Imre Nagy EXECUTED—BUT NOT ALONE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28619, 23 June 1958, Page 12

Imre Nagy EXECUTED—BUT NOT ALONE

[By

“A SOCIALIST"]

When in November, 1956, the might of the Soviet Red Armycrushed the Hungarian Revolution, which had asked no more than the right to choose Hungary’s own road to socialism in accordance with Khrushchev’s promises at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union nine months earlier, most of the world protested in horror. This included not only conservative politicians and editors, who hated every form of socialism anyway, but almost all left-Labour circles, and some one-fifth of the then membership of Communist Parties in most Western countries. In protesting, these Socialists and Communists were upholding an honourable tradition. From the very birth of socialist ideas and organisation in Britain, for example, the cause of civil liberties vras interlocked with the struggle of workers for the franchise, for the right to organise, for the shorter working day, and ultimately for a new social order in which industry and the land would be controlled for the benefit of every one. “An injury to one is an injury to all” is one of the oldest of Labour slogans. “Solidarity for ever! In union we are strong” is one of the most en- . during and inspiring of Labour songs. The militancy by which workers increased their share in the national product and their place in the national life recognised that all were responsible, collectively and individually, for each separate member. No employer might be allowed to victimise, and no politician to whittle away the rights of, any one citizen, lest the whole structure of the movement be thereby undermined. Release of Dimitrov As the socialist movement increasingly adopted the international outlook expressed in Marx’s slogan, “Workers of the World—Unite!” many a local battle was extended into a wider arena. Celebrated cases of frameup in the United States (SacchoVanzetti, Tom Mooney, and Scottsboro Boy cases) were taken up all over the world. In 1934, international protests actually succeeded in forcing the Nazis to release the Communist hero Dimitrov, whose rigged trial for allegedly setting fire to the Reichstag was one of the “justifications” for Hitler’s dictatorship. Post-war years have witnessed the campaign for reprieve of the Rosenbergs, who were finally executed, after a trial with some very dubious features, and conviction for handing atomic secrets to Russia—at a time when Russia was an ally. So, too. thousands abroad have urged freedom to travel for Paul Robeson, and also for Rockwell Kent, who has just been reported to have won a victory with the United States Supreme Court’s ruling that the State Department had no right to refuse him a passport. Since Khrushchev denounced the police terror of Stalin’s regime and revealed its scope and brutality, thousands on the Left had realised that their fight for justice must operate also inside their own movement. In their consciences they cried out, like Julia Rajk, widow of the “posthumously rehabilitated” former Foreign Minister of Hungary, who was executed for “Titoism” in 1949:

“Where were the members of the party while these things were happening? How could they allow such degeneration to take place without rising in wrath against the guilty?”

Nevertheless, when it came- to November, 1956, the solid core of Communist officials and the majority of their followers were prepared to condone the reimposition by naked force of Soviet control over Hungary; to call the Kadar Government legitimate; and to accept the excuse that the Red Army was merely helping to put down a counterrevolution which had got out of hand and had begun a reign of terror, instancing the lynching of some political and secret-police officials. At this time, the fundamental rightness of the demonstrations which commenced in Budapest on October 23 was universally acknowledged. Promise of No Reprisals

“We must all agree,” said Kadar in a broadcast on November 11, a week after the Red Army struck for the second time, “that the real reason for ' the people’s movement which started on October 23 must be sought in the serious faults and crimes of the Rakosi clique. ...” A clear promise was made that there would be no reprisals. Four days later “Nepszabadsag,” the Communist paper, reported discussions between Kadar and a 19-member delegation of the Central Workers’ Council. Kadar spoke of a multi-party system, free, honest elections, and an attempt to reach agreement with the deposed Premier Imre Nagy. He “definitely confirmed that no-one would come to harm because of his participation in the great popular movement of the past few weeks.” “New Times,” the Soviet weekly journal whose English-language edition circulates in New Zealand, also referred on November 15 to “the popular movement which began on October 23.” and included among the “grave mistakes” committed by the former leadership, “rank bureaucracy, violation of socialist legality, and disregard for national sentiment, which incensed the masses.” According to this account, “the majority of those who shared in the mass demonstrations had no intention of undermining the socialist system” but “soon the murderous gangs” of counter-revolution and reaction were pushing themselves to the forefront and unleashing a “savage white terror.” Succeeding issues echoed this theme. Replying (“New Times.” November 29. 1956), to a statement by 21 prominent French writers, headed by Jean-Paul Sartre, Soviet writers went so far as to admit some responsibility for Hungary’s situation under the corrupt Rakosi regime, and commented that “When the Hungarian people Presented their just demands to

their leaders, this was received with sympathy in our country.” In these first reports the name of Imre Nagy was not mentioned. By December 6, however, “New Times” was remarking (without proof) “the Imre Nagy Government ceded one position after another to the reactionaries. It remained passive and in the end virtually collapsed. It continued to regard the counter-revolution-ary revolt that followed in the wake of the healthy popular movement as a ‘people’s revolution.’ ” This type of approach was common in the Communist press everywhere. Nagy was pictured, not as a villain but as a weak-kneed dupe. Safe Conduct Pledge

When on November 23, Imre Nagy and his colleagues were promised safe conduct from the Jugoslav Embassy to their homes, only to have their bus boarded by Soviet officers and driven off to Rumania, the Communist press took care to insist that no harm had come to them and that they had gone voluntarily. As far as possible a “liberal” impression was being carefully given to wojrld communist opinion, in order to silence any further outbursts of protest; and a picture was painted of a Hungary gradually accepting its new government and being helped back to a peaceful, prosperous existence.

Thus many thousands of honest people of the Left, who might otherwise have vigorously upheld the Hungarian workers and condemned the reversion to brutal domination, were “softened up” to accept this distorted but plausible account of events. They accepted it all the more readily because it was widely known that under the United States Mutual Security Act, millions of doljars were being spent to assist anti-communist movements in Central Europe. They did not know what some American reports subsequently revealed: that the United States Embassy staff was so undermined by McCarthyism that they did not know what was going on from day to day. The diplomats were prohibited from dealing with “red” or even “pink” Hungarian citizens, but as w’ell-nigh every one was so tinged, where could they obtain their information? However, those who wanted to think well of the Soviet action were sufficiently satisfied with their dual answer. The people’s movement was originally genuine; but the counter-revolution, aided by the Americans, bad taken over and had to be crushed. Moscow Changes Its Tune By April 14, the tune of “New Times” was beginning to change. Hungary had now been “pacified.” the strikes were ended, the Workers’ Councils were dissolved, and the uproar in the world communist movement had simmered down. Communiques were now published of the visit to Russia of the Hungarian Government and party delegation headed by Kadar . In these documents the Hungarian rising took on a more sinister appearance. The whole thing was a “fascist revolt” in which the details had all been worked out beforehand. Imre Nagy no longer merely “yielded” to the counterrevolution. “The conspirators succeeded in engineering the counterrevolutionary revolt primarily because they had allies in the Hungarian Workers’ Party in the shape of the treacherous NagyLosonczy group which, perfidiously masking itself with declarations of loyalty to socialism, worked hand in glove with the counter-revolutionary underground long before the October events.”

The implication of this attack, so reminiscent of the invective against Rajk in 1949, was obvious. The traitors and imperialist agents w'ere due for trial and punishment. The discrepancy between this line and that of NovemberDecember, 1956 passed without comment in the Communist press. Nevertheless, from A~ril, 1957. when the threat was made public, to June 1958, when it was carried out, was a period of fourteen months. Why the delay? These are two possible explanations. One, that the Soviet and Hungarian and other Communist leaders were deeply divided. The other, that public opinion could still not be ignored in Hungary, in neighbouring Jugoslavia (which Russia still hoped to draw into the Warsaw Bloc), in the Communist Parties abroad, and among the best-informed of the Soviet people themselves. Meanwhile, the courts of the Government which had promised “no reprisals” had not been idle To April of this year, Hungarian patriots abroad estimated the number of persons imprisoned ot interned at over 20,000. AU the leaders of the Revolutionary Workers’ Councils had been gaoled, and some executed, after open trials reported in the Hungarian press. True, “NewTimes,” and Communist papers published in English did not reprint these reports. The “Horthyite gendarmes and imperialist agents,” who were supposed to have flocked back to Hungary, or to have stepped ou! from the shadows to direct the uprising. were conspicuously absent in the courts. Intellectuals Stirred

Two cases stirred the sympathy especially of intellectuals abroad. The first was that of Georgy Lukacs, eminent Marxist philosopher and a literary critic of European reputation regardless ot ideology. Lukacs was Minister for Education in the short-lived Communist Republic of 1919. Now in his eighties, he played a leading part in inspiring the spirit of his people. After he was taken to Rumania with the Nagy group, writers and intellectuals abroad began asking pertinent questions on his behalf. However, Lukacs eventually returned to Budapest where he was given an insignificant appointment and carefully shielded from any contact with the pub lie.

The second was the case ol Tibor Dery and Gyula Hay. veteran writers and also Communists. Dery’s stories, burning with human sympathy and indignation against cruelty and brutality, circulated rapidly during the months preceding the uprising when the tide of public anger was rising. Some have

been printed in English periodicals and “Niki, the story of a dog,” has been recently published in book form in Britain. Dery and Hay were at first sentenced to death. After protests in which British and French writers of the Left were prominent, their sentences were commuted to six years’ forced labour. This is the first known case where a Communist court has been influenced by feeling abroad.

A big question mark still hangs over the name of Julia Rajk. When her husband was executed in 1949, Mrs Rajk was gaoled, and these are her own words when she denounced Rakosi and his accomplices in the fiery meetings which followed the “rehabilitation” of 1956: “Comrades, there are no words with which to tell you what 1 feel facing you after cruel years in gaol, without a word, a crumb of food, a letter, or a sign of life reaching me from the outside. living in despair and hopelessness. When they took me away I was nursing my five-month-old infant. For five years I had no word of my baby.” Turning directly towards the white-faced functionaries on the rostrum, she said: “You not only killed my husband but you killed all decency in our country. You destroyed Hungary’s political, economic, and moral life!” Julia Rajk. with her young son, was among the coUeagues of Nagy kidnapped after leaving the Jugoslav Embassy. Nothing is known of her since then. Judicial Murder

We are now, with the judicial murder of Imre Nagy, Pa) Maleter, Miklos Gineas, and Joszef Szilagy, faced with a duplication of the methods by which Stalin maintained his personal dictatorship and which Khrushchev denounced so trenchantly at the 20th Congress of his party. Further tension between Russia and Jugoslavia appears inevitable. The longed-for summit conference between the great Powers is receding. The Cold War goes down below freezing point, when the peoples of the world are longing for warmer days and for relief from the threat of nuclear war. Th* 3 “tough” reactions of such old foes as John Foster Dulles can only serve to stiffen the equally tough Russian leaders. But if these are Stalin’s methods they are not Stalin’s times. There is a more inquiring public in Russia and a more sceptical membership among the millions of Communists all over the world. What voices have been heard and will be heard, in private or in public—not from the Soviet’s avowed enemies, but from their friends; not from those who want the downfall of the socialist systems, but from those who want a further advance into socialist democracy?

These are the quarters from which protest may have some influence—even, in the final analysis, powerful influence. Imre Nagy is dead, after an all-too-familiar type of trial. But according to reports, he did not confess but stuck to his Communist “new course” to the last. Messrs Khrushchev, Kadar, Munnich and Company will nnt be able to count the people who have seen this signal to Hungary* and to the world.