How was it possible for a political system which declared itself to be the representative of the workers' and peasants' power to define the mass movement of 1956, supported by a considerable part of working class, as a counter-revolution? Why and how far has the really existing working class accepted the consolidation of the sixties and seventies? How did later this pragmatic resignation cease to exist and why has the worker class too, become a supporter of changing the political system? The historian in his paper seeks to answer these and similar essential ques­tions.

The article by László Tutő describes a less known political trial of the Kadar era, the court trial against the "left wing" Csaba Kemeny. In his introduction, Tamás Krausz broadens the horizon of the affair and tries to determine the relationship of the Kadar regime to "left wing" opposition linked with the "Heller"-case.

The Austrian author of the article analyses the nature of the emergence of the debt system after the Second World War. She pinpoints how the debt dependence developed in accordance with the interests of the capi­talist centres and which was the point when it turned into a debt trap as soon as those interests required that. In an indirect way, the article ques­tions the well known, even fashionable allegation that the indebtedness which developed during the Kadar era is a "crime of the communist regime against the nation".

The historian briefly characterises the foreign and domestic policy of those years of the Kadar regime in which a speech by János Kádár, car­ried as a document, was delivered. The speech is published for the first time now, in our paper and according to the editors' views ft can be a contribution to the better understanding of the "main actor" and the oper­ation of the whole Kadar era.