Domokos Szokolay

Bio

Domokos Szokolay is an independent researcher, he holds a PhD in modern history from Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary. His research interest focuses on the production and challenges of memory politics in post-Soviet East-Central Europe, with a special emphasis on the state-controlled national remembrance in Hungarian politics. He also interested in exploring periods of crisis, transition, resistance, and retaliation. In his dissertation, he examined the history of political prisoners in the Sopronkőhida penitentiary during World War II and those taken to Soviet forced labor camps, using the concepts of crisis and spatiality.

Research project

My research examines how national remembrance of Hungary's communist dictatorship has been shaped from the 1980s to the present, focusing on statecontrolled narratives and public debates. It explores dissatisfaction with post-regime change efforts to address the dictatorship's legacy, including limited access to state security records and the continued influence of former regime actors. The research aims to analyze both state-established narratives and counter-narratives, using theories of collective memory and politically sensitive discourse. It hypothesizes that the current remembrance discourse originated before the regime change and seeks to investigate the key actors involved in shaping official and alternative historical narratives.