The Revolution of 1956
This past October 23rd was the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolt against the Communist regime. Anniversary seems like a positive term but in this case the word "remembrance" may be more appropriate because the uprising was only briefly successful as it eventually cost Hungary more than 200,000 of its citizens.
The brief rundown of the 1956 revolution is this: The USSR had continued to occupy Hungary(and the other nations of the Warsaw Pact; East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia) even after peace had been declared and World War II was over.
Some 10 years later in 1956, peaceful protests had begun by mainly university students but soon their synergy led them to into a revolt that was spontaneous.
They were actually successful as the government was overthrown but only a week later the USSR returned with an army, devastating Hungary, it's capital and it's peoples.
Many fled, many died and some were even adolescents who were caught, brought back to the Soviet Union and executed on their 18th birthday.
Historians say it was an important event in the Cold War because Hungary was the first occupied nation in the Soviet Bloc to rise against its Russian oppressors and it showed the world that Communism wasn't invincible. So, it only took 45 years but the USSR eventually withdrew and very soon after the Soviet Union collapsed altogether.
But now the Socialists are back in power after rigging elections(free elections my ass)! They failed in serving their country(but succeeded in serving themselves, natch) but remained in power through lies. Those lies were tapped and released publicly, enraging citizens(both home and abroad) and now, during a time when Hungarians should be remembering the 50th anniversary of the Revolt, are now instead reenacting it!
It very much seems as though this latest uprising is utterly justified, so my question is: What happened to the good old days of assasinations? I suppose we Hungarians love to romanticise and be righteous, be the hero, the martyr, the sacrifice, the survivor. But to do the dirty work? To take the road where only the end justifies the means? It doesn't seem so, unfortunately.
Begins now the winter of our discontent
The brief rundown of the 1956 revolution is this: The USSR had continued to occupy Hungary(and the other nations of the Warsaw Pact; East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia) even after peace had been declared and World War II was over.
Some 10 years later in 1956, peaceful protests had begun by mainly university students but soon their synergy led them to into a revolt that was spontaneous.
They were actually successful as the government was overthrown but only a week later the USSR returned with an army, devastating Hungary, it's capital and it's peoples.
Many fled, many died and some were even adolescents who were caught, brought back to the Soviet Union and executed on their 18th birthday.
Historians say it was an important event in the Cold War because Hungary was the first occupied nation in the Soviet Bloc to rise against its Russian oppressors and it showed the world that Communism wasn't invincible. So, it only took 45 years but the USSR eventually withdrew and very soon after the Soviet Union collapsed altogether.
But now the Socialists are back in power after rigging elections(free elections my ass)! They failed in serving their country(but succeeded in serving themselves, natch) but remained in power through lies. Those lies were tapped and released publicly, enraging citizens(both home and abroad) and now, during a time when Hungarians should be remembering the 50th anniversary of the Revolt, are now instead reenacting it!
It very much seems as though this latest uprising is utterly justified, so my question is: What happened to the good old days of assasinations? I suppose we Hungarians love to romanticise and be righteous, be the hero, the martyr, the sacrifice, the survivor. But to do the dirty work? To take the road where only the end justifies the means? It doesn't seem so, unfortunately.
Begins now the winter of our discontent
posted by ds @ 12:18 AM
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