Table of contents

1. Bartha Eszter : Stalinism in old and new historiography: theoretical and methodological problems in the definition of the phenomenon
2. Kovács-Eichner György : Uniform approach: from the mystification of the past to the defence of the present
3. Eric J. Hobsbawm : Man of the extreme century (interview)
4. Seumas Milne : On Martin Amis: Koba the Dread
5. Konok Péter : On The Oxford History of the Twentieth Century
6. Krausz Tamás : On Alexander Stykalin: Georg Lukacs – the thinker and the politician
7. Krausz Tamás : On Elemér Hankiss: In a strange world? and László Lengyel: Near the distant
8. Tamás Gáspár Miklós : Illegal pamphlet, February 1982
9. Balázs Gábor : Self-regulating French socialism and the French New Left
10. Karácsony Mihály : Is the thought of co-operatives timely?
11. Lux Judit : The story of the Hungarian National Tripartite Council
12. John Sulston : Saving the human genom from speculation
13. Richard Kuper : The American agricultural law
14. Porkoláb László : Will there be weather forecasts in 2040?
15. David Cockroft, Caroline Lucas : The political economy of tanker disasters
16. Fekete György : The reclaim of recollection

Socio-mental speculations upon a historical exhibition about the role of the Wehrmacht in World War Two.

The study presents the four main approaches in the historiography of Stalinism, summarising features of the system along the modernisation school, the totalitarian paradigm, various revisionists, and the main theses of the authors of the civilisation theory. Although scientific aspects increasingly come before in the examination of the Stalin phenomenon, in the environment of global capitalism, the research of state socialism is effected on the long run by the choice of accepting or rejecting socialism as a new civilisation.

The domination of uniform mentality, this seemingly scientific, but obviously ideologically based intellectual movement has occured after the fall of the state socialist systems. Its historical perception is simplified: its central aim is to prove the "two despotisms – two totalitarianism" theory, that is, the identification of fasism and communism. History is of final character here: historical antecedents appear as the elements of a road leading to the desired social condition, the American modell of liberal democracy and market economy.

"… the world is today full of people inventing histories and lying about history and that's largely because the people who do this are not actually interested in the past. What they are interested in is something which will make the punters feel good" – said the renowned British Marxist historian in the interview of The Observer upon the publication of his memoirs.