PREFACE

Private history–1956 and the Kádár period is a social scientific collection that recalls the second half of the 20th century, the 1956 Revolution and the Kádár period. Those recalling it – interviewees from the Oral History Archive – are looking back on their lives, what happened to them, and historical, political and private events and assessing them some decades later. They recall what they did during the revolution and during the subsequent period of intellectual resistance, reprisals, years of imprisonment, and difficulties of reintegration after their release. Their human successes and tragedies, compromises and qualms are typical of the Kádár period, replete as it was with contradictions. On the other hand, the extracts shed light on the motives of those in power and their interpretations of the revolution, reprisals and consolidation. A couple of the recollections provide a glimpse into the cultural and scientific life of the period as well. To make them easier to read, the interviews are given in abbreviated, edited form, although the speaking style of each respondent is retained. They are illustrated with photographs, documents and sound excerpts that convey the mood of the period.

The content service begins with a list of the basic data on the interviews. Each item is furnished with the interviewee's name, data of birth (and death), occupation, and main incidents in his or her life, followed by the grade of accessibility, the number, the date of completion, the length, and the name of the interviewer. The icon denotes an edited interview, a sound extract and , a portrait of the interviewee. Clicking on the name of the interviewee brings up a biography, a photograph and an extract, and links to pages on which sound documents can be heard. Clicking on the sound links produces a screen with size data on the sound document, which is started with a further click. These are several hundred KB or even 1–2 MB and download at a speed determined by the bandwidth available. They require the Windows Media Player for playing. Clicking on a photograph or a photograph in the text enlarges the picture and makes the data on it available.

Footnotes compiled specially for the Hungarian-language interviews are marked with a superscript index number. These are links to the note section at the end of the interview. Clicking on the index number at the beginning of the note returns the reader to the original point in the main text. There is a GLOSSARY compiled from the database of the '56 Institute to provide information on events, concepts, institutions and persons mentioned (especially those connected with the 1956 Revolution).

Development of the content has made some of the material available in English translation. This can be reached from the page showing the biography of the interviewee.