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HU OSA 361
Fonds 361: Personal Papers of András Hegedüs [Hegedüs András irathagyatéka]

Date(s) 1940-1998 (1956 - 1996)

Extent and medium

Estimated total:
151 archival boxes
Currently processed:
162 Archival boxes, 20 linear meters

Name of creator(s) András Hegedűs

Archival history

After Hegedüs' death the family donated his papers to OSA Archivum with the stipulation that they be kept together and made available to researchers. Miklós Szabó, a prominent Hungarian historian and an expert in the works and life of Hegedüs started the processing work, but unfortunately his sudden and unexpected death prevented him from completing the task. OSA Archivum continued his work on the basis of his original suggestions, but with certain modifications to his originally proposed classification.


In Hungarian:

A Hegedüs hagyaték olyan dokumentumokat és írásokat tartalmaz, melyek szemléletesen mutatják be Hegedüs András életútját a háború előtti baloldali egyetemi diákszervezkedésektől kezdve a Rákosi diktatúra miniszterelnöki posztján keresztül, a másként gondolkodó, a szocializmus elméleti és gyakorlati problémáira rámutató szociológusig. A hagyaték csoportosítása egyrészt saját elképzeléseit követi, melyeket maga kezdett megvalósítani, másrészt az ő életművét kiválóan ismerő, értő történészét, Szabó Miklósét. Az iratok rendszerezését a tényleges feldolgozás során felmerült újabb szempontokkal egészítettük ki.

Scope and content

The series “Biographical data" makes up a relatively small part of the collection since most of András Hegedüs’ biographical documents belong to the series “Personal files, documents". The reasoning behind this is that Hegedüs published most of his biographical materials in his memoirs. Also found in the latter series are the various manuscripts and other versions of his published memoirs.

The series “Essays" is likewise relatively small, since most materials of this type are filed under the series “Sociological writings" or “Political writings".
Hegedüs’ correspondence is divided into two series: “Letters Written by András Hegedüs" and “Letters Written to András Hegedüs".

The works, articles and essays that were written by others and preserved by Hegedüs are divided into two separate series. Under the series “Writings by others" are filed those printouts and manuscripts in which the author was clearly identifiable and the writing was obviously the result of individual effort. In cases when a work was written by a team or under the aegis of a research institute, and/or the author was not clearly identifiable, documents were filed under the series “Manuscripts of Institutions".

The series “Workers’ Academy" contains documents related to the foundation and operation in the 1990s of this special, privately-run educational institution, which Hegedüs treated as highly important in the last part of his life.

There are many newspapers and clippings, which Hegedüs wanted to preserve for various reasons. These are separated into two series. “Press clippings" contains full or partially preserved articles for which the purpose of preservation was apparent. The series “Complete newspapers" includes those editions that were preserved in their complete form, in some cases for unclear reasons.

It is not widely known that András Hegedüs had literary aspirations as well. The manuscripts of his various attempts — according to our knowledge none of them was ever published - that remained in partial or almost complete form are filed under the series “Literary works".

Alongside these main groups, the Hegedüs Papers contains assorted photographs and fragments. The textual fragments that were identifiable are filed under the appropriate series.

Accruals Not expected

System of arrangement

Language/scripts of material

English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Swedish (Principally Hungarian)

Related units of description

Date(s) of descriptions

Arranged by Miklós Szabó and Lóránt Holtzer in 2002 and 2003. Described by András Mink, January 20, 2004; revised by Katalin Dobó and Pavol Šalamon, March 2004
Online version updated 8 June 2010
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