Magyar Hírek, 1983 (36. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1983-07-23 / 14-15. szám
INTEREST, VALUE, MISSION THE TASTE OF BREAD AND BUTTER The foreign policies of every country relate closely, and depend on its home policies. For more than a quarter of a century, Hungarian home policies have been dominated by tasks that served the harmonic progress of society, the material and intellectual advance of the people and the country, the deepening of socialist democracy and socialist national unity, and consolidated and well-balanced domestic political development. Consequent to these, the paramount drive at the focus of Hungarian foreign policy is to ensure peace and favorable external conditions for economic progress. Hungary attaches particular importance to relations with the socialist countries, first of all with the Soviet Union. This system of alliance enables the realization of the foreign policy aims, the reinforcement of security on the basis of peaceful coexistence, and the defence of the independence of the country. It is also evident, however, that the countries of the socialist community frequently encounter serious difficulties in the course of their development. Coping with internal controversies, and dispelling illusions and errors, requires particularly great efforts when the international situation deteriorates. The uniform foreign policy of the socialist community exerts a positive effect on the course of world events. Political, economic, and cultural relations in keeping with mutual interests have come into being with the developed capitalist countries based on equal rights, and non-interference in each others internal affairs, and Hungary is prepared to further develop these in the future. For this very reason it must be emphasised that the present international situation, in which the armaments race has grown to never-before-seen dimensions, and the preparation of the siting' of new rockets has begun in Europe, causes considerable anxiety in Hungary as well. Hungarian public opinion attached great hopes to the process that lead to the Helsinki Final Act, and the Hungarian government has endeavoured to [promote it with all the means at its command. The process has not only ground to a halt since then, but new tensions have begun to bear upon East-West relations. This course of events is detrimental to all the nations of Europe, and also a source of increasing dangers. The very fact that setting up the system of medium range ballistic missiles reduces warning time alarm to around 8 minutes creates a psychological state in Europe in which nervousness and fear may lead to unfathomable consequences. The rise of insecurity in the European region also effects other parts of the world. It is therefore in the universal interest to fight for European security, as it is for disarmament, or the protection of the environment, or the proper feeding of mankind. Every country also has specific interests, and Hungary is no exception. The universal and national interests, and the people’s awareness of their mission, together shape the policies of the country. The Hungarian delegation, headed by János Kádár, at the Helsinki Conference (197S) What then are the features which characterize Hungarian foreign policies? The Hungarians make up something specific in the great family of peoples. The great statesman of the 19th century reform age, Count István Széchenyi was aware of this when he said that “it is up to us to make a present of a nation, the Hungarian nation, to mankind.” The Hungarian people’s awareness of their mission is still based on this, but one should now say: the socialist Hungarian nation. This is what we have to strengthen, enrich and develop. The situation of the socialist Hungary in Europe or more precisely in one of the central regions of East Central Europe, the Middle of the Danube Basin, requires specific foreign policies. This is where the three great cultural spheres, the Latin, the Slav and the German meet. The Hungarian people, with its own culture lives at their intersection, a people which has richly drawn from each of these three sources for many centuries, and has also accepted its European role. The most important East-West trading route runs along the Danube. This is also a decisive factor in foreign relations. It allows for as extensive as possible participation in the international division of labour and makes it necessary. The fact that almost half of Hungarian products are sold on foreign markets is also due to this, at least in part. The consciousness of a common fate is very strong in the Hungarian people, and this is also a decisive motive of Hungarian foreign policies. There is an awareness that history and life had tied and still ties Hungarians to their immediate neighbours by thousands of threads, that cooperation is closest with them, that the common shaping of the present and future are a sine-qua-non of Hungarian politics, and the most important lesson of history. This basic tenet rose to particular importance in our days because of the fate, cultural, social, economic progress of the millions of ethnic Hungarians who live beyond the borders of the country. But looking further a field, Hungarian foreign policy thinking is constantly influenced by the fact that one-third of Hungarians live outside Hungary, and that the main body of the nation does all it can to keep awake the emotional and intellectual consciousness, the instinct and will, of being linked to the mother country. To this end well-balanced relations are necessary with the new country chosen by them, and the fruitful agreement of the Hungarians settled there is almost indispensable in the successful realization of this aim. Interests and the national tasks consequent to the awareness of a nation’s mission together shape the policies, including the foreign policies of a country. For — as Hegel said — nothing comes about without interests. And the awareness of the people’s mission is indispensable to the will to action, and to consistent behaviour. TIBOR PETHŐ US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance handing back the Saint Stephen’s Crown and the regalia to Antal Apró, Chai rman of the Hungarian Parliament, in 1978 Two symbolic gestures, the movingly beautiful moments of a teen-age friendship frame the latest motion picture by Pál Sándor. Dániel Szerencsés, an amiable awkward teen-ager dries the hair of his friend, the deserter György Angeli with a towel. The events of an attempted flight from the country follow. The last frames show Szerencsés, who gave up the attempt, offering bread and butter, that his mother had packed before they left, to his comrade in misfortune. Angeli takes a few bites, then leaves his friend and commits suicide by jumping out of the speeding train. Three days in December 1956, that shaped men and fortunes come to life on the screen between these two episodes. Instead of unclouded teens, the depressing world of the fifties were the lot of the characters of Pál Sándor, and a safe family background did not act as a counterweight for either. Dániel Szerencsés lives in Budapest with his mother, and aged grandfather, and seeks refuge from the troubles of the times in the Jewish religion. There are no close ties between György Angeli and his mother, or his stepfather, but he worships the ideal embodied by his father, a former Communist official unjustly persecuted at the time of the show-trials, who now lives in the country as a car-wash man. The two friends embark on the great journey together, and board the Győr train filled to capacity with fleeing people. Daniel Szerencsés would like to find his lover, who recently set out to go to Vienna with her parents. Angeli, the just twenty year old deserter is driven by a panic-like fear of being caught, and also hopes that he may find his father somewhere along the way. Even the minor characters live through the minute episodes of the train journey as complete individuals. Love and death, terror and uncertainty, the sorrows of leave taking, and the desire to start fresh vibrate in the overheated compartments. The Győr hotel, the embarkation point of the refugees receives groups one after the other as a rolling ship in the storm. Szerencsés finds his lover the last evening he spends there. That night their love is consummated. In the meantime Angeli also meets his father, who became a broken cynical man after the five years he spent in prison. A brawl, in which his father participates with the same expert brutality as his opponents completes the young man’s frustrations. After the night that matured him to an adult, Szerencsés starts on his return home. He is pulled back by the “smells, the street comers, the friends.” But the other boy cannot bear the last of his frustrations, suicide becomes his escape. In keeping with these ideas Pál Sándor concentrates mainly on the human dramas, emotional upsets, which could only become so emphatic from the perspective of twenty-seven years. The political events serve only as an authentic as possible a background to the story of the attempted flight. “Fifty six is but an excuse for me to talk about what still interests me. I did not want to tell a saucy 56 story. What really interested me was the dilemma of to go or to stay” — said the director. Pál Sándor again guides his actors with a sure hand. Peter Rudolf, and Sándor Zsótér convincingly bring out the hues of a teen-age friendship. The other actors and actresses also give outstanding performances, particularly Ági Margittai, Dezső Garas, Mari Törőcsik, Ildikó Kishonti, and Gyula Bodrogi. FERENC MARKOVITS 54
