Events

1st OCTOBER 2025 10 AM

ARTHUR KOESTLER – CHRONICLER OF DICTATORSHIPS

Imre Kertész Institute

(1068 Budapest, Benczúr street 46.)

Artur Kestler, or as the world knows him, Arthur Koestler was born 120 years ago – one of the most exciting, fascinating, and widely read Hungarian authors of the 20th century. Alongside George Orwell, he was the continent’s most influential anti-dictatorship thinker, a celebrated star of the European intelligentsia, the last polymath who remained proud of his Hungarian identity throughout his whole life.
Darkness at Noonhelped to re-evaluate Europe’s postwar ideal of freedom and forced a moral reckoning among those who rejected all forms of totalitarianism. Arthur Koestler played an indispensable role in exposing the immorality and inhumanity of communism—peddled as a heaven on earth—by speaking the truth.
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Registration is required in order to attend the event! 

PROGRAM PLAN

09:30–10:00 – Registration

10:00–10:05 – Welcome


Mária Schmidt, Széchenyi Prize-winning historian, Director General of the House of Terror Museum

10:05–11:15 – Lectures

John O’Sullivan, President of the Danube Institute
Koestler and the West

Rajmund Fekete, Director of the Institute for the Research of Communism
“Our truths were half-truths” – From Communism to Anti-Communism

Obianuju Ekeocha, biomedical scientist
Koestler through African Eyes

Dorottya Baczoni, Director of the 20th Century Institute
Promise and Fulfillment – Koestler and Zionism

11:15–11:30 – Coffee Break

11:30–12:30 – Lectures

Zsuzsanna Körmendy, journalist
The Friendship of Koestler and Orwell

Gábor Kerekes, Research Fellow at the Imre Kertész Institute, Associate Professor at ELTE
From Spartacus to Rubashov

Márton Soltész, Scientific Director of the Imre Kertész Institute
Koestler, the Writer

12:30–13:15 – Lunch Break

13:15–14:15 – Roundtable Discussion

Gábor Balogh, Senior Historian, House of Terror Museum

Zsolt Bayer, columnist for Magyar Nemzet

Tibor Fischer, Head of MCC Literary Workshop

Zoltán Szalai, Director General of MCC

14:15–14:35 – Closing Thoughts

Host: László Szabó, communication expert

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