1956 - Your connection to it

[Jorian Drake]

It is October the 23th of the year 2008, it is the 52nd anniversary of the hungarian revolution.

 

 

I do not wish to talk about it, i think many nations atleast mention it today in their news anyway,

but it does interest me what it means/meant to you, and what you think of the events in 1956, if you think the west should have been intervened or not, and why?

 

What do you think the causes were, and what did it archieve, if it did anything at all?

Edited October 23, 2008 by Jorian Drake

[Gorgon]

I don't know a damn thing about the Hungarian revolution, maybe you could enlighten us.

 

Unless you mean when the Ruskies rolled their tanks in to regain control, and Nato decided it wasn't worth fighting a war over.

Edited October 23, 2008 by Gorgon

[Laozi]

They should have asked for evolution first

[Gorgon]

That is probably what he mean, ain't it.

 

Well, I guess it just sucks to be on the wrong side of the Iron curtain. It was decided that Hungary was in Russia's sphere of interest, this is a consensus that goes all the way back to Potsdam. Of course no one asked Hungary.

[Jorian Drake]

They should have asked for evolution first

excuse me?

[Kaftan Barlast]

The Hungarian revolution was widely covered in Sweden at the time and we still read about it in school and whatnot. What amazes me about it is that even after 1956, there were still plenty of ultra-leftwing socialists in Sweden that plainly refused to admit that Soviet wasnt the democratic haven and symbol of all that was good and true in the world.

[Meshugger]

I wasn't born yet, and my parents were playing with toys at time, but my grandparents remember it. They said that the general feeling was disgust when the tanks rolled in, and the political machinery started to self-censor themselves about it (Finland shares the border with Russia) and my grandfathers younger friends were recalled for extra military training duties (they kept a low profile about it though, so the soviets wouldn't get too p***y about it), practicing on the possibility of an invasion. Many farmers started to stockpile rifles and other weapons as well.

 

Very uneasy times indeed.

[Meshugger]

The Hungarian revolution was widely covered in Sweden at the time and we still read about it in school and whatnot. What amazes me about it is that even after 1956, there were still plenty of ultra-leftwing socialists in Sweden that plainly refused to admit that Soviet wasnt the democratic haven and symbol of all that was good and true in the world.

 

Tell me about it, when my mother was antending Helsinki university during 1968-1972, the general consensus was that you were either a Stalinist or a Trotskyist, with some people leaning to Mao. My mother was considered a right-winger since she was a social-democrat. Other fun facts:

 

- Worker clothes were a must.

- In the school cafeteria, the students would usually stand on the tables, as sitting on the chairs were indoctrination of the bourgeois ruling class.

- Soviet was paradise, everything else was American propaganda.

- USA was home of the oppressive bourgeois class, the workers class had no power and thus, all information was lying propaganda.

- Nixon was a mass murderer, there were several demonstrations against him.

- There were no purges, gulag or genocide in the Soviets. They simply didn't exist.

- The working class should rule government (funny that everyone saying this was in academia or a student).

 

Thank god that evaporated later during the seventies, and in reality it would've never been a revolution either, since the biggest social group in Finland at the time, the farmers, would've shot them the second they saw them.

 

And oh, a funny anecdote: All those heardcore leftists turned out to start companies, become successful in the corporate world and are pretty much the anti-thesis today of what they once were. Linus Torvalds dad for example (a former trotskyist) is currently living in Washington DC, working as a foreign relations journalist for the finnish public broadcast television. He is strangely pro-US these days

Edited October 23, 2008 by Meshugger

[mkreku]

I mostly remember Puskas and the fantastic football team Hungary had at that time. Ferenc Puskas is still considered one of the greatest football players that ever lived. Not only was he great, he was fat and ugly too, a total hero in my eyes :D

 

I wonder how many titles (World Cup and Olympics) that great Hungarian team would have won if it hadn't been for the uprising?

 

[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_Pusk

[Laozi]

They should have asked for evolution first

excuse me?

 

 

maybe in a couple of more generations

[Gorgon]

My mom told me later today that many people listened to every free Hungarian radio broadcast, when they stopped coming, people knew what had happened. I guess this was back when radio mattered.

Edited October 23, 2008 by Gorgon

[Dark_Raven]

1956 a year when an insignificant country was squashed by the evil empire like bugs, no one cared and it was quickly forgotten by the world as a whole? Does that about sum it up?

[Aristes]

1956 a year when an insignificant country was squashed by the evil empire like bugs, no one cared and it was quickly forgotten by the world as a whole? Does that about sum it up?

 

2008. It's a year when someone decided to act like a horse's backside and impose his myopic view of world history on someone pointing out that there was a time when his little corner of the earth stood up for freedom and human rights but was too small and isolated to win. The event was extremely important and I doubt that any of the "real educated" folks here haven't heard about this travesty already. Some day, we might look back on Tiananmen Square and maybe see the spirit of a few Hungarian freedom fighters there too.

[Walsingham]

It was all about oil. Modern political thinking's universal theory of everything.

 

Actually, I'd like to hear more. Tell us.

[Hildegard]

1956 a year when an insignificant country was squashed by the evil empire like bugs, no one cared and it was quickly forgotten by the world as a whole? Does that about sum it up?

 

Where are you from? US? It wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

It isn't a insignificant event, and it wasn't forgotten by the whole world since this event is a unavoidable history lesson in every serious eduction system, one you don't have at all.

[random n00b]

1956 a year when an insignificant country was squashed by the evil empire like bugs, no one cared and it was quickly forgotten by the world as a whole? Does that about sum it up?

 

Where are you from? US? It wouldn't surprise me at all.

Oh, the irony.

 

 

It isn't a insignificant event, and it wasn't forgotten by the whole world since this event is a unavoidable history lesson in every serious eduction system, one you don't have at all.

I'm curious about this. History is possibly the most expansive academic subject there is. This wasn't a lesson I took during my student years, and I'm wondering which education systems deal with international 20th century History extensively? And is the scope restricted to contemporary History, or does it encompass all History that's taught? If so, that can only lead to other subjects being neglected. Even History majors are fairly specialized...

[Gorgon]

It wasn't part of my curriculum, or maybe I just missed those days. Anyway it is I suppose an important cold war moment. Other than that it was over pretty fast.

[alanschu]

My connection to it is rather nonexistent.

[Walsingham]

I'd be surprised if many school educations mentioned the Hungarian revolution. Mine did, but we had a lunatic for a history master.

[Gorth]

For whatever reasons, the "Prague Spring" featured more predominantly in our history lessons. Maybe because it was a decade (almost) later?

[thepixiesrock]

I'm 50% Hungarian.

[Laozi]

and looking slick, chief.

[Aristes]

I don't know. From reading some of the other parts of this forum, it seems like Dark Raven is just the resident grouch, so I shouldn't have taken offense. Nevertheless, I can't help but think that it's good for Hungarians to recall a moment when they stood up for their rights while others suffered the yoke of tyranny in silence. How many Americans, of which I am proudly one, talk about our own revolution? ...And our revolution, as proud I am of its success, required no more bravery than the Hungarian fight for freedom. Hell, I'm glad to see someone taking pride for his people standing up for freedom.

 

And it looks like a lot of people in this thread are Hungarian. I don't want to piss them off.

Edited October 27, 2008 by Aristes

[Walsingham]

We have quite a few eatern Euros here. Makes life more interesting. I'm glad we never had to fight them in a Sov inspired ww3.

[Nick_i_am]

1956 a year when an insignificant country was squashed by the evil empire like bugs, no one cared and it was quickly forgotten by the world as a whole? Does that about sum it up?

 

2008. It's a year when someone decided to act like a horse's backside and impose his myopic view of world history on someone pointing out that there was a time when his little corner of the earth stood up for freedom and human rights but was too small and isolated to win. The event was extremely important and I doubt that any of the "real educated" folks here haven't heard about this travesty already. Some day, we might look back on Tiananmen Square and maybe see the spirit of a few Hungarian freedom fighters there too.

 

haha, DR is a dude.