Imre Nagy, the son of peasants,
was born in Kaposvar, Hungary
in 1896. He worked as a
locksmith before serving in the Austro-Hungarian
Army during the
First World War. He was captured by the Russian
Army and spent
most of the war in a prison camp in Siberia.
He escaped in 1917 and fought with the Bolsheviks
in the Russian
Revolution.
Nagy
joined the Hungarian Communist Party when he returned to Hungary in
1918 and held a minor post in the Soviet Republic established by Bela
Kun in 1919. Admiral
Miklos Horthy, commander-in-chief of the
Imperial and Royal Fleet, returned to Hungary in November 1919 and
led the overthrow of the Soviet Republic. Nagy lived undercover until
fleeing to the Soviet Union in 1929. Nagy
remained in exile throughout the Second World War.
When the Red
Army liberated Hungary
from the German
Army,
Nagy returned to Budapest and served as Minister of Agriculture in
the provisional government established in 1945. In this post he introduced
important land reforms.
In 1947 Nagy became Speaker
of the Hungarian parliament and became associated with those
who favoured a more
liberal communist regime. Over the next few years Matyas
Rakosi attempted to impose authoritarian rule on Hungary. An estimated
2,000 people were executed and over 100,000 were imprisoned. These
policies were opposed by some members of the Hungarian Communist Party
and around 200,000 were expelled by Rakosi from the organization.
Rakosi had difficulty managing
the economy and the people of Hungary saw living standards fall. His
government became increasingly unpopular and when Joseph
Stalin died in 1953 Matyas Rakosi
was replaced as prime minister by Nagy.
However, he retained his position as general secretary of the Hungarian
Communist Party and over the next three years the two men became involved
in a bitter struggle for power.
As Hungary's new leader
Nagy removed
state control of the mass media and encouraged public discussion on
political and economic reform. This included a promise to increase
the production and distribution of consumer goods. Nagy also released
anti-communists from prison and talked about holding free elections
and withdrawing Hungary from the Warsaw
Pact.
Matyas
Rakosi led the attacks on Nagy. On 9th March 1955, the Central
Committee of the Hungarian Workers Party condemned Nagy for "rightist
deviation". Hungarian newspapers joined the attacks and Nagy
was accused of being responsible for the country's economic problems
and on 18th April he was dismissed from his post by a unanimous vote
of the National Assembly. Rakosi
once again became the leader of Hungary.
Rakosi's power was undermined
by a speech made by Nikita
Khrushchev in February 1956. He denounced the policies
of Joseph Stalin and his followers in
Eastern Europe. He also claimed that the trial of Laszlo
Rajk had been
a "miscarriage of justice". On 18th July 1956, Rakosi was
forced from power as a result of orders from the Soviet Union. However,
he did managed to secure the appointment of his close friend, Erno
Gero, as his successor.
On 3rd October 1956, the
Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party announced that
it had decided that Laszlo
Rajk, Gyorgy
Palffy, Tibor Szonyi and Andras Szalai had wrongly been convicted
of treason in 1949. At the same time it was announced that Nagy
had been reinstated as a member of the Communist Party.
The
Hungarian
Uprising began
on 23rd October by a peaceful manifestation of students in Budapest.
The students demanded an end to Soviet occupation and the implementation
of "true socialism". The police made some arrests and tried
to disperse the crowd with tear gas. When the students attempted to
free those people who had been arrested, the police opened fire on
the crowd.
The following day commissioned
officers and soldiers joined the students on the streets of Budapest.
Stalin's statue was brought down and the protesters chanted "Russians
go home", "Away with Gero" and "Long Live Nagy".
The Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party respond to
these developments by deciding that Nagy
should become head of a
new government.
On 25th October Soviet
tanks opened fire on protesters in Parliament Square. One journalist
at the scene saw 12 dead bodies and estimated that 170 had been wounded.
Shocked by these events the Central Committee of the Communist Party
forced Erno Gero to resign from office
and replaced him with Janos
Kadar.
Nagy
now went on Radio Kossuth
and announced he had taken over the leadership of the Government as
Chairman of the Council of Ministers." He also promised the "the
far-reaching democratization of Hungarian public life, the realisation
of a Hungarian road to socialism in accord with our own national characteristics,
and the realisation of our lofty national aim: the radical improvement
of the workers' living conditions."
On 28th October, Nagy and
a group of his supporters, including Janos
Kadar, Geza
Lodonczy, Antal Apro, Karoly Kiss, Ferenc Munnich and Zoltan Szabo,
manage to take control of the Hungarian Communist Party. At the same
time revolutionary workers' councils and local national committees
are formed all over Hungary.
The new leadership of the
party is reflected in the comments made in its newspaper, Szabad Nep.
On 29th October the newspaper defends the change in the government
and openly criticises Soviet attempts to influence the political situation
in Hungary. This view is supported by Radio Miskolc and it calls for
the immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country.
On 30th October, Nagy
announced that he was freeing
Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty and other
political prisoners. He also informs the people that his government
intends to abolish the one-party state. This is followed by statements
by Zolton Tildy, Anna
Kethly and Ferenc Farkas concerning
the reconstitution of the Smallholders Party, the Social Democratic
Party and the Petofi Peasants Party.
Nagy's most controversial
decision took place on 1st November when he announced that Hungary
intended to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact.
as well as proclaiming Hungarian neutrality he asked the United
Nations to become involved in the country's dispute with the Soviet
Union.
On 3rd November, Nagy announced
details of his coalition government. It included communists (Janos
Kadar, George
Lukacs,
Geza Lodonczy), three members of the
Smallholders Party (Zolton Tildy, Bela
Kovacs and Istvan Szabo), three Social
Democrats (Anna Kethly, Gyula
Keleman, Joseph Fischer), and two
Petofi Peasants (Istvan Bibo and Ferenc
Farkas). Pal Maleter was appointed
minister of defence.
Nikita
Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet
Union, became increasingly concerned about these developments
and on 4th November 1956 he sent the Red Army
into Hungary. Soviet tanks immediately captured Hungary's airfields,
highway junctions and bridges. Fighting took place all over the country
but the Hungarian forces were quickly defeated.
Nagy sought and obtained
asylum at the Yugoslav embassy in Budapest. So also did George
Lukacs,
Geza Lodonczy and Julia Rajk, the widow
of Laszlo
Rajk. Janos
Kadar, who claimed
that Nagy had gone too far with his reforms, became Hungary's new
leader.
Janos
Kadar promised
Nagy and his followers safe passage out of the country. Kadar did
not keep his promise and on 23rd November, 1956, Nagy and his followers,
were kidnapped after leaving the Yugoslav embassy.
On 17th June 1958, the
Hungarian government announced that several of the reformers had been
convicted of treason and attempting to overthrow the "democratic
state order" and that Nagy, Pal
Maleter and Miklos Gimes had been
executed for these crimes.
(1)
New
York Times (25th October, 1956)
Even during the many years
he spent in Moscow as a Communist refugee Hungary's new Premier, Imre
Nagy, was regarded as a strange
sort of Communist by his comrades. Their
puzzlement about him was expressed by
the nickname they gave him: "kulak," the Russian
word meaning a rich peasant of the sort
Stalin exterminated in the early thirties. Mr.
Nagy's Communist comrades called him "kulak"
because in background, appearance and
tastes he reminded them of the rich, solidly
bourgeois peasants they had known in
Hungary. A burly 6-foot 200-pounder, he
never made any secret of his fondness for good
food, good drink, good clothes.
Walking down the streets
of Moscow he looked like a prosperous Hungarian peasant dressed in
his Sunday best and on his way to church, rather than what he was:
the Hungarian Communist party's farm expert on his way to his job
as a specialist at the Soviet Agrarian Institute.
When he returned to Budapest
with the Red Army
in 1944 and had become one of Hungary's chief rulers, he continued
his strange ways. He let his daughter marry a practicing Protestant
minister. He liked to sit in Budapest cafes and discuss politics or
the merits of different Hungarian football teams.
His wife, whom he married
more than thirty-five years ago, was the daughter of a village clerk.
As early as 1945 Mr. Nagy's
friends knew that he was politically "peculiar" and perhaps
even dangerous. Though he had spent more
than a quarter of his life in the Soviet Union and had become a Soviet
citizen about 1930, he told his friends in Budapest that it was not
necessary for Hungary to follow the Soviet Union in every respect.
This was arrant heresy,
but then in the early post-war period trained Hungarian Communists
were too few and far between to permit the luxury of purging them.
(2)
The Times (25th October, 1956)
From 1947 to 1953 he was
Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament and a member of the central committee.
On July 5, 1953, after the fall of Rakosi and failure of the "Russian"
policy of emphasis on heavy industry and neglect of agriculture, Mr.
Nagy was elected Prime Minister.
On February 20, 1955,
Budapest radio announced that Mr. Nagy, who had not been seen in public
since January 25, was seriously ill with coronary thrombosis and would
not be able to return to work until April. On February 27 his son
was relieved of his post as chief deputy Minister in the Ministry
of Popular Culture. The previous week Szabad Nep had laid greater
emphasis on the development of heavy industry in Hungary than at any
time since June, 1953, when Mr.Nagy's "new course," with
its emphasis on light industry and food production, was introduced.
On March 9 the central
committee of the Hungarian Workers' Party condemned Mr. Nagy for "rightist
deviation," though a careful distinction was drawn between the
party decisions on the new course and Mr. Nagy's implementation of
them.
Press attacks then followed
thick and fast, most of them accusing Mr. Nagy of having caused a
crisis by his neglect of heavy industry. Mr. Rakosi, then first secretary
of the party, joined in the fray, and on April 18, 1955, Mr. Nagy
was dismissed from his post by a unanimous vote of the National Assembly
on the joint proposal of the party committee and the Government.
(3)
Imre
Nagy, Radio Kossuth (25th October, 1956)
People of Budapest, I
announce that all those who cease fighting before 14.00 today, and
lay down their arms in the interest of avoiding further bloodshed,
will be exempted from martial law. At the same time I state that as
soon as possible and by all the means at our disposal, we shall realise,
on the basis of the June 1953 Government program which I expounded
in Parliament at that time, the systematic democratization of our
country in every sphere of Party, State, political and economic life.
Heed our appeal. Cease fighting, and secure the 'restoration of calm
and order in the interest of the future of our people and nation.
Return to peaceful and creative work!
Hungarians, Comrades,
my friends! I speak to you in a moment filled with responsibility.
As you know, on the basis of the confidence of the Central Committee
of the Hungarian Workers' Party and the Presidential Council, I have
taken over the leadership of the Government as Chairman of the Council
of Ministers. Every possibility exists for the Government to realise
my political program by relying on the Hungarian people under the
leadership of the Communists. The essence of this program, as you
know, is the far-reaching democratization of Hungarian public life,
the realisation of a Hungarian road to socialism in accord with our
own national characteristics, and the realisation of our lofty national
aim: the radical improvement of the workers' living conditions.
However, in order to begin
this work - together with you - the first necessity is to establish
order, discipline and calm. The hostile elements that joined the ranks
of peacefully demonstrating Hungarian youth, misled many well-meaning
workers and turned against the people's democracy, against the power
of the people. The paramount task facing everyone now is the urgent
consolidation of our position. Afterwards, we shall be able to discuss
every question, since the Government and the majority of the Hungarian
people want the same thing. In referring to our great common responsibility
for our national existence, I appeal to you, to every man, woman,
youth, worker, peasant, and intellectual to stand fast and keep calm;
resist provocation, help restore order, and assist our forces in maintaining
order. Together we must prevent bloodshed, and we must not let this
sacred national program be soiled by blood.
(4)
Peter
Fryer, Hungarian Tragedy (1956)
The troops in Budapest,
as later in the provinces, were of two minds: there were those who
were neutral and there were those who were prepared to join the people
and fight alongside them. The neutral ones (probably the minority)
were prepared to hand over their arms to the workers and students
so that they could do battle against the A.V.H. with them. The others
brought their arms with them when they joined the revolution. Furthermore,
many sporting rifles were taken by the workers from the factory armouries
of the Hungarian Voluntary Defence Organisation. The "mystery"
of how the people were armed is no mystery at all. No one has yet
been able to produce a single weapon manufactured in the West.
The Hungarian Stalinists,
having made two calamitous mistakes, now made a third - or rather,
it would be charitable to say, had it thrust on them by the Soviet
Union. This was the decision to invoke a non-existent clause of the
Warsaw Treaty and call in Soviet troops. This first Soviet intervention
gave the people's movement exactly the impetus needed to make it united,
violent and nation-wide. It seems probable, on the evidence, that
Soviet troops were already in action three or four hours before the
appeal, made in the name of Imre Nagy as his first act on becoming
Prime Minister. That is debatable, but what is not debatable is that
the appeal was in reality made by Gero and Hegedus; the evidence of
this was later found and made public. Nagy became Prime Minister precisely
twenty-four hours too late, and those who throw mud at him for making
concessions to the Right in the ten days he held office should consider
the appalling mess that was put into his hands by the Stalinists when,
in desperation, they officially quit the stage.
With Nagy in office it
would still have been possible to avert the ultimate tragedy if the
people's two demands had been met immediately - if the Soviet troops
had withdrawn without delay, and if the security police had been disbanded.
But Nagy was not a free agent during the first few days of his premiership.
It was known in Budapest that his first broadcast were made - metaphorically,
if not literally - with a tommy-gun in his back.
(5)
Imre Nagy, Radio Kossuth (30th October, 1956)
Hungarian workers, soldiers,
peasants and intellectuals 1 The constantly widening scope of the
revolutionary movement in our country, the tremendous force of the
democratic movement has brought our country to a cross-road. The National
Government, in full agreement with the Presidium of the Hungarian
Workers' Party, has decided to take a step vital for the future of
the whole nation, and of which I want to inform the Hungarian working
people.
In the interest of further
democratization of the country's life, the cabinet abolishes the one-party
system and places the country's Government on the basis of democratic
cooperation between coalition parties as they existed in 1945. In
accordance with this decision a new national government - with a small
inner cabinet - has been established, at the moment with only limited
powers.
The members of the new
Cabinet are Imre Nagy, Zoltan Tildy, Bela Kovacs, Ferenc Erdei, Janos
Kadar, Geza Losonczy and a person whom the Social Democratic Party
will appoint later.
The government is going
to submit to the Presidential Council of the People's Republic its
proposition to appoint Janos Kadar and Geza Losonczy as Ministers
of State.
This Provisional Government
has appealed to the Soviet General Command to begin immediately with
the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the territory of Budapest. At
the same time, we wish to inform the people of Hungary that we are
going to request the Government of the Soviet Union to withdraw Soviet
troops completely from the entire territory of the Hungarian Republic.
On behalf of the National
Government I wish to declare that it recognizes all autonomous, democratic,
local authorities which were formed by the revolution; we will rely
on them and we ask for their full support.
Hungarian brothers, patriotic
citizens of Hungary! Safeguard the achievements of the revolution!
We have to re-establish order first of all! We have to restore peaceful
conditions! No blood should be shed by fratricide in our country!
Prevent all further disturbances! Assure the safety of life and property
with all your might!
Hungarian brothers, workers
and peasants: Rally behind the government in this fateful hour! Long
live free, democratic and independent Hungary.
(6)
Imre Nagy, Radio Kossuth (31st October, 1956)
Here is an important announcement:
The Hungarian National Government wishes to state that the proceedings
instituted in 1948 against Jozsef Mindszenty, Cardinal Primate, lacked
all legal basis and that the accusations levelled against him by the
regime of that day were unjustified. In consequence the Hungarian
National Government announces that the measures depriving Cardinal
Primate Jozsef Mindszenty of his rights are invalid and that the Cardinal
is free to exercise without restriction all his civil and ecclesiastical
rights.
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