Stalinism and the Gulag-system was not only one of the worst periods of the twentieth century, but also of mankind’s history, a disgrace, a scar on the face of Europe and the world. We have to respond to it saying never, ever again!, the Minister of Justice declared at the eve of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism in Budapest at the commemoration held at the Monument to the Victims of the Gulag.
László Trócsányi explained that Bolshevism pitted man against man, communities against communities and glorified violence. The disease has passed, but these pathogens are still present: no measures – even the best constitution or legal acts – can eradicate them completely. “Remembrance helps to cleanse the heart and fortify the immune system of the community against evil”, he added.
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Bolshevism was an ideology that promised heaven on Earth while it denied God – and thereby man itself. At the very least it denied the universal character of man: according to Communism there are no universal human values, only class consciousness, class interest and a specific class morality, he added.
László Trócsányi described how the Stalinist regime broke not only away from the rule of law, but also from the principle of individual responsibility – a fundamental achievement of European and universal human civilization. He recalled that the Soviet Criminal Code of 1934 set it out as a separate case if someone was “a family member of the enemy of people”.
This represented a new grade of terrorization. One could not be protected in those times, not even by one’s family, he mentioned, referring to the fact that the ideal role model represented for Soviet pioneers were children who denied and accused their own fathers for being kulaks. He called attention to the fact that the National Avowal of the Fundamental Law of Hungary proclaims: “We deny any statute of limitations for the inhuman crimes committed against the Hungarian nation and its citizens under the National Socialist and the Communist dictatorship”.
He mentioned that millions of people could feel that the 20th century brought nothing but never-ending darkness and suffering, while the same century brought unprecedented technological development and welfare for other millions of people.
The Minister added that history is a mystery; we have an obligation to observe and study the secret and an even stronger obligation to remember the victims and feel empathy for the “humiliated and insulted”.
The risk of being deported to the Gulag was present for everyone: a mere slander, a suspicion or a collective retribution against a social group was sufficient and there was no need for individual accusation or suspicion anymore. There were many ways for deportation to the Gulag, either by a judicial judgement or – more frequently – without it.
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The European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism has been held since 2009, on the 23rd of August, the anniversary of the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939.
The unedited version of the video made at the event can be downloaded from the Press room.
(Ministry of Justice)
