Between Peace and War: Hungary in 1944-1945 – bottom view. A Historiographical Survey

The appreciation of the year 1945 began almost immediately after the war, and lasts until today, while generating strong tensions in both public life and historiography in Hungary. Debates concerning the politics of memory were crystalized especially about the question if 1945 represented a liberation (of the German yoke) or an occupation (by the Soviets). Recent research, of which this contribution summarizes the results, has considerably enriched the literature with new points of view on the intermediate period of 1944 – 1945. The new historical projects are interested, by inclusion of unexploited sources so far (memories of the daily people, accounts of the survivors of the deportation, letters of the prisoners of war etc.) to the experiences and strategies of the individuals and various groups during the war and the subsequent post-war period which was moving towards the establishment of a communist dictatorship.