Petőfi Circle

Formation and leadership

Preparations for the Circle began in 1954 with the participation of staff of the Hungarian National Museum, and its creation is credited to the poet István Lakatos. Initially named after the enlightener György Besenyei, it took up political questions as Gábor Tánczos, Balázs Nagy and András B. Hegedűs joined. Its intellectual leaders belonged to the reform-minded communists who supported Imre Nagy, and the influence of the Marxist philosopher György Lukács was felt.

The first session was held on 25 March 1955 at the Kossuth debating club, already under the auspices of the Democratic Youth Association (DISZ). Tánczos, an experienced youth league cadre, was chosen as leader and allowed considerably more room for discussion than the DISZ functionaries expected, dropping the customary empty opening speeches. In April 1956 he even organized an evening of Yugoslav literature, at a time of deep hostility between the Soviet bloc and Yugoslavia.

Debates and ban

The Circle's first public event took place only on 17 March 1956, followed by twelve major debates. These were widely popular: the press debate of 27 June 1956 was heard through loudspeakers by some 7,000 people. Two days later a workers' uprising broke out in Poznań, and on 30 June the Central Committee of the Hungarian Working People's Party discussed the Polish events and that debate together, banning the Circle, while party members who protested were expelled. Mikoyan, sent from Moscow to replace Rákosi, called it an "ideological Poznań" at the Central Committee meeting of 17-18 July. The Interior Ministry began preparing the arrest of leading figures, but the Soviet leadership concluded the party no longer had the strength for such an unpopular move.

The partisan debate and Júlia Rajk

The press debate of 27 June was without precedent in communist Hungary. Nearly 7,000 people gathered in the large hall on Váci Street, in the courtyard and in the street, and writers and journalists demanded a free press and Rákosi's removal; Tibor Déry said the lack of freedom was the source of the country's troubles and that those embodying these faults had to go. Júlia Rajk's first public appearance, however, was at the "partisan debate" of 18 June. She defended her executed husband as a good communist and asked how those now rehabilitating the victims could be the same people who had sentenced, murdered and hanged them. The 2,000 people present gave her a standing ovation, and the speech created a language in which loyal communists could legitimately criticize the Rákosi regime.

Autumn 1956 and repression

The Circle could resume activity only in autumn 1956, when it was already regarded as the main organized enemy. On the evening of 22 October it adopted a resolution demanding the convening of the Central Committee, Rákosi's exclusion and Imre Nagy's participation in government, though on radicalism the students' organization MEFESZ had already overtaken it. On 23 October members were meeting while, a few blocks away, the crowd attacked the radio building, and the plan to reconvene the Circle on 3 November was thwarted by the Soviet invasion of 4 November. In the repression the Circle was classed among the supporters of the revolution, and Tánczos was sentenced on 18 August 1958 to fifteen years (amnestied in spring 1962).