Árpád Pünkösti
"You Are Not a Primate Here"
The Mindszenty Trial
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Mátyás Rákosi (1892-1971) returned to Hungary from Moscow in the tracks of the Red Army, flanked by Ernõ Gerõ, Mihály Farkas and József Révai, to become the leader of the Hungarian Communist Party (HCP) in 1945. At Stalin's instructions, their first manoeuvre was to destroy their coalition partners, the Smallholders' Party, which had won an absolute majority in the elections. As the next slice in their so called "salami tactics", in 1948 the HCP absorbed the Social Democratic Party. Under Rákosi's leadership, the Hungarian Workers' Party (HWP) had done away with the multi-party system by August 1949, when the new Soviet-type constitution was declared. The takeover was made complete by the imprisonment of Cardinal József Mindszenty, the Prince Primate of Hungary, and the breaking of the backbone of the Catholic Church.
What follows is an excerpt from Árpád Pünkösti's Rákosi a csúcson 1948-1953 (Rákosi on the Top, 1948-1953, 1996), which the author calls a "reader". (See Gábor Murányi's review on pp. 79-85 of this issue) By letting the sources speak, Pünkösti creates the portrait - a minor Stalin with a poker-face - of the Chief Secretary and Prime Minister at the height of the Communist dictatorship, in the period of show-trials, amid the deportations, the robbing of the farmers and the general terror wrought on the population.
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November 13, 1948: A coded telegramme from Rome to László Rajk, then Minister of the Interior: The relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in Hungary is being watched "with great anxiety by the Vatican," which receives "many complaints over matters like the arbitrary carrying out of the land reform in certain places, the difficulties encountered by Catholic Church weeklies, the dispersion of Catholic associations, the reporting on sermons, the banning or hindering of processions and pilgrimages, for example, by denying railway fare reductions, prohibiting amplifying equipment, etc., the nationalization of schools, due to which three thousand members of religious orders have lost their jobs, and finally the report that sixty priests were allegedly under arrest."
The publication of Mindszenty's pastoral letter of November 18, 1948 was prohibited by the authorities, but one of his secretaries fled to the West and passed it to the Voice of America. On November 19, Dr András Zakar, Secretary to the Primate, was arrested.
Mindszenty issued his last pastoral letter, which shows full awareness of what might happen: "I do not wish that any Catholic should lose his livelihood because of me. If Catholic faithful sign letters of protest against me, they can do it in the knowledge that it is not done of their own free will. Let us pray for our beloved Church and our precious Hungary."
November 22, 1948: After the Primate had absolved everyone of their duty to keep secrets, András Zakar confessed that Mindszenty had asked Schoenfeld to take steps for American occupying troops to come to Hungary. To a question of Mindszenty's, American Minister Chapin replied that the outbreak of war was possible. The Prince Primate asked the American Minister not to return the Holy Crown of St Stephen but to keep it in Rome where it would be safe.
A scrap of paper: "I would like Comrade Rákosi to discuss with me in which direction I should move, and how far. November 22, Péter." (Gábor Péter, head of the ÁVH).
November 25, 1948: Zakar's confession: In Canada, Mindszenty told Archduke Otto that the legitimists in Hungary were organizing, and would go on organizing until their objective was achieved. Zakar said that ten thousand dollars had been received by the Hungarian Church from the Vatican in 1945 on the Pope's instructions. From their journey in 1947 in America they brought home a total of nine thousand dollars which they had received from Cardinal Spellman and others. They got another twelve thousand dollars via the courier of the Swiss legation, which had been spent on current expenses, on helping priests under arrest, construction, etc.
November 25, 1948: A discussion was held in the deputy speaker's rooms in Parliament between Dr Gyula Czapik, Archbishop of Eger, Dr József Révai, M.P., and Dr István Barankovics, M.P. (The disagreement between Hungary and the Vatican "began" with a critical article in Osservatore Romano. Rákosi and his associates declared that they would not allow the Papal legate sent to smooth out the dispute between Church and state to enter the country until at least one positive article was published in O.R.) To break the deadlock, Barankovics suggested that a "gentlemen's agreement" be entered into between the Hungarian government and the Vatican: 1) The radio and the press will stop their attacks; 2) The Hungarian government will allow the Papal legate to enter; 3) The evidence against Cardinal Mindszenty collected during the investigation will be made known to the Holy See before the actual charges are laid, to allow them to take appropriate measures; 4) The status quo of the Hungarian Catholic Church would not be one-sidedly altered by the Hungarian government. Révai, however, refused to sign such an agreement.
November 27, 1948: An ÁVH report: It is emphasized by prominent Church figures that if anything should happen to the Primate (arrest, for instance) it would be unavoidable for the Bench of Bishops to issue a declaration. "The public mood can be expected to be one of shock. Nevertheless, they feel that the whole thing will not last longer than a week, leaving no trace in people, and life will go on as usual afterward."
November 27, 1948: Meeting of the Central Leadership of the HWP: Rákosi speaks of a popular movement demanding in hundreds of localities that "we should change the tolerant policy we have conducted so far vis à vis the reactionary and Fascist leaders of the Catholic Church, primarily Mindszenty." The agreement with the Protestant Churches shows that there is no question of religious persecution. "Care must be taken that Mindszenty should not act as a representative of all Catholics, so that we do not attack him as a Catholic but as a Fascist, a re-inviter of the Habsburgs, a dollar smuggler, an American spy." Here he actually listed the charges in the trial that would come only months later: espionage, foreign currency smuggling, intent to restore the Habsburgs.
December 11, 1948: An ÁVH report. Three leading Hungarian intellectuals (including the composer Zoltán Kodály) visited Mindszenty in an effort to persuade him to engage in talks, and to make a compromise.
December 14, 1948: The Minister in Rome, László Velics was instructed to inform the competent Vatican officials: the Interior Ministry had found evidence which did not permit the lenient and tolerant policy of "wait and see" concerning Mindszenty to continue. In 1918 he had been punished for acting against democracy. "After the Liberation he was not charged; it was hoped that he might redeem his crimes. He made use of his high Church position to fight against the Hungarian Republic." During his trip to America, he "contacted reactionary Hungarian émigré politicians. He made an agreement with Archduke Otto on organizing a Hungarian legitimist movement." Mindszenty spied for foreign powers. "It has been legally established that he intervened with the Americans to the effect that one of the most valuable historic relics of the Hungarian nation, the crown of St Stephen, should not be returned."
December 16, 1948: Shortly before Mindszenty's arrest, George Bilainkin, special correspondent of The Daily Mail, conducted an interview of two and a half hours with the Cardinal, which, however, was never published. In 1973, on the basis of "a literal report", Bilainkin recalled that the Cardinal urged "immediate invasion" by British and American troops. When told that this would probably lead to a nuclear war, he replied that even that was better than Communism.
December 24, 1948: During a house search, a metal case was found, whose whereabouts had been disclosed by Dr András Zakar, Secretary to the Primate. Mindszenty admitted it was his but he said it contained nothing but irrelevant old letters.
Years after he had been removed from power, Rákosi discussed the Mindszenty Trial with György Aczél and Sándor Nógrádi, who had been sent by the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party to see him in exile in the Soviet Union: "We saw that it was no longer possible to deal peacefully with the bastard. That much could be seen. I suggested we arrest his secretary first, and when the secretary was under arrest, I said I had a shrewd idea about this man, based on all his activities. This is a very ambitious man, I said, who has a very large number of connections. He must have a secret archive somewhere! And the investigation would inevitably find it. There were many documents. His correspondence with the American president, the Pope in Rome, many important people. That was how we found them. On my suggestion." (No such correspondence - real or fake - has ever been found.)
December 25, 1948: An ÁVH report: "The Primate's palace is awash with rumours in the wake of yesterday's search. Those who live there are trying to guess when Mindszenty would be placed under arrest. The Cardinal's people were surprised when they saw how well Zakar looked, how calm he was, and that the police permitted him to take away his domestic altar.
December 26, 1948: the Prince Primate, Cardinal József Mindszenty is arrested in Esztergom. According to Gábor Péter, it was Rákosi who insisted on the second day of Christmas. Rákosi, reminiscing in 1962: "He kept saying 'I, Joseph, Prince Primate of Hungary', and so on. And he called us 'You, my errant children', things like that. So I said whack him twice. That would make him see the light, and realize that this thing was serious: You are no primate here! So he was slapped twice, and then he passed out."
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