The campaign remembers the victims of 20th-century totalitarian regimes in Europe, on the 85th anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on 23 August 1939.
The award-winning 2018 Hungarian drama Eternal Winter, directed by Attila Szász, based on a screenplay by Norbert Köbli, is a powerful account of the tragic fate of the Swabians in Hungary under the Soviet occupation of the country.
Albeit on Monday the public was informed that only Tibor Kapu and Gyula Cserényi have been selected as the astronauts for the programme, the other two candidates who had been included in the final round of selection, clinical orthopaedic surgeon Ádám Schlégl and aerospace design engineer András Szakály, will nonetheless assist with the work of the HUNOR mission in leading positions on the staff of the mission’s ground-based control centre. As for Kapu and Cserényi, they will soon be sent to the United States, where they will undergo the final phase of their training, supervised and assisted by the US space agency NASA and the private company Axiom Space, Hungary’s international space exploration partners.
‘Ideologically, the notion of a Jewish autonomous region resonated deeply with the socialist ethos of equality and collective ownership championed by the Bolsheviks, principles that find resonance in Article 6 of the Russian Constitution. This constitutional provision affirms the socialist ideals of social justice, equal opportunity, and solidarity, serving as a guiding light for the creation of a territory where Jews could exercise their right to self-determination while actively participating in the collective endeavour of building socialism.’
The Second Hungarian Army, during the autumn and winter of 1942, prepared to hold up the incoming Soviet offensive coming from the direction of Stalingrad. As the Germans lost the siege of the city in all but theory, it was practically sure that the Soviets would advance toward the River Don. Thus, the Hungarian troops were left to defend the bridgeheads from the Soviets, who outnumbered them seven to one.
The catastrophe of the Second Hungarian Army at the River Don is a well-known and traumatic memory for most Hungarians. The army formation was deployed near Stalingrad, and was almost entirely destroyed by the Soviets in 1943, leaving many Hungarian families with deceased relatives.
‘It may very well be that in a few decades’ time, it will become clear to all analysts that the US’s rise to being a hegemonic power has carried the seeds of its downfall, too.’
On Christmas Eve in 1944 the Soviet troops encircled Budapest, and the siege commenced a few days later, on 30 December. The fighting that went on for months caused enormous suffering and destruction, and became part of Hungary’s collective memory forever.
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.
On 4 November 1956, the fate of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was sealed as Soviet troops entered the country to crush the uprising.
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.
On 15 October 1944, Horthy made an unsuccessful attempt to exit the Second World War. The operation failed due to a number of reasons: the resistance of some officers of the Royal Hungarian Army, organisational mistakes and pre-emptive actions by the Nazi secret service. Horthy was soon forced to resign.
This Saturday marks the 34th anniversary of the Pan-European Picnic, when East German refugees, attempting to defect to West Germany, were allowed to enter Austria by the Hungarian authorities. The Picnic is also a symbol of a borderless, free, united and Christian Europe.
The rhetoric of spiritual mobilization, of Russia’s responsibility for the fate of the world, and of the ‘burden of the Russian people’ is becoming dominant once again as it was many times before during tragic periods in Russian history. Economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation as the punishment for the annexation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine are interpreted by the Russian regime and the majority of Russians as confirmation of progressing Anomia in the West, and will strengthen the Katechonic argument.
Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl completed his magnum opus, the Liberty Statue of Budapest in 1947, in just two years. It was originally a monument dedicated to the ‘liberating’ Soviet forces at the end of World War II. However, elements of the composition alluding to its original purpose were removed, and it still stands tall on top of Gellért Hill as a beacon of Hungarian freedom today.
27 June is the Day of Hungarian Border Guards. The geographic location of our country and the very fact that it is the eastern bulwark of Western Christianity obliged it in the past and is still predestining it today to be one of the guardians of European civilisation and the peace of the continent.
Nagy was a highly controversial figure in Hungarian history, whose assessment is still a source of intense debates…He did stand up for the Hungarian Revolution in 1956—for debatable reasons—; but to portray him as a convinced democrat, or a hero of Hungarian popular representation and individual freedom would be a serious distortion. His legacy must be treated in its proper place: his merits must not be denied, but his sins must not be forgotten.
The US became an imperial power in its own right by the end of the nineteenth century, specifically from 1898 to 1901, when it claimed territory or influence over no fewer than five islands outside its territorial boundaries: Cuba, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines…Under the guise that is was America’s duty to spread the light of civilisation and democracy to the ‘backward’ people of the world, the former British colony took it upon itself to govern the peoples of Latin America and the Pacific—whether they wanted it or not.
This article will present the reader with a basic understanding of the tragic but triumphant life of Whittaker Chambers, the man whose dramatic, twelve-word encounter with God and subsequent heroic exploits became the inspiration for a new generation of conservatives, like Ronald Reagan.
Blokád was not only popular on Netflix, but was also successful in cinemas and became the most watched Hungarian drama film of the year in 2022, earning nearly 99 million forints in cinemas. Some 58,000 people bought tickets for it, and it was shown in cinemas for 22 weeks.
Today is dedicated to all women, appreciating their work and achievements in making the world a better place for all.
Dr Brittany Pheiffer Noble recently gave a lecture titled ´From Counterculture to Establishment Subculture: Orthodoxy in 21st century Russia´ at the Danube Institute.
Many of those deported did not even make it alive to their destination, but died on the way to the Soviet Union. These people were not even registered, so there is no information about how many they were. The purpose of their abduction was to rebuild the Soviet infrastructure that had been practically destroyed in the war, so to use them for free slave labour.
Altogether at least 700,000 Hungarians were taken to the Soviet Union by force to work in the infamous labour camps of the country. One third of these men and women never returned—and those who did, never received any compensation from Hungary’s Communist government.
The residence is a testimony to the paranoia that governed the Soviet Union during the ruthless tyrant’s dictatorship.
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.
The war in Ukraine has renewed the controversy over Communist era statues in Poland. The country is now being purged of the remaining Soviet monuments.
Over the last couple of years the censorship of historical narratives has intensified in China. The assault on history is shared by all communist dictatorships and it goes against the conservative understanding of societies.
Secondhand Time by Noble laureate Svetlana Alexievich is a powerful account of what Russians really think about the demise of the USSR. The views on the collapse of the regime are revealed to be much more complex and varied than what the overused media catchphrases ‘nostalgia’ and ‘sentimentalism’ suggest.
The death of the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev has been remembered worldwide. While some called him a global leader who changed the world for the better, others labelled him a remorseless criminal.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.