Fraternity-Testvériség, 1957 (35. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1957-07-01 / 7. szám
6 FRATERNITY of uranium ... I do not know the terms of contract with the Soviet Union.” One of the demands of the Hungarian people during the revolution was that all the deals concluded with the Soviet Union should receive full publicity. No one had the illusion that the exact amount of wealth siphoned out of Hungary by various devious methods in the last 12 years could really be ascertained, but the demand was a protest against further ruthless exploitation. It was so clear that neither Moscow, nor the Kadar regime could free themselves from its impact. The Soviet leaders moved with unusual haste to prevent similar protests from other East European countries. Since the Hungarian revolution almost every one has been offered economic assistance in the form of loans and new credits, and the communique issued after Kadar’s talks with the Soviet leaders in Moscow promised a new leaf in Soviet- Hungarian economic relations. Can the Soviet economy absorb these reversals of former practices without severe strains? Or are these promises but facades behind which new devices are planned to recoup the Soviet Union’s former position? If so, how long will the Soviet Union be able to suppress the new protests? VI. Among thousands of Hungarian refugees who were interviewed after their arrival in free countries, many occupied important positions in Hungary’s intellectual life. Some — now in various European countries — belonged to the elite guard of the party. No less than fifty Hungarian writers and journalists, prominent members of the former Hungarian Writers’ and Journalists’ Federation, fled their native land. About the causes of the ferment within the party even prior to the XXth Party Congress in Moscow many of them mentioned the Soviet’s exploitation of Hungary’s economy. Each and every one of them, however, emphasized that while economic reasons played important parts in the tensions, the decisive factors were spiritual. No man with an ounce of intelligence can forever endure bureaucratic limitations, and the constant pressure of intimidation. These statements reveal that the ideological confusion within the Hungarina Communist Party was quite extensive long before the XXth Party Congress convened in Moscow and the Hungarian party members learned about Kruschev’s speech degrading Stalin. The confusion was quite widespread even before Kruschev’s and Bulganin’s efforts to make peace with Tito. The Soviet leaders’ acknowledgement in Belgrade that different roads could lead to Socialism undoubtedly was accepted at face value by many Hungarian Communists. Supporting the student demands on October 23 to restore Imre Nagy to the premiership, these communists believed that they were exercising their acknowledged right — the right of every Communist Party to formulate its own policies. Party members who in months prior to the revolution participated in heated debates on Communist legality, Stalinist methods and practices in the Petőfi Circle, the Writers’ Federation and other groups, felt it was not only their right, but also their duty to press for the implementation of the XXth Party
