As the Russians wanted to offer Transylvania secretly. Refusal received by Soviet leader Leonid Brejnev
After decades, it is revealed that the Soviet leader Leonid Brejnev would have proposed to the Hungarian communist leader János Kádár to give him Transylvania. What reason he invoked to refuse the offer.
The two communist leaders, Janos Kadar and Leonid Brejnev. Photo: Facebook
Few know that Hungarian communist leader János Kádár suffered a deep flight. In the air, anxiety made him more vulnerable and sometimes caused him to reveal political secrets of huge historical importance. The witnesses of these moments include the flight engineer Sándor Nagyváthy, the one to whom János Kádár told about a shocking proposal coming from Moscow: the idea of giving Transylvania.
The Hungarian press recently brought back to the story of Sándor Nagyváthy, now 76, one of the veterans of the Malév airline. For decades, he was a flight engineer on aircraft carrying party leaders, including János Kádár.
“If Nagyváthy is on board, we don't have to worry”often said the communist leaders, for whom the presence of the engineer aboard the plane was certainly synonymous. In this way, without politically involved, Sándor Nagyváthy became a witness of moments of maximum confidentiality, mere discussions during the flight, but with huge implications.
Withdrawn to retirement, Sándor Nagyváthy is today a guide to the Ferihegy Aeronautical Museum, where visitors walk among the vintage aircraft near the Liszt Ferenc International Airport in Budapest. However, beyond the technical explanations, the old aviator now reveals stories that he has long been forced to keep silent.
János Kádár's confessions
János Kádár, the leader of Hungary for several decades, was known in the circles close to his phobia to the flight. In the air, he was trying to dominate his anxiety either through trivial conversations, jokes, or through political confidences.
“He did not want to be surrounded only by people who saw his authority. On the plane, he stood like everyone else, visibly tense, and sometimes revealed things that he would not have said elsewhere.” Sándor Nagyváthy told Blikk.
Brejnev's proposal: Transylvania back to Hungary
One of the most interesting memories of the former engineer dates back to 1971, during a flight to return from an official visit to Bucharest. Visibly disturbed after tense discussions with Nicolae Ceausescu, Kádár would have confessed to Nagyváthy an incredible secret, namely that the head of the Soviet Socialist Party, Leonid Brejnev, seriously considered Transylvania with Hungary.
“Kádár flew to Bucharest on a plane just like this, but he quarreled with Ceausescu and embarked on the visibly upset return. On this chair. the old man confessed over decades.
