Volume 35, Number 13 · August 18, 1988
Hungary: The New Twist
By Istvan Deak
Hungary and the Soviet Bloc
by Charles Gati
Duke University Press, 244 pp., $14.95 (paper)
Show Trials: Stalinist Purges in Eastern Europe, 1948–1954
by George H. Hodos
Praeger, 193 pp., $39.95
János Kádár: Selected Speeches and Interviews
with an introductory biography by L. Gyurkó
Pergamon, 469 pp., $28.00
1956: Counter-Revolution in Hungary: Words and Weapons
by János Berecz, translated by István Butykay, translation revised by Charles Coutts
Akadémiai Kiadó (Budapest), 224 pp., $19.95
Cry Hungary! Uprising 1956
by Reg Gadney, introduction by George Mikes
Atheneum, 184 pp., $16.95
The Velvet Prison: Artists Under State Socialism
by Miklós Haraszti, translated by Katalin Landesmann, by Stephen Landesmann, with the help of Steve Wasserman, foreword by George Konrád
Basic Books/A New Republic Book, 165 pp., $14.95
During his thirty-two years of absolute rule in Hungary, János Kádár introduced reforms in the Soviet bloc so comprehensive that next to them Gorbachev's reforms seem pale. In March of this year his position seemed nearly unassailable, and I was assured by knowledgeable people that he still had the confidence of Moscow, and the loyalty of much of the Party rank and file. This proved not to be true. At the Party conference in May, Kádár and all his principal collaborators were forced to resign by his rivals in the Politburo and by representatives of the local Party organizations. The man whom people used to call 'Good King János' is now commonly referred to as the 'Old Fool.'
Review, 6181 words
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