Itt-Ott, 1986 (19. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1986 / 4. szám
reproducing the Hungarian youth's 16-point program. The points were the same as the original ones issued in Budapest, except for the one dealing with the university bursary system of reform. Instead of this provision, they substituted a demand never and nowhere voiced during the revolution: Transylvania's restitution to Hungary. This _ tactic isolated the Hungarians in Transylvania—"1 These and similar tactics in Slovakia kept the non- Hungarians from actively supporting the uprising. And after it was crushed, the Revolution was used as the pretext to tighten the controls over the Hungarian populations in the neighboring states. It was claimed that their 'isolation'' from the mainstream of "Socialist construction' was responsible for their seduction by the "counterrevolutionaries " in Budapest To overcome this isolation, the Rumanian and Czechoslovak leadership undertook policies to break through the alleged nationalist barriers. Arrests, executions followed for "secessionist plotting" and the Hungarian minorities became the subject of more and more discrimination. And this discrimination continues to our own day with a relentlessness and a brutality that can match anything in South Africa! Yet even though the Revolution led to such negative consequences for the Hungarians in the Danubian Basin, it also had important positive consequences. Hungary and the 19S6 uprising became a shining symbol for all the peoples subjected by the Soviet empire. That this is the case finds its most recent re-affirmation in the manifesto signed by prominent dissidents in four East European countries. According to the New York Times report of October 19, 54 Hungarians, 28 Poles, 24 Czechs and Slovaks and 16 East Germans signed a manifesto proclaiming that the Hungarian Freedom Fight of 1956 is one of the proudest and most valued events in recent East European history and that it has become part of their common heritage. (Parenthetically it may be noted that each of these peoples have felt the brunt of direct Soviet intervention in 1953, 1956, 1968 and 1980-81, respectively.) At any rate, this is a first important step toward the reconciliation of all East Europeans. It is not accidental that the nationalisms of Ceausescu and Husak are fanned by the Soviet leadership - it keeps the region divided against itself. To this end, the Hungarians are used as the scapegoats. It is again the irony of history that Communist internationalism utilizes the nationalist sentiments of the Little Entente to keep the regional antagonisms alive. 1956 reminds us that Hungarians have the most to lose under the existing status quo. Yet the status quo is not changeable by Hungarian power. This is why we, Hungarian-Americans, and other Hungarians living in the Western democracies, must see it as our mission to be the spokesmen for those who cannot speak up in their own defense - because they are denied the opportunity by censorship, imprisonment or intimidation. Our role is to become a network of communication between all the Hungarian communities in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. For years, the official Hungarian line under Kadar has been to make the minorities of Eastern Europe become the bridges that bring all the peoples of Eastern Europe closer to each other. They have not succeeded in this endeavor, because the people who were supposed to provide the bridging role were frequently the ones who were under most oppression. The Hungarians of the Western diaspora do not suffer from this disadvantage. They can speak, write and travel freely. These opportunities bring with them responsibilities, but responsibilities also add meaning to existence! Thus, my message to you on this 30th Anniversary is not just to remember, but to commit yourself to a life vocation. Become an individual bridge linking Hungarians the world over, linking their islands of separateness - their islands in Portland, Ada, Chicago and New York - with their islands in Australia, and Western and Eastern Europe! We should become bridges of emotional committment1 We should become bridges transporting information! We should become bridges transporting understanding - and not least of all, we should become bridges of influence. Our freedom enables us to become the eyes and ears, the nerve endings of a fragmented, a much abused and persecuted - but a tough and hardy people. Our task is to help them survive - to help us survive, so that the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Fight can be celebrated not only here, on the banks of the Willamette and the Columbia, but also in the cities that cluster on the Danube and the Tisza. Remember _ let us promise never to forget _ let us have the spirit, the will the determination to dedicate our lives to their memory and the ideals for which they fought If we do not forget they will not have died in vain! 1. "The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Viewed from Two Decades' Distance," Canadian-American Review of Hungarian Studies 3 (1976): 148. 10
