatakok” research project deserves attention.
Ildikó Cserényi-Zsitnyányi
Soviet Occupation, from a Soviet Perspective
A BOOKREVIEW ON
Magdolna Baráth: In the Web of Soviet Counterintelligence.
Unknown Documents of the Allied Control Commission
[Baráth Magdolna: A szovjet elhárítás hálójában.
A Szövetséges Ellenőrző Bizottság ismeretlen dokumentumai]
Állambiztonsági Szolgálatok Történeti Levéltára – Kronosz Kiadó,Budapest–Pécs, 2024. 408 p.
The Soviet-dominated Allied Control Commission, established to monitor the implementation of the armistice agreement signed with Hungary in Moscow on 20 January 1945, restricted the sovereignty of Hungary in several essential aspects, and in many cases overstepped its authority by interfering in the country’s internal affairs. In her latest book, Magdolna Baráth reports from a Soviet perspective, using Soviet archival sources, on the acts of violence committed by the occupying Soviet army, the beginnings of political terror, and how the occupied territories came under Soviet influence and virtually total control.