Hungarian freedom fighters atop the jackboot remains of the Stalin statue
Source: 1956 Hungary

President George W. Bush, in Europe today, remembered some of the bravest democratic revolutionaries in all history, Hungary’s Freedom Fighters, who stood up to Soviet tanks in the name of democracy. It’s the fiftiest anniversary of that stunning struggle in the name of freedom.

Source: The Menzies Era

In the aftermath of World War II, half of Europe was enslaved by the Soviet Union. The communism it imposed was a truly terrible kind, disallowing all free thought as the Stalinist colonializers stamped their deadening blotting-paper-gray imprint on the vibrant Hungarian culture. All businesses were confiscated and the secret police and their army snitches monitored every word. It was a sad ending to defeat of fascism and national socialism, following the long war. Truly terrible.

“Russians go home”

Brave Hungarians, who’d secretly listened to banned Radio Free Europe broadcasts, got up the courage to attempt to free their country from Soviet slavery against all odds. Fifty years ago today, they demonstrated against the Stalinists. They took to the streets to demand democratic revolution. They tore down the big hulking utterly ugly Stalin statue. To the world’s discredit, no one came to their aid. The Soviet tanks rolled in. Many Hungarians then fled as refugees, many were shot in the streets, many were sent to “re-education” camps or to hard labor.

I wasn’t even born to remember this revolution, but I recall seeing my first TV film clips on it in 1968, when the brave Czechs picked up the torch of freedom in that later year. I remember some girl in a funky-long 1950s skirt stumbling in the streets and maybe throwing a rock at a Soviet tank. I was too young then to know what was going on, but when I started to study the events of 1956 in college, it came back to me, and I was able to piece together the images I dimly recalled with what had really happened.

Hungarian Freedom Fighters Burn Stalin’s Photo
Source, both photos: 1956 Hungary

Hungarians were the first freedom fighters in the struggle against the brutal Soviet totalitarian communist ideology on earth. They still are an inspiration to the world.

President Bush, to his credit has remembered and honored their sacrifices in the name of democracy and liberty. The FT news account reports:

Two weeks after Hungarians toppled their Soviet-controlled government in October 1956, Moscow crushed the uprising with tanks, fighter aircraft and thousands of soldiers. Hungary, along with the rest of Soviet-controlled eastern Europe, waited another 33 years before communism collapsed.

Mr Bush said the world continued to draw inspiration from 1956.

???????We have learnt from your example, and we resolve that, when people stand up for freedom, America will stand with them,??????? he said.

The rest of the FT story is here.

The White House is weighing in on Bush’s trip to Hungary to recognize Hungary’s freedom struggle; here is what Steven Hadley at the National Security Council had to say:

The two longest substantive meetings were, of course, the meeting with the President and the Prime Minister. At both of those meetings, the subject of democracy and freedom came up, of course. This being the 50th anniversary of the 1956 uprising, freedom and democracy are very much on everybody’s mind. The President paid tribute to the spirit of the Hungarian people that despite the events of 1956 stood strong and ultimately resulted in the freedom that Hungary achieved in 1989.

They talked about Hungary could not only be an example to the world about the power of freedom, but also, in some sense, Hungary can share the lessons it has learned from its own transition to freedom and democracy with other countries not only in the region, but around the world. All three leaders talked about the responsibility of those who know freedom to support others in their quest for freedom. There are a lot of ways in which that support can manifest itself, but they all agreed that it is the responsibility of those who are free to help those who would be free.

Read the rest here.

This site here, 1956 Hungary is an absolute must-see, it’s loaded with photos!

Pestiside has some great blogging on the particulars of Bush’s visit.

Don Ciccio has an important addendum:

Let????????s not forget that the 1956 revolt has (briefly, unfortunately) spread to the neighbouring countries, including Romania. In the same 1956 year, in the city of Timisoara – the same place where the 1989 anti-communist revolution started – there was a student revolt. Among the participants: the current director of the Vienna State Opera, Ioan Holender (yes, he????????s Romanian.) Holender participated at the student revolt at the University, and he was promptly excluded from the school. This eventually lead to his imigration to Austria where he became the longest serving director in the history of the Vienna State Opera.

UPDATE: Elephants in Academia has a thoughtful and informed discussion of the significance of this event here.