Ex-Premier Says Hungary Stored Nuclear Devices

Under a secret agreement with the late Communist leader Janos Kadar, the Soviets stored nuclear weapons in Hungary for a possible attack on the West until the end of the 1980s, former Premier Karoly Grosz said Monday.

“When I became premier in 1987, I gained access to a variety of information, including materials pertaining to the armed forces,” the former Communist Party leader said. “It was then that I found out about the nuclear weapons.”

In July, 1987, Grosz said, he started talks with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev about removing nuclear weapons and Soviet troops from Hungary. The nuclear weapons were withdrawn only after his successor, Miklos Nemeth, became premier in late 1988, Grosz said.

The West long suspected that nuclear weapons were deployed in Hungary. Moscow had acknowledged stationing nuclear weapons in Czechoslovakia and the former East Germany, which bordered North Atlantic Treaty Organization territory in Germany.

Last October, the Soviet chief of staff, Gen. Mikhail Moiseyev, disclosed that nuclear weapons had been removed from Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Hungarian officials said initially that only launchers and planes capable of delivering nuclear weapons were deployed in Hungary, not the rockets themselves.

Lt. Gen. Antal Annus, state secretary in the Defense Ministry, told the daily Nepszabadsag last week there were indications but no proof that nuclear weapons were deployed.

Grosz said the agreement on Soviet deployments on Hungarian soil was signed by Kadar, Communist leader for 32 years after Soviet tanks crushed the 1956 revolt against Kremlin rule.