communism

Today is the memorial day of the victims of communism in Hungary

Today is the memorial day of the victims of communism in Hungary

Officials commemorated the memorial day for the victims of communism on Sunday.

Speaking at a ceremony at the House of Terror Museum in Budapest, interior ministry state secretary Bence Retvari said violence was a fundamental aspect of communism, and “the left always looks the other way when it comes to violence”.

“The red fog first descended on our country in 1919,” claiming more than 500 victims, according to some sources, he said.

During the second communist dictatorship, 700,000-800,000 people were taken to Gulag camps, of whom 300,000 never returned, Retvari said. A million criminal proceedings were launched, with mainly members of the peasantry and the working class being put on trial, he added, paying tribute to the 1,200 people who were executed and the 200,000 who fled the country in 1956.

Violence is a fundamental aspect of communism, he said, noting that a year ago, far-left Antifa groups had assaulted passers-by on the streets of Budapest. “Extremists think they’re allowed to resort to violence to upset the social order,” the state secretary said.

Some of the victims
Some of the victims’ photos in the House of Terror in Budapest. Photo: MTI

He said that if communists failed to seize power, “they try to take a detour, by first seizing ideological power”. The victims of communism need to be remembered so that history “becomes ingrained in our central European DNA, and to warn western Europeans . that far-left ideas must be rejected”, he added.

Retvari said certain politicians tended to “look the other way” when it came to Antifa attacks or when other politicians use violence.

Moderates reject violence, and those who defend it are always extremist political forces, he said.

Mária Schmidt, the director of the House of Terror Museum, said those who were born during the fall of communism in 1989-90 and are now parents themselves had a duty to pass on to their children their knowledge of how their grandparents and great-grandparents lived.

She said this was not easy, because some still had an interest in keeping children from learning the truth about communist dictatorships. The memorial day is needed to keep repeating the truth about the tragedy of the communist dictatorship, she added.

Réka Földváry Kiss, the head of the National Remembrance Committee, said the memorial day was not just about the personal tragedy of independent smallholder politician Béla Kovács, who was arrested and deported to the Soviet Union of in 1947, but also about confronting the fact that if communists gain power, then anyone can end up being a victim.

Földváry Kiss, János Latorcai, deputy speaker of parliament, László Géza Sömjéni, head of the Freedom Fighters Foundation, and Csongor Csáky, head of the Rákóczi Association, laid a wreath at the Monument of National Martyrs.

Under a parliamentary decree, February 25 has been observed as a memorial day of martyrs of communism since 2000. On this day in 1947, leader of the Independent Smallholders’ Party Béla Kovács was illegally detained and deported to the Soviet Union.

Read also:

  • Orbán does not allow disclosure of the former Hungarian communist state agents – Read more HERE
  • Russian media: 1956 revolution in Hungary organised by Western powers – Details in THIS article

Jobbik wants MPs’ communist-era secret police files released to public

Hungarian parliament

The opposition Jobbik-Conservatives has submitted to parliament proposals to investigate MPs’ activities in the communist secret police before the 1989 regime change and to defenestrate lawmakers who were spies and collaborators.

It is especially important to identify lawmakers who worked as members or agents of the state party’s secret service, Jobbik lawmaker Zoltán Sas, who also heads parliament’s national security committee, told a press conference on Monday. Sas has submitted two proposals to parliament on investigating sitting and former lawmakers.

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Hungarian House Speaker fears resurgence of communism

lászló kövér tranzit festival

Western states are currently attempting to “reload communism”, Speaker of Parliament László Kövér said at the Tranzit festival in Tihany, in western Hungary, on Saturday.

Hungary “already tried [communism], and we’d like to stay out of it this time,” he said at the festival.

“World-changing ideas often break to the surface, but the method’s always the same and brings with it the pre-eminence of ‘me'”, Kövér said. The approach of young liberal leaders shows a “striking resemblance” to the erstwhile Communist leaders of Hungary, he said.

Kövér said the most important task was to protect young people from the “trap of far-left ideas, manifesting in gender ideology and wokeism, among others.” That task requires strong families capable of protecting children, and an education system willing to step in and impart values and ways to live as a community if the families are weak, he said.

Mária Schmidt, the director of the House of Terror Museum, said communist ideology had strengthened in the West after the 1990s, “giving rise to the LGBTQ and Black Lives Matter movements, which are just as aggressive as cancel culture, a mirror image of the Chinese cultural revolution,” she said.

At another discussion at the festival, Fidesz MEP Balázs Hidvéghi called for a return to the original values of the EU. “The question is whether the EU can return to its earlier, effective functions while respecting the sovereignty of its member states, its founding principles and its own regulations, or whether it continues to move towards even more doctrinaire, narrow, aggressive policies which weaken its global roles and risk its partnerships,” he said.

Orbán does not allow disclosure of the former Hungarian communist state agents

LMP is on Wednesday submitting a bill on seeking to disclose files on communist-era state security apparatus “for the 28th time”.

The opposition party’s lawmaker László Lóránt Keresztes spoke to the press on the occasion of European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarian Dictatorships. “Dictatorship’s secrets can’t be the bedrock of a democracy,” he said, adding that LMP had brought the bill, which sought to reveal how “state security turned their political power into economic power”, multiple times before MPs since 2014.

The ruling Fidesz-led parliamentary majority stymied the attempt 27 times, he added. He insisted that “every government” in office since the change in political system bore “a heavy responsibility for all of this”.

Read also:

Orbán committed to save Hungary from dictatorship

Viktor Orbán Erdogan Türkiye Hungary

Bence Rétvári, state secretary of the interior ministry, attended a commemoration in Budapest on Wednesday marking the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes.

“Once guided by the motto ‘God, homeland, and family’, we will avoid extremism and save our nation from dictatorship, and prevent it from losing its freedom,” Rétvári said in his address at the ceremony. “There is little difference between Nazism and Communism: both reject Christianity and bourgeois democracy, therefore it is justified to commemorate the victims of both kinds of dictatorship on the same day,” he said.

The goal, he added, was “not to distinguish between victim and victim … and to prevent those ideologies from being revived or redistributed anywhere in the world.” Mária Schmidt, director of the House of Terror Museum, pointed to “increasing efforts in recent years to separate Communist and Nazi ideologies, as if those two vile world views did not have anything common … as if their nature were different.” Fascism, Nazism, and Communism are all “leftist, Socialist ideologies … walking hand-in-hand, relying on each other and utilising each other’s components,” she said.

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PHOTO GALLERY: Why were 15 March celebrations oppressed in communist Hungary?

Why were 15 March celebrations oppressed in communist Hungary? 4

The commemoration of the Hungarian Civic Revolution and War of Independence of 1848/1849 has always been present throughout our country’s history in one way or another. However, when the communist dictatorship took over in 1945 following Hungary’s Soviet occupation, the once nationwide 15 March celebrations became strictly frowned upon by the regime and those who still dared to organise secret gatherings to remember our 1848 heroes faced serious consequences if caught by the authorities. 

Anti-regime ideologies

Although in 1948 the centenary of the Hungarian War of Independence was still commemorated with centrally organised national mass events, its message had already been altered to reflect the official ideology of the era. Overshadowing the heroic acts of the revolution’s main leaders, Kossuth, Petőfi and Táncsics, the General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party Mátyás Rákosi was placed as a central figure of the 15 March celebrations, as “the man who fulfilled the objectives of the revolution”. 

However, in the following years, the commemorations began to be forcibly balked and eventually scrapped from the list of national holidays by the authorities in 1951 as an official order. Most of the objectives of 1848, from freedom of the press to the repatriation of foreign soldiers to national independence and the release of political prisoners, were unpalatable to a political power that enjoyed the support of the Soviet occupation. 

Read also: What do Hungarians celebrate on March 15?

Scrapped national holiday

On paper, no official law forbade citizens to commemorate the revolution in their own way, beyond the official ceremonies, however, in practice the authorities sought to prevent and, in more than one case, to punish everyone who still attended those controversial events. 

The crushed 1956 revolution just added fuel to the fire since it also began with the slogans of 15 March, the singing of Kossuth songs, the commemoration at the Bem Statue and the flying of national flags. On top of that, the MUK movement which was determined to resurrect the revolution the following March also kept the authorities on their toes.  

From that year, the Kádár regime was painfully aware of the double meaning of 15 March and was paranoid about the possibility of another revolt. The ‘60s saw an unexpected change though when the dictatorship decided to switch strategy and re-enacted the March 15 school celebrations in order to keep the youth under surveillance, preventing them from flocking to the streets to protest. According to tortenelemportal.hu, teachers actively discouraged students to take part in any public events commemorating 15 March. Those who still attempted to demonstrate their patriotism feared serious consequences.

To die for freedom?

In the early years of the regime, the authorities were only called to deal with minor “disturbances”, the number of participants never exceeded a hundred, and scholars are not aware of any major police reprisals. Although it doesn’t correspond in time to the 15 March celebrations, it’s important to mention the case of Sándor Bauer, due to the related location and symbols used in the tragic act. On 20 January 1969, the 17-year-old student doused himself with petrol in the garden of the National Museum while waving national flags in both hands like a living torch in protest against the Soviet occupation and the oppression of the party state.

The previously silenced and oppressed citizens began to regain their voices in the ‘70s. Hundreds of young people gathered at Petőfi Statue in Budapest as part of an illegal demonstration on 15 March 1972, which was violently crushed by the state police. More than 90 participants were dragged away by the authorities and 15 of them were even placed into custody, on the ground of public altercation. In the following years, the regime decreed a virtual martial law for the dreaded date, and several units of the Workers’ Militia and the People’s Army stood up jointly against the protestors on the streets of Budapest.  

Blood-stained 15 March demonstrations

The next bloody clash between the protestors and the police took place at the capital’s illustrious Chain Bridge in 1986, but this time the leadership anticipated the crowd and came up with a malicious plan. The people were herded by the police and undercover provocateurs to the Chain Bridge, which was blocked on both ends, and then started beating and hitting the demonstrators. The aim of the police was not just to disperse the crowd – they wanted to set an example with the brutal violence and mass shootings that have gone down in history as the “Battle of Chain Bridge”. This large-scale police terror was also featured in the Western press, ​​with the names of many of the abducted young victims being read out on Radio Free Europe. 

The confused leadership was, therefore, compelled to take a step back and tone down the violence. On 15 March 1989, the police demonstrated unusual tolerance towards the demonstrators whose numbers exceeded multiple hundreds at that time. The Communist rule came to an end in the same year, and Hungarians were finally able to freely remember the heroes of the 1848 revolution and held celebrations all across the country.

Read also: Exciting free events in Hungary on 15 March, National Day

Hungarian deputy PM commemorated Hungarian count, MP murdered by Czechoslovakian Communists

Esterházy János

János Esterházy, a leader of Slovakia’s ethnic Hungarian community between the two world wars, represented the cause of survival of the Hungarian nation and the notion that every nation has the right to exist, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén said on Sunday.

Addressing the commemoration and the presentation of the Esterházy Award granted by the Rákoczi Alliance in Parliament, Semjén said Esterházy had been a politician who represented “the common faith of the Slovak and the Hungarian nation”. He symbolised and proved that Christianity and the Hungarian nation “were a reality pointing towards one another”, Semjén said. Semjén praised Esterházy for his courage to speak his credo: “We know only one cross: that of the Golgotha.” “Let his credo and martyrdom” light the path of the Hungarian nation and central Europe, he added.

János Esterházy:

The Esterházy Award was presented to Antal Majnek, a Roman catholic bishop of Mukachevo (Munkács) in recognition of his work in serving Hungarians and all other people in Trancarpathia. In his laudation, János Árpád Potápi, the state secretary in charge of policies for Hungarian communities abroad, said Majnek had an “imprescriptible role” in rebuilding the Hungarian Roman catholic church in Transcarpathia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he praised the awardee for his charitable and social work.

Count Esterházy (1901-1957), the sole Hungarian deputy in the Slovak Parliament before 1945, was an advocate of the ethnic Hungarian community who stood up to any violation of minority rights and discrimination. After the second world war, the Czechoslovak authorities handed him over to the Soviet Union and he was sent to the Gulag on trumped-up charges. He was sentenced to death in 1947 for collaborating with the fascists but was pardoned by the president and handed a life sentence, which was commuted to twenty-five years in prison during a general amnesty. He died in a prison in Mirov in March 1957.

János Esterházy
Read alsoCommemoration for the martyr János Esterházy held in the Czech Republic

Klara Rotschild, Socialist Hungary’s very own Coco Chanel

Klara Rotschild, Socialist Hungary's very own Coco Chanel 2

Even though many believed she was connected to the influential European banking dynasty, Klara Rotschild truly made a name for herself in the world of fashion without having any famous ancestors. According to urban legends, when a new customer asked if she was related to the Rothschilds, she would effortlessly reply, “Nope, just call me the queen of fashion.” This fearless fashion icon, who endured the challenges of war, years of Jewish persecution, and the hardships of Communism, is often hailed as Hungary’s very own Coco Chanel.

The red fashion dictator behind the Iron Curtain

Klara Rotschild often playfully claimed that she was born on a late February day in 1903, right on top of a sewing table, referring to her tailor father Abraham Rothschild and seamstress mother Regina Spirer. In her early years, young Klara learned the trick of the trade in her father’s prestigious store situated in downtown Budapest, frequented by the country’s aristocrats. Following her parents’ divorce, she accompanied her father on work trips to the fashion capital, Paris, where she cultivated a keen eye for class and timeless elegance.

In contrast to the societal norms of her era, Klara married relatively late at the age of 28. While her husband was a wealthy textile merchant, it was the substantial sum she received from a high-profile sexual assault case, covered by both the court and the press, that enabled her to open her first salon.

Read more: Hungarian Nanushka is Europe’s fastest growing fashion company, according to Financial Times

High-flying clientele, including Josip Broz Tito

Klara’s career skyrocketed as her salon, known for offering the most exquisite and sophisticated garments labeled with ‘CR,’ gained popularity among both local and international clientele during the Communist era. Managing a salon in the Soviet Bloc was an exceptional achievement. Sadly, Klara Rotschild’s privilege was short-lived, as all private businesses had to be nationalised as part of a state order in ’52. Not only did she style the Communist elite, but she also catered to high-profile customers like Jacqueline, the wife of Louis Joseph Cartier, and the mother and sisters of the Egyptian king, Farouk. Whenever foreign delegations visited Hungary, Klara’s salon was a must-visit spot, often recommended by the regime’s leaders. Legend has it that her beloved poodle, named Vogi after Vogue, was a gift from the wife of former Yugoslavian President Tito.

Klára Rotschild, fashion, Hungary, Budapest
Source: facebook.com/multkor.tortenelmi.magazin

 

The end of the Klara Rotschild fashion empire

The Hungarian fashion designer’s salon flourished throughout two authoritarian regimes, as she defied the odds and carved out an extraordinary career in fashion, despite the prevalent expectation of bowing down to Communist leadership for success. Despite her remarkable achievements, Klara Rotschild’s private life was marred by more sorrowful than happy moments.

After her mother’s passing, she even attempted suicide, but this was by far not the end of all the hardships she had to endure. The war and Jewish persecution took away most of her loved ones, including her adored father and husband. It’s no wonder she found solace in ceaseless work, which ultimately rewarded her with unparalleled fame.

Behind closed doors, Klara Rotschild faced perpetual suffering. At the age of 74, Eastern Europe’s most renowned fashion designer tragically took her own life, allegedly driven by the excruciating pain of an infected tooth. She jumped from the kitchen window of her seventh-floor apartment. Her salon continued to operate for a few more years after her death, but without Klara, Clara Rotschild was never quite the same.

Klara Rotschild, Socialist Hungary's very own Coco Chanel 1
Source: Fortepan 194108
Gábor Viktor

Read more: Estée Lauder – the most successful Hungarian businessperson of the 20th century?

Speaker: new poisoned ideas and new dictators approaching

Speaker László Kövér

Officials paid their respects on the memorial day for the victims of communism on Saturday.

In a speech in the capital, Speaker of Parliament László Kövér said the memorial day provides an occasion not only to pay respects to those who suffered, but to declare that “we will not allow our children and grandchildren to become victims of new poisoned ideas and new dictators”. He noted that Hungary’s periods under communism – for 133 days in 1919 and for over 40 years starting in 1947 – were both “funded with foreign money” and featured “networks of agents serving foreign interests”.

Speaking at the House of Terror in Budapest, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, stressed the importance of passing on personal stories to inform younger generations of what it’s like for “humanity to suffer inhumanity”, while learning to appreciate the value of freedom.

At a commemoration in Pócspetri, in the northeast of the country, state secretary Miklós Soltész paid tribute to the victims of communism for paving the way for a period marked by peace, human dignity and freedom of conscience, for individuals and communities alike. At a memorial for forced labourers in the capital, state secretary Bence Rétvári said the communist ideal was an “ideal of murder”, as wherever communists came to power in the world, mass murders followed.

 

PHOTOS: Hungary marks the memorial day of the victims of communism

Victims of Communism

Csaba Latorcai, state secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, commemorated the memorial day of the victims of communism in Kecskemét, in central Hungary, on Friday.

Addressing the ceremony, he said the memorial day observed on February 25 was an occasion not only to remember the victims but to highlight the importance of solidarity and responsibility to one another. “Unsuspecting European citizens are these days getting attacked not from the East, as it was the case under communism, but from the West,” Latorcai, the acting secretary general of the allied ruling Christian Democrats, said. Now Western liberals seek “to force down the throats” of EU member states and citizens a plan of a “European superstate” that respects neither faith nor the human individual, he said.

“Hungarians had the tough experience of how it feels to live in fear; our parents and grandparents lived through times when there had been expulsion, discrimination and persecution of religion,” Latorcai said. “And now, at the beginning of the 21st century’s third decade, we have to face the reality that we are again living in the age of fear”.

He said at stake was whether Europe remains a community of free nations with roots in Christian culture, or becomes “a united states of Europe”, “an empire” populated by ethnically and culturally mixed groups of people and “dominated by the West”. In the afternoon, Latorcai addressed a ceremony held at the Budapest Gyorskocsi street prison used by the communist police. “The communists of yesterday, the progressives of today want to defend democracy from us; they serve foreign, pro-war interests through which they jeopardise our freedom, independence and peace,” he said.

Istvan Balvanykovi, a Budapest politician for the Christian Democrats, told the commemoration “this is the past that is still alive, because there are many alive today who lived through the horrors of communist prisons. We must pay due respect to the victims of communism, because the crimes of communism will never lapse”. Bence Rétvári, a state secretary of the interior ministry, told a wreath-laying ceremony in Budapest that whereas Hungarians were paying tribute to the victims of communism, in the West “they are doing so for the ideology”.

Rétvári said those who had served the communist regime had not been held to account during Hungary’s democratic transition. “They remain active members of public life to this day,” he said. The state secretary said communists did not value private property, freedom or even human life. “Communist ideology is a murderous ideology, because no matter where in the world it came to power, it resulted in mass murders,” Rétvári said, adding that “most of its leaders were criminals”.

Here are some photos of the commemoration:

He said Karl Marx’s views on the need to replace home education with social education were reflected in today’s sensitisation campaigns by NGOs. Constitutional Court judge and legal historian Attila Horváth said it was important to remember the victims of communism 33 years after the change of political system because although justice had been served in a legal sense, historical justice still needed to be dealt with so that future generations are made aware of what in fact had happened in that era. Under a parliamentary decree, February 25 has been observed as a memorial day of martyrs of Communism since 2000. On this day in 1947, leader of the Independent Smallholders’ Party Béla Kovács was illegally detained and deported to the Soviet Union.

33 years ago today, Hungary tore the first hole in the Iron Curtain - PHOTOS 2
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PHOTO GALLERY: Here is what New Year’s Eve celebrations looked like in Hungary back in the day

Here is what New Year's Eve looked like

New Year’s Eve is one of the world’s most anticipated holidays, whether you are a kid excited to stay up all night and watch telly or an adult trying to make it till midnight after having jugged down way too many pálinka shots. But have you ever wondered how people rang in the New Year back in the day? It goes without saying that there were several important moments in Hungarian history that paved the way to making New Year’s Eve the holiday we know and love today. Read on to learn how people celebrated the last day of the year during the past regime, which will perhaps make you appreciate this special holiday even more!

New Year’s Eve radio cabaret

Radio cabarets were popular forms of New Year’s Eve entertainment back in the day. The Hungarian national television (Magyar Televízió) broadcast a wide range of cabarets every year featuring the country’s best actors and comedians. The nation was glued to their tiny black-and-white screens, cracking up at the comedians’ clumsy pratfalls and hilarious one-liners. However, until the ’80s, these TV programmes were strictly censored by appointed members of the Communist party who made sure that no inappropriate joke would be aired that would paint the regime in a bad light. Interestingly, radio cabarets also served as a channel to announce important matters such as price rises. According to blog.skanzen.hu, comedians were occasionally given some freedom to briefly touch upon issues such as pensions or the teachers’ union. However, they had to be cautious not to go too far with the joke or mention anything that was frowned upon by the party, otherwise, it may have cost not only their jobs but their personal safety as well.

Read more: Funny dos and don’ts for New Year’s Day in Hungary

Party preparations

Whether one chose to ring in the New Year by dancing the night away at a house party or joining the crowd that loudly poured out onto the streets (and often gathered in the sheltered subway underpasses to fight the freezing cold), the hours before dusk were spent with feverish excitement and bustling preparation. The city brimmed with street vendors selling a colourful kaleidoscope of party horns, lanterns, latex balloons, masks, goofy party glasses and other festive accessories. New Year’s Eve rockets were strictly regulated, therefore, they were not as popular as today. On the eve of the ’60s, more and more rock and beat bands were popping up in the Hungarian music scene. The influence of these new genres soon began to reflect on the way young people started dressing. In the bohemian ’70s, the lads would favour shoes with heels and pointed toes accompanied by flares, patterned shirts and synthetic pullovers of vivid hues. While women would most often turn up at house parties by sporting a mini-skirt and turtle neck combo to look in vogue.

New Year’s Eve bash

In the ’50s and ’60s, formal dance balls were the most popular New Year’s Eve events where people politely sipped a glass of bubbly while low-key dancing to classic hits. By the ’70s, things started to heat up, and house parties, concerts and discos became more prevalent than the obsolete dance balls. 1977 marked the year of the beginning of denim production in Hungary. Previously, jeans were rare sights on the streets of Budapest, as trade between Communist countries and the West was banned. If you were in your teens or 20s and were spotted by the police wearing a pair of denim pants or a mini skirt on the way to a house party, you may have had to ring in the New Year in a cell being interrogated by the officers if you did not have your ID’s with you. Following the ’70s, police surveillance became more loose. As the music scene widened, many subcultures formed among the members of the young generation: hippies, rockers, bums – just to mention a few. Although everyone put on a show to look their best during family lunch on 31 December, as the shadows grew longer youngsters swiftly shed off their festive outfits and changed to clothes that represented the subculture they were affiliated with and the music they listened to. Having said that, people of the older generation still favoured spending New Year’s Eve dining in restaurants or attending elegant formal events with their friends and families.

Retro party snacks

Probably one of the first words that come to our mind when reminiscing of the weathered past decades is “retro”. Our hearts are filled with nostalgic joy when we conjure up images of everyone’s favourite staple snack from the ‘70s and ‘80s house parties: the so-called retro sandwich, basically, a slice of plain buttered bread topped with a thin piece of salami, pickles, boiled egg, hot paprika paste and a pinch of shredded cheese. The other party must-have was the Vienna sausage which was also cheap and easy to make. Lentils could not be missed from the New Year’s Eve menu either as they were said to bring luck and abundance. Since it was more common to attribute symbolic meaning to everyday, mundane things back then, small events that occurred before the clock struck midnight could carry great importance. For instance, in case there were still a few bites left on the table after the gathering, the host was believed to have a prosperous new year.

Read more: New Year’s Eve on the front: giant snowman and chimney-sweeper toast

The Communists are criminals, says filmmaker Béla Tarr in India

tarr béla

World-renowned Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr arrived in Thiruvananthapuram, India, to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 27th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) 2022 in Thiruvananthapuram.

The International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) has been held in Tiruvananthapuram, the capital of the Indian state of Kerala, since 1996. The IFFK’s world cinema section included the movies Zanox – Risks and Side Effects by Gábor Baranyi Benő and The Game by Péter Fazakas.

The filmmaker received the award in person at the Indian film festival which closed on Friday. In this year’s programme, which ran from 6 to 16 December, the melancholic worlds of Béla Tarr also included Family Fire Nest, Free Pawn, Damnation, Werckmeister Harmonies, The London Man and The Turin Horse.

 

In an interview to a Malayalam daily, he gave his views on communism, India Today NE says.

“My country once embraced communism. The same country later taught me to hate communism,”

the daily quoted him as saying.

Tarr also revealed that he was a staunch communist until he was 16, but later realised that the leaders he once worshipped were fake communists and decided to quit.

“So far, I have not seen any good communists. The leaders use communism to disguise their criminal activities and human rights violations,”

he added.

“Most of them don’t know the difference between communism and Marxism. I don’t know the situation in Kerala,” he said.

Béla said autocracy and communism came from the same feather and questioned whether he had ever come across a country that could have developed through communism and socialism.

“I have not seen anyone. You could probably say China. But China is a capitalist country,” he said.

He also added that there was a long list of countries that had suffered humiliating downfalls because of communism. Countries such as Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Russia are on this list.

Later, Béla said that the Kerala government had awarded him the Puraskaram not for politics but for his movies.

Treat communism crimes in same way as Nazi crimes, justice minister says

Varga Judit

The crimes of Communism should be treated in the same way as Nazi crimes, Justice Minister Judit Varga said at the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington, DC.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in the United States has a vital role in keeping the events of many decades ago in the minds of younger generations, Varga said on Wednesday local time. History also provides lessons for the present, she said, adding that gaining an understanding of the events of 1956 should be available to everyone around the world.

“This is a highly important exhibition,” she said. “I’m very glad that Americans and Hungarians set the exhibition up, depicting the horrors of Communism in an interactive way.” The museum is located in the government district in downtown Washington, DC, a few hundred meters from the White House.

At a panel discussion held with Hungarians who escaped the country in 1956 and made the United States their home, Varga said Hungary’s critics often failed to understand Hungarian and central European history, adding that debates on the rule of law “should start with a history lesson” so that critics of the government gain an understanding of “our historical experience [and why] we reject certain political solutions”.

In her speech to the Conservative Partnership Institute, Varga said conservatism was not about being old-fashioned but about preserving values from the past and adapting them to the challenges of today. The minister said she sensed an optimistic mood ahead of the November mid-term elections in the US.

szijjártó
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33 years ago today, Hungary tore the first hole in the Iron Curtain – PHOTOS

33 years ago today, Hungary tore the first hole in the Iron Curtain - PHOTOS 2

Today marks the 33rd anniversary of opening the Hungarian borders which meant the beginning of an end for communist governments all over central and eastern Europe. By this act, the country lifted the 40-year-long travel restrictions, enabling tens of thousands of people to reunite with their families, flee to the country for a better life abroad or just simply explore the world. The September ‘89 events are often considered the first cracks in the Iron Curtain.

The Iron Curtain was the symbol of dividing Europe into two separate areas after the end of WW2. The political, military and ideological barrier, erected by the Soviet Union, served the purpose of sealing off the USSR and its European allies – Hungary, Poland, East Germany, Romania, Albania and Czechoslovakia – from open contact with the West and other non-communist regions. Apart from violating human rights and freedom of movement, it also tore millions away from their friends and relatives who were living on the other side of the border. For instance, between the ’60s and ’80s, summer holidays at Lake Balaton meant the only way for western and eastern Germans to reunite with their families.

From the beginning of the ’60s until ’89, most recorded attempts to illegally cross the borders involved eastern Germans who aimed to reach West Germany through Hungary. Those who had been caught were arrested and handed over to the Ministry for State Security, the feared Stasi, and faced decades of imprisonment. Hungarians who tried to flee the country risked similarly harsh punishments.

The demolition of the border fortification began in May 1989 at Hegyeshalom where border guards first switched off the 16-volt electric power and later started dismantling the entire stretch. Back then, the construction of these fences cost around 11,500 euros per mile, nevertheless, the guards were more than happy to get rid of them over the course of the following 18 months. In August, the Hungarian government decided to relax policies on illegal border crossing.

Even though they initially feared that the country would become the ultimate transit route for Eastern Europeans to the West, at the end of summer, Károly Nagy, head of the ministry’s refugee department, announced that first-time offenders would only receive a police warning while repeated offenders would have their passports stamped. It was a bold move since back in ’69, Hungary signed an agreement with East Germany, obliging it to pass on information about every border offender. Nevertheless, the borders remained heavily guarded even if fences and alarms were removed. Border guards were instructed to use their guns only in the case of self-defence.

The Pan-European picnic, a peace demonstration held on 19 August in the city of Sopron near the Austrian-Hungarian border, was also an important milestone in the process of the Iron Curtain’s fall and the German reunification. The idea of opening the Austrian-Hungarian border to test the Soviets’ reaction came from Otto von Habsburg, the then president of the Paneuropean Union and it was also supported by Miklós Németh, the Hungarian Prime Minister. At the picnic, thousands of Eastern Germans overran the old wooden gate, reaching Austria unhindered by the border guards. They took small bits of barbed wire from the fences as souvenirs and were given goulash and beer before being driven to Vienna. Finally, the government’s decision to completely open the borders was announced and broadcast at 7 pm on 10 September 1989 both on Hét television programme and on Magyar Rádio (the Hungarian national radio station). As a way of celebration, people were opening champagne bottles and cursing East Germany on the streets and at the border. By midnight, there were kilometre-long traffic jams at the border crossing points. According to historian Ágnes Jobst, in the first 30 hours, border guards counted 1,835 eastern German cars and 9,092 people crossing the borders.

Hungary’s decision to open the borders meant the first crack on the Iron Curtain resulting in the collapse of the communist regime all over Eastern Europe.

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Hegyeshalom border crossing point in the ’80s |
Source: Fortepan 188188

33 years ago today, Hungary tore the first hole in the Iron Curtain - PHOTOS (
Border guards practising stimulation exercises | Source: private collection of István Dezső Ravasz

33 years ago today, Hungary tore the first hole in the Iron Curtain - PHOTOS 4
Border guard at the barbed-wire fences | Source: private collection of István Dezső Ravasz

33 years ago today, Hungary tore the first hole in the Iron Curtain - PHOTOS 3
Highway border crossing point | Source: Fortepan 6630 Magyar Rendőr

33 years ago today, Hungary tore the first hole in the Iron Curtain - PHOTOS
Mine clearance | Source: private collection of István Dezső Ravasz

33 years ago today, Hungary tore the first hole in the Iron Curtain - PHOTOS
Border guards arrest a man who tried to illegally cross the border on 25 Aug 1989 | Source:

33 years ago today, Hungary tore the first hole in the Iron Curtain - PHOTOS 45
Demolishing the fence 2 | Source: Fortepan 152159

33 years ago today, Hungary tore the first hole in the Iron Curtain - PHOTOS 99
Demolishing the fence | Source: Fortepan 152160

33 years ago today, Hungary tore the first hole in the Iron Curtain – PHOTOS 11
Family reunited | Source: Fortepan 152102

Senior politician of János Kádár’s one-time communist regime dies

János Berecz former Communist leader dies

János Berecz, a senior politician of János Kádár’s one-time communist regime, has died at the age of 91, his son, János Gábor Berecz, said on Facebook on Thursday.

Berecz pursued university studies in Debrecen and Budapest, attended the Academy of Social Sciences of the Soviet Communist Party, and obtained a candidate’s degree in historical studies. His dissertation entitled 1956 Counter-Revolution in Hungary: Words and Weapons was published in 1969, as an apology of the suppression of the 1956 revolution and freedom fight and the subsequent reprisals.

Berecz filled senior posts in the Communist Youth Union. From 1974 he headed the foreign affairs committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (MSZMP).

In 1982 he was appointed editor-in-chief of Népszabadság, the party’s central paper.

In the 1980s he became one of the most influential politicians of the party and was considered a close confidante of Kádár. As a hardline member of the party’s innermost decision-making body, the Political Committee, he tried to block the road to Hungary becoming a multi-party system.

Berecz did not join the new Hungarian Socialist Party that was formed in the spirit of the transition to a multi-party system at the last HSWP congress. Instead, supported by a persistent minority representing the Marxist-Leninist principles and Kádár’s legacy, he re-established the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party. In 1990, in the first free elections, Berecz failed to win a seat in parliament. He left the party in 1991 to start a business. He joined the Hungarian Social Democratic Party in 1997, but left it as early as 1999. After this he retired and wrote several books.

Holy Crown and the crowning jewels
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What was LGBTQ+ life like in communist Hungary? – PHOTO, VIDEO

LGBTQ+ life in Communist Hungary

How did members of the LGBTQ+ community find love before Grinder and other dating apps? And what other meet-cutes were feasible during the dark ages of Communism? What secrets did certain thermal baths hold after closing hours? Find out the answers in our article. 

In ‘50s Hungary, loving the wrong person could make you a criminal. The subject of homosexuality was so little spoken about that a person could be well in his adolescence before he even realised that he was about to commit something unlawful. The Communist regime was also characterised by the lack of a private sphere as both the state police and the common men who enjoyed momentary authority in certain settings – such as the concierge, sanitation workers, neighbours and colleagues – had easy access to the person’s private matters. Knowing that, members of the LGBTQ+ community really had their hands tied while the threat of getting arrested was constantly lurking behind the corner. 

Although the gay liberation movement was still a far-fetched idea, the ’60s saw some relaxation in the law. There was a new bill added to the Criminal Code that decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting adults in private, which was previously punished with a one-year prison sentence. However, blackmailing still remained a common practice as the State Secret Police often threatened to use their sensitive information against interrogated persons and detainees. Until 1989, the State Security kept files on every homosexual man they knew of and often forcibly recruited them as agents to report on other citizens.

Read more: Vandalism and shaming of lesbian couple on the streets of Budapest – VIDEO

According to an HVG article on Mária Takács’s Hot men, Cold Dictatorship documentary on homosexuality during the Kádár regime (1957-89), the most frequented gay spot was the Egyetem Presszó (University coffee bar) which was located at Felszabadulás Square, now known as Ferenciek Square in downtown Budapest. During the day, it operated as a regular café, however, after 10 pm guests were screened by security. It was a one-of-a-kind concept in those years. Members of the LGBTQ+ mostly gathered in house parties which also provided a platform for the first transgender performances. These infamous house parties often counted more than 100 visitors and you had to have good connections to bag an invitation. 

Certain baths in the capital, such as the Rudas Bath on the hilly Buda side which earned quite a reputation, were also commonly frequented by LGBTQ+ people, especially gay men. On designated days of the week, Rudas only welcomed single men and gay couples. Swimwear was not required, guests only wore tiny aprons around their waist which gave an easy way to lustful thoughts. It was not a rare sight to see couples openly engaging in sexual intercourse in the middle of the Turkish bath. Apron days had been regulated only a couple of years ago after numerous petitions and open scandals. 

LGBTQ+ life in communist Hungary - Rudas Bath - Fortepan
Rudas Bath (Fortepan – nr. 252393)

Back in the day, another popular meet-up area was the Duna-korzó (Duna Promenade). While strolling on the panoramic riverside, LGBTQ people had to be cautious when approaching one another. Usually, they resorted to initiating conversation when they arrived at a more secluded alleyway. Public toilets also served strategic spots when it came to finding romantic or sexual partners. The walls were covered with scribblings, secret messages and landline numbers that people of the LGBTQ+ community left for each other. 

LGBTQ+ - Duna korzo
Duna Promenade (Fortepan – nr. 94838)

The ’80s brought some important milestones for this marginalised community. In ‘82, Hungarian director Károly Makk’s notable cinematographic work Egymásra Nézve (Another Way) was released which was the first film depicting homosexuality in a positive light. It truthfully portrayed the political and sexual repression in Hungary following the lesbian love affair between journalist Éva Szalancky and his married friend, Livia. If you were invited that time for a movie night by an attractive stranger, chances were they had more than friendship in mind. 

In addition, the first registered LGBTQ+ organisation had been established, one year prior to the regime change. The Homeros Association started its operation in ‘88 after it received state authorisation which was probably granted so readily due to the spreading global HIV panic. The association, which was unique not only in Hungary but also in the entire Eastern European region, advocated for protected sex and AIDS awareness. They also regularly organised events and gatherings which allowed members of the LGBTQ+ to mingle and get to know each other in a safe and supportive environment.

If you want to learn more about LGBTQ+ life in communist Hungary, the above-mentioned 2015 documentary Hot Men, Cold Dictatorships might interest you. Below, you can watch the trailer with English subtitles.

Read more: Sex and erotica in socialist Hungary

The Informant – New Hungarian HBO drama airing in 61 countries – PHOTOS + TRAILER

The Informant - HBO Max’s new Hungarian spy drama

If you are lacking some thrilling Hungarian spy series in your life, the streaming giant has got your back. The first episode of the eight-part television drama has just aired two days prior to the Hungarian general election which some believe was no coincidence. Rumours have it that one of the main characters of The Informant is based on Viktor Orbán, well not the current Hungarian PM but his younger self before he entered the political scene some 30 years ago. Regardless of the credibility of this hearsay, we are in for good entertainment. 

The first-ever Hungarian HBO Max drama

The promising Hungarian spy drama, written and co-directed by Hungarian self-taught rising star Bálint Szentgyörgyi, is an HBO EMEA original that premiered at the Geneva International Film Festival. The story plunges us into the 80’s Hungary, during the time of the Iron Curtain, and is narrated through the daily joys and struggles of Geri Demeter, a young student who is forced to lead a double life. A college freshman and skilled chess player, Geri is bribed for a piece of punch cake and then involuntarily recruited on the train to Budapest by the state police.

In exchange for easier access to life-saving medicine for his younger brother, Geri the protagonist has to infiltrate a group of radicals led by fellow student Zsolt Száva and report on them.

Upon beginning his studies, Geri’s life changes forever and turns into a heady mix of partying, studying, making friends, falling in love and, if he wants to keep his brother alive, reporting to intelligence on his friends. While juggling hedonistic college parties and heated political debates, he constantly wrestles with the urging question: whose side is he on and why? As the friendship deepens between Geri and Száva, his dilemma intensifies. Once the leader of the activist group begins to suspect there is an informant among them, it is just a matter of time until all comes crashing down. 

The Informant - New Hungarian HBO Max drama airing in 61 countries
Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1491116401228339/

The inspiration behind the concept

In an interview Szentgyörgyi gave to cineuropa.org, he revealed what inspired him to create this ambitious project, the first-ever Hungarian spy drama set in the ’80s. The aspiring Hungarian director grew up in a generation where families still frequently talked about the communist era, a world that no longer existed yet was often brought up in conversations during Sunday lunches and other gatherings. 

“Our parents, and especially our grandparents, have a very ambiguous relationship with this period. Obviously, my parents […] had a very idealised view of the West but they had no idea what was going on on the other side and that always seemed very, very interesting to me”

recalls Szentgyörgyi.

He wanted to create a series that would convey this feeling, this foreign sense of nostalgia to the western audience. After all, these absurd and often abnormal past events defined the future for millions in Hungary. On the other hand, the director also found it important that the generation of his parents and grandparents enjoyed and found the show truthful while it would also connect with Millenials and members of Gen Z. To achieve that, he hired costume designers and hairdressers who were already working in the ’80s but, as a bold move, chose lesser-known, emerging actors. The cast of the Informant includes both close friends and Hungarian TikTok starlets. 

The Informant 1
Source: https://www.facebook.com/pamkutya/

The Informant 2
Source: https://www.facebook.com/pamkutya/

The Informant 3
Source: https://www.facebook.com/pamkutya/

Read also: HBO series to come about Hungarian biochemist Katalin Karikó and the vaccine

The creative process of filming the Informant

The creator and director of the TV drama, Bálint Szentgyörgyi is often referred to as “the new wonder child of HBO Europe”. According to cineuropa.org, he started the project at the age of 24 without any formal education. He has never attended a film school to learn the tricks and techniques of the industry, nor does he come from a family with a cinematic background. How did he land in the movie business despite all that? That is a story itself well worth bringing to the big screen. Szentgyörgyi always had the dream to make an authentic series about the history of Hungary that really rings true. Once the concept was in place, he started knocking at the doors for public funding but each time he got rejected.

Eventually, he decided to gather his friends, who also learned filmmaking in an autodidact way, and created the first pilot of the series in a makeshift manner: the mic was duct-taped to a floor cleaning mop and most of the filming gear was borrowed

The first episode was shot in 11 days, the team worked tirelessly 13-14 hours a day to achieve that. Szentgyörgyi initially planned to contact Hungarian TV stations to show the pilot but changed his mind and decided to go for the bigger fish. Without knowing anyone at the HBO headquarters, the ambitious young director relentlessly kept calling one assistant after another and within two months he finally landed an appointment to show his 42-minute pilot. HBO Europe was so impressed by Szentgyörgyi’s work that they straight away picked up a full season.

The Informant will be aired weekly on all platforms of HBO Max across 61 territories, including Europe, the US, the Caribbean and Latin America. Check out the official trailer subtitled in English! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3i02ZJwJX0&ab_channel=HBOMaxMagyarorsz%C3%A1g

Read also: The Witcher star Henry Cavill trains with a Hungarian riding instructor – PHOTOS, VIDEO

Orbán: House of Terror key to representing ppl oppressed by Communist regime

Victims of Communism memorial day

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday marked the 20th anniversary of the House of Terror Museum, which he said represented the oppressed. “Its establishment meant that truth and lies were no longer defined by Communists but by those who were trampled by the regime,” he said.

The museum “manifests a simple narrative based on the similarities between Communism and Nazism,” he said in a video message. “It gives something important to young and old, eastern, western and Hungarian [visitors] that they cannot get elsewhere,” he said.

The museum also separates the “faces and names” of victims and perpetrators, “which communists meshed together so cleverly until the moment the museum was founded,” he said.

“Communists no longer determine what is good and bad, what is true and untrue — that is now in the hands of those who were trampled, who lost everything. Some lost their lives and their families, others their wealth or career. Finally, they are the winners, and history is on their side,” he said.

Meanwhile, the leader of LMP’s parliamentary group vowed that the united opposition would reveal politicians’ links to the state security agency if it came to power.

Speaking at a commemoration held in Pécs, in southern Hungary, László Lóránt Keresztes said: “We cannot build democracy on the foundations of the secrets of a dictatorship.”

Keresztes noted that ruling Fidesz had promised to make the “agent files” of the Communist regime public. They shirked that task, despite the fact that LMP submitted 24 proposals to parliament to that end between 2011 and 2021, he said.

He vowed that the united opposition would “show how the parties active in the regime change were drawn in by agents of the Communist secret services, and which public figures of post-Communist Hungary were involved,” he said.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, Keresztes said the opposition rejected the aggression of Russia and President Vladimir Putin, and stood by the sovereignty of Ukraine, by the Hungarians living in the country, as well as all other citizens.

“We also have to declare that [Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán has long disavowed: there is no business, no negotiation with an aggressor,” he said. He called for the upgrade of the Paks nuclear power plant “based on Russian technology and Russian loans which expose Hungary to Russia” to be scrapped.

Victims of Communism memorial day
Read alsoHungarian President János Áder marks Victims of Communism memorial day