V o L u m e I : a d

attack, an increase in living standards, reduction of the state bureaucracy,

increases in agricultural production, and justification for the Red Army’s inter-

vention. Nagy, promised free passage out of the country from the Yugosla-

vian embassy, was arrested on 22 November and imprisoned in Romania.

By June 1957, Kádár had fully stabilized the situation and secured his

position as the most prominent Hungarian political leader for the next thirty-

two years. He instituted severely repressive countermeasures against the

revolution’s leaders. Nagy and his fellow reform communists, including Pál

Maléter, the minister of defense in the revolutionary government, were tried

and executed on 16 June 1958. This caused an international outcry and

resulted in several years of political isolation for Kádár’s government.

By the late 1960s, however, Kádár began to implement his so-called

Goulash Communism. Begun in 1966, this program of economic liberalism

allowed some degree of free enterprise in order to bring about a higher stan-

dard of living and improved relations with the West. Everyday life became

safer and more pleasant. Of all the postwar-era East European communist

leaders, Kádár retained power the longest. During the 1960s and 1970s, he

quietly implemented most of the reforms that the revolutionists of 1956 had

fought for without evoking a backlash from Moscow. During his reign, Hun-

gary was considered the “happiest barracks” in Eastern Europe. In 1977,

Pope Paul VI granted Kádár an audience at the Vatican, which symbolically

marked the end of Hungary’s moral isolation.

In the late 1980s, however, Kádár found it difficult to adapt to Soviet

leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s reform initiatives. Indeed, Kádár’s presence in

the party became an obstacle to reform. Thus, in May 1988 Károly Grósz, a

moderate party reformist and Hungary’s premier, ousted Kádár and became

party general secretary. Kádár was shifted to the ceremonial post of party

president.

During his short term in office, Grósz contributed significantly to the

transformation of Hungary to a Western-style democracy. In November 1988,

Miklós Németh succeeded Grósz as premier. After Gorbachev signaled

greater independence for Eastern Europe, Németh began implementing

fundamental reforms. His objective was to reintegrate Hungary and the entire

region into the world economy and the free market system. He agreed to a

state reburial of Imre Nagy and opened the border to East German refugees,

triggering a sequence of fundamental international political changes that

would bring an end to the division of Germany and an end the Cold War.

Németh also decided to order the removal of the barbed-wire fence on Hun-

gary’s western border, and he and other party reformers refounded the Hun-

garian Socialist Party. Németh also signed an agreement for the withdrawal

of Soviet troops from Hungary. During his tenure, a new constitution came

into being, Hungary was declared a republic, and a new election system

based on political pluralism was implemented. In the spring of 1990, József

Antall, whose Hungarian Democratic Forum party won Hungary’s first post–

Cold War free election, succeeded Németh as premier.

Anna Boros-McGee

Hungary

949

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See also

Antall, József; Europe, Eastern; GeroP, ErnoP; Gorbachev, Mikhail; Grósz, Károly;

Hungarian Revolution; Kádár, János; Khrushchev, Nikita; Kovács, Béla; Mind-

szenty, József; Nagy, Ferenc; Nagy, Imre; Németh, Miklós; Rajk, László;

Rákosi, Mátyás; Tildy, Zoltán; Tökés, László; Warsaw Pact

References

Borsody, Stephen, ed. The Hungarians: A Divided Nation. New Haven, CT: Yale Cen-

ter for International and Area Studies, Distributed by Slavica Publishers, 1988.

Dunay, Pál. Hungary’s Security Policy. Hamburg: Institut für Friedensforschung und

Sicherheitspolitik an der Universität Hamburg, 1987.

Schöpflin, George. Hungary between Prosperity and Crisis. London: Institute for the

Study of Conflict, 1981.

Szerencsés, Károly. Magyarország története a II. Világháború után, 1945–1975 [History

of Hungary after World War II, 1945–1975]. Budapest: IKVA, 1991.

British Conservative Party politician and foreign secretary (1989–1995). Born

on 8 March 1930 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, southern England, Douglas Hurd

was the son of Sir Anthony Richard, a member of Parliament. Hurd attended

Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge University, receiving his MA

in 1952 with first-class honors in history.

During 1948–1949, Hurd was a second-lieutenant in the British Army

Royal Horse Artillery. In 1952 he joined the diplomatic service and for the

next fourteen years worked in the Diplomatic Corps. He served in various

posts, including Beijing, New York, and Rome.

An astute politician, Hurd was known for his skill in strategy, his toler-

ance, and his self-discipline, although much of the British public perceived

him as aristocratic, old-fashioned, and rather aloof. He served as political sec-

retary to Prime Minister Edward Heath during 1970–1974. In 1974 Hurd was

elected to Parliament as a Conservative, representing Mid-Oxfordshire.

In 1984 Hurd was Northern Ireland secretary under Prime Minister Mar-

garet Thatcher. From 1989 to 1995 Hurd was foreign secretary. During these

six years, he was a major figure in historic Cold War events, from the fall of

the Berlin Wall to the Dayton Peace Agreement. In November 1990, when

Thatcher suddenly withdrew from the Conservative Party, Hurd was nomi-

nated to replace her but was defeated by John Major. In 1996 Hurd was made

a Companion of Honor and the following year was given a life peerage as

Baron Hurd of Westwall in the House of Lords.

Since 1997 Hurd has been the chairman of several British firms, and he

remains active in Conservative Party causes. A prolific writer of history and

political thrillers, he had published ten books by 2002. In addition, Hurd’s

diary, kept since he was nine years old, provides valuable insights into his

long and illustrious political life.

Gary Kerley

950

Hurd, Douglas Richard

Hurd, Douglas

Richard

(1930–)

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