László Rajk
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László Rajk (May 8, 1909-October 15, 1949) was a Hungarian Communist; politician, home secretary. He was an important organizer of the Hungarian communist's power (for example, organized the ÁVH); but he eventually fell victim to Rákosi's show trials, probably, apart from the Communist parties' endemic power struggles, because he was a homegrown Communist, as opposed to the Stalin-backed Rákosi.
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[edit] Background
László Rajk was born in 1909 and died in 1949. His ties to communism began at an early age when he became a member of the Hungarian Communist Party. Later he was expelled from his university for his political ideas and would become a building worker, until 1936 when he joined the Popular Front in the Spanish Civil War. He was then imprisoned in France until 1941, when he was finally able to return to Hungary, where he became Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee, an underground communist movement.
In December 1944 he was arrested by a detachment of the Arrow Cross Party. He was to be executed, and was transported to the prison of Sopronkőhida, then into Germany; but the intercession of Endre Rajk fascist under-secretary (who was his elder brother) saved his life, and László Rajk was released 13. May.
He went home to Hungary and took part in party politics, he became a member of all the leader corporations of The Party (MKP) and the Extemporal Parliament. In 20 March 1946 he was appointesd to be the minister of the Interior. In this post he organized the Hungarian Communist Party's private army and secret police (an organization analogous to the SS, KGB, Securitate, Stasi and so on), the ÁVH (originally AVO), and he became directly responsible for this . Under the cover of "struggle against fascism and reaction" and "defence of the power of proletariat", he prohibited and liquidated several religious, national, democrat and maverick establishments and groups (the number of these was about 1500), and he put-up the first show trials.
He was reassigned from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 5. August 1948. to 20 May 1949. Rákosi, who saw Rajk as a threat to his power, decided to accuse him on false charges and had him arrested in 1949. Rajk, who was popular among the communists before, soon became the "chained dog of" of Tito, Horthy and "the imperialist".
[edit] Trial
László Rajk was accused of being a "Titoist Spy", an ambassador for western imperialism and one who planned on restoring capitalism and jeopardizing Hungary's independence. During his time in prison, Rajk was tortured and was promised acquittal if he took responsibility for the charges brought against him. In September 1949 he confessed to all the charges brought against him. After his confession the prosecution decided, against the promise made, to call for the heaviest sentences to be brought down upon him and the other eighteen men who stood trial with him. Rajk was to be made an example for the beginning of Stalin's anti-Titoist purges. Rajk, along with the other eighteen men, was sentenced to execution and his trial would mark one of the most ruthless events in the course of increasing Communist domination of Eastern Europe, until the purge trials of Rudolf Slánský and others in 1952 in Czechoslovakia set a new low.
[edit] Reburial and Atonement
The Rajk trial marked the beginning of the anti-Titoist drive movement of Stalin. His trial also marked the beginning of the removal of all political parties in Hungary. The purges, however, left the economy in a heavily disastrous state where not enough inflow of capital could suffice the building projects that were underway. Also, a vast number of the intelligentsia became employed to the manual labor duties usually reserved for skilled professionals. The result left the country with inadequate infrastructure and unsatisfactory manufactured goods. The government was providing too many men to search for spies within the country and not enough to perform the productive work to sustain the economy. Dissatisfaction with Rákosi's rule began to surface and on 28 March 1956, after a number of vast demonstrations; Rajk was rehabilitated. The rehabilitation speech, even though it was not publicized, had vast consequences for Rákosi who had used the Rajk guilt as an explanation for the other purges that followed, now that he had to admit that he was indeed wrong would end up ruining Rákosi's rightful authority. The people then began to speak out against Rákosi saying that he had lost their trust. Lászlo Rajk was then reburied on October 6, 1956 along with three other men who lost their lives during the purges. (This was a precursor to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which began on 23 October.) The only lingering effect of the Rajk trial was who was to be held responsible for the activities for the late 40s and early 50s. Many victims still have yet to have been identified following the purges including those who lost their government positions simply because they posed a threat to Rákosi's reign of power.
[edit] Bibliography
- Crampton, R.J. Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century - And After, 2nd Ed. Routledge Press, 1994.
- Litvan, Gyorgy The Hungarian Revolution of 1956: Reform, Revolt, and Repression 1953-1963, Longman Publishing Group, 1996.
- Rajk, Laszlo, Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed. Columbia University Press, 2001. http://www.bartleby.com/65/ra/Rajk-LAS.html (1 Dec. 2005)
- Stokes, Gale (ed.) From Stalinism to Pluralism: a Documentary History of Eastern Europe since 1945, New York and Oxford University Press, 1991.
