The Hungarian Student, 1957 (1. évfolyam, 2-8. szám)
1957 / 7. szám
18 The Hungarian Student The radio also announced the arrest of outstanding public personalities: “According to an announcement by the Ministry of the Interior, Tibor Kardos, Domokos Varga, Gyula Hay, Balazs Lengyel and Zoltán Zelk, writers, Sándor Novobaczky and Pal Lőcsei, journalists, have been arrested.” (Radio Kossuth, January 25, 1957.) “Tibor Dery of Budapest has been taken into custody on suspicion of subversive activities.” (Radio Kossuth, April 21, 1957.) The Supreme Court confirmed the sentencing of two men and a woman to death because of “counter-revolutionary sins.” Simultaneously it commuted the relatively lighter sentences imposed by the Lower Court on three condemned to death. The three confirmed verdicts were those of the 25- year-old medical student, Ilona Toth, the former lieutenant, Ferenc Gönczi, and the 28-year-old Miklós Gyöngyösi, who had been a former political prisoner freed from prison during the revolution. All three admitted having killed an AVH soldier. The Supreme Court commuted the sentences of the journalist Gyula Obersovszki and the playwright Joseph Gali from three and one year imprisonments, respectively, to death. The two had been accused of having written and distributed anti-regime leaflets. The third and most recent death sentence was imposed on Ferenc Kovács, who had originally been sentenced to ten years imprisonment. The Supreme Court increased the sentences of the two men who had followed Kovac’s orders from eight years to 14 years, and from one year to eight years. All six persons sentenced to death have applied for mercy. Of these six persons only Gyula Obersovsky and Joseph Gali have actually been pardoned. Owing to world-wide protest the court was forced to commute its own verdict. Two groups of French writers called upon the UN committee on the Hungarian revolution to prevent the execution of the death sentence on the two tried Hungarian writers. “The association of writers seeking truth” sent a telegram to Prime Minister Kadar. They wrote the following : “In the name of democratic freedom and humanity we beg you to prevent the execution.” The same group sent a message to Tito, President of Yugoslavia, to Mao, leader of Communist China, and to Vladislav Gomulka, the Polish Party chief, asking them to intervene on behalf of the writers. The telegram was signed by such well-known writers as Francois Mauriac and Jean Paul Sartre. The French Socialist Party sent a telegram to Kadar “expressing the feelings of the workers” and asking him to spare the lives of the two writers. The telegram was signed by Robert Verdier, the President of the Social-Democratic Party’s parliamentary faction. The Association of French Pedagogues, with 230,000 members, also sent a similar telegram to Kadar. Two leading French Communist artists, Ives Montand and Simone Signorét, were among the masses of French protesting against the verdict. The Norwegian Press Association reminded Kadar of the German writer Carl von Ossietzky, who had been awarded the Nobel prize during the Nazi regime. Ossietzky had been Hitler’s sharp opponent. Goering visited Ossietzky in his prison cell to try to persuade him to refuse to accept the prize. Then the Norwegians noted that a failure by the Hungarian authorities to spare the two writers’ lives would lower them to the same level, in the minds of all humans, as those who had sentenced Ossietzky. The Spanish-born Pablo Picasso, the world most celebrated painter, who is a member of the French Communist Party, also sent a telegram protesting the persecution of Hungarian writers and artists. He asked that Obersovszki and Gali, who had been sentenced to death, be given clemency. Louis Aragon, the celebrated French Communist poet, joined Picasso in this demand. The Hungarian-Soviet agreement, signed on May 27, 1957, serves as the legal authority for the abovementioned measures and repressions. The text of the agreement reads as follows : “The number of Soviet troops temporarily in Hungary, as well as the places at which they are to be stationed, will be determined by a special agreement between the governments of the Hungarian People’s Republic and the USSR.” (Nepszabadsag, May 29, 1957.) By permitting the Soviet troops to stay on Hungarian soil, the Kadar regime went even further along the path of illegal action than the Rákosi group because, from a legal point of view, this is not allowed for either by the Hungarian-Soviet Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance Pact (Act XXI/1958), or by the Warsaw Pact (Act III/1955) or by the regime itself. The true picture is much darker than the possibilities implied by any of the above. The continuous harrassment, arrests, deportations, dismissals of persons who had participated in the revolution, the revival of the notorious AVH and the inclusion of the lowest type of individuals in its ranks are all phenomena clearly showing that the Hungarian people are presently subjected to the most terrible reign of terror and oppression. * * *
