On 4 November Soviet tanks rolled into the country, sealing the fate of the glorious 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight. Hungary’s National Day of Mourning, instituted by the second Orbán government and observed nationwide, commemorates the crushing of the uprising, honouring the heroes who fought against the Communist regime and Soviet occupation.
An American sailor of Hungarian origin served on the Coral Sea, perhaps as a helmsman. He was probably the one to come up with the idea that the money originally collected for the crew’s Christmas presents be given to Hungarian refugees instead, and a total of 7,500 US dollars were thus donated to the refugee aid fund. It may have been the same serviceman to suggest that the crew form the message ‘May God help you’ in Hungarian on the deck. Unfortunately, the name and story of the Hungarian American sailor remain unknown.
‘Family, school, church, scouting. The combination of these four elements is the only way the Hungarian diaspora can survive in North America. Despite the lack of a perceivable enemy today, we give up ourselves,’ 1956er Gyula Varga, former principal of the Széchenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten in New Brunswick and an active scout, said in an in-depth interview.
‘The Hungarian people, who cherish freedom, will do everything in their power to defend their sovereignty. Just as in 1956, when we were the first Eastern European country under communist dictatorship to stand up against Moscow, Hungary is now leading the fight for freedom against the oppression of Brussels.’
In a recent podcast, Balázs Orbán drew a comparison between the 1956 Revolution and the war in Ukraine. His remarks, taken out of context and misinterpreted, were swiftly exploited to smear the government of Hungary. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán responded by stressing that the war in Ukraine must not be allowed to overshadow the memory of the heroes of 1956, and that Hungary’s position must always be articulated accurately and unambiguously.
The production supported by the National Film Institute also include a series titled The Nation’s Golden Boys is in the making, focusing on the Hungarian men’s water polo team that won three consecutive Olympic gold medals between 2000 and 2008, and a documentary film that depicts the life of Ferenc Xavér Éder, a Jesuit missionary who was one of the first Hungarian travellers to set foot in Peru and who served as a missionary among the Moxos Indians for twenty years in the 18th century.
Katalin Novák expressed that the greatness of heroes stems from the fact that, in essence, they are not different from us. People who became heroes were sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, individuals grappling with the everyday challenges of life. Their exceptionalism arose from their unwavering commitment to making the right decisions even in the most difficult circumstances, the President pointed out.
Cardinal Mindszenty played an important role in the 1956 revolution. He assumed his post as archbishop immediately after his release from captivity, appealed for international aid for Hungary, initiated the process of cleaning the church from Communist infiltration, while also being active in the political life of the country. Firmly holding onto his conservative view of himself as the most important dignitary of Hungary, he tried to set the direction of the course of events. Contrary to the recent myth-busting efforts, this direction was not reactionary or outdated.
The events of the 1956 Revolution are quite well-known, at least in Hungary, as far as the beginning of it and the period of its brief triumph are concerned. What is less known is that the revolution was not fully suppressed on the day of the Soviet invasion on 4 November. Active, armed resistance lasted until 11 November, and civil disobedience, as well as sporadic outbursts of rebellion kept the Soviets from stabilizing their rule until the late spring of the next year.
The 1956ers were mostly young and eager to prove their worth…A child immigrant, George Szirtes is now a well-known British poet, winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize. A young medical student who was offered a place in Oxford’s famous Merton College after his arrival, later became one of the world’s leading molecular cardiologists. György Radda went on to head the British Medical Research Council, and on his retirement in 2000 the Queen made him a Knight of the British Empire.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.