Cold War History Research Center, staff, Melinda Kalmar

Curriculum Vitae

Melinda KALMÁR

Date of Birth: 31 October 1959
Place of Birth: Salgótarján, Hungary
Permanent Address: H-1039. Budapest, Kinizsi u. 38, Hungary
Phone: 361-240-1253
E-mail: kal5496@helka.iif.hu

Education
1979–1984 – József Attila University, Szeged; Majors: Literature and History
1984 M. A. – József Attila University, Szeged
1987 University doctor’s degree – József Attila University, Szeged
1997 Ph. D. – Szeged University

Work experience
2001– Independent researcher
1998–2001 I was working on a research grant in the Institute of Art Theories and Media Research, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. My research topic was: The transformation of the communist model and its ideology in Hungary, 1948-1989.
1991–1998 I was working as a member of a research group of the “Committee for the Contemporary History of Hungary” of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Our research topic was: Information Policy and the History of Censorship in Hungary from 1956 to 1989.
1991 I was a visiting lecturer on literature at Szeged University where I had classes on "Literature and Politics in the 1950's in Hungary"
1987 I completed my doctoral thesis on the theory of socialist realism in Hungary.
1984–1991 Researcher in the Institute of Literary Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Present-day scholarly activity
From 1984 I have been working on the following main topics:

1. The transformation of the communist model and its ideology in Hungary, 1948–1989. In 1998 I published a monograph in this field covering the period 1956–1963. In my forthcoming monograph I will analyze the whole communist era from 1948 to 1989.

2. Political transition in Hungary, 1988-1990.

From 1998 – as one of the six editors – I participated in the project of publishing all minutes and materials of the roundtable talks in Hungary in 1989. This unique scholarly enterprise resulted in the publication of seven volumes of documents (cc.600-700 pages each), and a volume containing the first archive based studies on the topic and a CD ROM containing the material of all seven volumes, supplemented with a large amount of legal documents not included in the printed volumes.
Studies abroad

In 1991 I was awarded a grant by the British Council for conducting research in the British National Archives, the Public Record Office in London. I spent there two months and studied the documents of the Foreign Office relating to the cultural life in Hungary from 1949 to 1956.

In 1992 I spent two months in the United States, in New York and Washington D.C..My research trip was supported by the Soros Foundation.
My research topic was the cultural ideology of the McCarthy era in the US, concentrating on the years from 1949 to 1956. It was very useful and important to me to have had the opportunity to study the cultural ideology of the American fifties and to compare it with what had happened in the Eastern Bloc in the same period. I carried out research in libraries and in the National Archives in Washington D.C..
In 2001–2002 I spent 9 months in New York. I studied the international literature on the history of Communism and Communist ideology.

Selected publications

1.) Contemporary history

Books
A politika poétikája. A szocialista realizmus teóriájának adaptációja Magyarországon, 1949-1956, Doktori disszertáció [The theory of socialist realism in Hungary, 1949-1956] Doctoral dissertation, Szeged, 1987. 121 p. - (manuscript)
Ennivaló és hozomány. A kora kádárizmus ideológiája, [Food and dowry. Communist ideology in the early Kádár period] Magvet? 1998, 281p.
Cseh Gerg?-Kalmár Melinda-Pór Edit (Eds.): Zárt, bizalmas, számozott. Tájékoztatáspolitika és cenzúra, 1956-1963, (Dokumentumok) [Information policy and censorship, 1956-1963. Documents] Osiris, 1999. 541. p.
A rendszerváltás forgatókönyve. Kerekasztal-tárgyalások 1989-ben. [The Script of the Political Transition. Roundtable Talks in 1989], Vols. 1-8, Eds.: András Bozóki, Márta Elbert, Melinda Kalmár, Béla Révész, Erzsébet Ripp, Zoltán Ripp, (Vols. 1-4) Magvet?, Budapest 1999, (Vols. 5-8) Új Mandátum, Budapest 2000.
Rendszerváltozás Magyarországon 1989-1990. Dokumentumok. [Political Transition in Hungary, 1989-1990. Documents] (eds.-in-chief): Békés Csaba, Malcolm Byrne, (eds): Kalmár Melinda, Ripp Zoltán, Vörös Miklós, National Security Archive, Hidegháború-történeti Kutatóközpont, 1956-os Intézet, 1999
Political Transition in Hungary, 1989-1990. A Compendium of Declassified Documents and Chronology of Events, Eds. Csaba Békés, Malcolm Byrne, Melinda Kalmár, Zoltán Ripp, Miklós Vörös, National Security Archive, Cold War History Research Center, 1956 Institute, 1999
A rendszerváltás forgatókönyve. Kerekasztal-tárgyalások 1989-ben - CD ROM, [The Script of the Political Transition. Roundtable Talks in 1989, CD ROM] (eds): András Bozóki, Márta Elbert, Melinda Kalmár, Béla Révész, Erzsébet Ripp, Zoltán Ripp, Új Mandátum kiadó, 2000

In preparation:
A kommunista ideológia átalakulása Magyarországon, 1948–1989 [Transformation of the Communist Model and its Ideology in Hungary, 1948–1989] – (monograph in preparation)

Articles
A politika poétikája. Irodalom és politika Magyarországon az ötvenes években [Poetics of Politics - Literature and Politics in Hungary in the 1950's] - Holmi, May 1993, 715-730.pp.
Az 1955. tavaszi újságíró-ellenállás egy dokumentuma. [A document of the journalist opposition in the Spring of 1955] - Kritika, October, 1994 8-9.pp.
Mikor lehet belôle történelem? [Past and Contemporary History of 1956] - (with Csaba Békés), Népszabadság, 22 October, 1994
Fifties Cultural Policy in British Diplomatic Dispatches, - The Hungarian Quarterly 1995.36. Autumn
Az ideológiaformáló nyilvánosság szerkezetváltozása [The transformation of ideology-forming publicity] - Holmi, November, 1995. 1603-1617. pp.
A derékhadat zászlónak dobták? [On literary debates in 1955] Népszabadság, November 11, 1995.
Meg?rzött és átalakított ünnepek [Preserved and transformed celebrations]- História, 1995. 9-10. 58-61.o.
Optimizmusra szükség van - de illúziók nélkül. Volt-e esély 1956-ban? - Kádár a forradalom nélkül nem tudott volna kádárizmust csinálni. [Optimism is needed but without illusions. Was there a chance in 1956? Kádár could not have established “Kádárism” without the Revolution]
Népszabadság. October 22., 1996 (with Csaba Békés)
Az irodalmi élet szerkezetváltozása 1956-1962 [The structural change of literary life, 1956-1962]- Holmi, January, 1997, 78-95. pp.
A kora kádárista könyvkiadás paradoxonjai - [Paradoxes of publishing policy in the early Kádár era] Beszél?, February, 1997. 121-126. pp.
Integráció és átalakulás [Integration and Transformation], Kritika 1997.2. 34-36.pp.
Standeisky Éva: Az írók és a hatalom [Éva Standeisky: The writers and the power] - Holmi, February, 1997. 295-298.pp. (book review)
Lukács és a koegzisztencia - [George Lukács and coexistence] Beszél? 1997. 7, 88-94.pp.
Két beszélgetés: Radnóti Sándor és Agárdi Péter az Aczél-korszakról [Two conversations: Sándor Radnóti and Péter Agárdi on the Aczél era] - Nappali Ház 1997.2.
Révész Sándor: Egyetlen élet. Gimes Miklós története [One life. The story of Miklós Gimes] Holmi, June, 2000 (book review)
Modellváltástól a rendszerváltásig: az MSZMP taktikájának metamorfózisa a demokratikus átmenetben. In: A rendszerváltás forgatókönyve. Kerekasztal tárgyalások 1989-ben, Vol.7. Alkotmányos forradalom. Tanulmányok. [From model change to Regime Change: The Metamorphosis of the Communist Party's Tactics in the Transition. In : The Script if the Transition. Roundtable Talks in 1989. Vol 7. Constitutional Revolution. Essays.] (ed): Bozóki András, Új Mandátum kiadó, Budapest, 2000. 283-307. pp.
From “Model Change” to Regime Change: The Metamorphosis of the MSZMP’s Tactics in the Democratic Transition . In: András Bozóki (ed.), The Roundtable Talks of 1989: The Genesis of Hungarian Democracy. Budapest-New York: CEU Press, 2002. 41-69.pp
Political Transition in Hungary in 1989. Selected Documents. Bulletin, Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington D.C., 2002 Winter. pp. 73-87 (with Csaba Békés)
Az optimalizálás kísérlete. Reform-modell a kultúrában. 1965–1973. [An attempt at optimization. The reform model in culture, 1965–1973] In: „Hatvanas évek Magyarországon”. Szerk.: Rainer M. János. 1956-os Intézet, 2004. pp. 161-198.
An attempt at optimization. The reform model in culture, 1965–1973. In: György Péteri (ed.) The Sixties in Hungary. Trondheim University, 2005.
A történeti tudat sokszín?sége. [The diversity of historical consciousness] In: Mit kezdjünk vele? – Kádár János (1912–1989) [What should be done with him? János Kádár – 1912–1989) XX. Century Institute, Budapest, 2007, pp. 100–108.

2.) Literary criticism
Nádas Péter: Emlékiratok könyve. Értelmezési kísérlet [Péter Nádas: Book of Memoirs. An Interpretative Essay] Vigilia, 1988. 2. 135-139.pp.
Dr. Hozelka érzéki utazása az asszociációk szküllája‚ s a koncentráció kharübdisze között [ Dr. Hozelka's Sensual Journey...Philosophy of the Associative Prose] Jelenkor, 1989. 3. 295-301.pp.
Beszélgetések El Kazovszkijjal [Conversation with (painter) El Kazovszkij] Nappali Ház 1991. 1-2. 78-86.pp.
A következetlenség dícsérete - kritikai helyzet-vázlat [The Praise of Inconsistency - The State of Contemporary Criticism] Nappali Ház 1991. 1-2, 3-6.pp.
Az erotika geometriája [Geometry of Eroticism - Eros and the Language of Modern Criticism] Nappali Ház, March 1993, 37-46.pp.
Teljes vagy egész. Két könyv 1986-ban - Nádas Péter: Emlékiratok könyve és Esterházy Péter: Bevezetés a széirodalomba [Two books published in 1986. Péter Nádas: Book of memoirs and Péter Esterházy: Introduction to literature. (The Modern Hungarian Novel and the Transformation of the World Concept in the mid-nineteen-eighties)] Beszél?, 1999. 6. 72-75. pp.
Besides, since 1989 a considerable number of interviews have been made with the author by several programs of Hungarian Television, Hungarian Radio and by numerous newspapers.