Boritt, who has written or edited more than a dozen books on Lincoln and the Civil War, started the piece quoting Lincoln's "Resolutions in Behalf of Hungarian Freedom," from 1852. Lincoln's statement honored the exiled Hungarian freedom fighter Lajos Kossuth as "the most worthy ... representative ... of civil and religious liberty."
Boritt then described his own experience as a freedom fighter in 1956, when he was just 16, recalling the euphoria after a statue of Stalin was toppled, then the despair when the revolution was crushed.
"I was in my basement when Russian tanks took down my apartment building. I seem to remember Hungarian radio, desperate for help, broadcasting words that Lincoln would have liked: "Freedom or slavery: that is the question."
Boritt left Hungary and emigrated to the States. He learned English just as Abraham Lincoln's sesquicentennial was celebrated in 1959, and got a little booklet about Lincoln around the time.
"His language and his thoughts captured me for the rest of my life," Boritt wrote.
"Recently I returned to Hungary, which is now a democracy and a member of the European Union," Boritt wrote. "You may very well see protests against the government. In Kossuth's country, Lincoln's dream has finally been realized."
Source: Múlt-kor
