Karl Who?

"The educator himself needs educating," wrote that famous critic of capitalist society, Karl Marx. But the comment might apply equally well to Communist Hungary, where a recently published poll has revealed some shocking historical misconceptions in the minds of Marx's progeny. Conducted in 1976-77 by an official government youth agency, the poll quizzed a representative sampling of 814 Communist youth leaders ages 14 through 30. The results, published in last month's issue of Ifju Kommunist (Young Communist), show an almost counterrevolutionary ignorance about Communist history.

Of those polled, 17% knew nothing about Lenin, 31% knew nothing about Stalin and 42% knew nothing about Khrushchev. According to one confused youth leader, Stalin was "commander in chief of the Germans and was finally shot in the head." Two thought Khrushchev was "the President of the United States in the early '60s," while a third identified the desk-pounding former Premier as "the first man to go into space."

In publishing the results, Ifju Kommunist placed a large part of the blame on both the school system and the news organs for their neglect of history and the humanities in general. But to some outside observers, the situation seemed to confirm another phrase from the prolific pen of Marx: "All great historic facts and personages recur twice--once as tragedy, and once as farce."

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