HUNGARY: Commemoration of the 1956 uprising occurs against the backdrop of a raging dispute between the country's main political factions, writes Daniel McLaughlin in Budapest
For many Hungarians, Maria Wittner put it best.
Sentenced to death for fighting in the 1956 uprising against Soviet domination, Wittner spent 14 years in jail. Fifty years on, she is appalled at the prospect of honouring the revolution alongside Socialists with political roots in the Communist Party.
"The government wants us to stand by their side on October 23rd," she said recently. "Never! Never! We will not dishonour our executed martyrs."
Budapest's liberal mayor accused Wittner of inciting unrest at last month's demonstrations against the Socialist prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, after he admitted lying to the nation about the dire state of the economy to win re-election in April.
But her passionate opposition to the government and Mr Gyurcsany, who was a rising star in the ailing Communist Party before becoming a millionaire in capitalist Hungary, strikes a chord with much of Hungary as it remembers the events of 1956.
Many veterans refused to shake Mr Gyurcsany's hand on Sunday night after receiving awards for bravery shown 50 years ago, and the Fidesz opposition party has boycotted all government-organised events to commemorate the revolution.
"We are not going to take part in any events where Ferenc Gyurcsany will speak, because we think it is an open provocation against the spirit of 1956 and the Hungarian people," said Fidesz spokesman Peter Szijjarto. "People were also protesting against lies in 1956."
Despite facing condemnation from the government and academics for invoking the spirit of 1956 at their political rallies, Fidesz continues to link the Socialists with the Soviet forces and their local allies that crushed the uprising.
The Hungarian right resents Mr Gyurcsany for his power, his money, his convincing election victory over Fidesz, and his refusal to be ashamed of his communist past - he still lives, without apparent discomfort, in a luxurious villa given by the state to his wife's grandfather, the hardline communist Antal Apro.
Fidesz never tires of tying the Socialists to a Communist Party that was led after November 1956 by loyal Kremlin appointees, men who executed the leaders of a people's uprising that took 2,500 lives and prompted 200,000 Hungarians to flee abroad.
But now the Socialist party, emboldened by Mr Gyurcsany and his combative style, is challenging Fidesz's claim to be the torchbearer of the revolutionary spirit.
They note that the uprising began as a protest against Soviet domination, not socialism, and that its best-known hero, Imre Nagy, was appointed by the Kremlin as Hungarian leader because of his loyalty to Moscow and desire for managed change.
But after bloodshed in Budapest and other towns radicalised the demands of the rebels, Nagy, a mild "reform communist", was forced to bow to public calls for more radical change or face being swept away by the revolution.
"This life, this political heritage, this political activity can't just be a closed lesson of history books," Socialist Party chairman Istvan Hiller said of Nagy's legacy.
"This is a spiritual heritage that the progressive Hungarian left has an obligation to respect." Nagy wanted to give communism a "human face", to mould it to Hungarian traditions and society, and to prevent any more of the bloody purges that blighted Hungary after the second World War, under Stalinist dictator Matyas Rakosi.
Janos Varga, who took to the streets to demand change 50 years ago, said Fidesz is wrong to suggest that the revolutionaries detested socialism.
"We weren't looking to overthrow socialism," insisted Varga (79).
"We simply could no longer tolerate the lies and the disdain for our national feelings." Academics have also denounced Fidesz's claim to be the only party with the clear conscience and patriotic credentials needed to uphold the legacy of 1956.
"Fidesz is trying to prove that leftist parties are not legitimate in this democracy, that they have no right to mark the 1956 anniversary," said historian Janos Rainer, director of the Institute on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
"Fidesz's exploitation of this at such a symbolic time is scandalous."
Taking the fight to the opposition, Mr Gyurcsany has denounced Fidesz for doing too little to prevent last month's riots and for taking their protest to the streets, rather than debating the issues in parliament.
"It's absolutely clear that there is an open fight for power. . . which questions the moral and political right of parliament to decide about government and the government programme," he told a Socialist Party congress last weekend.
But for Hungary's many urban and rural poor, who resent being lied to and told to tighten their belts by a multimillionaire former communist, memories of 1956 only inspire their current struggle.
"The regime didn't change," said Joszef Petik (84) who protested 50 years ago and has been demonstrating outside parliament for the last month.
"We have the same demand as in 1956," he said. "Hungary should be freed."