Hungarian Historiography in the Light of Two Debates (1945-1956) Ateş Uslu This essay examines the origins of Hungarian historiography and its development between 1945 and 1956. The first section identifies main currents of Hungarian history-writing in the nineteenth century and between the two World Wars, and explores the “Stalinisation” of historiography in the late 1940’s. The following sections describe and analyse two debates on Hungarian historiography. The first debate, the so-called “Erik Molnár Debate”, occurred in 1950, as a series of critical points were raised against historian Erik Molnár’s book about mediaeval Hungarian history. The “Molnár Debate” reflects the main arguments of the Marxist conception of historiography in the Stalinist era. On the other hand, the debate that took place in 1956 within the Petőfi Circle, a discussion club of young Marxist intellectuals, attests to the rise of a critical point of view in Marxist historiography. Through the analysis of these two debates, it is possible to comprehend the changing concepts of history writing, and their ties with political and social changes in Hungary.