Chapter 8
Move to the Capital
My last day in school have been a great event. Even my teachers remembered that I was last time there, and my class provided me with all the good advice they could think of. I was given many addresses, but only one boy would remain in correspondence with me.
After a four-hour ride we arrived in the capital late evening.
The next day it was my turn to register in my new school, but, being a Saturday, it did not do. We took into account our things heaped in the apartment, as well as in the basement by poor Steve.
Monday morning Eve and my father accompanied me to the school. The man to register me was one of the deputies for the school-master, and he was content to read through the papers I took with me. He wanted to seat me at once into my class, but at last he accepted that I was a newcomer and wanted to see the town.
The next day has not been only my first school-day in that school, it has also been a famous, or, let us say so, infamous, day for the country.
As I have mentioned already, by the Yalta agreement our country has been switched to the Eastern Bloc and so, we have become a satellite of the Soviet Union. It is well known how life has been organized in this part of Europe. Similarly to pressure in steam pipelines that cannot grow limitless, social pressures have found also means to release the most strained members of society. In the Soviet Union the death of the dictator has solved the problem partly. In our country the same year, 1953, has brought changes in government, but, as changes in the Soviet Union could not replace state and order, in our country changes only meant to eliminate forced labour camps, the release of prisoners jailed without proper reason and replacement of people in the government who had become too unpopular.
Anyway, many organizations, especially authors, whose access to publicity had been blocked earlier, held meetings and issued publications. It began to be uncomfortable for certain circles abroad, considering these tendencies a copy of Austria’s secession from the Eastern Bloc one year before. On the one hand they did not want to lose another forced ally, on the other hand it has been necessary to find a place for the divisions stationed that far in Austria. There was the question of Yugoslavia, too, they wanted to gain it back to their sphere of influence.
In other parts of Eastern Europe there were signs of similar movements.
On the day when I first went to school, a Tuesday, October 23, 1956, there was a demonstration planned to express solidarity with Polish youth movements a month before.
The four decades since those events have created a deep trench between the two camps on questions how to define what actually happened in Hungary in the year 1956. A lot of my compatriots left the country during or soon after the events, and it is evident they see everything through their eyes. The rest – and fortunately they, or I can say, we, were the larger part of the nation – has remained, either for lack of courage, or because of having no alternative. I have been in an age, when I could have decided to leave, as many of my age group have chosen that solution. I think I have all the arguments for my staying. Those who did not leave their country saw pros and cons through different eyes, but, however they may have been mistaken, it was their right to say what kind of country they wanted – as far as they had the means to do it – to create.
Sometimes he who leaves a place can see more clearly what is happening there. It has been the case with our country for 40 years. Even the hands offering help have been turned away, until there came complete changes, as it had become clear mainly through the examples of other countries from the same bloc, that the system kept so far intact cannot be reformed, it should be changed into another one, already tried and developed on the other half of the world.
The difference in the evaluation of the events during the autumn of 1956 is dividing our society the same way, as the American nation is divided on which side has been right during the American Civil War, or the question of the Great Revolution in France divides the French nation. It is natural that people of both camps consider themselves citizens of the country and both these and those believe, history of the country cannot be taken from them.
What exactly happened in the capital and soon after in the whole country is not the topic of one man’s life story. Anyway, as I have been part of the events and can recollect my memories about them, I cannot leave all out of this book.