Freedom Torn From Hungary

By Ernest S. Piske | Staff Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Vienna

Hungary’s battle for freedom from Soviet Communist domination has clearly been lost—at least temporarily.

The revolt which started some two weeks ago was ruthlessly crushed Nov. 4 by four Soviet tank armies, Soviet treachery, and the sudden side-switching by Janos Kadar, recently appointed First Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party.

Only a day or so previous, it looked as if Hungarians had succeeded in an attempt to break away from Moscow.

Premier Imre Nagy had accepted all demands of anti-Communist groups, representing some 20 percent of the Hungarian people, and had formed a coalition government in which the Smallholders and Social Democrats had three members each, the Petöfi party, formerly the Liberal Peasant Party and the Communist Party, two each. The Cabinet also contained Maj. Gen. Pal Maleter, “hero of Hungary,” in the post of Defense Minister.

Stage Set by Ruse

On the evening of Nov. 3 Mr. Nagy dispatched General Maleter and the Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Istvan Kovacs, to the Soviet high command to negotiate the terms of withdrawal of Soviet troops. Who actually was in command on the Soviet side is still unclear. There are strong indications, however, that Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov, Soviet Defense Minister, was in Hungary.

First reports on the military talks suggested that the Soviets asked for two or three weeks to take out their troops. This seemingly reasonable demand evidently was a ruse to win time for the tank armies to approach their respective goals.

In the early morning of Nov. 4, a thousand Soviet tanks which had surrounded Budapest began to attack. Three more tank armies moved on other key cities such as Pées, Györ, Szèkes Fehérvár and Szömbathly.

Envoys Seized

When the Budapest attack started, Mr. Nagy immediately recalled Generals Maleter and Kovacs; he did not know that in the meantime they had been arrested by their Soviet opposite numbers.

Then he broadcast a dramatic appeal, telling that Hungarian troops were fighting Soviet troops whose aim was to overthrow the government and completely subdue the country.

The Hungarian news agency MTI, in a telephone talk to the Vienna office of the Associated Press, said all of Budapest was under fire and asked help in Premier Nagy’s name.

When the phone connection broke down, MTI over tele-type gave an incredibly graphic step-by-step description of the fighting, again and again interrupting the account of the Budapest battle to ask urgently whether there was any news of approaching help.

“The government waits for your answer,” the MTI editor said. “We have no time to lose. Nagy personally asks for help and diplomatic moves by the western powers.”

Later the editor reported that the Soviets were using incendiary ammunition and that the agency’s main office was under fire. “I don’t know how long I shall be able to keep the line to Vienna open,” he said. And he ended, “Long live Hungary and Europe. We shall die for Hungary and Europe.”

Cities Fall

Earlier, Pées, where the Hungarian uranium mines are located, had fallen. Györ and other cities followed.

The Soviets arrested the entire government of Social Democratic leader Anna Kethly, who managed to escape from Sopron and now is reported on the way to the United Nations, and Mr. Kadar, who had secretly worked with the Soviets, had asked their intervention, and now had been appointed head of the new government.

Soviet tanks have sealed the main roads to the Austro-Hungarian frontier. Nobody is allowed in or out, and a number of Western correspondents are believed to be stranded in Hungary. Refugees have been arriving in Austria in increasing numbers by side roads.

Casualty figures are not available yet. Whether any will be made public is doubtful. The British estimate three days ago spoke of some 30,000 killed and wounded in the first stage of the revolt.

Casualties Estimated

Hungarian circles here have given the total casualties and fatalities as 15,000. This figure, which is held to be correct, now is certain to be surpassed many times by the number of victims of the end battle in which Hungarians literally fought Soviet tanks with bare hands.

Radio Szombathely, which has been in Soviet hands since midmorning Nov. 4, ordered the rebels to surrender their arms. “Unmasking of the counterrevolutionaries is under way,” it announced and added, “Long live the friendship with the Soviet Union.”

The Associated Press announced that Premier Kadar had vowed to restore “order and calmness . . . in the whole country in the next few days” and then bring freedom and democracy to the country. He repudiated Mr. Nagy’s appeal to the UN to guarantee a free and neutral Hungary.
Hungarian refugees denounced Mr. Kadar as a traitor whose name would live forever in infamy akin to that of Norway’s World War II Quisling.
Josef Cardinal Mindszenty, Roman Catholic prelate freed from house arrest only a week ago, took refuge in the United States legation in Budapest.
A red sky glowed over Budapest, indicating that many buildings were afire.