The story of the flag with a hole

Well before the anniversary of the October 23rd 1956 Revolution, the national flag with a hole in the middle is displayed on buildings all over the city. Newcomers to Budapest often wonder what the hole depicts.

According to eyewitness reports, the story goes back to the late afternoon of October 23rd when demonstrating students reached Bem tér.

Here, in between poem recitals and speeches someone noticed a red flag hanging from the balcony of the Foreign Ministry and people started to chant, “We want the Foreign Ministry’s national flag!” (Nemzeti zászlót a Külügyre!). Soon the Communist red flag was taken down and replaced by the Hungarian flag – this, however, had the so-called Rákosi coat of arms in the middle which resembled a Soviet emblem.

The reaction of the crowd to the hated symbol was: “That’s not our flag! Down with it!” Some quick work with a pair of scissors made the historic change, and the flag with a hole became the symbol of the 1956 anti-Soviet Revolution.

The symbolism of our 1956 flag with the hole became so powerful that it was copied 33 years later during the Romanian Revolution in 1989. The communist coat of arms was cut out from the middle of the Romanian national tricolor as a protest against the hated Ceaușescu regime.