When I was a child, someone gave my sister a boxed book-set. I was the reader in the family, and I devoured them. They were hard-cover selections of Readers’ Digest articles. Each book had a theme (Courage, Endeavour, and two others that escape me, just now). In one of them, I read for the first time of the Hungarian Revolution. I don’t think that was ever covered in any history class I took throughout my 17 years of schooling (my history classes rarely made it to WWII by the end of the school year).

This morning, I opened up my link to the Opinion-Journal online, and the first title in their content list is The Hungarian Revolution: impotent, poignant, personal.

My generation had the Tiananmen Square Protest. But fifty years ago today, it was the Hungarian Revolution. And like Tiananmen Square, it was doomed.

Oh, it didn’t seem doomed, at first. The entire city of Budapest seemed to fill the streets, the public square. 8-12 hours they stood there, chanting, stamping their feet, clapping. They wanted the Russians to go home, the Soviet star on the parliament to be turned off. The star was darkened, but the Russians didn’t go home.

For 13 days, the Revolution progressed. The first Soviet tanks abandoned their orders, and joined the people. Imre Nagy, the Hungarian leader, said Hungary wanted to leave the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet Union announced in Pravda that it was considering entering into negotiations “…on the question of the presence of Soviet troops on the territory of Hungary.” (source) The same day the article was published, Oct 31, the Soviets decided the needed to respond more strongly, and moved more tank units into the region.

By Nov 7, it was over. The Soviets installed a new Prime Minister, and promised safe passage to Nagy, who had sought refuge in the Yugoslavian Embassy. When Nagy left the Embassy, he was arrested and taken to Romania, where he was eventually tried for treason.

Remember them today… those heroes of yesterday, whose blood ran in the streets of their hometown.

Remember them, and their courage, and honor their memory.

“October 23, 1956, is a day that will live forever in the annals of free men and nations. It was a day of courage, conscience and triumph. No other day since history began has shown more clearly the eternal unquenchability of man’s desire to be free, whatever the odds against success, whatever the sacrifice required.”
– John F. Kennedy, on the first anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution.