Hungarian Conservative

Over 30 years after the regime change, there are still hundreds of public places in Hungary named after people involved in the introduction and maintenance of 20th-century totalitarian regimes.

A recently released Russian history textbook defaming the Hungarian 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight has caused serious public uproar in Hungary, with many on the right and the left denouncing it as a falsification of history.

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 Communists (should have) had to face up to the fact that their main supporter was the Soviet army, which had first liberated Hungary, only to then occupy it. This was particularly unpleasant in the context of 1848, since the revolution had been defeated by the troops of Tsarist Russia, which aided the Austrians, and the main demand of the revolution was that there should be no foreign troops in Hungary.