636. The above incident caused the Yugoslav Government to issue a note verbale condemning the action of the Hungarian Government in severe terms. It described the action of the Hungarian Government as "a flagrant breach of the agreement reached. The very fact that it was committed immediately after the agreement was concluded sheds a peculiar light on the breach." The note categorically denied the version that Premier Nagy and his party voluntarily left for Romania, for they had made it quite clear while they were at the Yugoslav Embassy that they would refuse to go to Romania. The note then stated that this violation of the agreement would have a negative effect on Yugoslav-Hungarian relations and declared it to be completely contrary to the generally accepted practices of international law.

637. On 24 November Mr. Vidić received in Belgrade Mr. Graznov, Counsellor of the Soviet Embassy, to whom he transmitted a note setting forth the contents of the note addressed to the Hungarian Government. The note in addition stated: "In informing the Government of the USSR about the foregoing, the Government of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia is obliged to express its surprise to the Government of the USSR over the fact that Soviet authorities in the Hungarian People's Republic prevented implementation of the abovementioned agreement which was to have provided a friendly settlement of a disputed issue between the Government of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia and the Hungarian People's Republic."

638. The Népakarat, organ of the Hungarian trade unions, in its issue of 23 November, mentioned that the "Cabinet" sat until 1.30 a. m., after which Mr. Kádár assumed full responsibility for Mr. Nagy's journey to Romania. In a Government communiqué issued in the evening of 23 November, it was announced that Premier Nagy and some of his colleagues who had sought refuge in the Yugoslav Embassy had left the premises of the Embassy on 22 November and had gone to Romania, in accordance with a request they had submitted previously to be permitted to go to the territory of another socialist country.

639. From the evidence at its disposal and the testimony of witnesses, the Committee is convinced that Premier Nagy and his party did not proceed of their own free will to Romania, as declared in the Hungarian communiqué, but that they were forced to do so as a result of Soviet action. It has evidence that, when they were forced to board a plane, they did not even know where they were being taken. From other testimony, it appears that the group is still held in Romania and that some of them are living under prison conditions.

G. CONCLUSIONS

640. The data in this chapter should be considered in conjunction with the information in chapter VII regarding the establishment of Mr. Kádár's Government, and that in chapter V regarding Soviet military operations at the time. During the early days of the Kádár Government, the administration of the country was, in fact, in the hands of the Soviet Military Command. Soviet military force was the effective backing of the Government installed in power, and the political changes described in the next chapter can be explained only against the background of such intervention.

CHAPTER XIV. POLITICAL RIGHTS AFTER THE REVOLUTION

I. WORKERS' COUNCILS

A. RELATIONSHIP OF THE WORKERS' COUNCILS AND THE GOVERNMENT 641. After the second Soviet attack on 4 November, the only political organs that remained were the Revolutionary Councils and the Workers' Councils. The Workers' Councils were the most important by virtue of the number of people they represented, the advanced state of their organization and their economic bases in the factories. The Workers' Councils emerged from the Revolution as the only organizations commanding the support of the overwhelming majority of the people and in a position to require the Government to negotiate with them, because they constituted a force able to bring about the resumption of work. In the weeks following Soviet suppression of the Revolution, the Councils sought to fortify their position as masters of the factories by taking over managerial functions in relation to the organization of production as well

642. In announcing on 4 November the formation of his Government, Mr. Kádár outlined its programme in fifteen points:

1. The securing of our national independence and our country's sovereignty. 2. The protection of our people's democratic and socialist system against all attacks. The protection of our socialist achievements and the guaranteeing of our progress through the building of socialism.

3. The ending of fratricidal fighting and the restoration of internal order and peace. The Government will not tolerate the persecution of workers, on any pretext, for having taken part in recent events.

4. The establishment of close fraternal relations with every socialist country on the basis of complete equality and mutual non-interference. The same principle governs those of our economic relations which are mutually advantageous as well as our mutual assistance relationships.

5. Peaceful co-operation with every country, irrespective of its social organization and form of state.

6. Rapid and substantial raising of living standard of workers, particularly of the working class. There must be more houses for the workers. Factories and enterprises must be enabled to build apartments for their workers and employees.

7. Modification of the Five-Year Plan, changing of the methods of economic management, taking into consideration the economic characteristics of the country, so as to raise the population's living standard as quickly as possible. 8. Elimination of bureaucracy and broad development of democracy in the interest of the workers.

9. On the basis of the broadest democracy, worker-management must be put into effect in factories, enterprises and undertakings.

10. The development of agricultural production, the abolition of compulsory deliveries (of agricultural produce) and the assisting of individual farmers. The Government will firmly revoke all acts which have infringed the law in the field of co-operatives and the regrouping of plots of land [commassation].

11. Ensuring the democratic election of existing" administrative bodies and revolutionary councils.

12. Support for retail trade and artisans.

13. The systematic development of Hungarian national culture in the spirit of our progressive traditions.

14. The Hungarian Revolutionary Worker-Peasant Government, in the interest of our people, working class and country, requested the Command of the Soviet Army to help our nation in smashing the sinister forces of reaction and restoring order and calm in the country.

15. After the restoration of order and calm, the Hungarian Government will begin negotiations with the Soviet Government and with the other participants to the Warsaw Treaty about the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary.

643. This declaration contained several points which were meant to reassure the workers. However, the programme failed to win their confidence or to induce the Workers' Councils to recognize the authority of the new Government. The demands which the Councils made in the negotiations which they undertook with the Kádár Government were based on the students' sixteen-point revolutionary programme of 2 October. The following is a summary of their demands: (i) The immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops from the territory of Hungary;

(ii) Free elections at a definite date under the supervision of the United Nations, with the participation of all democratic parties, and an immediate announcement by the Government that United Nations observers would be allowed into Hungary;

(iii) Pending the holding of such elections, formation of a new coalition Government in which members of the Kádár Government would not participate; the return of Mr. Nagy into this new Government and his appointment as Minister of State;

(iv) Immediate withdrawal from the Warsaw Treaty:

(v) An effort to secure recognition of Hungary's neutrality;

(vi) Liberation of those imprisoned for participating in the fighting and assurances that they would not be prosecuted;

(vii) Recognition of the right to strike;

(viii) Re-examination and publication of all commercial agreements.

In addition, demands were made pertaining to the status of the Workers' Councils, and to the organization of armed guards in factories and the banning of Party organizing within the factories.

644. In the weeks that followed the second Soviet intervention, Workers' Councils from different factories sent delegations to the Parliament Building to discuss their demands with representatives of the Government. Despite variations, all these demands were based on the position outlined above. There was also tacit agreement among the Workers' Councils that the strike would continue until such time as the Government signified its intention to satisfy, or at least try to satisfy, the essential demands. According to a witness, one of he first negotiations was between Mr. Münnich as Minister of the Interior and representatives of the Workers' Council of the eleventh District of Budapest in the Parliament Building. It was reported that a man in Soviet military uniform was in the room during the negotiations, but did not intervene in the discussions. Agreement was reached on one point only, namely the question of establishing a workers' armed guard. But the next day, Mr. Münnich is said to have retracted even this permission by telephone. The Eleventh District Workers' Council therefore continued the strike. A succession of delegations from Workers' Councils appeared at the Parliament Building. They included delegations from the Tata and Oroszlányváros mines, the Central Transdanubian industrial area, the Klement Gottwald factory, the Ganz Wagon and Engineering Works, the Hungarian State Iron, Steel and Engineering Works (MAVAG), Workers' Councils from factories in Baja, and others.

645. During the first part of November, individual Workers' Councils discussed the possibility of co-ordinating their activities by establishing an organ on a broader geographical basis, which would be a more effective means of negotiation with the Government. At meetings which took place on 13 and 14 November in Ujpest and in which 500 delegates of Workers' Councils participated, the Greater Budapest Workers' Council was established, and Sándor Rácz was elected Chairman. From that time onwards, negotiations with the Government were carried out mostly through the Executive Committee of the Greater Budapest Workers' Council, even though representatives of particular Workers' Councils did, in some instances, continue to negotiate directly with the Government as, for example, the Central Workers' Council of Csepel, the biggest industrial combine in Hungary. Much the most important question which the Greater Budapest Workers' Council had to consider was the resumption of work. Delegates from individual Workers' Councils reported that workers insisted on continuing the strike because they considered that this was their last weapon until such time as the Government gave them guarantees to meet their demands. At the meeting on 14 November, a delegation from the Greater Budapest Workers' Council was formed and requested to go to the Parliament Building and present the demands of the workers to Mr. Kádár.

646. Important meetings occurred on 15 and 17 November between representatives of the Greater Budapest Workers' Council and Mr. Kádár. Several witnesses have testified before the Committee on what happened at these meetings. At the first meeting, the Council representatives made it clear that the Workers' Councils adhered strictly to socialism and the social ownership of the means of production. They then put forward their demands. Concerning Mr. Nagy, Mr. Kádár said that, as he was then on the premises of the Embassy of a foreign State where he had asked for political asylum, there was no opportunity to confer with him. Should Mr. Nagy decide to return to Hungarian soil, it would be possible to consult and possibly to reach an agreement with him. In answer to the demand for the establishment of a multi-party system and free elections, Mr. Kádár stated: "We surrender the Party's monopoly: we want a multi-party system and clean and honest elections. We know that this will not be easy, because the workers' power can be destroyed not only by bullets but also by ballots. We must reckon with the fact that we might be thoroughly beaten at the elections, but we undertake the election fight because the Communist Party will have the strength to gain once more the confidence of the working masses." He declared that if the Communists were crowded out of Parliament, the overthrow of socialism would necessarily follow. Of the Soviet troops, he stated that "We were compelled to ask for the intervention of Soviet troops ***, we were threatened with the immediate danger of the overthrow of the people's power. *** First, the counter-revolution must be broken by the people's power consolidated with the help of armed workers * * and, after that, Soviet troops

will be withdrawn from Budapest and we shall negotiate with a view to their withdrawal from Hungary." The composition of the present Government, Mr. Kádár stated, was not to be regarded as final; it would be broadened. Referring to the question of neutrality, he said: "it is a highly understandable demand but in vain do we demand neutrality, when the counter-revolutionary imperialists spit on our neutrality". Touching the Workers' Council demands bearing on Soviet-Hungarian economic relations, Mr. Kádár assured that delegation that, in future, all trade agreements would be made public. He said that Hungarian uranium ore was being sold to the Soviet Union at world market prices, "but we do not possess the extremely expensive equipment needed for uranium processing". Mr. Kádár's reply to the demand of the delgation that there should be no re-establishment of Party cells in the factories was that he considered Party organization in the factories essential. However, he renewed the promise that no one would be harmed for having taken part in the great popular movement of the last few weeks. In the course of the meeting, Mr. Kádár is said to have told the delegation that the Greater Budapest Workers' Council, for which they spoke, should prove that it truly represented the workers of Hungary by seeing to it that work was resumed.

647. The conciliatory attitude of the Government towards a number of the workers' demands and the realization that a successful appeal to resume work would be a show of strength led the Greater Budapest Workers' Council to exercise a moderating influence on the Workers' Councils, which agreed to resume work, but reserved the right to strike should the Government fail to carry out its promises. The Workers' Councils therefore agreed that the Greater Budapest Workers' Council should issue an appeal on 16 November asking for a return to work at the latest at 8 a. m. on 19 November. The proclamation stated that work was to be resumed in view of the Government's recognition of the competence of the Workers' Councils in the field of economic management of the factories and its earnest promise to fulfil within the foreseeable future the revolutionary demands formulated on 23 October 1956, including the gradual withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary.

648. The second meeting between delegates of the Greater Budapest Workers' Council and Mr. Kádár took place between midnight and 4 a. m. on 17 November. Mr. Kádár was informed that, as a token of goodwill to the Government, the Greater Budapest Workers' Council had asked the Workers' Councils to resume work. The delegates then asked for the establishment of a supreme national organ of Workers' Councils to be regulated by decree law of the Presidential Council. Mr. Kádár replied that he did not consider the creation of such a controlling organ necessary, as there was a workers' Government in Hungary. He was, however, ready to recognize the Workers' Councils of individual factories and even to agree to the establishment of workers' guards in such factories. He then repeated his plea to delegates to exert their influence for the resumption of work; if they would do so, he would use his influence to effect the withdrawal of Russian troops from Budapest and, together with representatives of Workers' Councils, would start negotiations with the parties to the Warsaw Treaty about the possibility of declaring the neutrality of Hungary. The delegation is then said to have asked Mr. Kádár for a written statement, which they could show to the Workers' Councils, in which the Revolution would be declared lawful and in which it would be stated that Mr. Kádár would do all he could to secure the withdrawal of Russian troops and the release of freedom fighters who had been made prisoners. Mr. Kádár answered that his word should be enough.

649. The relationship between the Kádár régime and the workers took a turn for the worse when a meeting called on 21 November by the Greater Budapest Workers' Council to discuss the decree law on the establishment and competence of Workers' Councils promulgated the same day, was forbidden and disbanded. The workers objected to certain aspects of this law," especially to the clause which gave Ministries the right to appoint directors; this was felt to be an invasion of their sphere of authority. Moreover, the decree failed to provide for the setting up of Workers' Councils in the transport and telecommunications industries and implied the abolition of existing Workers' Councils in those industries. In protest against the banning of the meeting. the Greater Budapest Workers' Council called a 48-hour strike. The situation was aggra

48 Magyar Közlöny, No. 94, 20 November 1956; No. 95, 24 November 1956; Népszabadság,

vated by a Government decree at about the same time for the appointment of Government commissioners to certain enterprises." This measure was justified on the ground of the "extraordinary difficulties in certain enterprises in connexion with the resumption of work and the ensuring of its smooth continuance". The commissioner was to decide disputes between Workers' Councils and Ministers. New discussions therefore took place between the Greater Budapest Workers' Council and Mr. Kádár on 22 and 23 November, in the course of which Mr. Kádár promised that he would propose to the Council of Ministers that the paragraph of the decree law concerning the appointment of directors would be changed. The Government is understood to have stated that it recognized the Greater Budapest Workers' Council as a consultative body, whose recommendations would be given careful examination and consideration. On 23 November, as a result of this talk, the Greater Budapest Workers' Council issued an appeal for a return to work, but also declared the results of the conversations unsatisfactory, renewed its original demands and held it necessary to continue negotiations without delay.

650. Further negotiations took place on 25 November, when the issues at stake were reviewed by the representatives of the Greater Budapest Workers' Council and leading members of the Government in the Parliament Building. In their demands, the representatives of the workers continued to cling to the programme of 23 October, and they reproached the régime for its unyielding attitude and for other unfulfilled demands, such as the inclusion of workers in the public security forces and the organization of factory guards. They refuted Minister Apró's allegation that many Workers' Councils were not led by workers, by stating that technicians and engineers directly engaged in production were workers; one of the representatives declared "we shall not permit a wedge to be driven between the progressive intelligentsia and the workers". Concerning the right to strike, they stated that if, in principle, this was within the competence of the trade unions, nevertheless the trade unions could not speak for the workers, until such time as the workers had built the unions up from below. Until then, the Workers' Councils considered themselves to be the competent organ to decide on matters pertaining to strikes.

651. The attitude of the Government on specific issues was expressed by several Ministers, after which Mr. Kádár made a general statement which showed a reversal of his previous declarations. For the first time, Mr. Kádár stated flatly that the Nagy Government had been a camouflage for counter-revolutionaries; only when the People's Democratic State had been strengthened, order restored and life normalized, and when the last vestiges of the counter-revolution had disappeared, would the Government start negotiations with the Soviet Government on the question of withdrawal of Soviet troops. Then and then only would the Government be enlarged to include non-members of the Party. Mr. Kádár justified the abduction of Mr. Nagy on the ground that had he been allowed to return home, counter-revolutionary elements might have murdered hini and placed the blame on the Government in order to create unrest in the country. The first task of the Government was to crush what remained of the counterrevolution; Mr. Kádár considered that inciting to strike was a counter-revolutionary act. The following day, even stronger words were used; referring to those responsible for the strikes, he added that "a tiger cannot be tamed by baits, it can be tamed and forced to peace only by beating it to death.. Every worker, instead of drawing up and scribbling demands, must immediately and unconditionally begin to work to the best of his ability".

50

652. Meanwhile, tension increased; the Revolutionary Councils were abolished and there were clashes between factory workers on one side and Russian forces and the militia on the other, and on 6 December, the chairmen of the Workers' Councils of the Ganz and MAVAG factories were arrested. In a proclamation of the same day, the Greater Budapest Workers' Council warned the Government that the policy of arresting workers' leaders would lead to a general strike, fresh bloodshed and a new national tragedy. "The Government does not build its power on the Workers' Councils, in spite of the promises by Comrade Kádár. Leaders and members of Workers' Councils are being arrested, dragged from their homes during the night without investigation or hearing, peaceful meetings of Workers' Councils are interrupted or prevented by armed forces." A reply to the proclamation was demanded by 8 p. m. on

Magyar Közlöny, No. 95, 24 November 1956.