The Kádár regime was born in blood. Crawlers of foreign tanks, a series of massacres and political assassinations created the basis of the power of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, but it was impossible to build legitimacy, i.e. social acceptance, on this foundation. Therefore, the regime consolidated: it used new techniques of power to quell the nation's resistance, to break its back, to nip the voices of discontent in the bud. This was the fermenting and all-absorbing world of "goulash communism", from under which the last ideological support fell on 28 January 1989. 

We celebrate the Day of Hungarian Culture on 22 January when Ferenc Kölcsey completed his most influential poem. The Day of Hungarian Culture is celebrated on 22 January to commemorate the day in 1823 when Ferenc Kölcsey completed his most influential poem, a poem that became the national hymn. We commemorate the birth of the Hymn with an earlier article by Andrea Raffay of the Centre for Historical Research.

In the first days of February 1945, the dreaded terror organisation of the communist era [...] the predecessor of the later ÁVH - the Political Police Department of the Budapest Police Headquarters (BRFK PRO), under the direction of Gábor Péter was established. The unit, which functioned virtually as a private army of the Communist Party, was organised within the police, but its leader never recognised any superior other than Mátyás Rákosi or directly the Soviet secret service officers.

The man of outstanding talents originally was not a candidate for the royal title. In the volatile environment of the Kingdom of Hungary, even members of the royal family who were not directly contenders to the throne had to be prepared for any eventuality. To better understand the conditions in the Carpathian Basin immediately before the accession of Béla III, here is a short quote from the great traveller Abu Hamid al-Gharnati, who called the Hungarians Bashkirs and wrote many interesting things about them:

After the wreath-laying ceremony, Gábor Horváth-Lugossy, our Director General spoke to Gábor Vásárhelyi (Béla Bartók's successor), who said that one of the most important things to clarify about Béla Bartók's life and his intellectual legacy as a composer, pianist, folk music researcher, folk music collector and music academy teacher, among others, is that posterity should know that Béla Bartók never emigrated from Hungary and never renounced his homeland.