Evening star., 1956-03-29
Hungary to 'RehobiIitote
Official Hanged in 1949

VIENNA. Mar. 20 R.-Hun-
gary's Communist government
announced today 1t is 'rehabili-
tating" former Foreign Minister
Laszlo Rajk. hanged in l94s on
charges Of plotting with Yugo-
slav President Tito and the
United States to overthrow his
country's Red regime.
The announcement was made
in a speech by Hungarian Com
munist Party Chief Matyas Ra-
kosi. broadcast by Radio Buda-
pest.
Mr.. Rakosi said Rajk's "in-
nocent co-defendants" also are
being rehabilitated, the term the
Soviet Union has been using for
victims of Stalinist purges who
are now being declared guiltless
Rajk was convicted with six
other Hungarian officials and a
renegade Yugoslav diplomat. He
and four others were hanged,
two were given life imprison-
ment and one got nine years.
Confessed at Length
In the standard manner of
such purge trials, all eight plead
ed guilty and confessed at length
to plotting with an anti-Com-
munist underground directed by
the United States and Marshal
Tito.
Their confessions formed the
official basis on which the So
Wet Union, Hungary and other
members of the Communist bloc
tore up their formal alliances
with the Yugoslav chief who had
defied Stain.
Mr.. Rakosi, Hungary's No. l
Communist and real ruler OF the
country since he returned from
Russia with the victorious Red
Army in 1914, was secretary gen.
eral Of the party and deputy
premier when Rajk was purged.
In his speech, which the Buda-
pest radio reported he gave IN
the city Of Eyer. he said Rajk
and his co-defendents were
cleared "after the unmasking
of Beria in the Soviet Union and
his accomplices in Hungary.
PetN Gabor and his gang"
Purge Victims Framed
Lavrenty Beria, who was ex-
ecuted in December, 1858, was
the former head Of the Soviet
secret police. Gabor, former Hun
garian police chief known as
the Hungarian Beria." was SEN
fenced to life imprisonment in
March, 1854. The Communist
line now is that both framed
purge victims with falsified evi-
dence and police terror methods.
Mr.. Rakosi also announced
that a number of Hungarian So
cial Democrats imprisoned on So
called provocative" or framed
evidence already have been re-
leased or soon will be. The So
cial Democratic Party was
merged with the Communist
Party in June, 1948.
Rumors have circulated in
Western Europe for months that
Rajk and his co-defendants
would be rehabilitated to speed
UP the renewal of friendship be-
tween the Soviet bloc and the
Yugoslav regime. The Kremlin
was understood to have given
orders to it's East European allies
to make up with Marshal Tito
after Soviet Premier Bulganin .
and Communist Party Boss Nj
kita Khrushchev made their visit
of reconciliation to Belgrade last
year.
There also have been persist
ent reports that Czechoslovakia's
Communist government would
follow suit with the rehabilita-
ton of the executed former
Czech Communist Party chief,
Rudolf Slansky, and his 13 CO.
defendants. Slansky and 10
others were hanged in 1852 for
q "Titoist" plot; the other three
got life imprisonment.
Other Revisions Seen
A similar revision is expected
in Bulgaria, where Communist
Party Chief Traicho KoStov was
hanged in December, 1949.
Kremlin-directed purges from
1948 to 1853 also swept through
Poland, Albania and Romania.
Chief victim Of the anti Tito |
campaign in Poland was Wladis-
law Gomulka, secretary general
of the Communist Party and q