THE HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION OF 1956 IN THE KGB DOCUMENTS: THE CASE OF TWO ARCHIVES

Abstract

The article deals with the general analysis of documents on the history of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which are in the Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine and the State Archive of Transcarpathian Oblast. It is the first attempt to show the documents about the deportation of Hungarian citizens to the Soviet Union and to present the reactions of the local Transcarpathian Hungarian nation to the events of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and it also highlights the actions of the authorities that were aimed at the purposeful total ideological control and thus influenced the formation of the general public’s opinion about the surrounding events. The main aim of the study is to show the deportations of the Hungarian revolutionists to the Soviet Union in 1956 through archival documents and to introduce the political leaflet distributor groups in Transcarpathia, which were formed during the Hungarian war of independence in 1956. There are archival documents containing different data about the behavior of the Hungarian population in Transcarpathia related to the Hungarian events. The documents also provide information about the punishments that concerned the Hungarian groups engaged in politics. These documents reveal that the political general headquarters in Uzhhorod had been operating for a long time after Hungary was invaded by the command of Moscow. It is possible to argue that the process of exploring the sources relating to the retaliation after the revolution of 1956 has not been finished yet, there are still hundreds of archival documents, mainly in Ukraine and in the former Soviet Union Archives, which still need to be explored. However, besides getting to know the real facts of the history of the Revolution in 1956, it is important to perceive that, despite the oppression, there were people in Transcarpathia too, who dared to be brave, to believe, and protest. And there were ones who paid with their lives for justice. Because of participating in the revolution, many people were arrested, sentenced, imprisoned, deported, and executed. Their truth and role should be clarified.