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nsmg, which he saw as a legitimate popular rebellion against
Stalinism. Gone were the old claims that the 1956 Revolution was
a CIA plot against the People's Democracy. For someone who
·was raised on Herbert Aptheker's notorious book,
The Truth About
Hungary,
which presumed to give its audience a historical account
of a "counterrevolution" against socialism, it was shocking to
hear such an account from leading Hungarian Communists. But
of course, it is this reform faction that has taken the lead in resur–
recting Nagy' s memory and has used his murder as a weapon
in the fight to oust Kadar from the leadership.
It
became clear as the talk continued, however, that the
Hungarian Communist reformers were miles away from what
any of us called Communist. Szokasi and Tabajdi, and two of
their colleagues, favored a genuine pluralist democracy, a consti–
tutional government, a legal state, and what they termed a
European identity for Hungary. The question , they said, is
whether others would have the tolerance and patience to wait for
the kind of economic development that would take place as a re–
sult of the transition to a market economy, along with aid and
technical development that would put Hungary on its feet.
Politically, these Communists argued that the new opposi–
tionists were not as yet ready to rule and take power, and that for
the next few foreseeable years, Hungary's reform Communists
would probably remain the ruling party. But, they admitted, po–
litical organizing and formation of new parties would give the
opposition renewed strength, and it would be conceivable that
within five to seven years, the Communists would find them–
selves as the opposition party. I asked the $64 question, "If in such
a national election the Communists lost, would they step down
from power?" I received in answer an unequivocable "yes."
Clearly, the thought that such a development might occur
was so far in the future as to be of really little concern to them. At
present, it appears that the reformers hope their faction would rule
in coalition with the Social Democrats, who would proceed to
modernize the economy along Western reform lines. Indeed,
they said that in their estimate, the hard-line old Stalinist wing of
the Party had about fifteen percent of support within its ranks, the
reformers now commanded a strong fifty-five percent, and
thirty-five percent were careerists who would shift to whoever
they thought was winning. Both men had coauthored an article
