The documents published in this book provide a unique opportunity for the study of the sources documenting the intricacies of world diplomacy at top-level decision-making, alongside documents concerning the foreign policy of the Imre Nagy Government. In a study accompanying the selection, the author summarises Hungary's role in world politics, and the options open to its foreign policy, through a critical analysis of previous hypotheses. 183 pp. l Ft 480
The Oral History Archive is the depository of the biographical interviews of witnesses of the past fifty years of Hungarian history, including the participants and victims of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and outstanding figures in Hungarian culture, science, art and politics. The book contains an annotated list of 768 life interviews in Hungarian and English.154 pp. l Ft 500
This book, the collective work of János M. Bak, Csaba Békés, Gyula Kozák, György Litván and János M. Rainer, members of the Institute for the History of the 1956 Revolution, is the first complete and unbiased history of the event in its full national and international context.
The authors analyse the years leading up to the revolt, the dynamics of the armed uprising, and the political developments during the heady days of freedom. They trace the international dimension of this, the most important of all challenges to the postwar Soviet regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, and the reaction of Western Europe and the wider world. They study the ensuing repression (October-November 1956) by the forces of the Warsaw Pact and the immediate aftermath; but they also examine the longer-term significance of the events of 1956, both for the nature of the Kádár regime which succeeded them (and the relations of that regime with Moscow and the other Soviet-dominated countries of Eastern Europe), and also for the new democratic Hungary of today.
This volume is a revised and updated version of the German edition (Die Ungarische Revolution 1956: Reform - Aufstand - Vergeltung. György Litván, János M. Bak Hg. Wien Passagen Verlag, 1994).
Hungary remembers Imre Nagy as Prime Minister of the 1956 Revolution and a politician who until his execution remained true to the spirit of the decisions he took in October-November of that year. This image was reinforced by his reburial on 16 June 1989, a symbolic act in the democratic transformation process.
János M. Rainer examines Imre Nagy's political career until his taking up of an opposition role, unfolding an intellectual and political portrait of Nagy as head of government in a new era when he made his entry into Hungarian history with a programme speech made in Parliament on 4 July 1953.
The book is the product of the author's archival research conducted over a number of years. It offers a close look at hitherto unknown scenes and waystations of Imre Nagy's life. Thus it also helps a better understanding of the age.
The book includes a large number of contemporary documents and photos.553 pp. l Ft 900
After the publication in 1993 of A Jelcin dosszié (The Yeltsin Dossier) and Hiányzó lapok 1956 történetébõl (Missing Pages from the History of 1956) it was still an open question what debates surrounded the decisions made in the fall of 1956. Then, notes taken at seventeen sessions of the Central Committee were found, written by V. N. Malin, the head of the General Department of the Central Committee at the time. The Institute has now published these crucial documents accompanied by János M. Rainer's explanatory study offering an insight into the bizarre complexities of Soviet policy making. (For a two-part article in English by János M. Rainer based on the book see the 1996 Summer and Fall issues of The Hungarian Quarterly.)256 pp. l Ft 720
In 1995, the 1956 Institute issued a bulky volume in an effort to produce a better understanding of István Bibó's life and work, Bibó István 1911-1979. Életút dokumentumokban (István Bibó 1911-1979: His Life in Documents). Documents selected by Tibor Huszár. Interviews used in the book by Tibor Huszár and Gábor Hanák. Edited by György Litván and Katalin S. Varga. Budapest, 1956-os Intézet-Osiris-Századvég, 1995, 757 pp.). The basis of the book was a long series of interviews made with István Bibó in 1977-78. The stages of Bibó's life are documented by other personal and official documents, including police and court files regarding his arrest and sentencing. Bibó was the only minister in the Nagy Government who remained active after 4 November. Indeed, it was during the following weeks that he wrote and sent to the West his statements concerning the defeated Hungarian revolution and his proposals for a way out of the crisis, which, to the endless frustration of the Soviets, kept "the Hungarian issue" on the agenda. The authorities accused István Bibó of actions which had been almost exclusively committed in these statements. The publication of their texts together with the records of Bibó's interrogation make fascinating reading, revealing as they do the extraordinary integrity Bibó displayed during his ordeals.216 pp. l Ft 480