Unsuitable for Commemoration

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which operated, during the Cold War, in Munich, had to get information from across the Iron Curtain, in order to broadcast its programs to the Soviet Union and its satellite states. To this end, the radio maintained so-called Evaluation and Research Units, which collected information from both official and unofficial sources, paying special attention to prioritized topics and individuals. Béla Kovács was among the latter: newspaper clippings, radio transcriptions, and various reports compose the Biographical File on him, starting with the year 1955. As the Records of the RFE/RL Research Institute are preserved at the Blinken OSA Archivum in Budapest, the collection outlines what the West could have known and thought about Kovács.

A Victim of Salami Tactics

Born in 1908, in Mecsekalja, into a peasant family, Béla Kovács was an active politician from the 1930s on. In 1941, he was elected General Secretary of the Hungarian Peasants’ Union, and then, in 1945, of the Independent Smallholders’ Party. In the 1945 elections, his party achieved an absolute majority, but formed, nevertheless, a coalition government consisting of the Hungarian Communist Party, the Hungarian Social Democratic Party, and the National Peasant Party. Kovács did not oppose cooperation, but, from 1946 onward, confronted the Communist Party more and more openly, as it was trying to overturn the election results. He was, at that time, the country’s Minister of Agriculture, a central figure and one of the most popular politicians of the Smallholders’ Party, an organization running an extensive network. This made the situation delicate for Mátyás Rákosi, who aspired to exclusive power—which induced Kovács’s removal. In order to circumvent his parliamentary immunity, Rákosi turned to the Soviets: on February 25, 1947, Kovács was arrested by the occupying Soviet authorities. He was tried in the Soviet Union on the fabricated charges of espionage and participating “in the formation of underground anti-Soviet armed terrorist groups.” This is the moment to which today’s official memory politics is limited. The moment is undoubtedly tragic: Béla Kovács was betrayed, his trust abused, his rights violated.

Following his arrest, there were no official news either on his trial, or his whereabouts and conditions. Eight years later, in July 1955, RFE/RL learned that former political prisoners returning to Austria, who had been released as part of a wave of amnesty following Stalin’s death, claimed to had been imprisoned together with Kovács in the city of Vladimir, in a Gulag prison holding political prisoners. His kidnap, the lack of information about him, the accounts of fellow prisoners, and the (modest) international pressure resemble the case of Raoul Wallenberg. A fundamental difference, however, is that Béla Kovács was, eventually, handed over to the Hungarian authorities, in November 1955. For another six months, he was held in Hungarian prisons, until, in April 1956, he was pardoned and allowed to return home to his family in Baranya County.

A Victim of Propaganda

The announcement of "abandoning further prosecution” was only published in June 1956. However, an RFE/RL source, who met Kovács personally, alleged that “[Communist] Party officials visited Kovács several times” already in May, and “urged him to appeal over the Homeland Broadcast to Hungarian peasants abroad to return to Hungary.” Based on this intel, RFE/RL analysts concluded that the CP intended to use Kovács—who, after having been weakened during his nine years of captivity in the Gulag and in Hungary, spent time in hospital in Pécs, and was recovering at home—in legitimizing the “pseudo-democratic" establishment in Hungary. The analysts’ hunch turned out to be true.

Szülőföldünk (Our motherland) was a propaganda show on the Hungarian state radio, targeting Hungarians living abroad. Kovács got involved for the first time with the program in July 1956, when his former statement to the daily Dunántúli Napló (Dunántúl chronicle) was read out by the presenter; then, in September, Szülőföldünk conducted its own exclusive interview as well. The two conversations followed a similar script: the reason and circumstances of the arrest were left unaddressed, with Kovács, recently released after eight years in captivity, noting, for example, “The Presidential Council and the Hungarian government . . . have restored my lost freedom and tranquility,” and expressing that, “My little children have grown into adults, one cannot even tell who is the happier among us.” He then went on praising the regime, “The Hungarian government can show up enormous results. For instance, the major development in industry, transportation, and commerce,” as well as “the consolidation and observance of lawfulness. The first steps in rectifying the wrongs unjustly caused.” And finally, at the direct request of the presenter, he addressed Hungarians living abroad.

Victim of Politics

Less than a month later, on October 23, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 broke out, and Béla Kovács was once again at the forefront of politics, taking part in Imre Nagy’s government first as Minister of Agriculture, and then as Minister of State. Also, the reestablished Smallholders’ Party elected him its president. The revolution, however, was crushed; in January 1957, both AP and Reuters reported—and were cited by several international newspapers—that Kovács, due to poor health, had resigned as party leader, retired from politics, and was living in his country home. In the interpretation of Western commentators, the announcement was a serious blow to the consolidation efforts of the emerging Kádár regime, which was openly striving to display support from respected non-communists.

Later, the international community was shocked to learn that Kovács appeared in the first parliamentary election following the revolution, in 1958, as candidate of the People’s Patriotic Front. Dominated by the CP (the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party), the political alliance received 99.6% of the votes, and Kovács indeed became one of its MPs.

It was rumored that he could have been arrested again, or kept under home confinement the very least; journalists suspected coercion, or compromise at best. In any case, although he did attend the inaugural session of the National Assembly, Kovács never took part in parliamentary sessions. To justify his absence, an article was carried by the daily Magyar Nemzet (Hungarian nation), the official newspaper of the Front, on its front page, which the Dunántúli Napló reprinted two days later; titled “Épülő szocializmusunkról” (On our Socialism, under construction), the piece named him as author. The starting point of the statement was that Kovács received “the resolution of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party on the Socialist reorganization of agriculture” in his sickbed, and could not express his enthusiasm for the Party and state leadership due to his illness. According to the RFE/RL analysis at the time, the article promoting cooperatives and the one-party system sounded very much like a forced self-criticism, the author of which hardly could have been the former Smallholders’ Party politician.

The case was widely covered in international press, prompting, then, a reaction from domestic state propaganda. An anonymous article was published in the Party daily Népszabadság (People’s freedom), titled “Ami odaát fáj” (What hurts over there); the same text was broadcast by Hungarian Radio as “our short comment,” with a few words replaced with synonyms. “The Viennese, pro-Habsburg newspapers question Béla Kovács; Voice of America is all upset, quarreling. . . . This choir is not shocking anymore, merely boring. . . . Dogs barking? People on the countryside are used to this kind of thing and they are well-aware that this won’t reach the sky.” The issue was brought up again in a few months; a new statement, allegedly by Kovács, was once again published by the Népszabadság and broadcast on Hungarian Radio. Reacting to the “smear campaign” against him, he confirmed that he had written the earlier article, adding that he was contacted by Western journalists as well, but rejected them, knowing they only would have manipulated his words.

A week later, Béla Kovács passed away. At his funeral, the Secretary General of the People’s Patriotic Front gave a eulogy, national newspapers carried János Kádár’s sympathetic telegram.

Victim of Memory Politics

How could the above story have been captured in a public monument, or at least in its inscription? In any case, the opportunity was there, as, since the 1989 regime change, history writing has uncovered the missing pieces one by one. Thanks to the research of historians István Vida, Mária Palasik, or Krisztián Ungváry, we now know that on November 4, 1956, as Soviet troops invaded Hungary, Béla Kovács asked for asylum at the U.S. embassy, which denied his request. We also know that shortly after, while retributions began across the country, Kovács attempted as president of the Smallholders’ Party to reconcile with Kádár. Just like in 1945–1947, he set as his conditions a multi-party system and free elections, freedom of association and the press, intellectual freedom, and the independence of the peasantry. Several negotiations revolved around a coalition government, the formation of which, however, was prevented by the Soviets. Yet, Kádár did not want “another Béla Kovács affair”; he sent the politician home, telling him to “go gray.” Based on state security files, Ungváry reconstructed that what had followed was a carefully organized plot, also involving state security tools, not only to legitimize the Kádár regime, but also to disintegrate the Smallholders’ Party. The 1959 statement in the Magyar Nemzet was, in fact, not written by him; when it was published, he already was gravely ill.

Had the Fidesz government, in 2002, strive to recall the full and accurate story of the “statesman innocently kidnapped by Soviet authorities,” the statue commemorating Béla Kovács would have required a longer inscription. Whether there was an honest intention to do so, is reflected in the later fate of the monument. When the third Orbán government undertook, in 2014, the complete reconstruction of Kossuth Square, the monument had to be replaced. If it had been important, several appropriate locations could have been found; in front of the former headquarters of the Smallholders’ Party on Semmelweis Street, perhaps in the vicinity of the Ministry of Agriculture, or nearby the U.S. Embassy. Instead, it was placed next to the Olympic Park, behind a tree. The spot is entirely unsuitable for laying wreaths, or organizing commemoration—which do not seem to have been a goal at all.