People of the Revolution and the USSR

1957–

A historian who placed 1956 within Cold War international politics

In his interpretation, the 1956 Revolution was not a breakthrough that ended the Cold War, but an event in world politics that consolidated its stalemate.

Csaba Békés is a Hungarian historian of modern Hungary and Cold War international politics who analyzed the 1956 Revolution as a meeting point of domestic revolt and world politics. His work traces the international conditions and choices through which the revolution consolidated, rather than overturned, the Cold War stalemate. Through documentary editions and multi-archive research, he connected Hungary's experience to the history of the socialist bloc and the global Cold War.

1977–

An archival historian of Cold War military affairs

Citing the archives, Ritter argued that Hungary's Southern Defence System was built not to invade Tito's Yugoslavia but to repel a Western attack expected through its territory.

László Ritter is a Hungarian modern historian whose research centers on intelligence, state security, the armed forces, and Hungarian-Yugoslav relations. In his study of the Tito-Stalin split, he reexamined Béla Király's memoir-based claim that the Soviet bloc prepared to invade Yugoslavia, using declassified Hungarian and international archival materials. By distinguishing Hungary's southern defenses and general-war preparations from an offensive plan, Ritter kept the question of Stalin's military intentions open while challenging an influential narrative.