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

1962-02-01 / 2. szám

FRATERNITY

5

Paul Nadanyi:

THE REVOLT THAT ROCKED THE KREMLIN

“What took place in Hungary in October and November 1956 was a spontaneous national uprising, due to long-standing grievances which had caused resentment among the people.”

Report of the UN Special Committee

2.

LONG STANDING GRIEVANCES

Peter Fryer, a member of the British Communist Party for over 14 years and a staff writer of the London “Daily Worker”, was dispatched to Hungary on October 27, 1956, four days after the spontaneous uprising began. In his book, “The Hungarian Tragedy”, he told that he started out from British Communist headquarters accepting without reservations the official Communist line on the revolt. The

Kremlin asserted that a counter-revolution was in progress in Hungary, led by Fascists, former large land-owners and imperialist agents.

The British Communist journalist soon realized that he was misled. Covering the Hungarian scene, talking to scores of workers and peasants, he came to the conclusion that the revolution erupted because “the workers were exploited, bullied and lied to; the peasants were exploited, bullied and lied to; the writers and

artists were squeezed into the most rigid ideological straight jackets and bullied and lied to.”

The UN Special Committee quoted in its report a statement of an 18-year-old girl student who told the Committee: “We wanted free- doom and not a good comfortable life. Even if

we might lack bread and other necessities of