Hungarian Conservative

‘I agree with those who think that historical authenticity should not be scrutinized in a historical adventure movie, because it should primarily work with exciting characters and a story that simply draws from historical events but does not aspire to document them. I still wonder where the vision of the course of history and its essential moments, mentioned by the producer, are to be found in the movie?’

The film is a valuable contribution to keeping the spirit and memory of the 1848 revolution and freedom fight alive by transforming distant historical figures into flesh and blood people in a credible and compelling way. It deserves merit also because, in a brave move, it attributes a prominent role in the events to Júlia Szendrey, Petőfi’s wife, paying tribute to this tragic-fated woman who became a renowned poet, writer and translator in her later life.

Old-aged men from the Great Hungarian Plain standing or sitting straight up face the camera and indirectly us, the viewers of these portraits today. What was previously only known from history books and clichéd speeches at the 15 March commemorations becomes, when seeing these pictures, the unvarnished truth, a gesture of an encounter with the past.

The cockade is one of the best-known and most significant Hungarian symbols, which has played a decisive role in our history. Over the centuries, the cockade has become an emblem of patriotism and Hungarian identity, which we have proudly worn on all our national holidays ever since the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

‘Today, our generation has the opportunity to build our own army, the force that guarantees the armed defence of the nation. This is our task, and in that we are no different from the revolutionaries of 1848,’ Minister Szalay-Bobrovniczky said at the Defence Ministry’s commemoration of the 1848 Hungarian revolution.

Hungarian Ambassador to the US Szabolcs Takács and US Representative Carol Miller of West Virginia spoke at the event commemorating the 1848–1849 Hungarian Revolution and Freedom Fight at Lajos Kossuth’s bust in the US Capitol building.

The ceremonial events in the Museum Garden commemorating the 1848–1849 revolution will kick off next Friday, 15 March with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech.

Ferenc Deák, the primary facilitator of the Austro–Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the country’s first Minister of Justice, and the namesake of so many public spaces and institutions in Hungary today, passed away 148 years ago on this day.

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó of Hungary took part in the inaugural ceremony for Astana’s newly renamed Petőfi Street, calling the gesture a profound sign of respect from the Kazakh people towards Hungary.

The building complex, designed by acclaimed Hungarian architect and designer Károly Kós and housing the most important Hungarian cultural institution beyond Hungary’s borders, will reopen on 26 October.

Hungary marks a solemn occasion on 6 October: the nation remembers the courageous military leaders of Hungary’s anti-Habsburg revolution and war of independence who were executed on this day in 1849.

It has been 174 years since Major Pál Vasvári and his Rákóczi Free Army were massacred near Havasnagyfalu (today Mărișel in Romania), on 6 July 1849. Despite all resistance forces, the memory of the young revolutionary and his fellow martyrs is a powerful cohesive force for the dwindling Hungarian community of the Kalotaszeg (Țara Călatei) region to this day.