Torn from the Flag' is a documentary film about the international decline of communism and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The film encompasses the tense Cold War era (1945–1991) and presents the rivalry of the superpowers during that time. It shows the 1956 Hungarian Revolution as the first catalyst for the future decline of the communist system, and as a remarkable turning point for the advancement of democracy.
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TVTranscript
00:01:00We today, as yet, do not realize that it was the Third World War, and that was what we
00:01:07call the Cold War.
00:01:37And the decisive battle of the Cold War took place here in Hungary.
00:02:01At Yalta in the Soviet Crimea, the war leaders of three great states meet to write the epitaph
00:02:07of fascist aggression.
00:02:08Britain, the USSR, and the United States plan to consolidate the gains of this war.
00:02:14Out of victory, the larger responsibility appears, the planning of peace.
00:02:22Women were sold down the river in Yalta, and the Russians received Hungary.
00:02:38I'm sure Roosevelt thought that Soviets would withdraw from Eastern Europe the way we would
00:02:42withdraw from Western Europe.
00:02:44The Russians came, they had no food, nothing.
00:02:46They steal everything they find.
00:02:47And of course, they rape any woman from 14 up to 80 years old.
00:02:51Roosevelt just didn't understand the nature of the Stalinist system.
00:02:56The Russians when came into Hungary and had such a harsh communist regime, they bring
00:03:03into the Hungarian nation, the Hungarian people.
00:03:07The idea of communism itself is a very beautiful idea, people's equality, freedom, social ownership,
00:03:18justice.
00:03:19Everyone likes it.
00:03:20And when this idea was born, it looked like it would be a enlightening idea.
00:03:31The world was divided between those people that were progressive and those that were
00:03:52in favor of the status quo, and the progressive were the communists.
00:04:00I believed word by word in the definition, that you work according to your abilities
00:04:09and receive your rewards according to your requirements.
00:04:14There was a kind of utopian hope that, oh, a new society, a just society will be created.
00:04:21And I thought that everybody will be happy, of course.
00:04:27My father was a hard-hearted, honest man, and when the Russians came in, my father said,
00:04:35well, kids, this will be our time.
00:04:39Well, then we got five months of land.
00:04:56I was 19 years old, working in a factory, and we were thinking that we are building a new
00:05:20world.
00:05:22Communism is an atheist worldview.
00:05:26I was about 13 years old when I announced that I won't go to church anymore.
00:05:38I went to work in the summer.
00:05:41I went to the office, what do you want?
00:05:45I want to build.
00:05:48I was 14, and so they made me sit on a board and pull out maps.
00:06:00In France and Italy, in Belgium, communist parties became member of coalition governments.
00:06:06Millions joined the communist party.
00:06:08We were convinced that we are building this socialist dream.
00:06:18At 15, if anybody told me to go and build suicide bombers for the freedom of the world,
00:06:27I would not have hesitated for a second.
00:06:31Built into the ideology of communism and the system constructed on its foundation was excess,
00:06:49suspicion, struggle, death.
00:06:53Stalin was a particularly paranoid and really sick man, and so he made a bad situation even
00:07:05worse.
00:07:22Long live the Soviet-Hungarian friendship!
00:07:28Long live the Soviet-Hungarian friendship!
00:07:35Rákóczi was the mayor at the time.
00:07:39Hungarian leader Rákóczi had been a more Stalinist than Stalin.
00:07:45Dear comrades, workers of Budapest!
00:07:53It was a small party that we worshipped.
00:08:01Everybody had to cheer him.
00:08:02If somebody didn't cheer him, you know, they put him in jail.
00:08:07Rákóczi was a firm ally of Stalin and had been set up as the supreme leader in Hungary by Stalin.
00:08:19The first step was to liquidate the ruling class.
00:08:26I sent a small business letter to my father-in-law and mother-in-law.
00:08:31They banned me from the university.
00:08:34I had to leave the apartment.
00:08:37I didn't get a job.
00:08:38They asked my father if he would give up his small business to a collective, and he refused.
00:08:45It was terrible for everybody.
00:08:47They take everything away from people, whether a big factory or a small shop, mom or papa
00:08:53stores, doesn't matter.
00:08:54They take away everything.
00:08:55So there was no private enterprise whatsoever.
00:08:57They gave him a piece of paper and the document said that you are considered to be the enemy of the state.
00:09:09After that, they took away what they gave away.
00:09:14I had to go to the police.
00:09:16They wanted to take me to the so-called liberated country with the new police,
00:09:24because they didn't want to cut off a pig, but two.
00:09:28I was so hungry that I put a fork and a spoon in my pocket and went to a stand-up buffet.
00:09:35I waited for someone to leave and leave something on the plate.
00:09:40I ate the leftovers with a fork and a spoon.
00:09:56That's when they created the state defense force.
00:10:00They started to torture the opponents.
00:10:03They caught them as thieves, conspirators, saboteurs.
00:10:07I went to the police and I was called to the state defense force in 1950.
00:10:14I thought that if I leave, I could help my family.
00:10:18There was a three-month training.
00:10:21The state defense force was everywhere.
00:10:25In schools, the detention centers were built.
00:10:28If someone didn't speak or do something, the state defense force would take him away.
00:10:33Everyone had to be afraid.
00:10:35They didn't dare to tell people a political joke,
00:10:38because at night these prisoners were taken away, ready to go.
00:10:43We had the right to detain anyone we were ordered to.
00:10:48It wasn't our right, it was our obligation.
00:11:04My young sister, five, also was deported with us.
00:11:25The labor camps were basically, of course, political institutions.
00:11:30So again, the fear and the fear and the fear.
00:11:38I learned how to survive in the Gulag.
00:11:42Torture was very common.
00:11:45People were tied to a rope, tied to a rope,
00:11:49splashed with cold water.
00:11:52I was terrified.
00:11:54Where am I? Where is the good weather?
00:12:14He passed out.
00:12:16And the pain was just cruciating.
00:12:18If without any trial, you can arrest anybody
00:12:21that has a kind of message for the whole population.
00:12:24My father was never the same after that.
00:12:44The communist party symbol, the MDP symbol, is on my coat.
00:12:52He looks at me and says,
00:12:54my dear son, your party will probably change the world.
00:13:01But here, in this village, they hate you.
00:13:05If you want to go out, take off that symbol.
00:13:09Otherwise, I won't go to church with you.
00:13:14The United States Army presents the big picture.
00:13:19And the conflict itself.
00:13:21How can it be defined?
00:13:38Let's look at it this way.
00:13:40The communist bloc would like to see the entire world
00:13:43under communist domination.
00:13:45We are in great peril because Stalin has said
00:13:48that there may have to be another international war.
00:14:04Does there anyone here think that America ever quits?
00:14:08Eisenhower would come out and say things
00:14:10that frankly scare the hell out of the American people,
00:14:13like a nuclear missile is like a bullet.
00:14:15It's built to be used.
00:14:17Does anyone here think that America will ever surrender
00:14:20to that kind of a threat at all?
00:14:24And Stalin knows just that.
00:14:29We lived with the consciousness
00:14:32that decisions we made
00:14:35might cause tens of millions of casualties.
00:14:46In the United States, the so-called and very well-known
00:14:49policy of liberation of the communist states
00:14:52was the main government propaganda.
00:15:05One of the basic objectives of Radio Free Europe
00:15:08was to make sure that the communists
00:15:11would not be able to do anything against the regime.
00:15:14Radio Free Europe is about radio,
00:15:16it's a spiritual weapon.
00:15:18They need to know about Hungary.
00:15:21Radio Free Europe, 70 million people
00:15:24living under communist rule
00:15:26rely on Radio Free Europe for the truth.
00:15:29Everyone listened to Radio Free Europe, but it was very disturbing.
00:15:32One of the basic objectives of Radio Free Europe
00:15:35was to demonstrate to the peoples of Eastern Europe
00:15:40that America was thinking of them
00:15:43and was supporting them morally and emotionally.
00:15:46We used this as a spiritual weapon
00:15:49so that people in the world would know
00:15:52what's going on in Hungary and if there's going to be anything.
00:15:55Once I was visiting my mother
00:15:58and a few friends invited me for coffee
00:16:01and we started listening to Radio Free Europe.
00:16:04Coincidentally, it was my news.
00:16:06Of course, they didn't know it was me.
00:16:09It is ideas that change the world for good or ill,
00:16:12peace and the dignity of the individual,
00:16:15freedom and the democratic way of life.
00:16:18Of course, now we know that this was really
00:16:21nothing more than rhetorics and propaganda.
00:16:24There was only three kinds of Hungarian people.
00:16:27The one has been in a jail, the one is in a jail,
00:16:30the one who's gonna be in jail.
00:16:54Long live, dear László! Long live, dear László!
00:17:15We went into the room and I saw that there was only blood on the wall.
00:17:18Dear God, it was all only blood.
00:17:22The phrase, the end justifies the means,
00:17:25is a famous phrase in which the communists believed
00:17:28and they were prepared to kill and to kill and to kill again.
00:17:33My father said to me, he says, you know,
00:17:36there is a God, we're gonna someday get out.
00:17:39When Stalin died in 53, we were out there at the Stalin statue
00:18:06and we were crying, really crying.
00:18:09Oh, oh my God, celebration, celebration.
00:18:13When anything we can get, we just celebrate it.
00:18:18The wise leader and teacher of the Communist Party
00:18:21and the Soviet people and the genius continuer of Lenin's work,
00:18:26Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.
00:18:48In Hungary, Imre Nagy was appointed as prime minister.
00:18:52He started to improve the situation, actually.
00:18:57He was someone genuinely committed to reform, liberalization and the like.
00:19:02He may still have been a communist, clearly,
00:19:05but he was no longer a Stalinist.
00:19:08And he closed the camps.
00:19:18For a brief while after Stalin's death,
00:19:21there was a real period of reform.
00:19:29The liberalization started under Nagy,
00:19:33but then was reversed again.
00:19:36Rakeshi was able to reestablish himself as the dominant figure.
00:19:43In Moscow, there comes a dramatic development
00:19:46that will shake the communist world to its very foundations.
00:19:49Nikita Khrushchev denounces Joseph Stalin.
00:19:57Khrushchev makes the secret speech,
00:19:59sort of abandoning Stalinism,
00:20:02condemning Stalin for crimes against the party.
00:20:04There was a kind of shocked, stony silence in the hall,
00:20:09gasps of breath as he recounted Stalin's crimes.
00:20:15They had not expected this at all.
00:20:26It was an absolutely sensational, shocking, epic-making turning point.
00:20:32A speech that when Eisenhower gets it from the CIA,
00:20:35has it published in the New York Times.
00:20:37Western, maybe American, machines also threw down
00:20:40materials that contained Khrushchev's speech.
00:20:44And I found out from one of these
00:20:47how Khrushchev spoke of Stalin.
00:20:51We felt raped.
00:20:54Raped, our soul raped.
00:20:58Because we gave our enthusiasm
00:21:04for people like Stalin.
00:21:07Khrushchev was a man who was famous for not thinking things through.
00:21:12He was an impulsive man, he was an explosive man, an emotional man.
00:21:17And I think when he gave that speech,
00:21:19he simply did not realize to what it might lead.
00:21:22One by one things turned out to be not so as we had believed.
00:21:27Stalin had had that authority for so long.
00:21:30He was infallible.
00:21:32So to suddenly say he was not only fallible,
00:21:35but criminal, was to shake the foundation.
00:21:53For seven years, Tito had been crying for Rajklászló and his Martyrs.
00:21:58Sász Béla said he was his comrade-in-arms.
00:22:01But today, the death of the Hungarian people
00:22:04and the image of the world is rising.
00:22:08I believed Rákosi, who said in the meetings
00:22:11that this was a false accusation, because he was a traitor.
00:22:16And then, suddenly they told us that was lies.
00:22:21I was a member of the Young Writers Association
00:22:24and I stopped writing because I don't know what to say.
00:22:28That funeral of Rák was the funeral of our illusions,
00:22:37the funeral of our ideas.
00:22:39So we are left with nothing.
00:22:41If all we believed in was a lie, what is there for us?
00:22:47So we need to change it.
00:22:49A despotic system is endangered when it starts to liberalize a bit.
00:22:54The French military attaché in Budapest at the time
00:22:59went through Paris, came to see me,
00:23:02and told me something very big is going to happen in Hungary.
00:23:07I heard on the radio that the Poles were being humiliated,
00:23:13and I said, oh, we should be humiliated too.
00:23:16People are no longer afraid.
00:23:18All of a sudden, the population was fed up with everything.
00:23:22We were animated, we were in groups discussing things,
00:23:26and we couldn't go to sleep.
00:23:28We had a strong dissatisfaction.
00:23:32We were well-off, we had no problems at all.
00:23:36Szeged University created its own youth organization, MEPHEST.
00:23:41We demand freedom of opinion, freedom of speech,
00:23:44and free press and radio.
00:23:46The youth at the universities relaxed.
00:23:52And they started the national organization.
00:23:55On the 23rd, I heard that a demonstration was starting.
00:24:17We demand that personal files be opened to the public and destroyed.
00:24:21I ran into one of my teachers.
00:24:23I said, gosh, what are you doing here?
00:24:25He said, well, I'm doing the same thing that you are.
00:24:27We demand that the whole Hungarian economy be destroyed.
00:24:31We demand the retrial of all political and economic cases
00:24:35in independent courts.
00:24:38When the demonstrators reached Ban Square,
00:24:41that's where I slipped out of the State Department
00:24:45and joined the crowd.
00:24:58Somebody got up and started reciting poems,
00:25:03you know, nationalistic poems.
00:25:05The square was full.
00:25:07It looked like tens of thousands of people jammed in there.
00:25:37We want Imre Nagy, we want him.
00:25:40Earlier, he called the crowd his comrades,
00:25:43and there were a lot of ruckus.
00:25:45But he calmed us down and said, let's go home.
00:25:53While the crowd was marching, they said,
00:25:55Hungarian flag, put it up!
00:25:57They put the flag up in the houses.
00:26:01The crowd was very friendly at that moment.
00:26:05And then they shouted out the name of Rákóczi.
00:26:22We say that Hungary is our best friend.
00:26:25We demand immediate withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Hungary.
00:26:30People shouted out, Russians, go home, Russians.
00:26:34They shouted, go home,
00:26:37and take Stalin's statue with you.
00:26:40We said, okay, well, let's go to the Stalin statue
00:26:43and let's get it down.
00:26:54So it's, yeah, yeah, let's go, let's go, let's go.
00:27:00A big wire was tied to Stalin's neck.
00:27:05And the crowd started, and there were 100,000 people there,
00:27:09and they were listening in silence.
00:27:13And the wire was tied to the statue,
00:27:16and bang, bang, bang, like a horse.
00:27:19And all the cables were snapping, one after the other,
00:27:22and we still couldn't budge it.
00:27:24And I said, we have to cut the statue,
00:27:26that's the only way we're going to get it down.
00:27:50It was spontaneous.
00:28:10I cried when Stalin died.
00:28:13But I was full of joy
00:28:16because I cried and pulled down the statue of Stalin
00:28:19a few years later.
00:28:21So in those three years, it's like centuries have passed.
00:28:34Oh, let's go to the radio.
00:28:36Let the whole nation hear our demands.
00:28:42We demand free elections
00:28:44and the participation of several parties.
00:28:46It was dark, and we were chanting,
00:28:49take our points, and it was body to body, we jammed together.
00:28:53The people tried to break into the radio,
00:28:55the radio door,
00:28:57and the police were upstairs on the second floor.
00:29:00When suddenly firing started.
00:29:05The secret police started to shoot into the crowd.
00:29:09We were asking so little of just reading those points,
00:29:13and that's how they treated us.
00:29:15A couple of people lifted up a body of the girl who died.
00:29:19She was supposed to read the points.
00:29:22The young army came.
00:29:24They sent the young soldiers to the radio,
00:29:27so they saw the people.
00:29:29And we were running to them and said, what are you doing?
00:29:31What do you think?
00:29:33You think you're going to shoot at us,
00:29:35you know, to your brothers and sisters?
00:29:37Of course, they didn't do that.
00:29:39Whatever arm they had, they gave it to the people.
00:29:41I remember that so clearly that we got angry.
00:29:45I got a gun from one of the soldier boys,
00:29:47I mean, five bullets,
00:29:49and I went up to the second floor opposite to the radio,
00:29:51and I was shooting, and they were shooting back.
00:29:54When they killed the guy next to me,
00:29:56suddenly it hit me.
00:29:58Hey, you can die here, you know?
00:30:12About 1 o'clock in the morning, I finally called home,
00:30:16and my mother was absolutely beside herself.
00:30:19My God, what are you doing?
00:30:21You're going to be killed, you're going to be...
00:30:23You know, you come home, you come home right away.
00:30:27Whatever it takes, however you can, come home.
00:30:42...bring the troops to Budapest.
00:30:44They want him, they say, the tanks,
00:30:47and, they say, they'll cool the hot heads of the youth.
00:30:53Ike for president, Ike for president,
00:30:55Ike for president, Ike for president,
00:30:57You like Ike, I like Ike,
00:30:59Everybody likes Ike for president.
00:31:01Hang out the banner, beat the drum,
00:31:03We'll take Ike to Washington.
00:31:05The biggest thing preoccupying Eisenhower,
00:31:07of course, is the reelection campaign.
00:31:09Eisenhower, even though he's clearly going to defeat Stevenson,
00:31:13is operating as if he's running behind
00:31:15and going out on tour and making his speeches.
00:31:18We all depend on Ike.
00:31:20He can stand up to Khrushchev and those fellas.
00:31:23The key decisions about Hungary were made
00:31:25in the Kremlin, in Khrushchev's office.
00:31:28He was divided in his own mind,
00:31:30and that's the essence of Khrushchev.
00:31:35Attention, attention.
00:31:37This is Radio Budapest.
00:31:41Last night, fascist counter-revolutionary forces
00:31:44attacked our public buildings.
00:31:46To restore order, the authorities declared a curfew
00:31:50and a ban on all public assembly.
00:31:52The Russian troops were coming into the city.
00:31:56I said to myself, I'm going to get even.
00:31:59Oh boy, I'm going to get even.
00:32:01We decided that we're going to stop them.
00:32:04The Council of Ministers had declared martial law.
00:32:07Any violent act, incitement, or illegal possession of weapons
00:32:12is punishable by summary execution.
00:32:15We greet the Soviet soldiers rushing to help.
00:32:18It was cold, and they were all surrounded.
00:32:21I remember a young soldier, I think he was a freshman,
00:32:25said, Comrade Captain, are they really going to shoot at us?
00:32:29I said, Maybe.
00:32:32Well, then who are they? They're our friends.
00:32:40And imagine, the tanks were coming,
00:32:42and it was as if they were coming at us.
00:32:46When the Soviet tanks arrived in Budapest,
00:32:51practically no one reacted.
00:32:54We listened, we listened to the radio
00:32:57that played Beethoven symphonies and various music.
00:33:27We were on the side of the road,
00:33:29and they were just shooting and shooting and shooting.
00:33:33We were running for our lives.
00:33:35A pregnant woman exploded yards from me.
00:33:38I had pieces of human tissue on me.
00:33:42And one of my buddies, his little brother,
00:33:45bullets hit this kid in the head,
00:33:48and his brain was all over where we were.
00:33:58Until then, I didn't react to anything.
00:34:03Only when we heard that more than 300 people
00:34:08were shot in the line of fire in front of the Parliament,
00:34:12and the rescuers who went to save them,
00:34:16were shot even more.
00:34:1961 people were shot in the crowd.
00:34:22Hundreds were killed.
00:34:49In Hungary, there is Soviet Union.
00:34:51That would have been enough for a rational argument.
00:34:54Okay, let's go home, guys.
00:34:56This is not what happened, because a revolution is never rational.
00:34:59What should we do, Comrade President?
00:35:02And I said, kids, you can only do one thing.
00:35:05You have to listen to your spiritual knowledge.
00:35:08I'm not going back to the situation,
00:35:11but I'm going to Budapest.
00:35:15The freedom, after seven years of terror,
00:35:19you know, that freedom, it felt so good.
00:35:24Suddenly, the fear leaves you.
00:35:28I went into the police station myself,
00:35:30and the police gave us the guns.
00:35:32We had to demand it.
00:35:33They didn't argue about it.
00:35:34They just gave us the guns.
00:35:35People of Budapest,
00:35:37those who put down their weapons by 2 p.m.
00:35:40will escape summary execution.
00:35:43Hungarians, stand behind your government.
00:35:46The older, already exhausted soldiers
00:35:50explained to us how to deal with Kalashnikovs.
00:35:53Newspaper people came around
00:35:55and asked me, you know, what are you fighting for?
00:35:57I was 15 years old then.
00:35:59There was a wildness inside of me,
00:36:01and we were such wild guys.
00:36:03I want to live in a free country as a free man.
00:36:06That was it.
00:36:18I helped them with two 76mm machine guns,
00:36:22and then, when the Soviets succeeded
00:36:25in taking away the 122mm machine guns.
00:36:35The tanks are coming.
00:36:39Oh my God, what's going to happen here?
00:36:41So, we had to defend ourselves.
00:36:43The government extended the deadline.
00:36:45All those who turn in their weapons by 6 p.m.
00:36:50will be exempt from summary execution.
00:36:54This is radio-free Europe.
00:36:56Tanks can be destroyed very easily
00:36:58with the Molotov cocktail.
00:37:00Throw the bottle on the ventilation slit
00:37:02over the engine.
00:37:03The enormous sucking effect
00:37:05of the powerful engine does the rest.
00:37:07With 122mm bullets,
00:37:09it was as heavy as an iron,
00:37:11the front was like that,
00:37:13a terrifyingly robust monster.
00:37:15The Molotov cocktail was quite effective.
00:37:18Fill it up with kerosene,
00:37:20get a piece of rag.
00:37:26Light it up and throw it at the tank.
00:37:30I was up on the second floor in the building
00:37:32with my gun.
00:37:33You have 15 more minutes
00:37:35to turn in your weapons
00:37:37and avoid summary execution.
00:37:40The Russians sitting on top of the truck
00:37:42and their gun coming in.
00:37:43And, of course, they opened fire
00:37:45and we opened fire.
00:37:49The kerosene bottle was flying.
00:37:51I blew up the tank.
00:37:54The turret was spinning,
00:37:55the machine gun.
00:37:57I put simple plates down
00:37:59on the passenger side
00:38:01to scare the tanks
00:38:03that they were going to explode.
00:38:06And we had to stop the tanks.
00:38:10And when they stopped,
00:38:11they were filled with kerosene bottles
00:38:13from the roof of the house.
00:38:15The Russians got out
00:38:17and started running.
00:38:18They were dead ducks.
00:38:31I jumped in the window,
00:38:32I emptied my gun,
00:38:33I jumped back.
00:38:48Nobody survived.
00:38:50Nobody.
00:39:18We grabbed the railing.
00:39:20Five people on one side,
00:39:21five people on the other side.
00:39:23And all the wall-breakers
00:39:24rushed out of the door,
00:39:26of the railing.
00:39:28And we ran.
00:39:29We gathered with the people
00:39:31and suddenly we stopped.
00:39:33Nobody knew why.
00:39:35And someone started singing the anthem.
00:39:42It was the most beautiful moment of my life.
00:39:45It was the most beautiful moment of my life.
00:39:55October 24th, my daughter was born.
00:39:57So my wife was home
00:39:58and had my child a day after the revolution.
00:40:11The country has never been so united.
00:40:14There were no Jews, Christians, Gypsies, non-Gypsies.
00:40:17It was amazing.
00:40:18The people from the country,
00:40:20they bring in food,
00:40:21they bring in pigs and dogs and fruits.
00:40:24And even from Austria, the Red Cross,
00:40:27they send us food,
00:40:28they send us medication.
00:40:29The whole Communist Party
00:40:31gathered like a party.
00:40:33The Kossuth Radio reports.
00:40:34During the night,
00:40:35the Central Committee of the Communist Party
00:40:37was convened,
00:40:38which decided
00:40:39to nominate Prime Minister Imre Nagy
00:40:41for the presidency.
00:40:43Imre Nagy was the Prime Minister
00:40:45from the 24th of October,
00:40:48while Kádár became the Party Secretary.
00:40:51In a Communist state,
00:40:53the Party Secretary and the Prime Minister
00:40:56became equally important persons.
00:40:59Hungarians, comrades, friends.
00:41:01These are momentous times.
00:41:03Workers protect the factories,
00:41:05stand behind the Party.
00:41:07Revolution in Hungary.
00:41:10The huge rotating machines are rumbling,
00:41:12and on the front page of millions of news
00:41:14and special publications,
00:41:16one word, Hungary.
00:41:19Hungary.
00:41:20Hungary.
00:41:21Hungary.
00:41:22Hungary.
00:41:23Hungary.
00:41:24The streets of Rome are thronged
00:41:26with demonstrators cheering Hungary's fight
00:41:28against Red domination.
00:41:29Students began the demonstration
00:41:31in the early morning,
00:41:32500 of them.
00:41:33By midday, over 10,000
00:41:35had joined the anti-communist protest.
00:41:37Our protest is increasing
00:41:40day by day,
00:41:42because we said
00:41:44a small nation
00:41:46against a great power of the world,
00:41:49which is the Soviet Union,
00:41:51must be helped.
00:41:56Clearing swiftly from student demonstrations
00:41:58into open revolution,
00:42:00the pent-up hatreds of oppression
00:42:01sent Russian might reeling.
00:42:03From the flags, the Red Star has been ripped.
00:42:05The Red regime offers virtual self-rule.
00:42:21Soviet leadership
00:42:23made a quite liberal decision
00:42:26that the Russian troops
00:42:28can be withdrawn from Hungary.
00:42:36Communism is over.
00:42:38Our misery is over.
00:43:05In every village, in every city,
00:43:07revolutionary committees were formed.
00:43:09At the Hungarian Defense Ministry,
00:43:11revolutionary military advisors were formed.
00:43:13We were running around
00:43:15and hugging and kissing each other
00:43:17on the street.
00:43:19The shops were opened,
00:43:21the ruins were cleaned,
00:43:23so it looked like it was going to be peaceful here.
00:43:25Attention, attention!
00:43:27The government announces
00:43:29that the Hungarian Revolution
00:43:31is over.
00:43:33The government announces
00:43:35that the revolution was caused
00:43:37by grave mistakes in the past.
00:43:39After order is established,
00:43:41we shall dissolve the AVO.
00:43:43No one who took part in the fighting
00:43:45needs fear reprisals.
00:43:47The Hungarian government
00:43:49acknowledged that it had won the revolution
00:43:51and said that there was no need
00:43:53for further wars.
00:43:55They should drop the weapons
00:43:57and there will be peace and disarmament
00:43:59because the government
00:44:01and next week, Monday,
00:44:03people will go back to work
00:44:05and now we shall start
00:44:07to live in freedom.
00:44:13Yes, we did win.
00:44:15We did win.
00:44:41The Suez Canal, lifeline of Europe.
00:44:43In a dramatic sequence of events
00:44:45became a cause of war.
00:44:47When President Abdel Nasser
00:44:49announced its seizure by Egypt,
00:44:51Israeli troops struck down the Sinai Peninsula.
00:44:53Britain and France have attacked.
00:44:59At the United Nations,
00:45:01the invasion was branded aggression
00:45:03and a ceasefire ordered.
00:45:05The Suez Crisis
00:45:07was wonderfully dealt with at the UN.
00:45:09Really, a major international war
00:45:11was avoided there.
00:45:13Meanwhile, of course, all the attention
00:45:15was taken from the Hungarians.
00:45:17When the Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest
00:45:19and when it seemed
00:45:21that it's really going to be
00:45:23a kind of armed revolt,
00:45:25that time, of course,
00:45:27all the news immediately arrived to the UN
00:45:29but the Hungarian delegate did not have instructions.
00:45:31They didn't know what's going on.
00:45:33They always thought
00:45:35that the hard line was the safest one.
00:45:37There is, of course, the duty of a diplomat
00:45:39to forward the message of the government
00:45:41and the message of the government was
00:45:43that this is an internal affair
00:45:45of the Hungarian Republic,
00:45:47kind of funny wording
00:45:49for an invasion coming to Hungary,
00:45:51and the UN
00:45:53should not get involved.
00:45:55They not represented the best interest of Hungary.
00:45:57The Hungarian government was almost paralyzed.
00:45:59The immediate importance
00:46:01was to carry out
00:46:03a message of reform
00:46:05and
00:46:07they're changing the way
00:46:09the government was run.
00:46:33It seemed to be that the Soviets
00:46:35were trying to tolerate
00:46:37even very radical changes
00:46:39but not all of them
00:46:41because there was a big limit
00:46:43on the preservation of the communist system
00:46:45and the preservation of the unity
00:46:47of the Soviet bloc.
00:46:55Imre Nagy
00:46:57had already dissolved the IVH,
00:46:59the communist police,
00:47:01but they didn't.
00:47:03On the 28th,
00:47:07three secret police agents
00:47:09come from the top floor
00:47:11and one of the
00:47:13IVH agents came in
00:47:15with a pistol in his hand,
00:47:17he put it under my chin
00:47:19and he said that
00:47:23you better mend your way
00:47:25or change your way because, you know,
00:47:27you will be pretty soon dead.
00:47:29We find that the AWO,
00:47:31they grabbed some of the young
00:47:33freedom fighters off the street.
00:48:01We had a good view into the second floor
00:48:03and they moved with a shooting at it.
00:48:31I had a friend on the phone
00:48:33who had a few words to say
00:48:35and he promised to send
00:48:37the rescuers.
00:48:39And they sent five tanks
00:48:41out of Mátyás' barracks
00:48:43to free the parliament.
00:48:45Maybe a good half an hour,
00:48:47an hour later
00:48:49three tanks appeared
00:48:53and they didn't know
00:48:55what was going on.
00:48:57They surrounded them,
00:48:59and they were so agitated
00:49:01that these tanks started shooting
00:49:03the parliament building.
00:49:05They shot the building
00:49:07with their guns.
00:49:11After a few gunshots
00:49:13the prisoners saw that
00:49:15sooner or later they would be shot,
00:49:17they didn't have anything to give them
00:49:19and they put down their guns.
00:49:21We fled to the basement.
00:49:23And when they came out on the 30th
00:49:25with a held up hand
00:49:27they started shooting with machine guns.
00:49:31They entered the basement,
00:49:33took the prisoners out,
00:49:35put them against a wall
00:49:37with machine guns
00:49:45and the prison was freed.
00:49:57When they kill your mother,
00:49:59they kill your father,
00:50:01they kill your brother,
00:50:03you are so upset
00:50:05that you don't care.
00:50:27One of the prisoners had a grenade in his hand.
00:50:29He took it out,
00:50:31and he shot.
00:50:33Unfortunately,
00:50:35on the other side
00:50:37there were more prisoners,
00:50:39with their heads or legs in their hands.
00:50:41And on the side where the house was,
00:50:43more of them were lying on the ground.
00:50:45He pulled me there.
00:50:47I was watching
00:50:49that I don't step on any of them.
00:50:51And to my great surprise
00:50:53he just pulled me forward
00:50:55and told me to show up.
00:50:57And that's how I survived.
00:51:11Communists are killed
00:51:13at the Hungarian party headquarters in Budapest.
00:51:15Now this was very bad news.
00:51:17The Russians saw
00:51:19on the 30th of October
00:51:21that the government of Imre Nagy
00:51:23was going to stop
00:51:25the further movement of the revolution.
00:51:45In Peking,
00:51:47the table was already set
00:51:49that this could not go on.
00:51:53The Czechs and the Romanians
00:51:55were ready to move the army
00:51:57so that they could come too.
00:52:23What should we do?
00:52:29What should we do?
00:52:53What should we do?
00:53:19What should we do?
00:53:23What should we do?
00:53:29By that point,
00:53:31Soviet leaders had
00:53:33a fairly high degree of confidence
00:53:35that the West was not going to risk
00:53:37nuclear war on behalf of Eastern Europe.
00:53:45We could not, of course,
00:53:47carry out this policy
00:53:49by resort to force.
00:53:53The United States
00:53:55did not want to intervene
00:53:57in the internal affairs of Hungary.
00:54:15There is no other solution
00:54:17for the Soviet Union
00:54:19than direct intervention.
00:54:23Imre Nagy had all the reports
00:54:25that instead of withdrawing
00:54:27and pulling out the Soviets
00:54:29are pouring into the country.
00:54:31They took all the strategic positions.
00:54:33So it was a clear situation
00:54:35that a major attack is arriving.
00:54:37Imre Nagy met five times
00:54:39with Ambassador Andropov
00:54:41asking him about what's happening here.
00:54:43And Andropov looked into his eyes
00:54:45and lied to him that
00:54:47it's nothing but just the police forces
00:54:49or there were some wounded Soviet soldiers
00:54:51We were frantically trying
00:54:53to get through the telephone
00:54:55to the American State Department,
00:54:57to the White House.
00:54:59It was impossible.
00:55:01Eisenhower obviously was busy
00:55:03with the re-election.
00:55:05Suez was going on the same time.
00:55:07The State Department without a leader.
00:55:09You know, Dulles was in the hospital.
00:55:11So we were daily
00:55:13tried about 20, 30 times.
00:55:15The CIA is pressing Eisenhower
00:55:17to drop arms, drop supplies
00:55:19into Hungary.
00:55:21Something that Eisenhower is going to refuse to do
00:55:23because he does not think
00:55:25an armed uprising is going to succeed
00:55:27if the Soviets do bring in the troops.
00:55:33And that was the time when Imre Nagy realized
00:55:35there is no other hope than the U.N.
00:55:39Imre Nagy had to consult
00:55:41with the allies
00:55:43because that's what the contract says.
00:55:45Imre Nagy announced
00:55:47that Hungary will be excluded
00:55:49from the Warsaw Pact.
00:55:51In startling developments, Hungary broke with
00:55:53the satellite Warsaw Pact military alliance,
00:55:55announced neutrality
00:55:57and pleaded for priority on the United Nations agenda.
00:55:59I know that
00:56:01the declaration of neutrality
00:56:03in the Warsaw Pact
00:56:05was the first real conflict
00:56:07between us.
00:56:09János Kádár wanted to believe
00:56:11that this revolution can be stopped
00:56:13at a certain level.
00:56:15János Kádár was a man
00:56:17whom Khrushchev and the others
00:56:19thought was just what they needed.
00:56:21He was a man who they thought
00:56:23had some credibility in Hungary.
00:56:25He went there
00:56:27to negotiate
00:56:29as the first,
00:56:31number one person
00:56:33of the party,
00:56:35the party first secretary.
00:56:37During the first meeting
00:56:39with the Soviet leadership,
00:56:41he said that there is still
00:56:43a chance for a political solution.
00:56:53The Soviet would intervene
00:56:55anyhow, and the question is
00:56:57whether it is him who will take this job
00:56:59or anyone else.
00:57:01In the midst of my struggle,
00:57:03I was summoned again to the Presidium.
00:57:05Comrade Khrushchev told me that
00:57:07Hungary had no effective government.
00:57:09The leadership changed daily.
00:57:11It was time to find a solution.
00:57:13Kádár tried to rationalize
00:57:15to himself
00:57:17that he was going to spare lives
00:57:19in the end
00:57:21by going along this way
00:57:23because the Soviet Union
00:57:25would bring in someone much nastier
00:57:27to head the regime
00:57:29and would crack down much more brutally.
00:57:31Kádár was trying to save
00:57:33the communist system.
00:57:35For him, the only option was
00:57:37as a communist to go with the Russians
00:57:39and crush the revolution.
00:57:45To his excellency,
00:57:47Secretary General Hammarskjöld
00:57:49of the United Nations,
00:57:51additional large Soviet military units
00:57:53crossed the border of the country
00:57:55marching toward Budapest.
00:57:57Nagy was broken even by the 3rd of November
00:57:59when he realized that
00:58:01his best hopes had been betrayed
00:58:03and that the Soviet Union
00:58:05was coming into Hungary
00:58:07to crush the revolution with full force.
00:58:31I request your excellency
00:58:33to call upon the great powers
00:58:35to instruct the Soviet
00:58:37and Hungarian governments
00:58:39to start the negotiations immediately.
00:58:43Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy.
00:58:57And in the dark dawn
00:58:59we woke up at the sound of the cannons.
00:59:05It's like raindrops.
00:59:07The artillery
00:59:09and the Katyusha rockets
00:59:11are coming in.
00:59:36Hungarians, brothers,
00:59:38countrymen, soldiers,
00:59:40this is the time to act.
00:59:42We will protect the power
00:59:44of the workers and peasants.
01:00:06And in that moment,
01:00:08everything was clear.
01:00:10Budapest is under attack.
01:00:12We should defend it.
01:00:14Our troops are engaged in battle.
01:00:16The government is in its place.
01:00:18We ran down the stairs
01:00:20and after a few steps
01:00:22we met an officer
01:00:24and asked, where shall we go?
01:00:36The hope was that
01:00:38if we beat them the first time,
01:00:40we might beat them again.
01:00:50I was ready to fight
01:00:52and die together with those
01:00:54unknown people around me.
01:00:56This is Radio Free Europe.
01:00:58We're listening to Radio Free Europe.
01:01:01Every hour gained by resistance
01:01:03is worthy sacrifice.
01:01:05The watchword of freedom fighters
01:01:07today is freedom or death.
01:01:09The tanks came in without us
01:01:11able to attack it.
01:01:13They were just turning the turrets
01:01:15and shooting any place
01:01:17and firing every place.
01:01:19It was terrible.
01:01:21I mean, you know, from one gun
01:01:23they blasted the whole building.
01:01:25They shoot anybody.
01:01:27The new armored units came.
01:01:29I dropped a 20-25 tank.
01:01:31We had modern weapons.
01:01:33We even had hunting rifles.
01:01:37So we were better.
01:01:39We were angry.
01:01:41We fought what we can fight with.
01:01:54We didn't believe we lost it.
01:01:56We were hoping that maybe
01:01:58NATO will come in and help us.
01:02:00This is Radio Free Europe.
01:02:02Western press states that
01:02:04if the Hungarians can hold out
01:02:06for three or four days,
01:02:08then the pressure upon the United States
01:02:10to send military help to the freedom fighters
01:02:12will become irresistible.
01:02:14Oh, just hold on for a few more days.
01:02:16Hold on for a few more days.
01:02:23Help coming. Help coming.
01:02:30The attitude of Radio Free Europe
01:02:32was unavoidable.
01:02:34It almost encouraged the guys
01:02:36to fight, to hold out,
01:02:38to listen.
01:02:41Of course, they never came.
01:02:43That was just the propaganda.
01:02:47A lot of people got killed.
01:02:49A lot of my friends got killed.
01:02:51When I heard Imre Nagy is going to seek
01:02:53asylum in the Yugoslavian embassy,
01:02:55I knew in my heart
01:02:57and all of my comrades
01:02:59in my heart, it's over.
01:03:01There was a lot of silence
01:03:03and suddenly
01:03:05one of the officers came in and said
01:03:07that's a hopeless thing
01:03:09and that we are
01:03:11hopelessly outnumbered
01:03:13and I think
01:03:15you should go home.
01:03:17We looked suspiciously at him
01:03:19and I saw that he loved us
01:03:21even more for being suspicious.
01:03:23Go home.
01:03:25Save yourself for the future.
01:03:27Don't let them
01:03:29eradicate a whole generation.
01:03:31The last broadcast
01:03:33of the Budapest radio
01:03:35was this
01:03:37goodbye,
01:03:39calling Europe
01:03:41and then the Hungarian anthem.
01:03:43This is Hungary calling.
01:03:45The last
01:03:47remaining station
01:03:49for to the United Nations.
01:03:51Early this morning
01:03:53the Soviet troops
01:03:55launched a general attack
01:03:57on Hungary.
01:03:59We are requesting you
01:04:01to send us
01:04:03immediate aid
01:04:05in the form of parachute troops
01:04:11for the sake of God
01:04:13and freedom and of Hungary.
01:04:19The world, silence.
01:04:21The United States, silence.
01:04:23The NATO, silence.
01:04:25No one
01:04:27has intervened
01:04:29in favour
01:04:31of the Hungarian people.
01:04:45Soldiers and officers,
01:04:47arm the opposing
01:04:49gangs.
01:04:51We are the truth.
01:04:53We will win.
01:04:55We had to surrender.
01:04:57We thought we would become
01:04:59prisoners of war,
01:05:01but there are no prisoners of war
01:05:03on the streets.
01:05:05They put us in front of
01:05:07the Rákóczi Museum.
01:05:09There was a Russian soldier,
01:05:11Bayus, I still remember him.
01:05:13He had a nice face,
01:05:15and he was holding a briquette.
01:05:17We were so young,
01:05:19and he shot me in the head.
01:05:21My friend next to me,
01:05:23his name was Robika,
01:05:25was blown up.
01:05:27He died.
01:05:29About 30 of us were shot.
01:05:39I couldn't sleep.
01:05:41I must have had a nervous breakdown,
01:05:43but when I opened my mouth,
01:05:45it was always crying.
01:05:47It was a common cry
01:05:49next to my body.
01:05:51My soul was
01:05:53lying next to my body,
01:05:55comfortably.
01:05:57It was a cold November rain,
01:05:59I felt it warm,
01:06:01I felt it good.
01:06:05We were there,
01:06:07about 30-40 of us.
01:06:11When they threw the briquette at me,
01:06:13I shuddered.
01:06:15Then one of the mourners said,
01:06:17you are the boy.
01:06:27About 3,000 soldiers,
01:06:293,000 soldiers died
01:06:31in the revolution.
01:06:3522,000 were wounded,
01:06:37and they were taken
01:06:39to public detention.
01:06:45I will continue to work
01:06:47for 168 million Americans
01:06:49here at home
01:06:51and for peace
01:06:53in the world.
01:07:15For Eisenhower,
01:07:17the uprising in Hungary
01:07:19gave him a chance
01:07:21to demonstrate conclusively,
01:07:23as far as he was concerned,
01:07:25that the Soviets
01:07:27were oppressors.
01:07:29We had the idea
01:07:31that the West
01:07:33was with us,
01:07:35that the Soviet Union
01:07:37was with us,
01:07:39that the Soviet Union
01:07:41was with us,
01:07:43that...
01:07:51they would not leave us.
01:07:53Eisenhower clearly saw
01:07:55this as a propaganda issue.
01:08:03When Eisenhower went back
01:08:05to the Security Council
01:08:07to condemn Soviet action
01:08:09and the Soviets vetoed it,
01:08:11there was no way to get
01:08:13after the Soviets over Hungary.
01:08:15And now we realize
01:08:17that the U.N. did not want
01:08:19to do even the slightest help.
01:08:25There were shootings
01:08:27in the streets of Budapest
01:08:29even weeks afterwards.
01:08:41...
01:08:43...
01:08:45...
01:08:47...
01:08:49...
01:08:51...
01:08:53...
01:08:55...
01:08:57...
01:08:59...
01:09:01...
01:09:03...
01:09:05As I'm listening to the radio,
01:09:07we could hear it was over
01:09:09and the Russians are overpowering us.
01:09:11And so all of us decided
01:09:13to escape.
01:09:15My mother kept saying that
01:09:17they're already looking for you
01:09:19and so we knew that we had to go,
01:09:21we had to leave.
01:09:23...
01:09:25...
01:09:27...
01:09:29...
01:09:31...
01:09:33...
01:09:35...
01:09:37...
01:09:39...
01:09:41I left
01:09:43with a six weeks old baby
01:09:45and my wife and I knew
01:09:47I had to leave the country,
01:09:49at least try to leave the country.
01:09:51...
01:09:53...
01:09:55...
01:09:57...
01:09:59...
01:10:01...
01:10:03I walked
01:10:05three days and three nights
01:10:07through the fields, not even on the roads
01:10:09because I didn't want to be caught.
01:10:11I wasn't going to give them my life.
01:10:13...
01:10:15...
01:10:17...
01:10:19...
01:10:21...
01:10:23...
01:10:25Many refugees hid through the freezing night
01:10:27in these border marshes
01:10:29while Russian troops tracked them with grim intent.
01:10:31Austrian guards shout encouragement
01:10:33as they near the line.
01:10:35...
01:10:37...
01:10:39At the amazing exodus
01:10:41swamped rescue agencies
01:10:43and immigration departments.
01:10:45While nearly every nation in the West has offered haven
01:10:47uncounted thousands are waiting
01:10:49in Austrian refugee camps
01:10:51overwhelming all processing personnel
01:10:53by the sheer weight of numbers.
01:10:55In the first five weeks alone
01:10:57over 100,000
01:10:59Hungarian refugees streamed
01:11:01into Austria.
01:11:03They are still coming today
01:11:05as the figure now approaches
01:11:07200,000.
01:11:09...
01:11:11...
01:11:13...
01:11:15...
01:11:17...
01:11:19...
01:11:21...
01:11:23...
01:11:25...
01:11:27...
01:11:29...
01:11:31The Hungarian revolution had a huge international effect.
01:11:33The changes that took place
01:11:35in all the communist parties of the West
01:11:37were as a result of the Hungarian revolution.
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01:12:19Retaliation was terribly harsh.
01:12:21People were executed.
01:12:23Thousands were imprisoned.
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01:13:51It hit me, and it broke into my body.
01:13:56The revolutionaries suffered a terrible defeat on the 1st of May, 1957.
01:14:04One million people were there, and the Kádár regime was alive.
01:14:10I am a self-sustaining Budapest worker.
01:14:14The slogans came from the loudspeakers.
01:14:18The music came from the loudspeakers.
01:14:21People didn't sing and didn't shout anymore, as they did before, in 1956.
01:14:27On this day, under the overwhelming victory of the October counter-revolutionary attack,
01:14:37the Hungarian working people celebrate the 1st of May, the Proletarian National Commemoration.
01:14:45In 1957, there were still posters that high treason, if you sold your country, it never becomes obsolete.
01:14:56Even in 30 years' time, you will be hanged, Kádár.
01:15:01And so they disappeared.
01:15:05Kádár's opinion was that if Imre Nagy didn't say no,
01:15:09if he didn't declare that he was not the minister, then he had two ministers, and a country like this couldn't exist.
01:15:32If Kádár wanted, Imre Nagy wouldn't execute him, but he didn't want to.
01:15:37So he let him go, he went mad with him, Lukáns.
01:16:07Be safe, be quiet, and I will provide you with a kind of livable communist system.
01:16:14I have to say that compared to the others, Hungary has risen far.
01:16:24The standard of living was pushed upwards, because you don't make a revolution on a full stomach.
01:16:32It was said that in this huge communist camp, we had the most fun.
01:16:53I, myself, accepted the official interpretation of 1956.
01:17:02It made the country more livable.
01:17:04In the other sense, it was extremely corrupting morally.
01:17:07Illusions were drawn, hopes that one day socialism could be transformed into a human face.
01:17:14I somehow felt that I didn't even know where I was.
01:17:19There was a schizophrenia, or even not only in the high party members, but sometimes Kádár himself,
01:17:27there was a very typical gesture with his eyes like that,
01:17:31sort of explaining that now I can't express myself wholly, but you know what the truth is behind.
01:17:38And also this is how Kádár's popularity was somehow established,
01:17:43that there are these big brothers behind my back, but we have to deal with each other and we have to survive.
01:17:50In the 70s, 80s, he was a respected and even for many, beloved leader.
01:18:12My first trip to Hungary, I went there with my family.
01:18:17Kádár was still in power, he was 67.
01:18:20You know, they gave us the so-called amnesty.
01:18:23They called me and said,
01:18:26you have 17 years to sit down, but we'll let you have those two years.
01:18:34I looked into the mirror, and for a complete spiritual collapse.
01:18:43Because the face of a 26-year-old boy lived in my soul,
01:18:52and a 40-year-old man looked back at me.
01:18:57He was fantastically broken,
01:19:02and I came out of prison with a complete anger.
01:19:13There is no reason, why I live.
01:19:20I punish those people who have harmed me,
01:19:25and then I kill myself.
01:19:30And for a month I went, I searched, I found these people, these Germans.
01:19:39And a month later, my father introduced me to a woman, a transfigured woman.
01:19:47And there was a little girl,
01:19:50who played in the other room, but the doors were open.
01:19:56And I hear her telling her mother,
01:20:01this will be my uncle, my father.
01:20:05And believe me, at that moment,
01:20:09like a wind, she cut me inside, and I disappeared into the abyss.
01:20:28The spirit of 56 continued to live.
01:20:31And from the second half of the 70s on,
01:20:34a stronger and stronger dissident movement started to be established,
01:20:37and that was extremely important morally.
01:20:40They were Hungarian patriots.
01:20:42The best of them was Mr. Pozskoly.
01:20:44I had to realize that this system was unchangeable,
01:20:48unrepairable, incapable of reforms.
01:20:52The previous recognitions made me work on the abolition of this partisanship.
01:20:58Yeah!
01:21:16The people were demanding more and more and more.
01:21:18Even the communists, I guess, realized this cannot go on forever.
01:21:23Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
01:21:281988, May 22, Kádár was liberated from power, the country was liberated from Kádár.
01:21:44We knew that the end had to come.
01:21:47On January 28, in the Hungarian radio's 168-hour political magazine,
01:21:53I said that in Hungary, in 1956,
01:21:58there was not a counter-revolution, but an uprising and a fall.
01:22:02Well, there was some kind of terrible rebellion.
01:22:05Well, this is some kind of slander, this is some kind of betrayal.
01:22:08Thank God, there was no official response from Moscow.
01:22:12My colleague, the then Austrian Minister of the Environment,
01:22:15cut the wire that separated Hungary from Austria.
01:22:19Prime Minister Nemeth visited Moscow.
01:22:22The Hungarian leaders were planning three multi-party elections.
01:22:25But would this be too much for Gorbachev?
01:22:27They produced a stunning defeat for the communists.
01:22:30And in three weeks, other countries collapsed.
01:22:46It was a moral collapse.
01:22:49Well, this is how we won the revolution.
01:22:55With bottles, petrol bottles, slippers, galambos.
01:23:05When communism fell, when the Berlin Wall fell,
01:23:09I went to Europe as soon as I could.
01:23:13I took my sons,
01:23:16I got a sledgehammer at the wall.
01:23:31And I don't know whether the events of 89 could have happened
01:23:35if it hadn't been for 56.
01:23:38We knew what we did in Hungary,
01:23:41that was the first brick that was laid.
01:23:45The first brick that was pushed out of the wall of communism
01:23:48and communism would have to collapse.
01:23:5133 years seemed endless.
01:23:54No one expected, even in the mid-80s, that ever this can change.
01:23:58Yes. Yes.
01:24:01We did win.
01:24:04We did win.
01:24:08Absolutely.
01:24:15We are the people
01:24:19We are the galambos
01:24:24We wish you a good evening
01:24:31A good evening, a good evening
01:24:35But not for everyone
01:24:41What did we win in 1956?
01:24:47A holiness, a wonderful thing,
01:24:52which the whole world recognized.
01:24:58What should I not do?
01:25:03What should I not do?
01:25:12A revolution has its own pain and self-comparison.
01:25:18And these people can hardly get out of their dreams.
01:25:33Was it worth it?
01:25:35Oh, God, it's worth it.
01:25:37Look at what happened to this whole system.
01:25:57I, as a historian, always say, you know, this was irrational,
01:26:01this did not have any chance to win.
01:26:04But as a person, as an individual, I always add, you know,
01:26:08I would have done the same myself, you know, had I been there.
01:26:14And then, after Khrushchev was out of power,
01:26:18he was asked by a Soviet playwright named Mikhail Shatrov,
01:26:23what did he most regret about his political career?
01:26:28And he said, most of all,
01:26:32I regret that I did not win.
01:26:36I regret that I did not win.
01:26:39What did he most regret about his political career?
01:26:42And he said, most of all, the blood.
01:26:46I'm up to my elbows in blood.
01:26:50That's the thing that is most on my soul.
01:27:04I'm happy in the United States.
01:27:07I'm happy to come here, because I was always in my heart,
01:27:10I was kind of felt that the U.S. has left us there.
01:27:14And that's how I felt.
01:27:16But the destiny, what are you going to do?
01:27:18You know, this is your destiny, you have to go with the destiny.
01:28:07I'm happy in the United States.
01:28:10I'm happy to come here, because I was always in my heart,
01:28:13I was kind of felt that the U.S. has left us there.
01:28:16And that's how I felt.
01:28:19But the destiny, what are you going to do?
01:28:22You know, this is your destiny, you have to go with the destiny.
01:28:25And that's how I felt.
01:28:28But the destiny, what are you going to do?
01:28:31You know, this is your destiny, you have to go with the destiny.
01:28:35Many Hungarians have to leave,
01:28:38we have to leave together.
01:28:41Today, for freedom, for a beautiful Hungarian country,
01:28:44three-star flag, for a green country.
01:28:56Today, Hungary, together with Cyprus,
01:28:59together with Poland, and so on,
01:29:02we are all members of the European Union.
01:29:05The only solution for the United Europe.
01:29:08The future of the Hungarian nation, now in the European Union.
01:29:11Today, for freedom, for a beautiful Hungarian country,
01:29:14three-star flag, for a green country.
01:29:17We have to do what the West dictates.
01:29:20Today, for freedom, for a beautiful Hungarian country,
01:29:23three-star flag, for a green country.
01:29:26three-star flag, for a green country.
01:29:29Three-star flag, for a beautiful Hungarian country,
01:29:32three-star flag, for a green country.
01:29:53I was a small wheel,
01:29:57but now I'm a big system.
01:30:00I was a small wheel,
01:30:03but now I'm a big system.
01:30:06I was a small wheel,
01:30:09but now I'm a big system.
01:30:12I was a small wheel,
01:30:15but now I'm a big system.
01:30:24I would go, if I could,
01:30:27I would be a free bird.
01:30:36I would go, if I could,
01:30:39I'm going to sing a song from a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:30:46It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:30:51It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:30:54It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:30:57It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:00It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:03It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:06It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:09It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:12It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:15It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:18It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:21It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:24It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:27It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:30It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:33It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:36It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:39It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:42It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:45It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:48It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:51It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:54It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:31:57It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:00It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:03It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:06It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:09It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:12It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:15It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:18It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:21It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:24It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:27It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:30It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:33It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:36It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:39It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:42It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:45It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:48It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:52It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:55It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:32:58It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:33:01It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:33:04It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:33:07It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:33:10It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:33:13It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:33:16It's a poem that I wrote a long time ago.
01:33:19If you want to forget the past,
01:33:22you still have to wait for the sun to rise.
01:33:28If you want to be clean,
01:33:31like a child,
01:33:34you still have to wait for the sun to rise.
01:33:40If you're upset that the sky is too open,
01:33:46if you're upset that the stars are too deep,
01:33:51if you're upset that the moon is too bright,
01:33:57you still have to wait for the sun to rise.
01:34:03You still have to wait for the sun to rise.
01:34:16You still have to wait for the sun to rise.
01:34:20You still have to wait for the sun to rise.
01:34:24If you're upset,
01:34:28like a child,
01:34:31you still have to wait for the sun to rise.
01:34:35You know, I'm not a real man, but you're too little.
01:34:52Wait, the sun is about to rise.
01:35:03It's all right.
01:35:04It's all right.
01:35:05It's all right.
01:35:06It's all right.
01:35:07It's all right.
01:35:08It's all right.
01:35:09It's all right.
01:35:10It's all right.
01:35:11It's all right.
01:35:12It's all right.
01:35:13It's all right.
01:35:14It's all right.
01:35:15It's all right.
01:35:16It's all right.
01:35:17It's all right.
01:35:18It's all right.
01:35:19It's all right.
01:35:20It's all right.
01:35:21It's all right.
01:35:22It's all right.
01:35:23It's all right.
01:35:24It's all right.
01:35:25It's all right.
01:35:26It's all right.
01:35:27It's all right.
01:35:28It's all right.
01:35:29It's all right.
01:35:30It's all right.
01:35:31It's all right.
01:35:32It's all right.
01:35:33It's all right.
01:35:34It's all right.
01:35:35It's all right.
01:35:36It's all right.
01:35:37It's all right.
01:35:38It's all right.
01:35:39It's all right.
01:35:40It's all right.
01:35:41It's all right.
01:35:42It's all right.
01:35:43It's all right.
01:35:44It's all right.
01:35:45It's all right.
01:35:46It's all right.
01:35:47It's all right.
01:35:48It's all right.
01:35:49It's all right.
01:35:50It's all right.
01:35:51It's all right.
01:35:52It's all right.
01:35:53It's all right.
01:35:54It's all right.
01:35:55It's all right.
01:35:56It's all right.
01:35:57It's all right.
01:35:58It's all right.
01:35:59It's all right.
01:36:00It's all right.