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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The members of the House of Representatives of the
3 State of Illinois recognize the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom
4 Fighters of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution; and
 
5     WHEREAS, On October 23, 1956, hundreds of thousands of
6 Hungarians from all walks of life would join university
7 students in a peaceful call for democracy and an end to the
8 brutal and oppressive Soviet-dominated Hungarian communist
9 government; and
 
10     WHEREAS, Peaceful protests were fired upon by the Hungarian
11 Security Police, killing hundreds and triggering the bloody
12 fight for freedom and democracy and the first tear in the Iron
13 Curtain; and
 
14     WHEREAS, Thousands of Hungarians, students and workers,
15 men, women, and children, would rise up against impossible odds
16 and risk their lives to take part in their noble fight for
17 freedom and democracy; and
 
18     WHEREAS, The Hungarian Freedom Fighters, students and
19 workers, men, women, and children, who rose up against
20 impossible odds and risked their lives to take part in their
21 noble fight for freedom and democracy, were able to establish a
22 revolutionary government that released political prisoners,
23 including major church leaders, took steps to create a
24 multi-party democracy, called for the withdrawal of all Soviet
25 troops from Hungary, announced Hungary's withdrawal from the
26 Warsaw Pact, and requested United Nations assistance in
27 establishing neutrality; and
 
28     WHEREAS, The Soviet Union launched a massive military
29 counter-offensive against the revolt, sending tens of
30 thousands of additional troops from the Soviet Union, and

 

 

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1 launched air strikes, artillery bombardments, and coordinated
2 tank-infantry actions involving some 6,000 tanks which,
3 remarkably, the outnumbered and under-equipped Hungarian Army
4 and Hungarian Freedom Fighters resisted for several days; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Prime Minister Imre Nagy was seized by Soviet
6 security forces, despite assurances of safe passage for him to
7 leave the Yugoslav Embassy of Budapest where he sought asylum,
8 and was taken to Rumania and subsequently tried and executed;
9 and
 
10     WHEREAS, Thousands of Hungarians were tortured, tried, and
11 executed by the post-1956 Hungarian government; and
 
12     WHEREAS, More than 200,000 Hungarians fled their country in
13 the aftermath of the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian
14 uprising, and over 47,000 of these people eventually were able
15 to settle in the United States, where they have contributed
16 greatly to the intellectual strength, cultural diversity, and
17 the economic might of the country; therefore, be it
 
18     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
19 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
20 we do hereby proclaim October 23, 2006, as Hungarian Freedom
21 Fighters Day in Illinois and encourage all citizens to express
22 thanks to those refugees who brought their talents, skills, and
23 love of freedom to help build a stronger America.