HUNGARY: I Forgive Them

Communist Boss Matyas Rakosi had a painful fortnight. He had had to deal with a counterrevolution in a stadium, a Premier who tried to go AWOL, a peasantry that insisted on owning its farms, a proletariat that insisted on higher wages, and —worst of all—a Christian who prayed for Communists.

Political Football. Ferencvaros is the name of a middle-class district in Budapest, also the name of Hungary’s oldest and best soccer club. The team’s rooters are anti-Red. Two weeks ago Ferencvaros played the all-Communist Iron Workers, Rakosi’s own club. Into the Ferencvaros stadium, on Ulloi Ut, crowded 25,000 fans. Rakosi’s team fell behind. Inflamed Ferencvaros rooters began to shout: “Kill those Communist .”

Next day the Ferencvaros team was suspended for four weeks, its stadium closed. The official announcement spoke of “enemies of Hungarian democracy who attack our constitution through sports.” Even though Budapesters boycotted all soccer games, Ferencvaros knuckled under. The team “applied to Comrade Rakosi for assistance,” asked “the democratic camp of the [soccer] association to eliminate the reactionaries.”

Rakosi is the real No. 1 man in Hungary, even though he is only Deputy Vice Premier. The front man until last week was Premier Lajos Dinnyes (rhymes with in mesh). Rakosi replaced him with Puppet Istvan Dobi (rhymes with Gobi). Both are members of what is left of the Smallholders Party; both dirked their party by working for the Communists.

Dinnyes was accused of not showing “enough vigilance against two-faced elements.” His Finance Minister, Miklos Nyardi, had gone on a mission to the West and “entered the service of foreign imperialists,” i.e., decided not to return home.

Actually, Dinnyes had toyed with the same idea. Even as Premier, Puppet Dinnyes had been unable to get his sister, Etelka Gunde, an exit visa. So Etelka, with her husband and two sons, got across the border through the forests. In Austria she was free to tell about her brother. Rakosi had promised him the ambassadorship at Bern if he would denounce Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty, primate of Hungary. Dinnyes, envisioning Bern and freedom from Rakosi’s secret police, called Mindszenty “the center of the counterrevolutionary forces in Hungary.”

Rakosi forgot about the promise but did not forget about Dinnyes’ disloyal hankering for Bern.

The Toilers Are Told. Fortnight ago, Rakosi made a major speech before his Communist Party. Hungarian peasants cocked an ear; since the war they had divided up the large farms among themselves (with the blessings of the Communists) and were well pleased. Rakosi’s speech jolted them. He deplored the fact that Hungarian agriculture today is “based on the split-up little peasant holdings.” He even used the dreaded word “kolkhoz” —collective farm. The peasant press gingerly expressed anxiety.

Rakosi’s speech also jolted the industrial workers. Their standard of living had been rising. Rakosi pointed out that the coming five-year plan would require capital goods. Said he: “. . . we cannot continue with such a speedy rise in the standard of living.”

Out of the mouth of a Communist, these words seemed strange. Indeed, one Comrade Nemeth wrote to the Communist Szabad Nep that he and his fellow workers were astounded. The paper replied curtly: “The mistake Comrade Nemeth made is that he believes the organized agents of reactionary forces.”

“Surging Pain . . .” One boulder remained in the path of Rakosi’s Communist steamroller. Cardinal Mindszenty was facing trial for subversive activity, but last week the Voice of America broadcast to Hungary his latest pastoral letter, which had been banned in Hungary by the Communists. It was subversive, indeed.

“I stand for God, Church and my country,” he said. “When compared to the sufferings of my country, my own fate is unimportant … I am not accusing my accusers. If, from time to time, I must cast a light upon conditions, it is only a revelation of my country’s surging pain … I pray for the world of justice and brotherly love; I pray for those who, in the words of my Master, know not what they are doing. I forgive them with all my heart.”