Geography and State Protection: The Political Colonisation of Hungarian Geography after the 1956 Revolution

Győri, Róbert (2015) Geography and State Protection: The Political Colonisation of Hungarian Geography after the 1956 Revolution. In: International Conference of Historical Geographers 2015., 2015. július 5-10., London, UK.

Preview

Text ICHG-2015-Programme-Book_1.pdf Download (631kB) | Preview

Abstract

After World War II, Hungary became a part of the Soviet occupation zone, with a brief provisional period of multi-party elections between 1945 and 1948, followed by the violent establishment of the communist regime. This marked a radical turning point not only in the country’s history, but also in the development of Hungarian science. The “Sovietisation” of Hungarian geography began in 1949, but gained new momentum after the defeat of the 1956 revolution. All scientific institutions were purged, and this purification was conducted by entitled communists without any former affiliation to geography. By the end of the 1950s, most Hungarian geography departments had received new lecturers with fast acquired doctorates. Most of them had been émigrés, some had studied at Soviet scientific institutions, while others had been high ranking officers of either the State Protection Authorities (dissolved in 1956), or special branches of the police. Who were they? How did they manage to get scientific credentials? What did they teach? How could they produce scientific results? The aim of this paper is to enhance our understanding of how science was regulated by a colonising totalitarian regime, and how Hungarian geography in particular was colonised as a result of Soviet-era transformations.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item