Full Text of HR1459 94th General Assembly
HR1459 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 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
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| WHEREAS, On October 23, 1956, hundreds of thousands of | 6 |
| Hungarians from all walks of life joined university students in | 7 |
| a peaceful call for democracy and an end to the brutal and | 8 |
| oppressive Soviet-dominated Hungarian communist government; | 9 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, Peaceful protestors were fired upon by the | 11 |
| Hungarian Security Police, killing hundreds and triggering the | 12 |
| bloody fight for freedom and democracy and the first tear in | 13 |
| the Iron Curtain; and
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| WHEREAS, Millions 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
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| 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
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| 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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| 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
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| 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
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| WHEREAS, Thousands of Hungarians were tortured, tried, and | 11 |
| executed by the post-1956 Hungarian government; and
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| 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; and | 18 |
| WHEREAS, The uprising of the Hungarian people in 1956 | 19 |
| dramatically confirmed the widespread contempt in which the | 20 |
| Hungarians held the Soviet Union, the underlying weakness of | 21 |
| the communist system imposed by Soviet authorities in Central | 22 |
| and Eastern Europe, and the strength of popular support for | 23 |
| democratic principles and the right of the Hungarian people to | 24 |
| determine their own national destiny; and | 25 |
| WHEREAS, The 1956 Hungarian Revolution unmasked the true | 26 |
| nature of the Soviet system, contributing to the disintegration | 27 |
| of communist parties in the West and across the globe; and | 28 |
| WHEREAS, The Hungarians, in 1989, dismantled the Iron | 29 |
| Curtain and permitted East Germans safe passage to the West, | 30 |
| actions that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall; and |
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| WHEREAS, On October 23, 1989, the Republic of Hungary | 2 |
| proclaimed its independence, and in 1990, the Hungarian | 3 |
| Parliament officially designated October 23 as a Hungarian | 4 |
| national holiday, indicating that the legacy of the 1956 | 5 |
| Revolution continues to inspire Hungarians to this day; and | 6 |
| WHEREAS, On March 12, 1999, the Government of Hungary, | 7 |
| reflecting the will of the Hungarian people, formally acceded | 8 |
| to the North Atlantic Treaty and became a member of NATO, and | 9 |
| on May 1, 2004, Hungary became a full member of the European | 10 |
| Union; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 12 |
| NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 13 |
| we proclaim October 23, 2006, as Hungarian Freedom Fighters Day | 14 |
| in Illinois; and be it further | 15 |
| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 16 |
| presented to Mr. Michael Clements.
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