State Security Interventions, the State Security Record as a Construction of Reality

Following a series of state (bureaucratic) and state security interventions targeting members of the Peace Group for Dialogue, the movement, which had emerged publicly in the summer of 1982, officially disbanded about a year later. Some members who disagreed with the decision, however, remained active.

In a conversation with former members of the Dialogue and historians, we will revisit personal memories and explore, among other questions, why the authorities considered the movement so dangerous that they devoted so much effort to dismantling it. What methods and forms of repression were used against the group’s members? Was the Dialogue intended from the outset to promote opposition ideas, or was its initial focus “simply” the idea of peace? Did the fact that peace was difficult to criticize in the context of the state’s official peace policy play a role? How did the state socialist regime respond? Did the authorities attempt to co-opt the movement, and if so, by what means?

Participants:
Gábor Tajta, former member of the Dialogue, teacher
Tamás Szőnyei, historian and journalist
Eszter Zsófia Tóth, historian and social researcher
Ferenc Miszlivetz, sociologist and historian

Moderator: Gabriella Unger, archivist (Historical Archives of the State Security Services)

The event will be held in Hungarian.

The exhibition On Peace Square – The Peace Group for Dialogue is open free of charge through October 25, 2026 at the Blinken OSA Archivum’s Centrális Gallery.

The series is organized in cooperation with the Blinken OSA Archivum, the Historical Archives of the State Security, and CEU’s Department of Political Science.