Red Csepel Was Vanguard of Revolt

The Newsletter, vol. 1 no. 24, 19 October 1957 · scan page 4

Proofread against the scan (18 October 2026). Misprints are kept as printed.

BUDAPEST, November 4, 1956

Once more blood is flowing in Budapest. It is not a fight among Hungarians; nevertheless it is a war of brothers. Soviet tanks are shooting against Hungarian workers and students.

The new, cruel decision increases the tragedy of Hungary, which has become the tragedy of the whole working class . . .

Already the intervention of Soviet troops on October 24 had deeply stirred their minds, when the ruling clique admitted its bankruptcy and became the bitter enemy of the working class in whose name it had ruled.

No doubt the Nagy cabinet was faced with a difficult situation; danger threatened from the Right; that was admitted by the chairman of the Social-Democratic Party, Anna Kethly . . .

But it was not the manoeuvres from the Right which determined the political life of these anxious days, any more than it had been possible for the provocateurs to force their programme on the people's great protest demonstration.

I have experienced an attempt to falsify the truth, when this demonstration was slandered in its totality as fascist and chauvinist. Is this version going to be maintained?

In Csepel, the factory district, the battle rages.

Before comfortable lies are produced, I want to emphasize that the fighting in Csepel was always especially bitter. The workers in the plant named after Matyas Rákosi were the strongest vanguard of the insurrection. They delivered arms and ammunition to all freedom fighters of Budapest. Today the renewed battle of Csepel proves that the issue is one of NATIONAL RIGHT.

BUDAPEST, November 11, 1956

That the Hungarian uprising was a people's rising cannot be denied . . . In the last twenty days, full of horrors and cruelties, I have talked with many workers and students of Budapest.

I have distinguished their faces clearly from those of fascist provocateurs. The workers and students instructed me to tell with scrupulous accuracy what I saw and experienced.

I have tried to follow these instructions. I consider it a moral obligation.