HUNGARY: Scars still remain for those Hungarians involved in failed 1956 revolution

As Hungary commemorates the 50th anniversary of the failed 1956 revolution when Hungary rose against Soviet rule and communist dictatorship, there are still scars and divisions that remain unhealed. The country is split more than ever since the change of regime. The two monuments that will be unveiled next Monday (October 23) symbolize the division in society. The veterans and the opposition criticized the official modern monument for being too aggressive, modern and reminiscent of gallows rather than the revolutionary crowd. A more traditional, figurative monument of the veterans will stand next to the Technical University from where the first demonstrations set off. Anniversary events will include a remembrance ceremony at the statue of Imre Nagy, who was appointed Prime Minister during the uprising but was hanged by the Soviet regime after a secret trial two years later. A torch-lit rally will also be held and a new memorial will be inaugurated at 7.56pm - represented on the 24-hour clock as 1956. However, the country's main opposition party is to boycott many of the events after the Prime Minister admitted lying to win election. They will held their own commemoration rally in the afternoon on Monday. Unlike the present day divisions, the revolution that broke out on October 23rd was one of the rare moments of unity in Hungarian history. General discontent burst into a popular revolt against the communist government. It began with a student demonstration demanding reforms, democracy, and above all, independence. The demonstrations soon swelled to huge crowds marching onto parliament calling for Imre Nagy as prime minister. Laszlo Regeczy-Nagy witnessed the demonstrations as he drove around the city. He worked as chaffeur for the British Embassy at that time. He helped to pass on documents between the revolutionaries and the West in 1956-57 and got 15 years of prison sentence. "When the university students went out to the street to take up solidarity with the Polish case then in that moment, this was after 2 p.m., the workers who were coming into the city from the factories stepped down from the pavement and joined them.," he recalled. "This was the revolution of the Hungarian proletariat. I was very surprised by it because there had been no sign that the Hungarian proletariat was patriotic and that its sons and daughters were ready to die for the freedom. It was a huge experience and surprise," he said. Sculptor of the veterans monument, Robert Csikszentmihalyi was among the demonstrators himself on the 23rd. "It was an overwhelming experience. And especially the march to parliament, and all those demands shouted at parliament," said Csikszentmihalyi. " It was uplifting and at the same time alarming. As we went across the Margaret bridge the trams were halted full of people and they looked at us in shock because in those times there was no precedent of demonstrations and we felt it was a very risky thing to do," he said. As demonstrators marched to the radio building to have their demands read, fighting erupted and the revolution became an armed uprising for independence. Fighting between the Soviet army and the Hungarian state police (AVO) lasted for days with heavy losses. Several street fighter groups were organized across the city and a National Guard formed. Imre Nagy became the prime minister of the revolution. Boys as young as 10-14 took up arms to fight Soviet tanks with Molotov cocktails and cunning. In a few days time the Soviet tanks left Budapest. One of the main strongholds of the street fighters was the Corvin alley due to its unique position. Tucked into a narrow round-shaped alley the Soviet tanks could not enter or bomb it. The boys, or as they were known the 'Pest lads' had one cannon and endless supplies of Molotov cocktails. The nickname "Pest lads" referred to the Pest side of Budapest where much of the fighting took place. The other side of Budapest, the hillier Buda, also had several strongholds and damage. From a cunning position they could hit the tanks with burning petrol and then fired at the tanks. Odon Pongratz, brother of the legendary commander of the Corvin alley, recalled how the lads fought: "They (the Russian soldiers in the tanks) opened the top and they wanted to climb out. But when they wanted to climb out, from there and there and there all the Pest lads could hardly wait for something to shoot at and poor the Russian soldier could only climb out up to this waist when bang, bang, bang (and the lads said): 'I was the first, no, mine was the lethal shot', and so the Pest lads quarrelled under the windows and they did not know that they were writing world history." Several boys lost their lives in the fights and many civilians. There were several mass shootings at peaceful demonstrators across Hungary in the early days of the uprising. The worst massacre took place on the 25th at Kossuth Square in front of parliament. A huge crowd of peaceful demonstrators gathered to press on their demands when Hungarian state police (AVO) began firing from the top of one of the main buildings. Official estimates of those who died stand at around 100 while many witnesses say the figure is closer to Within a few days, the Soviet tanks left Budapest and it seemed that the uprising succeeded. Nagy formed a multi-party government and sought to withdraw Hungary from the Warsaw Pact. But in November, Soviet troops and tanks re-entered Budapest and other major Hungarian cities to quell the uprising. Within a week, the revolt was over. Some 25,000 died, and 200,000 fled Hungary. It was later revealed that over 1,000 soviet tanks and ten troop divisions had been used to silence the Hungarian people. Prime Minister Imre Nagy was arrested in mid-November and executed two years later. Janos Kadar, who had replaced Erno Gero as Communist Party Leader two days before the Soviet invasion, remained unchallenged. Hundreds were executed and tens of thousands imprisoned for taking part in the uprising. Maria Wittner fought in the Corvin alley along with the boys making Molotov cocktails. She was a 19-year-old single mother in 1956 when she joined the street fighters. Arrested after the revolution, she was sentenced to death and her two-year-old son was put in a state orphanage with mentally handicapped children. She spent 13 years in prison, only released as late as 1970. As a "56er", she could find only manual work and earned her living from sewing. "The retaliation suppresses for me the fast moving events of the revolution because the uprising was two weeks but the retaliation was almost 33 years. Because when one came out of prison in 1970 one merely came out of a narrow prison into a wider prison. In their (the communists) eyes we were not equal people," Wittner said. For people like Wittner and many other of that era, the present socialists are mere successors to the communists who crushed the revolution. They say they cannot celebrate together with the present prime minister and his party because today's socialists could only get a career in the previous regime if they condemned the revolution.

ITN Source | October 20, 2006

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