Juhász Magdolna (szerk.): A kaposvári Rippl-Rónai Múzeum közleményei 7. (Kaposvár, 2020)
Varga Éva: Érdem és protokoll. Államfői kitüntetések az Rippl-Rónai Múzeumban
294 VARGA ÉVA Államfőként Losonczi Pál egyetlen hazai kitüntetést kapott, a Magyar Népköztársaság Érdemrendjét,411979- ben, 60. születésnapja alkalmából. 65. születésnapjára pedig megjelent (egyetlen) beszédgyűjteménye. Losonczi, addig maradt a helyén, amíg Kádár szükségesnek látta. Nyugdíjazása ugyancsak egy átfogó káderpolitikai átrendeződés során történt meg. Az MSZMP KB június 23-i ülésén visszahívták a Politikai Bizottságból. Ezt követően pedig az országgyűlés 1987. június 25- 26-i zárt ülésén, nyugdíjba vonulása miatt, visszahívták a NET elnöki posztjáról, de továbbra is a testület tagja maradt. A politikától való teljes visszavonulására 1989 februárjában került sor. Levélben jelentette be, hogy lemond КВ-tagságáról, képviselői mandátumáról, Elnöki Tanácsi tagságáról, amit a KB elfogadott. Március 8-án képviselői lemondását az országgyűlés is elfogadta. Formaság volt már csupán, s ezzel jelképesen egy politikai korszak is lezárult. Losonczi Pál másfél évtizeddel élte túl a rendszerváltást. Életútja jól szemlélteti a kádári Magyarország vezetői kiválasztódásának mechanizmusát. Személye az egykori pártelit legrejtőzködőbb tagjai közé tartozik. Ránk hagyományozott kitüntetéseinek sokasága azonban megannyi tájékozódási pont lehet életművének, illetve a Kádár-kori Magyarország külpolitikájának kutatásában. Merit and Protocol. Head of States’ Medals in the Rippl-Rónai Museum ÉVA VARGA „He really did not like the protocol and God punished him with protocol became his field of work” - it was told about Pál Losonczi by István Kapossi Kiss, who was the secretery of press and the speechwriter of the Presdential Counsil’s president. His personality belongs one of the most hiding members of the former elit of the party. The former head of state’s path is a good exmaple to demonstrate the leader selection’s mechanism in Kadar’s Hungary. We are writing about him now in the case of his medals, which are owned by the Somogy County Museum and which are being processed to present us, who Pál Losonczi really was. It is a particular story, how the collection got into the museum’s ownership. The story began in 1987- 88, when an exhibition was created in the Museum of Kaposvár. In this time the exhibition was extraordinary from many point of wiev. On the one hand these medals are the most beautiful pieces of the Phaleristics. At that time Pál Losonczi’s medal-collection was the largest of the order of the Hungarian stateman's medal-collections after 1918. On the other hand „there was no example of any medals, orders, ornaments, which were given after important public service, became the treasure of the public” - written by the reporter of the local daily paper in 1988. István Gyenesei, who was the presindent of the Counsil of Somogy County that time, said that „Pál Losonczi’s gesture was an example”. The exhibition attracted the visitors. It lived change of the regime and survived it a few years. It had to be teared down and return to the former head of state in 1991. After it the objects’ thirteen-year period of incubation was begun. Museums and private collectors also aspired to acquire it, untill the collection of Losonczi - the medal-collection without the souvenirs - returned to the Somogy County Museum. The experts have no difficulty with Losonczi’s native medals. The first, rural period of his career, when came into the national policy’s attention could be discribed by the help of the literature. He was a sucsessfull agricultoral co-chairman and he became the Minister of Agriculture in 1960. Seven years after untill 1987, he was the head of state as the president of the Presidential Council of the Hungarian People’s Republic. As „a pure invention of Kádár” Losonczi was not an independent power-political factor, internal policy manegement was outside of his authority and personal possibilities. His work as a statesman was mostly restricted in foreign relations’ managemant and paticipation. His sweep, which was framed by the oneparty state, could be described with his abroad trips. According to the diplomatic protocol he received high levels of external awards, during his abroad visitations and receptions of foreign political dignitaries as the president of the Presidential Council of the Hungarian People’s Republic. High level, leading foreig medals, coins, which are regarded to the collection of the Somogy County Museum, eighth part is origined from West-Europe (Finland, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Ciprus), fith part is from the former Sovjetunion, nearly third part of it from friend socialist states (Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Democratic Republik of Korea, Mongolia, Cuba) and approximately the half of it from so-called developing (African, Latin-American, Asian) countries. If we examine medals as historical sources, the details of the native diplomacy are revealed. The first medal in cronologial order was the Finnish one, which is a good example for the presentation. Pál Losonczi survived the change of the regime with a decade and a half. The crowd of his medals, which he left for us could be inform us to quest his oeuvre. 41 Id. 15. jegyzet alatt
