Hungarians Line Up to Honor Kadar

Thousands of ordinary Hungarians, many dressed in black, lined up Friday to lay flowers at the coffin of former Communist Party chief Janos Kadar, who ruled Hungary for 32 years.

Kadar, who died July 6, lay in state for a second day in the large entrance hall of the headquarters of the Communist Party Central Committee on the banks of the Danube in downtown Budapest. He was buried later in the day at the city’s Mizu Imre Cemetery.

The 77-year-old Kadar came to power with support from Moscow after Soviet tanks crushed the Hungarian uprising in 1956. His 32-year rule ended in May when he was deposed and replaced by Karoly Grosz as Communist Party secretary general.

In his early years as party leader, Kadar brutally silenced his opposition and set up the apparatus of a Stalinist regime. But in the following decades under his leadership, Hungary became the most relaxed nation of the Soviet Bloc, with a bustling economy and relative cultural freedom.