ABSTRACT
This chapter expands upon the era of liberal democracy and introduces new protagonists, post-socialist readers of exiled literature who repatriated Eszter's cult to Hungary. The chapter examines two strata of memory-makers that emerged during the last years of the collapsing regime and the early days of liberal democracy: the far right intellectual-political elite and neofascist organizations. The chapter recuperates Hungary's transition to post-socialism, explores the role of memory politics in the new era, including the emergence of Holocaust remembrance, and surveys the resurgence of antisemitism, racism, and neofascism. While tracing the return of Eszter's cult, it describes the role of the old fascist exile and the formation of new transnational networks. The chapter demonstrates how, in accordance with post-socialist anti-communism, neofascism meant to liberate its followers from the political consensus and cultural legacy of the collapsed regime. Furthermore, it argues that, in an era of “memory boom,” memory became all the more important for neofascism as well. Eszter's cult embodied a legacy that, lost and reclaimed, promised to revise the national past and challenge the liberal present.
