The Night Of Military History

"This night is different than the others" – says the promotion material of the national program. Well, it is different indeed. First of all the weather turned from hot summer to cool and rainly autumn in half a day, and secondly, we can hear gunfire from Kapisztrán Square. The horizon of the late dusk sky seems to clear up a bit, a pinkish line appears underneath the dark clouds. "In all probability, there will be wind" – we could come to the conclusion János vitéz-style, but those who are heading up to the Castle on foot seem to ignore the cold. There are also buses, of course, but you must be either very lucky to get on one of them, or must be friends with the driver. Who are shooting and why? This is the most important thing here! "It’s the Turkish again" – a teenager passing by me cracks a joke, then walks along the shiny cobblestones with his friends. As I find out later, they were ’running’ to the Museum of Military History from the House of Terror, and their next stop will be the Museum of Fine Arts. "What a soldierly way of organizing, your father was a sergeant, wasn’t he?" – a relaxed-looking member of the group of friends notes.

It is no wonder that everyone has made an action plan precisely broken down to minutes, because for 1.300 good Hungarian forints, all adults, and for 600, the students could visit almost every museum in the capital from late in the afternoon until the small hours. Moreover, there were also special programs waiting for the audience. (Not to mention the museums in the countryside.) Putting on the camouflage glasses again, we are focusing on the cavalcade in front of the entrance of the Museum of Military History: to the left, there is a floodlit combat vehicle, to the right, the members of the magnificent Nádor Honvéd Guards of Honour are standing at attention – you must be a fine soldier to tolerate so many pictures taken of the group with the flash on, with a stiff upper lip.

We can hear the sounds of military music from Szolnok coming from the courtyard of the museum, while little children decorated with camouflage paint, their eyes sparkling with joy, are running up and down, even tough they should be in bed by now. I mean they are running up and down the combat vehicles… Inside, the Marble Room is the room of contrasts. On the one hand, there is a MiG-29 simulator next to the EOD robot – guaranteeing an unlimited amount of racing, adventure, and action – on the other hand the mission uniforms on the figures standing still undoubtedly signal: Hungary has been a NATO member state for ten years, and Hungarian soldiers have been serving in various missions worldwide for ten years.

By choosing the interesting bits from the spectacular program offer everyone could select their favourite ones, but no one missed the latest spectacles of the museum: the Panzer IV guntower of the Southern Defence System from the Tito era, and the Maxim machine-gun. By the way we have found out here: the Maxim was responsible for the shots, and not the Turkish…Naturally, a lot of people also wanted to see the temporary and permanent exhibitions of the museum. At the first reading this is a cliché, a protocol sentence tasting like sawdust, but perhaps it says more that when we asked Lieutenant General (ret.) Dr. József Holló, the general director of the museum to assess the night at around half-time, he finished the interview by telling us that soon he would also lead a guided tour in one of the exhibitions. But before that he stated: the event is a success, and it is a good opportunity for the visitors not just to see the museum but also to learn about the past and present of the Hungarian Defence Forces with the help of the institute. And if it is true, then not only for one night a year, but for several days, even in the daytime more and more people can visit the ‘treasury of military relics’.