The directory «Plots»

Tamási Áron
(1897—1966)

Born in Farkaslaka (Lupeni, now in Romania) into a family of peasants with a small holding, Tamási had to interrupt his secondary-school studies when he was called up into the army in 1916. However, he obtained a military school-leaving certificate in Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia) in the following year. In 1918, he was sent to the Italian front as an officer-cadet lance corporal, where he distinguished himself in the fighting at Piave. In the autumn of that year, he failed to return from leave. Tamási studied law at Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) in 1918- 21, before transferring to the Commercial Academy, where he graduated in 1921. He worked as a bank official in Kolozsvár and Brassó (Braşov) in 1922-3. Short stories of his began to appear in 1922. Tamási spent the years 1923-5 in the United States doing casual work, before returning to banking. In 1926, he joined the staff of the Kolozsvári Újság (Kolozsvár News). He was in touch with the 'populists' and several other groups of writers. His most celebrated work, the novel Ábel in the Wilderness, appeared in 1932. He joined the staff of the periodical Válasz (Response) in 1934. In April 1935, he took part in the meeting of the populists with the right-wing prime minister Gyula Gömbös, and supported the idea of forming the New Spiritual Front. In 1937, he organized the Vásárhely Meeting, called to discuss the problems of the Hungarian community in Transylvania. In November 1942, Tamási attended the writers' meeting at Lillafüred, where more than 50 writers were invited by Prime Minister Miklós Kállay and the Hungarian military command. He sent a message of greetings to the 1943 Balatonszárszó meeting of the populist writers. In 1944, Tamási moved to Budapest. He was a member of Parliament from 1945 to 1947 and of the Budapest local-government assembly. From 1943 to 1949, he was a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Tamási was among the writers silenced in the early 1950s. He was allowed to appear in print again in 1953. In 1945, he received a Kossuth Prize and became a member of the National Council of Imre Nagy's reconstituted Patriotic People's Front. On September 17, 1956, at the first secret elections by the assembly of the Writers' Union since 1948, he, like many other party and non-party opposition figures, joined the presiding board and became a vice-president. After October 23, 1956, Tamási was the first of the populist writers to express faith in the revolution. He read his piece 'Hungarian Supplication' on the radio on October 26. This also appeared in print in the literary pamphlet Unshaken and in the November 2 issue of the Writers' Union paper Irodalmi Újság (Literary News). The newspaper Új Magyarország (New Hungary), on the same day, published his article 'Plain Speaking', in which he warned against a return to 'class-type struggles' and called for the re-establishment of the Peasants' Association. The next day, writing in the same day, he pressed for a system of institutions that would accord with 'the spirit of the national traditions'. On October 31, he had been included in the steering comm ittee of the revived National Peasant Party, now known as the Petőfi Party. Along with István Bibó, Ferenc Farkas, Géza Féja and István Varga, he formulated a memorandum entitled ' Declaration on the Basic Principles and the Path of Political Development for the State, Social and Economic System of Hungary'. On December 28,1956, he read out to the assembly of the Writers' Union a statement entitled ' Concern and Confession', in which the writers were seen as standing up for the revolution's objectives after its defeat. However, on December 21, 1957, he published a piece called 'Intellectual Honesty' in the periodical Élet és Irodalom (Life and Literature), distancing himself from the revolution. When the Writers' Union was reorganized in 1959, Tamási became founder member, and at the Writers' Union assembly in 1962, he was the only populist writer to speak. In 1963, he also became a member of the presiding board of the Peace Council.

Hungary, 1997, Áron Tamási

Hungary, 1997.01.16, Budapest. Aron Tamasi