1989

In the peace and quiet of the countryside even the birth of a democracy is a quietly unfolding process. People like me who have not been able to witness the happenings (or rather were not capable of understanding them just yet) might be lead to think that when changes came it meant that at once the whole country was turned upside down and the fires of revolution were burning within every single soul. This was not the case according to my mother’s and grandmother’s recollections, though of course seeing history in motion (even if only from far away) in 1989 must have been a once in a lifetime experience.

In 1989 my parents already lived in the little village near the Austrian border where they still live today. At the time of the democratic transformation they were busy nursing their one-year-old daughter, me.

Their recollections about that period of time are mostly about things seen broadcasted on television. They recalled seeing round-table discussions, speeches at Imre Nagy’s reburial, Mátyás Szűrös proclaiming the third republic in October. Those were expectant, hopeful times. Some of the possibilities mentioned in different people’s speeches were almost too frighteningly “free” to consider real. My mother for example remembers that Viktor Orbán’s thoughts seemed astonishing to her and made her stop and think for a moment: how does that young man dare say all that? is he allowed to say all that now?

It took some time for them to be truly able to grasp the freedom that suddenly dawned on them that time. My mother and my grandmother agree that they were expecting a better life after the changes. It would have been interesting to hear more of what my grandmother, who has witnessed the rise and fall of so many different political systems during her life, has to say about these matters but she was rather reluctant to speak. I think she must have seen enough changes already and none of those have brought what she hoped for. Even though one thing even my grandma has to admit at the end of our little talk: successful changes or not, there is still no denying that 1989 was a great year in our history.