Uncle Imre
REALE, EUGENIO
A former leader of Italian Communism, who broke with the party after the Hungarian Revolt, recalls his last encounters with Nagy 'Uncle Imre' It was in September 1953 that I first saw Imre Nagy. I...
...they say it is thanks to him that they received the land...
...that it is something else, concerned with higher and more important values...
...I wanted to stop to greet him, but our guide had beckoned the chauffeur to keep driving...
...They had to be approached with tact, with great understanding and patience, because they were people who lived poorly and whose needs remained unsatisfied...
...He served ten years in prison under Mussolini and was later interned by Vichy France...
...It was, in short, a message of brotherhood and peace which appealed at once to my heart and my conscience...
...The Premier stood up and excused himself...
...I said...
...Nagy did not speak a single hostile word against the Party or Rakosi, though the latter at this very moment was intriguing against him in Moscow and the Central Committee had already witnessed the first stages of the implacable struggle which would end with Nagy's expulsion from the Government and Party...
...A little less steel and machinery, and instead more poultry and pork for export—that should be the aim in the coming years...
...Of course, of course," said Nagy, "just telephone me and we will talk again at length...
...Besides, nobody will do Imre Nagy any harm...
...Oh, that's the new Premier, Imre Nagy...
...Despite the contrary opinion of certain Party leaders, Hungary was still essentially an agrarian country, and the major problems of its economy stemmed from agriculture...
...On leaving Imre Nagy, I could not conceal the fact that I had been moved...
...He is not a comrade in whom we have complete confidence...
...Imre Baski [Uncle Imre]," the foreign bureau official replied, "is a good man...
...He now edits a Rome weekly, Corrispondenza Socialista...
...A week passed, and I had again lost hope, when one night, while I was watching a performance of the Russian ballet with some of my comrades, a member of the Party's foreign bureau entered our box and advised me discreetly that the Premier was expecting me in the Parliament building...
...have known how to make the agrarian reform and he would not be Premier today...
...Strolling down Vaci Uca (once a street of luxury shops, its show-windows empty now and its sidewalks teeming with women and children offering Italian lemons for $2 each), we came upon a small square overrun by a crowd...
...This, Nagy declared, was essentially a question of confidence...
...I beg you to forget about it...
...Cursed be his killers and torturers in Budapest and Moscow...
...Returning, I did not conceal from my guide the profound impression which Nagy had made on me...
...Nagy went on to criticize the excessive industrialization which the preceding governments had pushed beyond supportable limits, and which elements in the Party continued to defend...
...The next day, I went to take leave of Rakosi...
...He had spoken to me as no one else had till then...
...He seemed sure he was right, and the maneuvers, insults and threats of his opponents apparently left him indifferent...
...I was thus resigned to never knowing Imre Nagy personally when I returned to Budapest the following October...
...My companion stopped at this point and, as Nagy left the platform to mingle in the enthusiastic crowd, began to lead me toward the car...
...A former Constituent Assembly deputy, Senator, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to Poland, he managed trade with Eastern Europe for the Party...
...He is their idol...
...Upon my arrival, I asked to see Rakosi, but I was told he had gone to Moscow for a rest and would not be back for two months...
...that socialism cannot be reduced to the simple question of increasing production...
...He received me with his usual cordiality and, in perfect Italian, discussed certain Party business...
...Two days later, I left Budapest with my wish unfulfilled...
...Nagy doesn't want them...
...I could not help thinking of the contrast: On the one hand, this simple man who hadn't lost contact with the people, from whom he drew strength and vigor...
...The atmosphere was that of a peasant celebration—no guards, no soldiers, no police agents...
...The unbreathable air foreshadowed the terrible events which were soon to explode...
...When they know that Nagy is going to speak, they come from their villages to hear him...
...People are laughing because he talks in dialect and tells stories...
...He recalled how he had also decreed a raise in wages...
...I found no trace of him at the Gerbaut, or on the streets of old Budapest, the Danube docks, or Margaret Island...
...One morning, I was wandering through the streets, accompanied by my regular guide from the foreign bureau of the Hungarian Communist party...
...What did he say now...
...Well, he just said that if he hadn't read so many books he would not By Eugenio Reale Eugenio Reale was one of the intellectual leaders of Italian Communism before he broke as a result of the Hungarian Revolution...
...The workers and peasants had to be convinced that a faster tempo and higher quality of production was in their own interest and that of the nation...
...This time, I spoke to Zoltan Vas, who promised to arrange a meeting for me...
...a pity he is too idealistic, not close enough to realities...
...Rakosi had triumphed...
...For instance...
...So I transacted my business with Gero and our old friend Hay, the deputy minister of foreign trade...
...A visit to the Premier," he said, "would be of no use to you at this time...
...He isn't informed about our business and shouldn't know that you are here...
...Nagy spoke a long time that night: about the peasants, about his native town (Somogy), about farm work and peasant customs, about his-experience in the Siberian collective farm he had managed for nearly three years before the war...
...I was seized by a kind of exaltation, suffused with human warmth: I felt reborn in me that confidence in the future of socialism which, in recent times, I had been losing bit by bit...
...Then, after some more words from the speaker, an immense burst of applause resounded throughout the square...
...He said he was expected on the outskirts of the city to speak before a group of farm Party members...
...Why were there no police on the square...
...A scarred veteran of the Spanish Civil War, he tried to do his best, though his French was poor...
...The only witness of our interview was Nagy's secretary who acted as interpreter...
...He had had to leave for Debrecen, or at least that is what I was told...
...That socialism must not only raise living standards but also elevate culture and education...
...I asked my guide what it was all about...
...I had been in Budapest several days...
...His brand of communism was special...
...He had disappeared and I would never see him again...
...The next day, I left my friends and went alone in search of Imre Nagy...
...it had regained its humanist and popular sources and discarded dogmatism and sectarianism...
...On the threshhold, when he extended his hand, I embraced him, and he kissed me on each cheek in peasant fashion...
...and, on the other hand, the Matyas Rakosis and Erno Geros living like exiles in their own country, not daring to take a step alone, never leaving their homes except in bulletproof limousines escorted by well-armed police...
...So one day, in a casual way, I told Hay that I would like to meet Nagy...
...The speaker was in fine fettle, and some of his phrases set off long peals of laughter from the audience...
...even his opponents are fond of him...
...In a word, he was one of them...
...Rakosi's face darkened, and I could see a look of annoyance in his eyes...
...What struck me most in the course of the conversation—besides the basic idea that socialism should be achieved slowly and peacefully, without rude shocks and useless violence —were his fundamental optimism, his respect for the traditions of his country...
...Fifteen minutes later, I was in the office of Imre Nagy...
...I made a new attempt to see Imre Nagy several months later, in April 1954...
...I was in a car with two Italian comrades and my usual guide when I saw, seated in front of a table at the Cafe Gerbaut, the inimitable Imre Nagy, a bit thinner and older, but still the same, with his sad smile, his fancy jacket and Tyrolean hat...
...Speaking in defense of the peasants, his peasants, Nagy told me of the attacks on him for having raised the prices paid to farmers...
...He loved the peasants of Hungary, knew their needs, understood their aspirations, worried over their hardships and suffering...
...The comrade from the foreign bureau, who was going to take me home, remained in the waiting room, the Premier having told him there was no need of him...
...But this man on the platform, his face is unfamiliar...
...it was all-out Stalinism again, and Nagy had been expelled from the Party...
...Nagy made no allusion whatever to all this...
...His round, handsome face bespoke a serenity and peace which were rare in the tense Hungary of those days...
...I asked whether another meeting would be possible...
...even a single policeman would make him angry...
...Poor, great, unforgettable Nagy, who did not hesitate to stand at the head of an insurrection which he had not provoked, who undertook the heaviest of responsibilities in the most terrible moment of his country's history...
...That would be fought by every means possible, and could be stopped...
...He replied that this was "Book Day" and that the Party chiefs and Government ministers were addressing the people at various points in the city...
...Nagy spoke of many other things...
...Inflation...
...They were peasants for the most part, who surrounded a platform from which spoke a distinguished but sympathetic-looking gentleman wearing gold-framed eyeglasses...
...In his opinion, socialism should not lead to poverty or even a reduction in living standards, but, on the contrary, implied a better life for all...
...Nagy had been speaking for more than an hour when a secretary entered the office and whispered a few words to him...
...The next day, however, I learned from my guide that the Premier was ill at his country house and could not receive anybody...
...Toward the end of our interview, I gathered my courage and, after describing what had happened the previous day, asked if he could introduce me to Imre Nagy before my departure...
...that was the secret of his immense popularity...
...Hay, who bore a striking resemblance to Gandhi, was not very intelligent and had received his post only because he had been Rakosi's companion in prison for many years...
...The next year, I was again in Budapest...
...Thanks he to him for the example he set us, for the lesson we shall never forget, for the confidence we shall preserve in the socialist democracy for which he lived and gave his life...
...Hay said he would try to arrange it...
...From agrarian problems, Nagy passed to a discussion of increasing production and productivity, which was then getting a good deal of attention in the Party press...
...During the ride, I asked him why peasants were so numerous at this meeting...
...The danger of inflation should not condemn Hungary to immobilism and maintenance of the status quo: poverty for all...
...Now he says that everybody should read a lot so that each can become Premier...
...Suddenly, the audience became quite grave...
...I left Budapest five days later, without having seen Nagy again...
Vol. 41 • September 1958 • No. 31
