Patchwork identities and folk devils: youth subcultures and gangs in socialist Hungary

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Notes

  ¹Interview from G. Riskó, Diszkó A.B.C.D. (Budapest, 1989), 36. Agent codename ‘Dejkó’ reported in 1982 that ‘the emergence of the contractual business helps the DJs to make a bigger profit’: Állambiztonsági Szolgálatok Történeti Levéltára (ÁBTL, Historical Archive of the Secret Police), M–41158, 25. I would like to thank the OTKA (Hungarian Scientific Research Fund), T 49595 and HAS Bolyai Foundation for financial support in the production of this article.

  ⁴D. Siegfried, ‘“Don't trust anyone older than 30?” Voices of conflict and consensus between generations in 1960s West Germany’, Journal of Contemporary History, xl, 4 (2005) 727–44. For detailed analysis of the problem see A. Schildt and D. Siegfried (eds), Between Marx and Coca-Cola. Youth Cultures in Changing European Societies, 1960–1980 (New York and Oxford, 2006).

  ²See, for example, R. Kimball, The Long March. How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America (San Francisco, 2000); A. Marwick, The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c.1958–c.1974 (Oxford and New York, 1998); J. C. McWilliams, The 1960s Cultural Revolution (Westport, 2000).

  ³The foundation of institutions focusing on youth studies fostered the spread of the youth question as a metaphor for newly constructed ‘social problems’. The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) established at Birmingham University in 1964 played a decisive part for two decades in research into youth and working-class subcultures. See P. Cohen, Subcultural Conflict and Working-class Community (Birmingham, 1972). Studies that adapt Cohen's model can be found in a volume on the subcultures of young workers: G. Mungham and G. Pearson (eds), Working-class Youth Culture (London, 1976). For details on the changes in meaning of the concept of subculture, see K. Gelder and S. Thornton, The Subcultures Reader (London and New York, 1997).

  ⁵About the discourses concerning the differentiation of East and West see L. Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment (Stanford, 1994).

  ⁶For example, Magyar Ifjúság, 11 July, 25 July and 1 August 1969.

  ⁷ Népszabadság, 8 July 1969, 9.

  ⁸ Magyar Ifjúság, 18 July 1969, 10. On Béla Radics, see János Sebők, Magya-rock (Budapest, 1983), part 1, 190–5; Miklós Ómolnár, R. B. kapitány avagy pengék és halak[Captain BR, or Blades and Fish] (Budapest, 1986); Tamás Béla Tóth, Csodálatos utazás: könyv Radics Béláról (Budapest, 2002).

  ⁹ÁBTL. V–158094/1, 6. Report by the Youth and Child Protection Examination subdepartment of Budapest police headquarters, 1 August 1969. Where not otherwise specified, the sources on the march are ÁBTL. V–158094/1–3; O–13575; O–13708. For a more detailed version of the story of the Great Tree Gang in a different context see Sándor Horváth, ‘Hooligans, spivs and gangs. Youth subcultures in the 1960s’ in János M. Rainer and György Péteri (eds), Muddling Through in the Long 1960s. Ideas and Everyday Life in High Politics and the Lower Classes of Communist Hungary. Trondheim Studies on East European Cultures and Societies, no. 16 (May) (Trondheim, 2005), 199–223.

  ¹⁰ http://www.beatzenith.com/the_rolling_stones/bjones.htm

  ¹¹F. Sz, ‘Beatmise’[‘Beat mass’], Népszabadság, 28 May 1968.

  ¹²Directed by Ken Annakin, 1965.

  ¹³ÁBTL. V–158094/1, 33–4 and 37–8.

  ¹⁴ÁBTL. V–158094/1, 35. Gyula B., workers' militiaman.

  ¹⁵ÁBTL. V–158094/3, 237–8. Pest Central District Court. 9.B.23598/1969, No. 14.

  ¹⁶For example: ÁBTL. O–14729.

  ¹⁷László Szabó, Kék fény. A hippikirály[Blue Light. The Hippy King] (Budapest, 1981), 142–65.

  ¹⁹The Communist Youth League [Kommunista Ifjúsági Szövetség– KISZ] was founded in 1957 as a successor to the Association of the Working Youth [Dolgozó Ifjúság Szövetsége– DISZ] following the pattern of the Komsomol [Комсомол] which was the official Soviet communist youth organization. The KISZ served as an organization of the ruling Communist Party, the youngest members being fourteen years old, the oldest about twenty-five, while the functionaries could be older. Younger children could join the allied Pioneers [Úttörő] organization. The main task of the KISZ was to teach the values of ‘communism’ and to create a new generation of party functionaries.

  ²⁰ Magyar Ifjúság, December 1969, international edition, 16.

  ¹⁸ Die Welt, 18 May 1969.

  ²¹This phenomenon is also encouraged by the notion of Eastern Europe as a backward and peripheral region of the continent, which took shape with the definition of modern Europe from the nineteenth century. On the functions of contemporary historians' practices dealing with eastern bloc countries see M. Pittaway, Eastern Europe 1939–2000 (London, 2004), 1–13.

  ²²For example, sentences from a case-study of the ‘hippy phenomenon’ made by the police were used in articles published as the product of ‘free journalism’. Budapest Főváros Levéltára (BFL, Archive of Budapest). Budapesti Rendőrfőkapitányság (BRFK, Budapest police headquarters), 207. d. 5015/2001, 1968. KSZ 5/107/68. J. Kovács, ‘Magyar hippik’, Magyar Nemzet, 11 June 1968, 5; I. Ivanics, ‘Hippik a körúton’, Magyar Ifjúság, 21 June 1968, 3. In the magazine Magyar Rendőr[Hungarian Policeman] a series of articles began on 27 June 1968 concerning the ‘beat-hippy’ phenomenon. This was due to the collaboration of the Hungarian socialist ‘tabloid press’ (including youth magazines and daily newspapers) and the police. See S. Horváth, ‘A szocialista bulvársajtóés a társadalmi nyilvánosság arénái az 1960-as években: népszerűség és pártszerűség’[‘Socialist tabloid press and arenas of public sphere in the 1960s: popularity and party-line’], Múltunk, 3 (2005), 226–54.

  ²³S. Fitzpatrick, ‘Social identities. Introduction’, in S. Fitzpatrick (ed.), Stalinism. New Directions (London and New York, 2000), 16.

  ²⁴See, for example, D. Shearer, ‘Elements near and alien: passportization, policing and identity in the Stalinist state, 1932–1952’, Slavic Review, lxxvi, 4 (2004), 835–81. See also some articles from A. Lüdtke and P. Becker (eds), Akten, Eingaben, Schaufenster: Die DDR und ihre Texte. Erkundungen zu Herrschaft und Alltag (Berlin, 1997).

  ²⁵H. Pilkington, ‘Reconfiguring “the West”. Style and music in Russian youth cultural practice’ in H. Pilkington, E. Omel'chenko, M. Flynn, U. Bliudina and E. Starkova (eds), Looking West? Cultural Globalization and Russian Youth Cultures (Pennsylvania, 2002), 165–200, especially 181.

  ²⁶W. J. Risch, ‘Soviet flower children’ and ‘Hippies and youth counter-culture in the 1970s’, L'viv., Journal of Contemporary History, xl, 3 (2005), 565–84.

  ²⁷In Hungary many parts of the newspapers and magazines such as Esti Hírlap (daily, distributed mainly on the streets of Budapest), Magyar Ifjúság, Ifjúsági Magazin (youth magazines, including articles on rock stars, fashion and so on) and Nők Lapja (a magazine for women) belonged to this type of journalism.

  ²⁸ op. cit., 155–7.

  ²⁹ Evening News, 5 December 1954, cited in M. Brake, The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth Subcultures. Sex and Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll? (London, 1980), 73–4.

  ³⁰See, for example, ‘Az osztrák ifjúság nem kér Hollywood “filmremekeiből”’, Budapesti Est, 29 April 1952; ‘Bűncselekményre ösztönöznek az amerikai tv-közvetítések’, Budapesti Est, 3 January 1953; ‘Amerikai lapok az amerikai életformáról’, Budapesti Est, 5 January 1953; ‘Az amerikai “kultúra” hatására növekszik a női bűnözők száma’, Budapesti Est, 10 January 1953; ‘A bécsi Stefansplatzon a “Tiltott bosszú” című amerikai film plakátja rikít, előtte a második világháború egyik rokkantja. Az imperialista “kultúra”újabb gyilkosságokra buzdít’, Budapesti Est, 12 August 1952; ‘Hollywood a háborúért’, Budapesti Est, 3 February 1953; ‘Bécsi történet az amerikai gengszterfilmek “nevelő” hatásáról’, Budapesti Est, 12 February 1953; ‘Lucy és az amerikai gyerekek’, Budapesti Est, 25 March 1953.

  ³¹I. Ivanics, ‘Hippik a körúton’, Magyar Ifjúság, 21 June 1968, 3.

  ³²His diary: BFL. Pesti Központi Kerületi Bíróság, xxv–41. 640. d. 21201/1971. In a youth magazine an article was written on Kacsa, and its identity-forming effects could be well analysed in his diary. S. Hankóczi, ‘A Kiskanál és a Duna’, Ifjúsági Magazin, August 1968, 13–17. Analysis of his diary and pretending ‘foulness’: S. Horváth, ‘Ifjúsági lázadás a hatvanas években? Önteremtés és beavatás: feljegyzések a galeriből’, Fons, 1 (2006), 21–60.

  ³³BFL. Pesti Központi Kerületi Bíróság. xxv–41. 640. d. 21201/1971. 3.

  ³⁴ ibid., 21201/1971. 5.

  ³⁵T. Huszár, Fiatalkorú bűnözők[Juvenile Delinquency] (Budapest, 1964), 83.

  ³⁶B. Vincze, Az ifjúság társadalmi beilleszkedésének problémái, Belügyi Szemle, 4 (1965), 54–8.

  ³⁷J. Gillis, Youth and History: Tradition and Change in European Age Relations, 1770–Present (New York, 1974).

  ³⁸For more on this see B. Osgerby, Youth in Britain since 1945 (Oxford, 1998).

  ³⁹S. Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (London, 1972), 9.

  ⁴⁰For a comprehensive survey of the use of the term ‘moral panic’ from its coinage in 1972 until the present day see A. Hunt, ‘“Moral panic” and moral language in the media’, British Journal of Sociology, xlviii, 4 (December 1997), 629–47.

  ⁴¹Loránd Benkő (ed.), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 2 (Budapest, 1970), 258–9.

  ⁴²‘Interjú a teddy-boy-jal’[‘Interview with a teddy boy’], Esti Hírlap, 9 February 1958.

  ⁴³See, for example, ‘“Swingtónik” a Kultúrotthonban’, Budapesti Est, 6 May 1953.

  ⁴⁴About these panics, see J. Springhall, Youth, Popular Culture and Moral Panics. Penny Gaffs to Gangsta-Rap, 1830–1996 (New York, 1998), 121–46.

  ⁴⁵Uta G. Poiger, Jazz, Rock, and Rebels. Cold War Politics and American Culture in a Divided Germany (Berkeley, 2000), 67.

  ⁴⁶These characters came from the American campaign against comic books and movies, and from its reception in Hungary; see, for example, ‘Az amerikai képregények bűnözővé teszik a gyerekeket’, Szabad Ifjúság, 19 March 1952; ‘Amerikai nevelés’, Szabad Ifjúság, 6 May 1952, 4; ‘“Ifjúsági irodalom”– Amerikában’, Szabad Ifjúság, 11 May 1954, 5. For its contemporary and later scientific reception see Huszár, op. cit., 123–7. See also Garth S. Jowett, Ian C. Jarvie and Kathryn H. Fuller (eds), Children and the Movies: Media Influence and the Payne Fund Controversy (Cambridge, 1996); Richard Sparks, Television and the Drama of Crime: Moral Tales and the Place of Crime in Public Life (Buckingham and Philadelphia, 1992).

  ⁴⁷ Magyar Ifjúság, 19 January 1957, 7. Ferenc Kiss, ‘A képregény születése és halála Magyarországon’[‘The birth and death of comics in Hungary’], Beszélő, 1 (2005), 114–19.

  ⁴⁸Interview with János B., 26 March 2001.

  ⁴⁹József Molnár, Galeribűnözés. Antiszociális fiatalkori csoportok, a fiatalkori csoportos bűnözés[Gang Crime. Anti-social Juvenile Groups, Group Juvenile Crime] (Budapest, 1971), 335–6.

  ⁵⁰S. Hall, C. Critcher, T. Jefferson, J. Clarke and B. Roberts, Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order (London, 1978), 220–2.

  ⁵²UN Reports, New Forms of Juvenile Delinquency: Their Origin, Prevention and Treatment (United Nations, Dept of Economic and Social Affairs, 1960), 35–6, 43.

  ⁵¹Poiger, op. cit., 71.

  ⁵³Thomas Lindenberger, ‘Aufklären, zersetzen, liquidieren: policing juvenile Rowdytum in East Germany, 1956–1968’, paper presented to the annual GSA conference, 4–7 October, Arlington, USA. Thomas Lindenberger, Volkspolizei. Herrschaftspraxis und öffentliche Ordnung im SED-Staat 1952–1968 (Köln, Weimar and Wien, 2003), 367–443.

  ⁵⁴Katherine Lebow, ‘Socialist leisure in time and space. Hooliganism and “bikiniarsze” in Nowa Huta 1949–1956’ in Christiane Brenner and Peter Heumos (eds), Sozialgeschichtliche Kommunismusforschung. Tschechoslowakei, Polen, Ungarn und DDR 1948–1968 (München, 2005), 527–40.

  ⁵⁵The secret police reports on the Belvárosi-galeri (‘Inner-city gang’): ÁBTL. V–152296.

  ⁵⁶József Kó, Iván Münnich and Zsolt Németh, ‘A magyarországi galeribűnözés néhány jellemzője’ (‘Attributes of gang crime in Hungary’) in Kriminológiai és Kriminalisztikai évkönyv. Kriminológiai és Kriminalisztikai Tanulmányok[Criminological and Criminal Studies Yearbook. Criminological and Criminal Studies], vol. 32 (Budapest, 1995), 156–72.

  ⁵⁷‘Recollection of “Hobo”’, Imre M, 26 May 2006.

  ⁵⁹János Kőbányai, ‘Bőrnadrád és biztosítőtű’[‘Buckskins and safety pins’], Mozgó Világ, 4 (1979), 64–76.

  ⁵⁸For example a case in Győr from 1980–1: ÁBTL. O–17638. ‘Csövesek’[‘Drainpipes’]. On the moral panic on drugs and about the rhetoric used during its representation see, for example, William Ellwood, Rhetoric in the War on Drugs (Westport, 1994).

  ⁶¹Géza Riskó, Diszkó A.B.C.D. (Budapest, 1989), 132.

  ⁶⁰Some of them could get 10,000 Forints as a share during one night in 1982, which was the average monthly salary at that time. ÁBTL. M–41158. ‘Dejkó’, 67–8.

  ⁶²Szabó, op. cit., 155.

  ⁶³Angela McRobbie, Postmodernism and Popular Culture (London, 1994).