It is the end of October again. Sixty three years have passed, and yet the wound stays raw and painful. The same bitter questions surface every year, but no new answers arise. The truth remains, Hungary was not important enough to be helped in her hour of need.
We had been occupied by the Soviet Union since 1945, and had had enough. I am talking about October 23, 1956 when the people of Hungary stood up and said;
"RUSZKI GO HOME"
At first we just wanted some basic human rights, but the unarmed demonstrators were fired on, and the army was called out against the orderly demonstration. The army handed their guns to the people and stood with them, the regular police quickly followed.
After that it was revolution, an armed, all out effort to force the Soviet Occupation from our country. A truly David and Goliath fight. The Soviets had the power and willingness to use brutal force, as well as the guile to fool the west. We had Molotov cocktails, bare hands and
hope. Hope for change, hope for liberty and hope for help from the United Nations and Nato. Radio Free Europe had encouraged us to hope.
But, alas no, the UN never even discussed what was happening in Hungary, Even though Hungary declared independence of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, and asked for UN recognition. There were many days in which it could have been discussed, and Hungary supported verbally, but no, it was not discussed until it was all over. Suez was more important. Help never came, not even verbal.
What did come were soviet tanks, more than had been used in WWII, and more Soviet troops. They came in the dawn on November 4th, while promising to withdraw. The last broadcasts asking for help went unanswered.
After that, it did not take long, but we died hard. Our young bled in the streets, some barely in their teens. And then an other kind of hemorrhage began. People left, fled west, leaving home and family. They pulled up roots, hardened their aching hearts, and faced resolutely the danger of leaving, and the sorrow of life in exile.
A nations greatest resource is it's people, their intelligence, resourcefulness and creativity. That would now benefit an other country and leave Hungary that much poorer.
Those who stayed took the punishment. Freedom fighters were hunted and imprisoned and executed, even the minors. The country sank back into the misery it had tried to throw off.
All we ever had were excuses and five minutes of fame for daring to face the Soviet guns.
Today they are gone, but the damage they did remains. It will take several generations to recover. After the collapse of the Soviet Empire there was no Marshall plan for it's victims, only Western European financial colonization. We were left to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We had been chopped up, WWI, endured two invasions, war and occupation, all in barely fifty years. Now we get scathing criticism from the leftist western press. They are certainly not so pure that they can throw stones.
There was a saying in Hungary during the Soviet years; 150 years of Turkish occupation did not make us Muslim or Turkish, 300 years of Austrian rule did not make us Austrian, why would we succumb to the Ruszki? We withstood all that we can survive western criticism.
LONG LIVE HUNGARY
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