Few Mourners for Old Hungary

Those who remember the Hungarian revolt against Communist rule 33 years ago will vividly recall the scenes of huge statues of Josef Stalin being dragged from their pedestals, and enormous red stars--symbols of the hated regime--being ripped from buildings and smashed on the streets below. The statues stayed down after the revolt was suppressed, but the red stars were soon back in place. Now nearly all of them are once more gone, this time by order of the government. Hungary has proclaimed itself an “independent, democratic and legal state,” where the “values of bourgeois democracy” are to be coequal with “democratic socialism.” The “people’s republic” that a Communist coup d’etat created in 1948 exists no more.

Neither does Hungary’s Communist Party, which earlier this month voted itself into extinction and then immediately reorganized as a Socialist party professedly dedicated to upholding democratic ideals. That is the label under which it will take part in the multiparty parliamentary elections that have been promised by next June. Until then, the ex-Communist Socialists will continue to hold power.

And so Hungary has taken one more dramatic step on its historic road to decommunization. Whether further progress will come as smoothly or continue to be welcomed with benign approval by the Soviet Union is an open question. Hungary’s future relations with Moscow and its place in the Warsaw Pact remain matters of considerable delicacy and importance. As it moves to liberalize, Hungary must also keep a wary eye on its unreconstructedly oppressive neighbors, Czechoslovakia and Romania.

The proclamation of the Republic of Hungary by acting president Matyas Szuros indicates the prudent course that current leaders want to follow, as well as the problems they may face. Before a crowd of 100,000, Szuros called for continued cooperation with the Soviet Union and was met with hoots and whistles. Then he called for improved contacts with the United States and was answered with cheers and applause. Left to their own, the mass of Hungarians would undoubtedly cast their lot fully with West. Whether practical considerations will let them, at least for the time being, is another matter.

What can be said unequivocally for now is that Hungary is undergoing a revolution that could only have been imagined in 1956. Hungarian communism has been officially pronounced dead. It will not escape the notice of the rest of the Communist world that few mourners have bothered to gather at its grave.