Our historian Zsuzsanna Borvendég gave a celebratory interview to Éva Harangozó in the daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet.

"The historian is currently researching the events of the Cold War relations that still affect us today. As she explained,

THE FATE OF NOT ONLY HUNGARY BUT OF EUROPE AS A WHOLE IS AT A TURNING POINT THAT CAN ONLY BE INTERPRETED IF WE UNDERSTAND THE CONTEXT OF THE COLD WAR.

She recalled that during the Cold War era, both the US and the Soviet Union, the two superpowers, pretended to be enemies of each other, and that the demonization of the other gave both empires their legitimacy as world powers. At the same time, the Soviet Union maintained its relations with global big capital under the surface, since the USSR was created by it in the late 1910s. 

- SO HOWEVER MUCH COMMUNISM PRESENTED ITSELF AS A CRITIQUE OF CAPITALISM, THERE WAS IN FACT A CONTINUOUS COLLABORATION; THAT IS WHAT MY RESEARCH IS ABOUT- emphasized Zsuzsanna Borvendég. 
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The historian stressed that Hungary and the '56 revolution was very important in this respect because it revealed the Soviet and communist ideology to the Western societies already then.

- AFTER '56, IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE TO PRETEND THAT NOTHING HAD HAPPENED, AND THE HUNGARIAN PEOPLE BECAME A SYMBOL OF FREEDOM IN THE WEST, the historian stressed.

So both the Soviet Union and Kádár had to choose new tactics. They had to make people forget that it was János Kádár who had crushed the revolution and that he was the one who had called in the Russian tanks. And Kádár acted as someone who dared to confront the regime and who - as a politician of great stature - would use his modest room for manoeuvre in a self-sacrificing way for the benefit of his people,

Concepts such as the most cheerful barracks or goulash communism come into play here. These were invented by the Kádár regime to hide the reality, Zsuzsanna Borvendég stressed.

These concepts first appeared in the West, to influence Western public opinion. It was a way to make Kádár presentable. This was necessary, above all, because after Stalin's death it became clear to the Soviets that they would not be able to compete economically with the USA and that the only way to maintain the balance would be to have access to Western capital and technology.

- BUT IT REQUIRED A TROJAN HORSE, AND THAT WAS HUNGARY: THE SOVIET UNION PRACTICALLY USED THE BLOOD OF THE '56 REVOLUTION TO OBTAIN THE BASIC NECESSITIES.

The historian also said that HER RESEARCH PROVIDES MORAL REPARATION TO THE HUNGARIAN SOCIETY FOR THE HARDSHIPS THEY HAD TO ENDURE OVER THE PAST EIGHTY YEARS."

Read the full interview in Magyar Nemzet.