The Destruction of History
Hungary’s right-wing government is attempting to destroy the Georg Lukács’s archive — and his legacy.
Georg Lukács and Árpád Szakasits, a former Hungarian president, at the Central House of the People’s Army on June 27, 1956.Samai Antónia / hirado.hu
The sun had just set one Friday evening when the phone rang. Miklós Mesterházi of the Lukács Archívum in Budapest learned that the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) would be confiscating the entire collection of manuscripts and correspondence held at the premises.
The following Monday morning, MTA employees arrived and began examining the collection. They checked the inventory and prepared to relocate the material to the Department of Manuscripts & Rare Books in the MTA’s Library and Information Centre.
According to the MTA, their decision is based on the spirit of “academic integrity” — relocating the manuscripts would allow them to digitize the collection, thus allowing more scholars to access the material.
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