Rebuilding the Police State

One of the factors that gave the Hungarian revolution its first success was the low morale of the hated AVH, the state security police. All the Kremlin talk of coexistence, and Russia's downgrading of Stalinist police methods, had made the AVH feel that they might be sold out at any time by their Moscow bosses. Now a new Hungarian security-police force, composed of old AVH stalwarts, diehard Communists and trade-union toughies, to the number of 10,000, has been formed, and every effort is being made to make them feel that not only do they have the backing of Moscow, but of the whole Communist world. This was the main reason last week for the visit to Budapest of Red China's Chou En-lai and the announcement of huge loans from both Red China and the Soviet Union.

Leniency Undesirable. Thus fortified in their work, the new AVH men are methodically restoring the structure of the police state. Martial law applied to the factories has enabled them to curb strikes and send troublesome workers to the coal mines. Wildcat stoppages are being punished by fines, and January pay envelopes are lean. ("Anyone who was on strike in December, even for two days, will see the difference in his pay.") After a six-day "trial," Freedom Fighters Joszef Dudas, who led an attack on the Hungarian Foreign Ministry in October, and Janos Szabo, who led a stand against superior Soviet forces in the battle of Budapest's Moscow Square, were found guilty of "trying to overthrow the Hungarian People's Democracy," and executed. The Hungarian Writers' Union, which had sparked the revolution, and the National Association of Journalists were dissolved. Two writers were indicted for having circulated underground newssheets. In preparation for a series of show trials, the legal system was being purged of prosecutors who had shown "undesirable leniency," and juries were being castigated for allowing "bad liberalism" to take over from "strict law."

Against this background, the antics of Premier Janos Kadar were more and more like those of a terrified court jester in the retinue of Genghis Khan. Banqueting with stony-eyed Chou En-lai last week. Kadar drooled praise of Red China and joked self-derisively about pictures of half-naked dancers in his own party press.

Rival Spirits. Most of the actual work of consolidating the regime seems to have been transferred to Gyorgy Marosan, 49. a flat-nosed, gate-mouthed Socialist Party renegade who, like Kadar, had been through ex-Party Boss Rakosi's torture mill in seven years in a Communist prison. Though Marosan appeared to have more spirit than Kadar, his appeals to sullen Hungarian audiences to help save the economy had an unrealistic sound. More in the spirit of those audiences, though no longer perhaps within their capacity, were the posters, plastered on Budapest walls last week, exhorting Hungarians not to forget their dead Freedom Fighters, and warning them to stand by for a new uprising.

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