In a statement, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Budapest refuted the information spread in the Hungarian media about the 1956 revolution.
The diplomatic representation stated that the Hungarian media (*the G7 magazine) used the Latvia-based Meduza internet publication as its source, which specializes in the production and distribution of anti-Russian fake news, for which it is rightly considered a foreign agent in Russia.
Here is the full post from the Russian Embassy
Several people approached our embassy with the request that it comment on the Hungarian media appearances related to the new history textbook published in Russia. In this post, we will try to answer all the questions asked. For the sake of simplicity, we use the open letter of Mr. Tompos M. addressed to the ambassador of the Russian Federation in Hungary, which quite comprehensively reflects the whole range of concerns.
Let's start with the fact that the criticism leveled at us is unfortunately based on the communication of a Hungarian news portal that - perhaps intentionally, perhaps out of ignorance - serves as a source of information and a political accompanying narrative
he used the Meduza internet publication based in Latvia, which specializes in the production and distribution of anti-Russian fake news, for which he is rightfully considered a foreign agent in Russia.
This material, in particular, contains an assessment of the events in Hungary in 1956 taken out of context and deliberately presenting the Russian position in a negative light. In this regard, it is important to note that at the presentation of the textbook in Moscow on August 8, it was said that the Russian press had received "at least ten different" drafts of the textbook.
It is difficult for us to judge which draft was used to write the article, but none of the textbook drafts we know calls the "Revolution of 1956" "fascist" (as for the final version of the textbook, it has not yet reached the Embassy).
All this reminds us of the children's game of "help mail", when a word or sentence is whispered "in the neighbor's ear" and the end result is not at all what was said at the beginning.
Modern Russia has an unchanged respect for the historical memory of the Hungarian people and recognizes that there are complex issues in our common history, among which the events of 1956 are rightly included. That is why we have always approached the issue with great care and attention, we have not allowed it to be used for political purposes, and we have examined the events of the past from today's perspective, removed from the historical context. In the same way, the rewriting of history by businessmen, the omission of inconvenient facts, and the silencing of the role of active participants are also unacceptable to us. Here, it is fundamentally important to rely on archival materials and the testimony of contemporaries.
Regarding Mr. Tompos M.'s concerns that the President of Russia is "crying back the Soviet Union", we would like to clarify: According to Mr. Putin, the collapse of the Soviet Union was a "geopolitical catastrophe" that deprived 25 million Russian-born and Russian-speaking citizens of their homeland, making them one of from moment to moment they found themselves outside the borders of their homeland.
Many of them became "second-class citizens", as happened, for example, in the "ultra-democratic" Baltic states and Ukraine.
The feelings of our compatriots in this regard are understandable and evoke sympathy in all Hungarians whose hearts are filled with patriotism, who love their people and nation; in all those who are oppressed by the "tragedy of Trianon", as a result of which Hungary lost not only a significant part of its territory, but also more than half of its population (for the information of Mr. Tompos: Russia did not participate in the "Trianon peace decree").
Finally, we cannot ignore the joking invitation of the staff of the Russian Embassy to the House of Terror. We are well aware of the exhibition in this museum, but we believe that it can hardly serve as a basis for such inappropriate "humor". But let's leave this to Mr. Tompos M.'s conscience.
