Sensitive about communist history?

Hi and welcome on the forum Sam!

I hope other members will be able to help you!

Good luck
Armand

Hi,

Due to my young age I am more or less impartial about communist history.

The issues surrounding the "house of terror" were fully political, and next to nothing to do with history.

I can sense tension on two levels in current day Hungarian society regarding our "dark past":
The current "elite": politicians, millionaires, high ranking military and police, celebrities over 40, etc all founded their current wealth during communism, and then multiplied it exploiting the changeover for their own personal gain.
This sucks bigtime, and casts a shadow of hopelessness over the lives of the underclass, the rest of the population. You have to be somehow related to one of these to ever be somebody.

On the other hand everyone had to collaborate to some extent.
The louder they tout their anti-communist deeds and made-up stories of retaliation, the more likely they were actually low-ranking snitches.
This is really funny :-)
Walk into any pub, and ask the lifelong alcoholics about their heroism under communism:
"I once flipped off a Russian tank after a parade, and 3 years later my math teacher flunked me!" or "I was fired from my great job for opposing the system!" (translation: showed up drunk to work by the assembly line and caused an accident.)

wow, that is an interesting topic -
it is not too easy for westerners to get the 'wibe' of how EE-people feel about the deceased socialist system, especially from those boring countries which havent had the delight of a decent dictatorship in the time range of living memory. One of the main reason is that there is a such a wide range of different feelings within society, sometimes even within the same person - this is what makes the situation to what it is.
Trying to explain: there are those who have made their peace with this epoch, in the sense that they do not perceive it in a totally black-and-white manner - perhaps they got by okay even had a  decent carrier (e.g. as scientists) under Kádár, and have no especially harsh memories - this is by no means uncommon, Kádár was indeed quite popular in parts of the 60-70's due to (slow) rise of living standards. Well yes, life was indeed simpler for many, and anyway, the person remembering was 22 years younger, no political system can bring back that...
Then there are those who hate everything vaguely linked to the old regime (e.g. the socialist party is viewed by many as 'evil' for this reason , perhaps since their families had gotten some beatings at some point, or their social class had been degraded (e.g. nobility), or sometimes for less rational reasons.
And it seems, these  feelings can sometimes be present even within the same family (say, in different generations), and also, even those with basic 'hate commies' attitude are often fond of their childhood memories - consisting of communist songs and pioneer camps, so, it is ...complicated. (And do not completely forget the older but very much existing layer of right wing dictatorship memories: the old lady saying 'I couldnt go to univ. because of numerus clausus(for jewish)' may have a different basis for comparison with later times than some other persons - we had our share of dictatorships in the 1900's - lets see about this coming century...).

You are arriving in times of a still tense political situation (even though elections are over, but economical and political crisis isn't) when these tensions are used by politicians, as you are hopefully aware. So it will not be hard to get discussions and a lot of answers:)

House of Terror: I haven't been there (yet), not sure anyone from my family has, hence, I am afraid I agree that it is more of a political battleground and a tourist site than something most Budapestiennes care a lot about (any other opinions?) I have just looked up in wikip: one political side created it to display mainly communist crimes, then the other side complained...(I mostly agree with the critics described in the wikipedia article) Anyway, communist crimes are more 'in' these days
In short: just don't forget that history is written by the winners. (There is this saying from the times of the 'system-change' "from today on everything *was* different !")

In spite of all this, I do not have the feeling we have a huge problem with the 'selling our communist past' part. Perhaps partly because - it is my perception - most western tourists will not grasp or seek for the deeper layers, they will be happy to try on/buy a red-starred-cap.

I suggest, you read some good Hungarian books in English (sorry, I am not good in other EEn nations literature of the epoch)
I read many amusing political satires, perhaps some of them are available in English. As a Briton, you should understand satire...

Say, Peter Esterházy's books should include many amusing descriptions or satires of that area. You can surely get Harmonia Caelestis (Celestial Harmonies) - a slightly artsy account of how he, the son of one of the mightiest aristoratic families became a celebrated writer - already under Kádár. And the 'revised edition' deals with the 'joining' of his father to the secret service... 

Speaking of satire, perhaps you can get your hands on the Movie 'Tanú' - 'The Witness' and 'Megint tanú' - a second part after the 'change.  I even found some english subtitles, albeit bad ones... im afraid, you will need a Hungarian friend for the fine details... (but hey, torrenting is bad, you'll get hairy palms..!-)

And there are other nice movies from that area which may both entertain and educate :-) Satire was not totally forbidden... I somehow would recommend those of eastern production, even if (or because) they are harder to grasp in their full subtlety.

Btw, many people will ask you how come you are writing a 'dissertation' at 21 - this word means a phd thesis in the german influenced part of europe.

Thanks for both of the responses! They're both hugely helpful in developing my understanding of the situation.

It's interesting that the 'House of Terror' is very much a political tool, this will shape my study somewhat. Currently I'm still developing the direction of my study so your feedback is valued as it's telling me where there are possible areas for research.

Thank you Fireroller for the explanation of the different responses for varying age-groups, I think that certainly links to szocske's response about how people have established wealth during the communist era and how others have have lost out. I'm glad you find this an interesting topic and from your response I hope that I can find an effective area to study. As I am currently still developing my study I may post back with further questions shortly (I hope that's okay).

Thanks again guys, and cheers for the tip about calling it a 'Dissertation', I'll remember that when contacting people in future! I am planning on visiting Budapest in August, so if you are around and wouldn't mind meeting up for a relaxed discussion, that would be GREAT! (you may even get a free drink out of it )

Thanks so much, and any further thoughts or ideas would be valued.

Sam