The Hungarian Revolution of 1956

Jaw-dropping discovery: North Korean students fought for Hungary against the Soviets in Budapest

Suez Crisis revolution of 1956 North Korean

Mózes Csoma, a Hungarian Koreanist researching current and historical North Korean events and the Korean-Hungarian relationship, unearthed intriguing documents and conducted interviews with Korean students helping or opposing the Hungarian freedom fighters of 1956.

Hungary’s struggle against Soviet Communism

From 1944 to 1954, the Soviet Union occupied Hungary, with the Red Army lingering despite armistices and the Paris Peace Treaty (1947). Hungarian democratic factions tried to establish a post-WWII democracy, backed by the majority of Hungarians. However, they faced resistance from the Communist Party bolstered by Soviet forces, followed by a nightmarish scenario.

Under Mátyás Rákosi’s Communist regime, Hungary endured cruelty akin to Stalin’s Soviet Union, teetering on the edge of economic collapse. Consequently, an uprising ensued, compelling over a thousand North Korean students, who had integrated into Hungarian society having local friends and romantic partners, to make a choice between the invading Soviets and the resisting Hungarian freedom fighters.

North Korea: a Communist country sending orphans to Hungary

To the surprise of many, these students stood by Hungary. Today, North Korea resembles a medieval kingdom where the Kim dynasty dictates life and death. Despite following Communist ideology in theory, one might have anticipated loyalty from these students towards their homeland, particularly after the brutal Korean War (1950-1953) when their fathers and grandfather fought and died against the American and South Korean troops. Nevertheless, the group of youngsters rejected Communism.

Kim Jong Un North Korean students
Kim Jong Un. His grandfather ruled North Korea during the Korean War and after the armistice. Jong Un studied in Switzerland when he was young. Source: depositphotos.com

The first group of Korean students arrived in Hungary in 1951, all orphaned by the war. The impetus to host Korean children in Hungary stemmed from Erzsébet Kovács, a fourth-grader from Csepel, Budapest (Budapest’s 21st district), who penned a letter to Mátyás Rákosi, subsequently forwarded to the North Korean Embassy. This letter was forwarded to Mr Csoma’s presentation during Researchers’ Night in Hungary, as reported by Képmás.

Diligent North Korean students

Hungary tended to the Korean orphans with great care, providing them with free education and accommodation. In 1953, the Hungarian government established a children’s home for them in Budapest’s enchanting Hűvösvölgy area. These students were enrolled in prestigious Budapest schools, where they diligently tackled language barriers and academic subjects. Remarkably, one student even delved into Shakespeare’s King Lear through Mihály Vörösmarty’s archaic translation.

While Korean university students received meager scholarships inadequate to cover their sustenance, the language barrier proved more daunting. In an interview with Mr Csoma, one student revealed that it took them a night to translate a single page of their Hungarian textbook. The first Hungarian-Korean dictionary was compiled by Dr Aladár Sövény, a Japanese teacher at Sándor Petőfi Secondary School, meticulously inscribing Korean characters with a pen.

School room in Hungary North Korean students (Copy)
School room in Hungary in 1955. Source: Fortepan / Reményi József

Over time, many Korean students mastered Hungarian and forged friendships in Hungary, juxtaposed against North Korea’s enduring poverty, warfare and brutal dictatorship.

North Korean students rally with the freedom fighters

Amidst the October 1956 revolution, as thousands of Hungarian workers and students manned barricades against Soviet incursions, numerous North Korean students joined the fray. Despite returning from the front lines to resume their studies in Hungary, they taught valuable things to the freedom fighters about modern weaponry. For instance, Zang Gi Hong instructed insurgents at Móricz Zsigmond körtér on grenade and mortar usage, while Kim Ok, a reader of King Lear, battled alongside freedom fighters at Széna Square, as reported by Helló Magyar.

Soviet tanks in Budapest 1956 revolution. Photo: Zsolt Házy/fortepan

A tragic ending

After the fall of the revolution, most Korean students were forced to return home. That is how Pyongyang wanted to “save” them from being “infected” by Hungary’s “dangerous” ideologies.

Only a handful managed to complete their studies in Hungary. Some had already formed romantic bonds in Hungary, with Mr Csoma recounting three marriages between Hungarian women and Korean men. However, these marriages were doomed in North Korea, where the state dictated such brutal conditions that made their survival impossible.

Read also:

  • North Korea owes EUR millions to Hungary – HERE is how they wanted to pay
  • Did you know that there is a Hungarian hospital in North Korea? – Details in THIS article

Why is today a National Mourning Day in Hungary, symbolised by Russian tanks?

Historians agree that the 1956 anti-Soviet and anti-Communist revolution and freedom fight was the poorest of such movements in the 20th century. Hungarians – mostly young workers in their 20s – wanted a free and independent Hungary not occupied by Soviet forces. Until the end of October, even the leader of the revolution, Imre Nagy, a former Stalinist leader who later joined the reform communists, thought Moscow would let Hungary away from the Eastern Block and join the non-aligned states, including Yugoslavia and Finland. Instead, the Soviet tanks came to crush the revolution of the Hungarian workers and peasants.

The new leaders of the reestablished Communist regime came on the tanks of the Soviet Union but enjoyed disdain. That is because the 1956 revolution was not led by former aristocrats or clerics – as later the Communist historians spread – but by university students, young workers and peasants. Those who were supposed to be the pillars of the Communist regime.

The Rákosi era that started after the Communists destroyed the post-war Hungarian democratic attempt was a catastrophe for almost everybody. The pure Stalinist regime wanted to make Hungary the country of iron and steel without coal, iron and other raw materials. Therefore, the standard of living constantly fell even though people worked a lot.

That is when Imre Nagy, a former Communist leader who took an active part in establishing and running the system for years, sided with the reform movement and became prime minister for a short while. However, Rákosi gained his power again, so the people went on the streets parallelly with the similar Polish movements.

Hungary will be the new Finland?

In end-October, the revolutioners defeated the Hungarian Communist authorities and forced the Soviet army to retreat. However, by 31 October, it became clear that Moscow decided to crush the revolution. That came after the Americans made it clear: they do not consider Hungary as a potential ally. The Soviet Union and the USA parted the world again: Hungary remained in the Soviet sphere of interest. Meanwhile, Moscow withdrew its advisors and weapons from Egypt and let the Western powers deal with the Suez crisis alone.

As a result, the Soviets took away János Kádár and some other Communists and entrusted them to continue to run Hungary as a satellite country of the world power. Kádár, Ferenc Münnich and other said ‘Yes’.

On 4 November, the Soviet attack began, and only the young revolutioners took up the fight. The Hungarian armed forces mostly remained silent. Though fights lasted until 10-11 November (e.g. in Csepel, a centre of Hungarian industry and workers), the well-trained and supported Soviet troops reconquered the country quickly.

Hungarian flag on half-mast today, marking the Soviet crush of the 1956 October revolution and freedom fight:

1956 Hungarian revolution
Photo: MTI

But they could not break the will of the Hungarians. Workers’ councils were formed continuing resistance, and they were so powerful that even Kádár could not shut them. The people hated him and his new government, protests, strikes and peaceful marches followed.

Prison and wage rise

The new government reacted with a honey and whip strategy. 350 people were executed, including Imre Nagy, 13 thousand Hungarians were put in internment camps, and 22 thousand people were sentenced to prison. 211 thousand people left Hungary, and 170 thousand did not return despite promises of amnesty. They were a huge loss for the economy and the society because they were the shrewdest, most hard-working and bravest citizens. Many countries profited from their work.

Meanwhile, the government provided honey for those remaining here. For example, they considerably raised workers’ salaries. They abolished many unpopular measures of the Rákosi regime and allowed peasants to buy and sell land. They decreased taxes and provided travel discounts for many people. The system punished only those who were active in the armed fights against the Soviet troops.

Soviet tank in Budapest
Photo: fortepan.hu

As a result, on 1 May 1957, they could hold a mass rally to celebrate International Workers’ Day. However, they were not able to reintroduce the Rákosi regime. The Kádár-type compromise between the Communist Party and the people was that the party let people increase their wealth. That meant an increasing standard of living. In that regard, the 1956 revolution was successful: it enabled Hungary to become the “happiest barrack” in the Soviet world, where there was no famine, and people could buy a car or weekend house if they worked hard.

Historians agree that such prosperity could have been reached with much less work under capitalist and democratic circumstances. Furthermore, since Hungarians needed to work a lot but gained little, the number of chronic diseases (heart, cardiovascular, etc) rose, along with depression and suicide. The Kádár compromise remained without the shadow of a doubt two-faced.

Victims of 1956 Kossuth Square massacre commemorated in Budapest

25 october 1956 commemoration

A commemoration was held in Budapest to pay tribute to the victims of the Kossuth Square massacre that took place on 25 October, during Hungary’s anti-Soviet revolution of 1956, on Wednesday.

Volleys of shots were fired at the unarmed demonstrators on the square from different locations killing hundreds on the day dubbed “Bloody Thursday” in 1956.

The commemoration at the square near Parliament was attended by House Speaker László Kövér.

László Géza Sömjéni, head of the organiser Freedom Fighters Foundation, said that while official documents listed 88 fatalities and some 200 injuries, the exact number of the victims remains unknown. Those responsible, probably Soviet soldiers and members of Hungary’s communist state security ÁVH, have never been named, he said.

Read also:

Large crowd gathered at the anti-government demonstration in Budapest

Large crowd gathered at the anti-government demonstration in Budapest

Civil organisations and teacher and student movements held a protest demanding freedom in education in Budapest on Monday.

The protesters gathered in Heroes’ Square and also demanded higher wages for teachers before marching in streets around Andrassy Street and down to Oktogon.

The demonstrators waving national, European Union and Ukrainian flags stopped outside Kölcsey Ferenc High School, from which five teachers were forced to quit their jobs last September. Here, Bence Tóth related how he left public education after discovering that his colleagues had been sacked.

He insisted that the government was uninterested in finding a solution to problems afflicting public education, adding that Sándor Pintér, the minister of interior who is also responsible for education, had conceded that he did not understand the sector.

On the way to Oktogon, the marchers stopped in front of the Russian embassy building and tied ribbons in the national colours on the embassy fence.

Karácsony: ‘We won’t compromise on Hungary becoming a republic’

Addressing a demonstration on the anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 uprising in downtown Budapest on Monday, Gergely Karácsony, the city’s mayor, said: “We won’t compromise on our country one day becoming a republic, the common home of free and equal citizens.”

At the event held at Oktogon, Karácsony vowed to form an alliance of the opposition parties in Budapest for next year’s local elections.

“October 23 is the celebration of the republic, of the republic born out of the revolution of 1956, of the Third Hungarian Republic established on October 23, 1989, and of the Fourth Republic we carry in our hearts,” Karácsony said.

“Living in a republic means striving to treat each other well,” the mayor said, adding this was the kind of homeland the heroes of 1956 had wanted.

As we wrote before, the Tanítanék Movement was awarded EP’s European Citizens Prize, details HERE.

As we wrote today, Orbán: ‘Moscow a tragedy; Brussels bad contemporary parody’ – UPDATE

Orbán: ‘Moscow a tragedy; Brussels bad contemporary parody’ – UPDATE

orbán october 23

Addressing a commemoration of the 1956 uprising, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Veszprém on Monday that Brussels was “not Moscow”. Moscow, he said, “was a tragedy; Brussels is just a bad contemporary parody”.

“We had to dance to Moscow’s tune,” he said. But if “Brussels whistles”, he added, “we dance as we like, and won’t if we don’t want to.”

Orbán said “comrade training” was now a “conditionality procedure”. “Tanks aren’t rolling in from the east; dollars are rolling in from the west … to the same people,” he added.

Moscow, he said, had been “beyond repair”. “But Brussels and the European Union can still be mended,” he said, referring to the upcoming European elections.

The prime minister said the “sacrifice” of the 1956 revolutionaries was only worth it if “we also protect, live and pass on Hungarian freedom”.

“They didn’t die in vain if we don’t live in vain,” he said.

Orbán suggested that Hungary could “give something to the world that only we can give”. Veszprem, as the cultural capital of Europe, “is doing exactly that: showing the whole of Europe what Hungarian culture and freedom is like.”

Meanwhile, Orbán said Hungary was the “first and only” country trying to “hold back the European peoples from willingly marching into an even greater war”.

Referring to the “chivalrous Hungarian people”, Orbán said that “again and again those whom we saved turn against us” when “we are defending them”.

He said Hungary had defended Europe against migration “and we were the first to propose peace instead of war, which might well have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.”

Hungary, he said, had never got appreciation, “but often gets a slap” and “friendly fire”. “This is the Hungarian destiny, a pattern that repeats itself from time to time,” he added.

The prime minister said: “We must defend freedom or else we’ll lose it”. Orbán said this had been true in 1956 and in 1990, “and it’s true today”, adding that King St. Stephen and the revolutionaries of 1956 “knew that very well”.

Orbán said that it would be wrong to assume the revolution had taken place in the capital alone.

“Every town and village … is part of our great common freedom fight … and it is not only unfair and condescending but also wrong” to regard the revolution as an event that happened solely in Budapest, he said, adding that it was right to “bow our heads” in memory of the 1956 freedom fighters in Veszprem.

The prime minister said that around 3,000 people died and 20,000 were wounded in gunfights, while the communist retaliation saw more than 200 people sent to their deaths and 13,000 imprisoned. Fully 200,000 Hungarians fled the country, he added.

The people who suffered and were executed in prison were from all walks of life, he said. “They executed a priest, a worker, a farmer, a teacher and a Communist Party leader, the old, the young, men and women, people from Budapest and the countryside,” proving that the uprising was truly a common freedom fight of the nation, he said. “An entire nation stood in bloodshed.”

Orbán called the 1956 revolution and freedom fight a “spark of Hungarian genius”.

Orbán said 1956 had been the last chance for a European Hungary “to tear itself away from the world of Bolshevik socialism” which had banished “European culture, Christian civilisation and the right of nations to exist”.

“The Hungarian revolution and freedom fight wasn’t an inarticulate howl or a fit of rage of the oppressed, it wasn’t a gasp of those panting for revenge; neither was it an unbridled outburst of desire for freedom.”

Rather, he said, it was it was “a sober, moderate and responsible movement”, notwithstanding “the breathtaking heroism” and bravery of the revolutionaries.

He paid tribute to a local teacher, Árpád Brusznyai, who had ties to Veszprém, who at the age of 33 was executed after the revolution, saying he had protected youth against “the dictatorship’s marauders” and was the pure embodiment of Hungarian genius.

“Today we know who Brusznyai and his fellow revolutionaries were, but we refuse to even utter the names of the killers,” the prime minister said. “We hold them in contempt and forget them, while bow our heads to and remember Brusznyai and the others.”

Orbán also said the Hungarian nation was strong enough to confront its faults. “We know that the traitors are also part of our nation, they’re also part of our history, just as ‘ill fate’ is part of the national anthem.”

October 23 was followed by November 4 when the county first party secretary appealed Brusznyai’s first-instance life sentence “from right here in Veszprem”, seeking harsher punishment. “We won’t forget that, either.”

The 1956 uprising was “finally won in 1990”, Orbán said, adding that those “who fought the political battles against the Soviet Union and the Communist Party leadership” in 1989 could not have won without the legacy of 1956.

“We fought in the name of freedom, and it was those executed in the freedom fight who hands us the strongest weapon, because those we opposed in 1989 had been put into power by their sins committed against Hungarians in 1956, making their power unstable,” he said.

During the change of regime, the only way the communists could enter the era of democracy with the hope of any political future was to first confess their biggest sin and then lose their power, Orbán said.

The communists had to publicly bury the remains of the victims who had been kept secret up until that point, and once they did “their souls were set free and hovered above the heads of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party’s (MSZMP) leaders,” he added.

“As stated in Hungary’s Fundamental Law, these were criminal organisations, and there is no statute of limitations on the responsibility their leaders bear for the crushing of the 1956 revolution,” the prime minister said.

Orbán, referring to the Socialist Party, said MSZMP’s successor was now “microscopic in size”, and “the last left-wing party planned as the last escape route of the communists will end up exactly where it should according to the spirit of 1956”.

The prime minister said “we only had to finish” in 1989 what had begun in 1956. Thirty years “of forced silence” was “not the same as forgiveness”, he said, adding that “the accounts of history will be settled and must be paid sooner or later”.

“The only courage we needed was to point them out and shout that the emperor has no clothes and can’t evade the judgement of the people,” which had been cast in the free and democratic elections that could be contested by anyone, “even the communists”, he said.

Orbán said that in 1989-1990 the communists were ousted from Hungary without a civil war and without the loss of a single life. “Even though there was pain and bitterness, we avoided economic and political collapse,” he added.

He said Hungary, in 33 years, was the only country in Europe where there had been no need to hold an early election, “and to this day we’re the safest and most stable country in the whole of Europe.”

Orbán said Hungary “rejoined the community of European peoples” on the back of the eventual victory of 1956, which, he added, had been a matter of “historical satisfaction”.

The prime minister said the place “to which we have returned, Europe,” was “no longer the place from which we were excluded and less and less so”.

“We wanted freedom and we are free,” he said. “Europe was also united in the name of freedom, but we have must face the fact that we mean different things by freedom and imagine the free world in different ways.”

Orbán said that from Hungary, it appeared that Westerners thought of freedom “as some sort of escape”.

“Rid yourself of yourself, of what you were born as, but the very least, change it,” he said, describing the Western view. “Grow out of your past … change your sex, your nationality, or at least leave it behind you. Change your identity and all your components and put yourself back together according to the latest fashion and then you will be free.”

“We, here in Hungary, desired the exact opposite of that: we desired to be who we are,” the prime minister said. “The thought that I shouldn’t be a man, a Hungarian or a Christian is as if our hearts would be torn out,” Orban said, stressing that freedom to Hungarians was not “running from ourselves … but rather finding our way home”. “Be who you are!” he added.

“Embrace the fact that you were born Hungarian, Christian, a woman or a man, that you are the child of your father and mother, the spouse of your husband or wife, the parent of your daughter or son; embrace that you are a friend and a son of your country and a patriot,” Orbán said.

“We weren’t aren’t willing to give this up in 1956, 1990 or 2023 for either Moscow’s or Brussels’s sake,” the prime minister said, adding that freedom was a life instinct for Hungarians.

That is what makes Hungarians a nation of freedom fighters and the strategy of the Hungarian nation to “stand at graves of every occupying empire”, he said.

Orbán said Hungarians had not lost sight of the most important law of survival, which he said was “knowing that the past isn’t behind us … but is what we’re standing on”.

Hungarian opposition parties mark 1956 anniversary

Gyöngyösi Jobbik

Hungarian opposition parties marked the anniversary of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising on Monday.

Democratic Coalition

Ferenc Gyurcsány, the leader of the opposition Democratic Coalition, said at an event recorded earlier in Budapest: “October 23rd has ceased to be a joint celebration of the nation.” He said government officials and “we who preserve the [real] celebration” had marked the day in separate locations and in a different spirit.

Drawing a parallel between the present day and 1956, Gyurcsány insisted that the West had brought “the promise of a freer, more independent country”, while “Russia threatens the free peoples of Europe”. He said Hungarian powerholders “lied” by insisting the threat came from Brussels.

As we wrote today, the Hungarian foreign ministry said, the West watched with sympathy but forgot to help.

Jobbik-Conservatives

Márton Gyöngyösi, the leader of Jobbik-Conservatives, called his party “the spiritual heirs of the revolution”. Speaking at the monument of 1956 martyr Péter Mansfeld in Budapest, Gyöngyösi noted that at the founding event Jobbik had received a Hungarian flag from revolutionary fighter Gergely Pongrátz.

The party’s mission, Gyöngyösi said, remained “resistance against Communists and to topple this regime one day”.

“Today Budapest is ruled by a government that receives its orders from Moscow … and it has the same approach to young people as its Communist predecessors.”

Fidesz, he added, had imposed “closed borders, dwindling education, ridiculous wages and cheap Russian propaganda” on Hungarian youth.

Socialists

Socialist co-leader Ágnes Kunhalmi has called for joint action against the “incumbent authoritarian rule” in Hungary, and insisted that the country was lacking “democratic conditions”.

Speaking at her party’s commemoration of the outbreak of the 1956 anti-Soviet revolt in Kaposvár, in south-western Hungary late on Sunday, Kunhalmi said “those that seek to play domestic democracy in a fundamentally anti-democratic environment have failed to understand . the message of young people fighting for freedom, prosperity, and progress back then.”

The Socialist Party fights for “freedom for the country and its society, a democratic rule of law, prosperity for the general public, and social security”, the politician said.

The Socialists consider Imre Nagy, prime minister in 1956, the leader of the failed revolution, and reject the government’s endeavours to “suppress, question, or even deny his political role”, Kunhalmi said. The martyred prime minister “always stayed a leftist and his taking the responsibility and all risks clearly refute the government’s claims that 1956 was exclusively a Christian nationalist, right-wing revolution,” she insisted.

István Hiller, the head of the party’s national board, said his party would support local governments that can “promote the interests of locals with assistance by the state”.

“We don’t want just elected representatives, we want self-governance, free cities, places for the people to meet freely, free deputies that will present their ideas to the electorate and then implement the will of the voters,” Hiller insisted.

“It is not acceptable that the gap between poor and rich is opening terribly and there is hardly any opportunity for social advancement, much less than we believed and wanted in 1989,” he said.

On the subject of the war in Ukraine, Hiller said “Russia has been the attacker, the agressor, and we cannot take sides with any other party than the one attacked … we want peace, but peace that will do justice to the attacked side,” he said.

Hungarian National Day: national flag is raised in front of the Parliament – Photos

Hungarian National Day: national flag is raised in front of the Hungarian Parliament - Photos October 23, 2023

The national flag was raised with military honours in the presence of László Kövér, Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament, on the 67th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution and War of Independence on Monday morning in front of the Parliament in Budapest.

The flag was raised to the sound of the National Anthem by the National Defence Forces regiment. The event was attended by the Central Military Band, the 32nd Regiment of the Guard, the Count Ferenc Nádasdy Hussars and the National Cavalry Regiment.

The ceremony was also attended by representatives of military and state organisations.

1956 flags with holes in them were flown in the windows on either side of the main staircase of the Parliament.

23 October was declared an official national holiday by Parliament in 1991 and confirmed by the 2012 Constitution.

As we wrote before, the Russian new history textbook says it was a mistake to withdraw from Hungary in 1991, details HERE.

Torchlight march was held in Budapest to commemorate the 1956 revolution – photo gallery

Torchlight march was held in Budapest to commemorate the 1956 revolution - photo gallery

Participants in the traditional torchlight march organised by the Rákóczi Association (Rákóczi Szövetség) from the Technical University of Budapest to Bem Square on the Szent Gellért embankment on 22 October 2023, in Budapest, Hungary, to mark the 67th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight.

The Rákóczi Association is commemorating the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight with the participation of 10,000 high school and university students. Between 21 and 23 October, nearly 3,000 secondary school and university students came to Budapest for the Gloria Victis 1956 commemoration.

Alongside 140 secondary schools from the Carpathian Basin, more than 7,000 students will travel to another Hungarian secondary school to celebrate by crossing at least one border.

As we wrote before, Putin’s new history textbook says it was a mistake to withdraw from Hungary in 1991, details HERE.

President in Melbourne: Hungarian is the language of freedom – PHOTOS

23 October celebration in Australia with the Hungarian President (Copy)

“Hungarian is the language of freedom,” President Katalin Novák told a commemoration of Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet revolt organised by the Hungarian community of Melbourne on Sunday.

Marking the anniversary of the failed revolution on its eve, the president said “October 23 is the greatest holiday of the [Hungarian] diaspora, a day to celebrate and also to mourn.” “We celebrate our national identity, a love of freedom, Hungarians’ inevitable unity beyond borders . and we mourn for those that sacrificed their blood and life for freedom, mourn the physical distance between us . families torn apart and unwelcome emigration,” Novák said in her address.

Freedom, the president suggested, “must be fought for day by day”. “It is our duty to work for what the heroes of 1956 fought for: a free and strong Hungarian nation,” she said.

Novák noted that during her Australian visit she had first visited the Hungarian community, adding that during her term she would visit all large communities of the Hungarian diaspora. She also added that she was scheduled to inaugurate a church and community centre in Brisbane in a few days.

Concerning the Hungarian language, Novák said “those that know the essence of Hungarian will never give in to oppressive dictatorships”. “Hungary has never been a hotbed for dictatorship, it is a country where totalitarian regimes have never been able to solidify”.

Referring to the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East, Novák said Hungary condemned the attacks by Russia and the Hamas organisation and was working to avoid escalation. “We stand by the innocent victims and peace because Hungarians want peace,” she added.

After the commemoration, Novák recognised Marcella Paska, folk dance instructor and head of the Hungarian Television of Melbourne, with the Bronze Cross of Merit of Hungary for her support to the Hungarian communities and Hungarian culture in the State of Victoria.

We wrote HERE that Putin’s new History textbook says it was a mistake to leave Hungary and Central Europe in 1991. In THIS article, we wrote about the Russian state media writing that in 1956, Western powers organized the anti-Soviet revolution in Hungary.

Do you want to meet PM Orbán? Here is your chance but it will be expensive

Viktor Orbán China

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will deliver a “comprehensive political address” at an anniversary celebration of Switzerland’s conservative weekly Weltwoche in Zurich on November 22, the PM’s press chief confirmed on Saturday.

The celebration will include a panel discussion moderated by Swiss MP Roger Köppel, the weekly’s editor-in-chief. The event is advertised in a full-page ad in the weekly. The number of seats is limited in the five-star Dolder Grand luxury palace hotel, and the entrance ticket costs 90 Swiss francs (HUF 36 thousand), rtl.hu wrote. Köppel is a big supporter and fan of the Hungarian prime minister. They made several interviews with Orbán in the last few years. They meet regularly. The last time they met was in March when Köppel visited an event of the government-close MCC research institute.

The Swiss journalist later visited Moscow, where he talked about the high life standard of the Russian people there and that the sanctions are useless. In November, he will come to Budapest to take part in the CPAC International Conservative Conference. Here is a photo of the Dolder Grand hotel:

Culture minister marks 1956 anniversary in the USA

János Csák, Hungary’s minister of culture and innovation, attended a commemoration of the anniversary of Hungary’s anti-Soviet revolt of 1956, in Washington late on Friday. In his address, Csak said the failed revolution was a historic development “that serves as a basis for cooperation between the US and Hungary”. The events of 1956 “lend two such freedom-loving peoples enough ammunition for cooperation” especially with regard to “Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the terrorist attack against Israel”.

In an interview to MTI, the minister said Hungary had a great interest in achieving peace in both conflicts. Hungary has sympathy for both countries, he said, noting Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian community of 150,000, and some 300,000 Israelis of Hungarian origin. At the ceremony, Csak recognised Peter Gajary, head of the Hungarian-American Cultural Association with the Order of Merit of Hungary, Knight’s Cross. The celebration was attended by Szabolcs Takacs, Hungary’s ambassador to the US, a representative of the US foreign ministry, diplomats, and leaders of local Hungarian organisations.

Putin’s new history textbook says it was a mistake to withdraw from Hungary in 1991

Putin and Orbán

Putin has a new history textbook written by his adviser Vladimir Medinsky. According to the new textbook, in 1956, rebellious radicals, former soldiers of fascist Hungary, took up arms and committed a large number of murders. The textbook concludes that it was a mistake for Russians to withdraw from Hungary.

New Russian state history book

In 1956, rebellious radicals, former soldiers of fascist Hungary, took up arms and committed many murders. According to a G7 article, this is how the new Russian state history textbook describes the 1956 revolution of Hungary. This volume will be compulsory for the education of 17-year-olds throughout the country. The volume for 11th graders was written by Vladimir Medinsky, an advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

G7 notes about Medinsky that as culture minister he fired the head of the Moscow archives for questioning the historical authenticity of the filmed legend of the Great Patriotic War, the story of 28 soldiers who stopped a German tank column in front of Moscow at the cost of their lives, 24.hu writes.

It was a mistake releasing Hungary

G7 points out that the book spends almost a hundred pages on Putin’s reign and 18 pages on the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war. In addition to the section on Hungary in 1956, it is noteworthy that the book considers the release of the Soviet satellite states, including Hungary, to be a major mistake.

As the book writes, “In 1989, the unilateral withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern and Central Europe began. This was a particularly ill-considered decision, because the weakening of the Soviet military presence in the Allied countries caused a rise in nationalist and anti-Soviet sentiment’.

Neo-nazism, brutal tactics in Ukraine

For example, according to the G7 article, in the sub-chapter on “Ukrainian neo-Nazism”, they discuss how, since the 1990s, generations have been “raised with anti-Russian, neo-Nazi ideals” and the Ukrainian army, following NATO orders, uses its own citizens as human shields, not allowing them to leave their homes. According to the textbook, ‘no army in the history of the world has ever used such brutal tactics on its own territory’.

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State secretary marks anniversary of 1956 martyr Imre Nagy’s reburial

imre nagy commemoration

The deeds of Imre Nagy, the martyred prime minister of Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, carry the message that Hungary’s national interests must come first, a foreign ministry official told a commemoration event on Friday.

Marking the 65th anniversary of Nagy’s execution and the 34th anniversary of his reburial at the late prime minister’s memorial statue in Budapest, Tamás Menczer, the state secretary for bilateral relations, noted that the martyrs of 1956 had not been given their last rights until decades after their executions.

The rehabilitation of Nagy and his fellow martyrs was a symbolic and cathartic event of Hungary’s change of regime in 1989, Menczer said, calling the event “the start of a new period in Hungarian political life”.

Menczer said Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s speech at the ceremonial reburial held in Heroes’ Square in which he demanded the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary and free elections was “burned into the nation’s memory”.

“We must also remember the unmarked graves, because it is those that symbolise the regime that had been incapable of doing, or — what’s even worse — refused to do the moral minimum,” the state secretary said.

Though the 1989 reburial brought closure and was a symbolic victory of the 1956 revolution, “the years that followed showed that to the leaders and representatives of the state party, the change of regime had merely been an attempt to secure their positions by transferring their powers,” Menczer said.

The change of regime brought freedom and peace to Hungarians, “but this can only be preserved if we continue to protect our sovereignty and Hungarian interests in the future, too,” he said.

“We reject all imperialist aspirations, including the concept of a united states of Europe,” Menczer said. “We are fighting for a Europe of nations, an EU comprising strong sovereign member states.”

At the end of the ceremony, Menczer and other officials laid wreaths at Nagy’s statue on behalf of the government, the president, the prime minister, the speaker of parliament, the Kúria, the chief public prosecutor’s office, the Constitutional Court and the Hungarian Armed Forces.

Russian media: 1956 revolution in Hungary organised by Western powers

Putin Russia media

Russia has a harmful and unhistorical narrative about every revolution and freedom fight in Eastern Europe, saying that almost all of them were organised by Western powers. The list includes even Hungary’s 1956 revolution and freedom fight.

In October and November 1956, the sweeping majority of the Hungarian nation said they would not like to continue to be members of the Warsaw Pact and the Communist block led by the Soviet Union. There were huge demonstrations in Budapest and other Hungarian municipalities claiming the re-establishment of the rule of law in Hungary instead of the Communist brutality and terror and sticking to the idea of remaining neutral in the Cold War. Finally, Soviet tanks crushed the revolution transforming it into a fight for freedom.

However, it seems Russia remembers otherwise. Their state media claimed Western powers moved the strings behind the Hungarian revolution in 1956. Therefore, it was a “colour revolution”, just like the one taking place twice in Ukraine or Czechoslovakia in 1968. They claimed the 1989 revolution was successful in Romania because it was organised by France, not the Anglo-Saxons, telex.hu wrote.

A so-called war correspondent named Borzenko said that America pumped much money into Romania and other countries. That is how NGOs were formed to fight for Western interests, he believes. That is not the first time Russia’s state media claimed Western powers were behind anti-Soviet and anti-Russian movements. In 2016, they claimed that the CIA organised the Hungarian 1956 revolution.

Government: Hungary stands by peace

Hungary stands by peace in the face of external efforts to “push it into the war in Ukraine”, a state secretary of the foreign ministry told public news channel M1 on Friday, MTI wrote. Responding to the European Parliament’s criticism of Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó’s visit to Belarus, Tamás Menczer said Szijjártó had used the visit to highlight the importance of dialogue and to encourage all warring parties to negotiate. “Once again, it’s become clear who is pro-war and who pro-peace,” he said.

Russia, a nuclear power, should be negotiated with, he said. “Talk of a third world war … [and] conflict between nuclear powers is becoming increasingly frequent.” Conflict between NATO and Russia should be avoided at all cost because “that would mean the end of us all”. This can only be avoided through negotiations, he said. “Those against negotiations, like the MEPs criticising the Hungarian foreign minister, are pro-war as they don’t really want peace and a ceasefire,” he said.

Read alsoRussian “spy bank” tried to “pressure” Hungary as it faces bankruptcy

Hungarian man injured in 2006 street clashes laid to rest

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László Nagy, a man blinded in one eye in clashes between anti-government protestors and police in the autumn of 2006, was laid to rest in Budapest on Wednesday. He died in early December.

Nagy lost his eye after being hit by a rubber bullet by police at then opposition Fidesz’s commemoration of Hungary’s 1956 revolution.

He reported the incident to the authorities but the Budapest prosecutor’s office dropped the case in 2007, saying the identity of the perpetrator could not be determined.

His demand for compensation was rejected in early 2007. He was later paid 4.5 million forints (EUR 11,300) by police under an out-of-court settlement.

Addressing the funeral, Tamás Gaudi-Nagy, the managing director of the National Legal Defence Service, said there were few victims of the 2006 clashes who had done as much as Nagy had to spread the truth about “how hard the terror of [then PM Ferenc] Gyurcsány came down on commemoration-goers and protestors”.

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Government: Hungarians can only count on themselves

Government secretary Potápi

Hungarians can only count on themselves, as demonstrated by the events of November 4, 1956, a government official said on Friday, marking the national day of mourning in remembrance of the crushing of the anti-Communist uprising in 1956.

Árpád János Potápi, the state secretary for policies for Hungarians across the borders, said in Dombóvár, in southern Hungary, that although the United Nations had then condemned the Russian intervention into the Hungarian revolution, “Hungary received no meaningful help”. “We could learn then that we are only entitled to what we fight for ourselves,” he said.

The victims of the uprising included some 3,000 dead, 20,000 injured, hundreds of executed revolutionaries, tens of thousands of ruined people and some 200,000 exiles, he said.

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Read alsoAnniversary of 1956 defeat: flag flown at half-mast in front of Parliament

Referring to the Fidesz rule since 2010, Potápi said the past 12 years had shown “that if we stand together, we can do anything.” National cohesion was strengthened, but was now threatened by “the war on our doorstep”, he said.

“That is why we need peace. Peace is what will curb the crisis caused by wartime sanctions,” he said.

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Read also23 October: Hungarians have never given up freedom

Anniversary of 1956 defeat: flag flown at half-mast in front of Parliament

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Hungary’s flag was hoisted and lowered to half-mast in front of Parliament on Friday morning, in commemoration of the anniversary of the defeat of the 1956 uprising against Soviet rule.

The flag was lowered in a military ceremony, with President Katalin Novák and army chief Major General Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi attending. Bence Rétvári, parliamentary state secretary of the interior ministry, and András Zs. Varga, head of the top court Kúria, also attended the event.

The flag will remained at half-mast throughout the day.

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MEP Gyöngyösi: Orbán embarrassed by Hungarians taking up arms against Russians

viktor orbán 23 october
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MEP Márton Gyöngyösi’s (Non-attached) thoughts via press release:

It’s been a long time since the dawn of Hungary’s post-Communist democratization, when former Communist Youth member and newly-Liberal Viktor Orbán landed in our political life clinging with both hands to the memory of 1956. By now however, Orbán’s regime has become so subservient to Vladimir Putin that they would rather forget the revolution against the Soviet Union. What a stark contrast it is with the Ukrainian army’s ethnic Hungarian soldiers who just liberated villages and towns from Russian occupation the other day.

The still uncensored part of the Hungarian internet has featured some special photos recently: the Ukrainian army’s ethnic Hungarian soldiers proudly posing with the symbol of the Hungarian revolution of 1956, the flag with a hole in it, standing in the main square of a town just liberated from Russian occupation. The warriors’ message is clear: they consider themselves as the successors of the freedom fighters of 1956, and they struggle against Moscow’s tyranny as their spiritual predecessors did. And they do so quite successfully as the Transcarpathian Hungarian volunteers have been actively involved in the Ukrainian military successes of the past few weeks.

Meanwhile in Budapest, the Fidesz government, which used to run campaigns of anti-Communism and heightened nationalism, was going through its most embarrassing days ever. 

Although the commemorations of October 23 had been considered for many years as the political highlight of the season for Viktor Orbán’s supporters, who had been transported by buses to Budapest so they could listen to their leader’s latest guidelines in the highest numbers possible, everything changed this year. The central state celebration was so insignificant that it wasn’t even featured in the news, and Viktor Orbán decided to flee to the country to deliver his speech at an event hidden from the public.

Why? Because Orbán, who climbed in the Hungarian political arena on the memory of 1956, now finds it embarrassing to reflect on the Hungarians who took up arms against the Russian occupation. 

His regime has increasingly been relying on Putin’s Russia, and Orbán has been professing his faith in such Russian propaganda claims as Ukraine is “not even a country” or there’s “no defence” against weaponized Russian energy other than submitting to it.

October 23 of 2022 was the day when Orbán’s immorality was exposed for the whole world to see. The politician who, quite recently, was such a fervent anti-Communist, no longer dares to even address the crimes of Communism, because many of his supporters actually love Putin more than him, while he himself worships the Russian propaganda with just about as much passion as they do.

The question is: how long will the European Union keep allowing this man to partake in joint decisions and when will its leaders finally realize that Orbán’s and his ministers’ presence in the EU’s decision-making processes is just as if they let Putin or Sergei Lavrov sit at the table?

On October 23 this year, Orbán and his party completed their symbolic divorce from Europe. It’s high time European politicians finally realized the truth and started working out the details of how to sanction Orbán and his partners in crime.

Disclaimer: the sole liability for the opinions stated rests with the author(s). These opinions do not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Parliament.

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