44 PAUL LENDVAI is the author of Orban:
Hungary’s New Strongman (Oxford University
Press, 2018), from which this essay is adapted.AUTOCRACY NOW1956 anti-Soviet uprising and who had
been sentenced to death in a secret trial
and buried in an unmarked grave. The
sixth con was empty and symbolized
the 300 other people who had been
executed for their roles in the uprising.
The demonstration was followed by the
burial o the cons, giving the remains
the dignied resting place the Soviets
had denied them.
The demonstration, broadcast live on
Hungarian television, nished with six
speeches. The nal one was delivered by
Viktor Orban, a little-known, 26-year-
old activist with a scruy beard. It was
just seven minutes long, but it electried
the crowd and the people watching at
home. “I we trust our own strength, then
we will be able to put an end to the
communist dictatorship,” declared Orban,
who the previous year had helped
found the Alliance o Young Democrats,
or Fidesz, a liberal youth movement.I we are determined enough, then we
can compel the ruling party to face
free elections. I we have not lost sight
o the ideas o 1956, we will vote for a
government that will at once enter
into negotiations on the immediate
beginning o the withdrawal o
Russian troops. I we are courageous
enough, then, but only then, we can
fulll the will o our revolution.In Hungary at the time, it was still
unusual for anyone to publicly issue such
a blunt rebuke o the Soviets. The
speech instantly propelled Orban to fame
in his country, and was noticed abroad,
as well. Here, it seemed, was a herald o
Hungary’s bright, democratic future.
But in the 30 years that have passed
since that day, a staggering reversal has
taken place, as Orban has transformedThe Transformer
Orban’s Evolution and
Hungary’s DemisePaul Lendvai
I
n the summer 1989, the Soviet
Union was beginning to falter, and
its grasp on Eastern Europe was
slipping. But in Hungary, the Soviets
were hardly gone yet: Moscow still
maintained around 70,000 soldiers, 1,000
tanks, and 1,500 armored vehicles there.
Janos Kadar, who had built and led the
repressive, Soviet-aligned regime that
had run the country for the past three
decades, had resigned the previous year,
as the economy sputtered and Kadar
himsel struggled with cancer. But the
regime centered on Kadar’s Hungarian
Socialist Workers’ Party remained intact
and still presided over an immense
security apparatus and a network o
armed militias.
The momentum, however, was with
the opposition groups that sought to
take advantage o the Soviet decline.
On June 16, they organized a massive
demonstration in Heroes’ Square, which
includes a monument to the founders
o the Hungarian state, in central
Budapest. Part memorial service and
part protest, the gathering was attended
by some 250,000 people. On the steps o
the monument lay six cons. Five
contained the unearthed remains o men
who had been key leaders o« Hungary’s08_Lendvai_pp_Blues.indd 44 7/22/19 5:50 PM
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