salaries had to be increased to satisfy "the lawful material demands of the working class". In explanation of this decision of the Central Committee, it was stated later that the Party had "perfect faith in our working class", in which it saw the leading force of socialism and on which it relied in all circumstances. Hope was expressed that, by the organization of the Workers' Councils, the working class would lend its support to the new Politburo of the Communist Party and to the new Government.

553. On 27 October, the Praesidium of the National Council of Trade Unions proposed that Workers' Councils should set up "everywhere", in factories, enterprises and mines, and issued directives for their "election, functions and tasks":"Members of the Workers' Councils should be elected by all workers of the factory, workshop or mine in question. A meeting called to carry out the election should decide the method of election. Recommendations for Workers' Council membership should be presented, as a general rule, by the shop committees or by a worker who commands respect. Depending on the size of the undertaking, the Workers' Councils should generally consist of from 21 to 71 members, including proportional representation of every group of workers. In factories employing less than 100 workers, all workers may be included in the Workers' Council. The Workers' Council shall take decisions on all questions connected with production, administration and management of the plant. Therefore: (1) for the direction of the production and management of the factory, it should elect from among its own members a Council of Direction with 5-15 members which, in accordance with the direct instructions of the Workers' Council, will take decisions on matters connected with the management of the factory, such as the engagement and dismissal of workers, economic and technical leaders; (2) it will draw up the factory's production plan and define tasks connected with technical development; (3) the Workers' Council will decide on the drawings up of the wage system best suited to the conditions peculiar to the factory and on the introduction of that system, as well as on the development of social and cultural amenities in the factory; (4) the Workers' Council will decide on investments and the utilization of profits; (5) the Workers' Council will determine the order of business of the mine, factory, etc.; (6) the Workers' Council will be responsible to all the workers and to the State for correct management. The principal and immediate task of the Workers' Council is to resume production and to establish and ensure order and discipline. The workers, through their representatives, should protect their livelihood, the factory."

554. Additional directives were issued by urban and rural Revolutionary Councils in different parts of the country. For example, the Praesidium of the Revolutionary Council of Borsod County stated that the task of the Workers' Councils was "to exercise control over the manager, the chief engineer, factory foremen and the workers of the plant", and requested them to attend urgently to the maintenance of order at their respective places of work.3

555. On 30 October, the National Council of Trade Unions became the National Council of Free Trade Unions, and replaced its old leadership by a "temporary revolutionary committee" composed of "old trade union leaders who had been dismissed and imprisoned in the past, and new revolutionary trade union leaders". One of the first actions of this committee was to declare that the Hungarian Trade Unions would leave the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and that, "for the sake of strengthening international workers' solidarity", they would be willing to establish relations with any international trade union organization." In addition, the committee issued an appeal on 31 October in which it hailed the Workers' Councils and "requested workers to return to their jobs and to create under the leadership of the Workers' Councils, the conditions necessary to resume production."

4

556. The institution of the Workers' Councils was enthusiastically supported by the Hungarian press and radio and by professional and other organizations. Thus the People's Patriotic Front (PPF) declared, on 28 October, that this is “our revolution, because it abolishes the inhuman production norms and entrusts the factories to Workers' Councils. The Revolutionary Committee of Hungarian Intellectuals stressed in its programme, on 28 October, that "factories and

Népszava, 30 October 1956.

a Északmagyarország, 27 October 1956.

Népakarat, 1 November 1956.

Népszava, 1 November 1956.

Budapest Radio, 10.48 p. m., 28 October 1956.

mines should really become the property of the workers" and that they should "not be returned to the capitalists, but managed by freely elected Workers' Councils".

557. The institution of the Workers' Councils, after having received the blessing of trade unions and the Communist Party, found its way into the programme of Mr. Nagy's new Government. The Prime Minister stated on 28 October that the Government welcomed the "initiative of factory workers as regards the extension of factory democracy and approved the formation of Workers' Councils". He also said that the Government would take measures to settle, to the satisfaction of the working class, "long-standing and justified demands and to remedy old complaints".

558. On 1 November, the Workers' Councils of the large Budapest factories and delegates of various revolutionary organizations and of the National Council of Free Trade Unions had two meetings with representatives of the Government, to discuss the "grave situation" created by the continuance of the nation-wide strike. At these meetings, speaking on behalf of Mr. Nagy's Government, Ferenc Erdei appealed, through the representatives of the Workers' Councils and the trade unions, to the workers of Hungary, pleading with them to resume work." The next day seventeen large factories of Greater Budapest, among them the Csepel iron and metal works, Mavag, Ganz electric and wagon factories and the Lang machine factory, as well as the transport workers and "all the workers" of Districts XIII, XIV and XV of Budapest, appealed to all workers of Hungary to "take up work immediately". They stated that, in their opinion, the Government had fulfilled the main demands of the Hungarian people: the repudiation of the Warsaw Treaty, and the declaration of neutrality. Furthermore, "there are guarantees that in the near future elections with secret ballot will be held". The appeal stated that "continuous strikers would paralyse the economic life of the country" and that "resumed production will provide the strength our political life needs at this moment"."

559. Witnesses stated to the Committee that further negotiations between representatives of the Government and the major Workers' Councils of Greater Budapest had taken place on 2 and 3 November, and subsequently an agreement had been reached for the resumption of work in all Hungarian industries and factories on Monday, 5 November.

C. CONCLUSIONS

560. The Committee concludes from its study of the Revolutionary Councils that they were the result of a spontaneous, nation-wide movement to assert the right of the Hungarian people to assume the direction of their affairs and lives. This movement took shape, as did the uprising itself, at the local level and there was in the beginning little or no contact between the various groups. Nevertheless, as in the case of the students and intellectuals, a broad identity of aim underlies both the demands and the methods. It is clear that the formation of these Councils met a need widely felt by the Hungarian people.

561. The same is true of the Workers' Councils. All witnesses confirmed that dissatisfaction with the trade unions of the régime was one of the most important grievances of the Hungarian workers. In addition, they demanded a genuine voice in the control of the undertaking in which they worked, and this they set out to obtain by electing Councils along democratic lines. These Councils at once assumed important responsibilities in the factories, mines and other undertakings and they exerted a considerable influence upon the Government, with which delegations from a number of them maintained direct contact. The overwhelming support given by Hungarians to these Workers' Councils confirms the impression that they were among the most important achievements of the Hungarian people during their few days of freedom.

Egyetemi Ifjuság, 29 October 1956.

8 Népszava, 29 October 1956.

Magyar Nemzet, 2 November 1956; Kis Ujság, 2 November 1956.

10 Népszava, 2 November 1956.

CHAPTER XII. THE REASSERTION OF POLITICAL RIGHTS

(26 October-3 November)

A. INTRODUCTION

562. In Chapter VI, the circumstances have been described in which Mr. Nagy became Prime Minister, and an account was given of his situation during the days immediately following 24 October. For almost three days, Mr. Nagy was detained in the Communist Party Headquarters. Chapter VI has dealt with the movement of Mr. Nagy to the Parliament Building on 26 October. This chapter is concerned with developments in Hungarian domestic politics from 26 October, especially with regard to Mr. Nagy's reconstructions of his Government.

B. THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD: THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF 27 OCTOBER (26-29 OCTOBER)

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563. On 26 October the Council of Ministers announced the "beginning" of the mopping-up of the remnants of the armed revolutionary groups, in the same phrases as had repeatedly been used since the 24th." Under a new amnesty, which was to expire by 10 p. m., "Members of the armed forces, soldiers, armed workers, comrades" were called upon to "treat those who lay down their arms humanely" and to "let them go home after they have surrendered". Hardly a word was said about Soviet forces; the fiction was maintained of a fight between Hungarian forces on the one side, and, in the words of the Party newspaper Szabad Nép, "counter-revolutionary forces and other bad elements". The Government order instructed non-existent Hungarian forces to "deal annihilating blows at all who continue the armed fight against the people's power" after the time limit had expired.

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564. Such phrases were indicative of the continued use of the propaganda slogans of the past years. Although the insurgents had been reported for two days as surrendering en masse, they still refused to lay down their arms. A new approach was imperative. In the 26 October issue of Szabed Nép, severe condemnation was expressed of "a clique of wicked leaders estranged from the people, who cannot be identified with the Party"; it was acknowledged that the people "led by their despair over the country's situation, have taken part in the armed rising”. 565. On Thursday, 25 October, Mr. Kádár had replaced Ernö Gerö as First Secretary of the Central Committee. The next afternoon, Mr. Gerö and Mr. Hegedüs had fled from Party Headquarters, and Mr. Nagy had been able to move to the Parliament Building, where he immediately sought contact by telephone and otherwise with a number of people regarding the formation of a new Government. On Saturday morning, 27 October, at 11: 18 a.m., the new Council of Ministers was announced over the radio. It was stated that the Government "after taking the oath . . . had entered into office immediately”. The announcement explained that the Government was "elected by the Praesidium of the Hungarian People's Republic, which acted on the recommendations of the Central Committee of the Party and the Praesidium of the National Council of the People's Patriotic Front". The PPF" to which reference was made in the announcement on the same level as the Communist Party, was created in August 1954 on the initiative of Imre Nagy, when he was Prime Minister for the first time, with the purpose of obtaining the active support of intellectuals, bourgeois and other non-proletarian elements for the building of Hungarian socialism.

566. By the careful selection of Communist members and the inclusion of nonCommunists, the composition of the new Council of Ministers went far towards meeting the insurgents' viewpoint. Mr. Nagy had left out several Communists who had ordered Hungarians to fire at Hungarians, or who were "Stalinists". The Minister of the Interior, László Piros, who, together with the First Secre

"Radio Budapest, 26 October, 4.30 a. m., text reproduced in Szabad Nép, 26 October 1956.

12 Radio Budapest, 26 October, 5.34 p. m., and 8.08 p. m.

13 Szabad Nép, 26 October 1956.

14 The PPF had not been an active force in Hungary since the beginning of 1955; its re-activation was announced by the resolution of the Central Committee of the Party of

tary of the Communist Party, had had some authority over the AVH, and the Defence Minister, István Bata, were removed from office. Mr. Nagy's predecessor, András Hegedüs, who had been a Vice-Chairman of the Council of Ministers since 24 October, and József Darvas, Minister for Propaganda, had also been omitted.

567. Excluding the Rákosi wing from power, Imre Nagy brought their opponents in the Communist Party into the Government. György Lúkacs, the most eminent of Hungarian Marxist philosophers and scholars, became the new Minister of People's Culture. Radio Budapest commented on this appointment on 27 October that "the dogmatism which prevailed in Hungary in recent years had tried to push him into the background of the country's scientific life". It added that Antal Gyenes, the new Minister for Produce Collection, a former Secretary-General of the People's Association of People's Colleges (NEKOSZ), had similarly been thrust aside, and although he had an economist's diploma, he had had to take a position as an unskilled worker, until he had been engaged by Mr. Nagy as his assistant at the University of Agronomy. The key posts of the Interior and Defence were assigned to Ferenc Münnich, a lawyer in his seventies, who, though a former adherent of the Rákosi-Gerö group, was well regarded by the surviving followers of Rajk, and to Károly Janza, who had a pro-Nagy record. Similarly, Árpád Kiss, the new head of the National Planning Office, had backed Mr. Nagy's campaign in favour of the promotion of light industry. Later in the day, Zoltán Vas, well known to the Writers' Union, was placed in charge of Budapest food supplies. He had distinguished himself in this sort of work after the liberation of Budapest in 1945.

568. But the most striking feature of the new Government was that, in the spirit of the revived People's Patriotic Front, it contained three members who formerly held leading posts in the two large Peasant Parties: Zoltán Tildy, Béla Kovács and, Ferenc Erdei. Tildy, who was made a Minister of State, had been one of the founders of the Independent Smallholders' Party in 1930. He had been active in the wartime resistance movement, headed the Government in November 1945 and had been President of the Hungarian Republic from 1946 to 1948. "The Rákosi clique, however, forced him to resign," the commentary recalled, "and kept him under house arrest for a long period." Béla Kovács, the former Secretary-General of the Independent Smallholders' Party, who became the new Minister of Agriculture, had been attacked by the "Rákosi clique,” accused of conspiracy and had been under house arrest for some time. Two other former members of the Independent Smallholders' Party became members of the Government, Jözsef Bognár, Deputy Chairman of the Council and Miklós Ribianszki, Minister of State Farms. A former co-founder of the National Peasant Party, Ferenc Erdei, became Deputy Chairman of the Council. 569. The pressure still exercised by the old forces limited Nagy's ability to form a Government altogether acceptable to the fighters. Antal Apró became another Deputy Chairman of the Council, in charge of Construction; several other unpopular Communists or Stalinists had been carried over into the new administration. The appointments of István Kossa, Lajos Bebrits, János Csergö and Sándor Czottner, as Ministers of Finance, Post and Communications, Metallurgy and Machine Industry and Mining and Electricity, respectively, specially irritated the insurgents, as did the retention of Erik Molnár as Minister of Justice in the face of a campaign against him in the Irodalmi Ujság. Moreover, the presence of members of two peasant parties in the Government inevitably raised the question of the reason for not including a Social Democrat— since the Social Democrats had been one of the non-Communist "big three" at the the Chairman of the Praesidium, István Dobi, had indeed approached such 1945 elections. Witnesses told the Special Committee that Mr. Nagy, as well as the Chairman of the Praesidium, István Dobi, had indeed approached such Social Democrats as Anna Kéthly, Gyula Kelemen and Ágoston Valentini, but without success. The Government had not as yet recognized even the peasant parties; the members of the latter joined the Government only in a personal capacity even though the public announcement referred to their association with the peasant parties. The circumstances of Mr. Kovács' participation in the Government were explained by him in a speech on 31 October. He said that he was "astonished" to see on the new Government list the names of Communist leaders. He drafted a letter of resignation, expressing disagreement with the composition of the Government, but his friends persuaded him not to send the letter.15

570. The carefully balanced Government team of 27 October did not please the insurgents, who cared little about political niceties and compromise. Generally speaking, they accepted Imre Nagy without enthusiasm; nobody else more qualified was acceptable to the Soviet authorities, with whom a Hungarian Prime Minister had to deal.

571. Mr. Nagy sought to placate the insurgents in other ways, by adopting a line sympathetic to their views in a broadcast speech on 28 October, at 5.25 p. m., when he stated: "The Government condemned those views according to which the present vast, popular movement is a counter-revolution." While "evil-doers seized the chance of committing common crimes" and "reactionary counter-revolutionary elements joined in the movement," it was also a fact that a great national and democratic movement, all-embracing and unifying, unfolded itself with elemental force."

572. One more step was necessary before the one-party system could be discarded, namely the disbanding of the political police. In his speech on 28 October, Mr. Nagy had dealt with the question of the AVH in somewhat cautious terms: "After the restoration of order, we shall organize a new unified State Police and abolish the State Security Authority". In actual fact, the decision was taken almost at once. At 5 p. m., on 29 October, it was announced in a news bulletin that the Minister of the Interior had started on 28 October the organization of "the new, democratic police," and in that connexion he had abolished "all police organs invested with special rights, as well as the State Security Authority (AVH)", for which there was no further need "in our democratic system".

C. ABOLITION OF THE ONE-PARTY SYSTEM AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INNER CABINET OF 30 OCTOBER

573. It had been customary in the People's Republics for the First Secretary and the Head of Government to make joint broadcasts to the nation. A broadcast of 30 October at 2.28 p. m., was different. Four Hungarian leaders spoke in turn, each in his own mood or in that of his party or group. Developing further his democratic programme, Imre Nagy, addressing himself to the "working people of Hungary, workers, peasants, intellectuals", announced a decision which, he said, was "vital in the nation's life. In the interests of the further democratization of the country's life, the Government, acting in full agreement with the Praesidium of the Hungarian Workers' Party, has abolished the one-party system. . . . In accordance with this, it is setting up an Inner Cabinet within the National Government". It was clear that Mr. Nagy had gone beyond his earlier position. From his address of three hundred words, two words were conspicuously absent, "Communist" and "Socialist". Instead the new slogan was: "Long live free, democratic and independent Hungary!". The relatively sober, brief address of Imre Nagy was followed by a ringing declaration in patriotic terms from Zoltán Tildy: "Hungarian brethren! The will of the nation and the national revolution have conquered. The representatives of this nation will have been the young people with their heroic struggle, the writers, hundreds of thousands of workers, the peasants, the farmers-in short, the whole country. All violence and all resistance against this will was in vain. I stand before the microphone deeply moved. I haven't written down my speech; it may therefore be disjointed. But I greet, I embrace, Hungary's dear youth, my heart overflowing with warmth". It was left to Tildy to draw the consequence of the abolition of the one-party system in the declaration that "we must prepare for free elections".

574. Ferenc Erdei, speaking for the other peasant party, the National Peasants, hailed "the struggle of the rising nation"; but the problem of reconciling the gains of the revolution with the post-war achievements was stressed in his speech: "The creative force of the revolution will . . . still have to be carried to final triumph. The victory of the revolution must now be defended with unmistakable determination, above all against those who would like to reverse it. It also has to be defended against those who would like to drown it in anarchy or to turn it against the vital interests of and rights attained by our people". Lastly, János Kádár voiced the pledge of the Communist Party to take its place alongside, rather than above the other parties: "I declare that every member of the Praesidium of the Hungarian Workers' Party agrees with today's decisions by the Council of Ministers".

575. The "Inner Cabinet" announced by Mr. Nagy was set up within the Council of Ministers and was made up of the Chairman of the Council, Mr. Nagy (Com