Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 408-2-3

Title

Records of the US State Department and the United Nations on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

Date(s)

1956 - 1964

Description Level

Series

Extent and medium (processed)

1 Archival boxes, 0.12 linear meters

Context

Archival history

Documents of US foreign affairs were transferred to László Varga from the legacy of historian Elek Karsai.

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Abstract)

The most spectacular sign of the isolation of Hungary from the West was keeping the question of Hungary on the UN agenda until as late as end of 1962. The UN Assembly condemned Hungary repeatedly from November 1956 on for refusing the UN report and to implement the resolutions. While the Kádár administration was careful with its policy in the UN, it did not give much attention to the UN in Hungary’s interior affairs, regarding it primarily a propaganda issue. Kádár made withdrawing the Hungarian question from the UN agenda a condition of amnesty started in spring 1963.

The first part of the series consists of historian Elek Karsai’a collection of foreign affairs documents of the US related to the events in Hungary in 1956. Elek Karsai (1922-1986) was an archivist, then chief archivist of the National Archives of Hungary from 1950, and the director of the Central Archives of the National Council of Trade Unions from 1974.

The second part of the series includes the relevant files of Hungarian foreign affairs services.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information

No destruction took place in the course of processing.

Accruals

Not Expected

System of arrangement

The series primarily is thematic, and chronological within themes.

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

The general rules of research in OSA Research Room apply.

Conditions governing reproduction

A dokumentumok oktatási és kutatási célból digitálisan másolhatók az OSA kutatótermében.

Description Control

Archivist's note

Processed by László Varga, March 2, 2015.