Trans-systemic mobility, travel reports and knowledge acquisition in Cold War Hungary in the 1960s and 1970s

Abstract

ABSTRACT How did the state socialist regimes of the Soviet Bloc acquire knowledge about the ‘West’? Despite the ready-made ideological framework about the nature of Western capitalism and ‘imperialism’, state socialist authorities constantly sought out and relied on new information about the societies and governments beyond the Iron Curtain. Since this learning process exceeded the competences and the energies of the Party and state organs, they relied on the observations and assessments of privileged individuals who were allowed to explore the world outside the Soviet Bloc. Focusing on the cultural and scientific contacts between Hungary and the United States, the article analyses a specific form of information-gathering: travel reports that reflected on work and study trips to the ‘West’ . Hungary, like most of its regional neighbours, became more open in the 1960s, signing a series of economic and cultural agreements with capitalist countries. The regime encouraged tourism and the number of travellers from and to the West quickly increased. Scholarly exchanges with the United States started through the Ford scholarships (since 1964) and then the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) (since 1968), and connections multiplied as Hungarian academics, artists and professionals were integrated into transnational networks. While the authorities could not control and shape all aspects related to the cross-systemic mobility of information, goods and people, they aimed to monitor closely the process through institutional bodies like the Institute for Cultural Relations which had strong ties to the State Security. All officially monitored travellers were required to attend an ‘orientation’ session before leaving and were expected to produce a written report afterwards in which they evaluated their trip, their hosts and the experience. The article investigates the form and the function of such travel reports in the wider context of covert and public knowledge production and dissemination about the ‘West’ in state socialist countries.