Az 1848–49-es forradalom és szabadságharc a magyar történetírásban
The Revolution and War of Independence of 1848-1849 in Hungarian historiography

Summary/Abstract: The essay surveys the main characteristics of the historiography of the revolution and war of independence of 1848-1849. According to the author, in the first thirty or forty years of the historiography of the period it is difficult to separate historiography and memoir literature. Another problem was the fact that until the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918, scholars had hardly been able to access contemporary archival material because the papers of the organs of the Hungarian government and military had been kept in archives in Vienna. Current political issues such as controversies within the Hungarian emigration between 1849 and 1867, and the debates between groups favouring independence or compromise after 1867 greatly influenced the historiography of the period. Before the end of the nineteenth century, historiography was mostly characterized by a political and military historical approach. The really significant achievements of the historiography of the period include works of local history that treated archival material that has in many cases been lost since. After the collapse of the Monarchy, the archives in Vienna opened up, and the series Magyarország Újabbkori Történetének Forrásai (Sources of Modern Hungarian History) started publishing works discussing the history of 1848-49. It seemed that the history of 1848-49 had ceased to be a political issue. However, the communist regime, which came into power in 1948, again wished to use the history of 1848-49 for its own purposes, and this was harmful for historiography. The historiography discussing the period started employing economic and social historical Approaches, but often coupled with extreme leftist rhetoric. The change, in a political sense, occurred in 1956, and in a professional sense at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, and became complete in the 1980s. First the activities of Lajos Batthyány and his government were revised on the basis of archival researches, then the military historiography of the period underwent a similar process. Most of the works that appeared on the 150th anniversary of the war of independence can be described by an open attitude and the respect of facts rather than ideological prescriptions.

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