The Cultural and Collective Memory of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956

University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations Dissertations and Theses Spring 5-19-2017 The Cultural and Collective Memory of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Ted P. Tindell University of New Orleans, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td Recommended Citation Tindell, Ted P., "The Cultural and Collective Memory of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956" (2017). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2360. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2360 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by ScholarWorks@UNO with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Cultural and Collective Memory of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 A Thesis Submitted to the Department of History University of New Orleans In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In History By Ted P. Tindell BS, Tulane University, 1970 May 2017 Acknowledgements “To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.” ― Mark Twain The joy I have received on this journey to become more knowable about history has made every cent, minute of time, and struggle for comprehension an inconsequential price to pay. I want to offer my heartfelt thanks and divide my joy with all those who have assisted on my journey: Dr. Günter Bischof, Dr. Robert Dupont, Dr. James Mokhiber, Dr. Andrea Mosterman, Dr. Connie Atkinson, Dr. Mary Mitchell, Royanne Kropog, Alex Kropog, Olivia Anastasiadis, Rita Millican, Joes Segal, Rhett Breerwood, and my fellow students at the University of New Orleans. ii Table of Contents List of Images…………………………………………………………………………….iv Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………v Introduction and Thesis…………………………………………………............................1 The Cultural Memories of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956……………………………9 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….47 Bibliography……………………………………………………………..........................50 Vita ………...…………………………………………………………………………….58 iii List of Images Figure 1. A photograph of the Hungarian flag with the Soviet Star removed…………………..24 Figure 2. A photograph of the rebuilt sculpture Stalin’s Boots…………………………………26 Figure 3. A photograph of Hungarian water polo player Evin Zádor…………………………...40 Figure 4. Homage to Hungary, a lithograph by Marc Chagall………………………………….42 Figure 5. Torn From the Flag, an etching by Gabor Koranyi ……………………………….....43 Figure 6. Vice President Nixon Visits Andau, a painting by Ferenc Daday……………………..44 Figure 7. 301, a poster by Péter Pócs (designer) and László Haris (photographer).....................45 iv Abstract This thesis will argue that the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 has been retained in Western cultural memory by the inclusion of events of the revolution in fiction and poetry, non- fiction, personal memory, music, films and documentaries, arts, and sports. Recorders of the revolution have noted the heroic efforts of the freedom fighters; the painful facts have been left to be reported by historians and downplayed in the cultural memory of the event. The loss, suffering, and damage which occurred during and after the revolution have been softened by artists focusing on the youthfulness and the sexual awaking of the freedom fighters. Keywords: Hungarian revolution; 1956; cultural memory; fiction and poetry; non-fiction; personal memory; music; films and documentaries; arts; sports v Introduction and Thesis The author accepts that active memory extends beyond the three-generation model.1 Aleida Assmann points out: “To be part of a collective group […] one has to share and adopt the group’s history which exceeds the boundaries of one’s individual life span.”2 History is influenced by memory, Sara Ormes notes “…past events happened in the way they have been remembered and told in the national historical narrative.” 3 History is remembered by “activists, politicians, citizens, artists, film producers, media magnets, custodians of museums and many other experts […] engaged in […] reconstructing and shaping the past.”4 Sara Ormes wrote the Swiss collective memory of World War II was shaped by “pragmatic leaders due to political necessity.”5 The Hungarian revolution of 1956 was a failure, resulting in the political and military leadership fleeing, being imprisoned, or executed. The cultural memory was therefore primarily shaped through the efforts of artists. Not limited to the Hungarian diaspora, artists of many nations used their creative abilities to create and preserve a cultural memory of the revolution. Cultural memories of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 would be created for the musical stage, the concert symphony halls, in athletic events, in public spaces around the world, in the movies, and in the fiction section of a public library. Why does the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 inspire so many artists, both of Hungarian and non-Hungarian descent to preserve the cultural memory of the revolution? What themes 1 First generation: survivors and eye witnesses; second generation: their children coping with the trauma of their parents by adopting it as an element of their identity; and third generation: grandchildren linking with grandparents to recover family heritage; Aleida Assmann, “About Geoffrey Hartman,” Philological Quarterly, Vol. 93 No. 2 (Spring 2014): 143-144. 2 Aleida Assmann, “Transformations between History and Memory,” Social Research, Vol. 75 No. 1 (Spring 2008): 52. 3 Sara Ormes, “A Masterable Past: Swiss Historical Memory of World War II” (Honors Thesis, The University of New Orleans, 2011), 5. 4 Assmann, “Transformations between History and Memory,” 54. 5 Ormes, 5. 1 inspire artists? This author proposes that the youth of the Hungarian freedom fighters, and the theme of sexual awaking, caused many artists to not focus on the terrible consequences of the Hungarian revolution of 1956, but instead to see only a romantic image of the freedom fighter. In the shaped cultural memory of the Hungarian revolution of 1956, a softened and romantic image has been drafted in which the freedom fighters become young heroes, awaking to life both intellectually and sexually. This author proposes the collective memory of the Hungarian revolution as retold in personal stories was influenced by the youth of the narrators at the time of the revolution and of fond remembrance of their sexual awaking. This author proposes historical events have been downplayed. Rather than focusing on the bodies laying in the public streets, in cultural and collective memory the focus has been on the intellectual achievements and private sexual explorations of the young Hungarian freedom fighters. The Hungarian freedom fighter has been transformed into smart, sexy, failed heroes to stop the Soviet military. Reliance on the artists’ shaped cultural memory of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 has produced a distorted and inaccurate history. As stated by Aleida Assmann: “memory complements history, history corrects memory.”6 The reshaping of the cultural memory of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 has changed a failed coup attempt into an idealistic struggle for human rights fought by the young, educated and sexy. It is well documented that the individuals who fled Hungary in 1956 were young and educated. A CIA report concerning the approximately 35,000 Hungarians who accepted asylum in the United States noted that 83 percent were under the age of 40, 64 percent were male, and 6 Assmann, “Transformations between History and Memory,” 63. 2 the average education level of this group was almost 10 years with a literacy rate of 90%.7 The approximately 200,000 people who fled Hungary in 1956-1957 represented only two percent of the total population of Hungary in 1956. Were the refuges representative of the entire Hungarian population or were they a subset lionized by Western intellectuals? Others will need to explore the profiles of the refugees who fled and compare them against the census of individuals who remained in Hungary. If the refugees who fled were exceptionally young and well educated, that might alter the cultural memory of the revolution as preserved in the West. On October 23, 1956, a demonstration by university students in Budapest escalated into an uprising against the Soviet puppet government in Hungary. Students, young people, factory workers, and children battled in the streets against Soviet tanks in a desperate thirteen day attempt to reclaim their remembered Hungary from a Communist Party they perceived as clinging to rejected Stalinist Russian beliefs. The goal of the uprising was not to defeat Communism, but to reform the system to one compatible with Hungarian traditional ideals and beliefs. The most obvious memories of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 are preserved at the sites in Budapest where significant events occurred. Sites such as the square in front of the Parliament building where the student’s fourteen point demands were read, the radio station, where the first deaths of the revolution occurred,

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