The 60th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution

Bartók, Polish culture, 1956 in focus at Budapest contemporary arts festival

Budapest, September 8 (MTI) – Béla Bartók and Polish culture will be central elements of the Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival held between Oct. 7 and 23, the head of the organising committee said on Thursday.

The festival, the largest of its kind in central and eastern Europe, will also feature events commemorating the 60th anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet revolution, Csaba Káel told a press conference.

The festival will open with a performance of Bartók’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle and ballet Miraculous Mandarin conducted by Zoltán Kocsis to commemorate the composer’s 135th birth anniversary.

In the framework of events celebrating Hungarian-Polish solidarity throughout the year, the festival’s guest of honour will be Polish conductor and composer Krzysztof Penderecki. His compositions will be performed in the Palace of Arts, the Liszt Music Academy and Budapest Music Centre BMC.

Commemorating 1956, the festival will present an act directed by dancer Krisztián Gergye.

Other international stars attending the festival include French composer and musician Yann Tiersen, Japanese jazz composer and pianist Hiromi, as well as American jazz fusion quartet Yellowjackets, the Polish Cloud Theatre and Italy’s Teatro Potlach.

The festival will feature more than 100 classical, jazz and world music concerts, as well as opera, dance and theatre performances, exhibitions and fashion shows.

More details about the festival’s programme are available at www.cafebudapestfest.hu

Photo: © Posztós János

Largest ever 1956 conference to be held in Eger this week

Budapest, September 5 (MTI) – The largest ever conference on Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet uprising will be organised this week in Eger, in northern Hungary, the head of the 1956 Institute Foundation said on Monday.

The three-day conference starting on Thursday will feature 258 speakers, including historians, sociologists, psychologists, literary historians, art historians, artists as well as musicologists, M János Rainer told a press conference.

The conference, held at the Eszterházy Károly University of Applied Sciences, will be divided into 80 different sections, all covering different topics and aspects of the revolution. These aspects will include the remembrance of the uprising, its depiction in art, the emigration of Hungarian refugees and their admission by foreign countries and local history.

Each section will feature three presentations followed by a debate.

Photo: eger.varosom.hu

Polish president guest of honour at 1956 events

Budapest, September 5 (MTI) – Polish President Andrzej Duda will be the guest of honour at Hungary’s official commemorations of the 60th anniversary of its 1956 anti-Soviet revolution in October, the organising committee’s chairman said.

Zoltán Balog, the minister for human resources, said the memorial committee met on Monday to discuss details of the events planned for October 23.

Duda and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will address a rally to be held on the square in front of Hungarian Parliament on October 23, the day when the revolution broke out 60 years ago. Balog said the committee had proposed to Orbán that instead of aiming to invite the largest possible number of foreign heads of state, one special guest should be invited.

Fully 725 programmes from over 280 localities received government support to hold a commemoration or build a memorial site in connection with the revolution’s anniversary, Mária Schmidt, co-chair of the memorial committee, said. A central programme series organised for October 22-November 4 is planned, details of which will be announced later, Balog said.

Foreign programmes to be organised in over 100 cities will run under the slogan “Freedom First”, Schmidt said. In Budapest and 19 big cities commemorative posters and announcements will be placed on public spaces and transport, as well as bank branches and petrol stations.

Song commemorating the 60th anniversary of the 1956 revolution has been released – VIDEO

The anniversary song titled “Egy szabad országért” (For a free country) has been produced by American Songwriter-Producer Desmond Child.

Desmond Child (born John Charles Barrett; October 28, 1953) is an American musician, professional songwriter, and producer. He is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is son of a Hungarian aristocrat, baron Sándor Márfy and a Cuban singer.

His hits as a songwriter include “I Was Made for Lovin’ You”, “I Hate Myself for Loving You”, “Livin’ on a Prayer”, “You Give Love a Bad Name”, “Bad Medicine”, “Born to Be My Baby”, “Dude (Looks Like a Lady), “Angel”, “What it Takes”, “Crazy”, “We All Sleep Alone”, “Just Like Jesse James”, “Poison”, “The Cup Of Life” and “Livin’ la Vida Loca” – wikipedia.

[button link=”https://dailynewshungary.com/official-song-1956-memorial-year-presented-today-video/” color=”green” newwindow=”yes”] Related article: OFFICIAL SONG FOR 1956 MEMORIAL YEAR TO BE PRESENTED TODAY! – VIDEO[/button]

Child applied for Hungarian citizenship, and he is now offically a Hungarian citizen. He also maintains good relations with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The production however, caught up in political wrangling. It is attacked by both the liberal media and some segment of the nationalist press claiming that the song was a recycled version of an earlier release. Child claims that the song was a work in progress and although an earlier version of it indeed has been released it wasn’t the final version.

Dóra Dúró, deputy group leader of Jobbik, told a press conference on Thursday that the budget for a song ordered to be the official anthem of the 1956 Memorial Year was shrouded in secrecy. Citing unnamed experts, she said that a sum of 10 million forints (EUR 33,000) should have been a fair price for the song, rather than five times as much as reported in the press. She added that her party had filed a criminal complaint. Dúró was referring to music by American-Hungarian songwriter Desmond Child, who reported recycled a song written nine years ago for a sports event in Miami. Read more HERE.

An English language version of the song is also planned.

How do you like the song?

1956 memorial to be raised in Manhattan

new york

Budapest, August 25 (MTI) – A memorial honouring Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet revolution will be erected in Manhattan, Ferenc Kumin, Hungary’s consul general to New York, said on Thursday.

The monument, which will be placed beside the existing statue of Hungarian revolutionary Lajos Kossuth, will depict the constellations visible on October 23, 1956, Kumin told public news channel M1. He said there was a good chance that the memorial could be ready by the revolution’s 60th anniversary.

Preparations and fundraising for the memorial have been ongoing for ten years but now all the necessary permits have been obtained, he added.

Washington refuses to commemorate Hungarian Revolution of 1956

The Wilson Center in Washington does not welcome the conference that commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, presumably so as not to give a podium to Hungarian PM Orbán, nol.hu writes.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, one of the most renowned institutions of foreign policy research refused the Hungarian Embassy’s request to hold a conference in honour of the anniversary of the 1956 Revolution. The request arrived at the beginning of the summer and the refusal was an unexpected outcome, considering that the Hungarian party has already made suggestions for the conference’s programme and guest list.

The event was planned for mid-October, and there were plans on the Hungarian side to delegate a not yet named person “of high rank” from Budapest. The possibility of receiving someone whose scientific background is not worthy of the standards of the Wilson Center became a concern on the American side. Moreover, according to nol.hu, they may have been aware of a recent interview with Index, in which Péter Szijjártó stated that “decision has not yet been made”, but there is a proposition that PM Orbán would visit the US around the time of the anniversary.

[box] For the 50th anniversary of the revolution, a memorial year was held in 2006 in the US to celebrate the occasion. In July, George W. Bush visited Hungary where, among other things, he said: “In the heart of Europe, Hungary represents freedom’s triumph over tyranny. The US is proud to call Hungary a friend.”[/box]

The current American standpoint on Hungary and Hungary’s PM would suggest that the otherwise politically independent Wilson Center does not wish to receive either Orbán, or a historian on behalf of the Hungarian government.

It is possible that the event will be held regardless, in a less official location, although there is not much time left for organisation.

[button link=”https://dailynewshungary.com/category/politics/” type=”big” newwindow=”yes”] Read more news about POLITICS[/button]

According to Washington sources, nol.hu writes, Szijjártó has requested to meet US Secretary of State John Kerry, but has been directly refused. Then again, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said in the aforementioned interview that he had suggested to Victoria Nuland, US Secretary of State for European Affairs, not to meet again because “it is unnecessary to ruin the political cooperation any further”. Such instances make it seem improbable that PM Orbán would be welcomed in Washington.

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Official song for 1956 Memorial Year to be presented today! – VIDEO

Budapest, August 15 (MTI) – The official song for Hungary’s 1956 Memorial Year will be first broadcast on public Petőfi Rádio on Tuesday.

Balog Zoltán; Szabó SzilviaThe song, created by renowned US songwriter of Hungarian descent Desmond Child and entitled “Land of the Free” (in Hungarian: “Egy szabad országért”) will be presented by an ensemble of popular Hungarian musicians (Kati Wolf, Szilvia Péter Szabó, Gigi Radics, Feró Nagy, Sándor Sasvári, Csaba Vastag, Tamás Vastag, Ferenc “Caramel” Molnár, Mónika Lakatos and the Romengo, István Pál and his band, the Hooligans Band and a choir of 56. The song will have a Hungarian and also an English version.

[button link=”https://dailynewshungary.com/1956-october-23-start-of-the-hungarian-revolution/” type=”big” color=”red” newwindow=”yes”] 1956, OCTOBER 23 – START OF THE HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION[/button]

Human resources minister Zoltán Balog, head of the committee in charge of arrangements for the memorial year, told a press conference on Monday that the government seeks to involve a broad range of people in the preparations, with the aim to present the legacy of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising in a rich context.

Meanwhile, the promotional film for the memorial year has been published on Facebook and on the website of the programme.

Photo: Fortepan

Memorial plaque unveiled in Macedonia camp for 1956 refugees

Daily News Hungary

Budapest, August 6 (MTI) – A memorial plaque has been unveiled on the site of a one-time camp in Krusevo, Macedonia, where hundreds of Hungarians found safe haven after the ill-fated anti-Soviet revolution of 1956.

The plaque was inaugurated by Péter Szilágyi, deputy state secretary for Hungarian communities abroad, on Saturday.

Altogether 20,000 Hungarians fled to Yugoslavia after the revolution to be distributed by the federal authorities among that country’s constituent republics. Fully 550 of them were sent to Krusevo and then, with the help of the International Red Cross, to the West.

“Hungary will never forget that Macedonians had granted refuge to Hungarian political persecutees after the 1956 revolution,” Szilágyi said.

Desmond Child pens the official song of the 1956 memorial year

2016 marks the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. For the occasion, an official song was composed by famous Cuban-Hungarian songwriter Desmond Child, and recorded over two days in July by Hungarian musicians, origo.hu writes.

The goal was to create a song which would make the memory of the revolution accessible for today’s youth through art, and help them relive the moment when “the Hungarian nation moved as one to fight for freedom and independence,” said Mária Schmidt, Government Commissioner of the memorial year of 1956, and director of the House of Terror Museum at the press conference in Budapest. Working with a songwriter of Hungarian origin was also an important factor, she said.

Andreas Carlsson, singer Feró Nagy, and Desmond Child in the recording studio
Andreas Carlsson, singer Feró Nagy, and Desmond Child in the recording studio

The title of the song is Egy szabad országért (Land of the free). It was co-written by Swedish composer Andreas Carlsson, the Hungarian lyrics are by Tamás Orbán, and it was recorded by notable Hungarian musicians such as Sándor Sasvári, Kati Wolf, Csaba Vastag, Tamás Vastag, Ferenc Molnár ‘Caramel’, Feró Nagy, Mónika Lakatos and the Romengo, Szilvia Péter Szabó, Gigi Radics, István Pál and his band, and the Hooligans. The song will have a Hungarian and an English version as well, and the recording process was captured for a documentary.

Desmond ChildDesmond Child, who is Hungarian on his father’s side, earned his Hungarian citizenship earlier this year, index.hu writes.

“I didn’t know who my father was until I was 18; I had been told he was only an acquaintance of the family. I only realised who he was after my birthday. A year later, around 1973, he took me to Hungary, and I’ve come home many times since, soaking up Hungarian culture like a sponge. My father was a survivor who did not give up for a second. Many kids want to be completely different from their father. Me, I wanted to be just like him,” he said in an interview with index.hu.

Desmond Child has written many hit singles such as Livin’ La Vida Loca for Ricky Martin, Keep the Faith for Bon Jovi, or Poison for Alive Cooper, and he’s also written songs for famous bands and musicians like Aerosmith, Kiss, Scorpions, Bonnie Tyler, Cher, Shakira, Roxette, Steve Vai, Meat Loaf, Kelly Clarkson, and The Rasmus.

Photos: MTI

Copy editor: bm

Hungary, Poland presidents commemorate 1956 Poznan uprising – Photos – UPDATE

Poznan, June 28 (MTI) – Hungary’s President János Áder and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda held a joint press conference in western Poland’s Poznan on Tuesday, on the sidelines of commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the Poznan uprising.

Developments both in Hungary and in Poland in 1956 showed the weakness of the communist regime “built on lies and oppression” and foreshadowed its collapse, Áder said. The revolutionaries wanted “freedom, democracy, a better life,” he added.

Duda said that the 1956 events had even deepened the traditional friendship between Poles and Hungarians.

“The people of Poznan were the first to say no to communist rulers, to their propaganda, poverty and trampling on people’s dignity,” Duda said. Later on that year the Hungarians “followed the Polish example, they demanded freedom because they wanted to get rid of Soviet rule”, he added.

The two presidents then visited the Museum of the Poznan Uprising, and laid wreaths of commemoration at the monument of Katyn and Siberia victims.

Áder arrived in Poland at Duda’s invitation to attend state commemorations on Tuesday night.

UPDATE

Áder: Poles, Hungarians proved dedication to freedom in 1956

In 1956, Poles and Hungarians once again proved their dedication to freedom, President János Áder said at the official commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the Poznan uprising in western Poland late on Tuesday.

He told the event that the 1956 uprising in Poznan revealed the inhuman nature of communist dictatorship. The workers of Poznan “wanted to get back their entire lives that had been stolen from them, they demanded bread and freedom”, he added.

Commenting on Polish-Hungarian solidarity expressed during 1956, Áder said that on October 23, there were also Polish flags in the streets of Budapest. The Polish humanitarian help granted to the Hungarian revolution of 1956 was “more than what Budapest received from all other countries altogether,” he said.

Photo: MTI

Exhibition to commemorate the Hungarian Revolution of 1956

The Hungarian National Museum is hosting an exhibition entitled The Secret Art of the Revolution to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, origo.hu reports. The exhibition opens on June 23.

According to László Csorba, director of the Hungarian National Museum, the exhibition presents a special discussion of the revolution with the help of artworks and historical objects simultaneously. Many of the artists, who experienced the enthusiasm of the Revolution, the events on the streets, even often the presence of death, began drawing or painting immediately, he said.

The display comprising of over 300 artworks was primarily collected by art historian György Sümegi. The museum purchased the collection from him a few years ago with the purpose of hosting an exhibition on the anniversary of the revolution.

The Hungarian National Museum is completing the collection with artworks from other museums, as well as installations of historical objects. For instance, a T-34 tank will stand in front of the museum as a reminder that during the revolution Soviet tanks invaded even the Museum Garden.

Not only Hungarian artists reacted to the events of the revolution. On Wednesday, the museum received a Marc Chagall lithograph called Mother and Child, which will also be on display at the exhibition. The artwork was made in 1956, and it uses universally understood symbolism to communicate the horrors of the revolution: a pigeon is protecting a mother and her child from a burning city. The artwork is on loan from the Musée National Marc Chagall in Nice. The lithograph has never been exhibited in Hungary before.

chagall-national-museum

According to muzej.hu, the exhibition will be open – along with the museum’s other displays and special programmes – to everyone who participates in the Night of the Museums, on June 25.

Photos: MTI

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Justice minister marks 1956/1989 anniversary

Budapest, June 16 (MTI) – Justice minister László Trócsányi attended a state commemoration of Imre Nagy, Hungary’s martyred prime minister, and other victims of communist retaliation after the 1956 revolt, in Budapest on Thursday.

Nagy, executed in 1958 and reburied on June 16, 1989, had “not appealed for parole and rejected any opportunity to collaborate with forces oppressing the freedom of the Hungarian people,” the minister said. He added that Nagy “became the symbol of national unity even when his name could not be spoken”.

The commemoration was attended by former prime minister Péter Medgyessy, deputy house speaker István Hiller, as well as representatives of state agencies and civil groups.

Photo: MTI

Polish ambassador opens exhibition on 1956 anti-Soviet uprisings in Hungary

Budapest, June 6 (MTI) – Polish Ambassador Roman Kowalski on Monday opened an exhibition dedicated to the 1956 anti-Soviet uprisings in Poznan and Budapest, in Gyor, in north-western Hungary.

The updated exhibition entitled “Poznan-Budapest – Executed Cities”, which originally opened in Poznan in 2011, depicts Hungary and Poland’s shared struggles under communist dictatorship.

Kowalski said organisers want to take the exhibitions to schools around Hungary to help students get a better understanding of the events that transpired 60 years ago in the two cities. The ambassador said it is important to remind young people of the 1956 revolutions, especially given that as time goes by, fewer and fewer former revolutionaries will be left to tell their stories.

He noted that the Sejm and the Hungarian parliament recently declared 2016 the year of Hungarian-Polish solidarity marking the 60th anniversary of the anti-Soviet uprisings in Poznan and Budapest.

Science academy to host conference on 1956 Revolution

Daily News Hungary

Budapest, May 22 (MTI) – The Hungarian Academy of Sciences will host a three-day conference on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution starting Tuesday, the head of the National Remembrance Committee (NEB) told MTI on Sunday.

Réka Kiss Földváry said researchers from Russia, the US, Germany, the UK, Austria, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic and Hungary would share their work at the conference, organised by the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity.

The conference will focus on the path to revolution, the international assessment of the uprising, its consequences and its impact on culture and collective memory.

The “European Remembrance” symposium will be opened by Minister for Human Resources Zoltán Balog.

UN to lift secrecy on 1956 related documents

Budapest, May 7 (MTI) – The United Nations will lift the confidential status of its documents on Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet revolution, Hungary’s foreign minister said on Saturday.

In the past, there was little knowledge of the fact that the UN was even in possession of classified files about 1956, Péter Szijjártó told MTI. But Hungary made diplomatic efforts towards further studying Hungarian affairs at the UN, as a result of which talks began on declassifying several documents on 1956, he said.

Talks were held with UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman who informed the Hungarian side about the decision to declassify the documents on Friday, the minister said.

Some of the documents are believed to contain testimonies by people who had participated in the revolution and others are likely descriptions about the events, he said.

The first historian specialising in the role of the UN in the revolution will arrive in New York on May 16 to begin reviewing the documents, Szijjártó said, adding that Hungary would contribute 50,000 dollars to aid the department’s efforts with the documents.

Hungary will mark the 60th anniversary of the ill-fated 1956 revolution with a series of events.