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Ádám Modor, the owner of a publishing company and a printing press and the leader of Katalizátor Iroda (Catalyst Office), was a journalist and historian. He was born on 9 November 1958 in Debrecen to a family of professionals. His father was a General Practitioner and was, in Ádám Modor’s words, “a cultural manager with a great professional calling in the best sense of the term. His main source of inspiration was the oeuvre of Dezső Szabó [a populist writer of the 1930s].” Ádám Modor attended secondary school and ELTE University in Budapest. At the latter, he studied history and cultural management (andragogy). He completed his MA-equivalent degree in 1984 after defending his thesis about movies, which examined the 1950s and the age of Stalinism. As early as his years in grammar school (he attended the Radnóti Grammar School), he showed an interest in works printed as samizdat. At this time, he met people who later became his colleagues. As a university student, he met members of the democratic opposition, and he then became an active participant in the activities which were part of the cultural resistance. In his memoires and his family stories (narrated in the interview), he identified his relationship with István Orosz, one of his teachers at the Radnóti Grammar School in 1976, as the starting point of his intellectual dissidence. (Orosz showed movies directed by Tarkovsky to his students during his Russian language classes.) This sparked Modor’s later interest in movies, and his connection to Orosz did not end even in the period of underground and samizdat publishing. He regularly read books published as samizdat while he was a university student: “it was at some point in 1979 when, for the first time, I was given a prohibited book, handed to me by László Földes, one of my university teachers, who held lectures on political economics at ELTE. It was the first issues of Magyar Füzetek. When works published as samizdat started to spread at the Faculty of Arts, I increasingly got my hands on typed books. As far as I can remember, this was how I read Darabbér by Haraszti.” After graduating, he worked for the Film Institute until 1985, and he then worked at the Rákosrendező railway station between 1986 and 1989. His notes about this period contain the following recollection: “I got a job at the Hungarian State Railway (MÁV) on 24 January 1986 as a lamp-operator in Rákosrendező. [...] At the HR office of MÁV, a somewhat corpulent women in her 40s was surprised when she learned that I had a university degree and asked me why I decided to work there. I gave her some explanation. Suddenly, her face lit up, and she asked me to give her reports from time to time on the mood among the staff: what were they talking about, and what sorts of problems did they have.

-          You know, we did a psychological survey last year, but it was somewhat formal.

-          I know – I replied, and I promised to come to her and snitch on the others, and then I turned and walked out of her office.

At Rákosrendező, he worked as a lamp-operator in the so-called “Aladdin-brigade” with some of his samizdat colleagues, “including an accountant with a secondary school degree, a future teacher of Hungarian literature in his last year at the university, a would-be English teacher, and, of course, me, and at the time I was doing the final stages in the programs in the departments of history and cultural management and had spent one year in the Film Institute. There was also a mason with a secondary school degree who was in fact the originator. This man, named Zoli Illés, along with his wife, Vera Fogarasi, was to be a key figure in the activities of the Katalizátor Iroda.”  Thus, the Aladdin-brigade was a stage for personal relationships which evolved into the publication of samizdat. In addition to Zoltán Illés, Modor made friends with Vlagyimir Németh (Vova) here.

In 1983, Ádám Modor was first involved in samizdat publishing after a 1982 incident (the requisition of the “Rajk-boutique” and an intensive campaign of suppression against the places of distribution of samizdat printings). He took over the printing of Beszélő (with the support of István Orosz), and he started to work for the Áramlat Publishing House as a sub-editor (as Lajos Jakab suggested he do this). Gábor Demszky asked him to participate in the distribution of samizdat in his (Modor’s) flat (from 1983 onwards). In his memoirs, István Orosz offers the following recollections of their work related to samizdat in its initial stages:

“I got to know Ádám Modor as a practicing teacher, and we have kept in touch since then. Ádám organized samizdat publishing at Katalizátor Iroda, and he asked me if I had an interest in taking part in this. At first, I tried to ignore this question, but then I told him that I already worked with a stencil machine (mimeograph) [to produce Beszélő] and I needed help putting it together and procuring raw materials. So Zoli Illés and Ádám Modor also helped me get paper and ink.” He also met the associates of Katalizátor Iroda at this time, including József Gehér, Zoltán Kurdi, Gábor Rózsa, Erika Laczik, and Róza Hodosán. As one of the leaders of Katalizátor Iroda, alongside his civil work, he dealt with publishing and distribution of books between 1985 and 1995, contributing to the publication of a number of historical and social scientific works and also works of fiction. After the political transition, Katalizátor Iroda had difficulty publishing and selling, and in 1995, it closed.

After Katalizátor Iroda closed, he worked as a journalist for Fővárosi Közmű (in 1996–1999), and he also published in various other newspapers, including Holmi, Napi Magyarország, Népszabadság, Beszélő, Kalligram, Bécsi Napló, and Nemzetőr (in Munich). He was employed on a permanent basis at Magyar Nemzet (2001–2003). He was an assistant researcher at ORTT (National Radio and Television Administration) between June and September 2000. He also carried out historical research (chiefly from 1997) concerning the history of samizdat and the democratic opposition. He published three books in these years: A titok meg a nyitja (On Secrets and the Way They can be Revealed), Célkeresztben Krassó (The Target: György Krassó), and the first volume of Ellenségből ellenzék (From Enemy to Opposition). A closer look at his work on film reveals that his interest in movies can be traced to his secondary school years. He showed a strong interest in film as a university student and, later, as a researcher (e.g. István Gál, the director of Talpalatnyi föld, István Szőcs) and filmmaker. While working as a journalist, he also took part in research concerning the media (with the Magyar Gallup Intézet [Hungarian Gallup Institute]). He began working on documentaries with János Gulyás in 1997, producing films on various periods of the Kádár era and on underground groups. Movies on which they worked together include Szamizdatos évek (The Samizdat Years), a portrait of Tibor Pákh, and the documentary Katalizátorok (Catalysts). His movies emphasize the important role of the “foot soldiers” (to use Modor’s words) of samizdat production, i.e. people other than the well-known hero figures who also made major contributions.

Marijan Molnar was born in Reka near Koprivnica on November 10, 1951. He graduated with a major in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1976. For four years, he was an associate in the Master Workshops of painters Ljubo Ivančić and Nikola Reiser, and also collaborated with the artists gathered around the Podroom Gallery and Extended Media Gallery in Zagreb. He participated in about 100 group exhibitions and about 40 solo exhibitions, carried out a number of actions and performances, most notably "For the Democratization of Art," " Burning Paper on Snow," "Three Square on the Earth," "Memory on Three of Square," and "Do you like it...?"

Art historians and museum scholars emphasize that Molnar was one of the pioneers of conceptual art in Zagreb in the 1970s. Although initially relying on painting as a medium, very early he began to practice art based on the experiences of the "New Artistic Practice". Igor Loinjak states that since the beginning of his career, Molnar has shown a broad range of interests, and followed world trends and approached art from the processual point of view. He differs from other conceptual and post-conceptual colleagues by his pronounced socially based activism, which is particularly reflected in the "For the Democratization of Art" cycle, where Molnar, using the language and methods of the socialist ideology such as state symbols (the five-pointed star), pointed out the link between art and the broader social context of that time." (˝Izložbom ‘O prvom i drugom’ Marijana Molnara otvorena nova sezona u Galeriji Kazamat˝. Osijek031.com, September 26, 2016.  http://www.osijek031.com/osijek.php?topic_id=64086)

He established intense cooperation with the artists gathered in the Podroom Gallery in Zagreb in the period from 1977 until 1983, where he was involved in many events and exhibitions. He was also involved in the activities of the Extended Media Gallery in Zagreb, where he staged a solo exhibition in 1981. Besides his subversive artistic work "For the Democratization of Art," he was not involved in any direct opposition to the socialist regime. 

Today, Molnar continues his work through the PLEH artist collective, founded in 2007. Apart from Molnar, the group includes Kata Mijatović, Vlatko Vincek and Zoran Pavelić. PLEH wants to revitalize and actualize the meaning of Molnar's slogan "For the Democratization of Art," which it has done through exhibitions in Koprivnica in 2008, Subotica in 2009, Sarajevo in 2010 and in Ljubljana in 2014. (Jasmin Duraković. ˝Korak za demokratizaciju umjetnosti!˝ Depo Portal, June 26, 2010.   http://depo.ba/clanak/10097/korak-za-demokratizaciju-umjetnosti#17) 

Gergely Molnár is a founding member and frontman of the short-lived cultic band Spions. This was one of the bands that started the new wave in Hungary in 1977 and was a source of inspiration for an entire generation of alternative musicians. Besides music, he worked on movies, experimental theatre productions, and literature. His diverse interests naturally sprang from each other, and of course had a strong influence on one another.

Molnár first appeared in the first half of the 1970s at the artist György Galántai’s chapel exhibition venue in Balatonboglár. At this time, his ambitions were primarily literary: he was a member of various underground literary salons, writing essays and poems, and he was part of a number of anthology initiatives. As his writings became more and more theatrical, he naturally turned towards theatre: he participated in the work of the Kassák Studio, the Kovács István Studio, and started the Donauer Vedio Familie with László Najmányi and Kati Örsi, a direct prelude for Spions. Between 1975 and 77, he gave a number of lectures about movies and rock culture at the film club of the Ganz-MÁVAG House of Culture, as well as in the Kossuth Club and the Club of Young Artists (Fiatal Művészek Klubka, FMK). Among others, Lou Reed and David Bowie was a favourite subject of these lectures. The latter also served as an inspiration for short stories, essays, and even screenplays. His interest in films went even further: besides the critiques and analyzes, he made a number of video films with László Najmányi at the time. But Molnár also wrote and edited a “one-person diary journal”. The monthly journal with only a few a copies contained studies, photographs, poems and private documents of his.

In 1977, from this community, the band Spions was formed by Gergely Molnár, Péter Hegedűs, György Kurtág jr., and with the contribution of László Najmányi. This also meant the start of the Hungarian art-punk and new wave. Despite the relatively scant repertoire and the fact that they only had a total of three concerts, their impact on the Hungarian alternative music scene was enormous: they were followed a whole generation of underground bands. Molnár and Najményi were already well-known figures of the Hungarian neo-avantgarde scene, which bond was determinative for how Spions operated. They turned towards music with to hope to break out from the narrow circle of the neo-avantgarde scene and reach a bigger audience. From this point of view they were not making music with the goal of making music: what was attractive and inspiring about the genre was its ‘interdisciplinary’ nature, the possibility to connect the various branches of art. As a result, their concerts were more like performances rather than concerts: they were interwoven with elements used in experimental theatre, provocation techniques specific to avantagarde, literary experience and media awareness from their past with movies.

Their provocative, sarcastic lyrics, scandalous performances, and the general attitude of having no regards to anything was something that the cultural politics of the 1970s could not tolerate. Playing in the band Spions came at a high price: Molnár was beaten up several times, his apartment was vandalized. Finally, as many artists at the time, the members of Spions - except for Tibor Zátonyi - left the country. The transformed Spions continued to play in Paris, where they eventually released a TP (Russian Way of Life, 1979) and an EP (The Party). Shortly after they disbanded: Molnár and Najmányi went to Canada, while Hegedűs moved to the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, the legacy of Spions survived: their songs, along with other documents and texts by Molnár were collected and published in the samizdat journal Sznob International in Budapest in 1982, and their impact on Hungarian alternative music was profound.

Gergely Molnár still lives in Montreal, and refuses to speak Hungarian. “ Hungary does not exist to me anymore” - said after emigrating, and he seems to keep himself to this since then. Over the years he worked and performed in English, under the names Gregory Miller, Anton Ello, Gregor Davidow, and Helmut Spiel!. According to the latest news, today, he works on a radio show, records a video diary, dances using the name Charlotte Bonaparte, meditates, and writes a book about the history of rock. He is also a member of the Supranational Social Party, a movement developed by him and László Najmányi.

The historian János Molnár was born in Budapest in 1969. He specialized in 20^th-century history, and has been a freelance researcher as well as oral historian for more than fifteen years. His main research interests are the internal affairs of post-war Hungary and the democratic opposition of the Kádár era.

Molnár received his MA degree in History from the Loránd Eötvös University of Budapest in 2003. Afterward, he started his career, while taking PhD courses from the University of Debrecen, as a research assistant for János Kornai, Professor of Economics, for two years, researching at archives for Kornai’s memoir By Force of Thought. From 2005 to 2010 he worked as a freelance researcher for the 1956 Institute Budapest and conducted interviews for its Oral History Archives (OHA). He interviewed dissident intellectuals who had signed the Czechoslovakian Charter ’77 protest in 1979, foreign journalists, and Hungarian emigres who had returned from the Soviet Union. Fourteen of his full-length, life history interviews can be assessed at OHA (transcribed over more than 5,000 thousand pages).

After the 1956 Institution was annexed by the National Széchényi Library in 2011, Molnár created the website “Memory of the 20^th Century” (http://www.hsze.hu/en), publishing a series of his oral history interviews. Since February 2012, the website shares interviews, pictures, and other documents. So far, this is the only collection in Hungary offering free access online to life history interviews, with background documents in Hungarian as well as English.

In 2012, to the website he created called “Memory of the 20^th Century” (http://hsze.hu/da/en), he added a digital archive that includes Gabriella Lengyel’s Collection on the history of SZETA (Hungarian dissidents’ Fund for Aiding the Poor). This website aims to process and publish smaller, unknown private collections of documents, with summaries and notes also in English.

Tamás Molnár (1955–) is a graphic artist. He was a member of the Inconnu group.

In the late 1970s, he worked in Szolnok in as a librarian and organizer of cultural events. In 1978, he was one of the founding members of Inconnu. He participated in the actions of the group and in the actions, performances, and demonstrations of the democratic opposition. In 1985, he moved to Budapest because of the harassment he endured at the hands of the police, as the other members did too. He ran a private gallery named Arteria Geléria, where artistic and political events were organized.

In the 1990s, he began to become active in politics as a supporter of right-wing tendencies. He wrote articles in national-conservative journals, and he served as the deputy chairman of the far-right party Jobbik. In 2005, he published a list of agents who had reported on the members of Inconnu. In 2006, he was one of the leaders of a huge demonstration against the government in the Kossuth Square. Until roughly 2005, he actively participated in political life. He then went into retirement and organized a workshop of artists.