András Sütő (17 June 1927 – 30 September 2006) was an
ethnic Hungarian journalist, writer, playwright and politician from
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...
, one of the leading writers in the
Hungarian language
Hungarian () is an Uralic language spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighbouring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary, it is also spoken by Hunga ...
in the 20th century.
Early life and education
Sütő was born into a poor peasant family in
Cămărașu ( hu, Pusztakamarás),
Cluj County
Cluj County (; german: Kreis Klausenburg, hu, Kolozs megye) is a county (județ) of Romania, in Transylvania. Its seat ( ro, Oraș reședință de județ) is Cluj-Napoca (german: Klausenburg).
Name
In Hungarian, it is known as ''Kolozs megye' ...
, in the
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the ...
region of Romania. He received his primary and secondary school education in the Reformed College of
Aiud
Aiud (; la, Brucla, hu, Nagyenyed, Hungarian pronunciation: ; german: Straßburg am Mieresch) is a city located in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. The city's population is 22,876. It has the status of municipality and is the 2nd-largest c ...
and in the Reformed
gymnasium in
Cluj
; hu, kincses város)
, official_name=Cluj-Napoca
, native_name=
, image_skyline=
, subdivision_type1 = County
, subdivision_name1 = Cluj County
, subdivision_type2 = Status
, subdivision_name2 = County seat
, settlement_type = City
, le ...
. After secondary school, he studied
stage directing at the ''Szentgyörgyi István College of Dramatic Arts'' in Cluj.
Career
Journalism
Sütő quit college to become the editor in chief of the ''
Falvak Népe'' weekly. He moved to
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...
in 1951 because the editorial office was relocated there. Sütő could not identify himself with the political environment of the 1950s in the capital and returned in 1954 to
Târgu Mureș
Târgu Mureș (, ; hu, Marosvásárhely ) is the seat of Mureș County in the historical region of Transylvania, Romania. It is the 16th largest Romanian city, with 134,290 inhabitants as of the 2011 census. It lies on the Mureș River, th ...
, in Transylvania, where he edited ''Igaz Szó'', a literary magazine. He held this post till 1957, after which he edited ''Uj Élet'', an illustrated magazine, until 1989.
Literature
Sütő's first work (''A Letter to a Romanian Friend'') was published by the Hungarian-language ''
Világosság'' journal in Cluj, when he was 18. His writing career ranged across genres, with short stories (''Félrejáró Salamon'', 1955), satire (''Pompás Gedeon'', 1967), historical drama (''Egy lócsiszár virágvasárnapja'', 1974; ''Csillag a máglyán'', 1974; ''Szuzai menyegzo'', 1981), and myth and folklore (''Káin és Abel'', 1977; ''Advent a Hargitán'', 1987). The dramas, in particular, ''probed the duty of the individual, confronted by arbitrary authority, to preserve his dignity and identity even at the cost of his life''.
[
He served as vice-president of the Writers' Association of Romania between 1974 and 1982.][
From 1980, aiming to curb his dissent against the ]Nicolae Ceaușescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He w ...
regime's repression of Romania's Hungarian minorities, András Sütő's works were banned from publication and presentation. Consequently, between 1980 and 1989 he could publish only in Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
. During this period, he and his family were constantly harassed by the authorities and the Securitate
The Securitate (, Romanian for ''security'') was the popular term for the Departamentul Securității Statului (Department of State Security), the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. Previously, before the communist regi ...
.[
]
Politics
A committed Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
, Sütő was a member of the Great National Assembly Great National Assembly or Grand National Assembly may refer to:
* Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia, an assembly of Romanian delegates that declared the unification of Transylvania and Romania
* Great National Assembly (Socialist Republic of ...
, the parliament of Communist Romania
The Socialist Republic of Romania ( ro, Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the Romanian Peop ...
, between 1965 and 1977. He was also an alternate member of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that wou ...
from 1969 to 1984. But his observations of the fate of the indigenous Romanian and Hungarian villagers in Transylvania under forced collectivisation in the 1950s and his discontent with the increasing centralisation of political power brought him into disfavour from the Ceaușescu government. Increasingly he also opposed the regime's pressure to "homogenise" the various nationalities in the country, such as restrictions against the use of the Hungarian language.[
By the time of Ceaușescu's removal from power during the ]Romanian Revolution
The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred ...
of 1989, Sütő was a well-known public figure, respected for his support of the rights of the Hungarian people in Romania.[
]
Awards
In 1979, Sütő was awarded the Herder Prize The Herder Prize (german: Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis), named after the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), was a prestigious international prize awarded every year from 1964 to 2006 to scholars and artists from Central and Sou ...
.
He also received the Gábor Bethlen Prize (1990), and the Kossuth Prize
The Kossuth Prize ( hu, Kossuth-díj) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1948 (on occasion of the centenary of the March 15th revolution, the d ...
(1992).
Later life
Sütő had his eye gouged out during the 1990 ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureș
The ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureș (also called ''Black March'', hu, Fekete Március) refer to violent incidents against the Hungarian ethnic group in Târgu Mureș and surrounding settlements in Transylvania, Romania in March 1990. The c ...
, and had to undergo treatment in Hungary. He died on 30 September 2006 in Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, where he was undergoing treatment for cancer.
Selected works
Drama
*''Mezítlábas menyasszony'' (''Barefoot Bride''), 1950
*''Pompás Gedeon'' (''Gedeon the Pompous''), 1967
*''Csillag a máglyán'' (''Star at the Stake''), 1974
*''Egy lócsiszár virágvasárnapja'' (''The Palm Sunday of a Horse Dealer''), 1975
*''Káin és Abel'' (''Cain and Abel''), 1977
*''Advent a Hargitán'' (''Advent in the Hargita Mountain''), 1985
*''Alomkommandó'' (''Dream Commando''), 1987
*''Balkáni gerle'' (''Collared Dove''), 1999
Novels and short stories
*''Félrejáró Salamon'' (''By-Stepping Salomon''), 1956
*''Anyám könnyű álmot ígér'' (''Mother Promises a Light Dream''), 1970
Essays and memoirs
*''Engedjétek hozzám jönni a szavakat'' (''Let the Words Come to Me''), 1977
*''Perzsák'' (''Persians''), 1981
*''Szemet szóért'' (''Eye for a Word''), 1993
External links
Sütő's digitalised works
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suto, Andras
1927 births
2006 deaths
People from Cluj County
Romanian people of Hungarian descent
Romanian dramatists and playwrights
Romanian essayists
Romanian newspaper editors
Romanian male novelists
Hungarian-language writers
Hungarian male dramatists and playwrights
Hungarian essayists
Male essayists
Hungarian journalists
Hungarian male novelists
20th-century Romanian novelists
20th-century Hungarian dramatists and playwrights
20th-century essayists
20th-century Romanian male writers
20th-century Hungarian male writers
20th-century Romanian dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Hungarian novelists
20th-century journalists
Members of the Great National Assembly
Herder Prize recipients
Deaths from skin cancer
Deaths from cancer in Hungary
Romanian Communist Party politicians