The nine years between 1979 and 1987 have been banner years for Hungarian publications on the history of the Hungarian Communist Revolution and its leader, Béla Kun. Occasioning the increased output were two anniversary dates: the sixtieth anniversary of the short-lived soviet republic in 1979 and the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of its leader, Béla Kun, in 1986.
Historical evaluations of Béla Kun's life started with a frenzy in 1979 when his political biography, written by György Borsányi, was published; they ended in a whimper with the publication of several Kun biographies in 1987. The controversial B61a Kun has been negatively judged not only by western historians and by Hungarian historians writing during the interwar years, but also by such prominent Russian revolutionaries as the Marxist Lev Trotskii and the anarchist Victor Serge. Both considered him an incompetent fool.
