Fáklyaláng, 1961. február-október (2. évfolyam, 2-10. szám)
1961-10-23 / 8-10. szám
2 Hungarian Torchlight ocratic organizations. Rousseau’s “Contract Social” came into being when the inhabitants o£ Hungarian towns and villages elected their National Committees and delegated honest and respected members of their communities into these bodies. These delegates were chosen from among those who remained always faithful to the people and to national traditions even in the most difficult times. Party allegiance was never a prequisite for such a membership. For these obvious reasons the most worthy of the people exercised the power in the name of the people in the interest of the people. Thus, the Revolution was not the revalution of the opportunists but the revolution of the outstanding ones. The most sacred ideas of Plato were realized in the valley of the Danube and the Tisza rivers, at least for a few days. This set up in the National Committees and Workers’ Councils may well serve as shining examples to be followed in any national emergency anywhere in the world. In its aims and demands the Revolution and Freedom Fight remained faithful to the most noble traditions of the Hungarian nation’s history. It preserved from the past whatever deserved to be preserved, and rejected everything which was obsolete, anachronistic and which would have been an obstacle in creating a happier future for the Hungarian people. This means, at the same time, that the people did not want to restore any previous social system of the past. It wished to create a social system in which there would not have been exploiters and exploited, rulers and slaves. It hoped to create a social system that was to be based on the equality of man, a system that would have been based on the principles of modern Christian democracy, a free, independent and neutral Hungary in the swirling world of continous crises. It is an eternal value of the Revolution and of the ensuing freedom fight that it rejected the idea of collective responsibility, a principal that was especially popular during the early half of the twentieth century. Therefore, it placed itself above any other movement or event and means a new start toward justice and human rights. It did not discriminate anyone for his race, religion, or even political convictions. It opened a new page in the life of everyone who did not offend basic devine and human laws. This is now known all over the world and no Communist propaganda can besmirch it. The purity of the Revolution and of the ensuing freedom fight became a legend in the Free World. It was pure in the real sense of the word - there were no atrocities, no crimes, no pilfering - because the people knew what they were demanding and hoped to create. For this reason the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 became the first of its kind in human history. Its dignity is all the greater as it was fought against the most barbarous and tyrannical power of our times which proclaimed independence and freedom to the dependent and neutral peoples of Asia and Africa and practiced the most cruel oppression and tyranny in the greatest colonial empire in world history. The Revolution restored in their true meaning the basic human rights especially in those days when human complacency degraded them to mere definitions, without any real content. It also demonstrated that the desire for freedom is greater than the longing for life in slavery. It has shown that it is more worth while to die for freedom than to live in eternal yoke. The Hungarian people have shown an example of self-sacrifice, a dedication to the cause of justice and humanity, and that only courage and unity can bring final victory over the forces of oppression. The Hungarian people, as so many times during its thousand years old history, demonstrated by facts, once again, its right to a place in the family of free nations, and has clearly shown that it belongs to the West. In fighting against the forces of Soviet-Communist oppression the Hungarian people fought a struggle also for the freedom and independence of other nations. It also defended the West, and what the West stands or rather should stand for. It fought a historic struggle against Soviet imperialism which aims at world domination and enslavement of all peoples. The fact that it had to succumb to the Second Soviet attack on November 4 does not diminish its historic importance and value. On the contrary: it points to the futility of individual national efforts against Soviet-Communist aggression. It demands the unification of all forces to prevail over the forces of destruction. The five years which have passed since 1956 proved that the contention that no assistance could be given to the Hungarian Revolution from the outside without provoking a global war can be fully repudiated. It is now clear that the Hungarian people, through its national sacrifice, provided an excellent opportunity to lift the Iron Curtain and force the Soviet Union behind its boundaries in Eastern Europe. Furthermore, by implementing the real meaning of the Charter of the United Nations, by expressing the unity of the free people, freedom and peace could have been restored without the use of arms or recurring to war. The free world failed to make use of the psychological advantage that was offered by the Hungarian Revolution to turn back the tide of Soviet expansion. Today, we see that during the five years the Soviet Union gained victory after victory in many parts of the world. The warning that was sounded in Hungary, and in the streets of Budapest remained without response and it seems that the free world is unable to save itself, and that the blood sacrificed by the heros in 1956 had flown in vain. Today, the enemy is already on the Western hemisphere and if no decisive step is taken to defend the freedom of the world we shall perish. We, Hungarian freedom fighters call upon the responsible leaders of the free world to learn from the Hungarian example and, by uniting their forces, they should turn the tide against the Soviet Union and bring and restore freedom to the peoples which were for so long abandoned behind the Iron Curtain. MIHÁLY HÓKA.
