Megfigyelés másképp
Alternative Modes of Surveillance: Party Agitation at Home and the Visits of a Council Member in Angyalföld

Summary/Abstract: Besides their agent network, the Hungarian Workers’ Party used various other channels for the surveillance of the general public. After 1948, agitation was the most frequently used method of obtaining information in the party surveillance of residential areas, which was performed by agitators (also known as community educators). Their task was the political ‘education’ of the general public, as well as motivating them to implement party orders and monitoring the political attitudes and opinions of the residents. At the beginning of the council system in 1950, council members were among the officials visiting people’s homes more frequently, especially because their job often entailed making house calls. They were not mandated to write reports about the residents but since they had to maintain a close relationship with their constituents, they had access to private spaces and information. The present study examines these alternative channels of surveillance through agitation reports written by community educators and the diary of a council member from Budapest’s thirteenth district. Based on these sources, the study addresses a variety of questions: what aspects of the Angyalföld residents’ everyday life were relevant for community party operatives and for a council member working in the same community? What image of society emerges from the agitation reports and the diary entries? How did the home setting affect the exchanges between the residents and the representatives of the party-state? What can we find out about the use of the information obtained this way?

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