Fraternity-Testvériség, 1962 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1962-05-01 / 5. szám

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FRATERNITY

satellite empire thousands were arrested and executed on trumped up charges. In Hungary, László Rajk, former Communist Minister of Interior and Foreign Minister, in Czechoslovakia, Rudolph Slansky, in Bulgaria, Traitch Rostov, were the chief victims. Stalin wanted confessions and the arrested Communists were coaxed and tortured to admit their “crimes”. When the Hungarian political police — once getting its

orders from Rajk — could not bend its former chief, János Kádár, the closest friend of Rajk, went to his prison to persuade him to sign a confession “for the good of his beloved Party”. Kádár promised Rajk that after his trial he and his family would be transported to the Soviet Union, where they could live in peace and comfort. A microphone hidden in Rajk’s prison cell enabled Rákosi to have the KádárRajk conversation recorded on tape. Rajk accepted the word of his friend and finally

confessed, but despite Kádár’s promise, he never saw his family again. He was executed in prison. Shortly thereafter Kádár himself was jailed.

The Titoist purges in the Soviet’s satellite empire followed the pattern of the bloody terror which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Communists in the Soviet Union in the 1930’s.

But the central figure of this drama, Marshal Tito, escaped the plots of Stalin’s agents. The Soviet Union’s economic sanctions failed to bring Yugoslavia on its knees. Western, and particularly United States, economic and military aid permitted Tito to preserve his country’s independence. The fiasco of Stalin’s policies damaged Soviet prestige and Soviet bloc economies, and created a cleavage in Communist ranks. The Soviet leaders became increasingly concerned with the emergence of a separate center of Communist power which could easily encourage other Communist leaders to seek independence from Mos cow. In 1955, two years after Stalin’s

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