324. Telegram From the Embassy in Hungary to the Department of State1
653.
Budapest, January 25, 1985,
1532Z
SUBJECT
- Police Seize Massive Quantity of Samizdat.
- 1.
- (C) Entire text.
- 2.
- Dissident and philosopher Janos Kis (protect) informed Pol Chief on January 24 that on Friday, January 18, the Hungarian police raided a private house in the countryside near Budapest and confiscated approximately one thousand copies of the eleventh edition of the popular samizdat called “Beszelo.” The raid reduced the total number available for distribution by about one half. No one has been arrested in connection with the seizure to date, although it appears that the owner of the house may be subject to prosecution.
- 3.
- Kis is convinced that the authorities found one of the Beszelo “depositories” by some lucky break and is fairly sure that it was not a case of their knowing about the house all along and suddenly deciding to raid it at this time. His main worry is that the authorities may also have further information on Beszelo’s printing and distribution network. He added that the authorities have not decided whether to consider the seizure as an “infraction” of the press law or as a “crime.” He recalled that several years ago a large number of the “Mirmondo” samizdat was seized and the authorities called it a “crime.” The “Mirmondo” case was subsequently dropped because prosecution of a “crime” involves a public trial (whereas an infraction carries only a financial penalty).
- 4.
- In response to Pol Chief’s inquiry whether anything in this particular issue could have caused the authorities to become particularly enraged, Kis said no, but smiled before recounting the gist of the main editorial, which relates the current situation in Poland to the Hungarian scene. The editorial states that the Popieluszko case in Poland2 is relevant to Hungary in that, although the very top echelon of the Polish Government may not be responsible for ordering the murder of a dissident priest, this same top group bears an important part of the responsibility for his death in that they invested the police with so much administrative and unsupervised authority that they created a situation in which such an event could happen
- 5.
- Comment: The terms in which the authorities categorize the seizure as an infraction or crime, plus the extent to which they seek to limit or expand the prosecution, if any, of those involved, will indicate whether this raid is, as Kis believes, just a lucky break for the Ministry of Interior or whether it has wider implications for the Hungarian samizdat community. In either case, the fact that the authorities have the option underscores the editorial’s point.
- 6.
- Embassy’s single copy of Beszelo no. 11 has been pouched to INR for Foldvary.3
Garrison
- Source: Reagan Library, Paula J. Dobriansky Files, Hungary 1985 (1). Confidential; Immediate. Sent for information to Belgrade, East Berlin, Bucharest, Moscow, Munich, Prague, Sofia, Vienna, and Warsaw.↩
- Reference is to Jerzy Popieluszko, a Polish Roman Catholic priest and supporter of Solidarity, who was murdered on October 19, 1984, by the Polish security service.↩
- Frank Foldvary (INR/SEE). The issue was not found.↩