This book explores the memory of the First Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, which proved crucial for communist Hungarian political culture in the twentieth century. Apor approaches the topic in an innovative way, focusing on the understudied aspects of European memory cultures. Offering great insights on how a dictatorship remembers and the concept of authenticity, Apor's study integrates the broad range of processes through which history is sought to be rendered authentic. The volume successfully reveals the crooked history of the retrospective revisions of the iconic First Republic between the years of its 30th and 40th anniversary, 1949 and 1959.

The first book to confront the Hungarian state's problematic remembrance of 1919 under communism, unravelling the connections between how a dictatorship remembers and the authenticity of constructed memory.

About the Author

Peter Apor is a research fellow at the Institute of History in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest.

Reviews

'Peter Apor offers innovative, theoretically grounded interpretations of the Communist memory politics. This book is an important work on the history of East European Communism.' -Gabor Gyani, Research Professor, Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Visiting Professor, Central European University

'The memory of the Communist past is a major issue today - Peter Apor reverses the question and reminds us how the Communists themselves distorted national memories. This original book offers a good example of how to deconstruct these sophisticated policies of history.' -Henry Rousso, Senior Researcher, Institut d'histoire du temps present, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)

'"Fabricating Authenticity in Soviet Hungary" follows the intricate thread of the long afterlife of a short but deeply controversial historical event. The book forcefully argues that under the condition of politically induced retrospective uncertainty, all historical facts become suspect of fabrication.' -Istvan Rev, Professor of History, Central European University

Book Information
ISBN 9781783084197
Author Peter Apor
Format Paperback
Page Count 228
Imprint Anthem Press
Publisher Anthem Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 153mm * 26mm