János Kádár’s Government and the Refugees of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
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Date
2022
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Publisher
KUL Publishing House
Abstract
During and following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, approximately 200,000 people fled the country, the majority of them to Austria and others to Yugoslavia. After the suppression of the Revolution, the Hungarian authorities targeted the refugees with two simultaneous measures: on the one hand, they sought to persuade those who were willing and those whom the official propaganda considered as “misguided” to repatriate; and on the other hand, the said authorities did everything in their power to compromise “hostile” emigrant circles and persons, thereby weakening their influence among the refugees. In order to encourage and facilitate the repatriation, Hungary proclaimed amnesty and established a Hungarian–Yugoslav joint committee as well as a repatriation office in Vienna; however, the widespread repatriation propaganda of the Hungarian government was largely unsuccessful. Moreover, those returning after 31 March 1957 were meticulously screened and many repatriation requests were rejected, mostly for fear that Western intelligence might have planted spies among the applicants and repatriates. Initially, Hungarian leaders regarded the emigration of 1956 as a threat for fear that Western propaganda might use the migrants to influence Western public opinion and the foreign policy of other governments towards Hungary; they only changed their stance in the summer of 1958, when the Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party established a commission in charge of emigration affairs, which was to pay particular attention to financially supporting the repatriation of certain categories of 1956 emigrants. In 1960, “consular passports” were introduced to enable the relatives of “dissidents” to go abroad for family visits, and under certain conditions, “dissidents” were also allowed to visit Hungary. In 1963, the Hungarian repatriation policy reached a turning point with János Kádár’s proclamation of a general amnesty. From that period onward, maintaining relations with Hungarian emigration became an integral part of government policy, and the political system made concessions with regard to the perception and treatment of emigration circles, which were also showing signs of division.
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Keywords
Hungarian Revolution of 1956, refugees, emigration, amnesty, repatriation propaganda, state security bodies
Citation
"The Exile History Review", 2022, No. 1, pp. 11-24