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The legendary Latin American revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s secret stay in Czechoslovakia sparked considerable interest at the time. However, the place where he lived has a far more interesting past.
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The civil war in Greece, which caused great suffering to those fighting for both sides in the conflict, as well as the civilian population, sparked a wave of emigration to countries in the former Eastern Bloc. As early as 1948 a large group of children, who their parents often let go involuntarily, were sent abroad. They were followed by adult refugees who were sympathisers and supporters of the insurgents. When the conflict came to an end in 1949 that wave was followed by another large group, in the main comprising soldiers of the defeated Communist armed forces. However, it wasn’t just the “right” Greeks who arrived in Czechoslovakia, but also, involuntarily, captive soldiers of the Royal Army, who soon earned a reputation for being unreliable, problematic elements. One of them was Georgios Papanikas, for whom involuntary emigration became fateful. You’re over economically, you’re over morally…
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Ágnes Jobst: A Stasi működése Magyarországon – A keletnémet és a magyar állambiztonság kapcsolata 1955–1989. Jaffa Kiadó, Budapest, 2015
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After WW2, young intellectuals who objected to the development of dictatorship left Hungary in several waves. Many of them joined the political associations in exile and published articles in various periodicals. This paper provides a chronological outline of assessments of Hungary in the Kádár Era. It attempts to present all shades of the democratic emigration, mainly based on the Irodalmi Újság (Literary Journal), published in Paris, and Új Látóhatár (New Horizon), published in Munich. Initially, opinions were mainly based on daily newspapers and the radio. In the 1960s, economic experts and later intellectuals not associated with politics paid visits to Hungary and gained direct experience (Artúr Kárász and János Lukács). The internal conflicts of the emigration and the ambivalence of the changes in Hungary were very well expressed by Zoltán Szabó and Imre Kovács. In the late 1980s, Gyula Borbándi shared his experiences of his visit in Budapest, while Tibor Méray published his analyses of the political situation in Hungary in the years before the political transition.
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Historical consciousness leaning towards symbolic thinking attaches just as great importance to epoch-representing personalities as to culturally established caesuras or spectacular political gestures. Very often these serve as orientation points to measure actors, events and also origins and consequences of the processes. The political personae of Imre Nagy and János Kádár with their complex and enigmatic attitudes stand out from the cultic, symbolic political figures of Hungarian history after 1945. The simplest, quasi-complementary topoi associated with them are the image of the “unwillingly rebellious” and the “retaliatory-pacificator”. The continual rethinking of these highly compressed notions can help us get closer to understanding the dynamics of historical rebellion and the need for political status quo. When comparing the activities of the two politicians, one must not ignore the fact that these crossed each other in the interplay of mutually diverging Soviet strategies. Therefore, the question is not only what their inherent political origins were, but also what directions they were forced to take by the circumstances.
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A short biography and interview and with an ukrainian dissident Zorjan Papaďjuk. This man protested against the soviet occupation in Czechoslovakia in the year 1968 - so called Prague Spring.
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Papp István: Fehér Lajos. Egy népi kommunista politikus pályaképe. Állambiztonsági Szolgálatok Történeti Levéltára – Kronosz Kiadó, Bp. – Pécs, 2017.
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The study sets out to map the cooperation between Eastern Bloc intelligence services in the 1960s and 1970s on what was referred to as “Vatican orientation”, which Moscow considered a matter for Poland (and in part for Hungary). Therefore this “orientation” became the “specialisation” of the intelligence services of the countries in question within the framework of the communist intelligence community coordinated by the USSR. The paper reconstructs Moscow’s influence on the Polish intelligence service’s activities and “Vatican” position. The KGB’s perceptions of the Holy See and the Vatican’s Eastern policy are also explored, as is a joint operation conducted by both services aimed at infiltrating the Jesuit order. It concludes with the assertion that the Holy See’s “conciliatory” political line (the Vatican’s “ostpolitik”) was regarded by Moscow (with some justification) with suspicion, with the church and religion being perceived as a political threat to the communist system. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Soviets pushed for a deepening of cooperation and that the Poles were expected to elaborate a joint action plan against the Vatican and the Catholic Chruch. This issue became more urgent with the ascendancy of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, John Paul II, to the Chair of St. Peter.
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Among the written documents of Czechoslovakia’s Communist intelligence service that remained following shredding carried out in December 1989 are a number, dating from February 1988 and 1989, on the cooperation between the Central Directorate of the National Security Corps (I S-SNB) and the Central Directorate of the Committee for State Security (I HS-KGB) of the USSR on agency-operational work and the production of active or influence operations. The documents capture the cooperation between the two fraternal services in terms of political intelligence (drawing mainly on the Soviets’ intelligence sources), concrete departments of the counterintelligence abroad (26th department), defectors and ideo-diversion (31st department) and active and influence operations (36th department). Two other documents are records of the likely final meeting between Czechoslovak intelligence service officers at the HQ of the Soviet intelligence service in late November 1989, which, surprisingly, also in volved their commander, Lieut. Gen. Leonid Shebarshin. Though the final form of two documents created in the second half of November 1989 is relatively brief, and some passages are evidently not a full record of proceedings, they are important and unique documents that capture the changing positions of and relationship between the two intelligence services.
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We can describe the historiography of the Hungarian Labour Movement as a relatively autonomous academic field of the Hungarian historiography. The Institute of Party History was the most significant contributor to the historiography of this field. This case study deals with “Party History Bulletins” (1955–1987) that has been showing various researches that concentrated mainly on political parties, and workers’ movement of different countries. The second part of the study introduces the stormy story of the book about Béla Kun, written by György Borsányi, as a relevant case story for the relations of party leadership and historians.
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This study analyzes the ups and downs in the development of Hungarian-Cuban diplomatic relations following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. In 1959, the year of the victory of the Cuban Revolution, Hungarian foreign policy focused primarily on Asia and Africa, as the colonial liberation struggles there provided an opportunity for the Soviet Union and the socialist countries to get their foot in the countries of these two continents. However, in the spring of 1956, following the negotiation of a councilor of the Budapest Soviet embassy at the Foreign Ministry, it became clear for the Hungarian foreign policy makers that Moscow considered Latin America as a desirable target and wanted to use the former Hungarian diplomatic ties to realize the idea. The Soviet intention was readily served by Hungary, and the Political Committee of the MDP decided in the first half of 1956 that Hungary should establish diplomatic ties with Mexico, Brazil and Uruguay. The question of the establishment of relations failed in October 1956, and from then on, Latin America meant a political landscape for Hungary, where it continued to refuse to overcome the international, echo of the defeat of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution expressed through the loud rejection of the legitimacy of the Kádár government. Following the rapid deterioration of US-Cuban relations, the Cuban government proposed to Hungary to establish diplomatic relations. Hungary, however, was only moderately interested in the opportunity offered but eventually accepted Soviet "guidance" and overwhelmed by its own ideas, Hungarian foreign policy changed and supported the Soviet Union in getting its foot in Cuba, in the neighborhood of its big rival, the United States.
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The origin and development of the unique "Originální videožurnál". This activity has been a unofficial try to shot short video reports of happenings in communist Czechoslovakia.
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Almost all national histories begin with legends. Forefather Čech led his people to Říp mountain. Similar to this, there is a story about how Vladimir Drapal alias Lábus became an underground mánička. Mánička is a special czech term for young people with long hair lived in Czechoslovakia mostly in 1960s and 1970s. This atributte of long hair has been a symbol of resistance against the communist government.
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Modern Hungarian foreign policy, especially that of the 20th century can hardly be called a success story, since – with minor interruptions – it is characterised by constant position loss together with a decrease in Hungary’s political and economic weight. The after effect of 1956 besides its internal consequences was one of the main foreign affair issues of the early Kádár era. After the years of reprisal, the more open and more pragmatic Hungarian foreign policy was evident from 1963 and tried to use and widen its elbow room besides being a faithful ally to the Soviets.
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iparosítása (1950–1970). A Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok MegyeiLevéltára Közleményei 13. Szolnok, 2015. 306 oldal
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J. Nagy László: Magyarország és az arab világ 1947–1989. JATEPress, Szeged, 2017. 341 oldal
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The written legacy of Fra Dominik Mandić kept in the Archives of the Franciscan Herzegovina Province includes, among many other materials, the correspondence between this distinguished Herzegovian Franciscan and the famous Croatian historian Jere Jareb. According to the available letters, their first contacts were achieved in 1953, which is related to their arrival in the USA, when both of them became active among émigré circles in promoting the Croatian name and history in this, for the Croats difficult, period of communist Yugoslavia. Based on the contents of 39 letters dated from 1953 to 1972, this paper thematically analyses and follows the collaboration between these two Croatian intellectuals. Apart from exchanging discussions and scientific-critical reflections on historical topics that they were well-acquainted with (such as during the preparation of Jareb’s book Half a Century of Croatian Politics 1895–1945 or Mandić’s works The Croatianness of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croats and Serbs, Two Old and Different Nations), the letters also reveal a mutual sensibility for publishing among numerous Croatian emigrants that would, in their minds, allow a more open scientific approach to researching and perceiving Croatian culture and history. Jareb achieved his goals through his work at the Croatian Academy of America, which published the Journal of Croatian Studies, while Mandić founded the “Croatia” Cultural Publishing Center, which took upon itself the publishing of the Croatian Calendar; after the closing of the Center, publishing was continued by the newly-established Croatian Historical Institute. As can be inferred from their correspondence, work on editing and publishing the Croatian Calendar and Journal of Croatian Studies led to the forming of a more intensive collaboration between Fra Dominik Mandić and Jere Jareb. The final part of this paper is devoted to a number of letters that testify to their mutual support in their research processes, including the sharing of data and assistance in finding literature for various historical topics that were the subjects of their interest.
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