Gábor Murányi
The Plotter's Field
The Discreet Burial of Mátyás Rákosi
[...] "I wish to go home, but those who stand as judges over me will not permit it. Is this right in a communist party?" Mátyás Rákosi, the ousted First Secretary of the Hungarian Workers' Party (MDP), asked in the appeal he wrote on the 6th of November 1962, against the decision made by the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) in the August of that year.
The appeal was just one of numerous attempts by the man who masterminded the regime that bore his name to return from his exile in the Soviet Union. These were all thwarted by János Kádár, who had become the head of the Communist Party after the 1956 uprising. [...]
[...] In this letter, Rákosi says: "In these years, János Kádár was my First Deputy, a member of the Politburo, [and] Minister of the Interior. [...] He was present at the interrogation where Tibor Szõnyi, who was under arrest, levelled a charge of spying against László Rajk. He participated in the investigation against Rajk [...] he interrogated the detainee László Rajk." In the light of these statements, Kádár's mistrust of Rákosi, and his attempts to keep him out of the way, suddenly make sense.
When the news of Rákosi's death was made public in February 1971 [...] Hungarian Party leadership drew up a veritable military operational plan for the "leave-taking campaign"; they also made sure that every further decision of import would be properly documented. From these papers we know that János Kádár, First Secretary of the Party's Central Committee, was the first to be informed of his great predecessor's death, and that upon learning the news, he immediately set about convening the Secretariat which, in keeping with his intentions, decided that the momentous event should be made public through a communiqué "verified by our Soviet comrades".
The brief item was first read on February 5th over Kossuth Radio, the main national station, at the tail end of the 10 o'clock evening news; next morning's papers also included it, but in line with the directive to keep the news low-profile, printed it at the head of their news in brief columns, with no sub-headline. [...]
[...]
[...]They agreed that Rákosi's ashes could be returned and laid to rest in Budapest's Farkasrét cemetery, but only the deceased's name and date of birth and death could appear on the marble slab, and only his closest relatives could attend the ceremony. Even wreaths were forbidden for fear that the news of Rákosi's burial might get out. Nothing was to be said in the media prior to the event.[...]
As a final move in the conspiracy, the interment was held on the appointed day, but, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, one hour later than planned. And to make doubly sure, they had "accidentally" omitted Rákosi's given name off the announcement board standing by the cemetery gate.
At the final farewell there was only one slight hitch. Two days before the funeral, someone noticed that the Soviet urn holding Rákosi's ashes and the Hungarian receptacle for it were not compatible in size. The urn, made according to Soviet specifications, was six inches too tall. Being a punctilious man by nature, Sándor Szerényi, Chairman of the Party's Final Respect Committee, drew up a page-long, single-spaced memorandum in which he suggested three solutions to the dilemma, to wit, the transferral of the ashes to a Hungarian urn; burying the urn in the ground instead of placing it in a receptacle; or, finally, having a stonemason quickly adjust the receptacle. After deliberation, the political leadership decided in favour of the third variation. The operation, which took only a few minutes, was to begin while the urn was being put in place. And so it happened that, in addition to the twenty-five or so of Rákosi's closest relatives and the equivalent number of secret policemen on protective duty, the working class, in the person of the stonemason, trowel in hand, was represented as Rákosi's remains were laid in their final resting place.
[...]
Gábor Murányi
is on the staff of Heti Világgazdaság, an economic weekly.
