On Tuesday 9 December Dr Nándor Papp, a visiting Professor at the College of International Relations, gave a special lecture on the topic: "From Yalta to Malta" – a subjective Eastern Bloc perspective of the Cold War.

Dr. Nándor PAPP graduated from Budapest’s ELTE University as a teacher of English and Russian. He has taught for more than 40 years at the biggest universities in the Hungarian capital, as well as abroad. From the mid 1980s, he was involved - as an interpreter - in state and government level negotiations towards Hungary’s reintegration in the West, membership of  NATO, and of the European Union. Between 2008-2011, he represented his country in Kiev, Ukraine, as a senior diplomat. 

Dr. Papp’s lecture guided the audience through some of the main chapters of the Hungarian "edition" of communism from the dark days of the 1950s, through the consolidation of the regime, Hungarian "goulash communism", and up to the cutting of the barbed wire between East and West and the Fall of the Berlin wall, which iconically marked the end of the bipolar world.  Dr Papp detailed the major events of the era and also gave a rare insight into actual daily life inside the communist bloc during the Cold War. His role as a participant and witness to some of the closing events in the  Cold War and his recollections of life as a young man and student during the 1960s and 1970s gave the audience a unique and fresh perspective on this era.

The lecture was well attended, with a lively and entertaining Q&A session and the faculty and students of the college look forward the Dr Papp's second special lecture in early 2015.

T French, Associate Professor, College of International Relations.