Hungarian Proto-Samizdat "Napló" Now Available for Research
A collection containing excerpts from Napló (Journal), considered a forerunner of Hungarian samizdat publications, is now available for research at the Blinken OSA Archivum. We publish the detailed catalog entry in parallel with the opening of an exhibition at the Art Department, in Budapest, revolving around Péter Nádas's short story Helyszínelés (Site inspection), which first appeared in the Napló, in 1977.
The Napló was created between 1977 and 1982 following an idea by Mihály Kornis. Its enthusiastic readers and writers consisted initially of 30 people, later growing to about a 100, who later formed the Budapest intelligentsia opposing the Kádár regime, also editing and writing samizdat publications. Contributors include the writers, sociologists, philosophers, and artists of the era, such as Péter Balassa, Imre Barna, Zsolt Csalog, György Dalos, Rimma Dalos, István Eörsi, Zsuzsa Forgács, Judit Fridli, Alíz Halda, Miklós Haraszti, András Jeles, János Kis, Júlia Levendel, Mária Ludassy, Miklós Mészöly, Alíz Mosonyi, Péter Nádas, Vera Pécsi, Pál Réz, and Júlia Veres.
The Napló existed in three copies that circulated among the author-readers following a predetermined route. The copies converged every three weeks, when appointed "policemen" unified their content—for this purpose, the entries also had to be prepared in three copies.
The entries were quite diverse, reflecting the varied activities of their authors; diary-like accounts of life events, everyday stories, official abuses, perceived and actual illegal actions, as well as the first publications of works of fiction. Reports reminiscent of newspaper articles, debates comprising several responses, book reviews, poems, essays, and short stories were included in this unique proto-samizdat publication, which can be considered the precursor to "classic" Hungarian samizdat newspapers (Beszélő, Hírmondó, etc.) in terms of authors, themes, and tone. Among those who joined later were Gábor Demszky, Gábor Iványi, Ferenc Kőszeg, György Krassó, Ferenc Mérei, Szabolcs Várady, and Rudolf Ungváry, while some left the founding circle, like Kornis himself, who quitted as early as 1978.
In 1982, the police seized two of the three copies from Miklós Sulyok's home during a widespread raid on December 14. The third copy survived only by chance and was, following the 1989 regime change, donated to the National Széchényi Library. Thanks to the editorial work of Imre Barna (and many others), a selection from the Napló was published in 1990. The version now available for research at the Blinken OSA Archivum bears traces of the latter edition's editorial work. It is incomplete; it is a 417-page version of the "complete" Napló, which is estimated to be about 2,500 pages long. About half of the entries in the collection are originals, while the rest is photocopies; the series is arranged chronologically.
The collection will provide researchers with many intriguing facts and research topics, e.g.:
- Rudolf Ungváry's provocative piece Nemzsidónak lenni (Being a non-Jew), which sparked heated debates about one of the taboos of the Kádár era;
- Accounts by Ágnes Háy, György Krassó, István Eörsi, and Imre Mécs, which presented rights abuses (passports confiscated at the border, Western literature seized, election irregularities) and the possible responses to them;
- András Jeles's Brigádnapló (Brigade diary), which undoubtedly served as one of the sources for his 1983 film Álombrigád (Dream brigade).
At the end of 2025, the copy held at the National Széchényi Library remains unprocessed, while the one at the Archivum is cataloged and available to anyone, even online. The Art Department's related exhibition presents an overview of the lives and works of Péter Nádas and László Rajk; the Archivum contributed by lending its original Napló for the exhibition. (While the exhibition is on view, at the Archivum we provide access to the digitized versions of the documents.)
