by Eszter Neumann and Melinda Kovai The AnBlokk Association conducted the „Counter-pedagogy under State Socialism” research&education program between February 2011 and January 2013. The project explored a particular experimental pedagogic space in State-Socialist Hungary. From the late 1930’s to the 1970’s, each summer, Eszter Leveleki, a teacher trained and inspired by the flourishing reform-pedagogic scene of the 1920s and 1930s, organized her private summer vacation in a small lakeside village 60 kms north from Budapest. Attracting children mostly from artist-intellectual…

by Nelli Piattoeva It happened at the end of the 1980s during perestroika or right after 1990, I cannot remember the exact time. My parents were eagerly absorbing liberal newspapers that were full of revelations about the cruelties of the Soviet regime and the hypocrisy of Soviet leaders. Once I picked one such a newspaper – Argumenty i Facti – and read a short article about Lenin. It accused Lenin of ordering the killing of his critics. I was astonished…

by Iveta Silova I grew up listening to beautiful fairy-tales of all kinds, including Latvian and Russian folk tales, Brothers Grimm, Pushkin, Lewis Carroll, and fairy stories my grandmother told me almost every night. My dad loved reading fairy tales aloud to me and he always chose books with the most beautiful illustrations. Later, when we bought a much coveted record-player, I also listened to the recordings of different fairy tales. These recordings, especially the 1976 release of Lewis Carroll’s…

by Zsuzsa Millei A girl, Patricia, joined us in the kindergarten group in a regional town in Hungary. We have never had a child visiting before. Now we had someone from Chile. I remember being full of questions but don’t remember how and when I received answers. It was in 1974 or 1975, just a couple of years after the start of the Pinochet regime in Chile. Many who were active in the Communist Party have left Chile. My mother…