Fifty years ago

It was fifty years ago yesterday that the week-long secret trial ended, resulting in death sentences for Imre Nagy, the prime minister, Pál Maléter, the minister of defense, and Miklós Gimes, a journalist. There was no possibility of appeal, but those condemned to death had the "privilege" of asking for clemency. Imre Nagy didn't take advantage of the offer. Instead he declared that his "only consolation is that the Hungarian people and the workers of the world will exonerate him." Maléter and Gimes did request clemency, but their requests were denied. Early the next morning, exactly fifty years ago today, all three men were executed in the courtyard of the jail. Their bodies, face down, wrapped in tar paper, their hands wired together, were put in primitive coffins and buried in the courtyard of the jail. The coffins stayed there until 1961 when they were moved to a cemetery. Their graves were marked by false names. Imre Nagy's remains were buried as Piroska Borbíró.

There were other prominent people whose cases were handled at the same secret trial but without such dire consequences. Sándor Kopácsi, second in command of the short-lived National Guard, received a life sentence. Ferenc Donáth, a socialist politician, received 12 years; Ferenc Jánosi, son-in-law of Imre Nagy, 8 years. Zoltán Tildy, before the communist takeover president of the republic who accepted a position in Imre Nagy's government, received 6 years, and Miklós Vásárhelyi, press secretary of Imre Nagy, 5 years.

The presiding judge was Ferenc Vida who after the failed revolution was responsible for a total of 35 death sentences. To his dying day he remained convinced that these men were guilty of attempting "to overthrow the people's democracy" and therefore they deserved what they got.

The fiftieth anniversary of the events in 1958 makes today, June 16th, already designated as the Day of the Martyrs of 1956, especially important. One of the highlights of the commemoration was a whole week of replaying the 56-hour court proceedings. Surprisingly there is an uncut tape recording of the trial that is currently kept in the Hungarian National Archives. The tape recording was in fairly good shape and with modern technology the tape was restored to its original, if not better, quality. The Open Society Archives (OSA), attached to the English-language East European University, received a copy of it and together with the 1956 Institute they decided to have a week-long public airing of it. However, the "owner" of the tape recording, the National Archives, had other ideas. The archivists there were convinced that playing the tape in a public venue would violate privacy laws. It took some time to settle the issue, but the OSA-1956 Institute won. The recording, according to information that appeared in the press, might soon be available on the internet. The transcript is already available from the homepage of OSA (http://tinyurl.com/544fqu).

The tapes don't provide new information for anyone familiar with the history of the revolution and its aftermath. However, making the tape recording public achieved two important results. First, those hundreds of people who sat through the daily sessions had a real sense of the atmosphere of the times. Something one cannot glean from transcripts. Second, because of the public airing the media paid an unusual amount of attention to the events preceding the execution of Imre Nagy and his comrades. In articles and reports journalists passed on information to the general public that otherwise would not have been disseminated outside of a small circle of experts and history buffs.

There will be many events marking the day at places significant to the story, including the jail which, by the way, looks much more civilized today than in 1958. There will be wreaths around Imre Nagy's statue, gatherings at the Memorial to the Revolution erected two years ago, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the uprising. The crowning event will take place tonight in parliament where the diplomatic corps has been invited and of course, the president and the leaders of the parties. The president has "other plans," so he won't be there. Neither will Viktor Orbán and Zsolt Semjén. So neither Fidesz nor the KDNP will be represented. However, Péter Boross of MDF will be there. He is personally involved because he took part in the revolution. One of the speakers will be Tibor Méray, an important participant in the events of 1956, author of the first book written about the revolution and Imre Nagy. He has been living in France ever since 1956. Imre Nagy's grandchildren will attend, as will many of the family members of the other accused.

One has a fair idea what is waiting for us today. László Gonda, one of the leaders of the extreme right who listened to the tapes, yelled: "We will be there!" Meaning the official events. What Gonda and his friends are planning can easily be guessed. Of course, the fact that Sólyom and Orbán refuse to participate in the official memorial in parliament only lends encouragement to Gonda and his kind.

And one more interesting aside. The public airing of the court proceedings of fifty years ago prompted an ordinary citizen who phoned into Klub Rádió's "Let's Talk it Over" to make a comparison with more recent times. In the worst dictatorship of the early Kádár years there was a recording made of this "very sensitive" (from the point of view of the regime) event. Yet in democratic Hungary between 1998 and 2002 no recording was made, not even summarizing notes were taken, of cabinet meetings! One can think about this a bit.

Comments

[Odin's lost eye]

I have all too often noticed that those ‘little toads’ at the extreme ends of the political spectrum have a strong tendency to hi-jack and claim for themselves anniversaries of events with which they had no connection! Why? I think it is to associate themselves with and claim the “glory” and the commemoration of the death of Imre Nagy is no exception. For years the British Communist party claimed the sound whipping of Feldmarschall-Leutnant Baron Julius Jacob, Freiherr von Haynau by the draymen of Barkley Prekins brewery in London as their doing.
One of the things that both Imre Nagy, the prime minister, Pál Maléter, the minister of defence struggled to do (and succeeded) was to keep the Hungarian army off the streets and in its barracks. This was in sharp contrast to Gomułka who warned the Russians that Polish troops would resist any Russian incursion into Poland.
Both Jo Broz (Tito) and Khrushchev betrayed Nagy. Tito betrayed him by seeming to offer ‘diplomatic sanctuary’ then allowing or rather it seems conniving with the Russians to allow the Russian army to seize Nagy from a bus with diplomatic markings. Khrushchev betrayed him by extraditing him back to Hungary (from Russian custody) against the Russian constitution, which forbids the extradition of Russian citizens. Imre Nagy was a naturalised Russian citizen.
Kardar it seems only became Prime Minister because of the threat made by the Russians to return Rakosi and all of the ‘Old Guard’ if he (Kardar) refused. People often say that Kardar had to have Nagy eliminated as part of this price for returning to Hungary. I do not think this is true. I think Khrushchev wanted Nagy eliminated, as he was one of the last remaining Malankov appointees.

[Judith Kopacsi]

Odin, your wrong on at least two accounts. Imre Nagy didn't try and succeed to keep the Hungarian Army to stay in the barracks. Most of them joined the revolution, and fought against the Russians. However, when the Russians returned on Nov. 4th, they cam with such a force, that it would have been sheer suicidal to fight back. The Russians attacked with more than 2000 tanks, a force equal to the Germans when they occupied Paris during WWII.
Imre Nagy and his entourage were indeed betrayed by Tito, and the Russians kidnapped them when they left the Yugoslav Embassy. However they were transported to Romania, and later returned to Hungary to stand trial.
Nikita Hrushchov didn't demand Nagy to be eliminated. It was Kadar, who insisted to get rid of him and the others.

[Judith Kopacsi]

Please remove my duplicated comment. Thank you.