Apor Balázs - Invisible tündöklés - Rákosi Mátyás kultusza a sztálinista Magyarországon (1945-1956)

How did Mátyás Rákosi's political environment create Rákosi's cult and how did it create a fictitious personality? When did the construction of this cult begin, and how did the leader's life between the two world wars play a role in it? In what and to what extent did the Soviet model determine the methodology and tools of propaganda and manipulation?
In his book, BALÁZS APOR subjects the Rákosi cult to a detailed examination, which the majority of today's readers have only heard about from the stories of older generations. The Invisible Shining reviews the historical antecedents, the sacred moments of the cult, the role of literature and fine arts in the glorification of Rákosi, and examines the method and functioning of the specific "research" of public opinion - surveillance, secret police, mood reports - in the Rákosi regime. Placed in a broad context in time and space, a terrifying historical phenomenon is revealed to us, which both morally and psychologically goes far beyond itself, and conveys an important, warning message for our time as well.
BALÁZS APOR is an associate professor at the Center for European Studies at Trinity College Dublin and director of the Center for Resistance Studies. His main field of research is the history of communist propaganda and symbolic politics, with particular attention to the period of Sovietization of Eastern Europe. His interests lie in the history of leadership cults, myths of the socialist era, and political rituals. His latest publications deal with the historical legacy of the socialist period.