Book Reviews : This Is Communist Hungary. Edited by ROBERT F. DELANEY; introduction by JOHN MACCORMACK. (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company. 1958. Pp. xxviii, 260. $4.50.)

• Date: 01 December 1959
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295901200422
• Published date: 01 December 1959
• Author: Louis Wasserman
• Subject Matter: Articles

1103

This Is

Communist

Hungary.

Edited

by

ROBERT

F.

DELANEY;

introduction

by

JOHN

MACCORMACK.

(Chicago:

Henry

Regnery

Company.

1958.

Pp.

xxviii,

260.

$4.50.)

This

collection

of

eight

essays

on

the

conditions

of

life

under

the

Com-

munist

regime

in

Hungary

was

written

by

refugees

of

the

abortive

revolt

of

1956.

The

contributors

include

both

anti-Communists

and

ex-Communists,

and

the

range

of

their

topics

comprehends

family

life,

religion,

mass

media,

music,

education,

the

role

of

youth,

the

political

apparatus,

and

the

econ-

omy.

These

are

personal

chronicles

much

more

than

they

are

scholarly

monographs;

but

unless

the

political

scientist

is

concerned

only

with

face-

less

data,

he

will

find

these

intensely

human

accounts

as

significant

as

they

are

moving.

For

the

most

part,

the

writers

describe

a

pattern

of

communism

in

Hun-

gary

similar

to

that

of

the

other

Soviet

satellites.

The

ominous

presence

of

Russia

hangs

over

the

land;

Marxian

doctrine

prescribes

every

form

of

be-

havior,

in

the

home,

at

the

lathe,

on

the

farm,

in

school,

in

the

arts.

Indoc-

trination

pervades

all

the

mass

media,

incessantly.

Enforced

conformity

breeds

dissent,

which

in

turn

brings

on

the

secret

police.

There

is

a

sys-

tematic

assault

upon

personality

in

the

attempt

to

force

collective

conscious-

ness

upon

all.

Every

failure

of

the

regime

is

attributed

to

sinister

enemies

of

the

people

and

to

war-breeding

imperialists.

Popular

attitudes

toward

the

Hungarian

regime

fell

into

much

the

same

fourfold

division

common

to the

other

satellites:

the

active

collaborators,

the

passive

compromisers,

the

nonco-operators,

and

the

active

resisters.

But

by

contrast

with,

say,

Czechoslovakia

or

Rumania,

the

latter

two

groups

in

Hungary

comprised

so

substantial

a

share

of

the

population

as

to

make

possible

the

spontaneous

uprising

of

October,

1956,

in

all

its

remarkable

breadth

and

heroism.

If

the

eight

essays

of

this

book

are

to

be

accredited,

it

was

the

unique

historical

and

social

context

of

the

Hungarian

people -

in

particular

the

family,

the

church,

and

the

indomitable

national

tempera-

ment - which

provided

the

sinews

of

revolt.

Unlike

the

earlier

regimes

of

political

feudalism

in

Hungary,

the

post-

war

Communist

leadership

could

offer

little

that

was

congenial

to

the

social

behavior

of

the

Hungarian

people.

Although

the

powerful

family

and

church

traditions

had

begun

to

erode

by

1956,

the

process

generated

wide-

spread

resistance.

The

consolidation

of

Communist

power,

with

its

accom-

panying

purges

and

secret

police,

fortified

the

state

apparatus

only

at

the

ex-

pense

of

public

support.

If

the

economy

had

been

able

to

yield

an

improved

standard

of

living,

the

number

of

passive

compromisers

might

have

in-

creased ;

but

ten

years

of

the

new

order

had

instead

brought

a

decline

in

real

income

and

goods.

Nonetheless,

as

Jozsef

Magyar

points

up

in

a

candid

and

instructive

chap-