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Content

Foreword

I. Introduction
  1. In place of a foreword
  2. Beginning at the beginning

II. Treatment "A"
  1. Budapest spring
  2. Sweltering summer, awful autumn, cold winter, tense spring
  3. Broken mosaic pieces

III. Treatment "B"
  1. What I will not discuss here
  2. Fragments of a chain of thoughts at Zalaegerszeg
  3. Echo I.
  4. October 6. Martyrs' Day. Congress overture
  5. Lack of genetic knowledge
  6. A clear analysis by Károly Grósz - too late
  7. Intermezzo
  8. "An initiative in favour of open, democratic nominations"
  9. Echo II.
  10. Echo III.

IV. Conclusion "A"

V. Conclusion "B"
  1. Involuntary dispersal
  2. Epilogue - before the climax of the book
  3. Message from Transylvania, from the prison of the free

VI. Marching on

VII. Appendix

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Foreword

I stated in my latest English-written book, 1988: "In 1988 a change took place in Hungary. There were personal changes at the highest levels of the party, state and central leadership through which power came into the hands of more competent, politically more able new leaders who are carrying out the new wave of reform: Parallel to this public discussion is growing rapidly, democracy is taking root in a wide strata of the people, and market competition among entrepreneurs is becoming stronger.

Hungary is again showing the way of progress in Central and Eastern Europe. The father of glasnost and perestroika, Mr. Gorbachev, has stated several times how the often radical social and political changes in the Soviet Union are drawing from the Hungarian experience.

But Hungarian policy cannot be considered as complacent. The 18 billion dollars foreign debt, a scarcely developing economy, a 17% inflation rate, unemployment at our doorstep, the obsolete structure of industry, stalling CMEA-cooperation, dependence on western technology are all heavy burdens on Hungarian society. Nevertheless, the chances for breaking out of this are good, because Hungary is so deeply set in international cooperation, so integrated into European culture, respecting humanitarian causes to the extent that it can undoubtedly count on the advantages of international cooperation to help it out of the critical condition it has got into, mainly because of its own mistakes and because of unfavourable factors in international economic development." As foreword, I'll cite some parts of interviews I made last year for my book, "After the bargain".

Those politicians are the main subjects of this book, but that of '89, too. Were they "more competent, politically more able"?

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