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A burnt-out Soviet armoured combat vehicle in Budapest in November 1956.

The Fate of the Uprising: 1956 between November and May

The events of the 1956 Revolution are quite well-known, at least in Hungary, as far as the beginning of it and the period of its brief triumph are concerned. What is less known is that the revolution was not fully suppressed on the day of the Soviet invasion on 4 November. Active, armed resistance lasted until 11 November, and civil disobedience, as well as sporadic outbursts of rebellion kept the Soviets from stabilizing their rule until the late spring of the next year.

A solidarity march on 5 November 1956 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The banner reads ‘Help Hungary’.

A Fatal Case of Empathy — Hungary and the UN, 1956–1963

When the Soviet intervention against the Hungarian Revolution was placed on the agenda of the UN Security Council, the Soviets immediately vetoed it: their argument was that it was no more than a ‘reactionary uprising’ supported by the US. The French, meanwhile, were of the view that not only the UN Charter had been contravened in Hungary, but also the Paris Peace Treaties, and even the Warsaw Pact that served the legal foundation for the invasion. On the other hand, the United Kingdom questioned whether the use of Soviet military forces stationed in Hungary under a valid treaty and at the behest of the Hungarian government could even be called an intervention at all.

Budapesters look on as Soviet troops temporarily pull out of Budapest on 31 October 1956.

Football and Fifty-Six: Identity and Restoration

‘The speed and eagerness with which Hungarian clubs sought to return to their old identities, with all the loyalties and connections they represented, demonstrated the power of these emotional and social meanings. And it was just as clearly a mark of the utter failure of the Party to co-opt and utilise the power of football for its own purposes. The Party abandoned the micro-management of football, paralleling its wider realisation after 1956 that, while its authority was still non- negotiable, it could and would not protect and justify it through the politicisation of society or the ideological mobilisation of the people.’

A motorist in Tehran gestures while driving past a giant billboard depicting Muslim peoples walking with their national flags towards the Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem on 25 October 2023.

The War in Gaza: ‘You Stop Iran, You Stop Hamas’

‘Hamas’ 7 October attacks have nothing to do with the grievances of the average Palestinian. Rather, it is part of their jihad (holy war) that is sponsored by the theocracy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which must be stopped…peace can only come after the Hamas terrorists are eliminated and Iran is properly dealt with.’

Viktor Orbán delivering his remarks at the Tusványos Festival on 26 July 2014.

Viktor Orbán Told Them So

‘It is one of history’s great ironies that Budapest, from which hundreds of thousands of European Jews were shipped to their deaths by the Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators, Jews can walk the streets this dreadful autumn without fear. This is an achievement for which Hungarians can and should be proud. Don’t expect European leaders to give Orbán credit. In fact, they will probably increase their public odium directed at him.’

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Dayan (C) during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

The 2023 Attack on Israel: Haunting Echoes from the Past

On 7 October, the terrorist group Hamas commenced the largest and bloodiest attack against Israel since the Yom Kippur War. In many ways, the aggression echoes not only the 1973 war, but also the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on the US as well.

Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.

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