Original subtitles

Comrades, l welcome you

in the name ofthe comrades returned from Russia.

As to the formation of the intellectual group, you must understand:

We are the party of revolutionay communists and revolution is a bloody thing.

You should take this literally if you want to join the Party.

Moreover, the party's dutyto be the high command and the army ofthe revolution.

Party discipline is not an emptyword

but it means that party members have to submit themselves

to the will and goals ofthe Party.

Whoever is not with us, is naturally against us.

But those are much more against us, who are only half-heartedlywith us.

People like that should stay away.

Hereby l declare the Intellectual Group

of the Hungarian Communist Party established.

AGITATORS

MOR_l_GS

You should wait with the Darwin-article at least.

lt's not that urgent.

The revolution needs well trained and versatile agitators

as soon as possible.

True. But it is important howyou train them.

l'm only saying wait with the articles on natural sciences.

l know. Because l'm a mechanical materialist.

There's no God -that's what you have to explain to the workers.

And what's that there is:

Material, Capital, Exploitation, Communism.

That's what workers are interested in, not in dialectics.

Did you come for the agitator training?

Yes, we'd like to find out about it.

Do you knowwhat an agitator does?

That's exactlywhat we'd like to know.

Afterthis course you will go

to the front, to the villages, to agitate.

lfyou onlywant to listen or discuss, Ieave now.

l need the list ofthe applicants in ten minutes.

Nten even the most accurate measures will fly off

like a hot-air balloon in which anyone can bring any old rubbish.

And since they don't know where they are heading,

they can randomly change direction.

That's still better than when they change it intentionally.

_ot sure if that's better.

l think the worst is that the workers themselves don't understand:

Eveything is yours!

The factoy is yours, the school is yours.

What does that mean foryou?

Go down to the street and ask the passers-by.

lt would be good to knowtheir answers.

Yesterday the dance masters came in

wanting to get socialized.

- Aren't they tight? - They fit pe_ectly.

Our actions succeeded too easily, almost without resistance.

As ifthose in whose name they had been made

wouldn't have noticed them, either.

We are almost innocent in our victoy.

We demanded proletarian dictatorship.

We couldn't say it's too early.

The situation and the masses were ripe enough for our actions.

We had to act, and nowwe must act accordingly.

We have to bring the ideas oftheir own ethics to them.

We have to explain the paradox

that collective property will be theirs through their work,

not through dissipation.

Only struggle can abolish struggle.

Only terror can create a world of real love.

What you've been talking about?

That people don't think in the way we have imagined.

_ot all the workers understand our initiatives,

so they can be turned against us.

We'll deal with those who are against us.

Why are all these social democrats still around here?

ls this what proletarian dictatorship is like?

That's what l'm talking about.

Our answers were ready, but reality is asking different questions.

Only tested answers are truly ours.

Did the masses really understand our goals?

Did we really consider their level of maturity?

Did we really considertheir long term and immediate interests?

Didn't we push through measures

that could have evolved spontaneously?

Did we ensure that our common goals were really common?

Come on!

Are you sick?

My legs have been crippled for a long time,

nowthey had to be cut of.

Don't you want to help us?

l have been eating the count's bread all my life.

The count was eating yours!

We want eveyone to eat his own.

You are a believer, aren't you?

'...had all things common.

And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men,

as evey man had need#

'Then David the king stood up upon his feet, and said,

Hear me, my brethren, and my people:

As for me, l had in mine heart to build an house of rest

forthe ark ofthe covenant ofthe Lord, and forthe footstool of our God,

and had made readyforthe building:

But God said unto me,

Thou shall not build a house for my name,

J because thou hast been a man ofwar and hast shed blood#

l Cronicles 2$l2 - 3

The Kingdom of Heaven can only be captured by violence.

When was your son killed?

ln 1916.

Who shed his blood?

The Russians killed him.

The count and his gang killed him!

Your count whose bloody hands

give back your bread to you.

Who now wants to drown your son's revolution in blood!

lf l cut any of myfingers, it hurts the same.

That is my great anxiety.

We've got them.

'The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you

will think that he doeth God service#

The workers are working or not working, the same as in the past.

But they don't have a clue

about what's happening around them.

That's not true.

The party members are in their ranks.

Social democrats.

We regularly send to them our agitators and the Red _ews.

The events speak for themselves.

But what are they speaking about?

The workers are saying

that food is as scarce as half-a-year ago

and the functionaries have plenty of eveything.

Counter-revolutionay propaganda!

lt is, but reality makes them believe it.

What kind of reality?

They feel nothing has changed except the posters.

People are not liberated in their minds,

and you can't change this with races and agitation.

_ot even ifyou put them in some bourgeois apartment.

They'll get used to it, as one gets used to anything.

They'll still see that the functionaries are living well in the Soviet House,

just like the officials are sitting in their offices.

Tell me, who's sitting behind the desk?

lt might be all the same to you, but it's not forthe workers.

Why not? _obody takes care of their problems.

Putting like that is a lie!

Bythe way, who is sitting behind the desk?

Old notaries dressed as socialists, pinkish bureaucrats and social democrats

all sabotaging our administration.

We know about these problems.

But instead of doing something, you are only spouting clich�s.

Speak about the communists!

Well, eveyone is a communist, right?

The most communist of all is the bureaucrat who promises

then promises some more instead of acting.

You're not reading the social democratic press?

You started by blaming the social democrats, now quote their papers?

'The agitators in the countyside make more damage than progress#

'_ew bureaucracy, stinking corruption#

And: problems with the food supply,

protests against the censorship.

How strong is their sense ofjustice!

Eveyword oftheirs is a poisoned arrow against the revolution.

Just like yourtalent would be more useful

in this poisoned arrow business.

l don't need you to fabricate aphorisms of my sentences.

And l don't need your cautions.

Still, l can only hope it wasn't pointless.

Sit down a bit and think, you are talking nonsense.

You are talking nonsense!

lt's good you have these slogans on the walls.

l can hardlywait to be named a counter-revolutionay.

lt's not our fault. You are separating yourself from us, all the time.

Besides, l do considerthis a counter-revolutionay bullshit.

They have too much time to waste.

Counter-revolution is counter-revolution.

What is obvious foryou and l, forthem is like...

'Despite the fact that we agree..#

'Even ifwe agree, but..#

Do we agree or don't we?

This is the arrogance of disillusionment.

A necessay extreme in evey revolution.

lt doesn't mean the revolution is weak,

only if it isn't able to overcome it.

That's not the problem.

Szentesi hasjust brought up a lot of real issues

that you couldn't deny.

Either these questions don't have answers

or we don't know the answers.

''An_here you look you see fate and divine destruction

and the enthusiasm of the stupid dying,

the people are preparing for sin

and before the past disappears, the future arrives,

coherent, glorious and ready_'

What do you mean?

That the revolution is incomplete?

Why are you so pleased about that?

We have to complete the revolution.

We know where we stand.

Some people forget about it.

You are one ofthem.

We've assumed power, and now we

- and you, ifyou are a revolutionay-

we have to hold unto it.

Read Lenin!

We know that the bourgeoisie will not give up

its counter-revolutionay aspirations.

We know they are far stronger than us worldwide.

That's whywe have to employ our vigilance and actions

to enforce the rule of the proletariat

and to eliminate the chance that the bourgeoisie will regain power.

At the beginning evey revolutionay must focus on this.

This is natural, necessay and unavoidable.

Suddenly a bunch of women came around dressed in lace,

asking us to write into their diaries.

l say, 'We don't know howto write',

then she asks what do we know and winks at us.

Did you show her?

We had no time, we had to go out to fight.

They flew away.

Liberalism has different manifestations:

We know someone is being incorrect, but we don't discuss it with him,

because that person is our acquaintance or intimate friend,

and for the sake of friendship we tolerate his violation.

The result is that both the collective and the individual will be damaged.

Encore! Encore!

Silence!

We criticize irresponsibly under cover, instead of making our proposals.

We don't saywhat we think to the people's faces

but we gossip behind their backs.

We are quiet at meetings, and chat afterwards.

We ignore the principles of collective life

and we engage in liberal laxity instead.

Why are you telling us all this?

When an issue does not concern us personally,

we don't botherwith it at all.

We are aware when something is not right,

but we keep silent about it.

We onlythink to save our skin.

We place the highest value on individual opinions.

We demand care from the organization

from whose commitment we withdraw.

l phoned the Executive Committee.

This is a violation of personal freedom!

Living among the masses we pretend to live above them.

We omit agitation.

We don't know and don't care about the interests ofthe people.

We behave as simple citizens

forgetting that a communist is a representative ofthe people.

We display indifference.

We don't get alarmed at the violations ofthe people's interests

and we don't stop them.

We skip our propaganda work and let others make theirs.

Direct help is often more efficient than a nice speech.

Without the propaganda of acts the propaganda of words is useless.

lt's all hit and miss, no plan, no direction and no awareness.

We work supe_icially, saying, 'if one is a monk, one rings the bells'.

We've made a mistake and we've seen it

but since we are liberal towards ourselves,

we don't tyto correct it.

- How're you doing? -What's new?

lt seems soviet functionaries will recognize each other

by rushing on the street.

Well, when they don't travel by car.

Mortals would hury or run, functionaries rush.

- _ow l'm really in a hury. - l'll go with you.

Do you reallythink you are doing something big,

just because you are sitting in a district council?

Oryou are a member of the Central Council?

-l am. -l've read it.

More than 500.OOO workers, as one body, presented

the lists of names issued by the Executive Committee.

That was the election.

l didn't figure on any ofthe lists, but the social democrat leader

who had shot at the workers, was on it.

He must be sitting in the Central Council, togetherwith you.

Yes, he does.

The Executive Committee had to take care

of the composition of the councils.

But you are blaming me forthis on the one hand,

and on the other, forwe had to make compromises

with the less conscious segment of the working class.

Pretty little proletarian democracy.

All you can see of it are compromises and new bureaucracy.

Do you know why these public buildings are so amul?

Because people come to work here and not to live.

What are you doing?

Funny, eveybody begins with that.

_othing constructive, unlike you.

Just wanted to sunbathe a bit bythe Danube but there's no sun.

You're drunk.

Don't you know we punish whoever violates the prohibition?

You know what?

l'll establish the Useless People's Party.

- You've been drinking! - So what?

lt's forbidden, don't you know it?

Where did you get it from?

Where did you get it from?

Give me some.

Comrade Botos!

l declare to you that to incite against the members ofthe Central Council

is to incite against the dictatorship,

and that will earn one going to the revolutionay court.

l was speaking out of conviction.

We have no time to deal with private convictions.

This is the conviction of evey communist.

l won't allow anyone outdo me in being on the left.

Remember: here and now it's only a personal question

whether you're a communist or not.

And nobody is interested in personal questions.

We now have a communist program of the Council Republic,

embraced by the united workers' parties,

and we are working and fighting for this program.

ln this fight even the last liberal social democrat is our ally.

And even if it was my own brother who wanted to disrupt us,

l would put him to the firing squad.

You can leave now, comrade Botos.

EVE_l_GS

How is our little patient doing? Here comes uncle doc.

Can't you see l'm fine?

ln this somber room?

l've thrown away all the bourgeois rubbish.

What about this dreadful guard?

You should take him away, too.

He's sitting here all day reading poems.

Be happyyou have a nurse.

ln such times one does not die of one's own illnesses.

What is the news?

There won't be a proletarian revolution in Vienna.

Adler's influence in workers' circles is too strong.

He managed to make them believe

that a proletarian dictatorship is doomed to fail from the outset.

This way he has destroyed all revolutionay hopes.

That's treason!

Moral responsibility lends a high moral standard

to the social democrats ofAdler's kind.

During the war Adler assassinated St�rgkh, out of moral responsibility.

'l am responsible forthe war if l don't do something against it#

_ow the same sense of responsibility twists him into a reactionay.

His sense of responsibility keeps him

from risking other people's lives, for an uncertain goal.

He is incapable of overcoming this dialectic.

lt is cowardice not to risk others' lives.

The Central Workers' Council, the papers, are cying because of the terror.

When the counter-revolution launches its attack, they shut up.

ln Kalocsatwo of our boys were killed, three ofthem wounded.

But they'll restart complaining tomorrow!

Like in those ancient Italian towns

where they hired a mercenay to destroy their enemies.

And afterthat they started to cy about what to do

with such a bloodthirsty man.

Then they killed him to make him the patron-saint ofthe town.

Like when the old Jews found a dead body in the town,

they washed and raised their hands,

'Our hands did not shed this blood and our eyes did not see it'.

He likes wine, don't pourwater in it!

Could you introduce me to your friend?

A thirsty comrade.

l'm not a comrade.

The simplification ofthe line starts with us.

As if it was still too complicated.

Deep water. Depth of the evenings, the girlish depth of white roses.

Stop speaking about depth. Speak about sharpness!

The sharpness of construction.

The construction of speech.

The depth of sharpness.

The nonsense oftoo much speech.

Deep thinkers.

These thoughts don't touch upon anything you could live with.

And the only possible answer to all this: Art.

The liberal art, that stands apart.

Exactly!

We used to openly say eveything and tyto realize what was right.

_ow suddenly we became diplomats, instead of comrades.

_obody is acting openly and freely.

Whoever has to exercise power,

cannot be as free as they used to be.

l believe your situation is difficult.

We must take injustice upon ourselves.

Much greater injustice than what happened to you.

The terror itself, maybe even against our own people.

lsn't that terror is aform ofthe control bythe masses,

in a fraught situation?

lf God posed the sin between Himself and me,

who am l to oppose it?

Join the Useless People's Party!

Articles:

All members are obliged to praise God

for He made them what they are.

They are obliged to feel fine in their shoes.

'Thanks to You who made me what l am,

a man of no use to anyone else.

Thanks for defending me from the arrogance of useful people'.

Go out on the street!

Show them the arrogance of their plans!

ldon'tbelieveworkmakes man a man.

Protest against the violent executors of concocted theories!

l ask your forgiveness, _ature.

Down with the tax-collectors of human faith!

''Rise up, pious lady,

the dawn is smiling,

with golden feather.._'

Kun and l have different views ofthe same question.

lt is not about who is the greater revolutionay.

Remember what comrade M�rton said about Adler?

Social democrats have lead the workers movement for decades.

But the revolution was realized by a handful of communists.

ls it at all possible for a single person or single social class

to realize both sides of the same dialectic?

And isn't there some division of labor within this dialectic

whereby the separate sides stand for themselves?

The responsibility of Kun is to maintain the given situation.

But isn't that irresponsible from the point of view

of the development of revolutionay dynamics?

lsn't it my responsibility to assume

that kind of irresponsibility he cannot assume?

These are things that come to the minds

of all true communists these days.

But they didn't do anything about them.

This doesn't mean that you're right.

The reprimand you received was entirely correct.

But don't wory!

Kun wouldn't exchange you for ten social democrats.

l'm not sure about that.

Look, dawn is breaking.

The Council Republic failed!

Hurrah!

The Council Republic is over!

Down with the functionaries in the Soviet House!

Down with them!

Hold on!

Counter-revolution! Counter-revolution!

The Council Republic is over!

Hurrah!

Down with the functionaries in the Soviet House!

Down with them!

Hold on!

Hold on orwe're going to shoot!

The proletarian dictatorship failed! Hurrah!

The Council Republic dejure does not exist.

lt is not a State, only a momentarily successful rebellion

by afew people.

lt is not supported by any social stratum.

lt can only survive through terror.

Thus the laws ofthe Council Republic don't exist.

This is not a court of law.

l'm quoting from premier K�rolyi:

''The Peace Conference in Paris decided

to put Hungay under militay control.

Their aim is to use ourterritoy as a spring-board

against the Russian Soviet Army.

l turn to the international proletariat for help.

l resign and give all powerto the Hungarian proletariat_'

The people assumed power when the ruling class could not,

and the people did not want to live in the old way anymore.

You are now before the court of law ofthe Hungarian Proletarian State,

for uprising and for high treason.

Your dictatorship isn't rooted in the will of the nation.

lt doesn't have either a majority, or even a minority behind it.

You've been inciting the workers for decades,

but the worker is not an adventurer.

We don't need you to speak for us!

This is not the power of the people but terrorism.

Our power is the workers' power.

lts majority is dynamic

which will be given its true meaning from the future ofthe revolution.

lt is a majority because it will lead the whole of humanityto freedom.

With terror! By treading fundamental democratic rights unde_oot!

The most fundamental democratic right is

that men can have a say overtheirfate.

That's what the workers want!

According to Marx violence is

the midwife of old societies pregnant with a new society.

The tool that makes social progress happen.

The State ofthis new era has to be democratic forthe proletarians,

and dictatorial against the bourgeoisie.

We have driven away the factoy owners and the landlords.

We have appropriated the capital and the large estates.

But that's onlythe start.

The bureaucrats are sitting eve_here,

waiting for the right moment to turn the worker into a meek beast again

and build their own power on his back.

''Our stone is readyto build with We will come, not you, to make it

Something big and sound Human and Hungarian''

So the workers duty is to crush them, togetherwith you!

Your aim is to abolish private property.

The aim is theft, the means are murder.

And to make it official-looking, you set up this tribunal

of which the members are as infants in the face of real law.

And they dispose above the lives and freedom of people!

These infants are much more righteous

than any previous form of adult oppression.

The Hungarian _ational State de facto does not exist.

lt only lives in the hearts.

You knowyour role veywell.

But you are wrong about one thing: your own survival.

When Hungaywill become once again a constitutional state,

the lawwill punish you.

The Council Republic will not destroy but organize national unity,

through the democracy of the people, the council system.

The internationalism of the proletariat is not any stronger

than the internationalism of capital and exploitation,

which is perpetrating a lawless intervention against us,

and to which the old lords of Hungay havejoined

like a bunch ofyelping dogs.

What l did, l did to restore legitimacy.

l don't feel guilty.

Soldiers! You are denying your religion,

your home county, your nation.

This is the greatest sin.

Forthis you will not be punished down here but in God's...

Fire!

The Lenin Boys' Division is about to be dissolved.

ln the same time, we take people's lives

out of a historical will directed towards the future.

All in the name of a relatively certain, inconsistent conviction.

You never differentiate between things.

Where are your doubts coming from now?

That all knowledge is only relatively safe?

Or that we act consciously and not under coercion?

Or simplythat we take people's lives?

Actually, from all and none ofthem,

rather from something that would link all this.

Faith?

Action never comes only from knowledge.

Lenin and Trockij could have understood the revolutionay situation

and kept sitting in their libray,

watching from the window like a meteorologist

whether the scientifically fore- casted storm will really come.

And then it might have not come.

Or at least not this one.

All knowledge will make man skeptical.

Hamlet is not able to act because he only knows.

_o-one would dare to stand at the head of a revolution

simply out of knowledge.

Thinking correctly only requires a correct theoy.

But in orderthat a man who knows good and bad can live and fight,

he needs faith and responsibility for his knowledge.

lf only l had the faith of Laci F�ldes...

Then yours would be the Kingdom of Heaven.

lf someone believes because he doesn't knowwhat he could know,

that's not faith.

That's even worse than your doubts.

Faith is a Promethean reality.

lnfantile faith is false purity.

There's no resurrection without the Mount of Olives.

_o! It's nonsense.

Zossimatold me once, 'l used to have a brother, he died.

He was asking the birds to forgive him#

lt might seem incomprehensible, still it was right.

Because eveything is like the ocean.

Eveything flows and mixes.

You start a movement at one point ofthe world

and it will echo at another point.

Be it nonsense to ask birds forforgiveness,

still, it would be betterfor all creatures near byyou,

if you were better and more animated.

Only a little better than normally.

Keep on your enthusiasm, even if it seems useless.

l understand nothing.

And l don't want to understand anything now.

l want to stick to facts.

l made up my mind long ago not to understand.

Why are you torturing me?

You're dear to me, Alyosha.

l will fight foryou.

l won't give you up to yourZossima.

l want to forgive, l want to embrace.

l don't want any more suffering.

But will forgive who has the right to forgive?

l don't want harmony!

Don't want it out ofthe love l bearto mankind.

Besides, too high a price has been placed on harmony.

l hasten to return my ticket of admission.

lt is not God that l do not accept.

l merely respectfully return him the ticket.

And while l'm on earth, l hasten to take my own measures.

This is rebellion.

Rebellion? l'm sory to hear you say so.

One can't go on living in a state of rebellion.

And l want to live.

l don't get it. What is he talking about?

About the revolution.

He revolts against injustice

and says you cannot live in a state of rebellion.

That's why he wants the revolution.

That's not rebellion.

What is the revolution?

To transform the social order.

With new inhumanities!

Call murder a revolution, it's still murder!

Since immense was the suffering of mankind

and they called upon him for so many ages,

Christ came back to the earth

when fires of the inquisition lighted the nights.

And again he walked among people,

healing the sick and raising the dead,

until the Grand Inquisitor appeared

to throw him in Prison.

And one night the door ofthe Prison opened.

The old man came alone to visit him.

ls it you? Do not answer, be silent.

And, indeed, what can you say?

You have no right to add anything

to what you have said already.

All that you might reveal anew

would encroach on men's freedom of faith,

for it would come as a miracle.

And their freedom of faith used to be dearest to you.

Was it not you who said so often:

'l shall make you free'?

What did Christ answer to this mockey?

Don't you see? He's silent.

You promised them bread from heaven.

But in the eyes ofthe weak,

always vicious and ignoble race of man,

can that compare with earthly bread?

We'll stand at the head ofthem

and take their freedom upon ourselves,

which is so frightening for them.

And we conceded to rule overthem.

Oh, this work is only beginning, but it has begun.

We shall have to wait a long time

and the earth will have yet much to suffer,

but we shall reach our goal.

And it is then that we shall think

about the universal happiness of man.

And all the millions of creatures will be happy.

We alone, we who guard the mystey,

we alone shall be unhappy.

They prophesy that you will come

and be victorious again.

But then l will point out to you

millions of happy children

who have never known sin.

And we who have taken their sins upon ourselves,

we shall stand before you and say:

'Judge us ifyou can and ifyou dare'.

Know, l am not afraid ofyou.

l shall burn you because you have come to meddle with us.

For if anyone has ever deserved our fire, it is you.

Tomorrow l shall burn you.

And Jesus is silent?

Jesus is silent.

What does his silence mean?

We are not silent! This parable doesn't work.

Communists don't suffer at all.

They feel pretty fine with their sacked goods.

They slouch around in the mansions

just like the counts used to do.

This is a new ruling class of greed, in the name ofthe communist ideal.

And whoevertells the truth, will be condemned to death orjail.

But this in praise ofJesus and not in his disparagement!

Your suffering Inquisitor is nothing but a fantasy.

What kind of secret are they guarding?

Maybe that they don't believe in God?

Maybe that they don't believe in God.

These Jesuits are simply after a universal government on earth.

lt's the most ordinay lust for dirty earthly gains,

afuture order of se_dom - that's all they are after.

Wait, wait.

N course it's a fantasy.

But you don't reallythink that the whole Catholic movement

is nothing but a lust for powerfor the sake of some dirty gains?

And, mind you, the deception is in the name of him

in whose ideal he believed so passionately all his life!

And even if at the head ofthe whole army of men carving for power

there were only one such man,

only one and he would be at the head ofthe movement...

And there must be one!

Christ would be silent the same.

Yes. He'd be silent.

l'll tell you the end ofthe stoy, ifyou don't mind.

lvan tells the end ofthe stoy:

The silence ofthe Prisoner distressed the Inquisitor.

He wanted him to say something, however bitter and terrible.

But the Prisoner quietly looked at him then approached the old man

and kissed him gently on his bloodless, aged lips.

The old man winced slightly

then he went to the door, opened it and said to him:

'Go, and come no more, never#

And he let him out into the dark streets ofthe city.

The Prisoner went away.

So what do we do next? Kiss B�la Kun's lips?

TO ARMS!

lf l go back to the army and die,

what's the use ofthat for me?

But what kind of life awaits us,

if the dictatorship fails?

The Red Army is the army ofthe people.

Our divisions bearthe names of Lenin, Trotsky, D�zsa, Luxemburg.

This army is stronger than any army before.

Let's arm ourselves, and victoy is assured!

But what's the use of it ifwe die?

lfwe win, the whole world will be ours.

What does consciousness mean?

To examine all our possibilities

and compare them to our life.

Consciousness bridges the gap that's wide open at our feet.

This bridge is class, unity and class-consciousness.

lfyou die, the whole thing is of no use foryou. That's true.

The nameless heroes of the revolution

will give name and meaning to the future.

And this future begins with the fights of the Red Army.

- How many are there? - _obody, so far.

-And this name? -An old veteran.

The monthly pay of a red soldier is 450 crowns,

plus a 50 crowns allowance after evey family member.

_ice money, no-one can deny it!

ln the Red _ews you could read the otherweek

that $O women and girls checked in as volunteers in the Red Army.

Will the men here be left behind bythe girls?

And the best of it is that

it makes sense to enroll in the Red Army

because the Russians are fast progressing through Romania

and at the Tisza our Red Army will meet the Russians.

Communist agitation must not be a pack of lies.

But we do need soldiers, don't we?

They used to get schnaps in the war before the charge.

That war served the interests of exploitation.

And our war serves the interests of the people, right?

Exactly.

Thank you. That's news to me.

Today, when the social democrat traitors use demagoguey

to raise the workers against us,

why shouldn't we use the same means for our goals?

You deny politics.

But we have to make use of it,

in the way Kun and Lenin are doing.

But what kind of politics?

The pursuit of individual wealth

was the means of class struggle waged from below.

But after our take-over it can serve the interests

of corruption and counter- revolutionay propaganda.

This way, we will soon have ourworker saying:

'Well, l'm a communist,

but l want the kind of communism the Americans have#

Hold on! Agitation today is far more complex than in the past.

We have to consider all the circumstances

and ty to achieve concret results.

That's our task.

You are not the only trustees of revolutionay truth.

Agitation should only hasten the progress of reality.

That's why you have to learn from reality and adapt yourself to it.

But we don't have to become

the caretakers of the present situation.

When do we sign on?

So you will come?

lt seems all of us must go.

How do we stand?

50 from Erzs�bet, 23 from Csepel.

�jpest?

Still uncertain. We only have 10 ofthem so far.

We have to make them accept the necessity of negotiations.

_ow we'll have the best agitators.

Young workers who are faithful to the ideals and trust our policies.

Trust is more important than faith.

l could reach an_here and anyone with these youths.

''Hungay is a small county compared to Russia.

Still, the Hungarian revolution can play a bigger role in histoy

than the Russian revolution did.

ln that advanced county

they take into consideration all our experiences.

They are determined about collectivization,

and since the ground is better prepared,

they can build socialism more methodically than us_'

This address of Lenin happily documents the fact

that the international proletariat is following our cause.

Our cause is part ofthe World Revolution.

What's going on?

A Russian comrade is giving a Iecture at the Agitators School.

Just arrived, straight from Moscow.

Going up?

- How long are you on duty? - Until 10 pm.

Will you drive me to the front tonight?

l'll tyto get the car.

Comrade Sirjev will be in Viennatomorrow,

to reveal to Europe this proof ofthe outrages ofthe White gangs.

We would prefer to project the film to the whole county

but we have no means of doing so.

You, comrade agitators, will understand from it

how determined we must be in our fight against the counter-revolution.

_ot with fake liberal humanism,

and not even with Christian Dostoyevsky-plays,

but with arms in hand.

All indecisiveness reduces the effectiveness of the dictatorship

and requires unnecessay sacrifice from the proletariat.

lfwe want to make the dictatorship more human,

we have to handle it even more firmly.

Let's make this film a weapon in our hands.

Tell eveyone about it, workers and soldiers.

Let's lead them to a relentless fight against the counter-revolution!

The situation ofthe Soviet Republic of Russia is vey hard.

The young soviet administration has to focus

on the counter-revolutionay interventions.

This fight is using up all our forces forthe time being.

The Genikin-gangs are raging all over Ukraine.

Recently they have occupied the whole Doneck-basin.

Wherever they go,

theirway is marked bythe mass graves of red soldiers

and ofthe population who supported them.

These corpses are often cruelly mutilated.

This roll offilm was found in a raid against the whites.

Pass on to Hungarian workers and soldiers what you've seen here.

Comrades! Let's do eveything to pre- vent the counter-revolution winning.

We must win!

We cannot fail in this war

because defeat here will mean the loss of eveything.

Comrades!

ln our situation the most appropriate form of agitation is the armed fight.

We don't know how the negotiations with the Entente will end.

One thing is sure: the fight will go on, and in this fight

evey agitator has to become a captain,

to organize and connect his own small unit with the fight ofthe Red Army.

To fight on the front and beyond the front, behind the enemy.

The people support us eve_here.

And evey small group will trigger the resistance as an avalanche.

Our place is in the armed struggle.

This kind of agitation damages more than it helps.

These agitator guys always know what to do and when.

_ot what you but what the given revolutionay situation dictates.

lt would be time to start creating situations

instead of only following what the situations dictate.

But you create strange situations.

First you make a speech for counter-revolutionaries,

then for worker-agitators.

But soldiers are fighting on the front

thanks to the agitators.

We'll fight ourselves when it will be necessay.

But necessity isn't always as striking as you imagine.

Or if it is, it's often too late.

lf the necessity of the fight resides in ourselves,

we must make it come true.

What are you planning to do?

First l'll present myself at the captaincythen we'll see.

lt would be good to cross behind the Romanian lines

and to organize the occupied territories.

Want me to drive?

- Can you? - l learned.

Could we swap scarves?

l had wanted to ask you but always forgot about it.

l couldn't find a red one like yours.

Here, take mine.

l don't need it.

Take it.

Write when you need me.

lt's as if eveything a man had done and thought were to strangle him.

Be careful or the false present will buy you.

Even the richest isolation is longing

for the dissolution of its borders.

And the enclosed pe_ection is carying its wounds.

The insurance is beyond yourself.

Cease-fire and waiting all along the Tisza.

_ow as you are over twenty-one,

it's time to get rid ofthe bad suit they call your self.

That's an alien product.

A distasteful past tailored onto you,

to make you the slave of it foryour entire life.

Cut the web entangled around your body.

Become a nameless, open device.

Make the fight your cold and objective function.

$th June.

Summer is hot and disintegrating, the past disintegrates with it.

The soldiers are tired of the long wait.

There are only afew of us.

All quiet on the eastern front.

Loose yourself and you'll win the future.

13th June.

l'm allowed to cross the river with a small division.

Our group is made up ofthree parts:

trained volunteers who had have enough of waiting;

a few party members whom we should bring

to the occupied towns;

and some tried and trusted guys who had fled from the other side.

There's a boywith me l know from the underground times.

_ot much food, more munitions.

We are going to cross the river at Tokaj.

27th June.

Birches and sand, just like in Russia.

lt's hot, most ofthe grass has been burnt out.

Forthe time being we avoid bigger places,

and stay in deserted farms.

The remaining population is intimidated

by the terrorist actions of the Romanians.

They are probably already aware of our presence,

since we entered a firefight,

and for a short time we occupied a mansion.

We can expect that a bigger unit will be sent against us.

We are heading for the south, towards more populated areas.

Do you remember? Once you told me,

'Ty to press your face into long grass

and you'll feel how good it is.

The ground is good, the grass, the trees.

They aren't neutral but good

because they don't want anything.

They don't impose tasks.

That's what bad humans, like us, need#

9th July.

lt's still hot, it hasn't rained forweeks.

We left Kisv�rda county behind,

where we had managed to stir the situation up a bit.

The Romanians fortified the Tisza-line, making it difficult for us to turn back.

The vegetation ofthe summer is spreading.

Time to get tough.

lt is important.

This kind of romantic revolutionarism of Botos has nothing to do

with the fight of the working class.

The fight of the working class will always find its ways.

You can agree, or disagree.

This is the onlything that exists.

This is good. There's no 'but's.

Do not identify yourself with the working class.

But l do. l'm aworker.

You are a communist.

A communist worker.

A communist functionay.

And your duty is to consider all political implications.

For a worker it's easy to decide whether a policy is good or bad for him.

He feels it.

The fight of the working class is one thing,

but the fight of one who has an overview, is another.

This cannot be settled by saying that you're aworker.

We are living a succession of emergencies

where you can only do one thing well.

But these emergencies shouldn't be overestimated.

Soon the moment will come when it will be ourthoughts

which direct the course and success of the events.

And then the trajectoy of these thoughts will matter.

That's atruism! It onlytells me that man is thinking.

Yes, but...

See? This 'but'.

You won't want to explain this 'but' to me.

lt's not for my stomach.

Something is either true or false.

This starts to be like the whole Botos-stoy.

He organized his unit in the front in the name ofthis 'but'

and caused the death ofthe best boys, unnecessarily.

Botos' death is another question.

Besides, it depends on the range of one's thinking.

See, here is yourweak point.

Easy self-justifications.

Even the smallest thing you do

requires permanent explanation.

, And then, without this 'but'

you have to lie to yourself and to others,

that eveything you did was right,

merely because you did them as well as you could.

But you cannot violate reality for vey long.

''Even if the revolutionay movement did not reach its goals,

it shall be seen as an important attempt.._'

Won't you bring the gramophone?

We're only going with you to the border.

There are two kinds of revolutionaythinking.

One is innocent:

the person is not detached from his immediate existence.

lt wants to improve what exists, therefore it acts.

The other one also wants to improve.

But it knows that it has to act, and assumes the action.

Both are relative.

ln the first case, action is relative:

'What's to be done? What can l do?'

ln the second case knowledge is relative:

'What l do know. What l could know#

And both want to transform histoy.

But histoy will slip through our fingers.

There's only one way of correct revolutionay thinking:

which is able to act the most appropriately in the given situation.

ln this sense there's as many types of correct thinking,

as there are revolutionay situations.

_ow and in the future we have to be aware ofthat.

While histoywill laugh up its sleeve.

We ourselves are histoy.

''Revolution is the onlyform ofwar

where victoy can only be prepared through a long line of defeats_'

-Who said that? - Rosa Luxemburg.

Cheer up! You'll come back soon.

l'm not sad.

We'll wait foryou at the station, with cars.

The cars will be painted red anew.

One machine-gun ahead, another in the rear, tac-tac-tac...

We have to stingy on the munitions.

We'll shoot only short rounds.

You've gone mad, G�bor. You want to stay here?

Run away before it's too late...

Why run? Why is eveybody so scared?

_o surprise an_ay that you are scared. But the workers!

The Krauss couple were hung yesterday in their own flat.

The man was cruelly...

Don't cy! Tell me instead who came?

The same gang was strolling twice in the neighborhood.

They were searching for you, too.

Varga will smuggle you across the border

in a driver's uniform.

Leave soon, people say Horthy will be here in aweek...

Stop it.

_ow it seems society has reversed beyond its starting point.

ln realitywe still have to create the starting point.

That situation, those relations and conditions

among which modern revolution can only become serious.

Bourgeois revolutions are running from success to success,

dramatic effects are created one after the other.

Men and things seem to be lit by an eternal flame.

Evey day is dominated by an ecstatic spirit.

But they are short lived.

They reach their climax soon, and society will be caught

by the feeling of su_eit before it learns

how to appropriate the results of this fermentation.

What are you thinking of?

l can have things to think of, can't l?

Sure you can. But listen:

''Proletarian revolutions, on the contray, criticize themselves permanently.

Their course is getting broken all the time.

They turn back to what had already been completed, to begin with again.

They cruelly mock at the awkward- ness of their own first attempts.

lt seems they onlyfloor their adversaries

so that they can draw more strength from the ground

and attack them anew, and more powe_ully.

They boggle again and again

at the undefined grandeur of their own goals,

until a situation is imposed in which all return will be impossible.

And then the reality will itself cy:

'Hic Rhodus, hic salta!'

Written by G�bor B�dy and Dezs� Magyar

based on works by F. M. Dostoyevsky, J�zsef Lengyel, George Lukacs, Ervin Sink�, Miss Tibor Szamuelly and V. Urasov

Cast:

and persons who lended their character to the film

Directed by Dezs� Magyar

Camera: Lajos Koltai