How do political parties integrate propaganda into ordinary citizens' lives? After coming into power in 1948, the communist Hungarian Workers' Party (MDP) drew on tried-and-true Soviet methods of political outreach, mobilizing a network of agitators to circulate communist ideology and report their observations back to party leadership. These agitators produced maps, searched homes, and taught "petty bourgeois" self-criticism and "party-conform" love and hate. Making the Hungarian Communist studies communist propaganda through the everyday actions of these rank-and-file agitators, offering a nuanced portrait of mass mobilization. Through extensive archival research and personal interviews, Helena Huhak traces the formation of the agitators' network, the training they received, and the often-gendered language they used to connect communist ideology to people's lived experiences. As the dialogue between the state and ordinary citizens developed through these interactions, the boundaries between political issues and private family life began to blur for both citizens and agitators: far from the state's initial vision of one-way political influence, homes also became a space for advocacy, complaint, and bargaining. Communist Hungary was thus shaped not only by propaganda, but also by the experiences and interests of agitators and even "agitated people." By focusing on the negotiations between local party functionaries and ordinary people, Making the Hungarian Communist reveals how the practices of agitation and propaganda mutually shaped Hungarian society and politics.
Helena Huhak is a researcher at the Institute of History, HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities. She is author of Agitatorok - Kommunista mozgositas a partallam kiepitesenek mindennapjaiban (1948-1953) [in Hungarian; Agitators: Communist mass mobilization and everyday life during the building of the party-state (1948-1953)].
Introduction Part I: The Network and Its Training Program 1. The Document Factory 2. Tell Stories Like a Communist 3. The "Reality" of Reports Part II: Mapping 4. Propaganda vs. Fieldwork 5. Public and Private Spaces 6. Agitation in Rural Areas Part III: Language 7. The "Petit Bourgeoisie" 8. Holocaust Survivors 9. Women Part IV: Communism on My Mind 10. The Janitor 11. The Controller 12. The Caregiver Part V: Private Matters 13. The Coziness of Home 14. Complaints and Bargaining Conclusions Bibliography Index
"Huhak's work gives us a new understanding what the Communist Party was, not by examining the characters, thoughts, and actions of the primary leaders . . . but by looking at the numerous functionaries." - Peter Kenez, author of Before the Uprising: Hungary under Communism, 1949-1956
