1936–1939

My dear Picasso,

I am coming from the hell that the Soviets have made out of Hungary. My first thought is to write to you and tell you that, unknowing, you have joined a society of bandits, who have been robbing, murdering and trampling my country for eleven years.

The communists demanded unanimity, but now, against their will, they managed to induce the hatred and contempt of their system.

Come and see Budapest with your own eyes and you’re going to see 50,000 houses demolished by Soviet tanks without a cause, not to mention the 70,000 dead and the 125,000 refugees so far. The Russians continually remove the rubble, but like Lady Macbeth, they will never be able to remove the red stain that covers Hungary.

Please use all your influence and authority, refer aloud to my witness’ account, and paint a new Guernica, much more terrible than the previous one.

It was not the fascists, not the bishops, not the feudal landlords who revolted against the system: it was factory workers, farmers, peasants and us, the intellectuals, the clenched fist raised against the communist order.

I’m not interested in ruins any more, neither the Colosseum, nor Pompeii, because one walks amongst ruins in Budapest as well, and one’s feet slips on the spilled guts of the corpses.

The mothers who have lost their sons or husbands don’t cry, but gouge out the eyes of the Russians who have turned their guns against them.

I don’t think there ever has been a nation in history that fought for its freedom so resolutely and dauntlessly, as they are not fighting to improve their quality of life, but for their liberation from the communist peril, from eleven years of slavery.

I would be glad if you could propagate this letter without mentioning my name, the account of a man deeply troubled by recent events. It would be fine to meet and talk personally. You know my esteem and affection for you, that has lasted more than 50 years, and so I send my handshake.

Béla Czóbel

Béla Czóbel: Letter to Pablo Picasso
15 December 1956
Musée national Picasso-Paris
Don Succession Picasso, 1992;
515AP/C/34/8/9 (1)
Leleu, Nathalie: Budapest, Hungary, 1956 in the Private Archives of Pablo Picasso, in: Bouvard, Emilie – Tóth Ferenc: Picasso – Transfigurations, 1895-1972 [Exhibition catalogue], Budapest 2016, 129.