A Living, Controllable Device:The Political Police and Informant Network in Socialist Hungary, 1956-1989
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- After coming to power in the wake of the infamous Hungarian Revolution of 1956, János Kádár built his regime upon a delicate balance between upholding socialist ideals and appeasing a disgruntled, scarred nation. The slogan that became Kádár’s central doctrine perfectly represented this balance: “those who are not against us, are with us.” Existing literature on Kádárist Hungary portrays the period’s stability as a product of the leader’s compromising personality and political cunning. While accurate, these accounts largely neglect the role of Kádár’s political police as a primary organ of two-way interaction between the party and populace. Internal informational documents from the Ministry of the Interior III. reveal that the mass informant network served as the spearhead of interaction between the party and population in the realm of national security, which was viewed as essential to the building of socialism. The informant network’s transformation alongside the political police from a crude, coercive, and inherently dishonest body into a more focused, sophisticated, and interactive machine reveal much about the implementation of János Kádár’s vision for socialist Hungary. Described as a “living, controllable device,” the political police’s informant network provided Hungarian citizens with an accessible and personally beneficial means of cooperation with the state. The network allowed Hungarians to prove themselves “not against” Kádár’s Party.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | [ca. September 2022 - May 2023] |
| Publication date | May 23, 2023; May 8, 2023 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Kisiday, Matyas |
|---|
Subjects
| Subject | Hungary |
|---|---|
| Subject | Socialism |
| Subject | Police > Political activity > History |
| Subject | Soviet Union |
| Subject | Revolution (Hungary : 1956) |
| Subject | Kádár, János, 1912-1989 |
| Subject | Eastern Europe |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Kisiday, M. (2023). A Living, Controllable Device:The Political Police and Informant Network in Socialist Hungary, 1956-1989. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/qt538hm7312. https://doi.org/10.25740/qt538hm7312.
Collection
Undergraduate Honors Theses, Department of History, Stanford University
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- mkisiday@stanford.edu
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