A NOTE ON WESTERN INTELLECTUALS

As always I enjoy reading the Hungarian Review. The depth of its coverage puts many much wider circulation up-market intellectual magazines in West Europe to shame.

Having visited, and admired, the House of Terror Museum in Budapest I was puzzled by the allegations of its Director, Mária Schmidt, in your last issue that many British intellectuals are unduly “protective” of Communist regimes, inclined to play down the “demonic side” of Communist history and, safe in their nice London suburbs, impose double standards on poor Hungary. “Maybe”, she concludes, “they have to deal with their own conscience regarding their feelings and thoughts in the past”.

This is, too put it mildly, unfair and inaccurate. Of course in the past there were, shamefully, apologists like the Red Dean of Canterbury. All are now dead, and after 1956 there were very few with any illusions left. Yet she uses the present tense, as though present day intellectuals were still guilty of similar behaviour. I am not aware of a single British public figure today who would dream of defending, or would have any hesitation in condemning, the monstrous cruelties of the Hungarian Communist regime so well reflected in the House of Terror. If she has particular individuals in mind perhaps she would let us know?

John Gordon

Former British Ambassador to UNESCO Wallingford, Britain

Most recent

Newsletter signup

Like it ? Share it !

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pocket
Share on email

More
articles

AN INTERNMENT CAMP COMMANDER’S STRUGGLE

The Story of István VasdényeyPart II ‘The train departed a second time.’1The title of István Lengyel’s conversation with the poet Erzsi Szenes, an inmate of the Kistarcsacamp. See: István Lengyel,

Nation Building in Central Europe

On the Relationship between Religious and National Identity The purpose of this study is to outline the cooperation between Slovak, Czech, and Polish national movements and the Christian denominations that

Separation of Powers
and Sovereignty

The Question of External Executive Power The title István Bibó gave to his academic inaugural address on 16 January 1947 was ‘Separation of Powers, Then and Now’. 1István Bibó, Az

Religious Conflict in Poland

An Interim Report Even though Christianity is perhaps the most persecuted religion in the world, and the severity of the living conditions of oppressed Christians is getting worse by the