Contemporary History Discourses in Hungary after 1989

The article discusses the current position of Hungarian historiography towards the role of recent history in the Hungarian identity and its relationship to domestic policy. The democratic transition after 1989 contributed to a substantial change in historical scholarship through the dismissal of censorship, the opening of archives and the lifting of the ideological pressure on research. However, the change of the historical self-portrayal of Hungary after the fall of the communist regime was an element of the democratic transition. The author describes the process of the use of historical arguments in forming national attitudes and self-identity by several political circles in Hungary over the last three decades, with special attention paid to the activities and ideas of József Antall and Victor Orbán. The experiences of the 1956 revolution were initially focused on as an anchoring point for national identity after the fall of communism. In the course of these years, the centre of political attention shifted to the proposed anti-communist and anti-left wing interpretation of Hungarian history from March 1944 to May 1990, and, as author points out, it is aligned with the attitude of the ruling circles. The author notes the substantial state’s initiatives in the field of the politics of memory in recent years, especially in the early formation of the 1956 Institute (est. 1991), then the Institute of the 20th Century (XX. Század Intézet, est. 1999), the House of Terror Museum (Terror Háza Múzeum, est. 2002), the Institute for the Research on Communism (Kommunizmuskutató Intézet, est. 2011), the Research Institute and Archives for the History of Regime Change (Rendszerváltás Történetét Kutató Intézet és Archívum, RETÖRKI, est. 2013), the VERITAS Research Institute for History (VERITAS Történetkutató Intézet, est. 2013), the Committee of National Remembrance (Nemzeti Emlékezet Bizottsága, NEB, est. 2013), and the Institute of National Heritage (Nemzeti Örökség Intézete, NÖRI, est. 2013).