János Kádár

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (June 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (June 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

János József Kádár (/ˈkɑːdɑːr/; Hungarian: [ˈjaːnoʃ ˈkaːdaːr]; 26 May 1912 – 6 July 1989), born János József Czermanik, was a Hungarian Communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, a position he held for 32 years. Declining health led to his retirement in 1988, and he died in 1989 after being hospitalized for pneumonia.^[2][3]

Kádár was born in

After

Borbála worked hard to ensure that Kádár would get a good education. In the summer time, Kádár would find work in the countryside. He was seen as "alien" by his contemporaries, in the countryside they would call him a "city boy" while in the city they would call him a "country boy". Then in 1920, Borbála got pregnant again; the father left soon. Kádár helped take care of his half-brother, Jenő.[12] At the Cukor Street Elementary School, Kádár proved to be a bright student. He skipped school often, and his mother tried beatings to make it stop. Classes were easy for him and he skipped school to play sports. He did read often however, but his mother was unimpressed by this and sarcastically asked him if he was a "gentleman of leisure". Kádár left school at the age of fourteen in 1926. Kádár started his apprenticeship as a car mechanic. After he was turned down as a car mechnic, he started work as an apprentice of Sándor Izsák, chief Hungarian representative of Torpedo Typewriter Company in the autumn of 1927.^[13] Typewriter mechanics had a high standing among the working class, there were only 160 of them in the country.^[14]

"I was a servant to a village pig herder, a servant child to a kulak (rich peasant), a vici (janitor) child, a newspaper boy, a 'parcel delivery boy' or courier in the city, and even a briefly homeless evicted person. I worked from 5 in the morning until classes started at [elementary] school, then after the education in the afternoon I had to work again until late at night. Then came the 'beauty' of the life of a skilled apprentice. And finally, when I became a skilled worker – in 1929 – the great economic crisis and unemployment came for us. This is how the entire generation of young workers lived at that time."^[15]

— János Kádár about his childhood

Party work

His first meeting with

After being released for

Kádár, while in prison, was able to send out messages to Péter, and other high-ranking party members, they were able to orchestrate a scheme to free him. In the meantime, the leader of Hungary Miklós Horthy was conspiring against the German occupiers. There were rumours that claim that Horthy tried to get in contact with Kádár, but did not know that he was in prison.^[30] Horthy was deposed by the German government and replaced by Arrow Cross Party leader Ferenc Szálasi. Szálasi's policies had an immediate effect on Kádár; he had emptied the prison Kádár lived in and sent them to Nazi concentration camps. Kádár was able to escape and made his way back to Budapest.^[31] Immediately after his return to Budapest, Kádár headed the Communist party's military committee. The committee tried to persuade workers to help the Soviet forces, but was not able to muster much support from the populace, therefore its effect was marginal at best. After the Soviet victory in Budapest, he changed his name from Csermanek to Kádár, literally meaning "cooper" or "barrel-maker".^[32]

From leadership to show trials

Post–World War II career

After the Soviet liberation of Hungary, the Soviet–Hungarian Communist leadership sent Zoltán Vas and the new Kremlin-approved Central Committee of the Communist Party of Hungary; Kádár became a member. Kádár rose, not because of ideology, or technical knowledge, but rather for his organisational skills. He helped organize the Party's headquarters and designed its membership card. The Soviet troops stationed in Hungary committed

Rákosi's leadership consisted of

Later in his life, Rákosi said that Rajk died screaming "Long live Stalin! Long live Rákosi!" Instead, Tibor Szönyi died without saying a word and András Szalai crying. Farkas and Gábor Péter, upon the death of Rajk and the others, said "provocateurs to their last breaths". This event didn't assure Kádár; making him doubt if any of the accusation leveled against his coworkers were true. It is believed that after Rajk's death Kádár was seen vomiting; these rumours have not been confirmed by any sources from that time.^[45] Rákosi contacted him the following the day, asking him why he was in such a bad mood, and continued, saying; "Did the executions affect you that much?". According to certain rumours, which are probably not reliable, Kádár visited Rákosi to tell him about his reaction to the execution. Later, during a party presentation to a college, Kádár emphasized party austerity. This presentation might reflect on Kádár's reaction to Rajk's execution and his revelation that he might become the next victim of government repression. When holding his presentation, he was described by his audience as a "haggard", "distressed" and as a man under a lot of "strain".^[46]

Show trial and rehabilitation

Rákosi told Kádár, in late August 1950, that former

At this point, Rákosi had started distrusting Kádár, leading Kádár to resign as Ministry of the Interior citing health and stress reasons for his choice. Kádár believed the longer down the ladder he climbed there was a bigger chance of not being purged. In this he was wrong, and he along with new Minister of the Interior Sándor Zöld, were criticised for not doing a proper enough job to remove the anti-socialist movement within the country.^[48] Kádár would later refute most of the allegations the Rákosi leadership put against, but to no avail, and for every letter he wrote to refute an allegation another allegation was put against him. He eventually gave up and in one letter Kádár even admitted to his faults; claiming that he was still "politically backward" and "ideologically untrained" when he headed the prewar Communist Party as First Secretary. Kádár concluded that he had been fooled by the capitalists and therefore offered his resignation from active politics. Instead of resigning, and losing his seats in the Central Committee and the Politburo, his memberships in these organisations were renewed at the party congress. Believing that his position was secure and that Rákosi had given him another chance, Kádár thought nothing more of it. This proved to be wrong, and by the end of March 1951, Rákosi informed the Soviets that Kádár along with Zöld and Gyula Kállai were to be imprisoned.^[49]

On 18 April 1951, Zöld had killed his whole family and committed suicide after finding out that Rákosi and his associates had decided to purge him from the party. When the authorities found their bodies, they decided to quickly gather the remaining two before they did something rash too. Kádár, who did not know what had just taken place, was at home taking care of his wife Maria, who had been in and out of the hospital.^[50] The Hungarian leadership decided to call him, asking Kádár to meet them at the party headquarters, when leaving his home he was stopped by ÁVH officers and the ÁVH head Gábor Péter.^[51]

Only a year later, Kádár found himself the defendant in a show trial of his own—on false charges of having been a spy of Horthy's police. This time it was Kádár who was beaten by the security police and urged to "confess". During Kádár's interrogation, the ÁVH reportedly beat him, smeared him with mercury to prevent his skin pores from breathing, and had his questioner urinate into his pried-open mouth.^[52] However, at the 1954 rehearing of his trial, when asked if he had been maltreated, he answered "Physically no", a denial he repeated in later interviews towards the end of his life. It is thought by some that the stories of brutality were intended to portray him as a victim of Stalinist torture in order to counter his image at home and abroad as a Soviet stooge.^[53]

Kádár was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. His incarceration included three years of solitary confinement, conditions far worse than he suffered while imprisoned under the Horthy regime. He was released from prison in July 1954, after the death of Stalin and the appointment of Imre Nagy as Prime Minister in 1953. Kádár accepted the offer to act as party secretary in the heavily industrialized 13th district of Budapest. He rose to prominence quickly, building up a large following among workers who demanded increased freedom for trade unions.

Role in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956

Rákosi was forced to resign in 1956, replaced by Gerő. On 23 October 1956, students marched through Budapest intending to present a petition to the government. The procession swelled as several people poured onto the streets. Gerő replied with a harsh speech that angered the people, and police opened fire. It proved to be the start of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. As the revolution spread throughout the country, Nagy was called back as Prime Minister.^[54]

The Hungarian Working People's Party decided to dissolve itself and to reorganize itself as the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party. On 25 October 1956, Kádár was elected General Secretary. He was also a member of the Nagy Government as Minister of State.

Nagy began a process of liberalization, removing state controls over the press, releasing many political prisoners, and expressing wishes to withdraw Hungary from the

On 1 November 1956, Kádár, together with Ferenc Münnich, left Hungary for Moscow with the support of the Soviet Embassy in Budapest. There the Soviet leaders tried to convince him that a "counter-revolution" was unfolding in Hungary that must be put to an end at any cost. He only agreed to change sides when the Soviet leaders informed him that the decision had already been taken to crush the revolution with the help of the Soviet troops stationed in Hungary. He was also told that unless he agreed to become prime minister in the new government, the Rákosi–Gerő leadership would be reinstalled. Although he was under duress, he did not, by his own admission, resist as much as he could have. In a speech given on 12 April 1989, he confessed to having played a role in Nagy's execution, calling it his "own personal tragedy."^[55] Writing in 1961, American journalist John Gunther said that "Kádár today looks like a man pursued by shadows, a walking corpse."^[56]

At dawn on 4 November 1956, Soviet tank divisions moved into Budapest with orders to crush the revolution. The proclamation of the so-called Revolutionary Workers'-Peasants' Government of Hungary, headed by Kádár, was broadcast from Szolnok the same day. He announced a "Fifteen Point Programme" for this new government:

1. To secure Hungary's national independence and sovereignty
2. To protect the people's democratic and socialist system from all attacks
3. To end fratricidal fighting and to restore order
4. To establish close fraternal relations with
   other socialist countries
   on the basis of complete equality and non-interference
5. To cooperate peacefully with all nations irrespective of form of government
6. To quickly and substantially raise the standard of living for all in Hungary
7. Modification of the Five Year Plan, to allow for this increase in the standard of living
8. Elimination of bureaucracy and the broadening of democracy, in the workers' interest
9. On the basis of the broadened democracy, management by the workers must be implemented in factories and enterprises
10. To develop agricultural production, abolish compulsory deliveries and grant assistance to individual farmers
11. To guarantee democratic elections in the already existing administrative bodies and Revolutionary Councils
12. Support for artisans and retail trade
13. Development of Hungarian culture in the spirit of Hungary's progressive traditions
14. The Hungarian Revolutionary Worker-Peasant Government, acting in the interest of our people, requested the Red Army to help our nation smash the sinister forces of reaction and restore order and calm in Hungary
15. To negotiate with the forces of the Warsaw Pact on the withdrawal of troops from Hungary following the end of the crisis

The 15th point was withdrawn after pressure from the USSR that a 200,000 strong Soviet detachment be

]both died in prison under suspicious circumstances during the court proceedings.

Kádár era

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "János Kádár" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Kádár assumed power in a critical situation. The country was under Soviet military administration for several months. The fallen leaders of the Communist party took refuge in the Soviet Union and were planning to regain power in Hungary. The Chinese, East German, and Czechoslovak leaders demanded severe reprisals against the perpetrators of the "counter-revolution". Despite the distrust surrounding the new leadership and the economic difficulties, Kádár was able to normalize the situation in a remarkably short time. This was due to the realization that, under the circumstances, it was impossible to break away from the

Starting in the early 1960s, he gradually lifted Rákosi's more draconian measures against free speech and movement, and also eased some restrictions on cultural activities. He even tolerated samizdat publications to a far greater extent than his counterparts. As Kádár once said, "what kind of regime is it that doesn't have even a tiny little opposition, just for show? But there's also the fact that they can't go beyond a certain limit, and if they try, they'll pay for it." Hungarians had much more freedom than their Eastern Bloc counterparts to go about their daily lives.

The result was a regime that was far more humane than other

While Kádár's regime remained strictly loyal to the Soviet Union in foreign policy, its intent was to establish a national consensus around its domestic policies. In notable contrast to Rákosi, who repeatedly declared "he who is not with us is against us" in his rally speeches, Kádár declared that "who is not against us is with us." Kádár was the first Eastern European leader to develop closer ties with the Social Democratic parties of Western Europe. He also attempted to establish good relations with the United States, though could only go so far due to the limitations imposed by Kádár's ultimate commitment to communist internationalism.[58]

When Khrushchev was ousted in 1964, Kádár had some kind words about the deposed Soviet leader, which was a unique gesture among Eastern Bloc leaders. Consequently his relationship with Brezhnev was somewhat uneasy for a long time. Kádár tried to mediate between the leaders of the Czechoslovak reform movement of 1968 and the Soviet leadership to avert the danger of military intervention. When the Soviet leaders took the decision to intervene to suppress the Prague Spring, Kádár decided to participate in the Warsaw Pact operation.

The regression towards Stalinist economic policies in the Soviet Union at the end of the 1960s had an impact in Hungary. In the political-economic structure, which had been left untouched by the reforms, it was relatively easy for the "conservative" political offensive with Soviet support to take hold. Zoltán Komócsin, Béla Biszku and Árpád Pullai, who had aimed to stop economic reform and seize political power, defeated the reform wing, which was led by Rezső Nyers, Lajos Fehér and Jenő Fock, and implemented the renewed centralisation of the economy. Unqualified people were appointed to leading positions en masse, and a campaign was launched against certain sections of the intelligentsia.

At the same time, the oil crisis caused an unfavorable turn in the world economy for the Hungarian economy: Hungarian goods for export were paid less, while imported goods needed for economic growth and modernization became more expensive. Thus, the increase in real wages, which the leadership considered important, could only be covered by loans. In the early 1970s, credit was cheap and was freely used: by the end of the 1970s, $8 billion in debt had been accumulated.

During Kádár's rule,

Kádár was known for his simple and modest lifestyle and avoided the self-indulgence persona of other Communist leaders. Although he was never personally corrupt, he sometimes overlooked corrupt dealings of other members of the elite to an extent. To strengthen his popularity, whispering propaganda depicted him as totally intolerant to corruption by his underlings. Playing chess was one of his favorite pastimes.^[59] However, he was an avid hunter (hunting for sport used to be an aristocratic hobby before 1945 in Hungary and this pattern continued during the Communist era when it became a cherished pastime and occasion for the new elite to informally socialize and to get drunk), and was a member of an exclusive hunting association made up by Party leaders and other dignitaries. He wasn't a heavy drinker though and demanded modesty when he was present. Also, foreign guests often visited the Hungarian forests too, from the Shah of Iran through Fidel Castro to the King of Nepal, and Leonid Brezhnev hunted with Kádár several times. The popularity of this "gentleman's sport" among Communist leaders was marked by political decisions made on hunting excursions.^[60]

Kádár was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize (1975–76). He was also awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 3 April 1964.^[61]

Resignation, final months and death

János Kádár held power in Hungary until the "apparat coup" in the spring of 1988,^[62] when he resigned under pressure as General Secretary in the face of mounting economic difficulties and his own ill health. At a party conference in Budapest on 22 May 1988, at which half a dozen of his Politburo associates were also removed, Kádár announced his resignation and was officially replaced as General Secretary by Prime Minister Károly Grósz, who strove to continue Kádár's policies in a modified form adapted to the new circumstances. Kádár was named instead to the ceremonial position of Party President. He did not wish to be re-elected to the Political Committee, the most important decision-making body of the party. Nevertheless, the post allowed him the right to speak at Central Committee plenums. By May 1989, Kádár was showing unmistakable signs of mental deterioration; his increasingly incoherent speeches were becoming an embarrassment. Doctors encouraged him to go on vacation in the Crimea, but Kádár balked; he remembered how Rákosi had died in Soviet exile and was wary of the same fate. On 8 May, Kádár lost his remaining posts; officially, he retired for health reasons. Grósz and his associates were in no position to resist, as they were in turn were being sidelined by a faction of young "radical reformers" who set out to dismantle Communism altogether and rehabilitate the party's image ahead of free elections due the following year.^[63]

On 12 April 1989 Kádár unexpectedly appeared and made a rambling, incoherent speech at the closed meeting of the Central Committee. By the "right of the last word", he wanted to confess about his negotiations in 1956 in Moscow (about which he never spoke publicly) and about the conviction and execution of Imre Nagy. But all the changes that occurred in Eastern Europe and Hungary between 1956 and 1989 were at the same time in his head.^[64][65][66] An interpretation of Kádár's thoughts was offered by Mihály Kornis, who gave a lecture about János Kádár.^[67] According to Miklós Németh's testimony, in late May or early June 1989, a few weeks before his death, Kádár asked a Roman Catholic priest to hear his confession, which some have theorised as a sign of a possible revelation and conversion to Christianity.^[68][69][70]

Kádár died of cancer on 6 July 1989 aged 77, three months before the formal end of the regime he had largely created. Kádár's grave at the Kerepesi Cemetery in Budapest was vandalized on 2 May 2007 as a number of his bones, including his skull, were dug up and stolen, along with his wife Mária Tamáska's urn. A message reading "murderers and traitors may not rest in holy ground 1956–2006" (taken from a song titled "Neveket akarok hallani" written by the rock band Kárpátia) was written nearby.^[71][72] The two dates refer to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 2006 protests in Hungary, respectively.^[73] This act was received with widespread revulsion across the political and societal spectrum in Hungary.^[74][75] Police investigations focused on extremist right-wing groups which had been aspiring to "carry out an act that would create a big bang."^[76]

Legacy

Kádár's legacy remains disputed in Hungary. Supporters of Kádár argue that the Kádár era was one of peace and stability with widespread job security and robust social protections for average people. Others argue that although Kádár increased the standard of living for Hungarians, and instituted broad liberalization, the country was still fundamentally a dictatorship and a Soviet satellite state.

He is considered one of the most influential figures of 20th century Hungarian history along with István Tisza and Miklós Horthy. A research has found that according to 6% of respondents he was "the greatest Hungarian", finishing 3rd from a list of 10 choices.^[77]

Polls indicate that nostalgia for the Kádár era remains widespread in Hungary. According to a 2020 poll carried out by Policy Solutions in Hungary, 54 percent of Hungarians believe most people had a better life under Kádár, compared to 31 percent who say life for most people was worse under Kádár.^[78]

Decorations and awards

• Hero of Socialist Labour, three times (1962, 1972, 1982)
• Hero of the Soviet Union (1964)
• Order of the Yugoslav Great Star (1964)^[79]
• Order of Lenin, twice
• Lenin Peace Prize "for peace between nations" (1977)

In popular culture

An interpretation of events in Kádár's political and personal life, beginning circa 1945, including an association with the trial, execution, reburial, and atonement of László Rajk, and ending with the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, are portrayed in Robert Ardrey's 1958 play, Shadow of Heroes.

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Felkay, Andrew. Out of Russian orbit, Hungary gravitates to the West (Greenwood, 1997).
• Felkay, Andrew. Hungary and the USSR, 1956-1988: Kadar's Political Leadership (Praeger, 1989)
• Gough, Roger (2006). A Good Comrade: János Kádár, communism and Hungary.
  ISBN 1-84511-058-7
  .
• Halliday, Jon. The Artful Albanian: The Memoirs of Enver Hoxha (Chatto & Windus, 1986).
• Horbulák, Zsolt. "János Kádár as an Economic Reformist and Gustáv Husák as an Antireformist." Slovenská politologická revue 16.1 (2016): 5–19. online
• Niklasson, Tomas. "Regime stability and foreign policy change: interaction between domestic and foreign policy in Hungary 1956-1994" (PhD dissertation Lund University, 2006) online.
• Tőkés, Rudolf L. Hungary’s Negotiated Revolution: Economic Reform, Social Change and Political Succession, 1957-1990 (Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Primary sources

• János Kádár: Selected Speeches and Interviews

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to János Kádár.

• Kádár János 1988.05.
• Kádár János temetése

Party political offices
Preceded by Ernő Gerő	General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party 25 October 1956–22 May 1988	Succeeded by Károly Grósz
Political offices
Preceded by László Rajk	Minister of the Interior 5 August 1948–23 June 1950	Succeeded by Sándor Zöld
Preceded by Imre Nagy	Prime Minister of Hungary 4 November 1956–28 January 1958	Succeeded by Ferenc Münnich
Preceded by Ferenc Münnich	Prime Minister of Hungary 13 September 1961–30 June 1965	Succeeded by Gyula Kállai