# Paul Lendvai

Paul Lendvai (born on 24 August 1929) is a Hungarian-born Austrian author and journalist. He moved to Austria in 1957.

## Biography

Lendvai was born in Budapest on 24 August 1929 to Jewish parents.
During the Rákosi era in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Lendvai worked as a journalist in Hungary. Lendvai wrote for Szabad Nép and was also Chief of Foreign Reporting at the Hungarian news agency (MTI).
Lendvai was a member of the AVH's (the communist State Protection Authority, informally known as "The Fist of the Party") border guard regiment in Szombathely in 1951, and in 1952, he was a special agent at the AVH Training Garrison in Budapest. Historical studies suggest that Lendvai served as an interrogating officer during trials against the Church.
Lendvai's books from the 1950s include Tito the Enemy of the Hungarian People (1951) and France at a Crossroads (1955), which sold 50,000 copies. In 1953, Lendvai was judged politically unreliable and jailed by the communist regime for eight months. He was also banned from the media for three years. According to Lendvai, the denunciation was based on his social democratic views. Lendvai was soon rehabilitated, and in 1957 he played an important role in editing the White Papers, which, reaching down to regional levels, sought to prove both domestically and internationally the communist narrative that the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and Freedom Fight was a coup attempt orchestrated by reactionary and fascist cliques.
Lendvai was a member of the Hungarian Working People's Party. He left Hungary on assignment to report from Poland and in 1957 he went to Vienna, Austria.
After arriving in Vienna, Lendvai helped foreign correspondents with matters relating to Hungary and wrote smaller articles under aliases such as "György Holló", "Árpád Bécs" or "Paul Landy." Lendvai was naturalized in Austria in 1959 and became a journalist and commentator on Eastern Europe. He was the Eastern European correspondent for the daily Die Presse broadsheet and the Financial Times newspaper for twenty-two years.
He also contributed to The Economist and wrote columns for Austrian, German, and Swiss newspapers and radio stations. In 1982 Lendvai became editor-in-chief at the Eastern Europe department of the ORF public broadcasting company and director-general of Radio Österreich International in 1987. His weekly columns were published by the newspaper Der Standard.
In 1985, a Cultural Forum, dubbed the "East-West Summit", was organized by the Hungarian communist leadership and invited 900 politicians, writers, and other notable people. At the same time a "counter-cultural forum" was planned with the expected participation of "dissidents and opposition groups." György Konrád was one of the intended speakers. In 2010, a Hungarian pro-government newspaper accused Paul Lendvai of collaboration with the communist regime of having provided information about the counter-forum to the Hungarian authorities. Socialist ex-prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány came to Paul Lendvai's defense, saying,
   As for me, I support him in his struggle to make a case for his decisions of yesteryear. [...] And we've got to stop digging up the past.
György Konrád, one of the intended speakers of the opposition event, expressed sadness over the allegations, stating, "If this was how things were, then it is very sad." Lendvai denied the accusations, attributing the campaign against him to his criticism of the current government in his latest book. Former conservative MP Debreczeni, noted philosopher Sandor Radnoti, the Austrian conservative leader Erhard Busek defended his integrity. János Nagy, the ambassador whom Lendvai talked to at the time, was interviewed about the matter on Klubrádió and insisted that his reports always faithfully rendered what was said. An article printed in left-wing Népszabadság agrees with Lendvai's defense that he was not an agent, although it goes on to stress that he was nonetheless a willing and active collaborator to the Communist regime.
On 19 March 2011, Lendvai presented the Hungarian translation of his latest book Mein verspieltes Land ("My squandered country") in Budapest.In his memoir, Lendvai describes themes of ethnic hatred, political instability, and antisemitism in 20th-century Central Europe.
Lendvai is editor-in-chief and co-publisher of Europäische Rundschau, a Vienna-based international quarterly. Austrian president Heinz Fischer and former Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg held speeches at the 40th anniversary of the review on 8 November 2013. Lendvai was appointed chairman of the independent migration council for Austria on 3 April 2014 by the minister of the interior.

## Secret police file

In the 1990s, Lendvai attempted to acquire his own secret service file in a direct meeting with Socialist Prime Minister Gyula Horn but was unsuccessful. While being honoured in the Hungarian Parliament, he famously remarked, “I’d rather get my files than the award.”[12] The file—originally classified until 15 February 2042—was declassified under a 2003 law, alongside many other documents.[13] In 2006, Lendvai successfully requested and obtained his records from the Hungarian secret service archives, later describing their contents in an article for the literary weekly Élet és Irodalom (ÉS), where he named several spies assigned to his case.[14]
According to Lendvai, the files span over 300 pages, and he is identified by the codename “Michael Cole.” He subtitled his article “the story of an unsuccessful recruitment,”[16] stating that Hungarian intelligence services reportedly attempted to recruit him as an agent but were ultimately unsuccessful. Although the file indicates he was never formally recruited, a 24 July 1963 report describes him as “one of the best contacts”[13][17] of the intelligence services. In his account, Lendvai explains that he hoped to secure several benefits by dealing with Hungarian authorities—such as travel rights for reporting, a visa for his mother, and the revocation of his Hungarian citizenship to facilitate work in Eastern Bloc countries.
Lendvai claims he achieved some of his goals by entertaining Hungarian officials, including Gyula Ortutay, at Austrian striptease shows. These officials subsequently intervened on his behalf. Lendvai also asserts that certain reports—particularly those attributed to an operative codenamed “Urbán” that portrayed him as a source—were fabricated by Urbán himself.[18]
After his defection, the Hungarian communist state security placed him on a blacklist. However, from 1963 onward, discussions emerged within the Ministry of the Interior regarding the possibility of removing his name, recognizing him as one of their most valuable "social contacts." By 1972, he was officially de-listed with the justification that his "regular visits served operational interests."
Beyond his role as a source of intelligence for the communist agent network—primarily concerning Western European countries and particularly within Austrian political and media circles—he played an active role in shaping the public image of the Kádár regime. In 1976, as part of a strategic effort to "counterbalance" (Lendvai's term) an Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) program commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he produced a film emphasizing the "progress of the past two decades," adhering closely to the narrative guidelines provided by the Hungarian government. He reported to the intelligence network in Vienna that "ORF is in my hands," underscoring his influence over the portrayal of socialist Hungary in Western media. He later reported that the documentary was completed and broadcast.
Historian Ilkei Csaba later uncovered documents suggesting that Lendvai had interactions with Hungarian state security as a 'social contact.' In 2011, Csaba published a comprehensive collection of the original archival documents.
In his own 2007 publication, Lendvai identified his accuser (back in 1953) as Péter Vajda (journalist, born in 1931), who was also an armed officer at the communist State Defence Authority (ÁVH) at the time. When he wrote the article in 2007, Vajda was still leading the press office of the National Security Cabinet in Ferenc Gyurcsány's government — as an egregious example of the survival of the communist secret service by today. In his response article, Péter Vajda provided evidence of Paul Lendvai's activities within the ÁVH before 1953 and included a letter by Lendvai's father to the communist government. In the letter, Lendvai's father claims Lendvai was faithful and loyal to the communist government.

## Works

* Tito, a magyar nép ellensége (1951)
* Franciaország keresztúton (1955)
* Eagles in Cobwebs: Nationalism and Communism in the Balkans (1969)
* Anti-Semitism without Jews: Communist Eastern Europe (1971)
* Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe (1972)
* Kreisky – Portrait eines Staatsmannes (1974)
* Die Grenzen des Wandels: Spielarten des Kommunismus im Donauraum (1977)
* Bureaucracy of Truth: How Communist Governments Manage the News (1981)
* Das Einsame Albanien: Reportage aus dem Land der Skipetaren (1985)
* Das eigenwillige Ungarn: Innenansichten eines Grenzgangers (1986)
* Hungary: The Art of Survival (1990)
* Honnan – Hová? – Gondolatok a közép- és kelet-európai változásokról (1995)
* Auf schwarzen Listen. Erlebnisse eines Mitteleuropäers (1996)
* Blacklisted: A Journalist's Life in Central Europe (1998)
* Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat (2003)
* A világ egy kritikus európai szemével (2005)
* Az osztrák titok – 50 év a hatalom kulisszái mögött (2007)
* Best of Paul Lendvai (2008)
* One Day That Shook the Communist World: The 1956 Hungarian Uprising and Its Legacy (2008)
* Inside Austria: New Challenges, Old Demons (2010)
* Mein verspieltes Land – Ungarn im Umbruch (2010)
* Az eltékozolt ország (2011)
* Három élet – Beszélgetés Mihancsik Zsófiával (2012)
* Hungary: Between Democracy and Authoritarianism (2012)
* Leben eines Grenzgängers (2013)
* Orbáns Ungarn (2016)
* Orbán: Europe's New Strongman (2017)

## Decorations and awards

* 1974: Dr.-Karl-Renner-journalism award
* 1974: Golden Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria
* 1980: Appointed Professor
* 1984: Karl Renner Prize of Vienna
* 1986: Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria
* 1989: Gold Medal for services to the city of Vienna
* 1990: Great Gold Medal of Styria
* 1990: Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
* 1994: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class
* 1994: Bruno Kreisky Prize for Political Books for Between hope and disillusionment – reflections on the changes in Eastern Europe
* 1997: Silver Commander's Cross of Honour for Services to the province of Lower Austria
* 1998: Axel Corti Prize
* 1999: Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
* 2000: Grand Prize of Burgenland Journalist Award
* 2001: Television Award of the Austrian Adult Education for his biography of Bruno Kreisky (with Helene Maimann)
* 2001: Award of the Budapest Corvinus Europe Institute
* 2001: Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria
* 2002: Dr. Alois Mock Europe Prize
* 2003: Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary
* 2003: Fellowship of the Centre for Applied Policy Research (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
* 2005: Austrian State Prize for Cultural Journalism
* 2008: Honorary Award of the Austrian book trade for tolerance in thought and action