The funeral of Imre Nagy: Contested history and the power of memory culture

History and Memory

Volumn 12, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 142-164

  Benziger, Karl P ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 34247312011     PISSN: 0935560X     EISSN: 15271994     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/ham.2000.0007     Document Type: Review

References (54)

1. Péter Hanák, "A nemzeti identitás konstrukciója" (The structure of national identity), Európai Szemle 3(Oct. 1997):66-67.
2. Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New York, 1973), 259.
3. Milton Singer, When A Great Tradition Modernizes: An Anthropological Approach to Indian Civilization (New York, 1972), 70-71.
4. Temetési Szertartáskönyv (Funeral liturgy of the Hungarian Catholic Church) (Budapest, 1982), 5, 10-11.
5. Durkheim comments: "A common misfortune has the same effects as the approach of a happy event, collective sentiments are renewed which then lead men to seek one another and assemble together. We have seen this need for concentration affirm itself with a particular energy: they embrace one another, put their arms around one another, and press as close as possible to one another." Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, trans. Joseph Ward Swain (New York, 1965), 446.
6. On the same day that Batthyány was executed 13 Hungarian generals were executed in the city of Arad (now in Romania). The generals are known as Aradi Vértanu. The importance of sites of memory relating to the 1848 Hungarian Revolution and their interpretation in the twentieth century can also be found in John Mason's recent article, "Hungary's Battle for Memory", History Today 50, no. 3(Mar. 2000), 28-34.
7. A Magyar Nyelv Értelmezo Szótára (Etymological dictionary of the Hungarian language), ed. Nyelvtudományi Intézet (Budapest, 1987), 1:724.
8. Honfoglalás (The conquest), MTV 1 (Budapest, 1997).
9. István Rév, "Parallel Autopsies", Representations, no. 49(Winter 1995):31.
10. János M. Rainer, interview by author, 6 Apr. 1998.
11. George Schöpflin, Politics in Eastern Europe (Oxford, 1993), 93, 101.
12. For an excellent discussion of Nagy's agricultural policies and political philosophy, see János M. Rainer's multivolume biography of Nagy, Nagy Imre: Politikai életrajz (Imre Nagy: A political biography), vol. 1 (Budapest, 1996).
13. See György Litván, The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (London, 1996)
14. 48; and Bill Lomax, Hungarian Worker Councils in 1956 (Highland Lakes, OH, 1990), 5.
15. Nagy's idealization by the University Student Organization, MEFESZ, founded at József Attila University in Szeged, Hungary, is discussed by Charles Gati, "From Liberation to Revolution, 1945-1956", in Peter F. Sugar, Péter Hanák and Tibor Frank, eds., A History of Hungary (Bloomington, 1994), 378
16. and in Litván's, The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, 52-57.
17. For a discussion of student radicalism, see Seymour Martin Lipset, "The Possible Effects of Student Activism on International Politics", in Seymour Martin Lipset and Philip G. Altbach, eds. Students in Revolt (New York, 1969), 498.
18. Grzegorz Ekiert, The State against Society: Political Crises and Their Aftermath in East Central Europe (Princeton, 1996), 57.
19. Charles Gati, Hungary and the Soviet Bloc (Durham, NC, 1988), 153.
20. Az Országgyülés: tavaszi ülésszakának 41. Ülésnapja 1996. Junius 3-an, hétfön (Minutes of Parliament: 41st day of the spring session, Monday, 3 June 1996), 21203.
21. János M. Rainer, "The Reprisals", The New Hungarian Quarterly 127(Autumn 1992):123. Rainer now believes that the number of revolutionaries executed was less than 450, but these figures remain a point of controversy in Hungary today.
22. For example, Sándor Balogh, et al., A magyar népi demokrácia története, 1944-1962 (The history of the Hungarian People's Democracy) (Budapest, 1978).
23. Béla Kövér, "301-es parcella Köztemeto", (The Public Cemetery's Plot 301) Magyar Nemzet, 3 May 1989, 21.
24. Gati, Hungary and the Soviet Bloc, 161.
25. George Schöpflin asserts that Hungarians accepted the inevitability of Soviet dominance (Politics in Eastern Europe, 103).
26. Schöpflin, Politics in Eastern Europe, 211.
27. S. Agocs, "The Collapse of Communist Ideology in Hungary", East European Quarterly 27(1992):190.
28. Június 16, 1988 (16 June 1988) (Budapest: Black Box, 1988), videocassette.
29. A Magyar Nyelv Történeti Etimólogiai Szótára (The etymology of the Hungarian language), vol. 1(Budapest, 1967), 1071.
30. For a more in-depth discussion of the political usage of kopjafa, see Nóra Kovács, "Kopja Fa: The Anthropological Deconstruction of Hungarian Grave Posts as National Monuments" (MA thesis, Central European University, 1997).
31. Virág Kedvelo (Flower Lover), "A Nap Története" (The story of the day), Demokrata (1988).
32. Joshua Foa Dienstag, "The Pozsgay Affair: Historical Memory and Political Legitimacy", History & Memory 8, no. 1(Spring/Summer 1996):76.
33. András Gerö, Modern Hungarian Society in the Making: The Unfinished Experience (Budapest, 1995), 203.
34. June 16th, 1989, produced by Dér-Pesty (Budapest: Black Box, 1989), videocassette;
35. Nagy Imre Élete és halhatatlansága (Imre Nagy's life and immortality), produced by Róbert Bokor (Budapest: Hungarian Television, 1996), videocassette.
36. June 16th, 1989.
37. Magyar Nemzet, 17 June 1989, 2.
38. June 16th, 1989.
39. Népszabadság, 17 June 1989, 3.
40. János M. Rainer, interview by author, 6 Apr. 1998.
41. Magyar Nemzet, 17 June 1989, 3.
42. Henry Kamm, "The Funeral of Imre Nagy", New York Times, 17 June 1989, 6.
43. Victor Witter Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (New York, 1969), 96.
44. Imre Mécs, interview by author, 7 Nov. 1997.
45. Timothy Garton Ash, In Europe's Name (New York, 1994);
46. Rudolf L. Tokés, Hungary's Negotiated Revolution: Economic Reform, Social Change, and Political Succession, 1957-1990 (Cambridge, 1996).
47. Gábor Murányi, "Második helybenfutás/Törvények Nagy Imréröl" (Running in place for a second time/The Imre Nagy bills), Heti Világgazdaság, no. 12, 24 Mar. 1996, 94.
48. Karl P. Benziger, "Imre Nagy Martyr of the Nation", East European Quarterly 35, no. 4 (forthcoming, Jan. 2001).
49. Mária Schmidt, "Miért Kell a kormánypártoknak Nagy Imre?/Miért nem támogatják a szabaddemokraták az MSZP indítványát?" (Why do the governing parties need Imre Nagy?/Why don't the Free Democrats support the MSZP proposal?) Népszabadság, 9 July 1996, 5.
50. Endre Babus, commenting on Orbán's political shift, claimed that in 1992 Orbán had stated that "the MDF represents an old world that will never return to Hungary", but that he now seemed to have identified himself with an MDF interpretation of history. Endre Babus, "A Szent Korona rehabilitálása?" (The rehabilitation of the Holy Crown?), Heti Világgazdaság, no. 37, 18 Sept. 1999, 107-8.
51. Hungarians were extremely frightened that their social security system and the standard of living they had enjoyed in the 1980s was slowly being eroded as a result of policies implemented by the MDF. See László Szamuely, "The Costs of Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe", The Hungarian Quarterly 37(Winter 1996):67.
52. This tradeoff known as the "pact of forgetting" is discussed in János Kis, Politics en Hungary: For a Democratic Alternative (Highland Lakes, OH, 1989)
53. Éva Rostáné Földényi and Józsefné Kelemen, both gimnázium teachers in Kiskunfélegyháza, approximately 170 kilometers from Budapest, reported that the threat of dismissal always hung over the head of anyone who was suspected of breaking the official silence (interview by author, 28 Jan. 1998).
54. See Kierkegaard's reflection on Abraham's faith that went beyond the ordinary experience of man. Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (Princeton, 1983), 35-38.