On October 6, 2011, ICDT launched the two latest publications of its Oral History project at the Ybl Palace. MEP Prof. György Schöpflin presented Iván Bába's The Hungarian Transition and András Heltai's Elbeszélt történelem (Oral History). The books are the latest volumes of a series aimed at commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. The ICDT launched its Oral History project in 2006 to document and analyze the transitional processes in Central and Eastern Europe between 1989 and 1990. So far, the program has featured 80 interviews with Hungarian and foreign politicians and public figures. Edited versions of the conversations are gathered in the first two volumes, Iván Bába’s Felgyorsult történelem (Accelerated History) and András Heltai's Elbeszélt történelem (Oral History), while conclusions of the interviews and lessons learned of the project are drawn in the volume The Hungarian Transition. The publications in Hungarian present the events of the transitions through the eyes of prominent figures of the era – the first one of Hungarian participants, the second one of both Hungarian and foreign actors –, thus the reader can be a part of a truly authentic and subjective reading experience. The English volume offers the possibility to share the experiences of the Hungarian transition with all those who set off on the difficult journey from dictatorship to democracy and may, hopefully, learn from our successes as well as from our failures.

Please click here to read more about the book launch on the blog of the office of MEP György Schöpflin.

Media coverage of the event:
Híradó.hu: Bába: Magyarország több lehetőséget is elszalasztott (in Hungarian)
Cívishír: Magyarország a rendszerváltáskor kihagyta a ziccereit (in Hungarian)
Galamus-csoport: Bába Iván: Magyarország több lehetőséget is elszalasztott a rendszerváltozásnál (in Hungarian) 
MixOnline: Kötetek a rendszerváltásról (in Hungarian)
168óraOnline: Könyvajánló: Elbeszélt történelem (in Hungarian)
Fidesz.hu: Bába: A rendszerváltozás megismételhetetlen pillanat volt (in Hungarian)

10 October 2011