'1956' after 1956 in Hungary

306 Pages·2015·4.51 MB·English

by  Heino Nyyssönen

Heino Nyyssönen
THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST
IN POLITICS
‘1956’ after 1956 in Hungary
S P
O HI
University of Jyväskylä 1999
(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6)
University of Jyväskylä 1999
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ISBN 951-39-0426-1
ISSN 1238-8025
Copyright © Heino Nyyssönen and SoPhi 1999
Printed at Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 1999
Cover printed at ER-Paino, Laukaa 1999
Cover Kimmo Lehtonen
Layout Juha Virkki
“The past is never dead, it is not even past”
– William Faulkner

CONTENTS
FOREWORD..................................................................................... 9
I INTRODUCTION: PROBLEMATIC AND SOURCES................. 11
The Idea....................................................................................... 11
Objectives .................................................................................... 14
Sources.......................................................................................... 18
The Story....................................................................................... 22
II FROM THE PAST TO THE PRESENCE OF POLITICS................. 27
Change.......................................................................................... 27
Time.............................................................................................. 30
History.......................................................................................... 33
The Presence of Politics................................................................. 37
Remarks on History Culture in Hungary ...................................... 43
The Hungarian Vocabulary of Revolution ..................................... 51
IIIBUDAPEST 1956 IN THE CONTEMPORARY
HUNGARIAN MEDIA................................................................... 55
Tuesday, 23rd October................................................................... 58
Wednesday, 24th October ............................................................. 60
Thursday, 25th October ................................................................ 62
Friday, 26th October..................................................................... 63
Saturday, 27th October.................................................................. 65
Sunday, 28th October.................................................................... 66
Monday, 29th October .................................................................. 68
Tuesday, 30th October................................................................... 70
Wednesday, 31st October.............................................................. 72
Thursday, 1st November............................................................... 74
Friday, 2nd November .................................................................. 76
Saturday, 3rd November................................................................ 78
Sunday, 4th November.................................................................. 80
IV THE INTERPRETATION OF COUNTER-REVOLUTION IN
1956 DURING THE KÁDÁR ERA ............................................ 85
The Analysis of the Provisional Central Committee.................. 87
The White Books ...................................................................... 92
Politician as Historian and Vice Versa?...................................... 97
Before October 23rd ................................................................ 100
The First Week........................................................................ 102
The Second Week and After..................................................... 106
An Excursion into Text-Books ................................................. 110
V THE POLITICS OF REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING
DURING THE KÁDÁR ERA.................................................... 113
Politics of Memory in the Kádár Regime.................................. 115
Non-conformists and Remembrance........................................ 120
VI HUNGARY 1988-1994 ............................................................ 126
The Year of a Half Turn, 1988.................................................. 127
The Year of Party Formation, 1989.......................................... 131
The Year of Incomplete Changes, 1990 ................................... 136
The Year of the Structural Stalemate, 1991.............................. 140
The Year of Polarization, 1992................................................. 142
The Year of Incertitude, 1993 .................................................. 145
The Year of Two Elections, 1994.............................................. 147
VII NEW INTERPRETATIONS OF RECENT HISTORY ................ 152
An Armed Critique Instead of a Critical Weapon..................... 154
Renaming 1956........................................................................ 156
The Report and the Multiparty System: the Pozsgay
Interview.................................................................................. 158
The Interpretation of 1956 and the Introduction of a
Multiparty System.................................................................... 163
Counter-Revolution, Uprising, Revolution, Fight for
Freedom and War .................................................................... 169
VIII IDENTITIES CONSTRUCTED WITH THE PAST.................... 173
Identities of Parliamentary Politicians and 1956...................... 178
The First Law........................................................................... 181
Left and Right or Wrong?......................................................... 184
IX ANALOGIES AND SYMBOLS.................................................. 188
National Holidays.................................................................... 191
The Coat of Arms and National Decorations ........................... 195
Reburials.................................................................................. 198
Memorials and 1956................................................................ 204
Street Names and 1956............................................................ 213
The Restored Past for the Future.............................................. 217
X THE STRUGGLE AMONG CONTEMPORARIES IN
POST-COMMUNISM............................................................... 219
The Justitia Plan and its Consequences .................................... 220
Screening Law.......................................................................... 226
Commemorative Organisations and 1956................................ 229
The Media War ........................................................................ 234
1956 in Television and Film after 1989................................... 239
Reckoning and Polarization ..................................................... 241
XI RESEARCH AND THE POLITY............................................... 245
Power, Political Debates and Research ..................................... 246
Institutes and Researchers........................................................ 252
Research and the Discussion of Punishment............................ 257
XII CONCLUSION: ATTEMPTS TO TURN
THE PAST INTO HISTORY ..................................................... 263
XIII EPILOGUE............................................................................... 277
NOTES............................................................................................. 283
SOURCES......................................................................................... 290
ABBREVIATIONS............................................................................. 305

FOREWORD
In the opening scene of the Hungarian film Csinibaba (Pretty Baby, 1997)
the new lottery numbers are read on the block radio. The caretaker, por-
trayed as a sympathiser of the ruling Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party,
begins to announce the numbers: “4, 23, 28, 19… . What on earth… 56…
How could this be possible… . This is not… .” Hence, he makes his deci-
sion instantly: “Urhm… The fifth lottery number, good tenants, will be pub-
lished in Népszabadság”.
The contextual code to the aforementioned scene is found in a film which
in fact was one of the first public attempts to portray the Hungary of 1956 in
an ironic sense in the 1990s. The comedy referred to Budapest in the begin-
ning of 1960s, when the Space Age was about to emerge and science and
progress were conquering the world. At that time Népszabadság was the or-
gan of the Central Committee, and the caretaker was represented in order to
avoid pronouncing a clear cultural icon.
For a political scientist the scene raises at least two questions: How to
represent a certain event from the past, and when to represent the past. The
year 1956 has had a different significance in Hungarian public life of the
1990s than it has over the previous decades. In 1989, ‘1956’ was resurrected
from the past and became a part of the current change of the system.
Naturally, I have to admit that this study, too, has been written in a politi-
cal context. When I began to research recent Hungarian history in 1992, the
euphoria of 1989 had turned into cautious pessimism and political critique
against the centre-right government formed following the 1990 elections.
Now, several years later, that government is also part of ‘history’, as its suc-
cessor as well. Since the spring of 1998, all of the parties which crossed the
threshold in 1990 have already participated at some point or another in the
government of the young Hungarian democracy.
I would particularly like to thank the following Hungarians: György Litván,
János M. Rainer and Csaba Békés in the ’56 Institute, who despite their own
busy schedules had the patience for a foreign newcomer and his peculiar
questions. Additionally, I would like to thank László Szarvas, whom I have
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