Page 100 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 December 2016
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
had global ramifications for the future course of the cold war and the relationship between the two emerging superpowers. Although it was not apparent at the time, in a real sense, the Hungarian revolution was the catalyst for the eventual fall of the communist regimes of eastern Europe and the collapse of the USSR.
On 23 October 1956 tens of thousands of people poured onto the streets of Budapest, and their initial demonstration very quickly turned into something else altogether—a full-scale revolt against the communist regime and its Soviet masters. Twelve days later on 4 November 1956, the Soviet tanks rolled back into Budapest. The city endured days of heavy shelling and street battles, and Hungarians started to flee at the rate of thousands a day to neighbouring Austria.
Although the free world watched the Hungarian freedom fight, they never seriously considered providing military support, and no government seemed brave enough to even confront Nikita Khrushchev on the brutal actions of the Soviet Union. Over 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops were killed in the conflict. Reprisals by a new puppet regime began in late November with mass arrests and deportations to Siberia and the Ukraine, and around 200,000 Hungarians became refugees. Some of these refugees eventually settled in a total of 37 different countries, including Australia where my parents and my brothers and sisters and I found refuge in September 1957.
The 60th anniversary of the Hungarian freedom fight also gives us an opportunity to reflect on the heroes of the 1956 revolution: the students, the workers, the dreamers, the brave. They did not die or suffer in vain as they demonstrated such incredible bravery, such strong yearning for freedom from the Russian occupiers that the whole global community was forced to recognise the true, brutal face of communism.
In 1989 Imre Nagy and the other brave souls who paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom were finally given a public burial and recognition by their nation—recognition that was long overdue. The communist system finally disintegrated in Russia and in all the Soviet Bloc in central Europe after 1989. Soon thereafter the Warsaw pact dissolved and the last soldiers left Hungarian soil in June 1991.
Sixty years after that revolution we, the children of the revolution, still remember those brave souls. May they rest in peace. We also pay tribute to our parents who, through their refugee journey, gave up their today to give their children a better tomorrow.
In conjunction with commemorating the Hungarian revolution of 1956 I will also talk about a book that was written by one of the children of the revolution, a Canberra author, Liz Posmyk. I was proud to have played some part in the launch of her book called The Barber from Budapest and Other Stories. It is a deeply personal memoir in which Liz pays tribute to her forebears—and her father, Andras, who achieved recognition in Canberra as “the barber from Budapest”. The book is a powerful glimpse into her family’s lives as refugees and as a family at peace. Liz says, although quite personal, it is something she has long wanted to right. I will quote from the media release which captures elements of this book that I have been very impressed with:
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video