Out with the Stench

The torture-scarred hands of Janos Kadar were a dual convenience for the Russian conquerors. Those hands could sign the death decrees that crushed revolutionary leadership. And their scars were a reminder that the Premier himself had suffered to the limit (including emasculation) in old Premier Rakosi's Stalinist jail, thus represented to despairing Hungarians a glimmering hope of a better Communist leadership. Kadar soon destroyed what hope there was. His guarantees of democratic reforms never came through; vows of amnesty for revolt heroes were broken in a blood bath of summary trials; the workers' councils got promised support just long enough to identify and destroy their leaders. All that remained of Kadar's reputation was a sickly stench. Last week the Russians replaced Kadar with Dr. Ferenc Munnich, 72, Moscow-line former Secret Police boss.

Munnich gives Hungarians little to look forward to. A founder of Hungary's Communist Party and long a resident of Russia (he holds both Hungarian and Russian citizenship), he has been a stolid Moscow servant for decades. As Hungary's postwar ambassador to Finland, Bulgaria, Russia and Yugoslavia, he avoided involvement with the dangerous infighting inside the party, concentrated on Tokay wines, women and his rose garden.

With Kadar, Munnich briefly joined Imre Nagy's revolutionary government, then switched to become Minister of Interior and Defense in the Kadar regime. Two months after the revolution, his new police and army apparatus was working so smoothly that Russian troops could retire to rural barracks.

Kadar keeps a Cabinet post and does not give up his crucial job as First Secretary of the party. More significant to Hungary experts was the simultaneous promotion of Antal Apro to First Deputy Premier; Apro leads the extreme Stalinist group that has been fighting Kadar for leadership. At the top in Hungary there are tough Communists and tougher Communists. Already many nervous Hungarians wonder if the despised Kadar was not the lesser of the evils.

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