OSA / Guide / RIP / 1956 / RFE/RL Background Reports : Subjects | Browse | Search

The text below might contain errors as it was reproduced by OCR software from the digitized originals,
also available as Scanned original in PDF.

BOX-FOLDER-REPORT: 30-2-10
TITLE:             Nepszabadsag Carries Another Attack on Writers
BY:                (Leason)
DATE:              1957-12-17
COUNTRY:           Hungary
ORIGINAL SUBJECT:  General Desk No. 35
THEMATIC SUBJECTS: Hungary--1956-1965, Hungary--Writers' Union, Political Persecution

--- Begin ---

NEWS & INFORMATION
EVALUATION & RESEARCH
(GENERAL DESK) No.35

H-NEPSZABAPSAG CARRI'S ANOTHER ATTACK ON WRITERS	F-130

News Background

MUNICH,17 December (LEASON).... Discussing the present
situation of Hungarian literature in yesterday's issue of
Nepszabadsag," Lajos Mesterhazi said that if one considered the "point
of departure", the cultural balance of the year 1957 is not
"negligible".

The "opposition" attitude of "certain groups11 of writers had
ended. They were now working and nearly 25 per cent were
members of the party.

Their change of heart was due to: political and historical
events of the past few months, among them the affirmation of
the international position of the Soviet Union and the
"socialist camp"; the process of consolidation in Hungary;
discussions between party and non-party writers; and the
administrative measures taken -- "but in a feeble measure".

Mesterhazi said that a number of writers had played a "more
or less important role" in the preparation of the events of
October 1956. They have "already compromised but they have
still not begun the process of correcting their faults". They
write but they evade real problems. One cannot say that the
vestiges of foreign and dangerous ideologies have disappeared.
It is still necessary to struggle against these vestiges by
Marxist criticism.

This was the latest in a number of recent attacks against
Hungarian writers, many of whom are apparently still holding
out against regime demands that they confess their past mistakes
and support the present regime line.

The most flagrant "administrative measure" yet taken -- so far
as is known here --was the sentencing last month of the writers
Dery, Hay, Tardos and Zelk to varying terms of imprisonment
for their parts in the Hungarian Revolution. There have,
however, been other reports of arrests of Hungarian writers
and intellectuals.

[Page 2]

H -- ATTACKS ON WRITERS

BACKGROUND REPORT, General Desk, 17 December

F-131

The Hungarian Marxist philosopher Georgy Lukacs was sharply
attacked in the last issue of the Hungarian monthly theoretical
journal "Tarsadalmi Szemle" for his "revisionist" views --
specifically his warning that "Leninism" might turn into a
"dogmatic religion" just as "Stalinism" had, unless necessary
precautions were taken.

A speech delivered by Gyorgy Marosan on Decmeber 6 was a
long ha?? against the writers who remain silent. His
speech was in honor of the poet Attila Jozsef and was later
printed in "Nepszabadsag" and the People´s Patriotic Front
newspaper. "Magyar Nemzet". The central point of the speech was the
warning: "And we say it "plainly: the writer, the poet and
artist who keeps silent now and who shuts himself up within
his four walls is alien to the people which fights its heroic
struggle for socialism and a better tomorrow"

#(22-55)

End

  OSA / Guide / RIP / 1956 / RFE/RL Background Reports : Subjects | Browse | Search