"The current Hungarian generations have been endowed with everything that the heroes of 1956 fought for," the state secretary for national policy of the Prime Minister's Office said on Saturday evening at a commemoration ceremony in London on the occasion of October 23 [national holiday for commemorating Hungary's revolution against the Soviet Union in 1956 - ed]. At the ceremony organised by the Hungarian Embassy in the Hungarian House in London, Arpad Janos Potapi recalled Imre Nagy's speech, given on November 1, 1956, when the then prime minister said that the revolutionary struggle fought by the heroes of Hungary' past and present had finally brought the cause of freedom and independence to victory.
The issue of freedom and independence is the issue of today's Hungary. We have been endowed with what the heroes of 1956 fought for,
the state secretary pointed out, adding that Hungarians know how great freedom is, because our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents fought for it. At the same time, he also noted that in today's age, "they are increasingly trying to bracket this independence and put our country at the service of international interests".
Let's not allow this, otherwise we will be unfaithful to the spirit of 1956.
The miracle of 1956, which Sandor Marai also wrote about in his poem entitled Mennybol az angyal (Angel from heaven), surprised the world and shook the Soviet Union in such a way that its foundations were irreparably damaged, the state secretary said, noting that
the events in Hungary also came as a complete surprise to the British government, which did not want to intervene in the attempt to topple the government, and primarily regarded Poland as a possible revolutionary focal point
On Saturday, the politician attended a London meeting of directors and teachers of Hungarian weekend schools operating in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, organised by the National Federation of Hungarians in England. 25 Hungarian schools were represented at the event, with the participation of educators from the Szechenyi Istvan University of Gyor, in Hungary.
The state secretary for national policy told Hungary's news agency MTI that there are 255 Hungarian weekend schools in the world - ten percent of which operate in the United Kingdom. The University of Gyor has been supporting the Hungarian diaspora education program for years.
Speaking at the conference of Hungarian schools, Mr Potapi stressed that the fact that Hungary is today an independent, civil democracy is largely due to 1956. He added that it was the Hungarians who drove the first nail into the coffin of the Soviet Union in 1956, and that, whether spoken or unspoken, 1956 also led to the bloodless transition in 1989-1990.
