Journal Article

\Tiszta lap\ a magyar országgyűlésben : Az 1956. július 30 - augusztus 3-i parlamenti ülésszak

Bencsik, Péter

2014

Overview

Mátyás Rákosi, first secretary of the Hungarian Workers' Party, was forced to resign on 18th July 1956. He was followed by Ernő Gerő who was also considered to be a stalinist leader. However, after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union he gradually changed his mind and became reform-orientated. He announced his political reforms known as the policy of „clear sheet\". These reforms are mosdy forgotten, contrary to the fact that they were not only announced but executed as well. One of the main aims of these reforms was to increase the role of the Hungarian National Assembly, which was neglected during the Rákosi leadership. The Parliament assembled twice a year, negotiating only for 8-10 days per annum. The number of laws was reduced by issuing so-called „law decrees\". There were no interpellations for years, from 1949 to 1956. This study analyzes the five-day session of the National Assembly in the summer of 1956, where many significant changes took place. First of all, two resolutions were passed in order to secure the greater role of the parliament and the MPs in public life. The second important issue was the „socialist lawfulness\", e.g. the rehabilitation process of the victims of the show trials; other measures were to be taken to penalize those officials (mostly in the political police) who broke the laws in the first half of the 1950s. The Prime Minister and the Attorney General also had long speeches which dealt with socialist lawfulness. The third important event was the interpellation day, where the first interpellations could be heard for seven years. Although these changes were excessive, it is necessary to underline the limits of this democratization. Old habits were hard to break. Parliamentary reforms were prepared even before the fall of Rákosi. What is more, its recommendations were more radical than the resolutions which were adopted later. There were no real debates either: speakers were carefully selected previously. Lawfulness had its own limits; it was only a socialist lawfulness. However, these were only the first steps to the right direction. The next session was to be held in October with important subjects on its agenda. However, due to the revolution of 1956, the session was cancelled. The National Assembly was convened only in May 1957, when Kádár restored the stalinist type of legislation

• Publisher: Katalin Kevehazi
• Subject: Stalinism