Konferencia: 1956 visszhangja a szovjet tömbben

Call for Papers in English

The 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the Soviet Bloc Countries: Reactions and Repercussions

An international conference
Budapest, September 22-23rd, 2006

PURPOSE AND SCOPE
The crisis that had manifested itself after Stalin's death in 1953 in the countries of the Soviet bloc and in the Soviet Union itself reached its peak in 1956. The most serious challenge within the overall crisis was the Hungarian revolution. It turned into an armed conflict in Budapest; the communist government practically failed and the Soviet troops engaged in armed fighting with insurgents. Still, it seemed that Moscow was able to restore the order relatively quickly and easily.

The conference seeks an answer to the following questions:
(1) How did the communist regimes and the different societies - with a special emphasis on the Hungarian minorities in the neighboring countries -- experience and react to the crisis (administrative measures, aid to refugees, reprisals etc.)?
(2) In what sort of discourse contexts did the communist politicians recall the "1956 of Budapest", national communism, mass movements etc. after 1956 (in ten year time, or even better, up to 1989); how was the revolution viewed and remembered by the people; what sort of moral lessons were drawn by the Communist leaders on the one hand concerning the need for changes and the directions the changes should take and by the Eastern European societies on the other with respect to their 'modus vivendi' of everyday life: collaboration, resistance, remembering and forgetting, etc.?

The answer to the first question should probably be found in confidential internal documents of the various parties and governments, while the answer to the second one should be sought in documents of the secret police first (reports on the general mood of the people, other kinds of reports and communications) and later in samizdat documents, in the 'second' and still later in the 'one and a half' public sphere.

ORGANIZATION
The conference will take place in Budapest on September 22-23rd, 2006 and will be organized by the Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security. The working language of the conference will be English. Travel as well as accomodation costs and meals for participants will be covered by the organizers.

The deadline for the submission of an English language proposal (2 pages) is February 13th, 2006. The proposals should indicate what kind of archival sources the author will use for preparing his/her paper. Please, attach an English language CV and a list of publications to the proposal.

Draft papers in English should be submitted by June 15th, 2006, while the final version of the papers should be sent by August 31st, 2006 for the dissemination to all participants.

Please submit proposals via e-mail to: János Rainer, Director, Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. E-mail: [email protected]

1. Válság és megoldás a kommunista térség államaiban
2. Call for Papers in English