to "misuse" the symbols of that struggle for their political aims, ahead of municipal elections Sunday October 1.
Several speakers made the appeal at a gathering in Budapest where they reflected on the 50th anniversary of the revolution, which was also aimed at ending persecution of Christians and others suffering for their faith or political ideals.
Nearby the auditorium, short-lived triumphs, and shattered dreams. Ingredients of an exposition where music invited visitors to see black and white pictures of Hungary’s 1956 Revolution. They showed hopeful young people demonstrating for free elections and independence from the Soviet Union.
Their freedom fight began October 23. Just around the corner, photos could be seen of massacres and Soviet forces, who eventually crushed the revolution by November 4. The exposition accompanied the two-day international freedom fighters conference titled: ‘1956 and Hungary, the memory of eyewitnesses’.
EMOTIONAL DOCTOR
68-year old Dr. Peter Hungyady had difficulties watching the pictures. The retired radiologist was among 200,000 Hungarians who fled to Austria after participating in a demonstration. "For me it is very difficult to find the words…It happened 50 years ago, but it seems it was yesterday…," he told BosNewsLife, his voice trembling.
While at least 2,500 Hungarians were killed and many more injured during the 1956 Revolution, hundreds of Soviet troops also died, recalls Hungyady. “I have seen the poor Russian soldiers…If you continue here…It was terrible to see the vehicles and all those young soldiers burned," he said, close to tears.
95-year old Bela Kiraly, who escaped to the United States, remembers the fighting well. He was commander of the Hungarian National Guard and till the last moment hoped that a promised ceasefire would hold and lead to the withdrawal of Soviet troops. But he soon brought Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy bad news.
"I reported to Imre Nagy the invasion of 16 Soviet divisions. I knew at that moment we could not stand up. I only hoped till the last moment that probably something would happen to stop this invasion," he explained BosNewsLife.
FALSE AGREEMENT
"On noon November the 3rd an agreement was reached that the Soviets would go home…It turned out to be the biggest diplomatic lie in history. Instead of [pulling out] shooting started…"
Now five decades later Hungary has joined the European Union and is a member of NATO. Yet questions remain over whether the 1956 Revolution ideals have been realized. Survivors of 1956 complained that the young generation misses the spirit of that era.
Some research even shows that most youngsters don’t know that Imre Nagy was Hungary’s prime minister during the 1956 Revolution and later executed by the Soviet-backed regime. It also hurts his granddaughter, artist Katalin Janosi, that all political parties are in her words "misusing the revolution."
The tender 55-year old said she is angry that people shouted 1956 Revolution slogans at this month’s demonstrations and riots against the recently elected Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany after he admitted lying to win re-election.
NO REVOLUTION
"This had nothing to do with the 1956 Revolution. We have democratic elections now and no foreign occupation. It makes me said that they use the 1956 Revolution for their political aims." She also can teach last week’s demonstrators a lesson in suffering. Janosi saw her father, a Reformed Church priest, returning home after years in prison.
"He received eight years in prison, just because he was the son of Imre Nagy. My father was released five years early, because he got tuberculosis in prison." She noticed something else: "My father believed in Jesus Christ and was a Reformist, my grandfather believed in Communism, but was a Reformed Communist. Both suffered because of their believes…"
After her grandfather was executed and her father eventually died, she refused to flee Hungary as in her words that would have meant “stepping over the grave of her grandfather."
She and many others speaking at the conference said they want to continue their, sometimes uphill, battle to make Hungary a more peaceful and democratic nation.
