Magyar News, 1992. szeptember-1993. augusztus (3. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1993-02-01 / 6. szám

FROM HUNGARY WITH LOVE

This is not a James Bond story, this is more reality. Those who sent this material from Hungary, sent it with love because it is representing freedom of speech and open opinion about an oppressing era. These were done with love for the Hungarian people. So what are these? They are political posters published recently.

We are bombarded all the time with commercials and ads. Anybody who tries to communicate with the community uses TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, flyers and a long line of creative means. Still many events pass by without being noticed by the people who would like to know about it the most This happened with an exhibit at the Regina Quick Center at the Fairfield University.

There is an art gallery at the center, called the Walsh Gallery. In November and December the gallery had an exhibit on revolutionary posters. The collection was organized by theSmithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibition. These posters were from the recently freed countries from what was behind the iron-curtain. Hungary was one of them, and was represented by many interesting and politically active posters. On one hand our space limits us, on the other hand our printing is not suitable to show pictures that require more sophisticated technology. So we have to make a selection from this big exhibit and from the variety of choices. Since Communism is near its end, we will skip posters of that nature. We picked two that you see here in print. Both deal with Romania, naturally from a Hungarian viewpoint

The poster, with the name Temesvár on it, was created by István Orosz in Hungary in 1990. It was made for the populist ruling party, the Hungarian Democratic Forum. The artist pays tribute to the Romanian and Hungarian victims who died during the 1989 demonstrations inthetownTemesvar. On the left side of the picture, on the original poster, there are two armbands in color.

A Romanian and a Hungarian respectfully on each arm.

The other poster is a photograph by Peter Poes, Hungary, 1988. We see a Bible cover with the word Erdély on it The pages are missing but there is the Romanian tricolor as a bookmark. This represents the absence of religious freedom under the dictatorship of Ceausescu. It also shows the Hungarians’ awareness by using the Hungarian name Erdély, instead of Transylvania. Many of our readers remember the report we gave some years back on the Hungarian Bibles sent to Erdély. At that time the Romanians ground them down and made toilet paper from it. This poster is in full color.

I was lucky enough to catch the exhibit just before it closed. It was too late to inform our Hungarian community. I am sure many of our readers would have had interest in seeing these posters.

Joseph F. Balogh

BUCI GYURI; NO TEARS HERE

Usually you don’t find celebrities or politicians who passed away listed in the obituaries. They, deserving or not, get a separate little article. Those from faraway places, or for other reasons, are written up among the news articles. This is where I found a report in the Connecticut Post on György Marosan, titled veteran Communist. I read the article to see if there is any importance to this man, other than what I know. There was nothing, and what I knew about him wouldn’t be considered worth any space in any newspaper.

We used to call him “Buci Gyuri”. He started out as a baker and became labor leader in the union of the food workers, and

also had a position in the Social Democratic Party. He was forceful on the Social Democratic Party giving up its identity and merging into the Communist Party. As a thanks from the communist leaders, he was imprisoned for six years. It seems that he never learned. By 1956 the legal stay of the Soviet’s in Hungary was up, according to the international agreements. So when they were to come back to put do wn the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, they wanted somebody, an authority, to invite them into Hungary. Not that anything would have mattered. So they had Marosan for this purpose. Since Marosan wasn’t too popular, the Soviets referred to the act as if the

Hungarian government invited them, not mentioning names.

Nobody seemed to notice this. On an early morning, justat the crack of day, I was leaving on an assignment to Kecskemet. In the car I switched on the radio. I guess it was the right moment to do so, because I heard Marosan’s voice. He was loud, over confident, arrogant and apprehensive. He just wanted the world to know that he, and only he, had the courage to call the Soviets into Hungary to put down the uprising. He promised full support and cooperation to them - not that they needed it.

His words still ring in my ears.

But, Buci Gyuri, there are no tears here.

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