The Hungarian Student, 1957 (1. évfolyam, 2-8. szám)
1957 / 7. szám
The Hungarian Student 17 The bolshevik reign of terror crushing human rights could not by-pass its strongest enemy—the churches. Church activities have been placed under government control. “In the Hungarian People’s Republic all appointments to Roman Catholic church positions and titles, as well as assignments which under the Roman Catholic church laws come under the jurisdiction of the Pope, and the carrying out of duties entailed by such appointments, require the previous approval of the Presidium of the People’s Republic. The same applies to transfers and dismissals.” (Magyar Közlöny [Hungarian Gazette], March 24, 1957.) The Communists have arrested several members of the Central Priest Seminary of Budapest. According to the official report, “counter-revolutionary” leaflets and other propaganda material were published in the seminary, revolutionaries were provided with food and several armed revolutionaries were hidden in the seminary. A senior seminarist, István Tabodi, and several Roman Catholic priests, including Imre Varjú and Antal Kukla, published a pamphlet in December and January entitled “Dear Friend,” which has been distributed in various parts of the country. According to the accusation the pamphlet “glorified the ‘counterrevolution’ and encouraged the enemies of the people to further resistance.” The alleged leader of the group of priests was Albert Egon Turcsanyi, a retired pastor, and Joseph Mindszenty’s former secretary. As its power increased, the Kadar government re-introduced all those decrees which had been the direct causes of the October 23 events. The Kadar regime has given a legal form to deportations, the expulsions going on ever since 1950. The latest decree of the Minister of the Interior, threatening deportation and expulsion, conjures up the worst days of the Rákosi regime. Bela Biszku, the Minister of the Interior, who is of Ruthenian origin, issued a decree in the Official Gazette on March 19, 1957. Under the terms of this decree, persons considered dangerous to the state and to state security from political and economic points of view can be put under police surveillance, and expelled from their present place of residence. Such expellees are compelled to choose a new domicile within two weeks after receipt of the expulsion order. This latter decree means in practice that the Communist regime may confiscate the apartment of any person whom it dislikes may expell the owner of the apartment, and if the latter is unable to find a domicile with the help of private connections, he will be deported by the police as a vagrant without a job and possessions, as was done by Rákosi in the pre-revolutionary days. The independent Viennesse paper, Die Presse wrote in its June 6, 1957, issue that “the new Iron Curtain is much more dangerous than the old one was.” In a special report from the border, Die Presse said that some of the barbed-wide entanglements along the border were charged with high-tension electricity. The old Iron Curtain consisted of two barbed-wire fences with mines between them. Now three mine fields have been established parallel with the two existing barbed-wire fences, and the mines are deposited in such a manner that the slightest disturbance, even that of a domestic animal, causes them to explode. After the prohibition of the university students’ organization, Kadar considered the time ripe to throttle the voice of the writers. A Reuters dispatch from Budapest on April 22, 1957, stated : “The Communist Ministry of the Interior announced that the Hungarian Writers’ Association had been disbanded.” The Hungarian press explained this in the following way: “By order of the Ministry of the Interior, the Hungarian Writers’ Association has been temporarily suspended.” (Nepszabadsag, January 18, 1957.) “In the course of the investigation which followed the order of temporary suspension of the activities of the Writers’ Association, the Minister of the Interior determined that a segment of the Writers’ Association used the organization to carry out their attacks on the social order of the People’s Republic. For this reason the Minister of the Interior ordered that the Writers’ Association be dissolved.” (Radio Kossuth, April 21, 1957.) (Continued on page 18)
