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Cover -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Contents -- List of Acronyms and Abbreviations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Underground Streams: National-Conservatives after World War II in Communist Hungary and Eastern Europe -- Part One: The Right-Wing Tradition in Eastern Europe after 1945 -- Chapter One: The Romanian Ideology: Merging Political Extremesin a National Stalinist Discourse -- Chapter Two: Absent Traditions: Right-Wing Strands in Slovakian Politics -- Chapter Three: A Round-Trip through the Czech Lands: The Origins of a Liberal Right Revolution -- Chapter Four: Conservative Right-Wing Political Thinking in Hungary after 1945 -- Part Two: Right-Wing Enemies through the Lens of State Security -- Chapter Five: Social Resistance under the Kádár Regime and the "Right-Wing" Enemies of State Security -- Chapter Six: Christian Democrats under Fire from the Political Police, 1945-1989 -- Chapter Seven: "Petty" Arrow Cross Supporters in the Interior Ministry Files -- Part Three: Personal Life Paths and Strategies -- Chapter Eight: "I Was Brought up the Old Way, I'm a Conservative": A Middle-Class Christian Looks Back on His Life -- Chapter Nine:A Nationalist of Successive Periods: Miklós Mester (1906-1989) -- Chapter Ten: From Right to Left-or Not? Béla Csikós-Nagy, a Paradigmatical Opportunist of Transition -- List of Contributors -- Index -- Back cover.

Imre Nagy, Prime Minister during the Hungarian revolution of 1956, was above all a politician. In his frame of mind, his mentality and his actions, he largely conformed to the archetype of a 'functionary' that typified leading figures in the Communist movement at the time. The two main features of this mentality were belief in the infallibility of the Communist Party, and belief in the role, mission and vocation of the Party and its functionaries to redeem the world, according to András Hegedüs (member of the Hungarian Politburo 1951–6, and Prime Minister 1955–6 and a dissident sociologist in the 1960s). Another important trait of functionaries in East-central Europe was to see themselves as local representatives of a worldwide Soviet empire, not just of the Party. Although the life and personality of Nagy resembled this pattern, it departed from it in a number of ways that became dramatically manifest, most of all in his final years. One explanation for this departure lies in the 'intellectual attributes' or leanings of Nagy as a leading Party functionary. This side of his character prompted him to undertake an intellectual appraisal of political problems on several occasions in his life. In the period leading up to the Hungarian revolution, it made him the leading figure in an expressly intellectual movement: the opposition among the Party intelligentsia. This study is an attempt to trace the specific intellectual path taken by Nagy as a politician.

Central and Eastern Europe has a long history of, on the one hand, ethnic conflicts and, on the other, of a revolutionary tradition against expansionism. Both have their roots in the geographical situation and ethnic composition of the region. All these problems have surfaced at times when the political status quo has been upset for some reason, such as after the two world wars and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Both great powers bordering the Danube region-Germany and Russia-have strived to develop their own versions of confederations (Mitteleuropa and Pan-Slavic movements). Also, politicians and intellectuals of the countries affected have proposed various theories, and made initiatives for different forms of closer or looser confederative formations. This book examines the reasons for the failure of these initiatives, these reasons including such factors as ethnically-motivated political antagonism, and the lack of economic complementarity. Contributing valuable information on the problems of political and economic integration, which should not be forgotten in a period when the countries of the region are looking towards the European Union, expecting-realistically or not-the solution of their various conflicts