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‘The Spanish Analogy’: Imagining the Future in State Socialist Hungary, 1948–1989

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2017

JAMES MARK
JAMES MARK*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Amory Building, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4RJ, United Kingdom; [email protected]
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Abstract

For four decades Spain played an important role in debates over the future of politics, culture and economy in state socialist Hungary, particularly for the left: first as the fascist and underdeveloped ‘other’ against which the state socialist regime legitimised itself, then as a similarly peripheral country that had managed to integrate into global economy, return culturally to Europe and peacefully establish democracy. Close relationships developed between the Spanish socialists and Hungarian communists in the 1980s and offered the latter the hope they would survive any political transition. This article demonstrates the importance of Eastern–Southern European connections – both concrete and imagined – in sustaining, and then overcoming, Europe's post-war divides.

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Articles
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Contemporary European History , Volume 26 , Special Issue 4: Entangled Transitions , November 2017 , pp. 600 - 620
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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References

1 Szabó, Miklós, A Lecture Series on The History of The Hungarian Communist Party (Szeged, 1983)Google Scholar, unpublished manuscript. HU OSA [Open Society Archives, Budapest] 423-0-2.

2 Ibid.

3 Szabó went on to explore, in this lecture, the successes of authoritarian modernisation projects in Latin America – including those of Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

4 The comparative literature is voluminous. For a few classic texts, see Linz, Juan and Stepan, Alfred, Democratic Transitions and Consolidation: Eastern Europe, Southern Europe And Latin America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996)Google Scholar; Barahona De Brito, Alexandra, Gonzalez Enriquez, Carmen and Aguilar, Paloma, eds., The Politics of Memory: Transitional Justice in Democratizing Societies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)Google Scholar.

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13 Ibid., 153. Paweł Machcewicz, ‘Walka z Radiem Wolna Europa (1950–1975)’ in Ryszard Terlecki, ed., Aparat bezpieczeństwa wobec emigracji politycznej i Polonii (Warsaw: Institute of National Remembrance, 2005), 11–104.

14 Eiroa, Las relaciones, 117.

15 José M. Faraldo, ‘Refugees, Anticommunists, Scholars. Eastern European Émigrés in Franco's Spain’ (unpublished manuscript).

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18 On the consideration of armed intervention, see Dolores Ferrero, María, ‘A 1956-os Magyar Forradalom Nemzetközi Visszhangja és a Spanyol Részvétel Kérdése’, in Anderle, Ádám, ed., A magyar forradalom es a hispán világ (Szeged: Szegedi Tudományegyetem Bölcsészettudományi Kar Hispanisztika Tanszék, 2007), 30–1Google Scholar.

19 Ibid., 32. Initially they promised refuge only for refugee children.

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22 See the opposition from, for example, the Hungarian Students’ Federation in Madrid. Letter to President of the UN General Assembly, 26 Nov. 1958. ‘Hungarian Student Federation in Madrid to the President of the Thirteenth UN General Assembly’, 26 Nov. 1958. HU OSA 398-0-1-7766; Records of the UN Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary: UN Documents; Open Society Archives at Central European University, Budapest.

23 Anderle, Ádám, A magyar-spanyol kapcsolatok ezer éve (Szeged: Szegedi Egyetemi Kiadó–Juhász Gyula Felsôoktatási Kiadó, 2006), 106 Google Scholar.

24 McLellan, Antifascism and Memory, especially Chapter 3. The histories of those Hungarians who fought on the nationalist side have received little attention.

25 Ann James, Beverly, Imagining Postcommunism: Visual Narratives of Hungary's 1956 Revolution (College Station, TX.: Texas A&M University Press, 2005), 69 Google Scholar.

26 Münnichné Berényi és, Etelka Györkei, Jenő, eds., Tankok ellen, száz halálon át: Münnich Ferenc a spanyol polgárháborúban (Budapest: Gondolat, 1976)Google Scholar; Komját, Irén, Mező Imre (Budapest: Kossuth Kiadó, 1968)Google Scholar. Ferenc Münnich, Prime Minister after the 1956 revolution, in an interview for Élet és Irodalom on 21 March 1958, was presented as ‘hero of the three revolutions’ – 1919, the Spanish brigades and then in Hungary after the war. In the 1960s his Spanish experience was most heavily emphasised point of his biography: Apor, Péter, Fabricating Authenticity in Soviet Hungary: The Afterlife of the First Hungarian Soviet Republic in the Age of State Socialism (London: Anthem Press, 2014), 94, 132Google Scholar; idem. ‘Immortalitas Imperator: The Birth of the Pantheon of the Labour Movement in Budapest’ AETAS (2-3/2002), 179–205. See also the accounts of Hungarian civil war volunteers, published in 1959, Kepes, Imre, ed., Magyar önkéntesek a spanyol nép szabadságharcában (Budapest: Zrínyi Katonai Kiadó, 1959, republished 1987)Google Scholar.

27 It was commissioned by Budapest's City Council, unveiled in 1970, then in 1993 was taken to Budapest's Statue Park that ‘quarantined’ socialist-era monuments and replaced by a monument to the victims of the Soviet camps. Its nickname ‘the bowlers’ (kuglizók) made fun of the raised salutes of the three figures, that were thought by mischievous contemporaries to resemble the preparations necessary to throw a ball.

28 Kádár speaks to Youth Congress, Budapest, Hungarian Television, broadcast 15.45, 12 Dec. 1964.

29 Polish economic historians in the 1960s also compared Eastern and Southern Europe as the two underdeveloped regions of the continent. See the important work of Marian Małowist, for example his ‘Eastern Europe and the Countries of the Iberian Peninsula. Contrasts and Comparisons’, reproduced in Jean Batou and Henryk Szlajfer, eds., Western Europe, Eastern Europe and World Development, 13th–18th Centuries (Leiden & Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2009). In his account, the rise of the capitalist core of Britain, France and the Netherlands was responsible for the gradual economic marginalisation of Spain/Portugal on the one hand, and for turning Eastern European countries such as Poland into an agricultural hinterland on the other.

30 ‘A Meghosszabbított Polgárháború Spanyolországban’, Magyar Nemzet, 14 June 1963.

31 Ibid.

32 See, for example, ‘Spanyolországi látogatásomról’, Népszabadság, 21 June 1962.

33 ‘Import of Spanish Shoes’, Radio Free Europe Internal Report 245/69, January 1969. HU OSA 300-40-4 Box 15.

34 ‘Az igazi Spanyolország’, Magyar Nemzet, 9 Oct. 1963.

35 Mark, James and Apor, Péter, ‘Socialism Goes Global: Decolonization and the Making of a New Culture of Internationalism in Socialist Hungary, 1956–1989’, The Journal of Modern History, 87, 4 (2015), 852–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 Inotai, András, ‘Latin American Studies in Hungary’, in Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe, 72 (Apr. 2002), 115–21Google Scholar.

37 ’A szolidaritási akció mindaddig tart, amíg Spanyolországban nem győz a szabadság, a demokrácia’, Népszava, 5 July 1963.

38 ’A szolidaritási bélyeg’, Népszabadság, 20 June 1963.

39 ‘Viva la Republika!’, Dunai Napló, 12 Aug. 1964.

40 ’A szolidaritási akció mindaddig tart, amíg Spanyolországban nem győz a szabadság, a demokrácia’, Népszava, 5 July 1963.

41 ‘Szolidárisak vagyunk a testvéri spanyol néppel’, Népszabadság, 15 June 1963.

42 For a recent work on the importance of elites in transition, see Kotkin, Stephen, Uncivil Society. 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment (New York: Modern Library, 2009)Google Scholar.

43 Harsányi, Iván, ‘Episodios poco conocidos del proceso de restablecimiento de las relaciones interestatales de España y Hungría’, in Fischer, Ferenc, Kozma, Gábor, Lilón, Domingo, eds., Iberoamericana Quinqueecclesiensis 4 (Pécs: University of Pécs Centro Iberoamericano, 2006), 346 Google Scholar.

44 Békés, Csaba, ‘A kádári külpolitika, 1956–1968: Látványos sikerek – “láthatatlan konfliktusok”’ in idem, ed., Európából Európába. Magyarország konfliktusok kereszttüzében, 1945–1990 (Budapest: Gondolat, 2004), 237–56Google Scholar. Hungary re-established diplomatic relationship with various Western European countries in 1963–4 and with the United States in 1966, and then began negotiations with West Germany in 1967.

45 RFE Hungarian Monitoring, 5 July 1987. HU OSA 300-40-1 Box 989. In 1962 Hungary was the lowest-level exporter of goods to Spain of any Eastern European country: Spanyolország (Kojunktura és Piackutató Intézet, 1964), 33. See also Kovács, Annamária, ‘Spanyolország külkereskedelme a KGST-országokkal’, Külgazdaság, 21 (1977), 284–91Google Scholar.

46 RFE Hungarian Situation Report, 22 Sept. 1970, 14. Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia developed trade relationships during the same year (both 1970).

47 RFE Hungarian Situation Report, 22 Sept. 1970, 14. Rynki Zagraniczne, 16 July 1970, 4.

48 Harsányi, Iván, ‘1973, año clave en las relaciones diplomáticas hispano-húngaras’, Ayer 67, 3 (2007), 139 Google Scholar. See also his: ‘Episodios poco conocidos’, 341–3. These economic linkages strengthened after 1977, when the two countries agreed to increase cooperation between their respective agricultural and tourism sectors. Report on the Spanish Foreign Ministry Director-General of the European political affairs, Antonio Elias Martinerá, Budapest, 4–6 Oct. 1977. Then, in 1978, between chemical, pharmaceutical and railway industries. RFE Report, Hungarian-Spanish Trade, 15 Apr. 1978. HU OSA 300 2 5 Box 45. This interest in tourist links continued after 1989: the first post-communist Minister of Trade, Béla Kádár, visited Spain soon after his appointment and attempted – unsuccessfully – to bring the Spanish model of small-scale historical tourism centred on the reconstruction of historical buildings to Hungary. Interview with Béla Kádár, conducted by James Mark, Budapest, 9 Mar. 2017.

49 Harsányi, Iván, ‘A chilei és a dél-európai baloldal közti kapcsolat és kölcsönhatás’, Múltunk (2008/4), 246–7Google Scholar. On the fantasy of a Hispanic Bloc united by right-wing/ fascist authoritarianism in the name of spiritual renewal that spanned the Atlantic, see Gunnar Kressel, Daniel, ‘The Hispanic Community of Nations: The Spanish-Argentine Nexus and the Imagining of a Hispanic Cold War Bloc’, Cahiers des Amériques latines, 79 (2015), 115–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 On this, see the contribution by José Faraldo in this issue.

51 Ádám Anderle, ‘Bevezetés. A magyar-spanyol diplomáciai kapcsolatok történetéhez’, Külügyi Szemle (2010/30), 9.

52 Interview with István Nemes, conducted by James Mark, Budapest, 24 Jan. 2009.

53 See also Wolf Biermann, whose mid-1970s ‘Spanish recordings’ of civil war songs were a critical response to East Germany's recognition of Franco's Spain in 1973: McLellan, Antifascism and Memory, 141.

54 Interview with Tamás Fodor, published in István Nánay, ‘Fodor Tamás és Malgot István Visszaemlékezéséve’, Beszélő (1998/3); Apor, Péter, ‘Autentikus közösség és autonóm személyiség: 1989 egyik előtörténete’, Aetas 28 (2013/4), 34 Google Scholar.

55 See Kádár, János Speech on 2 Sept. 1974: ’Beszéd a Politikai Főiskola Fennállásának 25. Évfordulója alkalmából rendezett ünnepségen’, reproduced in idem., A fejlett szocialista társadalom építésének utján (Budapest: Kossuth Könyvkiadó, 1975), 14–5Google Scholar.

56 This account starts Samuel Huntington's The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993), 4–5.

57 László Perczel embassy report on the political situation in Spain after the elections. Madrid, 12 July 1977. MOL [Magyar Országos Levéltár, Hungarian National Archives] XIX-J-1-j 116. doboz 1977. Év. Diplomatic cables also advised Budapest that the Spanish communists had become more moderate in their aims than the PSOE. Thanks to Bálint Tolmár for his assistance in the archives of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry.

58 Hough, Jerry F., ‘The Evolving Soviet Debate on Latin America’, Latin American Research Review, 16, 1 (1981), 138 Google Scholar.

59 On the lesson of Portugal as a turn to ‘moderate politics’, see Maxwell, Kenneth, ‘Portugal's Revolution of the Carnations, 1974–75’, in Roberts, Adam and Garton-Ash, Timothy, eds., Civil Resistance and Power Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 161 Google Scholar.

60 Interview with Santiago Carrillo, Delo (Ljubljana), 26 May 1973.

61 On the distance between Eastern European parties and Southern European Eurocommunists, see the contribution by Faraldo in this collection.

62 Discussions between Péter Várkonyi and Felipe González. Külügyminisztérium XI. Területi Főosztály. Budapest, 24 June 1984. Ádám Anderle, A magyar-spanyol kapcsolatok, 168.

63 Interview with Mihály Simai, conducted by James Mark, Budapest, 19 May 2014. See this influence in Berend's account: Berend, Iván T., History in My Life. A Memoir of Three Eras (Budapest: CEU Press, 2009), 152 Google Scholar.

64 Berend, History in My Life, 152–3.

65 Berend, Iván T. and Ránki, György, The European Periphery and Industrialization 1780–1914 (Cambridge, 1982)Google Scholar, especially the introduction. On how Hungary overtook Spain in the years prior to the First World War, see Berend, Ivan T., ‘Hungary and the Mediterranean in the Nineteenth Century’, Mediterranean Studies, 1 (1989), 1, 31Google Scholar.

66 Berend, History in My Life, 138–9.

67 Kádár, Béla, Small Countries in the World Economy (Budapest: Afro-Asian Research Institute, 1970)Google Scholar.

68 Ibid., 16. See also Sándor Lavinia, ‘Spanyolország exportorientált növekedése’, Külgazdaság 6 (1975), 464–70.

69 Ibid., 21–2.

70 Interview with Kádár.

71 Indeed, Spain as a model for a peripheral Hungary survived long into the post-communist period. See, for example, the standard curriculum reading for tenth grade students in Hungary in 2015: Társadalmi folyamatok a 21. század küszöbén (Budapest: Oktatáskutató és Fejlesztő Intézet, 2015).

72 Kotkin, Uncivil Society, 33. Imre Pozsgay in Március Tizenötödike, 15 Mar. 1989, 1–2.

73 Szokai, Imre and Tabajdi, Csaba, ‘Change of Hungarian Social Model = Change of Orientation in Hungarian Foreign Policy?’, World Affairs, 51/4 (Spring 1989), 212 Google Scholar.

74 Inotai, András, Competition Of CMEA, Southern European And Rapidly Industrialising Countries in the West German Export Market for Manufactured Products in the Second Half of the Seventies (Budapest, 1982), 10 Google Scholar.

75 ‘Suggestions for themes in the Madrid discussions for foreign minister Péter Várkonyi. Dr. Tibor Melega, deputy minister for external trade’, 21 June 1984, Budapest. MOL XIX-J-1-j 127. d. 1984. Év. B-Wire, ‘Spain's Trade With Eastern Bloc Remains Flat’, 17 Feb. 1983, HU OSA 300-20-1.

76 Report on the first day of the visit to János Kádár with the Spanish King Juan Carlos, 6 July 1987. MOL XIX-J-1 J-118 d.

77 RFE, B-Wire, 16 Nov. 1988. HU OSA 300 40 1 Box 59.

78 See the visit of leading figures of the PSOE to Budapest's Social Studies Institute to advise on transition in August 1989: János Simon, ‘Spanyol út - Magyar út’, Kapu (August 1989), 23–4. Spanish support for Hungary's accession processes to the Council of Europe and the European Community continued after 1989. ‘Spanyol támogatás a közösségi csatlakozáshoz’, Magyar Hírlap, 6 Sept. 1990; ‘Spanyol minister Budapesten’, Magyar Nemzet, 29 Mar. 1991.

79 Secret Diplomatic Cable: Details of the Ambassador of the Hungarian People's Republic in Madrid. Subject: Gomez Virgilio Zapatero, Minister's intention to visit Hungary. Madrid, 16 June 1989.

80 Mátyás Szűrös¸ President of the Republic, agreed with him. Report of the Council of Ministers Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González visit. Compiled by Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, László Kovács. Budapest, 15 Nov. 1989.

81 Telegram Details of the Hungarian People's Republic Ambassador in Madrid. Subject: Culture Minister Semprún considers the transformation of Eastern Europe. Madrid, 30 Nov. 1989.

82 CSCE/ RM.8. Madrid, 9 Dec. 1980 (CSCE/ OSCE Archive, Prague).

83 Hungary advocated cultural exchange in the areas of cultural radio programming, concerts, television and films – including more co-productions. Hungarian delegations also stressed the role of international teaching and exchange in training young artists, advocating creative art camps and international festivals. CSCE/ CFB.48, 6 Nov. 1985. See also Sizoo, Johannes and Jurrjens, Rudolph Th., Csce Decision-Making: The Madrid Experience (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1984), 100 Google Scholar. See also, The Concluding Document of the Madrid Meeting 1980 of Representatives of the Participating States of the Conference on Security and Co-Operation in Europe, Held on the Basis of the Provisions of the Final Act Relating to the Follow-Up to the Conference (Madrid, 1983). (available at: http://www.osce.org/mc/40871?download=true)

84 Béla Köpeczi Speech, Opening of the CSCE Budapest Cultural Forum, 16 Oct. 1985. Cultural Forum CSCE CFB 10-11 1985.

85 Cultural Forum CSCE CFB 10-11 1985. This centre would eventually be opened in 1996. CSCE/ CFB 47, 6 Nov. 1985. The Hungarian delegation also proposed greater support for the popularisation of ‘creative folk art’, including the publication of a ‘European folk tale series’. CSCE CFB 47, 6 Nov. 1985.

86 ‘Kortárs spanyol festők a Nemzeti Galériában’, Magyar Nemzet, 13 May 1985. ‘Az újvilág óvilága. Kiállítás a Nemzeti Galériában’, Magyar Nemzet, 4 Mar. 1987.

87 RFE Hungarian Monitoring, 5 July 1987. HU OSA 300-40-1 Box 989.

88 ‘Katalán Kínálat’, Magyar Hírlap, 8 Mar. 1989.

89 ‘Hűség és szakítás’, Magyar Hírlap, 29 Apr. 1989. Promoting the literature of less widely spoken European languages had been a project of the CSCE since the late 1970s: Hungarian delegations had repeatedly taken leading roles in such initiatives. In November 1985, at the Budapest Cultural Forum, the two countries, together with Italy, had proposed the establishment of a European initiative to publish bilingual parallel text collections of poems from across the continent, to increase awareness and appreciation of European literatures. Report from the Working Body on Literature, Budapest Cultural Forum, CSCE/ CFB 10-11 1985, 12 Nov. 1985.

90 ‘Requiem a spanyolországi nemzetközi brigádokért’, Népszabadság, 28 Oct. 1988.

91 ’Használjuk ki az együttműködés tartalékait’, Magyar Hírlap, 1 July 1987. See also Mark, James, The Unfinished Revolution. Making Sense of the Communist Past in Central-Eastern Europe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), 128 Google Scholar.

92 On the Spanish model's broader impact, see Alonso, Gregorio and Muro, Diego, ‘Introduction’, in idem, eds., The Politics and Memory of Democratic Transition. The Spanish Model (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011), 1–3 Google Scholar.

93 See Dominik Trutowski, ‘Poland and Spain “Entangled”. Political Learning in Transitions to Democracy’ (paper presented at ‘Entangled Transitions’ conference, University of Leuven, 2014).

94 Ádám Anderle, A magyar-spanyol kapcsolatok, 169.

95 On the high level of interest in the form of the Spanish transition, see Bozóki, András, ‘The Roundtable Talks of 1989: Participants, Political Visions and Historical References’, Hungarian Studies, 14, 2 (2000), 251 Google Scholar. James M. Markham, ‘There's a Demand for Instruction in Democracy’, New York Times, 16 Apr. 1989.

96 Report of the Council of Ministers Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González visit. Compiled by Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, László Kovács. Budapest, 15 Nov. 1989. MOL XIX-J-1-j 78. d. 1989.

97 Secret Diplomatic Cable Hungarian ambassador in Madrid. Subject: Zapatero Gómez's Opinion of the Hungarian reform process, Madrid, 19 July 1989. He noted that 42 per cent of the vote was sufficient in Spain to provide a parliamentary majority.

98 RFE ‘A-Wire’, 19 Oct. 1989.

99 Alexandra Botyánszki, ‘A “nemzeti megbékélés” koncepciója és a rendszerváltás’, AETAS (4/2013), 40–62.

100 Berend, Iván, ‘Két békés Forradalom’, Társadalmi Szemle, 45, 7 (1990), 56–61.Google Scholar

101 Cipher Telegram details of the ambassador of the Hungarian People's Republic in Madrid. Subject: Gomez Virgilio Zapatero, the Spanish Government Relations and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister's intention visiting. Madrid, 16 June 1989. MOL XIX-J-1-j 78. d. 1989.

102 For this story, see Rév, István, Retroactive Justice: Prehistory of Post-Communism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005), 195.Google Scholar

103 RFE Hungarian Monitoring, 28 Apr. 1989. HU OSA 300-40-1.

104 Rév, Retroactive Justice, 195.

105 Ibid., 62; Berend, ‘Két békés Forradalom’, 60. See the exchanges between the Spanish Scientific Research Council and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to address questions of national reconciliation: Berend, History in my Life, 225. See also on this topic: ‘Felmentették a politikai elítélteket’, Népszava, 15 Sept. 1990; László Daróczi, ‘Lecsillapították a Politikát’, Pesti Hírlap, 30 Mar. 1991, 1; Ágh, Atilla, ’A demokratikus átmenet első éve’, Aula, 13, 3 (1991), 87–95 Google Scholar.

106 Ágh, Atilla, ‘The Comparative Revolution and the Transition in Central and Southern Europe’, Journal of Theoretical Politics 2 (1993), 77 Google Scholar; Bruszt, Laszlo, ‘Transformative Politics: Social Costs and Social Peace in East Central Europe’, in Mátyás Kovács, János, ed., Transition to Capitalism? The Communist Legacy in Eastern Europe (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1994), 113.Google Scholar

107 Ágh, Attila, ’Early Consolidation and Performance Crisis: The Majoritarian-Consensus Democracy Debate in Hungary’, West European Politics, 24, 3 (2001), 99 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

108 Trutowski, ‘Poland and Spain “Entangled”’. See also the importance of Gandhi and Luther King on Michnik in Jeffrey Stout, ‘Between Secularism and Theocracy. King, Michnik, and the American Culture Wars’, in Kosicki and Kunakhovich, Legacy of 1989 (forthcoming).