It is with great sadness that we learnt about Eva S. Balogh’s passing a few days ago. The announcement was made on Hungarian Spectrum, the blog Ms. Balogh dedicated to “reflections on politics, economics, and culture” in Hungary from June 2007 up until her sudden death on November 30, 2021. A highly important, erudite, and critical voice among the few daily sources of information about Hungary in English, Hungarian Spectrum had over 7,000 subscribers (as of November 2021), with numerous journalists, politicians, diplomats, and scholars among them.
Eva S. Balogh (1936-2021) left Hungary as a third-year university student following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. After completing her college education in Canada, she earned her Ph.D. in History at Yale University, where she taught Central European history for almost a decade. In 1993, Ms. Balogh visited Hungary and was greatly surprised by what she perceived as a grim and conflict-laden atmosphere following the régime change of 1989. She quickly became interested in the transformation of Hungary during its “transition” to liberal democracy and Capitalism, and, with the growth of the internet, soon found herself in several online discussion groups on her native country, eventually creating and moderating one herself.
When Ms. Balogh started Hungarian Spectrum in 2007, the blog had only a handful of readers. It has, however, quickly evolved into the prime English language daily news source for Hungarians and non-Hungarians worldwide, reaching thousands of subscribers and further thousands of daily visitors at hungarianspectrum.org. To preserve this document corpus of historical value for posterity, Blinken OSA has now archived Hungarian Spectrum, and published, below the last blog entry—the one announcing the sudden death of Ms. Balogh to her readers—the following comment:
“Dear readers of Hungarian Spectrum,
The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at Central European University (Blinken OSA) has successfully archived Hungarian Spectrum (along with the first 30 or so comments appearing under each blog entry before hitting the “Load More Comments” button). Should, for any reason, Hungarian Spectrum become unavailable online, Blinken OSA will make it possible for researchers to access it offline in our Research Room at 32 Arany János utca, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary. Anyone wishing to contact Blinken OSA in this matter, please visit https://www.osaarchivum.org/ or email us at info@osaarchivum.org.”
Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives