Fotóriporter, 2009 (2. szám) - 2010 (1. szám)

2009 / 2. szám - 2010 / 1. szám

July 13-14,1989János Kádár, who had passed away a week earlier, lay in state in Jászai Mari Square and was buried in the Imre Mező (today: Fiumei) Street cemetery. July 6, 1989 is a mystical day in Hungarian history. Three weeks after the long-delayed real national and political rehabilitation of those hanged as a result of the Imre Nagy trial, the Presidium of the Hungarian High Court gave them a judicial pardon. They declared that the original sentence had been in every way unsubstantiated and contrary to the law. It was almost like a Shakespearean tragedy: while the judges were giving reasons for their judgement, sudden tension was felt in the courtroom. A piece of paper was handed from one person to another announcing the latest news: Kádár is dead. For some time there had only been rumours about the ex-Party Chairman who had been successfully kept out of the public eye. For instance, there were rumours circulating that the severely mentally deteriorating Macbcth-Kádár, on the morning of ‘Imre’s reburial’ at Heroes Square, was apparently ready to leave, wearing black mourning clothes, and could only be kept at home by force. The day after his death. Kádár almost rose again: the artificial dam blocking news about him opened up; for a week he dominated everything. The Hungarian Socialist Workers Party, threatened by a split, closed ranks as usual; the Hungarian troika, or the four member presidium (Rezső Nyers, Károly Grósz, Miklós Németh and Imre Pozsgay), jointly signed the tearful party communiqué, Farewell, which was full of sorrow and deepest respect for the deceased. The same four people, with the addition of Mátyás Szűrös, stood together as guards of honour beside Kádár’s coffin on July 14. Several hundred thousand people took part in this service, which was organized as a counter-demonstration against the Imre Nagy reburial. At the funeral two thousand armed members of the People’s Militia put on a show of strength with their march. A special feature of this ceremony was that Németh and Pozsgay were wearing identical black mourning suits and the same mournful expressions as they paid their last respects to this historic politician, as they had a month previously for Imre Nagy, perhaps the most significant, but in any case the most tragic figure of the centuiy, who was executed on Kádár’s orders. Benkő Imre: Kádár János özvegye (Tamáska Mária) férje temetésén, 1989 Imre Benkő: Mária Tamáska, János Kádár' widow, at her husband’s funeral, 1989 fotó riporter |

Next