Advanced search

Words from Budapest

A dissident philosopher traces his path from Ceaușescu’s Romania to Orbán’s Hungary, and from liberalism to Marxism. Memories of a vanquished world and premonitions of a bleak future in Eastern Europe, amid a downgrading of citizen equality.

The Vacuum in Hungarian Politics: Classes and Parties

“In February 1989 the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt or mszmp) formally accepted the principles of multi-party democracy. Within thirteen months of this decision, free elections were held and a complex political system emerged in which six parties came to represent distinct political fields in . . .” read more

Hungary’s Socialist Project in Crisis

“By the early summer of 1989 Hungary had become a de facto multi-party system, albeit still within a one-party structure. Numerous political forces operated openly, experiencing minimal official harassment, with meaningful if unequal access to the media. Virtually all significant actors, including the reform wing of the Hungarian . . .” read more

Introduction to Haraszti

“On 15 October 1973, the young poet Miklós Haraszti stood arraigned before a People’s Court in Budapest for ‘grave incitement’. He had ‘written a book liable to provoke hatred of the State’. The charge carried a possible eight-year jail sentence. The basis of the charge: Piece Rates, a . . .” read more

I Have Heard the Iron Cry

“The piece-work system aroused my interest. Although I had read about it, its contradictory nature left me perplexed. I couldn’t even see it as a compromise solution. In one newspaper, for instance, a Hungarian expert in ‘management science’ claimed that payment by results was the most perfect form . . .” read more

'Bela Kun and the Hungarian Soviet Republic'

“Rudolf L. Tökés: Béla Kun and the Hungarian Soviet Republic,” read more

Attila Jozsef

“Readers will remember that in nlr 24 we published translations of two poems by the Hungarian poet Attila József, and provided there a short account of his life. We now present another poem, ‘Consciousness’. It was first published in 1934, one year after József was expelled from . . .” read more

Introduction to Attila Jozsef

“No collection of poems by Attila Jozsef has ever been published in English, although he is certainly one of the major poets of the century. He was born in Budapest in 1905. His father was a worker in a soapfactory, his mother was a scrub-woman. While he was . . .” read more