New Voices

The shape of politics in Russian-occupied Hungary became considerably clearer last week. Two facts emerged: 1) there was a strong, effective opposition; 2) despite Russian support, the Hungarian Communists were on the defensive.

The opposition, symbolized largely by the non-socialist but liberal Small Holders Party, had found courage for a showdown with both the Communists and the most powerful man in Hungary today, the Red Army's Marshal Klimenti Voroshilov. The issue: Voroshilov's suggestion (not demand) that only one slate of candidates be presented in the upcoming national elections. Well aware that a single list would give the Communists a voice in the new government disproportionate to their popular support, the Small Holders and many Social Democrats demanded independent party lists.

Said Istvan Balogh, a leader of the Small Holders: "The Western world has recognized as democratic our municipal Budapest elections [in which the Small Holders scored a surprising victory over the Communists]. An election with a joint list would not be recognized as such." Matyas Rakosi, general secretary of the Communist Party, maintained that a joint list would prevent "excesses of party rivalry."

After much bickering, the four leading parties reached agreement. The Small Holders, Communists, Social Democrats and National Peasants agreed that:

1) there will be separate party slates;

2) regardless of the outcome, there will be a coalition government.

The Communists, however they fared in the elections, would know how tomake the most of coalition in a land occupied by nearly 1,000,000 Russian troops. Hungarians, unfamiliar with really free elections in their feudalistic, prewar past, hardly saw how any kind of election could save their country from imminent chaos. Looted first by the Germans and now by the Russians, Hungary was in desperate straits. Still & all, the Hungarians now had Marshal Voroshilov's promise of a chance to vote for men and parties of their choice. This week (Nov. 4), unless he again intervened, they would find out what the promise was worth at the polls.

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