ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the Rajk trial was perfectly logical and perfectly "native" in terms of what the Hungarian Communist central leadership was then undertaking. The clashes were much more a function of a typical and very important ingredient of the captive mind what call "voluntary service by imitation." Known and admired by a vast range of people within the Party, Rajk had risen very high; consequently his arrest as an American Imperialist agent, and Titoist spy, unsettled virtually the entire Party membership. The selection of Rajk's "accomplices" at the show trial was equally astute. In 1947, a front was a principal instrument for furthering the "Revolution." The feardriven contribution made the trial more than needs be credible. The sort of unequivocal leadership endorsement of the trial made all the more effective as an instrument of terror in 1949.
