Péter Esterhazy on the lost revolution

Writer Peter Esterhazy calls for a joint commemoration of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 which he defines as "something we have lost several times. The first time we lost it was on November 4, the day the Red Army marched into Budapest. We lost it a second time when Imre Nagy, Prime Minister of the independent government, was executed on June 16, 1958. The Kadar regime brought decades of amnesia. On June 16, 1989 (the day Imre Nagy was rehabilitated and given a proper burial), it was as if we had found the revolution again. On that wonderful afternoon it seemed history itself – independent of political interpretation – had an enormous power, and it, not we the unfaithful, would have the last say on what is forgotten. But appearances were deceiving. On the 50th anniversary of 1956 we have once again lost the revolution. Now it is nothing more than a pawn in party politics."

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