Árpád Göncz

Biography

Early life (1922–1945)

Árpád Göncz was born on 10 February 1922 in Budapest to an upper-middle class family of noble origin as the son of Lajos Göncz de Gönc (1887–1974), who worked as a post officer, and Ilona Haimann (b. 1892). The Roman Catholic Göncz family originated from Csáktornya, Zala County (today Čakovec, Croatia), where Göncz's great-grandfather, Lajos Göncz Sr. was a pharmacist. He later participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, and after its defeat was sentenced to a nine-year prison sentence. Árpád Göncz's father, Lajos Göncz, was also a successful tennis player, participating in the 1924 Summer Olympics, where he was defeated by René Lacoste in men's singles in the second round. Árpád Göncz's parents divorced when he was six, which resulted in a fairly tense relationship with his father in subsequent years. Göncz's mother, a Unitarian, was born in Transylvania; she had Jewish and Székely roots. She was orphaned as a child, and, after a brief spell in an orphanage, was raised by the merchant Báthy family from Budapest.

After finishing four-grade elementary school, Göncz began his secondary studies at the Werbőczy Secondary Grammar School in 1932. He involved himself there in the activities of the Hungarian Scout Association. Scouting opened Göncz's eyes to social issues, particularly in regard to the problems of the poor peasantry, as he said in a later interview. Göncz joined the Pál Teleki Work Group, formed in 1936 by Pál Teleki, an influential interwar politician and Prime Minister of Hungary, also Hungary's Chief Scout. The work group was an important seminary and forum for university students. The programme emphasized the relevance of the nation, family and community, as well as a good knowledge of Hungarian history and geography. Quite soon, key figures from the Independent Smallholders' Party, e.g. Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky, joined the work group. His political view was also influenced by the népi-nemzeti ("rural-national") ideological movement since the 1930s. The group of the so-called "folk writers" (Hungarian: népi írók), including Zsigmond Móricz or János Kodolányi, expressed a critique of capitalism, and put emphasis on peasant society and land reform. Göncz also stressed he represented the same political views as liberal political theorist István Bibó. In December 1938, Göncz, in a short essay in Magyar Cserkész ("Hungarian Scout"), welcomed the Hungarians' entry into Komárno in accordance with the First Vienna Award.

Göncz graduated in law from the Budapest Pázmány Péter University of Arts and Sciences in 1944. During his academic years, he was exempted from conscription in the Second World War. Meanwhile, Hungary was occupied by Germany on 19 March 1944. In December, Göncz was conscripted into the 25th Reserve Mountain Infantry Battalion of the Royal Hungarian Army and ordered to Germany; however, he deserted and joined the resistance movement. In late 1944, Göncz found himself in Budapest when the Red Army encircled the Hungarian capital, beginning the Siege of Budapest. The resistance Hungarian Front formed to oppose the Nazi regime with several regional branches, including the Freedom Front of Hungarian Students (MDSZ), officially established on 7 November 1944, during the Arrow Cross Party government. Göncz joined the Táncsics Battalion in December 1944, where he took part in partisan actions against the Arrow Cross regime in Budapest. After the war he went on to study agricultural science.

Early political career and retreat (1945–1956)

Following the Soviet occupation of Hungary, Göncz joined the anti-communist Independent Smallholders' Party (FKGP), which won a sweeping victory (57.03%) in the November 1945 parliamentary election, however the party had to yield to Marshal Kliment Voroshilov (Chairman of the Allied Control Commission), who made it clear that a grand coalition in which the Communists preserved the gains already secured (that is, the Ministry of the Interior and control over the police) was the only kind of government acceptable to the Soviets. Göncz refused to run as an individual parliamentary candidate, because he did not feel ready for becoming MP. Instead he served as the personal assistant of Béla Kovács, the General Secretary of the Independent Smallholders' Party, who was responsible for running the party machine. Göncz later called his job as an "unpleasant time in his life" due to the nature of the function, nevertheless he admired and respected Kovács and remembered him as a "statesman" in a later interview.

Beside his secretary position, Göncz also edited weekly party newspaper Nemzedék ("Generation"). He also served as leader of the party's youth organization in Budapest for a time. Over the next two years, the Communists (MKP) pressured the Smallholders' Party into expelling their more courageous members as "fascists" and fascist sympathizers as part of Communist leader Mátyás Rákosi's "salami tactics". On 25 February 1947, Béla Kovács was arrested unlawfully and taken to the Soviet Union without a trial in Hungary. Following that Göncz was also arrested in conjunction with a visit to Romania in late 1946, where he had negotiated with ethnic Hungarian politicians. He was detained and interrogated for three weeks before release.

By the 1949 parliamentary election, the FKGP was absorbed into the Hungarian Independent People's Front (MFNF), led by the communists, and Göncz became unemployed. After that, he worked as a manual labourer (welder metalsmith and pipe fitter) and also enrolled in a correspondence course of the Gödöllő Agricultural University, where he specialised in soil erosion and protection. Göncz then used his knowledge working as

an agronomist at the Talajjavító Vállalat (Soil Improvement Co.) until the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 against the communist rule.

1956 Revolution and aftermath (1956–1957)

Göncz played an active role in the work of the newly formed Petőfi Circle (Hungarian: Petőfi Kör), which established by reformist intellectuals under the auspices of the Union of Working Youth (DISZ), mass youth organization wing of the ruling communist Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP), in March 1955. The circle held twelve meetings in the first half of 1956. As an agronomist, Göncz expressed his opinion on the Soviet agricultural model during one of the forums. On 17 October 1956, he participated in an agricultural debate ("Kert-Magyarország?") at the Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences. There he criticized again the Soviet model considered unsuitable for the Hungarian conditions. Göncz also lay emphasis on free peasant education.

In a June 1995 speech, Göncz recalled the 1956 events as a "turning point" in his life which determined his fate until the end of his life, despite the fact that he did not participate in the armed resistance and uprising. On 23 October 1956, he was present at the peaceful mass demonstration, which marched in front of the Hungarian Parliament Building, along with his eldest daughter Kinga, who was nine years old at that time. Göncz's role in the October 1956 events remained fragmented. By 29 October 1956, he assumed a political role in the events. He participated in a meeting at Prime Minister Imre Nagy's house, when Nagy was informed about the Suez Crisis and the Prime Minister said "Gentlemen! From now on, we need to discuss another thing because there is a dangerous possibility of a Third World War". Göncz worked as an activist in the newly recreated Hungarian Peasant Alliance during the revolution. In a 1985 interview, Göncz said he sympathized with the political vision of Imre Nagy. He also added, that he would join a Nagy-led Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP), if the Soviet intervention does not take place. Göncz noted the Nagy government and the new communist party would have started with a clean slate. Sociologist Péter Kende has said Göncz's belief in "democratic socialism" was similar to that of István Bibó.

After the Soviet intervention on 4 November 1956, János Kádár established a pro-Soviet government. The Revolutionary Council of Hungarian Intellectuals, members were writers, journalists etc., issued statements of protest against the Soviet army's invasion and appealed for help and mediation from the Western world. Göncz participated in the writing of several memoranda. One of the most influential writings was the Draft Proposal for a Compromise Solution to the Hungarian Question by intellectual István Bibó, who also served as Minister of State in the second and third government of Imre Nagy. Göncz took part in the debates on the proposal. Göncz had a good relationship with charge d'affaires Mohamed Ataur Rahman from the Indian Embassy in Budapest, thus he was also able to make contact with the Government of India who tried to mediate between the Hungarian and the Soviet governments following the revolution. Formerly, during the intense days, Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru expressed his sympathy and compassion towards the Hungarian freedom fighters, nevertheless India remained cautious and abstained in the UN General Assembly voting, which called on the Soviet Union to end its Hungarian intervention. As a result of the intercession of Göncz, the Indian government became more determined in the Hungarian issue. He handed over Bibó's draft proposal to charge d'affaires Rahman in December 1956, however India's mediation attempt ended in failure due to lack of interest in the Soviet Union.

Prison years (1957–1963)

He was arrested on 28 May 1957, along with István Bibó, on the order of Minister of the Interior Béla Biszku. In the forthcoming months, Bibó, Göncz and Regéczy-Nagy were interrogated, isolating from each other by the secret police in connection with their relationships with India and the Western block. Once the prosecutor said to Göncz that "the traitor deserved to hang twice." Göncz and his inmates were charged with "organizing the overthrow of the Hungarian people's democratic state." Göncz was secretly tried, found guilty, and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of appeal on 2 August 1958, some weeks after the secret trial and execution of Imre Nagy. Later Göncz believed that he could avoid the capital punishment only due to Nehru's intervention. Dae Soon Kim, Göncz's biographer also argued it might be possible that the Indian premier' diplomatic efforts impacted on the severity of penalties regarding the Göncz and Bibó trials.

Göncz began his years in prison at Budapest Penitentiary and Jail (Gyűjtőfogház) in August 1958. He spent his punishment among hundreds of political prisoners, such as Tibor Déry, Zoltán Tildy, István Bibó and Imre Mécs. Göncz was isolated and separated from the outside world, visitors were permitted for only ten minutes in every six months and correspondence was allowed in every three months for the political prisoners. Later Göncz was transferred to the Vác prison.

In Vác, the conditions were freer; Göncz had spent the time learning to read and write English. The political prisoners were able to obtain literary works from the Western world, including the memoires of politicians Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. According to György Litván, the senior party functionaries, who did not speak foreign languages, established a "translation agency" in the Vác prison to learn about the information available to Western public opinion. Göncz, beside political pamphlets, also translated John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, transferring from the prison by Litván, which laid the foundation of his translation career after release. Imre Mécs said, a cohesive community of '56 democratic-minded generation emerged within the walls of the Vác prison, where there were constant political discussions and debates.

In 1960 he participated in the political prisoners' hunger strike of the Vác prison, because, despite the promises of Kádár, most of the oppositional intellectuals and freedom fighters were not pardoned, unlike former communist officials, who had significant role in building of the Stalinist dictatorship before 1956, such as Mihály Farkas and Gábor Péter. The government decided to separate the prisoners, Bibó and Göncz were transferred to Márianosztra, while Litván and journalist Sándor Fekete were sent back to the Gyűjtőfogház. Finally, János Kádár ordered a mass amnesty in March 1963 in exchange for his government's international recognition by the United Nations. Along with more than 4000 other revolutionaries and freedom fighters, Göncz was released from prison under amnesty in July 1963, three months after István Bibó.

Literary career (1963–1988)

In the following decades, he worked as a specialized translator, translating over a hundred literary works, and a writer of English prose. Some of his notable translations include E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime and World's Fair, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Thomas Wolfe's Of Time and the River, William Faulkner's Sartoris, The Sound and the Fury, the latter being referred by Göncz to as his "greatest challenge."

His most famous translation work is J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Initially, art critic Ádám Réz began to translate The Fellowship of the Ring, however after the translation of eleven chapters (texts and poems), the main terms and concepts, he stopped the work because of his increasingly severe illness. Réz died in 1978 and his manuscript remained unfinished for the next few years. Göncz later took over the project, working on the prose in Tolkien's novel, while the poems and songs were translated by Dezső Tandori. Finally, the work was published by Gondolat Kiadó in 1981, for the first time in Hungary. In January 2002, Göncz was present at the Hungarian premiere of the movie adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring.

Göncz continued his career as a translator with many important works, including Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and A Fable, Ernest Hemingway's Islands in the Stream, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, William Styron's Lie Down in Darkness and The Confessions of Nat Turner, John Ball's In the Heat of the Night, Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds, Yasunari Kawabata's The Lake, John Updike's Rabbit Redux and Rabbit is Rich, and The Inheritors, Pincher Martin, The Spire and The Pyramid and Rites of Passage by William Golding.

His own works include both novels and dramas; Men of God (1974), Sarusok (1974), Magyar Médeia (1976), Rácsok (1979), Találkozások (1980) are among the most notable. He is also the author of Encounters (essays, 1980), Homecoming and Shavings (short stories, 1991), Hungarian Medea (play, 1979), Iron Bars (play, 1979), Balance (play, 1990). Göncz worked incredibly hard for ten hours per day with no pay. For instance, in 1982 he visited the United States on an academic conference with only $5 in his pocket. He won the Attila József Prize in 1983. In 1989 he won the Wheatland Prize, and two years later the Premio Meditteraneo. From 1989 to 1990 he was President and later Honorary President of the Hungarian Writers' Union. The person of Göncz was acceptable for both the liberal and "rural-national" intellectuals because of his past.

Return to politics (1988–1990)

By the beginning of the 1980s, the Kádár regime had increasingly indebted and was in ideological and legitimation crisis. Opposition movements established one after another; a group of intellectuals founded the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) in Lakitelek in September 1987. In early 1988, Göncz was a co-founding member of the Historical Justice Committee (TIB) civil organization, which intended to revise the official communist stigmatization of the 1956 revolution. The organization was led by Erzsébet Nagy, daughter of Imre Nagy. The TIB demanded the worthy reburial of Nagy and the other executed persons.

When the security forces violently disbanded a peaceful demonstration in Budapest on 16 June 1988, the 30th anniversary of Nagy's execution, Árpád Göncz, as Vice Chairman of the Historical Justice Committee, wrote a letter to General Secretary and Prime Minister Károly Grósz, Kádár's successor to protest against the police action and called on the regime to face its past. In a response letter, Grósz rejected the implementation of demanded political reforms. Finally (due to the appointment of the reformist Miklós Németh as Prime Minister in November 1988) the reburial took place in the next year on 16 June, Göncz took part in organizing, as he proposed, there was a fifth empty coffin beside the four martyrs' for the anonymous heroes and freedom fighters of the revolution. Göncz was the one who officially opened the ceremony.

On 1 May 1988, Göncz also participated in the foundation of the Network of Free Initiatives (Hungarian: Szabad Kezdeményezések Hálózata; SZKH), the predecessor organization of the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ). Initially, SZKH was a loose alliance of various independent civil groups, which intended to become an umbrella organization like the Solidarity in Poland. However, because of the widespread pluralism, the SZKH's operation proved to be slow and time-consuming in the midst of accelerated events, thus on 13 November 1988, the majority of the organization decided to found the SZDSZ, Göncz was also a co-founding member and helped the formulation of the founding declaration. Ferenc Miszlivetz said, Göncz was an observer rather than an active proponent in the following rallies. In addition to MDF and SZDSZ, the third major anti-communist block was the liberal Alliance of Young Democrats, later known mostly by its acronym Fidesz. Göncz's former party, the Independent Smallholders' Party (FKGP) was re-established in those days, he visited the party's inaugural session at the Pilvax Café but, for him, it was not attractive anymore, as most of the former members of the FKGP were already dead or stayed in emigration. Göncz considered the old debates between the "rural-national" and "urbanist" trends are outdated and detrimental after decades of communist rule, his liberal ideology became more dominant by 1988.

Presidency (1990–2000)

On 4 August, he was elected for a full term as president by the National Assembly by 295 votes to 13, thus becoming Hungary's first democratically elected head of state. He was also Hungary's first non-Communist president since the forced resignation of Zoltán Tildy 42 years earlier. After taking the oath before the new legislative speaker György Szabad (MDF), Göncz stated in his inaugural speech that "I am not, I can not be a servant of parties, party interests. In my whole life, within and outside party, I served and I will serve for national independence, freedom of thought, freedom of faith in the idea of free homeland, and social justice with human rights without discrimination and exclusion." He also added, "I would like to serve the unprotected, the defenceless people, those, who lacked the means to protect themselves both in the "feudal crane feather world" [referring to Miklós Horthy's Hungary] and in the "world of more equals among equals" [i.e. the communist regime between 1945 and 1989]."

Göncz was an avid supporter of Hungarian integration with the West, especially with the United Kingdom. In May 1990, Charles, Prince of Wales and his wife Diana undertook an official visit to Hungary and made history by becoming the first members of the British royal family to visit a former Warsaw Pact country. The royal couple were met at the airport by their host, newly elected interim President Göncz, who later hosted an official dinner to welcome the royal couple. Elizabeth II visited Hungary in May 1993, also welcomed by Göncz. He argued in favor of Hungary's accession to NATO and the European Union. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of U.S. President Bill Clinton's "Partnership for Peace" in Central Europe. As a result, in 2000, he was honored with the Vision for Europe Award for his efforts in creating a unified Europe. Göncz's commitment towards the Western world earned some domestic negative criticism; in 1991, the far-right politician István Csurka, later defector from MDF and founder of the nationalist Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP) accused him of being a tool of France, Israel, and the United States. During Göncz's presidency, Pope John Paul II visited Hungary twice, in August 1991 and September 1996. They had already known each other through a common Polish friend, before John Paul's papacy.

His relationship with Prime Minister József Antall and his cabinet became tense in the coming years. Göncz filled a counterbalancing role to the conservative cabinet, according to the critics, he proved to be acting in the vested interests of his party, the SZDSZ. Critics also said Göncz failed to act for the unity of the nation as a non-partisan head of state with these anti-government steps. However, as Dae Soon Kim notes, after a four-year Socialist government between 1994 and 1998, Göncz remained conflict-avoiding during the last two years of his presidency, when the right-wing Viktor Orbán governed the country as Prime Minister. During the Antall government, strong state intervention and control in market economic trends remained significant. Few months after the end of communism in Hungary, ideological conflicts tense between Antall and Göncz, who supported full privatization and reduction of the state. Despite the earlier conflicts, the seriously ill Antall was awarded Grand Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit by President Árpád Göncz on 11 December 1993, a day before his death.

Later life (2000–2015)

Göncz completed his five years of second term on 4 August 2000. He was replaced by Ferenc Mádl, who was elected President by the National Assembly's right-wing majority on 6 June 2000. In a ceremony at the Kossuth Square, he emphasized that he passes the position to Mádl with "respect and friendship". He also asked God's blessing on the successful work of Ferenc Mádl. Göncz added, during his 10-year term, he tried to keep in mind that the "democratic state can only be people-oriented organization".

After his presidency, Göncz completely retired from politics and resided in a state residence at Béla király Street along with his wife until his death in October 2015. In September 2000, he was appointed President of the Hungary in Europe Foundation which awarded literary prizes annually. He gave a speech on 23 October 2000, where he told "the proliferating phrases during annual commemorations had overshadowed the actual events of the 1956 revolution." In November 2000, Göncz became an honorary citizen of Budapest, awarded by the city's Mayor and fellow SZDSZ member Gábor Demszky. In December 2000, a prize was founded by the United States, named after Göncz. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright awarded the Göncz Prize to Erika Csovcsics, headmistress of the Gandhi School for the first time.

In April 2003, Göncz participated in the signing ceremony of Hungary's join to the European Union in Athens, Greece. In July 2003, Göncz was among the speakers at the so-called Szárszó meetings, a political forum of mostly left-wing intellectuals and politicians, organized by Tivadar Farkasházy. In an open letter, along with Havel and Wałęsa, he demanded the release of political prisoners in Cuba from Fidel Castro in September 2003.

On 10 February 2012, hundreds welcomed Göncz with serenades and speeches on the occasion of his 90th birthday, at the initiative of composer and songwriter János Bródy, writer György Konrád and former SZDSZ leader Gábor Kuncze. Then-President Pál Schmitt also greeted his predecessor by telephone from the Arraiolos meeting in Helsinki and conveyed the best wishes of the summit's participants (heads of states).

Personal life

On 11 January 1947, Göncz married Mária Zsuzsanna Göntér (16 November 1923 – 3 June 2020) and had four children; two sons (Benedek, Dániel) and two daughters (Kinga and Annamária). Kinga Göncz, who held various ministerial positions in the cabinets of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány and also a former Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009, is his daughter and eldest child. She was Member of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2014. In November 2012, Göncz's four children founded the Göncz Árpád Foundation to promote the presentation and research of their father's life and career, as well as cultivating the memory of the Hungarian democratic and liberal traditions. István Bibó Jr., András Gulyás and János M. Rainer became advisory board members.

Death and funeral

Árpád Göncz died on 6 October 2015 in Budapest, aged 93. As the news emerged about Göncz's death, Hungarian lawmakers immediately held a minute of silence in parliament, where Deputy Speaker István Hiller said Göncz "was a legend already in his lifetime". Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the governing Fidesz told in a statement that "we remember [Göncz] with respect as an active and important political player in those years when Hungary stepped on the road from dictatorship to democracy". The coalition partner KDNP added, "Árpád Göncz's personality and life intertwined with Hungary's modern history, the period of [democratic] transition". The left-wing opposition parties, MSZP, Democratic Coalition (DK), Together, Politics Can Be Different (LMP), Dialogue for Hungary (PM) and Hungarian Liberal Party (MLP) also paid tribute to Göncz's political legacy and life, while the far-right Jobbik sent its condolence to his family. On 7 October 2015, thousands gathered for President Göncz at the Kossuth Square, mourning with flowers and candles in front of the Hungarian Parliament Building. On 12 October 2015, Speaker László Kövér said in the next first full plenary session that "the life path of Göncz coincided with major events in Hungary's 20th century history". He added, Göncz, beside his writer and translation career, was also a "loved and respected as a politician as well, and even long after he had left his office in 2000".

Foreign media also remembered on Göncz's death; The New York Times wrote Göncz was "widely beloved" among the Hungarians, who called him just as their "Uncle Árpi". According to The Daily Telegraph, Göncz "worked with skill over a decade to realign his country with the West and heal the wounds of the past." Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission said Göncz was a "democrat" and a "true European". During her state visit to Hungary on 7 October, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović expressed condolences for the death of Göncz to President János Áder and the Hungarian people. Socialist MEP István Ujhelyi also commemorated Göncz in the European Parliament. Ujhelyi said "Hungary is mourning one of Europe's wise men and one of the greatest figures of the Hungarian democracy."

In accordance with his last will and testament, Göncz was buried near the graves of his late friends and fellow '56 prisoners, István Bibó, György Litván and Miklós Vásárhelyi at the Óbudai cemetery on 6 November 2015, without official state representation and military honour. The funeral, celebrated by Archabbot Asztrik Várszegi and actor András Bálint, was attended by former and incumbent politicians, representatives of the parliamentary parties and diplomatic missions. Imre Mécs gave the first funeral oration, where he said "Árpi [Göncz] was a man of love, but could also be decisive". Singer Zsuzsa Koncz and composer János Bródy sang their famous song, "Ha én rózsa volnék" ("If I were a rose"). On behalf of the family, Göncz's eldest grandson, political scientist Márton Benedek farewelled his grandfather.

Awards and honours

1991: Italy – Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic

1991: United Kingdom – Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George

1994: Poland – Order of the White Eagle

1994: Spain – Collar of the Order of Civil Merit

1995: Malta – Honorary Companion of Honour with Collar of the National Order of Merit (9 February 1995)

1995: Finland – Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the White Rose of Finland

1998: Peru – Grand Cross with Diamonds of the Order of the Sun of Peru (2 September 1998)

1999: Estonia – Collar of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana

1999: Lithuania – Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great (19 May 1999)

1999: Norway – Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav

1999: United Kingdom – Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

1999: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement

2000: Romania – Grand Cross with Chain of the Order of the Star of Romania (2000)

2000: Germany – Special Class of the Grand Cross of the Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany