Plan
Introduction
1 Early years
2 Post-war years
3 Kadar and the 1956 revolution
4 Kadara era
5 After death
Bibliography Introduction Janos Kadar (Hungarian Kádár János, until 1945 surname Chermanek, Hungarian Csermanek, May 26, 1912, Fiume, Austria-Hungary - July 6, 1989, Budapest, Hungary) - the communist leader of Hungary as General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (since 1956 to 1988), in 1956-1958 and 1961-1965. also served as Prime Minister of Hungary. 1. Early years Janos Kadar was the illegitimate child of Borbola Cermanek, a servant of Slovak-Hungarian origin, from a soldier Janos Krezinger, and the childhood of the future Hungarian leader was spent in deprivation and poverty. A native of the now Croatian Rijeka (then the free city of Fiume) as part of Transleitania, which was part of Austria-Hungary, according to the then laws of his native city, he was registered at birth under the Italian name Giovanni Cermanek. In 1918, at the age of six, he moved with his mother to Budapest. As the best student in the class in the elementary public school, he received the right to study free of charge at the Higher Primary City School. However, from the age of 14 he was forced to leave school, was an auxiliary worker, and then a mechanic in a printing house. In his youth he was fond of books, chess and football. At the age of 16, Janos Cermanek won an open chess tournament organized by the hairdressers' union and was awarded the Hungarian translation of Friedrich Engels' Anti-Dühring, which, by his own admission, sparked his interest in Marxism and changed his way of thinking. A committed socialist , Chermanek, at the suggestion of childhood friend Janos Fenakel, joined in September 1931 the Sverdlov cell of the banned Federation of Communist Working Youth (KIMSZ), the Komsomol organization of the illegal Communist Party of Hungary, receiving his first underground pseudonym - Barna ("Shaten"). The next pseudonym of Chermanek - Kadar ("Cooper") - in 1945 officially became his surname. In November 1931, the Komsomol member also became one of the "five hundred brave" - members of the Communist Party, which operated under the harsh conditions of a right-wing authoritarian dictatorship. Membership in the Communist Party affected the fate of Kadar: several times he was detained by the Horthy authorities on charges of illegal agitation and illegal political activity. In 1933, Kadar, secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee, was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison. In prison, he organized a hunger strike, for which he was transferred to Szeged in the Chillag maximum security prison, where he met his future political opponent Mathias Rakosi. Subsequently, Kadar, following the line of Enyo Landler on the communists' entry into social democratic organizations, joined the Social Democratic Party of Hungary in 1935, and soon even headed the SDPV cell in the VI district of Budapest. During World War II, Janos Kadar was an active participant in the movement Resistance in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia. While in Hungary, he was one of the initiators of the creation of the anti-fascist Hungarian Front. In 1941-1942 he was a member of the Pest Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Hungary; in 1942 he was introduced to the Central Committee, and in 1943 he was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the CPV. In April 1944, on behalf of the party, he left for Yugoslavia, but was arrested as a deserter. In November 1944, while being transported to Germany, he fled from the train carrying him. On April 3, 1964, for his personal contribution to the fight against fascism during the Second World War, Janos Kadar was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 11218). 2. Post-war years After the fall of the Nilashist regime and the liberation of Hungary from the German occupiers in April 1945, Janos Kadar was elected to the Provisional National Assembly, as well as a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party (VKP), and in 1946 - Deputy General Secretary of the Central Committee of the VKP. In parallel, in April 1945 - August 1948, he was the secretary of the Budapest City Party Committee. In March 1948, he chaired the commission for the unification of the CPSU and the Social Democratic Party, and on August 5, 1948, he became Minister of the Interior. At this time, Kadar supported the Stalinist model of socialism and even played a crucial role in the arrest of Laszlo Raik, who was accused of "Titoism" and "anti-Soviet activities." However, Kadar turned into a potential rival of the country's leader Matthias Rakosi, speaking in favor of expanding the personal rights and freedoms of Hungarian citizens and the limits of Rakoschist terror. In June 1950, he was transferred from the post of Minister of the Interior (Sandor Zöld became his successor) to the post of head of the department of party and mass organizations of the Central Committee of the VPT, and in April 1951 he was removed from this post. Soon he was arrested, himself accused of Titoism, declared Rakosi a "traitor" and imprisoned in camps for an indefinite period. Janos Kadar was released in July 1956 due to the de-Stalinization processes started in the USSR. 3. Kadar and the 1956 revolution Appointed first secretary of the branch of the Hungarian Workers' Party (HTP) in the industrial XIII district of Budapest, Janos Kadar soon becomes one of the most popular Hungarian politicians thanks to the support of workers in expanding the autonomy of trade unions, which allows him to become a member of Imre Nagy's government. A common misconception about Kadar as An ardent opponent of the reforms, Nagy does not correspond to reality: like Nagy, Kadar was the object of persecution under Rakosi and therefore considered himself an ally of the head of government. Initially, he fully supported Nagy's political course, aimed at liberalization and democratization. political life in the country, the release of political prisoners, the abolition of censorship and the involvement of friendly HTP political parties in state administration. In the context of the impending threat of Soviet military intervention after Nagy's announcement of the country's desire to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, Janos Kadar even announced that he "would fall under the first Russian tank that violated the borders of Hungary." On October 26, 1956, he became a member of the Directory, on October 28 - chairman of the Central Executive Committee, and on October 30 - a minister in Nagy's cabinet. However, bloody skirmishes in the center of Budapest, lynching of state security officials and the growing activity of anti-communist circles in Hungary convinced Kadar that the situation out of control, which required moderate reforms, the PTV, and the only way out would be cooperation with the Soviet Union and other states of the socialist camp. Therefore, on November 1, 1956, Kadar and Ferenc Münnich, with the help of Soviet diplomats, left Hungary, and on November 2, 1956, Kadar was already negotiating with the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries in Moscow. On November 4, 1956, in Uzhgorod, Kadar met with Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev and discussed with him the formation of a new Hungarian government. On November 7, 1956, Kadar arrived in Budapest after the Soviet troops, and the next day at 5:05 am announced the transfer of all power in the country to the Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Government headed by him. Kadar, having taken the posts of prime minister and leader of the Hungarian Socialist Workers party, created to replace the former HTP, announced 15 points of its program, which provided for the preservation of the socialist and democratic character of the Hungarian state, the preservation of its sovereignty, the cessation of street fighting and the restoration of order, the improvement of the living standards of the population, the revision of the five-year plan in the interests of the working people, the fight against bureaucracy, the development of Hungarian traditions and culture, as well as close cooperation with other socialist states, the preservation of the Soviet contingent of 200,000 troops and negotiations with the Department of Internal Affairs on the withdrawal of troops from the country. Kadar also stated that the Rakoshist slogan “Who is not with us is against us” will be replaced by a more democratic one - “Who is not against us is with us”, which meant a broad amnesty for the participants in the uprising who remained in Hungary. Imre Nagy, who went into hiding with György Lukács, Geza Lošonczi and L. Rajk's widow Julia in the Yugoslav embassy, was also promised that he would be given the opportunity to leave the country freely. However, when former premier On November 23, 1956, he left the Yugoslav embassy, he was arrested and executed two years later. Nevertheless, Kadar limited himself only to condemning the leaders of the uprising and did not allow the state security agencies to start persecuting its ordinary participants, declaring an amnesty for the latter. 4. The era of Kadar Despite tight Soviet control, Janos Kadar managed during his leadership of the party and the state to implement a number of innovative economic reforms that contributed to the liberalization of the economy and an increase in the living standards of the population, which long time was not inferior to this indicator in developed Western countries. Kadar initiated the development of the private sector in Hungary in agriculture and the service sector, removing barriers to small business and greatly expanding the rights of those employed in collective farms. However, the economic reform of 1968, designed to increase the efficiency of the economy, but never achieved its goals, was gradually curtailed under the influence of the suppression of the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia. The agreement concluded in 1973 with the USSR allowed the country to use cheap Soviet energy resources. The Soviet Union was the main importer of Hungarian industrial and agricultural products. Thanks to the reformist course of Kadar, Hungary began to be called "the funniest barracks in the communist camp", and the economic system in the country was called "goulashism" ("goulash communism", "goulash communism"; Hung. gulyáskommunizmus). Hungary had the most liberal censorship, citizens enjoyed free travel abroad, shops were filled with inexpensive goods from all over the world. Today, a significant part of the Hungarian society is nostalgic for the “times of Kadar” with their high quality of life, which was crossed out by the capitalist transformations of the early 1990s. Under Kadar, Hungary became one of the world leaders in tourism. The number of tourists visiting Hungary increased tenfold; tourists came to the country not only from Eastern Europe and the USSR, but also from Canada, the USA and Western Europe, bringing significant amounts to the Hungarian budget. Hungary has established close relations with developing countries, hosting many international students. Evidence of the normalization of relations with the West was the return by the Americans of the Holy Crown of King Stephen I to their homeland in 1979. In addition, Hungary in the late 1980s became the only socialist country that had a Formula 1 track. Kadar was removed from his posts in May 1988 ., handing over the management of the HSWP to Karo Gros, and died a year later, on July 6, 1989. He was buried in the central cemetery of Budapest in the "Hungarian Pantheon" at the Kerepesi cemetery - the traditional burial place of prominent figures of Hungarian culture, science and politics. 5. After death On the night of May 2, 2007, at the central cemetery of the city of Budapest, unknown vandals opened the grave of Janos Kadar, as well as the urn of his wife, and stole his remains. At the same time, Janos Kadar was buried in a double coffin. An inscription was left on the crypt next to Kadar's grave: "There is no place for a murderer and a traitor in the holy land!", Alluding to a line from the song "Neveket akarok hallani" by the Kárpátia group. Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, in his special address, stated the following: “This vile and disgusting act has no justification. This is criminal offense has nothing to do with politics and history. Every normal, civilized person will condemn him." Links
- Articles and speeches by the First Secretary of the HSWP Janos Kadar on Sovetika.ru - a site about the Soviet era In Budapest, the remains of Janos Kadar were stolen from a double coffin
Janos Kadar Bibliography:
- Johanna Granville A Good Comrade by Roger Gough American Historical Review, vol. 112, no. 4, (2007):1280. Janos Kadar: creator of "goulash socialism" Hero of the Soviet Union Janos Kadar
Vladimir SOLOVEICHIK
Turning our thoughts to the experience of the revolutionaries of the past, we can by no means bypass the great and at the same time tragic experience of the international communist movement. We need this experience not as a subject for historical studies, although this is important, but, first of all, as a lesson for the future. Few of the leaders of the communists of the last century nfr embodied all the dramatic contradictions of the movement, as in the figure of the Hungarian leader Janos Kadar.
Two comrades
One hundred years ago, on May 26, 1912, in the free city of Fiume (now it is the Croatian Rijeka), Giovanni Cermanek was born, who later became Janos Kadar
One hundred years ago, on May 26, 1912, in the free city of Fiume (now it is Croatian Rijeka), Borbola Cermanek, a half-Slovak, half-Hungarian working as a servant, gave birth to an illegitimate child. He was the son of an Austrian army soldier, Janos Krezinger, who was not recognized as his biological father and received the name "Giovanni Czermanek" when registering his birth. In 1918 the Habsburg monarchy collapsed. Six-year-old Giovanni moved with his mother to Budapest. At the age of 14, he left school and began to work for hire. Two years later, the young man won the open chess tournament of the hairdressers' union and received a Hungarian translation of Anti-Dühring as a gift. Engels' book not only aroused his interest in Marxism, it changed the whole way of thinking and brought Janos Cermanek (he began to call himself in the Hungarian way) in 1931 into the ranks of the banned communist organizations. In his activities were arrests and prisons, underground and hunger strikes - the usual fate of the Hungarian communist in the conditions of the Horthy dictatorship. Hiding from the police, he received his first underground pseudonym "Barna" ("Brown"), and after the liberation of the country from the Nazis and the exit of the Communist Party from the underground, he took the surname "Kadar" ("Cooper").
In the same years, Janos's two senior comrades in the communist movement, Matthias Rakosi and Imre Nagy, also entered the historical stage, each of whom will play a significant role in what can be called "the human tragedy of the communist Kadar." Both of them were captured by the Russians during the First World War. Matthias Rosenfeld, who took the pseudonym "Rakoshi", returned to his homeland in 1918, where he was a member of the government of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Then he worked in Moscow, being one of the secretaries of the executive committee of the Comintern, whose opinion Lenin valued, and in 1924 he was sent to illegal work for fifteen years, until he was transferred to the USSR in October 1940 in exchange for the Hungarian banners captured by the tsarist troops in 1849, spent in a penitentiary. Imre Nagy, after participating in the Civil War in Transbaikalia in the ranks of the Red Army, like Comrade Rakosi, returned to Hungary, spent three years in prison and emigrated to the USSR in 1930.
In 1989, documents about Nagy's connections with the Soviet state security agencies were extracted from the archives. The documents are by no means forgeries and in general leave no doubt about Nagy's involvement in the undercover development of some of those Hungarian communist émigrés who in 1937-1938 became victims of Stalin's repressions. Meanwhile, Russian diplomat and researcher Valery Musatov, who devoted many years to the study of Hungary in modern times, cites as indisputable evidence Nagy’s autobiography, written on March 20, 1940, where it is written in black and white: “I have been cooperating with the NKVD since 1930. On behalf of me, I was connected and dealt with many enemies of the people” (Eastern bloc and Soviet-Hungarian relations 1945-1989, St. Petersburg: Aleteyya, 2010, p. 129). Voluntary cooperation of Imre Nagy with the authorities culminated in an act of formal recruitment on January 17, 1933 with the assignment of the undercover pseudonym "Volodya". Agent "Volodya" did a great job: in 1937-1938 he contributed to the arrest of Hungarians - employees of the Institute of World Economy, and in April and June 1940 he compiled two lists of "anti-Soviet, terrorist and incorrigible elements" from among the emigrants (Vladislav Hedeler, Steffen Dietzsch. 1940 - Stalin's happy year, Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2011, p. 124). Simultaneously with the release of Matthias Rakosi, closely connected personally with Lavrenty Beria and Georgy Malenkov (the latter’s secretary for the Comintern, Nagy worked), “Volodya” was given the task of monitoring his compatriots in exile. Rakosi was not fully trusted, mindful of the fact that in the early 1920s, on the affairs of the Comintern, he closely communicated not only with Lenin and Molotov, but also with Trotsky, Zinoviev, Bukharin. The scale of the activities of the agent "Volodya" at that time can be assumed from the data published not so long ago by the Hungarian researcher Katalin Petrak. The Supreme Court of the USSR in 1955-1956 rehabilitated 17 Hungarian political emigrants. The process was continued, and by the beginning of 1989 their number was 56 people. At the same time, the Institute of Party History prepared an analytical note in which he asked to begin the process of rehabilitation of 261 people (Eastern bloc and Soviet-Hungarian relations. 1945-1989. St. Petersburg: Aleteyya, 2010, p. 66).
Agents and personnel
Janos Kadar (center) with Nikita Khrushchev (left) and Leonid Brezhnev
After the liberation of Hungary by the Red Army, the Hungarian communists slowly but surely pulled over all the levers state power. On June 14, 1948, they merged with the Social Democrats to form the Hungarian Workers' Party. Matthias Rakosi became the General Secretary of the Central Leadership of the Hungarian Working People's Party (CR HTP), his deputies were the former communists Mihaly Farkas and Janos Kadar, the former Social Democrat Gyorgy Marosan. Imre Nagy joined the Politburo of the CR HTP. Kadar's career took off sharply. In August of the same year, he succeeded his friend and fellow Politburo member of the CR HTP, Laszlo Rajk, as Minister of the Interior. This is where the tragedy of Kadar as a communist and a person begins. Having taken Raik's chair, Kadar, apparently for reasons of career growth and self-preservation, took an active part in the fabrication of his "case". In a report to the Minister of State Security of the USSR Viktor Abakumov dated June 20, 1949, the Soviet adviser in Hungary, Lieutenant General Mikhail Belkin, referring to the message of Soviet agents, the head of the State Security Directorate (UGB) of Hungary, Lieutenant General Gabor Peter and his deputy Colonel Erne Syuch, noted : members of the Politburo of the CR HTP, Minister of Defense Mihai Farkas and Minister of the Interior Janos Kadar and “their subordinate investigators from the Ministry of Internal Affairs quite deliberately use extreme measures during interrogations physical impact(excluding certain boundaries consequences). “The testimonies of the arrested are being recorded in a biased and provocative manner. As soon as the arrested person mentions some surname as his acquaintance, the investigator attributes to this surname "spy", "Trotskyist", etc., an organization is made from one case. Attention is not drawn to the objective comments of our agents in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Hungary about the inadmissibility of such methods, ”Belkin pointed out (Nikita Petrov. According to Stalin’s scenario: the role of the NKVD - the Ministry of State Security of the USSR in the Sovietization of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. 1945 - 1953 M. : ROSSPEN, 2011, p. 193). Such outrages gave Belkin reason to assume that the testimony of the arrested "requires a very thorough and deep verification by an objective investigator without the intervention of the above-mentioned Farkas and Kadar." In fact, the false, untrue nature of the accusations against Raik and his supporters, as we see, was not a secret to anyone.
However, the service zeal of Janos Kadar was noticed and received support. When at the beginning of 1950 it was decided to separate the UGB from the Ministry of Internal Affairs into an independent agency, Kadar was appointed chief inspector of state security. The career growth of Kadar caused jealousy from many: Farkas, Nagy and Rakosi himself. At the same time, the agent "Volodya" was the most dangerous. Slowly moving to the very pinnacle of power, experienced in apparatus intrigues and decision-making mechanisms within the Soviet ruling elite, Nagy, as they said in the party apparatus, also had personal reasons for hating Kadar. Being the head of the department of administrative bodies of the CR HTP, agent "Volodya" not only had full information about the state of affairs in the country, but also directly supervised the activities of the UGB. It can be assumed that Nagy started a subtle game, acting not directly, but through the appropriately processed Rakosi and Nagy Farkas, who became a loyal ally. The goal was to eliminate not only Kadar, but also all persons in the UGB, one way or another connected with Abakumov, the attitude towards which from the Moscow patrons of Volodya was very cool.
Back in early 1950, through Soviet advisers, Rakosi reported to Moscow that the “sluggish, indecisive” Kadar did not inspire “political confidence” in him, because after his arrest in 1934, “he was expelled from the ranks of the organization for his treacherous behavior during interrogation.” It was as if Kadar until 1939 “maintained contact with the Trotskyists”, that during the war years he “proposed to dissolve the Hungarian Communist Party and instead create the so-called peace party”, that in 1948 Kadar repeatedly stated that there was no Trotskyist danger in Hungary, “being Raik's close friend, painfully experienced his exposure. In early March, Rakosi strengthened these motives in a letter to the foreign policy commission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks: “Kadar was a personal friend of Raik both in the underground and after the liberation of the country ...” (Volokitina T.V., Murashko G.P., Noskova A. F., Pokivailova T. A. Moscow and Eastern Europe. political regimes Soviet type (1949 - 1953). History essays. M.: ROSSPEN, 2002, p. 538).
As a result, in June 1950, Janos Kadar was transferred to work in the CR HTP, and the old underground communist Sandor Zeld became the new minister. A massive "cleansing" in the UGB system has started. Arrested in Hungary on October 10, 1950, Erne Syuch and his brother Miklos died on November 21 from severe beatings in prison. The death of those arrested came "as a result of grievous injuries." On January 3, 1953 Gabor Peter was also arrested. But even before that, Kadar himself was behind bars. On April 21, 1951, Rakosi notified Stalin that at the meeting of the Politburo of the Central Republic of the VPT on April 19, 1951, the old underground worker, Interior Minister Sandor Zeld, was removed from his post, who committed suicide the next day. “Fearing,” Rakosi wrote, “that Politburo member Kadar and Foreign Minister Kallai might flee when they learned of Zelda’s suicide, we arrested them both” (ibid.). Kadar's successor as interior minister, former underground fighter Sandor Zeld, killed his mother, wife, children and shot himself after learning of his impending arrest. (Alekseev V. M. Hungary-56: breaking the chain. M .: Nezavisimaya gazeta, 1996, p. 89). In May 1951, Kadar was sentenced to life imprisonment, leaving prison only three years later.
Slave of stability
At the end of his life, the elderly leader of the Hungarian communists, Janos Kadar, was the victim of his comrades in the party leadership, who acted on the direct orders of the Central Committee of the CPSU
Everything that happened changed Kadar's worldview in many ways - it seems to me that this is where his famous slogan comes from, put forward after the tragedy of October 1956 (the anti-Soviet uprising): "He who is not with our enemies is with us." A slogan that became real politics under Kadar's rule, favorably distinguishing then-Hungary from its neighbors in the socialist camp. But it is in the events of those years, I think, in addition to purely political reasons, that one should look for the origins of Kadar's intransigence towards Rakosi, who died in exile in the USSR in 1971, because Kadar never agreed to return him to his homeland, and to Imre Nagy. Kadar knew that Imre Nagy was Beria's man. He himself spoke about this during a meeting with General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Mikhail Gorbachev in September 1985. I could not help but know that in 1951, Imre Nagy, as head of the department of administrative bodies of the Central Committee, together with the head of the state security department, signed a proposal to arrest Kadar (Eastern bloc and Soviet-Hungarian relations. 1945-1989. St. Petersburg: Aleteyya, 2010 , p. 181). It can be assumed that, in addition to understanding the need to repulse and suppress the armed counter-revolution, Kadar was partially guided by the personal circumstances outlined above on November 1, 1956. On this day, he made the main decision in his life: he came to the Soviet embassy and, together with his seven associates, flew to Moscow, where he began to form the "Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Government". It formally invited Soviet troops three days later to overthrow the government of Imre Nagy. On June 15, 1958, during a closed trial, Imre Nagy and two of his associates were sentenced to death, which were carried out the next day.
At the end of his life, the elderly leader of the Hungarian Communists was the victim of his own comrades in the party leadership, acting on the direct orders of the Central Committee of the CPSU. “Over time, at the height of his fame, Janos Kadar became a slave to his own policy of stability. This concerned personnel, attachment to people who stood around him for many years. But even more important was the fact that the “permanent leader” began to lose a sense of reality, lost interest in updating politics. He also lost his political courage. Kadar was left alone at the top of power, and there were no opponents for a long time. The situation in the country worsened. He felt it, but found no way out. Previous experience did not help. Cleverly talking about the need for a smooth change of the main leader in the socialist countries, he himself became an obstacle to the renewal and modernization of Hungary's policy. He had to go on vacation in 1980 or 1981, but he delayed until 1988 ... The end of Kadar's life is a pure human tragedy. Elected to the specially constructed post of chairman of the HSWP, and in fact abandoned by the new leadership of the party to the mercy of fate, the physically and spiritually weak old man, in the conditions of a radical revision of the assessments of the events of 1956, could not defend himself. His half-mad speech at the Plenum of the Central Committee in April 1989 was such a step on the part of a deeply ill person, although there was a strange logic in this speech. After all, he said that he was not a Soviet agent, that in 1956-1958. not only Imre Nagy died - people died before him, and that he, Kadar, does not shirk his responsibility. He feels sorry for all the dead. In a letter to the Central Committee in April 1989, he asked the court to clarify his guilt for the trial of Imre Nagy, but this was not done, ”recalls former ambassador our country in Hungary Valery Musatov (ibid., pp. 179-181). Janos Kadar passed away on July 6, 1989.
Today, a sharply critical attitude towards the affairs and the personality of Kadar is in fashion. As we can see, there are many reasons for this. But do not forget that for more than three decades he stood at the helm of his party and his country, was a smart and prudent politician, popular among the people. The human and political tragedy of Janos Kadar is a lesson to all representatives of the modern left. Drawing lessons from the activities of our predecessors, we should in no way forget their mistakes. So that they do not repeat again and again.
26.05.1912 - 06.07.1989
The hero of the USSR
Janos Kadar (Kádár János) - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, Chairman of the Hungarian Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Government.
Born May 26, 1912 in Kapoy (Hungary) in the family of an agricultural worker. Hungarian. Real surname Czermanek. He was a laborer, then a mechanic. From the age of 17 he joined the labor movement. In 1931 he joined the Hungarian Communist Youth League (KCMB). Since 1931 he was a member of the Communist Party of Hungary (CPV) and a member of the secretariat of the Central Committee of the KCMB.
During the Horthist-fascist regime (1919-1944), Janos Kadar actively participated in the illegal work of the Communist Party. In 1941-1942 he was a member of the Pest Regional Committee of the CPV. In 1942 he was elected a member of the Central Committee, and in 1943 - Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPV.
For his revolutionary activities, J. Kadar was repeatedly arrested. He played a leading role in organizing the anti-fascist movement in Hungary. In April 1944 he was arrested; escaped from prison in November 1944.
After the liberation in April 1945 of Hungary from Horthy-fascist domination, J. Kadar was elected a deputy of the Provisional National Assembly, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party (VKP). In April 1945 - August 1948 he was the secretary of the Budapest City Party Committee. In 1946-1948 - Deputy General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in June 1948-1950 - Deputy General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Working People's Party (VPT). In August 1948 - June 1950, at the same time Minister of the Interior of the Hungarian People's Republic. From June 1950 to April 1951, he headed the department of party and mass organizations of the Central Committee of the VPT.
In 1951, on the basis of false accusations, J. Kadar was arrested. In 1954 he was rehabilitated. He was first elected first secretary of the district party committee of the 13th district of Budapest, and in 1955 - the first secretary of the Pest regional party committee. In July 1956, the plenum of the Central Committee of the VPT introduced Kadar to the Central Committee and elected him a member of the Politburo and secretary of the Central Committee of the VPT.
During the Hungarian uprising (October-November 1956), Janos Kadar initiated the creation of the Hungarian revolutionary workers' and peasants' government, the restoration and strengthening of the party of the Hungarian working class.
In November 1956 - June 1957, J. Kadar was the chairman of the interim Central Committee, and since June 1957 - the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (HSWP). In November 1956 - January 1958 - Chairman of the Hungarian Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Government. In January 1958 - September 1961 - Minister of State, in September 1961 - June 1965 - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian Republic. Since 1965 he has been a member of the Presidium of the Hungarian People's Republic. Since 1957, a member of the All-Hungarian Council of the Patriotic Popular Front.
Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 3, 1964 for an outstanding role in the struggle against the common enemy of the Soviet and Hungarian peoples - the Horthy regime and Hitler's fascism, great services in strengthening the cause of peace and socialism, friendship and cooperation between the Soviet and Hungarian peoples Janos Kadar He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
From the beginning of the 1960s, J. Kadar took a course towards the liberalization of domestic politics and greater openness in relations with the West, but the economic reform of 1968, aimed at creating a more effective model of socialism, was curtailed in the first half of the 1970s, without achieving its main goals.
In May 1989, J. Kadar, due to illness, was relieved of his duties as chairman of the HSWP and a member of the Central Committee of the HSWP. Died July 6, 1989. He was buried in the central cemetery of the capital of Hungary, the city of Budapest, in the Hungarian Pantheon on Kerepesi Street, where prominent figures Hungarian culture and politics.
On the night of May 1-2, 2007, the grave of Hungary's last communist leader was looted. The marble tombstone was moved from its place, the coffin was broken, and the remains of J. Kadar and the urn with the ashes of his wife disappeared. Apparently, they were stolen, since searches throughout the cemetery did not yield results. “There is no justification for this vile and disgusting act,” said Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. - This criminal offense has nothing to do with politics and history. Every normal, civilized person will condemn him.”
Hero of Socialist Labor of the Hungarian People's Republic (1962). He was awarded the Hungarian Order of Merit, 1st degree, the Soviet 3 Orders of Lenin (04/03/1964; 05/25/1972; 05/25/1982), the Order of the October Revolution (05/25/1987), other foreign awards, including the Order of Klement Gottwald ( Czechoslovakia, 1982).
Compositions:
Selected articles and speeches 1957 - 1960, vol. 1 - 2, trans. from Hung., M., 1960;
Selected articles and speeches 1960-64, M., 1964;
Szilard nepi hatalom: fiiggetlen magyarorszag, 1962;
A szocializmus teljes gyozelmeert, 1962;
Tovabb a lenini iitou, 1964;
Hazafisag es internacionalizmus, 1968;
A szocialista Magyarorszagert, 1969.
In May 2007, guards at the Kerepesi cemetery in Budapest discovered that one of the graves had been destroyed. Unknown people stole some of the remains, scattered the other part of the ashes around the grave, and left an inscription on the nearby wall: "There is no place for a murderer and a traitor in the holy land!"
The Hungarian authorities have condemned the act of vandalism. Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc in a special address, he said: “There is no justification for this vile and disgusting act. This criminal offense has nothing to do with politics and history. Every normal, civilized person will condemn him.”
Despite such a strong condemnation, the perpetrators were never found.
He was buried in a ruined grave with his wife Janos Kadar, a man who led Hungary for three decades.
After the collapse of the socialist system in the countries of Eastern Europe, it is considered a sign of bad taste to say something good about the leaders of the Soviet era. For the right, whose position in Hungary is now strong, the communist Kadar is "a Soviet puppet and strangler of the Hungarian revolution."
But the older generation of Hungarians recalls the times of Janos Kadar with nostalgia, as a "golden age". Today it is hard to believe, but by the beginning of the 1980s, Hungary was one of the most economically successful countries not only in the socialist camp, but in Europe as a whole.
Giovanni the illegitimate
The future leader of socialist Hungary was born on May 26, 1912 in Austria-Hungary, in the city of Fiume - modern Croatian Rijeka.
maid Borbola Cermanek, half-Slovak, half-Hungarian, committed a terrible sin for a respectable Christian woman - she had a child out of wedlock. The boy's father was a soldier of the Austrian army Janos Krenzinger, who refused to recognize his son as his own. According to the laws in force in Fiume, the newborn was given the mother's surname and the Italian name - Giovanni Cermanek.
Poverty was the lot of people like Giovanni - it accompanied him all his childhood. At the age of 6, after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the boy moved to Budapest with his mother.
In spite of everything, Giovanni, who in Hungary began to call himself Janos in the local way, having entered school, became an excellent student.
As the best student in the class in the elementary public school, he received the right to study free of charge at the Higher Primary City School. But at the age of 14, due to extreme poverty, he had to leave his studies and become an auxiliary worker.
To the communists - through chess
As a teenager, Janos was fond of football, reading and chess. At the age of 16, he won an open chess tournament of the hairdressers' union and received a Hungarian translation of the book as a gift. Friedrich Engels"Anti-Dühring". The work of one of the founders of Marxism made Janos take a different look at the world around and the injustice that is happening in it. The young guy joined the socialists, and in 1931 joined the Sverdlov cell of the banned Federation of Communist Working Youth (KIMSZ), the Komsomol organization of the illegal Communist Party of Hungary.
After the fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, the authoritarian regime of Admiral Horthy was established in the country. The Communist Party was banned, its activists were persecuted. But this did not stop Chermanek. He got his first pseudonym - Barna("Shaten").
The arrest of Janos Kadar in 1933. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
In 1933 he was arrested and sentenced to two years. For protesting in detention and declaring a hunger strike, Chermanek was sent to a maximum security prison. After leaving Barna prison, at the direction of the party leadership, he joined a legal organization - the Social Democratic Party of Hungary, and soon even headed the SDPV cell in the VI district of Budapest.
Cermanek becomes Kadar
During the Second World War, Hungary was an ally of the Third Reich. Janos Cermanek became a member of the resistance movement, and acted not only in Hungary, but also in Czechoslovakia, as well as Yugoslavia.
Janos Kadar in 1942. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
His influence among the Hungarian communists grew - in 1942 he was introduced to the Central Committee, and in 1943 he was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Hungary.
In April 1944, he went to Yugoslavia to establish contact with Tito's partisans, but on the way he was captured by the Hungarian police. He was threatened with a concentration camp, but Chermanek managed to escape while being transported from the train carrying him.
The liberation of Hungary by the Soviet troops also led to a change political system. The Communists emerged from the underground, becoming one of the leading parties in the country. Czermanek, who bore the new party pseudonym Kadar ("Bondar"), was elected a deputy of the Provisional National Assembly, as well as a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party (VKP), and in 1946 - Deputy Secretary General of the Central Committee of the VKP. The pseudonym became the official surname, and later Janos Cermanek became known to the whole world as Janos Kadar.
Condemned for life
In 1948, the Communist and Social Democratic parties of Hungary merged into the Hungarian Workers' Party, which became the ruling party in the country. Janos Kadar took over as head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Party leader Matthias Rakosi at an accelerated pace he built the Stalinist model of socialism, sometimes surpassing the original in political intolerance.
Kadar, who at first supported Rakosi in the fight against the supporters of the "Yugoslav path", began to speak in favor of expanding the personal rights and freedoms of Hungarian citizens and limiting political persecution.
Matthias Rakosi. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Rakosi saw in Kadar not just an opponent, but a potential competitor in the struggle for power. At first, Kadar lost his post as minister, then he was removed from the leadership of the party. In the summer of 1951, Janos Kadar was arrested as a "traitor" and sent to jail. In December 1952, the Hungarian Supreme Court sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Why did Imre's colleague Nagy become his enemy
Death Stalin and the coming to power of new leaders in Moscow contributed to the release of Janos Kadar. He became the first secretary of the branch of the Hungarian Working People's Party (VPT) in the industrial XIII district of Budapest.
Imre Nagy. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Thanks to the support of workers in the issues of expanding the autonomy of trade unions, Kadar becomes one of the most popular politicians in the country. Prime Minister Imre Nagy made him one of the ministers of the reformist government.
At the first stage of the aggravation of relations with Moscow, Janos Kadar was a consistent supporter of Nagy, saying that "he would fall under the first Russian tank that violated the borders of Hungary."
The history of the Hungarian events of 1956 is somewhat similar to the events of the Ukrainian "Euromaidan"-2014. Both there and there, peaceful protests were replaced by massacres. Veterans of the Horthy army, who had fought on the side of the Hitler, and other anti-communists. The streets of Budapest became a place for extrajudicial executions of communists and state security officers. On October 30, 1956, during the defense of the Budapest City Party Committee, its head was killed Imre Mezo and another 26 communists and employees law enforcement. Their mutilated bodies were hung upside down from trees.
Imre Nagy considered it possible to turn a blind eye to this. Janos Kadar considered this a crime that is leading the country to a large-scale civil war. And he decides to start negotiations with Moscow, bypassing Nagy.
Carrot and stick
Kadar's initiative met with understanding from Khrushchev. On November 7, 1956, Janos Kadar arrived in Budapest following the Soviet troops, and the next day at 5:05 am announced the transfer of all power in the country to the Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Government headed by him.
Instead of the Hungarian Working People's Party, the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party was created, which had to correct the mistakes of its predecessor.
Kadar's position was extremely difficult - the society was split, many looked at him as a "protege of Moscow." The crisis had to be overcome.
In total, 22,000 criminal cases were opened in connection with the rebellion in Hungary, in which 400 death sentences were issued. About 300 of them were carried out. About 200,000 people fled to the West. In November 1958, Imre Nagy and Defense Minister Pal Maleter.
Most of the participants in the events of 1956 fell under the amnesty declared by Janos Kadar.
The program he voiced provided for the preservation of the socialist and democratic character of the Hungarian state, the preservation of its sovereignty, the improvement of the living standards of the population, the revision of the five-year plan in the interests of the working people, the fight against bureaucracy, the development of Hungarian traditions and culture, as well as close cooperation with other socialist states.
Hungary, 1956 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
"Whoever is not against us is with us"
A 200,000-strong group of Soviet troops remained in the country, but Kadar believed that their presence was not a reason that could hinder reforms. The Hungarian leader focused on the economy, where liberties unprecedented for the socialist countries were introduced - the dissolution of collective farms, the expansion of the rights of cooperatives, and the rejection of central planning.
Kadar introduced the thesis “Whoever is not against us is with us”, calling for the cooperation of all those who are really interested in the prosperity of Hungary.
Kadar managed to successfully combine the development of large enterprises and the agricultural sector of the economy. Buses "Ikarus" became the basis of the public transport fleet in the USSR, Hungarian medicines, food, shoes were a success in the Soviet Union and other countries of Eastern Europe.
Until the very end of the era of socialism, Hungary occupied a leading position among the socialist countries in a number of industries, in particular, in the electronics industry. The country did not know the concept of scarcity. The Hungarian People's Republic came out on top in Europe in the production of wheat and meat per capita, and in second place in terms of the number of eggs.
The Hungarian government delegation headed by the 1st General Secretary of the HSWP Central Committee Janos Kadar on Red Square. 1968 Photo: RIA Novosti / Mikhail Kuleshov
"Merry hut" of the "velvet dictator"
Janos Kadar went even further. The entry rules for foreign tourists were simplified in the country, and in 1978 a visa-free regime was introduced with capitalist Austria. Hungary had the most liberal censorship, citizens enjoyed free travel abroad.
Hungary became the first Eastern Bloc country to host a Formula 1 track. On July 27, 1986, a concert of the rock group Queen took place in Budapest - the first such show in the country of socialism.
The system built by Kadar was jokingly called "goulash communism", and he himself was called "velvet dictator". Even critics of the regime called Hungary under Janos Kadar "the funniest barracks in the socialist camp."
Janos Kadar being reported on the status of work on the reconstruction of the traffic interchange at the Arpad Bridge, 1984. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
historical injustice
By the beginning of perestroika, Janos Kadar was already over 70. As in the USSR, in Hungary they started talking about the era of “stagnation”, that the model created by Kadar was outdated. In 1988, Janos Kadar moved to the position of chairman of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, which was a form of honorable resignation.
Kadar, however, had to forget about the honor - he was reminded of the suppression of the "revolution of 1956", and the execution of Imre Nagy. In one of his last speeches, the already very ill Janos Kadar said that he was sorry for all the dead, and he does not shy away from responsibility for his actions. He was ready for the court to consider his guilt in the "Nagya case", but it did not come to that. In May 1989, Kadar resigned as chairman of the HSWP, and on July 6 he died.
In the late 1980s, there was an opinion that Hungary, more successful economically than other countries of socialism, would survive the transition to capitalist relations with relative ease.
However, those who took over the country from Kadar turned out to be much less talented leaders. And although today the position of Hungary is quite stable, one can only dream of the heights to which the country raised in the era of “goulash socialism”.
And, of course, Janos Kadar, who brought his country out of the deepest political crisis of the 1950s, did not deserve the posthumous mockery that he received in 2007.
A native of Croatian Rijeka (Fiume), then part of Austria-Hungary, according to the then laws of his native city, was registered at birth under the Italian name Giovanni Cermanik. From the age of 14 he was forced to leave school, was an auxiliary worker, and then a mechanic in a printing house. A staunch Marxist, Kadar joined the banned Communist Party of Hungary (and at the same time the Komsomol) in September 1930, after which he was detained several times by the Horthy authorities on charges of illegal agitation and illegal political activity. In 1933, the secretary of the Komsomol (KIMSZ) Kadar was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison. In prison, he organized a hunger strike, for which he was transferred to Szeged in the Chillag high-security prison, where he met his future political opponent Matthias Rakosi.
During World War II Janos Kadar was an active member of the Resistance Movement in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia. While in Hungary, he was one of the initiators of the creation of the anti-fascist Hungarian Front. In 1941-1942. was a member of the Pest Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Hungary; in 1942 he was introduced to the Central Committee, and in 1943 he was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the CPV. In April 1944, on behalf of the party, he left for Yugoslavia, but was arrested as a deserter. In November 1944, during deportation to Germany, he fled from the train carrying him. On April 3, 1964, for his personal contribution to the fight against fascism during the Second World War, Janos Kadar was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 11218).
Postwar years
After the fall of the Nilashist regime and the liberation of Hungary from the German occupiers in April 1945, Janos Kadar was elected to the Provisional National Assembly, as well as a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party (VKP), and in 1946 - Deputy General Secretary of the Central Committee of the VKP. In parallel, in April 1945 - August 1948, he worked as secretary of the Budapest City Party Committee. In March 1948, he chaired the commission for the unification of the CPSU and the Social Democratic Party, and on August 5, 1948, he became Minister of the Interior. At this time, Kadar still supported the Stalinist model of socialism and even played a crucial role in the arrest of Laszlo Raik, who was accused of Titoism and anti-Soviet activities.
However, Kadar turned into a potential rival of the country's leader Matthias Rakosi, speaking in favor of expanding the personal rights and freedoms of the citizens of Hungary and limiting the Rakosi terror. In April 1951, Kadar himself was removed from his post since June 1950 as head of the department of party and mass organizations of the Central Committee of the VPT. Soon he was arrested, accused of Titoism, declared Rakosi a "traitor" and imprisoned in camps for an indefinite period. Janos Kadar was released in July 1954 thanks to the de-Stalinization processes started in the USSR.
Kadar and the 1956 revolution
Appointed first secretary of the branch of the Hungarian Working People's Party (HTP) in the industrial XIII district of Budapest, Janos Kadar soon becomes one of the most popular Hungarian politicians thanks to the support of workers in expanding the autonomy of trade unions, which allows him to become a member of Imre Nagy's government.
A common misconception about Kadar as an ardent opponent of Nagy's reforms is not true: like Nagy, Kadar was the object of persecution under Rakosi and therefore considered himself an ally of the head of government. Initially, he fully supported Nagy's political course, aimed at liberalizing and democratizing political life in the country, releasing political prisoners, abolishing censorship, and attracting political parties friendly to the HTP to state administration. In the context of the impending threat of Soviet military intervention after Nagy's announcement of the country's desire to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, Janos Kadar even announced that he "would fall under the first Russian tank that violated the borders of Hungary." On October 26, 1956, he became a member of the Directory, on October 28 - chairman of the Central Executive Committee, and on October 30 - a minister in Nagy's cabinet.
However, bloody skirmishes in the center of Budapest, lynching of state security officials and the growing activity of anti-communist circles in Hungary convinced Kadar that the situation was out of control, which required moderate reforms of the PTV, and the only way out would be cooperation with the Soviet Union and other states of the socialist camp. Therefore, on November 1, 1956, Kadar and Ferenc Münnich, with the help of Soviet diplomats, left Hungary, and on November 2, 1956, Kadar was already negotiating with the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries in Moscow. On November 4, 1956, in Uzhgorod, Kadar met with Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev and discussed with him the formation of a new Hungarian government. On November 7, 1956, Kadar arrived in Budapest together with the Soviet troops, and the next day at 5:05 am announced the transfer of all power in the country to the Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Government headed by him.
Best of the day
Kadar, having taken the posts of prime minister and leader of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, created to replace the former HTP, announced 15 points of his program, which provided for the preservation of the socialist and democratic character of the Hungarian state, the preservation of its sovereignty, the cessation of street fighting and the restoration of order, and the improvement of the living standards of the population , the revision of the five-year plan in the interests of the working people, the fight against bureaucracy, the development of Hungarian traditions and culture, as well as close cooperation with other socialist states, the preservation of the Soviet contingent of 200,000 troops and negotiations with the Department of Internal Affairs on the withdrawal of troops from the country. Kadar also stated that the Rakoshist slogan “Who is not with us is against us” will be replaced by a more democratic one - “Who is not against us is with us”, which meant a broad amnesty for the participants in the uprising who remained in Hungary. Imre Nagy, who went into hiding with György Lukács, Géza Lozonczy and Rajk's widow Julia in the Yugoslav embassy, was also promised that he would be given the opportunity to leave the country freely. Nevertheless, when the former prime minister left the Yugoslav embassy on November 23, 1956, he was arrested and executed two years later. Nevertheless, Kadar limited himself only to condemning the leaders of the uprising and did not allow the state security agencies to start persecuting its ordinary participants, declaring an amnesty for the latter.
The era of Kadara
Despite tight Soviet control, during his leadership of the party and the state, Janos Kadar managed to implement a number of innovative economic reforms that contributed to the liberalization of the economy and the growth of the living standards of the population, which for a long time was not inferior to this indicator in developed Western countries. Kadar initiated the development of the private sector in agriculture and the service sector in Hungary, removing barriers to small business and greatly expanding the rights of workers in collective farms. However, the economic reform of 1968, designed to increase the efficiency of the economy, but never achieved its goals, was gradually curtailed under the influence of the suppression of the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia. The agreement concluded in 1973 with the USSR allowed the country to use cheap Soviet energy resources. Thanks to the reformist course of Kadar, Hungary began to be called "the funniest hut in the communist camp", and the economic system in the country - "goulashism" or "goulash communism" (Hung. gulyáskommunizmus). Today, a significant part of the Hungarian society is nostalgic for the “times of Kadar” with their high quality of life, which was crossed out by the capitalist transformations of the early 1990s.
Under Kadar, Hungary became one of the world leaders in tourism. The number of tourists visiting Hungary increased tenfold; tourists came to the country not only from Eastern Europe and the USSR, but also from Canada, the USA and Western Europe, bringing significant amounts to the Hungarian budget. Hungary has established close relations with developing countries, hosting many international students. Evidence of the normalization of relations with the West was the return by the Americans of the Holy Crown of King Stephen I to their homeland in 1979. In addition, Hungary in the late 1980s became the only socialist country that had a Formula 1 track.
Kadar was removed from his posts in May 1988, handing over control to the young leader of the reformist wing of the HSWP Karoy Gros, and died a year later, on July 6, 1989. He was buried in the central cemetery of Budapest in the "Hungarian Pantheon" on Kerepesi Street - the traditional burial place of prominent figures of Hungarian culture, science and politics.
After death
On the night of May 2, 2007, at the central cemetery of the city of Budapest, unknown vandals opened the grave of Janos Kadar, as well as the urn of his wife, and stole his remains. At the same time, Janos Kadar was buried in a double coffin. An inscription was left on the crypt next to Kadar's grave: "There is no place for a murderer and a traitor in the holy land!", Alluding to a line from a song by the neo-Nazi group Karpatia. Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, in his special address, stated the following: “This vile and disgusting act has no justification. This criminal offense has nothing to do with politics and history. Every normal, civilized person will condemn him.”