PRESS CONFERENCE on new york commemoration of revolution in hungary

Gabor Brodi, Permanent Representative of Hungary to the United Nations, announced at Headquarters today a series of New York events to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his country’s 1956 freedom fight and revolution -- the first uprising against Communist rule.

Accompanied by Consul-General Gabor Horvath, Mr. Brodi said: “I am proud to tell you that here in New York we will commemorate this great day for Hungary.”   The commemorative events, including concerts, photo exhibits, a movie festival, and a panel discussion at Columbia University, will be organized by the Permanent Mission of Hungary, the Hungarian Consulate General and the Hungarian-American community of New York City and the tri-state area.

Mr. Hovarth said two huge billboards depicting pictures of the uprising at Manhattan’s 50^th Street and Broadway would remain on public display until 1 November.  A photo exhibition by the Austrian photojournalist Erich Lessing, the first photographer to arrive in Budapest and cover the short-lived rebellion, was being held until 4 November at the Leica Gallery at 670 Broadway.

Asked whether recent political protests calling for Hungary’s Prime Minister to step down were similar to what occurred in 1956, Mr. Brodi said he did not think so.  “What the Hungarian nation has had as an aspiration already exists in Hungary.  We have a full fledged democracy, a free nation; we are a member of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.”  The current problems were those of a “mature democracy” and the challenge would be dealt with in the democratic framework, he added.

Beginning on 23 October 1956, street protests in solidarity with striking workers in Poland quickly turned into more widespread demands for reforms in the Hungarian Government.  For 12 days, protesters stormed jails and freed political prisoners as Hungarian radio broadcast the banned music of Mozart and Beethoven.   The uprising was eventually crushed and thousands of Hungarians were killed, arrested or forced into exile.

A gala memorial benefit concert at Carnegie Hall on 15 October, featuring the Emmy award-winning Takács Quartet, will kick off the commemorative events.  Its patrons are President Laszlo Solyom of Hungary and New York Governor George Pataki.  All funds will be used to build a permanent memorial to the 1956 revolution.  On the same morning, the Hungarian Reformed Church of New York and St. Patrick’s Cathedral will hold special commemorative services, at 10:30 a.m. and 12 noon, respectively.  The Park East Synagogue at East 67^th Street will hold a memorial service on 16 October.

Also on 16 October, United Nations Headquarters will host “Annus Mirabilis, 1989, Hungary: The Year that Accomplished what 1956 Started”, a photo exhibition sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Hungary and the Budapest-based International Centre for Democratic Transition.  It will be held at 12:30 p.m. next to Café Austria. 

On 23 October, the Permanent Mission of Hungary will hold a number of events at United Nations Headquarters, including a commemorative talk, with Henry Kissinger as the keynote speaker, in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium at 6:15 p.m.  It will be followed immediately by a special piano concert featuring Beethoven’s Heroica symphony (the music played during the uprising) and Hungarian composers.  On the same day, the Permanent Mission of Hungary will hold a photo exhibition in the Secretariat lobby and a ceremony featuring Hungarian-American author Michael Korda, who has published a book on his personal memories of the uprising.

The New York Philharmonic will hold three memorial concerts sponsored by Donald Blinken, who was the United States ambassador in Hungary from 1994 to 1997, on 26 to 28 October at Avery Fisher Hall.  Lincoln Center will stage a film festival, Resistance and Rebirth: Hungarian Cinema 50 years after ’56, from 27 October to 16 November.  It will also present three Hungarian film series: Remembering ’56, a number of films on the uprising itself; The Currents of History: A Tribute to Miklós Jancsó, a seven-film salute to Hungary’s greatest director; and New Cinema from Hungary, introducing the newest generation of Hungarian film artists.

On 2 November, “1956 and Its Impact on the Soviet Bloc”, a two-day seminar sponsored by Columbia University’s East Central European Center, the Harriman Institute and the Institute for the Study of Europe, will examine “Cold War in Europe and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt”, “The Legacy of 1956 in Soviet Foreign Policy”, and other related themes.

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For information media • not an official record