From among the historical turning points of the past two centuries, it was the change of regime –the fall of communism – that the country accomplished of its own free will without major sacrifices, Gergely Gulyás, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office stated at the Sunday opening of the exhibition 30 Years in Freedom of the House of Terror Museum.

He added that we succeeded in converting the chances offered by 1989-90 into reality, and there was no need for a compromise in the interest of the country’s freedom and national sovereignty.

The politician, who also presides over the executive board of the Memorial Year bearing the same name, stressed that the time had come for the generation of the change of regime to start talking to their children and grandchildren about what happened in those days, adding that the fulfilment of this obligation strengthens the national community.

“The common struggles of the past prove that we belong together, that every Hungarian is responsible for every other Hungarian, and that we have a shared responsibility and duty, a shared fate and life all at once,” the Minister said.

He stressed that it is necessary to appreciate and to understand that freedom is not to be taken for granted. Freedom could only be achieved because “the people were prepared to take good care of it,” and whenever they had the chance, they were prepared to fight for it.

While in 1956 forces superior in strength and numbers crushed the revolution, the communist regime conceived in blood and sin was handed down a fatal blow, he pointed out.

Mr Gulyás highlighted that the history of Hungary in the twentieth century was a period of lies and belated truths for the Hungarian nation.

It is because of the lies that “the dictate concluding World War I had to be referred to as a peace treaty, the Soviet occupation replacing Naci occupation as liberation, communist dictatorship as the people’s democracy, the revolution as counter-revolution, torture as state protection, and the execution of the revolution’s prime minister as justice delivered,” he said.

He added that it is because of belated truths that the demands of 1956 could become reality at the time of the change of regime; this is why victims of communist dictatorship could be reburied with dignity thirty years ago, and this is why the last Soviet soldier left Hungary in 1991; this is also why the possibility of citizenship extends to every Hungarian around the world today, and this is why the Day of National Cohesion was enacted.

Along the same lines, he listed, MSZP accuses the government parties of seeking to wipe Imre Nagy – who accepted martyrdom for the nation – out of history, while it was the legal predecessor of the socialists that had the prime minister executed, and then resorted for three decades to any means necessary for retaliating against even the slightest expressions of sympathy regarding his person.

Mr Gulyás observed that also today there are a great many difficulties, but we are members of a proud and rising nation where everyone must have a chance to take a step forward, to find advancement. “Today Central Europe, and Hungary in it, is the home of freedom and the future of Europe; we could hardly have hoped for anything more than that three decades ago,” he added.

Mária Schmidt, Director General of the House of Terror Museum, who also serves as government commissioner for the Memorial Year, said – describing the year 1989 as a year of miracles – that the reburial of the martyrs of 1956 was attended by more than 300,000 people. There, they had the opportunity to acquaint themselves with “a young politician who manifested courage befitting that of the Pest lads and girls of 1956,” the Director General said, referring to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s memorable speech of the time.

The communist regime promised a perfect world; however, the world of freedom can never be perfect. Indeed, it does not have to be perfect because there has never been a perfect world, but anyone can see that the struggles of the past thirty years have brought about beautiful and uplifting results, Mrs Schmidt said.

(MTI)