“Process of Philosophers” in 1973 as an Attempt to Stop the Development of the Dissent in Hungary

Abstract

The aim of the article is to examine the little-known in the Ukrainian historiography moments of the Hungarian-Soviet relations, which have been linked with a critical perception of the economic reform in Hungary in 1968 by the Soviet Union Communist Party. Following the crackdown on the Prague Spring, Hungary remained the only one among member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, which continued to reform the economy for higher living standards in 1969–1972. It evokes a negative reaction of the SUCP leadership, which J. Kádár could not ignore. One of the indirect consequences of the Kremlin demands to stop the economic reform was the “philosophers’s process” 1973. The paper considers the Hungarian Socialist Worker’s Party’s response to ideological criticism of the Hungarian scientists conserning philosophical foundations of socialism in general and the political consequences of its implementation in particular. It provides the evaluation of HSWP analysts on key provisions of leading representatives of the Budapest school of philosophy: G. Márkus, A. Heller, M. Vajda, sociologist A. Hegedüs. In these papers argued that don’t exist authentic marxism, socialist revolution is not led to radical changes in the forms of social life, so there were no revolutions, revolutionary nature of the working class and the labor movement in socialist countries were questionable, socialism is not built, however modernization was implemented. This article demonstrates the nature of the personal position of J. Kádár, whish consists of balance between the demands of the Kremlin and the needs of Hungarian social development. It was found that the future leaders of the urban opposition group J. Kis and G. Bence were among philosophers, who were expelled from the HSWP or subjected to administrative pressure. It was their first conflict with the state power, which promoted awareness of the need of conversion into opposition activity. Article first time in Ukrainian historiography gives a complete picture of the conditions under which formed critical views of the scientific community in Hungary to socialism. The Hungarian archival materials unknown by this time were used.