Ritual and National Self-Interpretation: The Nagy Imre Funeral

Abstract

On 16th June 1989, Prime Minister Nagy Imre1 of Hungary was buried with full honours. Hehad died thirty-one years before. Nagy became premier and the country’s leader during the1956 uprising against Communist rule. Soviet military power, formally invited by thecounter-government of Kádár János, who was to give his name to the next thirty-three-yearera in the country’s history, soon crushed the revolution, and after a show trial its leaderswere executed in 1958. Since the legitimacy of the Kádár regime rested on the lawfulness andjustifiability of the retaliations after 1956, the interpretation of the upheaval and its aftermathwas strictly controlled and the memory of its leaders and casualties forcibly suppressed,which included their unceremonious interment in unmarked graves. When they were finallyaccorded the long overdue last rites after more than thirty years, the occasion marked theend of an era in a more than merely symbolic sense.