Elena Dragomir’s essay (Reacţii ale populaţiei româneşti în contextul evenimentelor din Ungaria 1956. [The effects of the Hungarian events in 1956 on the population of Romania] Arhivele Totalitarismului, I. 1-2/2010. 96–110.; II. 1-2/2011. 73–92.), published in two parts is about the effects of the Hungarian revolution and freedom fight of 1956 in Romania outlined by Klára Jakó. The Romanian political and social situation in 1956 is investigated in the light of the Hungarian events of the same year in the essay. One of its goals is to prove that the Hungarian revolution had an effect on the whole of Romania, not only among Hungarians in Transylvania. A special attention is paid to the role of foreign radio channels in informing the Romanian population about the Hungarian revolution, emphasizing the importance of the Hungarian Radio in the case of Hungarians in Transylvania. The essay outlines the hypothesis that news about Hungarian events was in fact spread principally by „information assemblies” and information distributed by official „agitators”.
The author finds that there was an increasing level of discontent among the Romanian population, however the system of oppression functioned very effectively, suppressing every initiative to create some kind of social movement.

Klára Jakó