by Ailsa Kay
It’s quiet down here. All he wants is the sound of his spade against rock.
I promised you, Zsofi. Didn’t I promise? I will tunnel under this city to find you. I will burrow to get you out.
I would like to thank Julia Creet for taking me to Hungary; Ilona Roth for lessons, friendship, and Budapest nights; and Gabor Leeb, my first tour guide. Thanks also to my agent, John Pearce, whose support has never flagged, and my editor, Bethany Gibson, whose insightful reading has made this a better book than I thought possible. I’m grateful for the support of the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.
Many books have been important to the writing of this one: Eyewitness in Hungary: The Soviet Invasion of 1956, particularly chapters by Peter Fryer and Dora Scarlett, edited by William Lomax; The Storyteller: Memory, Secrets, Magic and Lies, by Anna Porter; Budapest Exit: A Memoir of Fascism, Communism, and Freedom, by Csaba Teglas; and Encounters: A Hungarian Quarterly Reader, edited by Zsófia Zachár. The most important source for “Now or Never” was A Student’s Diary: Budapest, October 16–November 1, 1956, by Laszlo Beke. The story of the girl who offers Agnes a candy from her pocket is based on memory recounted on FreedomFighter56.com, an oral history project of The Hungarian American Coalition and Lauer Learning. The Sandor Petofi poem, which was recited during the revolution, is “Nemzeti Dal” or “The Song of the Nation.” I have used Laszlo Korossy’s translation, available on his website at www.korossy.org/magyar.
After the Russian forces ended the revolution, retaliation for revolutionary activity was swift and extensive. Between late 1956 and 1959, 35,000 people were charged with political crimes. Approximately 22,000 were convicted, most for participating in the revolution or the ensuing “resistance.” Approximately 13,000 prisoners were sent to reopened internment camps outside of Budapest, and 229 people were executed. In response to these measures, Hungarians developed what psychologist Ferenc Marai called a “national amnesia” about the revolution. This silence and forgetting lasted at least twenty years (Janos Rainer, “The Reprisals,” Encounters).
The secret tunnels and underground prisons have never been found, yet belief in them remains. The inspiration for this book came originally from Istvan Rev’s Retroactive Justice: Prehistory of Post-Communism, in which he analyzes Hungary’s attachment to stories about the secret tunnels. Tibor’s two accounts of the search for prisons under Communist Party Headquarters are based on witness accounts by Károly G. Oláh and László Papp, available at FreedomFighter56.com. Gyula’s experience in a deep underground prison is based not on memoirs of prisoners but on the persistent belief in such prisons.
Photo: Laird Kay
Ailsa Kay fell in love with Budapest when she lived there in 2004 and she returns as often as she can.
Her short fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Exile and The New Quarterly. She lives in Fergus, Ontario. Under Budapest is her first novel.