The Sixties in Hungary, 1958–1974

There has not been conducted thorough, coordinated historical research on the „sixties” so far in Hungary. First of all, our goal was to initiate it in this field and, if it is possible, to create new historical narratives. Within the framework of this project research was to be conducted into  international political and military relations, aspects of material and mental changes of the Hungarian society, political thought, informal political superstructures, institutions and mechanisms keeping the society under constant surveillance, the history of the 1968 reform, the new phenomenons in the arts and architecture in the sixties in Hungary. Participants of the project were working in all the important national archival collections, sometimes in regional archives as well as in archiv es in Russia and the United States. A good amount of written source material was explored, cca. 3000 photos and dozens of life-story interviews were loaded to digital database which is available on the web now.

Studies written by project participants were published in four section is of three Institute Yearbooks (2001, 2002, 2003) and in a separate volume. A volume summarizing the results of the project is under print as well as a collection of excerpts from oral history interviews on the memory of the sixties. Four documentary films were produced. We opened a new web-site on the history of the sixties in Hungary. More than 60 essays, studies and source publications written and edited by the project participants were published during the last three years. Two open conferences and a workshop were organized within the framework of the project.