‘The whole system was evil and irrational. An observer noted that there was a full company of French soldiers in a transit camp. They escaped from German captivity, hid in Hungary, but they were put among the forced labourers simply because the Soviets wanted more people in the camps.’

‘The Russians copied the engine and implemented it into a very good aerial design that became the MiG-15 fighter jet.’

‘It is hard to distinguish between the phases of the Soviet takeover and the start of the Communist vengeance.’

‘On 25 October, transport workers began to blockade major national roads, as well as the central arteries of Budapest.’

‘Carlos the Jackal was housed by the Hungarians as a Socialist internationalist duty, and was allowed by the Soviets to be in the Bloc as a sign of their carelessness about the world.’

‘These Hungarians were among the luckier individuals in Europe. No less than 800 Westerners and Japanese were trucked to strategic locations in Kuwait to serve as human shields. At the same time, thousands of other expats were not allowed to leave the country until almost the end of 1990, when all were released after living on the edge for months.’

‘It is no surprise, then, that even Peru, a mountainous country far from the Pacific coast, a subject of many tales about the Incas, was also home to Hungarians throughout history. This is not just a tale of curious travels from Central Europe to Latin America, but a history of our relationship to the great migratory waves that have impacted our region…’

‘The Fundamental Law of 2011 defines 2 May 1990 as the reinstatement of the sovereign status of Hungary, which was broken by the German occupation on 19 March 1944 and continued by the Soviets when they soon invaded and, in turn, Sovietized the country.’

‘4 April was a day of paying fealty to the “Heroic Army of the Soviets” and celebrating the military force upholding the Iron Curtain. Celebrating the same army that plundered its way through our homeland, and the system that was born from it, be it already watered down by the 70s and 80s: it was a holiday that never quite fit into the organic Hungarian tradition.’

‘Without the Balts, there was no real argument for denying other republics the right to exit. Without Ukraine, there was no basis for a Slavic-majority Soviet Union. After a couple of rounds of confused negotiations Moscow simply retreated, and left its imperial project for the time being. The Soviet Union dissolved on 25 December 1991, leaving behind only the Commonwealth of Independent States…’