Kósa László (szerk.): A Companion to Hungarian Studies (Budapest, 2001)
Chapter Five. Mihály Szegedy-Maszák: Literature and Arts from the Beginning of the 18th Century until Today
had been born outside its borders before 1938. The exchanges of inhabitants between countries were followed, for some, by resettlement within the country's borders (internal exile). In 1950-1951 "those formerly belonging to the exploiting classes" were forced to leave the capital and were settled in designated lodgings in the provinces. The sense of insecurity among the population became more acute as church and state became embroiled in a steadily deteriorating conflict. Cardinal Mindszenty was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1949. In June 1951 József Grosz, archbishop of Kalocsa, who led the church delegation in the church-state negotiations, was himself arrested. Intimidated in this way, the whole Bench of Bishops swore an oath of loyalty to the constitution of the Hungarian People's Republic. Claiming that "the class-struggle was intensifying", Mátyás Rákosi and other political leaders began to purge the ranks even of those who supported them. They had the People's Colleges closed down and had Minister of the Interior László Rajk executed. The increasingly harsh political and social climate drove more middle class intellectuals to leave the country. Sándor Márai and Albert Szent-Györgyi left as early as 1947-1948, to be followed by Géza Radványi in 1949. The reigning despotism in politics naturally distorted intellectual and cultural life. Kassák could see no alternative but internal exile. Újhold (New Moon), launched by the new generation of poets in 1946, did not survive beyond its seventh issue. It was in this journal that János Pilinszky (1921-1981), the outstanding lyric poet of the coming decades, made his poetic debut, proving a worthy follower of József Attila in Trapéz és korlát (Trapeze and Parallel Bars, 1946). He objectified the shattering experience of the World War II death-camps into an existentialist interpretation of the tragic. Álom (Dream, 1948), a collection of poems by Zoltán Jékely (1913-1982), who had moved to Kolozsvár in 1941 and then back to Budapest in 1946, was already in printed form when it was banned. Jékely was prevented from reaching his readers except as a translator, a fate which befell many writers at this time, including his father Lajos Áprily (1887-1967), László Kálnoky (1912-1985), László Németh, and, of the Újhold generation, the prose writer Géza Ottlik (1912-1990) and the poet Ágnes Nemes Nagy (1922-1991). Deprived of his chair in education in 1948, Lajos Prohászka gave piano lessons to survive. Béla Hamvas had to take a job as storekeeper at Inota power station in 1951. This was the period which inspired Gyula Illyés to write his Egy mondat a zsarnokságról (One Sentence on Tyranny, 1950), a poem which was first published in 1956, and then again in 1986. Most publications around this time certainly bore the marks of officialdom and its expectations. Péter Veres' semi-documentary Pálya- 458 munkások (Platelayers, 1951) is a case in point, as is the former Avant-