Október 23 (70 years later)

I took this picture in 2007 in Kossuth tér at a memorial to the 1956 revolution Today, Hungarians remember the events of the 1956 revolution. This year marks the 70th anniversary of those events that started on October 23, 1956. What started as student demonstrations soon turned into a bloody conflict. Hungarians tired of the lies and false promises of the communists wanted something better. They also wanted Russia out of their country. I am rereading James Michener’s book, The Bridge at Andau, to observe this occasion. This is a journalistic work, unlike most of the fiction that he is known for. He was at the border of Austria and Hungary and interviewed many of those that fled Hungary after the failed revolution. The story of the book is told through a composite of characters based on real people and real stories as they participating in the revolution. The perspective I gained from visiting the 1956 memorial in Kossuth tér and from visiting The House of Terror in 2024 made the…