Fraternity-Testvériség, 1993 (71. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1993-10-01 / 4. szám
Page 14 TESTVÉRISÉG REMEMBERING the HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION of 1956 It is assumed by paleontologists that dinosaurs ruled the world for over 160 million years. Among those giant reptiles the Tyrannosaurs Rex, TRex, was the safest and most secure. Its huge saber-like teeth and enormous size, supported by frightening claws, made this dinosaur the king of all lizards. The long days of the dinosaurs however ended fast. One immense meteor from outer space crashed into the earth, blasting a huge crater, spilling billions of tons of dust into the air, causing an artificial chill and darkness. The dinosaur, the safest of all creatures could not handle such a cataclysmic change and died, leaving behind a legacy of terror and some petrified bones. Human history teaches us that nations and societies, all social, economic and political systems, do share the fate of the dinosaur. Societies do grow and change but eventually they turn into a dinosaur stage. They become living fossils and one unexpected historic turn of event can tip them over and they die. In our time, which is considered to be the post-Marxist post-Communist era, we have witnessed the extinction of a socio-political dinosaur - the Soviet Empire. In its high days it was a truly terrible TRex. Its claws were made of thousands of nuclear armed intercontinental missiles. Its saber teeth contained the world largest conventional army. Its centralized police system controlled all areas of life, and due to its insatiable appetite, it mercilessly devoured neighboring states. President Reagan was correct when he called that beast “the Evil Empire”. Yet in spite of its profound power, it could not avoid the fate of the dinosaur. The Soviet TRex was safe from all sides, from all conceivable foreign enemies, but one unexpected event, an unpredictable calamity, created an environment in which this Dinosaur Empire could not survive. A revolution, like a heavenly meteor, crashed and dislocated the world, creating new conditions that the Soviet Dragon, in spite of its terrific power could not handle. This “dinosaur” had a short life span some 75 years, but through its bloody history, its rule of terror, its forced labor camps, it was able to cut down millions of victims with such merciless determination as one would expect only from a cold blooded reptile. Historians insist that the meteor which eventually killed the Soviet Dinosaur was the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. True the Revolution was devoured by the beast but it could not handle the aftermath; the new conditions which shattered the once favorable climate of the Red TRex. We are here today to celebrate the appearance of that glorious meteor, the Hungarian Revolution, and also to rejoice over the extinction of the Soviet Dragon. Let us now examine some of those inevitable factors which were triggered by the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and which ultimately led to the extinction of the Soviet social, political and economic systems. What were those forces, unleased by the revolutions’ meteor, which found that political animal, that Soviet Dinosaur unprepared and unable to cope? President Lincoln said once jokingly, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, you can fool all of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” The Soviet TRex did not recognize this truth. It was powerful as long as it could fool and terrorize all of the people all of the time. But when some, like the Hungarian Freedom Fighters were not willing to be fooled and terrorized any longer, their stand became contagious. More and more people refused to be fooled. The terrible reptile did crush those first heroes of resistance but an irreversible process started and every liberated person from the foolishness of the lizard on became a blow which eventually killed the beast. One more quotation could help us to comprehend the incomprehensible - the fall and death of the Soviet Dinosaur. It is from Jesus Christ. He said once: “Man cannot live by bread alone!” Indeed it was assumed by the Soviet Lizard that man is primarily an economic animal. That is to say, if one’s basic materialistic needs are met, one would be satisfied. Such a view takes away the fundamental dignity of man. We need freedom to express our creativity, we need worship to feed our souls, we need free contact with each other, and we need free travel to discover and experience the world. The ideological uniform which was forced on everyone became the straight jacket of a huge concentration camp, an animal farm, a frightening toyland, for the pleasure of the Terrible Dinosaur. I have with me an old, yellow newspaper. It was published on November 2, 1956 in Budapest. As a young student, I bought this paper that day. It contains those 25 demands which triggered the revolution. As I read those demands, I assure you that all are only basic fundamental requests that should be granted to all nations and to every human being. They asked that Hungary be free and neutral nation. They demanded freedom for all political parties, freedom to travel and to associate, and rights for the workers to refuse work. They promised no retaliation to anyone who served the previous system. And finally they asked the UN to come and help in achieving such Rev. LasloM. Medyesy, Ph.D.
