Árpád Göncz
Árpád Göncz was a Hungarian writer, translator, lawyer and liberal politician who served as President of Hungary from 2 May 1990 to 4 August 2000. Göncz played a role in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, for which he was imprisoned for six years. After his release, he worked as a translator of English-language literary works.
He was also a founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats and Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary before becoming president. He was Hungary's first freely elected head of state, as well as the first in 42 years who was not a communist or a fellow traveller.
He was a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
Biography
Early life (1922–1945)
Árpád Göncz was born on 10 February 1922 in Budapest to an upper-middle class family of noble origin as the son of Lajos Göncz de Gönc, who worked as a post officer, and Ilona Haimann. The Roman Catholic Göncz family originated from Csáktornya, Zala County, where Göncz's great-grandfather, Lajos Göncz Sr. was a pharmacist. He later participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, and after its defeat was sentenced to a nine-year prison sentence. Árpád Göncz's father, Lajos Göncz, was also a successful tennis player, participating in the 1924 Summer Olympics, where he was defeated by René Lacoste in men's singles in the second round. Árpád Göncz's parents divorced when he was six, which resulted in a fairly tense relationship with his father in subsequent years. Göncz's mother, a Unitarian, was born in Transylvania; she had Jewish and Székely roots. She was orphaned as a child, and, after a brief spell in an orphanage, was raised by the merchant Báthy family from Budapest.After finishing four-grade elementary school, Göncz began his secondary studies at the Werbőczy Secondary Grammar School in 1932. He involved himself there in the activities of the Hungarian Scout Association. Scouting opened Göncz's eyes to social issues, particularly in regard to the problems of the poor peasantry, as he said in a later interview. Göncz joined the Pál Teleki Work Group, formed in 1936 by Pál Teleki, an influential interwar politician and Prime Minister of Hungary, also Hungary's Chief Scout. The work group was an important seminary and forum for university students. The programme emphasized the relevance of the nation, family and community, as well as a good knowledge of Hungarian history and geography. Quite soon, key figures from the Independent Smallholders' Party, e.g. Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky, joined the work group. His political view was also influenced by the népi-nemzeti ideological movement since the 1930s. The group of the so-called "folk writers", including Zsigmond Móricz or János Kodolányi, expressed a critique of capitalism, and put emphasis on peasant society and land reform. Göncz also stressed he represented the same political views as liberal political theorist István Bibó. In December 1938, Göncz, in a short essay in Magyar Cserkész, welcomed the Hungarians' entry into Komárno in accordance with the First Vienna Award.
Göncz graduated in law from the Budapest Pázmány Péter University of Arts and Sciences in 1944. During his academic years, he was exempted from conscription in the Second World War. Meanwhile, Hungary was occupied by Germany on 19 March 1944. In December, Göncz was conscripted into the 25th Reserve Mountain Infantry Battalion of the Royal Hungarian Army and ordered to Germany; however, he deserted and joined the resistance movement. In late 1944, Göncz found himself in Budapest when the Red Army encircled the Hungarian capital, beginning the Siege of Budapest. The resistance Hungarian Front formed to oppose the Nazi regime with several regional branches, including the Freedom Front of Hungarian Students, officially established on 7 November 1944, during the Arrow Cross Party government. Göncz joined the Táncsics Battalion in December 1944, where he took part in partisan actions against the Arrow Cross regime in Budapest. After the war he went on to study agricultural science.
Early political career and retreat (1945–1956)
Following the Soviet occupation of Hungary, Göncz joined the anti-communist Independent Smallholders' Party, which won a sweeping victory in the November 1945 parliamentary election, however the party had to yield to Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, who made it clear that a grand coalition in which the Communists preserved the gains already secured was the only kind of government acceptable to the Soviets. Göncz refused to run as an individual parliamentary candidate, because he did not feel ready for becoming MP. Instead he served as the personal assistant of Béla Kovács, the General Secretary of the Independent Smallholders' Party, who was responsible for running the party machine. Göncz later called his job as an "unpleasant time in his life" due to the nature of the function, nevertheless he admired and respected Kovács and remembered him as a "statesman" in a later interview.Beside his secretary position, Göncz also edited weekly party newspaper Nemzedék. He also served as leader of the party's youth organization in Budapest for a time. Over the next two years, the Communists pressured the Smallholders' Party into expelling their more courageous members as "fascists" and fascist sympathizers as part of Communist leader Mátyás Rákosi's "salami tactics". On 25 February 1947, Béla Kovács was arrested unlawfully and taken to the Soviet Union without a trial in Hungary. Following that Göncz was also arrested in conjunction with a visit to Romania in late 1946, where he had negotiated with ethnic Hungarian politicians. He was detained and interrogated for three weeks before release.
By the 1949 parliamentary election, the FKGP was absorbed into the Hungarian Independent People's Front, led by the communists, and Göncz became unemployed. After that, he worked as a manual labourer and also enrolled in a correspondence course of the Gödöllő Agricultural University, where he specialised in soil erosion and protection. Göncz then used his knowledge working as
an agronomist at the Talajjavító Vállalat until the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 against the communist rule.
1956 Revolution and aftermath (1956–1957)
Göncz played an active role in the work of the newly formed Petőfi Circle, which established by reformist intellectuals under the auspices of the Union of Working Youth, mass youth organization wing of the ruling communist Hungarian Working People's Party, in March 1955. The circle held twelve meetings in the first half of 1956. As an agronomist, Göncz expressed his opinion on the Soviet agricultural model during one of the forums. On 17 October 1956, he participated in an agricultural debate at the Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences. There he criticized again the Soviet model considered unsuitable for the Hungarian conditions. Göncz also lay emphasis on free peasant education.In a June 1995 speech, Göncz recalled the 1956 events as a "turning point" in his life which determined his fate until the end of his life, despite the fact that he did not participate in the armed resistance and uprising. On 23 October 1956, he was present at the peaceful mass demonstration, which marched in front of the Hungarian Parliament Building, along with his eldest daughter Kinga, who was nine years old at that time. Göncz's role in the October 1956 events remained fragmented. By 29 October 1956, he assumed a political role in the events. He participated in a meeting at Prime Minister Imre Nagy's house, when Nagy was informed about the Suez Crisis and the Prime Minister said "Gentlemen! From now on, we need to discuss another thing because there is a dangerous possibility of a Third World War". Göncz worked as an activist in the newly recreated Hungarian Peasant Alliance during the revolution. In a 1985 interview, Göncz said he sympathized with the political vision of Imre Nagy. He also added, that he would join a Nagy-led Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, if the Soviet intervention does not take place. Göncz noted the Nagy government and the new communist party would have started with a clean slate. Sociologist Péter Kende has said Göncz's belief in "democratic socialism" was similar to that of István Bibó.
After the Soviet intervention on 4 November 1956, János Kádár established a pro-Soviet government. The Revolutionary Council of Hungarian Intellectuals, members were writers, journalists etc., issued statements of protest against the Soviet army's invasion and appealed for help and mediation from the Western world. Göncz participated in the writing of several memoranda. One of the most influential writings was the Draft Proposal for a Compromise Solution to the Hungarian Question by intellectual István Bibó, who also served as Minister of State in the second and third government of Imre Nagy. Göncz took part in the debates on the proposal. Göncz had a good relationship with charge d'affaires Mohamed Ataur Rahman from the Indian Embassy in Budapest, thus he was also able to make contact with the Government of India who tried to mediate between the Hungarian and the Soviet governments following the revolution. Formerly, during the intense days, Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru expressed his sympathy and compassion towards the Hungarian freedom fighters, nevertheless India remained cautious and abstained in the UN General Assembly voting, which called on the Soviet Union to end its Hungarian intervention. As a result of the intercession of Göncz, the Indian government became more determined in the Hungarian issue. He handed over Bibó's draft proposal to charge d'affaires Rahman in December 1956, however India's mediation attempt ended in failure due to lack of interest in the Soviet Union.
Göncz also helped to transfer a manuscript of Imre Nagy abroad, through the assistance of László Regéczy-Nagy, driver to Christopher Lee Cope, head of the British Legation in Budapest. They hoped the manuscript might have helped to rescue Imre Nagy from show trial and execution. Cope forwarded the manuscript to the emigrant Hungarian Revolutionary Council in Strasbourg, and the document was translated into several languages for several countries, including Italy, France and West Germany. Before his arrest, Göncz was campaigning for the Hungarian Aid movement. Göncz organized to donate the emigrant Hungarians' support for families in need of help.