Tárogató, 1949-1950 (12. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1949-07-01 / 1-2. szám

4

TÁROGATÓ

discussion with another man to whom he himself gives all the points of the argument and thereby attains his own conclusion. We have all experienced such disputes when we were children: perhaps an historical figure’s name was given to us with a proper characterization, later we went with it to another man who told us his story about the same figure, by which he proved that our accepted characterization was all wrong; we listened with confusion because we had no evidence to support our own story... We had to grow up and learn more to be able to see that after all our earlier unsupported characterization was the right one.

In order to avoid a similar pitfall, we must “dig deeper” and study the antecedents of this famous trial, we must try to place it in the life-current of the Hungarian people, try to find out the motives that necessitated it, and try to get a real and unbiassed picture of a whole of which this case is an integral part, so much is it integral that without the knowledge of the whole its parts, and this part in particular, cannot be understood; if we become aware of the meaning of this “part”, of this “case”, we will be able to perceive more clearly the meaning of the whole. If it were not so, that is, if this part-event and the whole Hungarian political and religious life were not inter-dependent with respect to their significance, it would hardly be worthwhile to pay more attention to it than we pay to any other “act of justice” that may be strongly suspected of injustice. The isolated character of the latter may be accepted as such. It would not affect a whole, a whole nation, nay a whole world. If, however, the fate of a nation is involved in a case, as the fate of the oak may be involved in the acorn, then the acorn is worthy of our extended study. Our world suffers from a tension, you may call it a cold war or just a lack of peace, but the tension is here and is proved by our newspapers, by our spy stories, by our struggles for “purged” trade unions, by many other events in Congress halls and drawing-rooms. It is our common interest to see that this tension should not erupt in actions which threaten our national life and

independence. We have learned by experience that the life-struggle of any nation may involve the whole world in a life and death struggle, hence we cannot and must not be indifferent to it. That the Mindszenty case represents a culminating point in the life-struggle of the Hungarian people, the following elucidations try to make clear.

I

The story of the Mindszenty case started in 1918.

This was a significant year in the history of Hungary. The war in which she took part as a grumbling partner within the Austro-Hungarian Army as an unwilling ally to the Germans, ended in defeat. Many of us hoped at that time that all the abuses which were linked to Hapsburg rule and the semi-feudal system prevailing in the country, had ended also. A republican government comprised of progressive leaders tried to restore order in the general chaos and to introduce some reforms long overdue, among others a land reform, to satisfy the centuries-old fight of the people to own their own land and to emerge from their vassal-state. This government did less than their enemies suspected them of doing and achieved almost nothing. They had too many opponents; the owners of landed property were loath to part with their possessions; the supporters of capitalism, or what they considered to be capitalism, feared the coming of a socialist era; the war left much misery behind, which was felt more acutely because of the severe winter and because of the luxurious life led by a more or less despicable nouveau-riche class, the class of war profiteers and money speculators. In addition, the Entente showed no understanding of the nationalistic character of the Hungarian people when they cut off pure Magyar parts of Hungary and gave them to neighbouring countries.

All these difficulties were exploited by a relatively small communist group which under the leadership of Bela Kun established in March 1919 a Hungarian Soviet Republic. The new regime did not help toward a solution of the difficulties, it rather increased them. The