The 1956 Research Institute was established at the initiative of twenty intellectuals from both Hungary and abroad on 17 June 1989, one day after Imre Nagy and his fellow martyrs were publicly reburied. The mission of the new institute was to research and document the history of Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

With regards to its antecedents, two organizations merit mention: the Imre Nagy Institute in Brussels, which was created soon after the revolution, and the Oral History Archives, which was founded in 1985 with the support of the Soros Foundation Hungary and which collects oral history historical sources of the twentieth century. At first, the director of the Institute was György Litván, and András  Hegedűs B. served as deputy director. Gyula Kozák was the head of OHA. M. János Bak was a research consultant.