60th Anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution that Shook the World

The Hungarian Embassy in Georgia this month marked the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence. Hungary’s legendary 1956 revolution and desperate fight for independence and freedom lasted no more than two weeks and yet it shook the world.

In October 1956 the Hungarian nation proved that it was capable of taking control of its own destiny. In the same year freedom fights erupted in Poland and in Tbilisi, too, both suppressed by the soviet regime unmercifully.

The memorial event of the Embassy of Hungary to Georgia presented two exhibitions: ‘For Freedom and Independence,’ paying tribute to the “Boys of Pest” and an exhibition of the Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia depicting the chronology of the tragic event in March 1956 in Tbilisi.

“Hungarians all over the world commemorate these days,” said Sandor Szabo, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Hungary. “The Hungarian Revolution of 60 years ago is without any exaggeration an event of paramount historical importance, the news of which at the time reverberated around the world. In what was one of the first liberation attempts in Eastern Europe, the freedom-loving youth of an oppressed nation took up arms to free their country from a political system imposed on them from the outside, although from the very first day they knew the consequences of confronting the overpowering enemy,” he said.

One of these consequences was that a hundred-thousand people had to leave their homeland to escape persecution. In the Ambassador’s words, the Hungarian refugees waited in their adopted countries calmly, without violence, and with respect to the laws of the receiving country. Many of them became eminent personalities of the countries which gave them refuge.

The Ambassador, who has worked in Georgia for a number of years, thanked the Georgians for their compassion.

“We Hungarians feel a special connection with our Georgian friends,” the Ambassador went on. “With particular empathy we understand what it means to lose one fifth of the state territory and leave numerous compatriots behind, as Georgia did in its recent history. As a member of the European Union and NATO we are consistently advocating in favor of the acceleration of Georgia’s European and Euro-Atlantic integration process. We sincerely hope that this acceleration will manifest itself in the coming weeks in the form of abolishing the visa requirement for Georgian citizens visiting the Schengen area.”

The memorial event was sponsored by the ‘1956 Hungarian Revolution and Freedom Fight 60th Anniversary Memorial Board.’

Maka Lomadze