Magyar News, 1995. szeptember-1996. augusztus (6. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1995-11-01 / 3. szám

HISTORY BY THE WORDS OF A WITNESS

By Bela. Uptak

Bela Liptak is known to our readers through his articles in the Magyar News, and also as guest speaker at Hungarian events. He is writing an auto-biography. For this occasion, remembering the Revolution of 1956, we asked him if we could publish the days around October 23. This period was so rich in events, and specific in details, that we would need several issues to carry it. So we tried to do some editing, reducing the volume, but maintaining the most important parts, keeping them intact. Our condensation will be in this type, and the original in regular type.

Bela Liptak had active part in the demonstration and we are glad that he shares his experience with us, and our readers.

THE MEETING THAT STARTED IT ALL Attila and I, we settle down on the gallery of the Aula, the Assembly hall of the Technical University. The Hall is all marble, full of busts of famous former professors, Nobel laureates, people like Leo Szilard, John von Neuman, Theodor von Karman, Edward Teller, and many others.

There must be a couple of thousand students here, but nobody is really paying attention. There is a constant murmur in the hall. It is like any other meeting in the Communist world. They talk at us and our only defense is: not to üstén.

Downstairs, on the main floor of the Aula, near the microphone are the two presidents of this dual university, some professors, the Party Secretary, Party officials and the leaders of the Communist Youth Organization, the DISZ. It is the DISZ which convened the meeting. The leaders of the DISZ look like a special breed of penguins or booby birds, in their uniform of blue jackets, white shirts and red neckties. They called this meeting to preempt the spread of MEFESZ, this new, non-Communist student association, which was formed last Saturday in Szeged. The DISZ talked about special train passes for students, cheaper text books, better food and housing. Suddenly they seem to care a lot about us. We do not speak up. We never do. This is their show, they do the talking.

It is about 3 PM. I have spent the previous hour scraping the rust off my “gold” ring, which cost me 36 Forints and must have had some copper in its heritage, because it is turning greea I spit and I mb, and I am beginning to make some progress, when I feel the pain of Attila’s elbow in my side. “What?” -1 yell out, as he points down to the speakers’ platform.

There is some commotion. Suddenly the murmur in the whole Aula stopped, the dozing students are waking up, now we all are paying attention, the boredom has been replaced by startled curiosity. There is tension in the gigantic assembly hall, you could hear a pin drop, when suddenly, from the middle of the tumult around the microphone, a voice rises:

“I represent the MEFESZ of Szeged, I want to speak.”

This is unprecedented, extraordinary! The air is thick with tension. We do not know who spoke, we do not understand what is happening. We see the penguins shoving a small fellow away from the microphone.

Now the Party Secretary, Mrs. Orbán speaks: “You have only one duty, your duty is to study!” She is almost screaming when she says:”You don’t want the MEFESZ of Szeged, you do not want any ideas from Szeged.” I have no idea what she is talking about. I am just hypnotized by this mini-hero, this crazy guy from Szeged. I don’t understand what he wants. Is he out of his mind? Does he not know that he will not only be kicked out of the university but be thrown into jail, that is, right after they beat the hell out of him. Does he not understand that we are nobodies, that our name is:”Shut up.”

The situation changed when Jancsi Danner yelled out:

“Let him speak!”

My heart stops. Nothing like this has ever happened since the Red Army occupied Hungary. Jancsi’s ears are red, his mouth is trembling, but he does not blink. He faces the bewildered and scared stares of 2000 students. “God, he has lost his marbles!” - I say, not knowing that in a few days, I will be carrying his stiff body.

The Party and DISZ officials are screaming, the students are roaring and

moving towards the microphone. Jancsi Danner grabs the microphone and says;

“I ask the representative of the students of Szeged to speak!”

After a deafening ovation the noise slowly tapers off. Jancsi hands the microphone over to the blond delegate of Szeged. (This student, 38 years later in 1994, by then an American professor received the Nobel Prize for chemistry.) I stand there, on the platform, in the protective ring around this boy, my eyes fill with tears, as in a strong voice he starts to speak:

“Fellow students, Hungarians!”

After his speech he starts to sing the forbidden tune, the National Anthem, that is carried on like thunder by the students.

We are not the same people as we were a few minutes ago. We, these tearful kids, who are still frozen to attention, we have reborn, we stopped to be scared. Our spirits has conquered our fear. We are new people, we are unafraid and therefore free.

The meeting continued into the

evening.

It must have been about 7 PM when a shy student with a strong stutter came to the microphone. His stammer make his already soft voice barely audible :”C-ccould t-t-the R-r-russians 1-1-leave?” he squeezes out with tremendous effort. The response is undescribable. First, there is deadly silence and then the now 3-4000 people in the Aula, rise to their feet and the ovation seems to go on forever..... a rallying cry is growing, gets stronger, louder and finally deafening:”Ruszkis get out! Ruszkis get out!”

The meeting went on, 14 demands were printed up. The number of students swell to around 6,000. In the wee hours the head of the Military Department, Colonel Marian, laid realistic grounds for

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