Parliament overwhelmingly passed legislation Friday providing for Hungary's first free elections in 42 years and agreed to proclaim Hungary a republic on Monday - the anniversary of the 1956 revolution crushed by Soviet tanks.
In a dramatic climax to a historic week at which numerous measures were adopted to transform Hungary from a one-party communist state to a Western-style democracy, the Parliament voted to declare Oct. 23 a national day of commemoration.It also accepted the recommendation of Prime Minister Miklos Nemeth that Speaker Matyas Szuros declare Hungary a republic from the balcony of Parliament at noon Monday - precisely 33 years after the first mass demonstrations for political reforms that were put down by the Red Army.
In propelling Hungary toward Western-style democracy, the lawmakers also declared a rehabilitation for all who were declared guilty of political crimes and interned "in an unlawful matter" between 1945 and 1963.
Lawmakers also voted overwhelmingly Friday to disband the dreaded Workers Militia, with only six "no" votes and 31 abstentions.
The 60,000-strong volunteer armed police force was created after the 1956 uprising by the now defunct Hungarian Socialist Workers Party, or Communist Party. Communist reformists dissolved the Socialist Workers Party earlier this month and created the new Hungarian Socialist Party.
The legislators asked the government to provide a proposal on paying damages to those who suffered for their political views. It is estimated that between 1949 and 1953 alone, 1 million people - more than 10 percent of the population - suffered in some manner because of their political beliefs.
The government had already rehabilitated those persecuted as a result of the 1956 revolution.
The student demonstration in Budapest on Oct. 23, 1956, calling for free elections and national independence, was quickly joined by other sectors of society and by Oct. 30 a new government under Imre Nagy promised a multiparty democracy and the removal of Soviet troops.
In November, Hungary withdrew from the Warsaw Pact and was invaded by Soviet troops. In its wake, nearly 6,000 people were killed, 13,000 wounded, 200,000 fled the country and 40,000 were imprisoned, detained or tortured, according to government figures.
The militia will cease to exist on the date the new act is published, in about two weeks. A government commissioner will be appointed to deal with personnel issues and the Finance Ministry will freeze all its assets. Its weaponry, which includes small arms and other equipment for combat units, will be turned over to the Defense Ministry.
"No armed force, apart from the army and the police, may function in this country," Deputy Justice Minister Gyula Boricz told Parliament. "No armed national guard can be organized for political reasons."
The headlong rush to democracy in Hungary has far outstripped events in Poland, the other reformist Warsaw Pact state, where last June's elections were only partially free and which is not expected to consider a new constitution until next year.
The upcoming elections will be the first free elections since 1947, when the various political parties were allowed to run candidates. However, the communists rigged those election results and two years later installed a Soviet-type constitution declaring Hungary a one-party state.
Parliament approved a separate law Friday calling for election of a new president of the republic. A recommendation by a political party or group backed by the signatures of 50,000 electors is required for nomination.
The leading candidate for state president is Imre Pozsgay, the leading reformist in the new Hungarian Socialist Party.
The proposed date for the presidential election is Nov. 25, but two opposition groups - the Young Democrats and the Alliance of Free Democrats - have collected enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue and the election may be postponed.
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Journals being returned
The Hungarian Interior Ministry says it will return all underground journals called samizdat and printing machines that police seized from independent writers and publishers between 1983 and 1988.
The ministry did not say how much equipment or samizdat had been confiscated. It said, however, that just one copy of each confiscated samizdat work remained in the archives as the rest had been destroyed.
One of the best known underground or samizdat journals, Beszeloe, is now legally sold on Hungarian newsstands and published regularly.