Introduction
These cases depicted in this book largely mirror the Hungarian Communist system’s changing relationship with the broader Hungarian public during between 1948-1989. The impact of the 1956 Revolution, particularly with the mass defection of over forty Olympic athletes after the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, directly influenced sport leaders to implement a significant change in tactics with athletes. As elite athletes, they received lighter punishments than their ordinary Hungarian counterparts experienced, except for perhaps Sándor Szűcs. At the same time, these three men endured more scrutiny from the Hungarian leadership as a result of their privileges and popularity within the public eye than the average person. Had these men been ordinary Hungarians, perhaps their plans for defection or smuggling endeavors would not have attracted the attention of state leaders. Athletes thereby occupied a unique position between the Hungarian state and OTSH and Hungarian society. This position gave athletes the hardest task of all: balancing their top privileges and status on the one hand, with their increased visibility and scrutiny under the eyes of Hungarian leaders on the other.
[1] Steven Ungerleider’s work is the best example of the works that take a moralistic approach to studying the GDR’s doping regime. It does contain excellent information about the control that the Stasi exerted and how it was organized and implemented. Steven Ungerleider, Faust’s Gold: Inside the East German Doping Machine, Thomas Dunne Books, 2001.
[2] In the last five years, two excellent works have been published that depict the broader milieu of elite sport in East Germany. See Mike Dennis and Jonathan Grix, Sport Under Communism: Behind the East German ‘Miracle,’ Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013; and Alan McDougall, The People’s Game: Football, State and Society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.