RC ACROSS CEE

Replaying Communism across CEE forms part of this project's major output: the publication of an edited collection focused on the impact of replaying communism on contemporary society in the region. We are excited to be working with 13 engaged academics from Europe, the UK and the US to develop our understanding of how and why the communist era is currently being presented and discussed by creatives and cultural organisations across CEE. Our geographic range is impressive as we have chapters on: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the USSR (including Estonia, Lithuania and Russia) and Yugoslavia. 

Example case study: Hungary and Contemporary TV

The RC in Hungary case study analyses the significance of the late-Communist era to the lives of Hungarians today, as seen in the internationally popular TV series A Besúgó [The Informant]. The case study highlights sociopolitical parallels between life during the Kádár era (1957-1989, when A Besúgó is set) and life during, what can be termed, the Orbán era (2010-today). We suggest that A Besúgó's depiction of the anti-Communist youth movement during Hungary’s ‘soft dictatorship’ reflects today’s intergenerational and political tensions concerning civil liberties.

Hungarian TV is neglected in media scholarship. To address this gap, the RC in Hungary project takes a multi-disciplinary approach that will diversify the field through the synthesis of original archival materials, an interview with A Besúgó's writer-director Bálint Szentgyörgyi, and the close textual analysis of contemporary Hungarian TV aesthetics. 

We hope that RC in Hungary will bring Hungarian television into the academic and public spotlight at a critical time for understanding Eastern European identities when considering Viktor Orbán’s anti-European rhetoric, anti-Eastern European sentiment surrounding Brexit, and the war in Ukraine. 

A Besúgó tells an interconnected story of the lives of university students who organise and participate in the Democratic Opposition movement in 1985, the twilight hours of Communist Hungary. 

The series begins with a scene depicting Geri Demeter, the protagonist, being blackaimed by the State Police on a train from rural Hungary to Budapest where he is due to begin his university studies. It is in this moment that Geri becomes 'a besúgó', the informant, as he is enlisted to report on Zsolt Száva who leads the student opposition. A Besúgó sees Geri move along a tightrope as he negotiates his role as an informant and his desire to belong. 

With its fast-paced espionage plot, use of Hungarian rock music, and depictions of the chaotic lives of university students, A Besúgó falls under what we define as ‘communist cool’ television drama. This emerging genre prompts broader debate concerning the significance of recycling Cold War histories for generations born after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

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