On June 11, the Hungarian Embassy in cooperation with the Embassy of Austria and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Iron Curtain with a series of events in Washington, D.C.
1989 saw the end of Communist rule and the eventual withdrawal of the Soviet occupying troops from Hungary and Central Europe. It also marks the beginning of democracy in the region and the beginning of a period of democratization globally. The importance of 1989 cannot be overstated.
Wreath-laying at the Victims of Communism Memorial
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation held a commemorative ceremony in front of the Victims of Communism Memorial in downtown Washington, featuring remarks by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA); Ms. Annette Lantos, Chairman of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice; Mrs. Liliia Muslimova, spokeswoman for the Crimean Mejlis; H.E. Vaclav Klaus, former president and Prime Minister of the Czech Republic;Dr. Yang Jianli, Founder of President of Initiatives for China; and Dr. Lee Edwards, Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
VOC Chairman Dr. Lee Edwards said that the ceremony was about “one thing—the brutal bloody reality of communism which over the last century has taken the lives of more than 100 million men, women and children and which controls the lives of over 1 billion people today.”
Former Czech President Václav Klaus said that the memory of ’89 is bittersweet, because we celebrate the end of Communism in Europe, but we also must remember the massacre at Tiananmen and never allow the tragedies of communism to be marginalized.
Nineteen embassies, 18 non-profit and ethnic organizations, and several individuals laid wreaths in honor of the victims of communism around the world at the event which was attended by more than 200 people. Dr. Maria Schmidt, director of the House of Terror Museum in Budapest laid a wreath with Ambassador Szapáry in honor of the Hungarian victims of Communism at the Memorial. A wreath was also laid on behalf of the Honorable János Horváth, former Member of the Hungarian Parliament and past recipient of the Truman-Reagan Freedom Medal and his wife, Linda.
Triumph of Liberty Luncheon at the Library of Congress
The Embassies of Hungary and Austria co-hosted a „Triumph of Liberty” luncheon to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the opening of the border between the two countries. The cutting of the barbed wire represented the first break in the Iron Curtain that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall later that year. The opening of the border was a catalyst not only in the democratization of Hungary, but the entire region and gave a crucial push to advancing German unification as East Germans fled to reunite with their West German compatriots through Hungary and Austria. Helmut Kohl famously said “The soil under the Brandenburg Gate is Hungarian soil” as this act showed more than half a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall that barriers and walls can be, literally and metaphorically, torn down by freedom loving people.
Senator Chris Murphy, Democratic Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Subcommittee on Europe thanked Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for the USD 1 million Hungary has donated to the establishment of the Victims of Communism Museum. He emphasized that Communism was defeated not by brute force, but by the long term commitment of the U.S. to promote the values of democracy, liberty and human rights.
Congressman Dennis Ross (R-FL), member of the Hungarian Caucus, reminded that “we must not forget memory of victims” and called for a more robust U.S. engagement for freedom abroad. Austrian Ambassador Hans Peter Manz, who at the time was the Hungary desk officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria gave a firsthand account of his experiences in 1989 and emphasized that while the changes may appear evident in retrospect it took the courage of the democratic opposition to topple communism.
Ambassador György Szapáry, himself a refugee of the ’56 revolution and freedom fight spoke of his personal memories of ’89 when he was present at the reburial of Imre Nagy, the Prime Minister of Hungary during the revolution who was executed in 1957. The speech delivered by the young Viktor Orbán at the reburial, in which, under the shadow of the Soviet army, he called for the withdrawal of the Soviet troops and free elections, convinced Szapáry that Communism was beginning to crumble in Europe. “We need a museum remembering the victims of communism here in Washington, a museum that is still missing from the Washington scene” said the Ambassador.
The Ambassador presented Hungary’s Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic to historian Dr. Lee Edwards for “his strenuous work on cold war history of the Central-Eastern European countries and the sins of communism”. For twenty years Edwards has been chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and educational organization established by a bipartisan Act of Congress in 1993. VOC is a Washington-based, non-profit educational and human rights organization devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and to the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes.
The luncheon also served as the launching of VOC’s new campaign for the establishment of a permanent brick and mortar museum dedicated to the victims of communism in Washington, D.C. for which the Government of Hungary has donated USD 1 million. A new websitewww.BuildTheMuseum.com to coordinate these efforts was also announced.
Jenő Megyesy, chief policy advisor to the Prime Minister, read a letter from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in which the Prime Minister warns “the horrors of Communism must be a constant reminder that freedom is not to be taken for granted, because with an unfavorable historic alignment of the stars, an overwhelming power of evil can defeat even a courageous defender”. Click here to read the letter in English and Hungarian.
Special 25th Anniversary Exhibits at the Library of Congress
To highlight the importance of an independent and critical media in a free and democratic society, rare items from the samizdat Collection of the Library of Congress was displayed and presented by Ken Nyirady, European Specialist of the Library. Photos and documents from 1989 included Hungarian underground opposition papers and magazines likeBeszélő, Demokrata and Hírmondó, as well as Polish and Czech opposition underground papers. These publications aimed at breaking the information monopoly of the communist regime and succeeded in creating an underground intellectual discourse countering the official propaganda, presenting a plurality of views and opening debates.
The Carved Freedom photo exhibit of Ernő Horváth was on display at the Members’ Room of the Library of Congress, depicting the crucial events of the fall of the communist regime. The photos capture the historic drama and genuine euphoria of this momentous period in the countries of the former Soviet bloc. Every picture makes it easier to understand why freedom is so important to everyone in Central and Eastern Europe and why we cannot take it for granted. In 1989 people in Central and Eastern Europe took back their own destiny. In a sense, this exhibition was about the re-birth of Central Europe.
“Iron Curtain Falling: History & Legacy of Communism in Europe” Panel Discussion
The commemoration at the Library of Congress included a panel discussion on the lingering effects of communism in Central and Eastern Europe which highlighted how that legacy still affects social and political structures and business interests in the region
The panel featured Mária Schmidt, director of the House of Terror Museum in Budapest, which is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the totalitarian regimes, Richard Pipes Polish-American professor of Cold War history at Harvard University, Myroslav Marynovych, deputy director of the Catholic University in Lviv and 2014 Truman Reagan Freedom Medal awardee from Ukraine, Stephen Szabo, Executive Director of the Transatlantic Academy at the German Marshall Fund, as well as Dr. Lee Edwards. The two co-chairs of the Hungarian Caucus, CongresswomanMarcy Kaptur (D-OH) who is Ukrainian origin and Hungarian-AmericanCongressman Andy Harris (R-MD) opened the panel before the discussion.
Congressman Andy Harris paid tribute to the accomplishments of 1989 and said that the progression to freedom meant a return to the natural state of affairs.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur spoke movingly of her own family’s losses at the hand of the communist regime in the Soviet Union. She applauded the initiative to establish a museum and thanked the organizers for respecting the humanity of the victims by keeping their memory alive.
Professor Pipes highlighted that the collapse of the Soviet Union was due primarily to internal causes. He refuted the myth that the Soviet Union somehow provided favorable conditions to nationalities and he highlighted that without oppression the Soviet Union was bound to disintegrate. He also refuted that communism and the collectivist idea would have roots in Russian culture, or psyche.
Dr. Schmidt pointed out that communism was toppled by a wave of victorious revolutions. The turning point was 1981 in Warsaw, where the Soviet leadership had to acknowledge they have no monopoly on possible scenarios for the future. The technocratic bureaucrats who operated the system were no longer guided by ideology and saw very clearly the lack of legitimacy and structural deficiencies of the system. However, the apparatchiks and the so-called reform communists were never interested in promoting democracy, but only in ways to reform the system to preserve their privileged position. It took actions by the opposition that amounted to democratic revolutions to topple the system. Steve Szabo said ultimately it was the East German people who did the most for German reunification, when they fled to the West in search of a better life. The opening of the Austro-Hungarian border exposed the untenability of the status quo and triggered the final events leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Myroslav Marynovych, this year’s Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom recipient drew a parallel between the Soviet Union and Putin’s Russia, as both rest on lies and as such are doomed to collapse. Marynovich expressed optimism about Ukraine because the Maidan is the first generation of non-homo sovieticus. This generation speaks a different language: the language of values.
In the spirit of Austrian-Hungarian friendship, Austrian Apfelstrudel with Hungarian Tokaji was served at the panel discussion.
Capitol View Evening Rooftop Reception
The evening reception hosted at the rooftop of VOC’s office was addressed by two Members of Congress who are also Members of the Hungarian Caucus, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.