1988. december (307-326. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2

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Editor: György Krassó * 24/D Little Russell Street * London, WC1A 2HN * Tel. 01-430 2126 (írom abroad 441-430 2126)

307/1988 (E) 4th December, 1988

Two Day Conference on the Revolution

The Kari Marx School of Economics’ István Széchenyi Technical College and ito Social Science Club organised a two-day conference on the 1958 revolution, the events vhich led to the uprising and the reprisals vhich followed. The lectures began at 9.30 am on December 3rd-4th (Saturday and Sunday) and were followed by short debates in the aftemoon. On Saturday Miklós Vásárhelyi, who was Imre Nagy’s press chief and one of the accused at his trial, spoke of Nagy’s policies, then the sociologist András Hegedűs, who was Prime Minister, spoke about the different trends in the political aréna. András B. Hegedűs, an economist who was secretary of the Petőfi Circle, talked about the Circle’s history, its sessions and its role. László Varga gave a chronology of the events leading up until October 24th. The histórián György Litván dealt with the intemational relations of the period. Endre Bilecz analysed István Bibó’s 56 activities and István Csurka read out a personal commemoration entitled "A Writer Remembers". The first day of the conference ended with a speech by Sándor Balogh at 5 pm.

On Sunday a lecture was to be given by the military histórián Pál Gosztonyi entitled "The Military Events" bút it was cancelled. Sándor M. Kiss,a histórián/ focussed on one of the reasons fór the revolution, the unlawful activities of the

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State Security Authorities. Iván Pető analysed the Hungárián economic situation in 1956 and Bálint Magyar outlined events in the provinces in a lecture entitled "56 in the Countryside". The audience which numbered about 300 showed great interest in Sándor Rácz’s lecture about the formation and activities of the 56 workers councils, he was the president of the Greater Budapest Central Workers Council.

Then the histórián János Molnár explained how he saw the workers councils today after 32 years. The fact that Molnár had published two books in the 60s entitled "Counter-Revolution in Hungary in 1956" and "The Greater Budapest Central Workers Council" added spice to this lecture, however he avoided classifying the events as either counter-revolutionary or revolutionary. Imre Mécs, an engineer, gave an account of the reprisals which followed the revolution and of how the courts held people responsible. The second day of the conference ended with a lecture by Miklós Szabó entitled "AHeview of the Events".

The fact that the conference was organised and that many of the lecturers had spent long years in prison after the revolution yet they shared the platform with an ex- Prime Minister and a Party histórián show that the formulation of a tinié history of the events can begin. Only a few words were said about the insurgent groups, which were chiefly made up of young workers, which fought throughout the revolution, led it to victory and took up arms to defend it after the Soviet invasion.

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