Hungary is not the only country in East-Central Europe that sees unwanted commentary and meddling by Russia with regard to interpretations of its history. The periods the evaluation of which is the most frequently contested by Russia are the Cold War era and World War II. While Russia glorifies the USSR’s effort to defeat Nazi Germany, CEE countries, including Hungary, highlight the 45 years the Red Army spent in Central Europe as an occupying force after the end of World War II.

The confusing messaging of the US Embassy-sponsored billboards seems to erroneously imply that the Orbán administration is not in favour of the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, when in fact the Hungarian government has repeatedly stated its public support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

‘So far, they have done everything, and they will continue to do everything in the future on behalf of the United States government to make Hungary change its position,’ the leader of the Nézőpont Institute, Sámuel Ágoston Mráz said in a radio interview.

‘For I was the Doubting, the unbeliever:
I believed you were no more, no more than a figment,
and dipping my faithless fingers into your wound,
I know what the resurrection of the body means,
and I cannot speak, I only stammer:
I am Hungarian.’

Today Hungary remembers the heroes of the Revolution and Freedom Fight of 1956. The events of the revolution are a testimony to Hungary’s thirst for freedom and self-governance, but also to its vulnerability to the world order.

While the Polish October enabled Poland to support Hungary in its revolutionary struggle, Budapest was inspired by Poland to revolt.

Mária Wittner, one of Hungary’s last 1956 revolutionaries, passed away on 14 September, at the age of 85. Today, we remember her life, her dedication to the fight against communist authoritarianism, and the sacrifices she made for Hungary’s freedom.

Carl von Clausewitz advised that “According to our idea of a people’s war, it should, like a kind of nebulous vapoury essence, never condense
into a solid body; […]. Still, however, on the other hand, it is necessary that this mist should collect at some points into denser masses, and form threatening clouds from which now and again a formidable flash of lightning may burst forth.

By 1956, disillusionment with chivalric or martial ideas or even just ordinary love of country was again de rigueur in the world of words.