The Imperialist Dogs Bark, But The Communist Graph Goes On
Cartoons showing charts in the service of communist propaganda in Hungary in the 1950s
As a side-project of my doctoral research on the history of information graphics in Hungary, I was curious about how charts were used in humorous cartoons. Therefore this article focuses on just a short episode on the timeline of Hungarian historic information graphics, but hopefully, in the near future, I will write a series of articles about the topic.
The most popular cartoon of the Communist era was the satirical weekly Ludas Matyi, which was re-launched in 1945 after World War II (the first issue was published in 1867). It had a circulation of around 600,000 copies in its heyday. The cartoon was named after the fictitious folk hero Ludas Matyi, who revolted against feudal tyranny sometime in the 18th-Century. The character was created by the poet and botanist Mihály Fazekas in 1804, but the first version of the novel Ludas Matyi was published later, in 1815.
In the beginning, Ludas Matyi was politically ‘independent’ despite the common knowledge that the pamphlet was produced by the communist Hungarian Working People’s Party. By the 1950s, as Mátyás Rákosi’s role as the first secretary of the state (similar position to the president) evolved into a dictatorship, the cartoon became more sectarian. It began to be used as a propaganda tool targeting the enemies of the state (practically everyone outside the world of communism) while celebrating the Communist lifestyle, economy, politics, policies, and politicians. During its existence, most of the best Hungarian cartoonists and caricaturists worked for the magazine. The cartoon was closed in 1993.
What is surprising is that while the general press of the Communist era rarely used graphs and charts in Hungary, Ludas Matyi published cartoons showing charts frequently. One reason might be is that Hungary was obsessed with charts at workplaces and schools due to the directives laid down in the economic “Five-year plan” introduced first in 1950 (before that we had a “Three-year plan”). It’s entertaining to read the naive production reports, memoirs, and narratives on how mandatory it was to hang large tableaus of productivity in every workplace showing the performance of workers and students, as well as how effective this practice was according to the authors. Therefore charts were used to reward those who fulfill the Stahanovist expectations, and to shame those who could not perform as was expected.
Communist regimes were proud of their economic “success”. Charts were used as data-based evidence to highlight the skyrocketing productivity of the industry, the non-existent unemployment, the social welfare, the impeccable health care and educational systems in large exhibitions, and state celebrations on state television, students’ books, and journal papers (it is yet to be investigated the almost entire lack of information graphics in the newspapers and magazines). Naturally most of the the data behind the charts were manipulated or even fabricated by state institutions just to accomplish the numbers expected by the “Five-years plan”. The Western press used to be — at least — rightly skeptical about Communist statistics and data, and charts became instruments of the information warfare between the “imperialist liar in the West” and the “peacefully thriving Communist” block.
The cartoons that I’ve selected (out of a couple of dozen) for this article reflect these two directions of propaganda. Sadly, some of them could be published nowadays by partisan alt-right and leftist media as they use the same messages for propagandistic communication.
1. Unknown artist: French graph from the last week
Schuman (Prime Minister of France in 1947): „Be proud, Marianne, look how nicely the graph is increasing!”
Marianne: „The productivity?”
Schuman: „No, the number of strikers.”
2. Lajos Schwott: What should not exist…
Vol. 5. №5 28/01/1949, p. 2.
„This graph shows that the number of charts are increasing.”
3. Lajos Schwott: There is nice graph in America too
Vol. 5. №40. 30/09/1949, p. 3.
“What a nice growing graph, Sir! Productivity?
“No, Sir. Bankruptcies.
4. Jenő Pályi: Answer to Tito
Vol. 5. No 41. 07/10/1949. p. 6.
“Sir Marshall Tito, new answer from Hungary arrived regarding the Rajk-case”
“Is this an answer?”
“Yes, Sir. This graph shows the increasing productivity.”
Background: László Rajk, who is mentioned in the cartoon, was a Communist high official and politician, who served as the main figure in establishing Rákosi’s dictatorship. He was also amongst the organizers of the State Protection Authority, the main terror-body of the regime. Later he was accused of treason by Rákosi, who saw Rajk as a threat to his power. Rajk sympathized with Yugoslav leader Tito, who was accused by Stalin as imperialist and dog of the West. Thus Rajk was labeled as “Titoist spy” during his trial, which eventually led to his execution on 19th October 1949. This cartoon is mocking on Tito as well as on Rajk.
5. Félix Kassowitz ’Kasso’: Productivity graph
Vol. 6. №8 02/016/1950. p. 2.
“Hey bureaucrat! Come down from that graph or I will take you down from there! Because of you, the graph can’t increase!”
6. Károly Sándor: Clever propaganda idea by the director of Statistics Bureau of London
Vol. 6. №43 20/10/1950, p. 2.
“You know, mister president, we had only one graph showing an increase. I thought that I should print it huge!”
The title of the large graph reads “Costs of living”. The small, decreasing graphs show numbers on export, birth-rate, milk, egg, meat consumption, numbers of published books, etc.
7. Jenő Pályi: In a Hungarian mine
Vol. 6. №50. 08/12/1950, p. 4.
“When comrade Rákosi was here?”
“Look at the graph! 10th November!”
8. József Szűr Szabó: The Soviet Five-Year Plan and the Imperialist Press
Vol. 7. №19 10/05/1951 p. 5.
“The dogs bark, but the graph — goes on.”
9. József Szűr Szabó: Let’s go!
Vol. 7. No 52. 27/12/1951 p. 7.
“Hey man, why are you hanging that graph of 1952 so high?”
“Because it should follow a linear growth.”
10. Lajos Schwott: On the shift of the Soviet-Hungarian friendship
Vol. 8. No 9. 28/02/1952 p. 2.
Reakcy Jóska: „Aha! Perfect” The productivity graph is decreasing!”
Reakcy Jóska: „Oh no! The graph of the wasted production is decreasing!”
Background: the cartoon shows two capitalists, one’s name is Reakcy Jóska (Joseph Reactionist), a popular cartoon figure of Ludas Matyi impersonating the bourgeois right-wing capitalist-imperialist. In Hungary, the family name ending with “y” often has an aristocratic background. Many aristocratic and non-aristocratic families changed their ending “y” to “i” after the II WW to avoid communist abuses and harassment. Strange enough that my grandfather, Lajos Bátorfi, who was a hardcore communist, changed his “i” to “y”. I don’t know why.
11. Félix Kassowitz ’Kasso’: The lazy… and his effect on productivity
Vol. 8. No 9. 28/02/1952 p. 4.
12. Károly Sándor: The graph cuts in
Vol. 8. №25. 09/06/1952 p. 5.
“Listen pal, don’t dream about your good performance until you don’t pay attention to accuracy and quality!”
Interestingly cartoons showing graphs suddenly disappeared almost entirely after 1952 from Ludas Matyi. One reason could be that after the death of Stalin in 1953, the Soviets wanted to end the personal cult of “The Best Disciple of Stalin” Rákosi in Hungary. Rákosi stayed in power until 1956.
Ludas Matyi rarely published this kind of cartoon again, if so, they were not blatantly propagandistic, what’s more, sometimes they reflected critical remarks on communism highlighting the absurdity and stupidity of the system. Many of them were created by those cartoonists who drew the propaganda ones many years before.
All issues of Ludas Matyi are digitized and available here.
