___JÁNOS M. RAINER: THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE SECURITY AND INDIVIDUAL HISTORY. [RAINER M. JÁNOS: ÁLLAMBIZTONSÁGI SZERVEZET]___
JÁNOS M. RAINER:
The organization of the state security and personal history. Some thoughts of introduction with reference to The File of T. Garton Ash
János M. Rainer in his introduction to the dossier "The organisation of the state security and personal history" poses the question referring to The File, written by Timothy Garton Ash, whether the reality of the past is recoverable through sources of the institutionalised workshops of lying of the communist state security organisations. What kind of story can be built up on the papers which from the first offered deceptive stories on those kept under surveillance because of the informers precogitated standpoints? In 1989 there was hope that most of the sources would be accessible when the topic ceases to be taboo, but several obstacles continue to hinder the accessibility of the files of the state security to citizens and to historians alike. The studies of this volume are examples of the two possible approaches currently available. One of them tries to catch the genesis, the restructuring of the state security organisations of the Kadar period, while the other applies a different, perhaps more important genre, which is also the subtitle of Garton Ash´s book: personal history. From this viewpoint, while the examination of the history of the organisation, its most important dates, direction, as well as its development, is not without value, it cannot however reveal more than other kinds of analytical study on the classical or reformed totalitarian regimes. On moral grounds, personal history has incomparably much effect and Garton Ash considers the "facing of the past" and "telling the truth" on the dictatorships primarily not as a historical but a moral and political problem in the Central and East European region.
