Richard Lettis: The Hungarian Revolt

23 October

PETOFI CIRCLE'S TEN DEMANDS.

BUDAPEST

The leadership of the Petofi Circle has passed the following resolution at its meeting:
1. In view of the present situation in Hungary we propose that the Central Committee of the Workers' [Communist] Party should be convened with the minimum possible delay. Comrade Imre Nagy should take part in the preparatory work of this session.
2. We consider it necessary that the Party and Government should reveal the country's economic situation in all sincerity, revise the second Five-Year Plan directives, and work out a specific constructive program in accordance with our special Hungarian conditions.
3. The Central Committee and the Government should adopt every method possible to ensure the development of socialist democracy, by specifying the real functions of the Party, asserting the legitimate aspirations of the working class and by introducing factory self-administration and workers' democracy.
4. To ensure the prestige of the Party and of the state administration, we propose that Comrade Imre Nagy and other comrades who fought for socialist democracy and Leninist principles should occupy a worthy place in the direction of the Party and the Government.
5. We propose the expulsion of Matyas Rakosi from the Party Central Committee and his recall from the National Assembly and the Presidential Council. The Central Committee, which wishes to establish calm in the country, must offset present attempts at a Stalinist and Rakosiite restoration.
6. We propose that the case of Mihaly Farkas be tried in public in accordance with socialist legality.
7. The Central Committee should revise resolutions it passed in the period which has just elapsed -resolutions which have proved wrong and sectarian- above all the resolutions of March 1955, the December 1955 resolution on literature, and the 30 June 1956 resolution on the Petofi Circle. We propose that the Central Committee should annul these resolutions and draw the proper conclusions as to the persons concerned.
8. Even the most delicate questions must be made public, including the balance sheets of our foreign trade agreements and the plans for Hungarian uranium.
9. To consolidate Hungarian-Soviet friendship, let us establish even closer relations with the Soviet Party, State and people, on the basis of the Leninist principle of complete equality.
10. We demand that at its meeting on 23 October the DISZ Central Committee should declare its stand on the points of this resolution and adopt a resolution for the democratisation of the Hungarian Youth Movement.

PETER VERES ADDRESSES THE DEMONSTRATION:

Budapest
University students gathered in front of the Petofi statue in Pest shortly before 15:00 hrs. They sang the "Kossuth Hymn" and carried banners inscribed "Long Live the Youth of Poland" - "For Freedom in the Spirit of the Friendship between Bem and Kossuth" ... The demonstrators, including a number of well-known professors, carried Hungarian and Polish national flags. The actor Imre Sinkovits recited Petofi's "Arise Hungarians!" Then he read the students' demands.
The group which had been demonstrating at the Petofi statue in Pest then marched to the Bem statue in Buda, where they were joined by nearly 800 students and teaching staff members from the Petofi Military Academy, as well as others from the Polytechnical University, the Agricultural University, and the High School of Physical Education. The students wore cockades in the national colours. National flags were distributed from lorries.
Peter Veres, President of the Writers' Association, then read a seven-point resolution passed by his Praesidium:
"We have arrived at an historic turning point. In this revolutionary situation we shall not be able to acquit ourselves well unless the entire Hungarian working people rallies as a disciplined camp. The leaders of the Party and Government have so far failed to present a workable program. Responsible for this are those persons who, instead of expanding socialist democracy, are still obstinately organising themselves to restore Stalin's and Rakosi's regime of terror in Hungary. We Hungarian writers have formulated seven points, the demands of the Hungarian nation:
1. We want an independent national policy based on the principle of socialism. Our relations with all countries, and particularly with the USSR and the people's democracies, should be regulated on the basis of the principle of equality. We demand a review of treaties and economic agreements between States in the spirit of the equality of rights for the nations involved.
2. An end must be put to national minority policies which disturb friendship between peoples. We want true and sincere friendship with our allies -the USSR and the people's democracies. This can only be realised on the basis of Leninist principles.
3. We demand a clear disclosure of the country's economic situation. We shall not be able to emerge from this crisis unless all workers, peasants, and intellectuals can play their proper part in the political, social, and economic administration of the country.
4. Factories must be directed by workers and technicians. The present humiliating system of wages and norms, and the disgraceful condition of social security benefits, etc. must be reformed. The trade unions must truly represent the interests of the Hungarian working class. [48/49]

IDEOLOGUES AND MARSEILLAISE

BUDAPEST
I have been the witness today of one of the great events of history. I have seen the people of Budapest catch the fire lit in Poznan and Warsaw and come out into the streets in open rebellion against their Soviet overlords. I have marched with them and almost wept for joy with them as the Soviet emblems in the Hungarian flags were torn out by the angry and exalted crowds. And the great point about the rebellion is that it looks like being successful.
As I telephone this dispatch I can hear the roar of delirious crowds made up of student girls and boys, of Hungarian soldiers still wearing their Russian-type uniforms, and overalled factory workers marching through Budapest and shouting defiance against Russia. "Send the Red Army home," they roar. "We want free and secret elections." And then comes the ominous cry which one always seems to hear on these occasions: "Death to Rakosi." Death to the former Soviet puppet dictator-now taking a "cure" on the Russian Black Sea Riviera-whom the crowds blame for all the ills that have befallen their country in 11 years of Soviet puppet rule.
Leaflets demanding the instant withdrawal of the Red Army and the sacking of the present Government are being showered among the street crowds from trams. The leaflets have been printed secretly by students who "managed to get access," as they put it, to a printing shop when newspapers refused to publish their political programme. On house walls all over the city primitively stencilled sheets have been pasted up listing the 16 demands of the rebels.
But the fantastic and, to my mind, really superingenious feature of this national rising against the Hammer and Sickle, is that it is being carried on under the protective red mantle of pretended Communist orthodoxy. Gigantic portraits of Lenin are being carried at the head of the marchers. The purged ex-Premier Imre Nagy, who only in the last couple of weeks has been readmitted to the Hungarian Communist Party, is the rebels' chosen champion and the leader whom they demand must be given charge of a new free and independent Hungary. Indeed, the Socialism of this ex-Premier and -this is my bet- Premier-soon-to-be-again, is no doubt genuine enough. But the youths in the crowd, to my mind, were in the vast majority as anti-Communist as they were anti-Soviet -that is if you agree with me that calling for the removal of the Red Army is anti-Soviet.
In fact there was one tricky moment when they almost came to blows on this point. The main body of students and marchers had already assembled outside their university in front of the monument to the poet-patriot Petofi who led the 1848 rebellion against the Austrians. Suddenly a new group of students carrying red banners approached from a side street. The banners showed them to be the students of the Leninist-Marxist Institute, which trains young teachers of Communist ideology and supplies many of the puppet rulers' civil servants.
The immediate reaction of the main body, I noticed, was to shout defiance and disapproval of the oncoming ideologists.
But they were quickly hushed into silence and the ideologues joined in the march with the rest of them, happily sing ing the Marseillaise.
Sefton Delmer, Daily Express (London), 24 October [49/50]

BUDAPEST
The revolution which broke out on the 23rd October on Joseph-Bem-Square started off as a peaceful manifestation. The students' demands, summed up in sixteen points and distributed in the streets of Budapest in the form of leaflets, were those of impatient revolutionary youth.
Certain observers insist on the essentially nationalistic characteristics of the manifestations. Incontestably the presence of the Soviet Army on Hungarian territory, the visible outward signs of foreign occupation (there was no practical difference between Soviet and Hungarian uniforms), rekindled the flame of Hungarian nationalism which had never been extinguished. But it was not only a question of nationalism; the students of Budapest also wanted true socialism.
It was for free independent Socialism that young Hungarians began the struggle against the only armed fascists who on the night of the 23rd October still wished to save their government: the red fascists of the political police, appointed to safe guard the last vestiges of the Stalinist government.
Numerous eye-witnesses have affirmed that at the beginning of the revolution the insurgents had no arms. It was only after Gero s menacing and disastrous speech on his return from Belgrade that the State Police (which must not be confused with the "AVO", or political police) joined the students and distributed arms to them in front of the Hungarian radio broadcasting house in Sandor Brody Street. Next morning the entire Budapest garrison officers, non- commissioned officers and soldiers, joined the students and opened armament depots to them.
The officers responsible were nearly all of them Communists and not "fascist agents or Horthyist [50/51]

BUDAPEST
Dear Comrades, Beloved Friends, Working People of Hungary!
Of course we want a socialist democracy and not a bourgeois democracy. In accord with our Party and our convictions, our working class and people are jealously guarding the achievements of our people's democracy, and they will not permit anyone to touch them. We shall defend these achievements under all circumstances from whichever quarter they may be threatened. Today the chief aim of the enemies of our people is to shake the power of the working class, to loosen the peasant-worker alliance, to undermine the leadership of the working class in our country and to upset their faith in its party, in the Hungarian Workers' Party. They are endeavouring to loosen the close friendly relations between our nation, the Hungarian People's Republic, and other countries building socialism, especially between our country and the socialist Soviet Union. They are trying to loosen the ties between our party and the glorious Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the party of Lenin, the party of the 20th Congress.
They slander the Soviet Union. They assert that we trade with the Soviet Union on an unequal footing, that our relations with the Soviet Union are not based on equality, and allege that our independence has to be defended, not against the imperialists, but against the Soviet Union. All this is a barefaced lie-hostile slanders which do not contain a grain of truth. The truth is that the Soviet Union has not only liberated our people from the yoke of Horthy fascism and German imperialism, but that even at the end of the war, when our country lay prostrate, she stood by us and concluded pacts with us on the basis of full equality; ever since, she has been pursuing this policy.
There are people who want to create a conflict between proletarian internationalism and Hungarian patriotism. We Communists are Hungarian patriots. We were patriots in the prisons of Horthy fascism and in the difficult years of underground work and illegality . . . We declare that we do everything in our power to build up socialism in our country . . . on a Marxist-Leninist basis -which we have in common with other socialist countries- at the same time taking into account the peculiarities of our country, its economic and social situation, and Hungarian traditions. Yet, while we proclaim that we are patriots, we also energetically state that we are not nationalists. We are waging a constant fight against chauvinism, anti-Semitism and all other [51/52] reactionary, anti-social and inhuman trends and views. Therefore, we condemn those who try to spread the poison of chauvinism among our youth, and who use the democratic freedom which our state has assured the working people for nationalistic demonstrations.
However, not even this demonstration shakes the resolution of our party to proceed on the road of developing socialist democracy. We are patriots but at the same time we are also proletarian internationalists.
Our relations with the Soviet Union and all other countries building socialism are based on the fact that our parties-leading parties in our respective countries are inspired by the teachings of Marxism-Leninism, that we love our people and respect all other peoples, and that we follow the principle of complete equality and non-interference in each other's affairs, while at the same time, we give friendly mutual aid to each other. We help each other in order to further the progress of socialism in our countries and the victory of the lofty ideals of socialism in the whole world .
The unity of the Party is always a great necessity. Without unity our Party would have been unable to defy the murderous terror of Horthy fascism for a quarter of a century. Without the unity of our Party and the working class, the people's democracy could not have triumphed in our country and the working class allied to the laboring peasantry could not have gained power. This unity, the unity of the Party, working class and working people, must be guarded as the apple of our eye. Let our Party organisations oppose with discipline and complete unity any attempt to create disorder, nationalistic well-poisoning, and provocation.
Worker-Comrades, Workers! We must put it frankly: the question now is whether we want a socialist democracy or a bourgeois democracy. The question is: do we want to build socialism in our country or to make a hole in the building of socialism and then open the door for capitalism? The question is: do you allow the power of the working class and the worker-peasant alliance to be undermined, or will you stand up resolutely, disciplined, and in complete unity with our entire working population, to defend the worker's power and the achievements of socialism?
Radio Kossuth [52/53]

BUDAPEST
In the early evening of 23 October enthusiastic students had demonstrated at the Bem statue, in front of the parliament building, and also in front of the radio building. They were disciplined, orderly demonstrators. Employees of the radio station greeted them with the Hungarian national flag from the balcony. A deputation went to see the management and made requests. Agreement was reached on several points. When the delegates appeared on the balcony they were prevented from talking to the crowd by ir responsible hooligans who intermingled with the crowd in increasing numbers. The delegates were not even listened to.
Stones were thrown at the windows of the radio building. The crowd attacked the mobile recording van which was in readiness to make a recording of the delegation's visit. Another car was burnt. At this stage most of the students and young workers left the scene in groups. From the Koerut (Ring Road) new groups and, later on, armed hooligans arrived. Somewhere they had broken the gates of a barracks and got hold of weapons. The crowd now broke the gate of the radio building. The guards tried to keep them off with water hoses, at the same time trying to extinguish the flames of the burning car. When this was of no avail they were compelled to use tear gas. The situation was becoming more and more acute, minute by minute.
The windows of the building were broken by the crowd and people climbed through the fence. They had armed themselves with bricks from a nearby building site and did much damage. The slogan now was: "Occupy the radio". The guards fired shots into the air. The guards then tried to repel the attack without harming the attackers but the crowd fired more and more shots. The first victim was a major of the State Security authority. During the first hours six soldiers were shot dead. But the security guards did not fire. There was a state of siege in the radio building but transmissions went out undisturbed.
Later on, two lorries arrived with armed hooligans. They occupied nearby buildings and fired at the studio. Then, and only then, as a last resort -after many guards had been killed and innumerable ones had beeri wounded- did they receive the order to return the fire. The attackers, in possession of automatic pistols and hand grenades, intensified their assault more and more. In the mad fire of bullets, the workers of the radio managed to broadcast. When the mob broke into the building the radio workers prevented the provocateurs from succeeding in silencing Radio Kossuth.
As you can hear, dear listeners, the program of Radio Kossuth is somewhat different from the scheduled program, but the Hungarian radio -Radio Kossuth- is on the air. No counter-revolutionary hordes, not even well organised counter-revolutionaries can silence it. Our studio has suffered great damage. Many a security guard has died a hero's death. The workers of the radio stood in the fire of bullets, often in the fire of machine-gun bullets, but not in vain. Already in the small hours of this morning we were on the air and have been on the air all day. This is Radio Kossuth Budapest.
Gyoergy Kalmar, Radio Kossufh, 24 October [53/55]

BUDAPEST
When young Hungarian blood was already flowing, Sandor Erdei and Laszlo Benjamin and I decided to call on the potentates then in power in an attempt to bring them to their senses and demand that they should not allow Hungarian youth to be fired on. In vain. They did not interrupt their deliberations. What did the life of hundreds or thousands of students and workers, or that of a nation matter to them? They just carried on with their discussions. Woolly-minded writers had no business to poke their noses into their affairs. We sent in the demand of the Writers' Association that they should hand over power to those who enjoyed the affection of the people and that they should not order firing on the people. For an hour and a quarter -from 22.30 to 23.45- we waited and waited. For a second we saw Istvan Kovacs and Jozsef Revai emerge with frightened faces.
Finally, we were admitted to Andras Hegedus' room. He told the lie that a fascist counter-revolution had broken out which they would quell by arms. Should they not be strong enough to do it, they would call in Soviet troops. He said all this when, on their orders, the university students marching in Sandor Street were already being murdered; when the calling-in of Soviet troops was already a fait accompli. He said that smilingly, like someone who had already thought out the devilish plan together with his accomplices of trying to shield behind Imre Nagy. But we could not see Imre Nagy, and could not talk to him. He was then indeed a prisoner. We only saw his son-in-law, Ferenc Janosi, who had been persecuted and deprived of his military rank, hanging about lonely and haggard in the waiting room, and who was panic-stricken about
his fate. Thus, on the night of the revolution, we returned to the Writers' Union, when death on caterpillar tracks-the tanks-was roaring in the streets of Budapest, and when it was in fact Andras Hegedus and Erno Gero who were at the controls of the tanks, guns, and machine guns.
Zoltan Zelk, Free Radio Kossuth, 31 October [55/56]

Richard Lettis: The Hungarian Revolt