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

1962-03-01 / 3. szám

FRATERNITY

9

one of the articles which described the discontent of the peasantry. It was published in two parts —- in the May 9th and 16th issue of “Béke és Szabadság” (Peace and Freedom). The writer of the article was Stalin prize winner Tamás Aczél. But analytic reports, editorials discussing the failures of the regime, the consequences of the personality cult appeared in more and more Party publications. The June 1956 issue of the official organ of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, the “Pártélet” (Party Life) startled the Party members with the admission that “The Constitution of the Hungarian People’s Democracy has never been anything but a dead letter and Parliament became a rubber stamp. Serious debates never take place in the Parliament, which abdicated its rights and has never fulfilled its duties. The members of the Parliament are nothing but voting machines.”

In the same month the “Társadalmi Szemle” (Sociological Review), the regime’s chief ideological publication, followed suit bjr saying that ‘The Party membership has a right to criticize, if it sees that the leaders commit mistakes.”

Also in June 1956 the “Uj Világ” (New World), published by the Soviet-Hungarian Friendship Society, printed an article which quoted Tibor Vas, Professor of Law at the Budapest University, who, during a debate on Socialist legality, pointed out the necessity of analyzing publicly the grave injustices committed in the past years.

But the students, who later sparked the great uprising, were most encouraged by the June 23rd issue of “Magyar Nemzet” (Hungarian Nation), a daily newspaper which published a three column article on its front page written by Zoltán Toth, Dean of the Historical Department of the Lorant Eötvös University. Dean Toth pointed out that since 1949, when the regime reorganized higher education, the