The group of the so-called "folk writers" (Hungarian: népi írók), including Zsigmond Móricz or János Kodolányi, expressed critique of capitalism and emphasis on peasant society and land reform.

In December, Göncz was conscripted into the 25th Reserve Mountain Infantry Battalion of the Royal Hungarian Army and ordered to Germany; however, he deserted and joined the resistance movement.

[11] Following the Soviet occupation of Hungary, Göncz joined the anti-communist Independent Smallholders' Party (FKGP), which won a sweeping victory (57.03%) in the November 1945 parliamentary election, however the party had to yield to Marshal Kliment Voroshilov (Chairman of the Allied Control Commission), who made it clear that a grand coalition in which the Communists preserved the gains already secured (that is, the Ministry of the Interior and control over the police) was the only kind of government acceptable to the Soviets.

The Revolutionary Council of Hungarian Intellectuals, members were writers, journalists etc., issued statements of protest against the Soviet army's invasion and appealed for help and mediation from the Western world.

One of the most influential writings was the Draft Proposal for a Compromise Solution to the Hungarian Question by intellectual István Bibó, who also served as Minister of State in the second and third government of Imre Nagy.

[25] He handed over Bibó's draft proposal to charge d'affaires Rahman in December 1956, however India's mediation attempt ended in failure due to lack of interest in the Soviet Union.

[26] Göncz also helped to transfer a manuscript of Imre Nagy ("On Communism in Defense of New Course") abroad, through the assistance of László Regéczy-Nagy, driver to Christopher Lee Cope, head of the British Legation in Budapest.

According to György Litván, the senior party functionaries, who did not speak foreign languages, established a "translation agency" in the Vác prison to learn about the information available to Western public opinion.

Some of his notable translations include E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime and World's Fair,[40][41] Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Thomas Wolfe's Of Time and the River, William Faulkner's Sartoris, The Sound and the Fury, the latter being referred by Göncz to as his "greatest challenge.

and A Fable, Ernest Hemingway's Islands in the Stream, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, William Styron's Lie Down in Darkness and The Confessions of Nat Turner, John Ball's In the Heat of the Night, Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds, Yasunari Kawabata's The Lake, John Updike's Rabbit Redux and Rabbit is Rich, and The Inheritors, Pincher Martin, The Spire and The Pyramid and Rites of Passage by William Golding.

In early 1988, Göncz was a co-founding member of the Historical Justice Committee (TIB) civil organization,[50] which intended to revise the official communist stigmatization of the 1956 revolution.

[51] When the security forces violently disbanded a peaceful demonstration in Budapest on 16 June 1988, the 30th anniversary of Nagy's execution, Árpád Göncz, as Vice Chairman of the Historical Justice Committee, wrote a letter to General Secretary and Prime Minister Károly Grósz, Kádár's successor to protest against the police action and called on the regime to face its past.

[53] Finally (due to the appointment of the reformist Miklós Németh as Prime Minister in November 1988) the reburial took place in the next year on 16 June, Göncz took part in organizing, as he proposed, there was a fifth empty coffin beside the four martyrs' for the anonymous heroes and freedom fighters of the revolution.

The MSZMP suggested a directly elected semi-presidential system, however this proposal was strongly refused by the sharply anti-communist SZDSZ and Fidesz,[59] because the reformer communist Imre Pozsgay was the most popular Hungarian politician in those months.

Political scientist László Lengyel argued that Göncz was a relatively unknown figure for the MDF leadership, who considered him "far more moderate" than other SZDSZ politicians, contrary to other candidate aspirants, like Miklós Vásárhelyi or György Konrád.

[77] Göncz's commitment towards the Western world earned some domestic negative criticism; in 1991, the far-right politician István Csurka, later defector from MDF and founder of the nationalist Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP) accused him of being a tool of France, Israel, and the United States.

[82] Despite the earlier conflicts, the seriously ill Antall was awarded Grand Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit by President Árpád Göncz on 11 December 1993, a day before his death.

[83] In October 1990, the so-called "taxi-blockade" broke out when the Antall government decided to raise the prices of petrol with 65 percent because of the Gulf War and oil supply disruptions in the Soviet Union.

[87] Political scientist Gabriella Ilonszki argued that the "taxi-blockade was the first test of the new democracy and Göncz sought to avoid the violent actions of both sides at all costs.

"[104] In May 1992, a liberal and constitutionalist, Göncz faced a parliamentary censure when he condemned the government for interfering with Hungary's state radio service and attempting to fire its director, Gombár.

[107] Another key factor to the stalemate was the ambiguous ruling issued by the Constitutional Court (also under the influences of political parties, which delegated members) and its subsequent interpretations by Göncz and Antall.

[109] Imre Kónya, the leader of the MDF parliamentary group rejected the accusations and called for an explanation from Göncz, who responded that the disputed phrases were only the "journalist's individual interpretation."

[110] During the May 1994 parliamentary election, the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), legal successor of the ruling MSZMP in the one-party system before 1989, under the leadership of Gyula Horn, achieved a remarkable revival, winning an overall majority of 209 seats out of 386, up from 33 in 1990.

[113] However, as mentioned above, Göncz remained passive too during Viktor Orbán's first cabinet (1998–2002),[80] which installed a more power-concentrated governing structure through the newly established Prime Minister's Office (MEH), led by István Stumpf.

His proactive style became a subject of critics, and the Constitutional Court repeatedly ruled in favor of the Prime Minister, thus Göncz reviewed his previous position and turned to a ceremonial role.

Following debates between the two governing parties, the Horn cabinet made a compromise solution: the MPs could keep their economical positions, if their post in business was acquired before they were elected to the National Assembly.

[138] On 10 February 2012, hundreds welcomed Göncz with serenades and speeches on the occasion of his 90th birthday, at the initiative of composer and songwriter János Bródy, writer György Konrád and former SZDSZ leader Gábor Kuncze.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the governing Fidesz told in a statement that "we remember [Göncz] with respect as an active and important political player in those years when Hungary stepped on the road from dictatorship to democracy".

[149] On 12 October 2015, Speaker László Kövér said in the next first full plenary session that "the life path of Göncz coincided with major events in Hungary's 20th century history".

"[154] In accordance with his last will and testament,[155] Göncz was buried near the graves of his late friends and fellow '56 prisoners, István Bibó, György Litván and Miklós Vásárhelyi at the Óbudai cemetery on 6 November 2015, without official state representation and military honour.