The Hungarian Student, 1957 (1. évfolyam, 2-8. szám)
1957 / 7. szám
The Hungarian Student 15 whereas the other participants of the demonstration were sentenced to prison terms ranging- from 3 to 9 years. The regime also began to arrest the members of the revolutionary workers’ councils established in the first days of the revolution. Sándor Racz and Sándor Bali, two leading members of the workers’ councils, were arrested. According to a dispatch from Belgrade at that time, 3,000 intellectuals and workers were arrested by the Kadar bloodhounds within a period of only three days. The extraordinarily harsh measures against the workers and against the freedom fighters were directed by the Russian General Serov, who is also the head of the Soviet secret police. After the crushing of the revolution, the MEFESZ and the university students unanimously opposed the Kadar regime. On November 29, 1956, the representatives of 22 universities and academies elected an All-University Revolutionary Council which published the eight-point demand of the Hungarian university students in cooperation with the provisional executive committee of the MEFESZ. This is a summary of the eight points : 1) The university students stand on their program of October 23, 1956. There is nothing “counter-revolutionary” in this. 2) We want an independent, democratic and socialist Hungary ; we reject any leftist or rightist attempt at restoration. 3) We repeat the national democratic revolution’s demands : the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Hungary. 4) The university youth will participate in the rebuilding of the country. 5) The members of the new police force should be drawn from among the workers, the youth, the former members of the police (regular police) and the soldiers of the regular Hungarian army. 6) A new economic program should be worked out without delay. 7) University autonomy and reforms should be re-established and carried out. University students under arrest should be set free. 8) The MEFESZ should be allowed to organize freely and to publish its own daily paper. None of the above demands were realized, and the regime continued to urge the MEFESZ to withdraw its demands. The provisional merged MEFESZ committees of the Technical University of Budapest and of the Construction, Industrial and Communication Technical University of Budapest made an appeal to all university students in the middle of December, 1956. This appeal, however, no longer contained the demands. All it did was to urge the regime to undertake reforms in the universities. However, this appeal did not fall in with the official party line in branding the revolution a “counter-revolution” and also urged the regime to “set free the university students who have been arrested innocently.” The appeal still contained references to the beginning of the organizational work of the MEFESZ. The debating organ of the MEFESZ, consisting of the university students of all universities and academies of Budapest, accepted the above-mentioned appeal by the two universities of Budapest in its December 20, 1956, session. At this session a MEFESZ provisional national executive committee was elected. Thereafter the MEFESZ began its organization on a national basis, and an executive committee session was planned for January 5, 1957, to which the representatives of all provincial universities and academies had been invited in addition to the representatives of the universities and academies of the Hungarian capital. The topic of discussion was the drawing up of a MEFESZ program on the basis of the appeal made by the two technical universities of Budapest. The executive committee, however, went much farther, as planned, and in addition to the above-mentioned demands also asked for the withdrawal of all Soviet troops, “the free functioning and inclusion in the government of all parties functioning on the basis of socialism,” the abolition of the death sentence, and in general espoused the ideals of the revolution. At the session several delegates demanded that the student association refuse to recognize the government and that the organization go underground. No decision was made on these two problems and discussions were therefore adjourned to January 12, 1957. According to an article which appeared in Nepszabadsag, the session of the MEFESZ scheduled for January 12 was postponed because of “technical difficulties.” In reality the political police had arrested eight university organizers when they had heard that the famous student demands of October 23 were to be on the January 12th agenda. Suddenly the Kadar regime created a counter student organization, which was not known to anybody, but whose statements were and are published in (Continued on page 16) Russian Soldiers! Don't Shoot!...
