The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1988 (11. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1988-05-01 / 3. szám

BI-MONTHLY B 20435 V THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY (NEMZETŐR) MAY-JUNE, 1988 "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion" Article 18 Universal Declaration of Human Rights Vo.. 3 XXXII HUNGARY A n epoch in Hungarian history ended on May 22 when János Kádár relinquished the Party leadership. It was the last day of a three-day National Conference of the Party, and four days before Kádár’s 76th birthday. He had been Party leader since October 25, 1956, just after the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution. Kádár’s successor as General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ (Communist) Party is Károly Grósz, the Prime Minister (born 1930). Although he is head of the government, his whole career has been in the Party apparatus, culminating in his appointment as First Secretary of the Budapest Party Committee in December, 1984. He became a Central Committee member in March, 1980, and a Politburo member in March, 1985. He was appointed Prime Minister in June, 1987. He spoke on being head of both Party and government at the same time in an interview with the government newspaper Magyar Hírlap on May 24. A Minister of State, he said, would be appointed; several government changes would now be made sooner than had been planned. His schedule was so full that he could not hand over to a successor before the end of 1988; he wanted however to relinquish the Premiership as soon as possible after that. For the same man to be simultaneously Party leader and Prime Minister is rare in Eastern Europe, though not unprecedented. General Jaru­zelski held both posts (in an exceptional situation in Poland) from October, 1981, to November 1985, the Bulgarian leader Todor Zhivkov from Novem­ber, 1962, to July, 1971. m mm m &kï Kádár himself was Prime Minister in the “Revo­lutionary Worker-Peasant Government» formed at Uzhgorod (Ungvár) in the USSR when the Soviet army moved in to crush the Hungarian Revolu­tion on November 4, 1956. He held the Premier­ship till January, 1958, and again from September, 1961, to June, 1965, combining it with the Party leadership. Kádár thus became Premier in wholly different circumstances from those in which he became Party leader; he is generally believed to have been acting under irresistible Soviet pressure. Certainly any threat of a repetition of the tortures he suffered in prison (May, 1951 — October, 1954) would bring any man to heel. The relaxation of terror which began in Hungary under his rule after the 22nd Soviet Party Congress in October, 1961, sup­ports this view. It is also probable that, in much easier circum­stances, the Soviet leaders gave instructions that Kádár should retire when they recently visited Hungary (President Gromyko on February 23—27, Premier Ryzhkov on April 18—20). Hungarian Politburo member and Central Committee Secret­ary János Berecz asserted at a Press conference on May 22 that «we take our decisions in a sover­eign manner», but immediately added «There are matters on which we do consult, because they affect the interests of our allies.» T he theory underlying the Soviet-led inva­sion of Czechoslovakia in August, 1968 — the so-called «Brezhnev Doctrine of Limited Sover­­eigtny» — is clearly very much alive. The first act of the new Central Committee elected at the May, 1988, Hungarian Party Con­ference was to appoint Kádár «Party Chairman», a post specially created for him. According to Grósz in his Magyar Hírlap interview, Kádár «asked to be relieved of operative work, and we asked him to stay in political public life... To elect a Party Chairman was a traditional practice in the Hungarian Social Democratic movement.» There is also a precedent under Communist rule, though not in Hungary. The East German leader Walter Ulbricht was made Party Chairman, a post for which there was no provision in the Party Statute, when he was eased out of the First Sec­retaryship in May, 1971. (Cont. p. 2) On June 27, 50.000 Hungarians demonstrated in Budapest Heros’ Square against the extermination of Hungarian cultural goods and settlements hundreds of year old in Romania (see more article on p. 5) IN THIS ISSUE Pro-Nagy Marches Violently Dispersed 3 First Independent Union for 40 Years 4 "The Name Has Become a Dirty Word" 5 Afghanistan; Atrocities during "National Reconciliation” 6-7 Puppet Regime Promotes 52 Generals 6-7 Delhi Accused of Backing Dying Regime 8 How Communists Cheer and Boo: COMPLICATED 9 Agent Was Told To Obtain Fake Dollars 10 Eastern Europe 40 Years ago - XXII 11 Correction 12

Next