Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00We arrived at the corner of Deák Street just as a crowd,
00:00:03swirling in wide rows, turned onto Stalin
00:00:06Street. In the front rows, old
00:00:09workers with determined faces advanced. Further back, however,
00:00:12I saw several actors who had probably joined the protesters
00:00:16in front of the small theater building. People leaning
00:00:20out of windows listened with happy smiles
00:00:23to the slogan: "He who is Hungarian,
00:00:26stand with us." The passers-by did not need encouragement; they enthusiastically
00:00:30joined the procession and chanted together with the
00:00:33crowd: "Rise, Hungarian,
00:00:36homeland, every Russian go
00:00:38home."
00:00:41The first target of the demonstration near Baross Bridge was the
00:00:44Soviet military monument standing at the edge of Dimitrov Promenade.
00:00:47From the top of the obelisk, a few wagon factory workers
00:00:51pulled down the five-pointed star with ropes. From the
00:00:55side of the monument, they tried to knock down the two
00:00:59bayonet-wielding Soviet soldiers depicted
00:01:02in the relief while the crowd was singing
00:01:05the anthem, the black-mustachioed police
00:01:09sergeant directing traffic tore
00:01:12the red star from his cap and saluted.
00:01:15"Árpád Tihanyi, with whom I discussed Pest
00:01:18news on Baross Road last night, was now at the center
00:01:22of events. He was asked to recite the
00:01:25Szózat (Appeal)." From the battered Soviet monument,
00:01:29we marched to the town hall to admire how
00:01:32two wagon factory workers pulled down the red
00:01:35star of the proletariat dictatorship from the building wall.
00:01:38The crowd split at the corner of Jókai Street,
00:01:41a smaller group heading to the party headquarters, and the larger
00:01:45crowd to the County Prison. It was then that I separated
00:01:48from Ági, whom the will of the people carried to the party headquarters, while
00:01:52I drifted towards the prison. Here, we no longer acted independently,
00:01:56but as atoms of a revolutionary force.
00:02:00The prison guards offered no resistance; they handed over the
00:02:03keys, and a few minutes later, the pale,
00:02:06coarsely-dressed prisoners
00:02:09appeared at the prison gate, including the boy
00:02:13I defended
00:02:13in court yesterday.
00:02:18Suddenly, from the direction of Baross Bridge, some submachine guns rattled,
00:02:21and this unexpected gunfire silenced, then
00:02:24prompted to flee the crowd celebrating the released
00:02:27prisoners.
00:02:30officers rounded the corner and forced its way
00:02:34towards the prison entrance. The escape
00:02:37route towards the station was closed due to construction work,
00:02:40so the flood of people tried to cross the narrow
00:02:44pedestrian bridge in a panic to the Nádorváros
00:02:47side of the railway.
00:02:49While fleeing, several women stepped out of their high-heeled
00:02:53shoes to run faster. Looking
00:02:56back from the bridge, I still saw that in front of the prison, the submachine-gun-wielding
00:03:00AVH officers fired warning shots from their raised
00:03:04weapons, then jumped off the truck
00:03:07and ran into the prison
00:03:09yard.
00:03:12Having crossed to the other side, most of the people hurried towards Baross Bridge;
00:03:16only a dozen young people shortened
00:03:19their way through the railway tracks to throw stones
00:03:23last night were released by the from behind the brick piles of the 正在 built station
00:03:26towards the prison, annoying the AVH officers
00:03:30who were taking up firing positions in the windows.
00:03:33I also returned through the tracks, but since
00:03:36I saw little point in throwing stones, I didn't stay
00:03:39long.
00:03:42I joined the demonstrators gathered in front of the town hall, among
00:03:46whom I discovered several acquaintances, including Ibolya. It was
00:03:49here that the news reached me that the AVH officers
00:03:52had opened fire from the prison windows on the
00:03:55young people throwing stones. A 20-year-old nurse and two boys
00:03:59were killed. Most were wounded.
00:04:02Driven by the terrible news, the protesters even more determinedly demanded
00:04:06the removal of the old communist guard from the city
00:04:09council. It was already getting dark when Soviet
00:04:13armored vehicles appeared with a huge rumble
00:04:16from the direction of Kiskút. In moments, the square
00:04:20emptied; people sought refuge in the side streets
00:04:23and doorways. I watched the developments
00:04:26from behind a newspaper kiosk on an empty plot next to the Gergász
00:04:30restaurant. For a while, there was silence,
00:04:34then more and more people dared to come out from under the gates
00:04:37and shouted, waving flags: "Russians,
00:04:41go home!" The Russian soldiers sitting on top
00:04:44of the tanks silently endured the Hungarian
00:04:47youths shaming them.
00:04:51October 26, Friday. In the morning,
00:04:55I met Aladár Wells, the president of the bar association,
00:04:59at the corner of Baross Street, who, with tears in his eyes,
00:05:02asked me not to commit any rash acts that could cause me
00:05:05trouble later. By then, such a huge crowd had gathered
00:05:09in front of the town hall that the side streets were also filled
00:05:12with protesters.
00:05:14Representatives of the people on the balcony of the town hall
00:05:18urged the formation of a national council and the release
00:05:22of the students arrested the previous day.
00:05:25Allegedly, Soviet armored vehicles last night ensured the transport
00:05:28of officers' families from the city to their Győrszentiván
00:05:32base.
00:05:36Several suggested we march to the Nádorváros Rákóczi
00:05:39barracks and call on the soldiers to join us.
00:05:44At the barracks gate, a Hungarian army major received
00:05:46us, who spoke to the people from the stone fence
00:05:49of the barracks, claiming that the soldiers could not
00:05:53leave their quarters for
00:05:55security reasons. As a sign of good will, he took
00:05:59off the red star from his cap, and
00:06:01his example was followed by the small soldiers standing
00:06:04in the windows. It was a veritable starfall.
00:06:08Finally, the major allowed a small group of
00:06:12armed soldiers to join us and lead the
00:06:15march. Thus, we marched to the
00:06:18county headquarters of the Ministry of Interior, on Körkemence Street.
00:06:21There were perhaps 600-800 of us.
00:06:24The officer in sunglasses at the head of the AVH guards
00:06:28protecting the building's entrance strictly defined how far
00:06:31we could go. From the suspiciously bulging
00:06:35curtains of the open upstairs windows, it was
00:06:37clear that weapons were aimed
00:06:41at us from everywhere. Dobosfilmos, a photographer, who was leading
00:06:44a delegation negotiating the release of prisoners in the
00:06:47building, appeared several times at one of the first-floor
00:06:51windows and, with an unmistakable
00:06:53hand gesture, encouraged the crowd,
00:06:56which was growing by the minute, to increase
00:06:59their volume. After a while, the submachine-gun-wielding
00:07:03AVH officers quietly disappeared from the gate, and their
00:07:07place was taken by police officers in blue
00:07:09uniforms, who looked at the protesters
00:07:13with friendly expressions. The crowd that had gathered
00:07:17in the meantime roared menacingly: "Lay down your
00:07:19weapons!" The window curtains slowly
00:07:22smoothed out, and then a white flag appeared
00:07:26in one of the upstairs windows. The AVH surrendered.
00:07:30The crowd pushed into the
00:07:33building. With Károly Bálint, since we were close
00:07:36to the entrance, we entered with the first
00:07:39group to a place we would not have liked to enter
00:07:42yesterday. Most of the AVH officers,
00:07:46fearing retaliation, had meanwhile escaped through the
00:07:49back gate across the courtyard from the building.
00:07:52Only the police officers in blue uniforms waited for the crowd
00:07:55entering the Ministry of Interior headquarters. The few
00:07:59AVH officers who could not escape tried to blend into the crowd
00:08:02in civilian jackets. Only little Tulner
00:08:06I saw in uniform, as he anxiously tried to convince
00:08:09the young people around him that he had harmed no one.
00:08:13They just shouted at him but did not hurt him. From a
00:08:17man in a civilian jacket, whose identity was easy to
00:08:20determine from his military boots and trousers,
00:08:23I took the revolver hidden in his trouser pocket and placed
00:08:27it on the tray where weapons were being collected.
00:08:30From the basement prison cells, not only the young protesters arrested
00:08:36police, but others as well. Among them was
00:08:39a very pale, thin, broken old villager,
00:08:43who was allegedly dragged away by the AVH for
00:08:46violating delivery regulations.
00:08:48On our
00:08:51way back from the AVH, news reached us that at the
00:08:54Mosonmagyaróvár border guard barracks, the green AVH officers
00:08:57had fired into the unarmed crowd, and many
00:09:00had died. We had barely reached Stalin
00:09:04Street from Baross Bridge when a truck loaded with young people sped
00:09:08past us. From the vehicle, my friend Kalifa, whom
00:09:12I hadn't seen for days, shouted down, "Come
00:09:14Laci, we're going to Óvár to make order." I might
00:09:18have been able to catch the truck, which was then speeding
00:09:22up, but Ági, whom I met in front of the AVH
00:09:24headquarters, held me back. So I stayed in Győr, where
00:09:28the revolutionary national council was formed in the afternoon,
00:09:32led by Attila
00:09:32Szigeti.
00:09:36The first measure of the national council was to send
00:09:40Gábor Földes and three others to Mosonmagyaróvár
00:09:43to investigate the bloodbath and prevent
00:09:46further bloodshed. By then,
00:09:49under the leadership of Árpád Tihanyi, the convoy of trucks
00:09:53was already on its way to Óvár, and we met the last
00:09:56vehicle. Rumor has it that the Győr
00:10:00AVH did not use their weapons only because the commander
00:10:03of the Soviet troops who had retreated into the Szentiván forest
00:10:06refused all assistance when they called.
00:10:10At home, I turned on the radio. "The Győr station
00:10:13was broadcasting cheerful gypsy music."
00:10:17I immediately called the editorial office and protested
00:10:20that after the Mosonmagyaróvár tragedy, they were playing
00:10:23not mourning music, but comfort
00:10:26music.
00:10:29October 27,
00:10:30Saturday.
00:10:33Since I didn't have to go to work due to the general strike,
00:10:37I started my day in front of the town hall again this morning.
00:10:40Here I met Kalifa and others.
00:10:44Most people are dissatisfied with the composition of the national
00:10:48council, considering it too left-wing. This
00:10:51opinion was expressed, with the approval of the people, by Ireneus
00:10:55Galamb, a Benedictine teacher, who was not yet here
00:10:59during my student years, but
00:11:01later came to the Győr
00:11:04gymnasium. The national council promises to hold accountable
00:11:07those responsible for the order to fire on Thursday.
00:11:11The young people gathered in front of the town hall demand
00:11:14weapons and trucks to go to Budapest
00:11:16and fight.
00:11:19Attila Szigeti urged them to be sensible, which
00:11:22only further reduced the considered
00:11:27sentiment. To appease the dissatisfaction, Attila
00:11:31Szigeti ordered the organization of the National Guard,
00:11:35and entrusted this task to police major Ferenc
00:11:37Éliás. The people are also
00:11:40dissatisfied with the conduct of the military,
00:11:44demanding that the Hungarian army.