symbolic elements of everyday culture - MTA Szociológiai ...

● Kapitány Ágnes – Kapitány Gábor ● System change – symbol change in Hungary… ●
of “entrepreneurship”, “capital”, “career” in the fifties was converted step by step into positive ideas from the
sixties on. (Earlier the notion “career” was connected with a “careerist, an individualistic person”, but
meanwhile this term acquired new associations: there are career-advisers, career-diplomats [politically
independent persons and not just political commissars, not careerists]). On the contrary the notion of world
career has a positive meaning here.
Similarly, political pluralism has been gradually granted civic rights. As a first step the category of “enemy”
changed into the notion of “opposition”. (In Hungary the international term “dissident” did not come into
general use, because it meant “political migrant”.) Then the notion “different way of thinking” appeared
(admitting the right to think differently from the official manner), followed later by the notion of pluralism –
first accepting the pluralism of ideas, and finally real political pluralism, the party-pluralism, too.
The name of the events of 1956 has also been revaluated in the official terminology. This revaluation shifted
from the notion “counter-revolution” through the neutral “tragic/sad events of October” to the category
“people's revolt” (the first official use of this third category was regarded as a great act of the pro-reform
communist Imre Pozsgay, just before the system change) and was of great importance from the point of view
of the system change. The change of notions made by Pozsgay – “people's revolt” used as a notion instead of
“counter-revolution” – at the time of perestroika did not require such great political courage as was often
thought – rather, it meant the symbolic anticipation of the system change. (Because the official legitimation of
the Kadar regime was based on the thesis that it prevented a counter-revolution.)
The resistance against state socialism was expressed mostly in the symbolic sphere, and around the symbols of
revolution as a questioning of the basis of the political system; that is why the celebration of the 15th of March
(the day of the great 19th century Hungarian civic revolution and war of independence) was such an important
symbol for both the power and its opposition. (This symbolic importance was expressed in repeated non-
official, alternative celebrations, commemorations and their police reprisals.) The 19th century revolution and
war of independence already had a symbolic meaning in 1956: it was a very suitable metaphor to express the
revolt against tyranny and the rejection of the Russian invasion and occupation.
Thinking in symbols and metaphors developed the ability to “read between the lines”. In the eighties a big
scandal was caused by a poem, because it stressed the initials of the name of Imre Nagy, the executed prime
minister of 1956 (N I). In Hungarian these two letters are the sign of the grammatical infinitive, and so they are
frequently used at the end of words. This poem was full of words ending in N+I, the author wrote these letters
with larger characters, and this “forbidden” name symbolized that the opposition wanted a revaluation of 1956
and of the whole system. It meant the demand for system change. (In the eighties many other symbolic
messages referred to the repudiation of consensus – it would be enough to analyze outstanding films, works of
literature, debates in the media of that period, but sadly we have no space to do it in this paper.)
The erosion of the system was announced not only by symbols of the radicalization of the opposition, but also
by the representatives of the official power. In the second half of the eighties some independent candidates
were allowed to take part in the one-party elections (these nominations were a formality, all means were used
to obstruct the chances of the independents). Some symbolic gestures were meant to express the intention to
reduce the alienation between the official power and the people. For example: just before the system change a
young party activist was given big publicity because he used to drive a Trabant car to the Party Centre. (The
36