Stephen Sisa : The Spirit of Hungary

Visitors to Budapest cannot miss its most visible monument - a statue which stands atop a high pedestal on the summit of Saint Gellért's Hill overlooking the city. A lofty female figure, with her arms raising the palm branch of Peace and Glory towards the sky, it is a spectacular war memorial erected in honor of the Red Army after the War. Its creator, Zsigmond Kisfaludy-Strobl, had originally designed the statue in memory of István Horthy, the fallen son of Regent Horthy but when Russian generals and political emissaries discovered the model in the sculptor's workshop, they ordered the statue erected on the most conspicuous point of Gellért Hill as a symbol of Soviet triumph and liberty.

This monument is indeed a symbol, one which, given its origin, epitomizes the Soviet Union's false pretense and the "misappropriation" it has perpetrated since the Hungarian "liberation" in 1945.

Although Hungary had been under Communist rule once before - during the 133-day Red Terror regime of Béla Kun in 1919 - this second rising of the Red Star in the wake of the Russian occupation in 1945 produced far greater horrors. In fact, its cataclysmic proportions are often compared with the Mongolian invasion of 1241-42.

The Swiss Legation to Budapest issued a report of the Russian invasion of Hungary in the spring of 1945, stating in part:

"During the siege of Budapest and also during the following fateful weeks, Russian troops looted the city freely. They entered practically every habitation, the very poorest as well as the richest. They took away everything they wanted, especially food, clothing and valuables. Looting was general and profound, but not always systematic. It happened, for instance, that a man was deprived of all his trousers, but his jackets were left to him. There were also small groups which specialized in hunting up valuables, using magnetic mine detectors in search of gold, silver and other metals. Trained dogs were also used. Looting became more general after the Russians had gutted the city.

"...Furniture and larger objects of art that could not be taken away were frequently simply destroyed. In many cases, after looting, the homes were also set on fire, causing a vast total loss...

"After several weeks, looting stopped... but Russian soldiers often arrested passers-by, relieving them of the contents of their pockets, especially watches, cash and even papers of identity...

"Rape caused the greatest suffering. Violations were so general - from the age of 10 up to 70 years - that few women in Hungary escaped this fate. Acts of incredible brutality have been registered. Many women preferred to commit suicide in order to escape monstrosities... Misery was increased by the sad fact that many of the Russian soldiers were ill (with syphilis) and medicines in Hungary were completely lacking. Cases have been reported where Russian women serving in the Red army or in the Russian police force have been guilty of rape. Men have been beaten up by such women for not having submitted themselves to their wishes...

"It is estimated that more than half of the city of Budapest was destroyed. The commercial district and the hills of Buda have suffered most. There are certain parts in the city, which, according to the Russians, have suffered more than Stalingrad. The quays on the Danube and especially the Elizabeth Bridge and the Chain Bridge have been almost completely destroyed. In the Fortress there is almost no house standing. The Royal Palace was burned down. The Coronation Church collapsed. The Parliament Building is severely damaged, but its skyline has remained intact...

"During the siege the population had to live exclusively on whatever stocks or reserves it had piled up. Toward the end of the siege, the situation was disastrous and the corpses of horses dead for several weeks (often flattened by tanks that passed over them) had also been eaten..."

The fate of the peasant population differed little, especially where Red soldiers found stores of wine.

Once drunken, nothing was sacred to them. They raped half-grown girls and screaming grandmothers; they robbed the peasants of their animals and stole everything they could carry. But the most tragic losses were the hundreds of thousands of men and boys whom the Soviet army seized for deportation to Russia. Malinka, robot - "a little work" - was the slogan with which the male population was taken to Siberia, which became for most a land of no return. Their numbers included thousands of Hungarian Jews, who had managed to survive the Nazi occupation only to be seized by their "liberators."

Throughout the country many Hungarian men lost their lives trying to protect their women from rape, but perhaps none so dramatically as Bishop Vilmos Apor of Gyr, who was killed defending members of his flock.

It was on Good Friday of 1945 that drunken Soviet soldiers entered his palace in search of a group of women they had learned were hiding there. When the soldiers trooped down to the cellar they found Bishop Apor - in full ceremonial dress - blocking the entrance to the room where the young women had sought refuge. When the Bishop tried to wrestle off the intruders, he was shot three times and collapsed. In trepidation the soldiers fled. Bishop Apor died in hospital on Easter Sunday. His last words were: "I offer my suffering for my beloved country and for the whole world. Saint István, pray in heaven for the poor Hungarians!"

Although the press could publish not a word of this tragedy, the news spread like wildfire, causing indignation not only in Hungary but abroad as well, since Bishop Apor was also known to have been a courageous defender of the Jews during Hitler's era.

The Red Gang of Four

After the Russian military conquest of Hungary, under the leadership of Mátyás Rákosi (1892-1971) a group of Muscovite Hungarians was sent to complete the political takeover.

Rákosi was a wily political operator, the son of a well-to-do Jewish country grocer, who, as a member of the Béla Kun regime, had gone into exile after the collapse of the Red Terror in Hungary, to finally wind up in Moscow. In 1924 he was clandestinely sent back to Hungary under a false identity to reorganize the underground Communist Party, but was soon arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. After 15 years of captivity, Hungarian authorities extradited him to the Soviet Union in exchange for old flags captured by the Russians in the 1848 War of Independence. Following his extradition in 1940, Rákosi lived in Moscow along with other Hungarian communists. An absolute Muscovite, he had no spiritual affinity with the Hungarian people, nor did his closest associates who accompanied him to Hungary: Ern Ger, Joseph Révai and Zoltán Vas.

Ern Ger was a man of middle-class background who, in contrast to the colorful and chubby Rákosi, cut a dry and lanky figure. A puritan and workaholic, Ger was allegedly "Moscow's eye" on Rákosi and his entourage. Joseph Révai served as the publicist and ideologue of the Party while the fourth member of the group was Zoltán Vas, a high ranking officer of the Soviet Army who became the economic and financial expert of the Party and, for a time, mayor of Budapest. This red "four-in-hand" had an alternate member in the person of Mihály Farkas, who started his career as a printer in Kassa (now Kosice) to become the cabinet's Minister of Defense and a man of greater influence than Zoltán Vas.

The only gentile among the leading Muscovites was Imre Nagy. Nagy did not belong to Rákosi's inner circle, though he loyally aided in the Communist takeover, holding various positions, including that of Minister of the Interior. With the passing years, however, Nagy, who was of Hungarian peasant stock, gradually turned against Stalinism.

Among the non-Muscovite Communist leaders, the most remarkable figure was the handsome young László Rajk, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and a fanatical Communist. Rákosi and his circle disliked Rajk, calling him a "firebrand." Their antagonism was fired by their knowledge that Rajk harbored anti-Semitic sentiments - a heavy liability, especially in an era, when many of the officers of the

secret police (ÁVO) were recruited from among the survivors of Auschwitz, Dachau and Mauthausen and Russian prison camps.

Two Black Eyes for the Reds

Rákosi was a talented political operator, the greatest political caliber in the group. A well-read, cultured individual with a tenacious memory, he was a social charmer when he chose to be. Under his leadership, the Muscovites set about their task in a deceptive way by reassuring the population and the emerging political parties of the Communists' goals. Joseph Révai pledged their support for a democratic independent Hungary; they disdained coercion and promised to fight against the return of fascism and reaction side by side with the other democratic parties. He also stated that the Soviets had no intention of interfering in Hungary's internal affairs.

At this time, the so-called Allied Control Commission was still active in Hungary with Soviet Marshal Voroshilov as its president, ostensibly observing the transition of the country to democracy through free elections in accordance with the Yalta agreement. In reality, however, the Commission proved itself to be more or less a rubber-stamp for Russian actions.

The Hungarian Muscovites had high hopes that, by the fall of 1945 - the time set for the general elections - they would have a winning hand. Their confidence seemed justified for several reasons. The Communist Party enjoyed the support of the Soviet Army. The Party claimed credit for the land-reform enacted by the Communist-dominated interim government in March, 1945, which distributed over three million holds among landless peasants. To reassure the population about their intentions concerning the Church, party members were instructed to help rebuild churches ruined in the war and to regularly attend church services and religious processions, wearing the hammer and sickle emblem on their lapels. An atheist, Rákosi himself provided good example by invoking "God's help" for a good harvest by appearing in well-publicized photographs which showed him in wheat-fields accompanied by priests. In the campaign for votes the words "communism" and "socialism" were used sparingly and, in an attempt to give it a "national" character Rákosi ordered that the red ribbon under the red star on the party emblem be replaced with the red, white and green of the Hungarian flag. The sanctity of private ownership was emphasized as a prop to induce both big and small capitalists to rebuild their shops and factories and increase production. Last but not least, the Communists succeeded in wresting control of the Federation of Hungarian Labor from the Social Democrats.

The campaign was a clever one, and Rákosi and his cohorts were sure of victory against their weakly organized opponents in the national elections set for November 4, 1945. They felt so confident of victory that in Budapest they moved the date of the municipal election two weeks ahead of the national voting: a victory in Budapest would be the overture to an overwhelming Communist victory nationwide.

Things however did not work out as planned. Budapest, believed to be a "Red" city reinforced by an industrial belt with a proletarian electorate, voted against the Communists by giving the Small Landholders - an agrarian party - over fifty per cent of the total vote opposed to the forty-three per cent given to the Communist - socialist ticket. More than anyone else, it was Msgr. Béla Varga who helped engineer this victory for the Smallholders.

The second blow, delivered by the national electorate on November 4, 1945, was even more devastating, as shown by these results:

Seats in Parliament

Total number Percentage

Smallholders Party 245 59.90

Communist Party 70 17.11

Social Democratic Party 69 16.90

National Peasant Party 23 5.60

Civic Democratic Party 2 0.49

Total: 409 100.00

In Parliament the Smallholders had won 245 seats, the Communists 70, the Socialists 69, and the National Peasant Party 23.

Hungary's rejection of Communism under the shadow of Soviet military might created a world-wide sensation that focused attention on the resistance of the Magyars against the Communists. (In comparison, the election held in unoccupied Czechoslovakia in May, 1946 resulted in a Communist plurality, the only triumph the Communists ever achieved in free elections.)

"Salami Tactics"

The Muscovite leadership, flabbergasted by the defeat, did a soul-searching and decided that the majority party would have to be cut up "like a salami-slice by slice" as Rákosi put it. For the job, Rákosi had a double-edged knife at his disposal: the Soviet army and the security police who remained under Communist control in the coalition government that was formed after the elections. It mattered little that both the President of the Republic (Zoltán Tildy), and the Prime Minister (Ferenc Nagy) were members of the majority party, as was Msgr. Béla Varga, the President of the Parliament.

The Communists outwitted and outmaneuvered the

Small Landholders by means of accusations, intimidation and arrests. The "knife" sliced away first its right wing, by coercing the expulsion of many prominent members from the party, then emasculated the remainder of the Small Landholders by falsely charging it with "counter-revolutionary" conspiracy.

In 1946, there was a flare-up or resistance against such manipulation when the Smallholders' most courageous leader, Béla Kovács, put the Communists on the defensive. He and his followers demanded a proportional share of all positions in the administration allotted to the majority party, local elections and elections in the trade unions; abolition of the political police and of internment camps; and an end to the political trials that were being held by "people's tribunals" which resulted in the execution of hundreds of persons accused of "war crimes." Some such punishments were justified, but many were not. Among those executed was Ferenc Szálasi and most members of his government. While there was little sorrow for these men, the trial and subsequent execution of László Bárdossy, the former Prime Minister of Hungary, who had defended himself skillfully and courageously, was widely resented by Hungarians and foreigners as well. His last words under the gallows were, "God, liberate Hungary from these bandits!"

In a coup-like interference in Hungary's domestic affairs, in 1947 Béla Kovács was arrested by a Soviet general and deported to Russia as an "anti Soviet spy."

On May 30, 1947, Premier Ferenc Nagy himself was branded a conspirator by the Rákosi gang while vacationing in Switzerland. Nagy never returned to Hungary, choosing exile in the United States instead. Msgr. Béla Varga and Imre Kovács, a leader of the National Peasant Party and noted political writer, went into exile the same year.

Despite the gradual disintegration of the majority party, the years 1945 to 1947 saw social revolution. The vacuum created by the complete collapse of the old regime was filled by peasants and workers. Most of the arable land was distributed among the peasants. The earlier classed society was eliminated, and the basis was provided for a hitherto-unknown national unity, which during the following years became the source of a national resistance against Communist dictatorship. This process, however, had some of its roots in the Horthy-era, during which society was thoroughly indoctrinated with an anti-Communist spirit. The social revolution itself was carried out - as long as conditions permitted it - by a reform generation that had grown out from a populist movement in the Horthy era. The aim of this movement, supported by writers and intellectuals, was to bring an awareness that Hungarian society and culture could not be reborn without ending the impoverishment of the villages.

The Rear-Guard Fights on...

In February of 1947, the Paris Peace Conference - to no one's surprise - restored the frontiers established by the Treaty of Trianon and obliged Hungary, already stripped to the bone, to pay 300 million dollars in reparations to the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Although Stalin had previously led the Hungarians to believe that a partial revision of the Trianon frontier with Rumania might be possible, during the peace conference it was the Russians who sided most firmly with Rumania to keep the status quo. It was also Moscow that supported Benes' plan for the expulsion of 200,000 Hungarians from Czechoslovakia. International consternation, however, prevented the full implementation of such an inhumane scheme.

The one ray of hope for Hungarians was the stipulation in the Treaty that 90 days after its ratification the Soviet army will withdraw from the country. The Soviet withdrawal was slated for September 1947, but as it turned out. the Russians had come to Hungary for an indefinite stay...

With the Small Landholders Party dismembered and its leaders either expelled from the Party or living in exile abroad, a few diehards still tried to buck the Soviet tide. Chief among them was Dezs Sulyok, who courageously founded a Liberty Party, leading sharp verbal attacks against the growing terror "We have become a police state, a veritable police state, where the influence of the secret police extends not only to public affairs but also has become unbearable in the life of individuals," he thundered in Parliament on June 12, 1947.

In Hungary the popularity of the Liberty Party skyrocketed. Its paper, Holnap (Tomorrow), reached a circulation of 300,000, an incredible high figure for a country as small as Hungary. The Muscovites, however forced its closure after a few issues. Attacking the Liberty Party on the political front. Joseph Révai. the leading Communist ideologue, interrupted one of Sulyok's speeches in Parliament and called for the intervention of the Soviet army to prevent further denunciation of the Soviet system.

To escape arrest, Sulyok fled to the West and his party was dissolved. In exile he wrote a book titled A Magyar Tragédia (The Hungarian Tragedy) that contains harsh language and subjective judgement about his contemporaries.

The election held in August was only partially free, because in the larger cities it was rigged in the Communists' favor. Even so, their party received only five per cent more votes (22.3 per cent) than in the pre-

viols election. Two parties, one quickly organized by Zoltán Pfeiffer, the other led by István Barankovics together received 30 per cent of the vote, the emasculated Small Landholder 15.4 per cent and the Social Democrats 14.9 per cent. However. the splinterization of the opposition facilitated a total Communist takeover which was completed next year. In the process. the Social Democrats were swallowed up into a "united" Hungarian Workers Party. That year, 1948, was the turning point which transformed Hungary into a "people's democracy." With the effective opposition eliminated (Pfeiffer and Barankovics were also forced to flee from the country), Hungary's Sovietization was poised for action.

The Last Bastion: the Church

One bastion, however still stood, battered but unconquered: the Catholic Church, under the leadership of Cardinal József Mindszenty. As Mindszenty had resisted the Nazis during the war - and been imprisoned for it - so he now became the symbol of resistance against Soviet tyranny, and again was to suffer arrest and imprisonment. But before the Cardinal was seized and silenced, his speeches and letters spoke loudly against the tyranny that was engulfing his nation. The following quotations show not only his brave position, but the spirit of the man as well:

From a pastoral letter before the election, on November /945:

"Now the time has come for national elections, and we can no longer keep silent. We must publicly declare that no Christian voter can support a party that rules by violence and oppression and that tramples underfoot all natural laws and human rights..."

From a declaration on the deportation of Hungarians from Slovakia, summer 1947:

"Thousands of people are being dragged from homes where their ancestors had been living for centuries. They are being punished for speaking their mother tongue... their property is being seized, they themselves are condemned to a life of poverty and homeless wandering. In Czechoslovakia. the government is trying to deport 600,000 Hungarians whose ancestors settled North of the Danube river some 1000 years ago...

"My own conscience and the laments of my fellow Hungarians have forced me to speak out. I turn to all the nations of the world and appeal to them for aid..."

From a letter to Minister Ortutay on May 29, 1948:

"Hatred of the church is fomented in all sectors of this nation - in the Parliament, in the radio and press, and in all the government offices... Religious celebrations provoked a wave of persecution reminiscent of persecutions during the Hitler regime..."

From a statement on November 18, /948:

"The country' is condemned to silence and public opinion is made a mere frivolous jest. Democratic "freedom of speech" in this country means that any opinion that differs from the official one is silenced.

"...I stand for God, for the Church and for Hungary. This responsibility has been imposed upon me by the fate of the nation which stands alone, an orphan in the whole world. Compared with the sufferings of my people, my own fate is of no importance..."

This final quote was Cardinal Mindszenty's last public pronouncement before his arrest on Christmas, 1948, which provoked a worldwide storm of indignation. At the Cardinal's show trial, for which he was prepared through torture and Stalinist brainwashing, he was accused of being a traitor, a currency manipulator and a conspirator, and received a life sentence. The wolf had shed its sheep's clothing. The subsequent arrest of a Lutheran bishop, Lajos Ordass, signaled the widespread persecution of all religious denominations in an orgy of Stalinist terror

supervised by Rákosi, that was to last until Stalin's death in 1953.

In the Claws of Stalinism - Rákosi-style

On May 15, 1949 an election with a single ticket established Hungary as a one-party state, and on August 20, 1949 a new constitution based on the Soviet model was introduced. Rákosi's regime was characterized by police terror: the dreaded "midnight knock" on the doors of terrified victims; the forced collectivization of agriculture; and the nationalization of practically the entire economy. Purges within the Communist Party were started. One of the principal victims, László Rajk, former Minister of the Interior, was accused of nationalist - Titoist deviation and was hanged. Other Party members, too, became victims of repeated purges, including János Kádár who was arrested with his "gang" in 1951, and taken to 60 Andrássy Street, the dreaded headquarters of the secret police, where he was subjected to torture for "complicity" with Rajk.

One of the most disgusting features of the Rákosi era was the introduction of a personality cult to a degree unknown until then in Hungarian history. A nation with heroes like Hunyadi, King Mátyás, Zrínyi and Kossuth was now coerced to humble itself before the image of Stalin and his most faithful agent, Rákosi, who was deified by the media. Characteristically, the foremost "Hungarian" leader, Rákosi, was a Russian citizen with a Mongolian-Russian wife. The picture of this little man with a polished skull was displayed everywhere and his name was to be mentioned with utmost reverence as the fountainhead of all wisdom. Hungary was flooded with Soviet propaganda, and the adoration of the Soviet system was obligatory. All over the country Soviet monuments replaced the memorials of Hungary's fallen heroes.

In 1951, in the City Park (Városliget) of Budapest, a Roman Catholic church, the beautiful Regnum Marianum, was demolished to make way for a colossal statue of Stalin. The Hungarian army received Soviet style uniforms with the Red Star as the common emblem. Thousands were either jailed or deported to concentration camps with their belongings appropriated by the ÁVO, whose headquarters became the most hated place in the country, and its chief, Gábor Péter, the most cursed of all Communist henchmen.

In parallel with the political reign of terror, the Hungarian economy was completely subordinated to Soviet interests. The factories worked for Russian consumption and the famous uranium mines at Pécs became Soviet property guarded by the Red Army. All Hungarian ships on the Danube were used to transport Hungarian products to the Soviet Union via the Black Sea. Hungarians bitterly joked that the Russians had the right to navigate the Danube's length, while the Hungarians had acquired the right to navigate its width.

A special feature of the exploitation of the workers was the so-called voluntary contribution (work without wages) to a great variety or causes including the Peace Loan, the Save the Korean Children Fund, Stalin's birthday, the Anniversary of Rákosi's release from jail, and what not.

Premonitory Rumblings of an Eruption

The death of Stalin in 1953, the riots in Pilsen, the East German uprising and the fall of Beria in Moscow finally put an end to Rákosi's totalitarian rule. On orders from Moscow he turned over the premiership to Imre Nagy, remaining First Secretary of the Party. Nagy, who was of peasant stock, formulated a milder policy, advocating "Hungarian socialism" in contrast to Russian communism. The terror decreased, political internees and many prisoners were released, more than fifty percent of the peasants were allowed to leave the kolkhozes (collective farms) and production of consumer goods increased.

All these changes were too good to be true, and indeed, in 1955, Rákosi managed a comeback of sorts by setting up his young and obedient protégé, András Hegedüs, as premier. Nagy was ousted from his party offices and charged with "putting the brakes on Socialist construction, industrialization and especially the expansion of heavy industry... obstructing the development of the collective farm movement... and trying to push the Party into the background."

Rákosi, meanwhile, bowing to the wind from Moscow, executed a turnaround and began denouncing Stalinism and the cult of personality. At the behest of the Kremlin, he rehabilitated László Rajk, declaring innocent the man whom he had had hanged, and gave him a national funeral. He even apologized to Marshal Tito for past misdeeds.

All these political contortions, however, were futile in the long run as Rákosi, still regarded a Stalinist at heart, was removed by Moscow from his position as First Secretary of the Party. However, as his successor, he was able to secure the appointment of his closest collaborator, Ern Ger, a man who was second to himself in the Stalinist hierarchy.

Meanwhile, internal reaction to the long night of terror began to stir as writers and politicians who had been released from prison during Nagy's premiership were becoming bolder in their quest for freedom. Gyula Hay spoke for many of his fellow writers when, in June, 1956, he wrote:

"It should be the writer's prerogative to tell the truth. To criticize anybody and anything. To be sad. To be in love. To think of death. To believe in the

omnipotence of God... To think in a non-Marxist manner. To dislike certain leaders... To criticize the way of life, the way of speaking, and the way of working of certain leaders...

Who would deny that a short while ago many of those things were strictly forbidden and would have entailed punishment?... But today, too, they are just tolerated and are not really allowed."

A stirring began within the Party, too, as many of its prominent members returned from prison. Among them were János Kádár and former adherents of László Rajk, including Rajk's widow, Julia. The speeches delivered at the solemn reburial of Rajk - attended by 100,000 people on October 6, 1956 - glowed with bitterness, providing premonitory rumblings of the eruption of Hungarian spirit that was to come a few weeks later.

Julia Rajk, a tall, stern-looking woman, pointed with accusing fingers toward some of the Communist dignitaries present for the occasion:

"Comrades, there are no words with which to tell you what I feel facing you after cruel years in jail, without a word, a crumb of food, a letter, or a sign of life reaching me from the outside, living in despair and hopelessness. When they took me away I was nursing my five-month-old infant. For five years I had no word of my baby."

Then turning toward the white-faced functionaries on the rostrum, she continued:

"You not only killed my husband. but you killed all decency in our country. You destroyed Hungary's political,. economic and moral life. Murderers cannot be rehabilitated: they must be punished!"

The reaction to the widow's speech was totally unexpected. Along with the rest of the audience, the Communist officials on the rostrum, whom Julia had just denounced, stood up and gave her a standing ovation.

Meanwhile the Writer's Union and the newly Petfi Circle began to take over the spiritual leadership of the nation with Petfi's words burning in their hearts:

Magyars, rise. your country calls you!

Meet this hour, whate'r befalls you!

Shall we free men be, or slaves?

Choose the lot your spirit craves!

Although Petfi had written these lines more than a hundred years before, the call it contained rang home. Between October 18 and 21 Poland had won a bloodless victory when anti-Stalinist Gomulka took over its leadership and asserted his country's right to "choose her own road to socialism" in defiance of

Soviet troops. The Soviet Premier, Khruschev, after some hesitation, accepted the change.

The "Volcano" Erupts...

Now it was Hungary's turn to try to shake the Soviet yoke, following the centuries-old tradition in which the Poles and the Magyars, long tied to each other in a brotherhood of arms, often reacted to events in the same spirit.

After resolutions expressing solidarity with the Polish goals had been enthusiastically passed in Gyr and Sseged on October 22, 1956, the student organizations in Budapest called for demonstrations to be held the next day. Their plan was to meet in front of the Writers' Union, and to march to the statue of Petfi and that of Joseph Bem, the legendary Polish general who had fought in the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848-49.

On October 23, 1956, the demonstrations, attended by tens of thousands in the early afternoon were at first entirely peaceable. None of the demonstrators carried arms and no call was issued by the speakers to resort to violence. One cry electrified the masses:

"Imre Nagy to the government!" to which soon another cry, more ominous and exciting, was added:

Ruszkik haza! (Russians, go home!) Within hours this cry was to echo throughout the entire city with increasing intensity while the crowds were swelled by a steady stream of newcomers. Towards evening. Imre Nagy delivered a short and cautious speech at Parliament Square, which failed to satisfy his audience. By that time, the Red Star on top of the Parliament building had been extinguished and the mood of the masses was heating up after Ern Ger, in a radio address, made derogatory remarks about the demonstrators.

His speech had only added fuel onto the fire. "Down with Ger!" the crowds chanted as they roamed the streets. But the first to come down was not Ger, but his idol, Stalin - or rather, the giant statue that had long rankled the people of Budapest.

In what was the most spectacular revolutionary feat of the day, tens of thousands of people poured into City Park where the 24 foot high statue stood, its pedestal bearing the inscription: "To the great Stalin, from the grateful Hungarian people." The crowd first wound cable wires and ropes around the statue's neck in an unsuccessful attempt to pull it down. Soon a small truck drove up and two mechanics equipped with acetylene torches alighted. Wildly cheered by the crowd, they set their torches to melting Stalin's knees. It was not long before the colossus crashed to the ground with an earthshaking thud. Shouts of "Russians, go home!" "Down with Ger!", "Long Live Nagy!" and "Give us back the Church!" sounded like battle cries for further action as the crowd, howling with joy was breaking up the statue by hammers, iron pipes and other available tools. Stalin's two jagged bronze feet, each the size of a man, were left intact on the pedestal as symbols of a fallen tyrant.

It was the riots in front of the radio station that evening that marked the decisive turn from protest to outright revolt. The trouble began when a delegation entering the radio station to request a broadcast of its "sixteen points" was arrested by the political policemen guarding the building. The crowd demanded their release and tried to storm the doors. At first the policemen responded with tear gas, then they opened fire, killing and wounding several unarmed demonstrators. The crowd, enraged by the killings, stormed the radio station and occupied its lower floors. Meanwhile a group of students mounted a balcony and hung out Hungarian flags from which the red coat of arms had first been torn out, leaving a jagged hole in the center of each flag. (Such flags were to become the symbols of the Hungarian revolution of 1956.) Two trucks of soldiers arrived from Buda across the river but they would not fire on the people. Instead, the soldiers began distributing arms to the demonstrators. By that time, the crowd had swelled to thousands as workers, students, and civilians of all types pushed their way to the scene. Machine guns began to rattle from both sides, signaling the beginning of an armed revolution.

The Child-Heroes of Budapest

The next morning the freedom fighters finally forced the radio station out of ÁVO hands. The government controlled Radio Budapest, however, was able to function from another location with its technical facilities being guarded by Russian tanks at nearby Lakihegy.

By that time Ern Ger had called the Soviet army for help since all internal government supports - except the hated ÁVO-had collapsed. - On October 24, as the only concession to the people, Imre Nagy was appointed Premier. While the demonstrations on October 23 were dominated by students, the next day tens of thousands of industrial workers from the Communist citadel, the so called Vörös Csepel, a huge industrial complex, joined the fight. They seized trucks and drove into Budapest. The city by then was caught up in the turbulence as more and more fighters roamed the streets venting their ire against the ÁVO.

The first Russian tanks went into action the same day, but surprisingly they failed to intimidate even the children of the city. As they passed through narrow streets, the tanks became targets for the ingenuity of the citizens of Budapest. One favorite tactic was to flush the pavement with soapy water, rendering the surface so slippery that the tanks' caterpillar wheels lost traction. Boys and girls as young as twelve years would sneak up to the disabled tanks to finish them off with hand grenades or Molotov cocktails.

The single bloodiest incident of the Revolution occurred at Parliament Square on October 25, when ÁVO and Soviet forces opened machine gun fire on a crowd of tens of thousands of peaceful marchers, killing an estimated 300 to 500 people. But, far from deterring the insurgents, the massacre incited bitter reaction from all sides -the students, the workers, the members of the military who had changed sides, and the real heroes of those day - the children of Budapest. Péter Fryer in his book Hungarian Tragedy, gives a moving account of their heroism:

...Even the children, hundred of them, had taken part in the fighting, and I spoke to little girls, who had poured petrol in the path of Soviet tanks and lit it. I heard of 14 year-olds who had jumped to their deaths onto the tanks with blazing petrol bottles in their hands. Little boys of twelve, armed to the teeth, boasted to me of the part they had played in the struggle...

Recalling those days,. Fryer also wrote:

"There could be no doubt who held the power in Budapest. The people who held the arms held the power.

"And who held the arms? Fascists? No, the people who had done the fighting, the freedom fighters, the workers of Csepel and Újpest, the students, the teen-age boys and girls, bandoliers over their shoulder, hand grenades stuck in their belts and tommy guns - "guitars," they called them - in their hands, the soldiers who had exchanged the red star of servitude for the red, white and green ribbon of liberty. They had won a glorious battle, even as they mourned their dead and lit candles on the thousands of freshly-dug graves...

"A city in arms, a people in arms, who had stood up and snapped the chains of bondage with one gigantic effort, who had added to the roll-call of' cities militant - Paris,. Petrograd, Canton, Madrid, Warsaw - another immortal name, Budapest! Her buildings might be battered and scarred, her trolley-bus and telephones wires down, her pavements littered with glass and stained with blood. But her citizens' spirit was unquenchable...''

The ardor of Budapest's youth was matched by the high moral tone which marked the insurgents' behavior. Later, the London Observer would report that "the Budapest rising must have been the cleanest revolution in history,'' words written by a reporter who saw large boxes placed in the main thoroughfares bearing the notices: "Give to those who remain alive!" The boxes were filled with bank notes, and unguarded. Periodically, small boys would deliver the money to its proper destination.

The American journalist Leslie B. Rain of the N.Y. Reporter wrote about the gallantry of the revolutionaries in the paper's November 15, 1956 issue thus:

''It is difficult, if not altogether impossible, to convey any notion of these people's fighting gallantry. Wherever the rebels were students and workers there was not a single case of looting. Shop windows without glass were filled with desirable goods, yet nothing was touched. One incident I saw will illustrate this. Windows from a candy store and an adjacent flower shop smashed and the sidewalk was littered with candy boxes. All these boxes were replaced in the glassless windows, but the flowers strewn about were gathered and placed on the bodies of dead rebels,"

On October 25, a decisive blow was struck in favor of the insurgents when the commander of the strategically located Killian Barracks, Pál Maléter, went over to the revolutionaries' side along with his troops, to become commander-in-chief of their forces. General Béla Király was appointed military commander of Budapest. The first military intervention by the Russians turned out to be a blunder, for they sent only tank and artillery units without infantry back-up to conduct house-to-house fighting. Thus, with the exception of the bridges and other key points, Budapest remained in the hands of the insurgents.

The Phoenix of Freedom Emerges

Actually, the revolutionaries had succeeded in taking over the major provincial cities sooner than the capital itself, and while Radio Budapest was still transmitting misleading information about the uprising,. Radio Gyr, Radio Miskolc and Radio Pécs were broadcasting the true story of the revolution. The peasantry contributed to the struggle by donating food and supplies to the people of the major cities, especially Budapest.

The carnage in the capital continued until October 28, when it seemed that the Revolution had succeeded. Premier Nagy announced that the Soviet troops would withdraw from Budapest immediately, and that the security police would be dissolved. With Ern Gerd gone to Moscow, an emergency committee that included János Kádár and Imre Nagy assumed

the temporary leadership of the Party. Revolutionary Workers' Councils and local national committees formulated lists of demands that included the withdrawal of Soviet troops from all of Hungary, political and economic equality between the Soviet Union and Hungary, the dissolution of the security police, the withdrawal of Hungary from the Warsaw Pact, neutrality, free elections, and freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly and of worship.

Despite the cease-fire announced by Nagy, heavy fighting continued in Budapest at the Killian Barracks. On October 30, Premier Imre Nagy announced the abolition of the one-party system and the beginning of negotiations for the immediate withdrawal of all Soviet forces from Hungary. All the while in Budapest the insurgents were still involved in fighting with the remnants of the security police. They stormed the ÁVO headquarters in Pest and torched Party headquarters in Buda. The security police appealed to the Writers' Union to intervene for its 10,000 members: they would surrender if guaranteed amnesty.

The clay's most important event was the liberation of Cardinal Mindszenty from captivity. The Cardinal arrived in Budapest on October 31, the day considered to be the zenith of the Revolution, and marked by the beginning of the seemingly general withdrawal of Soviet forces from the country.

It appeared that little Hungary, in an incredible feat of national heroism, had liberated herself from the shackles of Soviet tyranny without outside help. Admiration for Hungary was boundless all over the free world and hundreds of millions held their breaths over the news coming from Budapest. Within a few days, the volcanic eruption of the indomitable Hungarian spirit had shaken the world in a way almost unprecedented. Amid the thunder and lightning of Soviet tank-fire and the torrents of Hungarian blood, new Phoenix of Liberty emerged from beneath the Magyar soil.

However, the flight of Hungary's Phoenix lasted but a fleeting moment. On the very day of "final victory," October 31, Radio Budapest was broadcasting funeral dirges and Mozart's Requiem in memory of the martyrs of the revolution. It was the eve of All Soul's Day. and hundreds of thousands of candles burned in the windows of the darkened city, and on the graves in its cemeteries. Budapest was uneasy. Already, the elation aroused by Nagy's broadcast was being blunted by ominous rumors. All too soon they proved justified. In the dark of night, Russian tanks were moving to surround the city's three airports. In Eastern Hungary, newly arrived Soviet armored divisions began moving westward, from Debrecen towards Szolnok and Budapest.

There was precious little time for euphoria during the next few days, although, signalling freedom, new papers representing reborn parties emerged from one day to the next as the flowers of spring blossom after a rain.

After learning of Soviet preparations for armed attack, Imre Nagy announced Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact on November 1, proclaiming Hungary's neutrality and asking the United Nations to put the Hungarian question on its agenda. From the West. the Hungarians received only boundless admiration and a grant of twenty million dollars from the Eisenhower Administration. The crisis in Suez had diverted the West's attention, and Hungary's request for neutrality was practically ignored. Meanwhile, in Hungary, on November 1, János Kádár suddenly disappeared from sight and Soviet troops took possession of all key points of communication.

The Nagy government's protests to the Soviet Embassy against the re-entry of Soviet troops onto Hungarian soil were answered by a statement claiming the troops were necessary to protect the evacuation of Soviet dependents from the country. On November 2, the government notified the United Nations anew about Soviet preparations, requesting the urgent recognition of Hungary's neutrality by the great powers.

Despite anxiety about Soviet intervention, the flowers of freedom were still blooming in Hungary on the day when the most important literary event of the revolution took place: the Irodalmi Újság (Literary' Gazette) published a special issue in which the country's best known writers Gyula Illyés, Tibor Déry, László Németh, Sándor Dallos, Lrinc Szabó and Áron Tamási among them-extolled the victory of the revolution. In later months abroad this issue of the Irodalmi Újság was translated into the world's major languages.

On November 3, Soviet reinforcements and troops movements were reported to have reached the Austro-Hungarian border, while Russian tanks surrounded the uranium mines at Pécs. In the face of fast breaking developments, the Hungarian government was reorganized with mostly non-Communist ministers, among them István Bibó, Anna Kéthly, János Kádár (despite his absence) and Pál Maléter, while József Kvágó was elected Mayor of Budapest. In a radio speech, Cardinal Mindszenty declared that Hungary wished ''to live in friendship and mutual respect with both the great United States of America and the mighty Russian Empire" and to have no enemies anywhere. His speech had a pacifying effect on the troubled minds of the population. The government was encouraged by the appearance, on November 3, of a Soviet military delegation, headed by General Malinin, asking for the appointment of a

Hungarian committee with which "details of the Soviet military' evacuation of Hungary could be discussed." A few hours later a quickly formed committee headed by General Maléter, the Minister of Defense for the new government was driven to the Soviet military headquarters at the village of Tököl on Csepel Island. At eleven o'clock that night, Maléter rang General Király, his deputy in Budapest, to assure him that "everything is going well." The discussion at this point centered on Russian suggestions for how the Hungarian population should bid the Soviet troops farewell once the evacuation of the country got under way. The Soviet officers even suggested that the departing troops be showered with a "rain of flowers" - a cruel joke considering the circumstances.

All these "negotiations" turned out to be a Soviet ruse to lure Maléter into their camp and lull Hungarian vigilance on the eve of the impending Russian assault on Hungary. At three o'clock in the morning, Maléter and his companions were arrested. This was the prelude to the attack on Hungary.

Before dawn on November 4, sixteen Russian armored divisions equipped with 2000 tanks launched a wide-scale offensive against the country in general and Budapest in particular. This force equaled that of Hitler had used in invading France in 1940.

Early in the morning, Imre Nagy announced the Soviet attack to the Hungarian people and to the world, appealing to the United Nations for help. Quickly, the Russian forces seized possession of the country's airfields, highway junctions, bridges and railway yards. Heavy fighting was reported in the labor districts of Csepel, Újpest and Kbánya. Soviet paratroops went into action near Gyr, while at Pécs Hungarian troops resisted Soviet efforts to take the uranium mines and the airfield. Bloody fighting was also in progress in Budapest and other cities, where János Kádár, who days before had clandestinely gone over to the Russian side, announced the formation of a new government,. explaining that:

"the armed insurrection that occurred in Hungary between October 23 and November 4, 1956 was designed to overthrow by violence the constitutional and social order of the Hungarian republic and to restore the old Horthy fascist regime..."

There is no country which in the course of its thousand years of history has suffered more than we. Hungarians have had to wage incessant struggles for independence, mostly in defense of the Western countries. These struggles interrupted the continuity of our development and we always had to rise again by our own efforts. In the course of history this is the first occasion that Hungary has enjoyed the sympathy of all other civilized countries. We are deeply moved by this, and every member of our small land rejoices that, because of our love of liberty, the nations have taken up its case. . .

Yet we, even in our dire situation, hope we have no enemies, for we are the enemies of no one. We want to live in friendship with all people and all countries. . . . We Hungarians want to live and progress as standard-bearers of the family of peaceful European nations. We want to live in a spirit of friendship with all the peoples of Europe and not on the basis of an artificially created friendship. And turning our eyes toward mare distant parts, we, a small nation, want to live in friendship, in undisturbed, peaceful and mutual esteem with the great United States, as well as the powerful Russian Empire, and in good-neighborly relations with Prague, Bucharest, Warsaw and Belgrade.

. . .Now we need general elections, free from abuses, in which all parties can nominate candidates. The elections should be held under international supervision.

. . .I must stress that we have a classless society and a State where lows prevail. We support private ownership which is rightly and justly limited by social interests. This is the wish of the Hungarian people.

As head of the Hungarian Roman Catholic Church I declare . . . that we do not oppose the justified development of our country. We only desire that this development be sound. . . .

Radio Statement of József Cardinal Mindszenty,

November 3, 1956.

As far as it is possible to judge - and my contention has been confirmed by several foreign observers in Moscow - it was the October 30 meeting of the Politburo which decided on crushing the Hungarian revolution by means of force. It is true that the withdrawal of Russian troops from Budapest went on all the next day. Nevertheless, the influx of new Russian troops began on the same day, i.e. on October 31. It was not till November 1 that Nagy made his declaration on Hungary's neutrality, when Soviet tanks had already reached Szolnok. It was not Nagy's declaration of neutrality which caused the Soviet to intervene, it was the threat of intervention that caused Nagy to declare Hungary's neutrality.

In the early morning of November 1 - i.e. about ten hours before Nagy declared Hungary's neutrality - Mikoyan arrived in Budapest. He was uninvited and unannounced. He had not come to negotiate with Nagy, he had come to act.

George Mikes. "The Hungarian Revolution" (London, 1957)

The rest was agony. Although pockets of resistance still remained, and free radio stations continued broadcasting until November 9, and although the workers of Csepel Island continued armed resistance until November 14, the Hungarian fight for freedom finally was suppressed by the Soviet war machine. But the resistance was not yet over. Workers throughout the country observed a general strike. Peasants refused to hand over their produce to the authorities, and instead, fed resistance forces. The writers continued to voice their opposition, issuing several manifestos to the world. All these actions might have delayed, but could not prevent the inevitable: Hungary fell back into the suffocating embrace of Soviet power.

The cost of defeat - again - was tremendous. Apart from the heavy material damage caused by the fighting, the number of Hungarian casualties was close to 25,000, including many children. Another 20,000 were deported to Russia, while 12,000 were imprisoned and 500 were executed in the following months of retribution. Imre Nagy and Pál Maléter were executed in June, 1958, but Cardinal Mindszenty succeeded in finding refuge in the American Embassy in Budapest, where he was to spend an unbelievable fifteen years in exile within his own country. But Hungary suffered her greatest loss when, in the wake of revolution, 200,000 of her sons and daughters, mostly young people - fled to the free world which generously embraced them as heroes of an immortal fight for freedom.

Although the fighting had ended, the events of the uprising reverberated for many months. The United Nations played the role of chief accuser blaming the Soviet Union for the brutal repression of Hungarian freedom. Not fewer than 14 resolutions were passed demanding the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary, to no avail. Parallel to the UN action, demonstrations after demonstrations in foreign capitals protested the rape of Hungary.

The press and statesmen of the free world described the Hungarian Revolution as "the greatest," "the most awe-inspiring," and "the most inspirational event of the century." In the following years hundreds of poems extolled the deeds of the Magyar freedom fighters, as did scores of books by internationally-known authors, including James A. Michener's bestseller The Bridge at Andau. Never before had the limelight of world attention focused so brightly on Hungary. Thus, her heroic bid for freedom in 1956 became remembered not for defeat, but as a new and shining chapter in the history of mankind. An American editorial calling the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 a "turning point in world history," summed up the sentiment of many in the National Review:

"...It has fallen to Hungary, at this moment to illuminate again the truths by which we live. And so desperate is our confusion that it has required an act of truly heroic proportions to attract our attention. Though it be occupied, enslaved, abandoned, its spirit has shone forth with an intensity that has lighted up the darkest corners of our society."

"Civilized people of the world: On the watch tower of 1000-year-old Hungary, the last flames begin to go out. The Soviet army is attempting to crush our troubled hearts. Their tanks and guns are roaring over Hungarian soil . . . Please do not forget that this wild attack of Bolshevism will not stop. You may be the next victim. Save us, SOS, SOS. . . "

''Show that the United Nations can carry out its will and by its resolutions declare that our country shall again be free. We appeal to your conscience and call on you to act immediately. . ."

''People of Europe, whom we defended once against the attacks of Asiatic barbarians, listen now to the alarm bells ringing from Hungary. Civilized people of the world, in the name of liberty and solidarity, we are asking you to help. Our ship is sinking. The light vanishes. The shadows grow darker from hour to hour. Listen to our cry. Start moving. Extend to us brotherly hands. . . God be with you and with us."

(Vienna, Nov. 4 [AP])

The Hungarian Revolution created an emotional storm world wide. Those most stirred by the drama were the various ethnic groups living in the free world who had common roots with historic Hungary. As described by Exiled Europe Review (Summer, 1957):

"The first and immediate effect of the great historical storm was that it blew away - at least temporarily - racial, religious and political differences between Hungarians and non-Hungarian exiles... to give place to an unprecedented unity and solidarity. Fighting Hungary suddenly became the Vanguard of Liberty in their eyes, a true symbol... of their ideals. Feeling the sublime touch of the finger of History, they became transformed from recent adversaries or enemies to brothers in arms. Those exiles from the Danube Valley humbly remembered their common glorious past with the Magyars, a past they tended to forget or distort ... since the dismemberment of Hungary.

"The fact that the Magyars are making world history again filled their souls with undeniable nostalgia for the revival, in one form or another of ancient ties. Some of them felt ashamed because of the passive attitude of their own people at home; others, however, pointed with pride to the great historical achievement of a small country. What giants could not attain in years, the heroic people of Hungary performed within days by inflicting the heaviest blow on Communism since its existence... showing to the world that the greatness of a nation does not come from material or numerical strength, but from the fortitude of its spirit and tradition.

"Overwhelmed by such sentiments, Slovaks, Croats, Rumanians, expelled Danubian Germans and Magyars felt suddenly brothers again and marched arm in arm together... to demonstrate their unity for the common cause..."

The following quotations are representative of the sentiments of the various ethnic groups in those days:

"No sooner had the first news of the great insurrection reached us than we realized that all the features of the Hungarian national character which may have shocked us somewhat, also have their wonderful side... By the time the heroic uprising had reached its point of culmination, an imperative inner voice compelled us to ask for the Hungarian people's forgiveness. They were so close to us and we did not understand them; they were so great and we did not know it."

(Janko Musulin, a Serb. in the Salzburger Nachrichten (November 2. 1956)

"Croats everywhere, in silence at home and openly abroad, have expressed their warm tribute to the gallant Hungarian freedom fighters who in the last agonizing weeks have engendered the sympathy and esteem of the whole civilized and free world.

"Despite the historic disaffection between Croatia and Hungary, today as never before, the Croatian nation expresses its profound admiration for the Hungarian nation and its determined will to defend its own national independence and freedom.

"The Hungarians have forever written one of the most glorious pages in man's historic pursuit of freedom. The seeds of the Hungarian martyrs' blood will blossom sooner or later and open a new era of freedom in the Danubian valley when all the peoples, we hope, will inevitably resurge into a large commonwealth of free and independent nations from the Baltic to the Adriatic Seas ..."

From Croatia Press, New York, N.Y. (November 1956)

"...The Hungarians went into revolution with love, that is, the love for freedom. And with this love for nation and freedom, with courage and deeds they wrote one of

the greatest chapters in World History. Never has written a nation its history with such a courage as has been done by the Hungarians in this revolution...

"...The immortal, heroic deed of the Hungarian nation flared up a well deserved echo around the entire world... Whether we Slovaks should not forget in these terrible times how much misunderstanding was in the past between Hungarians and Slovaks? Yes, we shall forget and hope, that from this bloodbath and sacrifice a new world will be born. The Hungarians at this moment are only martyrs in the eyes of every honest man, and in front of martyrs we must bow our heads with respect and sympathy..."

(From the Jednota, the main organ of American Slovaks connected with the Slovakian National Council).

"We, Croats, have a special reason to salute the magnificent fight of Hungarians. Not only because they are our neighbors, but also because we have lived for eight centuries in a common state and brotherhood with them. Therefore, their tragedy is our tragedy, too, we also put the black ribbon of grief on our flags, and weep over the graves of the fallen heroes. We are proud of the Hungarian heroes, for our ancestors lived together with them and fought with them for centuries in the defense of common ideals. We desire their victory as our victory, for it would be the victory of right and freedom, of human dignity and religious freedom, the end of all thought control. Their national dawn would mean that ours is dawning, too."

(From a letter of Croatian exiles in Argentina to the Hungarians of North America in the Spring of 1957).

"Human history is changing in Eastern Europe, and that is its center today... With the Hungarian people's revolution, a new chapter began in the history of humanity... The Hungarian uprising is... perhaps no less meaningful than the French or Russian Revolution... It means the beginning of the end of Communism generally," (Milovan Djilas, The New Leader, Nov. 9).

"One month ago today the Hungarian revolution began. It began as a peaceful demonstration of students and workers demanding redress of their grievances. It became a revolution when bullets from murderers in the uniforms of the secret police and of the Soviet Army slaughtered unarmed men, women and children. It continues as a revolution today, though the general strike has replaced arms as the chief weapon. History contains no brighter chapter telling of any people's heroic struggle for its "freedom." (New York Times, Nov. 23)

...It is this mood which makes the great Hungarian rebellion of 1956 unique in history - more even than heroism and sacrifice which in the last fortnight mere words have tried vainly to capture. The patriots seem to have sensed from the very first that they were fighting not just for themselves but for the whole of the free world outside them. Furthermore, they seemed to feel that victory wouldn't be today but in a better tomorrow to come. I met no responsible rebel leader who was convinced that basic aims of the revolt were certain of immediate fulfillment. The bursts of wild political optimism all came from abroad. Yet, despite such premonition of doom, the rebels fought on to the end.'' (Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 10)

"Why doesn't the UN send an ultimatum to the Soviet Union demanding evacuation of Hungarian territory within a week and an immediate cease-fire? Why doesn't the UN send a police force to Hungary?... Is it for fear of a general war and the H bomb? If so, why should the Soviet Union be less afraid than we? The Soviet Government cannot trust its own infantry... Can the West survive the revelation that the only non-Hungarians to fight for Hungary's freedom have so far been the Russian deserters? Is the faith of the West in freedom so low that they do not see the hope of liberating the whole of eastern Europe and even Russia from communism if they make a stand now and prevent the murder of Hungary?" (Salvador de Madariaga, New York Times, Nov. 15)

"What the Hungarians did for us and the whole world was to give the lie to the faint-hearted, the cynical, the defeatists of which the world has too many. They translated into terms that any child can understand the literal truth of the truths we live by. We believe in liberty; they died for it. We preach the unconquerability of the human spirit; they showed us what it means. We have often said that life lived half-slave and half-free is not worth living. Since October 23, with total disregard of the consequences, the Hungarians have echoed this in actions which have made gallantry virtually a commonplace. Thus they have obligated us." (Washington Star Dec. 7)

"In your editorial `No Bid to Suicide' (Dec. 15) you speak of 'premature uprising' and state: 'If there is to be a day of liberation for the satellite countries, it will come with time and the inevitable changes that time brings.' You might as well have said that if there is a day of slavery for the United States, it will come with time and the inevitable changes that time brings. It is the paradox of these times that the Marxists who believe in the inevitably destined triumph of communism are working most feverishly to bring this about. But we who profess to believe that men make history somehow expect the mere passage of time to defeat communism.

"If the day of liberation of the satellites is any closer today than it was nine weeks ago, it is not because nine weeks have elapsed but because the courageous Hungarian people dealt a crippling blow to communism and demonstrated anew that man does no live by bread alone. But if the day of liberation is further away now than it was nine weeks ago, it is because we Americans have shown the Reds that however much we may lift our voice we will never lift a finger to disturb the reign of the Kremlin tyrants over their ill-gotten slave empire.

"We need not feel sorry for the dead Hungarians. To them the words of Patrick Henry were real, not rhetoric. Will any of us die so well? The tragedy of Hungary is in Washington, not in Budapest." (David Heyser, Washington Star, Dec. 28)

"Let us admit frankly that we are not encouraging the Hungarian people. It is they who are encouraging us. We can only hope to earn some of their respect and pray that some of their bravery would rub off onto us." (Roscoe Drummond, Washington Post, Dec. 18)

"Any nation which stands in the way of their diabolic designs for world domination is on their list of victims. There we - the United States of America have a prominent place. In striking down Hungary they are striking directly at us... As long as Hungary is enslaved we are all enslaved. In that sense proudly we declare in this hour, we are all Hungarians." (F.B. Harris, Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, Washington Star, Nov. 11)

"These events do have grandeur, because they are visible proof that certain moral principles really must be observed in the long run in the successful government of great peoples... The Soviet Government has ignored these principles, for a very long time indeed; and they are getting the results of that in Eastern Europe today... What we have seen in Hungary and in Poland in these recent days, could conceivable be the beginning of a disintegration which will carry deep into Russia itself. It could be the prelude to great convulsion in the whole Soviet communist system." (George Kennan, Saturday Evening Post, Nov. 24)

Salvador de Madariaga:

Ardent in the night, my young blood dréamt

Not of the fire-eyed maid, her firm breasts, her womb, tens with the promise of life:

but of Buda maimed and of Pest stained

by the boot of the vile slave-driver.

And ardent in the night I swore no longer to live

with my eyes on the Barbarian's boots,

but with my forehead and eyes level

with his eyes and his forehead,

crossing with him thoughts and glances of steel:

or higher still, as high as the top of the tallest tree in my land

even though I died in the struggle, and my forehead and eyes

sank as low as the deepest roots

of the most deepest rooted tree in my land ...

and now here lie my forehead and eyes and my young blood

and my memories of the fire-eyed maid,

feeding the sap of the spring which one day

will make Buda rise again and Pest again flourish

in the sun which will see my eyes turned

into two violets hidden in the green grass,

and will shine on my forehead turned

into a wavelet on the clear Danube.

Evening, consume before my grave your flaming candles.

Dawn, pour over my grave your virginal tears.

Stephen Sisa : The Spirit of Hungary