Domokos Kosáry (1913–2007)

Domokos Kosáry was born in Selmecbánya, present-day Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia, to a Hungarian family. His mother was the writer and translator Lola Kosáryné Réz. He studied history and Latin at the Péter Pázmány Tudomanyegyetem in Budapest, and Eötvös Loránd University, one of the nation's most prestigious schools. After graduating in 1931, he visited Paris, London and the USA, returning to Hungary to earn a doctoral degree in history in 1936. From 1937 to 1949, he taught at Eotvos College, and from 1946 to 1949, at the University of Budapest. He wrote well-received books such as A Görgey-kerdes es tortenete (The Görgey Question and its History, 1936) and its sequel, Görgey (1939), and was recognized as an eminent historian. He opposed Hungary's entry into World War II on the side of Nazi Germany. However, following the Communist takeover of his country of 1949, his anti-fascism was forgotten and he was deprived of his teaching positions for being "too bourgeois." This allowed him time to work on the three volumes of his book Bevezetes a magyar tortenelem forrasaiba es irodalmaba (Introduction into the Sources and Literature of Hungarian History, 1951-1958), a massive achievement. He was imprisoned for his opposition to the Communist regime following the failed Hungarian Revolution in 1956.
In 1968, Kosáry joined the Institute of Historical Research, where he worked until 1989, writing eight more books, including one in English, The Press during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-49 (1986). He was elected president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) in 1990 and was re-elected to a second term in 1993. In 1997, he published a diary from the time of his imprisonment, A chilloni fogoly: Olvasónapló 1958 (The Prisoner of Chillon: A Diary of My Readings of 1958).