Zsuzsanna Varga: Actors and actions in the Hungarian countryside during the 1956 Revolution

The memory of the 1956 revolution is still prevailing as the event that took place in cities, with the emphasis on armed struggle. Although research over the last 20 years has provided us with an abundance of information about what happened in the villages, this knowledge has not been fully acknowledged by the public history of 1956.

In this presentation, I will draw on the results of my archival research to describe what happened in the villages during late October and early November 1956. In order to understand the historical context, it is important to briefly review how the Hungarian communist Party copied the Stalinist agrarian policies in the first half of the 1950s. In this way, the demands of rural society can be understood. Special attention will be paid to the regional differences. And finally, I will also address the important question of how the Kádár government dealt with these issues after 4 November 1956. 

 

***

Zsuzsanna Varga is professor at the Modern Hungarian History Department at Eötvös Lorand University, Budapest.