Kutyaszív [Heart of a Dog] by Bulgakov is one of the first books published by Katalizátor Iroda. This satire was considered “prohibited” when it was published in 1986, and so its publication might be regarded as a symbolic starting point of the second phase in the history of Katalizátor Iroda. The story of its publication coincides with an important stage in the life of Ádám Modor, namely his joining Katalizátor Iroda. Ádám Modor had already been involved as a printer and distributor in samizdat-making (eg. in Beszélő) since 1983. In 1986 as a printer of Beszélő, Ádám Modor printed the manuscript by Bulgakov (which was given to him by the translator) in the workshop of Kitty Márczi using the printer machine used for Beszélő. However, it soon turned out at Beszélő that they had broken an important rule, according to which the machine cold only be used to produce issues of Beszélő. According to the film interview with Ádám Modor, “in March 1986, János Kis summoned me to meet him at a coffee-bar called Ma chérie. ‘You know why I asked you to come here?’ he asked me. ‘Yes, I have some ideas.’ ‘You cannot print the newspaper anymore.’ I told him that he was right, since we had indeed produced the novel Kutyaszív by Bulgakov on the stencil machine used for Beszélő, which was not fair, was it.”[1] In the end, Ádám Modor left Beszélő, but the manuscript was published by Katalizátor Iroda. This was when Ádám Modor joined this publishing circle and this is the story of the first book publication of Katalizátor Iroda printed using a stencil machine.

[1] Gulyás János, Szamizdatos évek, film.