Rescuing the World: The Life and Times of Leo Cherne

Chapter 4: Combusting Spontaneously

Chapter 4 Combusting Spontaneously In the flaming days of late October, something happened that changed my life, and it is changing your life, too. I was one of the first to cross the border and reach Budapest in the brief hour of Hungary’s liberation. I saw freedom burning in a nation, and in the light of those flames I caught a glimpse of epic things to come—changes which can touch the lives of everyone. —Leo Cherne, 1956.1 Prologue S oviet military forces occupied Hungary at the end of World War II. Stalin imposed a coalition government on Hungary at first, but in 1948, he installed Matyas Rakosi, a savage Communist dictator. The Soviet Union assisted Rakosi in developing a totalitarian state with a large Hungarian army supported by a powerful secret police force, the AVO (State Defense Section). The AVO’s 50,000 operatives, assisted by another 80,000 informers, ruled through terror. Most Hungarians feared theAVOs, who operated one hundred concentration camps and routinely arrested, tortured, and imprisoned dissidents.The most famous imprisoned Hungarian was the Roman Catholic primate of Hungary, Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty. While a power struggle was underway in the Kremlin after Stalin’s death in 1953, hardline Communist regimes weakened throughout much of Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe. Malenkov approved Imre Nagy as premier of Hungary. Nagy, a lifelong Communist, was viewed as a reformer in comparison with his predecessor. Nagy, however, was replaced first by Rakosi and then by Erno Gero, whom the Hungarians considered a carbon copy of Rakosi. Many Hungarians were enthralled by the unfolding liberalizing movement in Poland in 1956. Despite continued deep fear of the secret police, criticism of the Communist leadership increased during that summer. A 53 few days after the Polish Communists gained some internal autonomy from the Soviet Union, Hungarian intellectuals and students demanded similar reforms and threatened to demonstrate if their demands were not met. On the evening of Monday, October 22, students at the Budapest Technical University took another unprecedented step when they used the university’s printing press to duplicate a statement composed of “16 points” for reform of the Communist system. The statement called for a peaceful march to City Hall the following evening to express sympathy for the new Polish Communist reforms. Initially, the flustered Ministry of Interior granted permission, but then rescinded it.The students and faculty protested and the ministry reversed its ban. Gero announced that he would address the Hungarian nation that night. When the factories let out, thousands of students and workers gathered at City Hall and waited to hear Gero. He defended the Soviet military occupation of Hungary and expressed no sympathy for the demands of the protesting students, whom he branded as traitors. Gero threatened to crush future demonstrations. Outside Budapest’s City Hall, the milling group—now composed of a wide spectrum of students, intellectuals, and workers—was incensed by Gero’s speech. Two thousand marched on the radio station to request equal time to rebut his accusations.The orderly demonstrators arrived at the station and sent in a delegation. The AVO agents, surrounding the station, arrested the delegation and fired on the unarmed demonstrators.This triggered what Cherne later called “spontaneous combustion.”The senseless firing on Hungarians ignited long pent-up hatred against the regime. Students, workers, and intellectuals banded together to fight the AVO. Fighting spread throughout the city. Gero’s Communist regime lost all legitimacy when he requested Soviet military intervention to end the rapidly growing revolt. On the morning of October 24, two Soviet mechanized divisions with ten thousand soldiers streamed into Budapest.Two additional Soviet divisions stationed in Romania were deployed into Hungary.When the AVO again fired on demonstrators outside the parliament building, Soviet troops joined in, resulting in an estimated one thousand casualties.This stoked open rebellion against theAVO forces and Soviet troops. In the afternoon of Wednesday, October 2, Hungarian police refused to fire on demonstrators, and many joined the uprising. Hungarian army units were called in to support the AVO and Soviet troops. Many Hungarian soldiers—among them a tank battalion led by Colonel Pal Maléter—joined the rapidly growing uprising. The leaders of the Hungarian Communist party frantically reinstated Nagy as premier. On orders from Moscow, they selected a hardliner, János 54 Rescuing theWorld: The Life andTimes of Leo Cherne Kádár, as head of the Hungarian Communist Party...