Odds are you won’t hear about this anywhere else, so I’ll mention it here. Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. A student protest on this date in 1956 quickly evolved into a wholesale overthrow of the Communist government, with hopes of establishing a multi-party democracy outside the purview of the Warsaw Pact. After two weeks of freedom, however, the full brunt of the Soviet army slashed through the country, slaughtering 2,500 Hungarian militiamen and untold thousands of innocent civilians. Those responsible for the uprising were sent to their deaths while thousands more were incarcerated as political prisoners. 200,000 refugees fled to Austria for refuge from the brutality of the Soviet crackdown. Imre Nagy, a former Communist premier who had been restored to that position after the revolution, was executed in Moscow in 1958, convicted of treason.
We don’t do enough in this country to commemorate those who fought against the horrible oppression that hundreds of millions of people suffered under at the hands of the Soviet Union, and all others who sought nothing more than self-determination for their people, so here’s a small tribute for the sacrifices of those who fought to live in a free society. We’re going to need some people of that mind soon enough.
Read more about the 1956 Revolution here and here.
UPDATE (7pm): Agitated student-types, marking the anniversary earlier today, apparently held demonstrators that got a bit out of control, culminating in the protesters swiping a Soviet-era tank. (No, it isn’t clear how that happened.) The protests likely stem from an off-the-cuff remark by the nation’s premier that he had lied his way to an election day victory, launching the nation into political turmoil. (As Jon Stewart said on the subject, “In America, we call that Tuesday.”)
