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on the opinion of the Polish comrades and also on the focus on maintaining the leading role of the Party and the
publications in the Polish press, on the international press socialist, constitutionally-determined social order as well
and on our own experience. [& ] as the political system in Poland. This includes the mass
How could one describe the Hungarian position in this media, radio and TV. These media are integrally linked to
question? the question of power, and I welcome Comrade Kania s
Before I address this question, I would like to make words on this subject.
one more remark. I fully agree with Comrade hivkov and The third, central task is, it seems to me, the defense,
would like to express the view that the imperialist and the protection of the Warsaw Defense Pact.
propaganda concerning Poland, which is also broadcast to I would like to address one other point here. As other
Hungary, implies that the other European socialist fraternal parties represented here, we maintain very broad
countries are equally nervous and concerned about the international contacts with organizations, parties etc.
Polish events, claiming that we feared, as they say, the Practically every week we entertain visitors. In the course
Polish pest. They declare that this could also undermine of the last week, representatives of a number of fraternal
our order, etc. parties were with us; we had a meeting with the
I would like to say the following about that in order to Yugoslavs; and in the context of peaceful coexistence we
avoid any misunderstandings: for the Hungarian Socialist met last week with capitalists as well. What I state here as
Workers Party and for the Hungarian people, a number of the Hungarian position is the same thing which we
concerns exist in the current period of socialist presented in our conversations with the respective
construction. We have our own problems and worries, we partners, be it Latin American Communists or any
are struggling with them, and we will resolve them in the imperialist representatives; everywhere we state the same
appropriate manner. thing as I am doing here.
In consideration of this I would like to state About ten days ago, a meeting with the British foreign
nevertheless: As far as we are concerned, the Polish events minister [Lord Carrington] took place, and last week,
are of little concern to us in terms of [our] domestic [Hans-J rgen] Wischnewski, the deputy chairman of the
politics. We do not fear any great disruption in connection Social Democratic Party in West Germany, was here at the
with them. But our Party, our Government, our entire request of [West German Chancellor Helmut] Schmidt. I
people are particularly concerned about the Polish categorically told the Yugoslav comrades as well as
question in international terms, and this is of concern to us Wischnewski and the British foreign minister the following:
all. [& ] Our position is that this is an internal Polish question
What do we have to be aware of? It will, to a certain which has to be resolved by the Poles; that we were in
degree, surely be helpful for the Polish comrades to know solidarity with the Poles; but I also stated that there were
what the mood is in our countries. They should know. certain limits to this, I could not put it any other way for the
When we got the first news about the strikes on the gentlemen. Poland is not for sale, and Poland can not be
coast, there were certain reactions [in Hungary]. I am bought. Poland can t be detached from the Warsaw Pact.
speaking now not about the party members and the party This is what I stated and I declared that I was deeply
leadership but about the man in the street, thus de facto convinced that there were strong forces in Hungary which
about the ideologically and politically less qualified held the same opinion and would not permit this to happen.
masses. The first reaction was as follows: What do the That s how I represented my point of view and that s how I
Polish comrades think they are doing? To work less and told them, in order to let them know what they have to
114 COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT BULLETIN 11
expect. One should probably not conduct purges now, but
The British asked: What does this mean? Is this the unfortunately the events themselves have resulted in such
end of détente? I said: No, but if these limits are reached, a purge. It is not important what the membership numbers
then détente would really be over. He said yes and then are; it is instead important how many people participate in
shut up. The West German representative reacted the struggle, how many adhere to your program.
similarly. Put the other way: there is no point in trying to
Recently, we have used certain exchanges of opinion achieve the unity of the Party based on compromises at
and consultations [sic], and we are asked: Well, if you had any price. We need a clear platform, which will serve as a
to give us advice, would you recommend that we act as rallying point and a purge device. I think such a program
you did. I would like to address this [issue] very frankly. could easily be used to set oneself apart from certain
As far as the Hungarian Party is concerned, we have things, to distance oneself from the mistakes of the
no authority and no ambitions as well, to give advice to previous leadership very clearly and decisively, not just in
anybody or to consider ourselves a model. But at the same words but also in deed and action.
time, we ascribe importance to the great revolutionary This is one aspect. I will neither praise Gierek nor
experiences of all fraternal parties. We think consultations insult him. While one has to distance oneself, I would like
such as today s are very important, and let me add: to state, comrades, that the entire Party, the entire country,
You cannot copy or mechanically transfer is now looking for scapegoats, and it will again lead you
revolutionary experience. This does not work. And nowhere to spend most of your time calling people to
whenever I am talking about our position, about our account.
attitude, it is in friendship that I would like to state what I am reminded again of 1956. Initially, we completely
the Polish fraternal party should do or what we would do if ignored Rákosi, we distanced ourselves from him and
we were in its place. other comrades, quickly distanced ourselves politically
To my mind it is now of decisive importance to from their policies, and we postponed the calling-into-
maintain the position since retreat, the slippery slope account until 1962. I am not arguing that the Party Control
downward, has not yet ended. One has to get one s act Commission should not do its work now, but it should not
together and go on the offensive. be the primary focus of your work. It can t be that the
The second thing I would say is the following: The entire Party now preoccupies itself with this. People will
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