In this paper we argue that the socialist kindergarten in Hungary (1948-1989) was set up to aid the modernizing of a nation in a particular way and in a historical and political context in which the only way forward was to leave behind aspects of the past and start a new chapter in Hungarian history. Comparing this project to the "cosmopolitan" project discussed by Thomas Popkewitz, we argue that kindergarten education was more similar to education in the fictionalized West than previously thought. By reading socialist kindergarten education, curriculum, and pedagogy as part of the broader "cosmopolitan project", we show how particular civic/civil habits, behaviour, and morals were formed to produce modern citizens, often in contradistinction to stated socialist ideology. We also explore regional versions of cosmopolitanism that are attached to the developing nation-state and the creation and violent negotiations of what it means to be Hungarian, against the background of the region's rich cultural and ethnic diversity.