Hungary 1956

So today I went to a rememberence celebration in Toalmas. Basically I stood outside in a cold mist and listened to people speak Hungarian for about half an hour by myself, because no one else from school wanted to go. But thanks to the history lesson we received in Presidential Chapel last Tuesday I at least knew why we were remembering, and thanks to Reka's hard work in my Hungarian class, I could pick out obscure numbers and even the occasional word, but with no context it was not very helpful. But since I am going to be living her for another 7ish months, I wanted to be as involved in community life as I can, I mean how many of you can say you have been to a Hungarian rememberence celebration? Not many. Now I would like to take the time to tell you why this occurs each year on October 23rd.

Obviously Hungary is a European nation, and so was super involved in World War II. Unfortunately they were part of Nazi occupied territory for a long time. In 1945 the Soviet Union 'liberated' Hungary from the Nazis. But instead of being all like 'No problem glad to help, have a good time ruling your own country.' The Soviets were more like 'Hey it looks nice here, lets stay.' And long story short they communisted the country. Intimidation, false accusations, torture, and imprisonment were used to keep political challenges from arising. The capitalist economy was forced to transform into a socialist one, leaving the majority of Hungarians with a horrible standard of living. More then 7,000 people were 'relocated' to a camp in Eastern Hungary for disagreeing with the government. Schools taught Communist Principles, and Russian language became required. People were placed in concentration camps, tortured, and executed. What it boils down to is that Hungary was one of the most repressed countries in Europe in the 1950's. And considering what a mess Europe was after WWII, that's saying a lot.
So by October of 1956, there were a lot of unhappy people in Hungary, and they decided that enough was enough. A group of students began a protest on October 23rd, and soon over 20,000 people had joined it. A 30 foot statue of Stalin was torn down, and basically the protesters did a whole bunch of illegal stuff, but totally had reason to do so. The government reacted by killing a lot of them, by shooting from the windows of the government building they surrounded. Early the next morning, at like 2:00 AM, the Prime Minister of Hungary AKA Evil Communist Dictator Who Is Super Horrible or ECDWISH, called in tanks. Also this was the night ECDWISH traded places with some other horrible person, and so there was a new Prime Minister. But once again to shorten the story, there was a lot of fighting, and the army killed a lot of people. The Hungarian revolutionaries fought the tanks with Motolov Cocktails, and eventually the Soviets got the picture and left.
But on November 4th, the Soviets totally lied and said 'No don't worry, we don't want to live in your country anymore.' But really were thinking 'Actually we are like on your doorstep and going to come in even though you didn't invite us back.' They are like the guests at Christmas who come with out being invited, and then leave for the weekend and come back for New Years. The Hungarians and Soviets fought for 6 days, and once again a lot of people died. The Hungarians lost, and once again were under Soviet rule.
The consequences for the revolution were huge, 13,000 were imprisoned, hundreds were executed, and over 200,000 fled the country as refugees. The Hungarians lived under communist rule until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Then there were treaties and a whole bunch of political things I don't really understand.
But that is the story of the Revolution of 1956, and why the people here remember this day every year with a holiday. Even though I understood .01% of the things being said, and it was cold and misty, I am very honored to have been able to be a part of this celebration of the brave Hungarians that fought to make their country better.

Please note that the information I have provided it all from Al Konya, and Wikipedia. And I highly doubt the Soviets used the language I did, well obviously they didn't speak English, but I mean I doubt it was the same wording or anything, I paraphrased.
Tune in next time for my list of acceptable places to wake up 10 minutes before going to! :)
Also Josh Durham is by far my most dedicated reader because I have my own short cut on his internet page, the rest of ya'll should try to be more like him.