Russian embassy: proposed textbooks do not call the '56 revolution fascist

"None of the textbook drafts we are aware of call the 1956 revolution fascist," the Russian Embassy in Budapest states on its Facebook page, reacting to the news that new Russian state textbooks commissioned by Vladimir Putin describe the 1956 Hungarian revolutionaries as fascists. We wrote on Monday that 11th-grade students in Russia are to receive new history textbooks which, apart from glorifying Putin, negatively describe the events of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

After the news broke on Monday, we contacted the Hungarian politicians and institutions most concerned about the subject to ask them for their views on the Russian textbook. We did not receive any responses, but Tamás Menczer, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared his stance with Origo: “In 1956 the Hungarian people rebelled against the communist dictatorship. This is a clear, unequivocal fact, not a matter up for debate. Any claim to the contrary is false. What happened is so clear that we will not open a debate with anyone about it.”

In its post on Wednesday, the Russian embassy in Budapest said that the criticism against them was unfortunately based on an article from a news outlet that used the Latvian-based online publication Meduza as a source. According to them, Meduza "specialises in the production and dissemination of anti-Russian fake news". Thus, the news circulated in the press contains an assessment of the events of 1956 in Hungary taken out of context and a deliberately negative evaluation of the Russian position. Moreover, the Russian press received "at least ten different" drafts of the textbook.

According to the embassy, Russia respects Hungary's history and recognises that "there are complex issues in our shared history", such as the events of 1956. That is precisely why they have always tried to treat the issue with caution and have not allowed the events to be used for political purposes.