TRONDHEIM STUDIES ON EAST EUROPEAN CULTURES & SOCIETIES
No. 16
Muddling Through in the Long 1960s. Ideas and Everyday Life in High Politics and the Lower Classes of Communist Hungary
Edited by János M. Rainer and György Péteri
Chapters 1-3 and 5-8 were translated from the Hungarian by Brian McLean
The Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Budapest
Program on East European Cultures and Societies, Trondheim
Recenziók a könyvről
Preface
The present publication is the fruit of joint efforts on the part of the Institute for the History of
the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Budapest, and the Program on East European Cultures and
Societies, Trondheim. The essays in our volume represent a selection from the papers written
for the project "The 1960s in Hungary" organized by the 1956 Institute and sponsored by the
National Program for Research and Development of Hungary. An earlier version of these
essays were included, in Hungarian, in János M. Rainer, ed., "Hatvanas évek"
Magyarországon. Tanulmányok (Budapest: 1956-os Intézet, 2004). Since then all the essays
have undergone a number of revisions on the basis of comments from the process of
anonymous peer review, translation into English, and editing. We are grateful to all our
colleagues who undertook to act as readers and helped us by their comments to improve the
quality of our papers. Brian McLean’s careful and excellent work should be credited for the
translation into English of all but one of our essays. As usual, his contribution has been more
than simple translation – his questions and suggestions have helped us to produce greater
clarity and precision in our texts.
György Péteri and János M. Rainer
Budapest and Trondheim, May 2005
Contents
János Rainer: The Sixties in Hungary—some historical and political approaches
Gábor Kovács: Revolution, lifestyle, power and culture—features of political thought in the Sixties
Melinda Kalmár: An attempt at optimization. The reform model in culture, 1965–1973
György Péteri: From Purge to Scandal. The MEGÉV-affair and the changing political style in communist Hungary
Zsuzsanna Varga: Questioning the Soviet economic model in the 1960s
Tibor Valuch: From long house to square. Changing village living conditions in Sixties Hungary
Eszter Tóth: Flats, gardens, oranges, Kennedy rings
Sándor Horváth: Hooligans, spivs and gangs. Youth subcultures in the 1960s
Notes on Contributors |