Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 375

Title

Péter Pallai Collection

Date(s)

1938 - 1988

Description Level

Fonds

Extent and medium (processed)

3 Archival boxes, 0.38 linear meters
5 Oversized box (40 cm), 2.0 linear meters

Context

Name of creator(s)

Pallai, Péter

Archival history

The collection was accumulated by Péter Pallai during the 1980s. One set of the materials comes from the BBC‘s Written Archives, while the Foreign Office materials are from the British Museum's Archive. The latter were confidential and disclosed to the public only after a 30 year moratorium. Before he donated it to the Blinken OSA Archive in 2018, Péter Pallai kept his documentation private.

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Narrative)

Péter Pallai worked as journalist at the BBC Hungarian Service for almost 40 years. As a student, he took part in the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. Shortly after, he fled to London. Over the years, Pallai documented his own and the work of colleagues at the BBC Hungarian Service, dated between 1956 and 1988.

The first series, named „Interviews and Research Documentation on Soviet Influence and the Emergence of the One-party System in Hungary until 1956 and Events Preceding the 1956 Uprising” includes interview transcripts with Hungarian politicians. These interviews are related to Hungarian politics from the interwar period until the revolution in 1956 and its immediate aftermath. Most of the documents are background material to BBC broadcasts.

The second series, „Documents on the Situation of Hungary during the Second World War and after from the BBC Written Archives and British Press Publications“, comprises various background materials for BBC broadcasts, among others, the daily press review. The documents from the BBC Written Archives include notes and transcripts prepared by BBC journalists for broadcasts. The series contains a chronology of British Press Publications, found at the British Library Archive. Furthermore, the series includes a study of the University of London on Hungarian students in Great Britain (1959), in which Pallai himself participated.

The third series, a substantial part of the collection, contains confidential communiques of the British Foreign Office, entitled „Correspondence of the British Foreign Office on Eastern Europe between 1938 and 1957“. These three large-sized boxes contain secret exchanges between various Foreign Legations from Budapest, Belgrade, Istanbul to New York and London, between 1938 and 1957. It also includes a dissertation by Michael Burd entitled “Foreign Office Attitudes towards the Soviet Union (1982)“.

The fourth series „Correspondence of the US Department of State in 1946-1947“ consists of two folders with confidential telegrams of the American Department of State about an official visit of the Hungarian Governmental Delegation to the USA and its aftermath.

Accruals

Not Expected

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

Partially restricted

Languages

English, Hungarian, Polish

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

The collection contains photocopied and typewritten documents of good physical condition. Some of the documents are oversized, these are preserved in their original form.

Allied Materials

Publication note

Pallai, Péter - Sárközi, Mátyás: A szabadság hullámhosszán - Az 1956-os magyar forradalom története - Az 1956-os magyar forradalom története a BBC elmondásában [At the Wavelength of Freedom - The Story of the 1956 Revolution - As Told by the BBC], (Helikon, Budapest, 2006.) Pallai, Péter - Sárközi Mátyás: Némi demokráciától a népi demokráciáig (1945-1948) [From Some Democracy to People's Democracy (1945-1948)], (Helikon, Budapest, 2008) Irving, David: Uprising! The Hungarian Revolution of 1956

Notes

Note

Two documents in the first series, namely David Irving's interview with György Marosán, and correspondence of Vilmos Böhm are accessible upon the permission from the Donor.

Description Control

Archivist's note

Processed by Zsófia Mária Schmidt and Örs Lehel Tari, February 20, 2019.