This must be done in such a way that if there is an event that can be used for political purposes, it must be appropriated. The appropriation can be to such an extent that the true content and reasons of the event are completely distorted. The press can be at the forefront of manipulation, and in the worst case, the police, prosecutor's office, courts, and on the political level, some political forces and parties as well.
It is already a second stage, when opportunities not only arise, but developments are arranged according to the intentions of the political forces. There may be some realism in these organized spectacular events, but in this case the framework is limited only by the imagination of the customer and the executor. I will give a specific example to make it clearer.
Seventy-five years ago at this time, the tension was high in Hungary. The communist-controlled Left Bloc used all means, but was unable politically to overcome the Independent Small Farmer Party, which won a convincing majority in the elections...
...That's when the "unexpected event" hit, that is, a shooting broke out at Oktogon, on Teréz körút, in front of the Edison Café, in which two Russian soldiers were killed. It must have been the result of a drunken brawl, but a girl was also killed and civilians were injured in the shooting. Their fate was incidental, the police detectives who arrived at the scene within five minutes (they came from Andrássy út 60) soon realized that this case could be used to create crucial political ammunition.
It was "obvious" that the Soviet liberators crushing fascism could not drunkenly shoot for the favors of the hot waitress at the Edison Cafe. So they "found" an assassin, a seventeen-year-old boy (László Pénzes - ed.), dead of course, in a nearby attic. Whether Péter Gáborék brought him here, or whether the guy was really there, it didn't matter from here on.
The scene was quickly arranged. They burned everything they could, but the boy's KALOT ID remained intact. According to another source, it was a scout card. The news was already released to the press that this 17-year-old Hungarian Oswald killed the Soviet officer who was walking peacefully among the passers-by with a single well-aimed shot, then committed suicide, but he clutched his "levente rifle" convulsively even when members of the democratic police arrived. From the remaining pieces of his clothing, they were able to tell the democratic press (Népszava) that the murderer was of a better way, belonged to the so-called "better middle class". Oh, the class struggle.
From there, it was only a step away for the head of the Allied Control Commission, Lt. Gen. Sviridov, to officially communicate to the Hungarian government the demands (sorry: "recommendations") of the occupying Soviet authorities, the essence of which - behold a miracle - was precisely that Hungarian society should its national, Christian, democratic self-organization, resistant to efforts, is disintegrated. The organizations to be disbanded by name included the National Board of Catholic Agricultural Youth Associations (KALOT) and the Hungarian Scout Association, as well as some other "terrorist organizations"...
...As if some people in the European Union still feel that they are actually the leaders of an all-powerful Allied Control Commission. And we are defeated. Recommendations are made. They write reports and initiate procedures. In the wake of "events", statements that have about as much to do with reality as the 17-year-old László Pénzes in the previous story has to do with terrorism.
Of course, there are collaborators now. Perhaps there are those who believe with conviction that the Teréz körút shooting gave László Rajk to completely eliminate the – in today's terms – the Christian, national and democratic part of the civil sphere. And if you had the chance, would you still do it today? Especially if you would also receive external "recommendations". Would you do it? This is the question here, because if so, we are only one step away from the second stage, when they not only turn an event out of its true nature, but create events that have nothing to do with reality.
Such were the concept trials and judgments seventy years ago, which "sanctioned" political conspiracy, economic sabotage, ideological deviation, bad harvest, and the manifestation of the remnants of common sense. With death, prison, forced labor, internment, deportation, confiscation of property, deprivation of pensions: stigmatization. The trial against Rajk and his execution are important for this reason, if nothing else. Because that old mentality lives with us here in the Union.
The pressure can already be felt. Both external and internal. Added to this is the nature of man himself, which makes the weak vulnerable. At the mercy of their emotions, which are so easy to manipulate. Old recipe: fear and temptation. These two fundamentally influenced the generation that came of age after the Second World War. And this was, and will continue to be, nurtured by external forces. Let us be afraid of everything and everyone. Let's straighten up. The reward of temptation is always humiliation. Fear is brokenness. So don't be afraid and don't give in to temptation.
Károly Szerencsés (the author is a historian)
The full article can be read here.
(Cover photo: Károly Szerencsés. Photo: Viktor Krĉ)
