Maria Heya Karcic remembers how the letters sent to her family in Soviet-controlled Hungary had to be in code. She remembers church crosses being replaced by the red star of the Soviet Union. She remembers how newsreels at the movie theater would stop to show the image of dictator Josef Stalin. And she remembers how, 50 years ago today, Hungarians tried to free themselves. Their bloody, 13-day uprising is credited by many as an important break in the Iron Curtain, which ultimately fell in 1989. Considering that Communist indoctrination spread into all aspects of everyday life, especially within the school systems, Karcic said it's a miracle that "people kept their minds." University students who first attempted to broadcast their call for liberation had been indoctrinated into communism for about 11 years, Karcic said. The ill-fated revolt, from Oct. 23 through Nov. 4, 1956, started when university students compiled a 16-point manifesto demanding the Soviets leave the country, according to the American Hungarian Foundation. The Soviet-controlled government rejected the protestors' demands. Eventually, the secret police opened fire on a crowd, and the uprising escalated into a violent, bloody conflict. In an action that became a symbol of the uprising, Hungarians tore the Soviet hammer and sickle and red star from the Hungarian flag. The red, white and green flag with a hole in the center was a symbol that even found its way into the Melbourne Olympics that year. By Oct. 29, Soviet troops began to withdraw. However, the Soviets launched a surprise offensive on Nov. 3 and overtook the capital of Budapest as Hungarian officials asked Western countries for help. Radio stations, which were briefly liberated from broadcasting pro-Stalin messages when Russia withdrew, soon stopped broadcasting. When they returned to the airwaves, the Soviets were in charge again, according to the American Hungarian Foundation. "It was an annihilation," said Karcic, 82, of Harrison. "Buildings were toppled over. There were mass graves. "Later, people were taken off the street because they were in a picture of a crowd taken in 1956." Karcic and her daughter, Julia Karcic, now a doctor with a practice in Natrona Heights, have visited Hungary frequently, both during the height of the USSR's power and after its fall. Maria Karcic left Hungary with her parents in 1945, the same year the Soviets took over the country. In letters home, "we didn't talk about anyone by their names," she said. "The 'physics teacher' was my aunt. They never signed their names." Letters that made it through Soviet filters often were censored or had portions cut out. When movie theaters showed newsreels before the feature movie, Karcic said, the film froze on the image of Russian dictator Josef Stalin whenever he appeared. The audience had to stand and sing Communist anthems. When Maria and Julia visited, they were under suspicion as people carrying U.S. passports into a country under Soviet rule. "We were given a booklet, like a passport, and every morning at 7 a.m. we had to report to the police station and answer questions about who we were visiting and why," Maria Karcic said. Julia Karcic said Hungarians lived in constant fear. "People would disappear. My uncle was dragged off, but by the grace of God, they let him live. His great sin was he had a university degree -- he was an engineer." The Karcics gave Maria's aunt a transistor radio. She kept it hidden under a bed to muffle the sound. "She could listen to Radio Free Europe between midnight and 3 a.m.," Julia Karcic said. Even after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Julia Karcic still sees the remnants of Soviet oppression, especially among older people who lived under that yoke. "You see the way people are afraid to speak," she said. "You're always suspected of being guilty of some conspiracy. "Having grown up with these stories, I never expected that in my mother's life this would come to an end." In 1993, on a trip with her husband, Julia Karcic stopped in a bookstore searching for a book by 19th-century poet Sandor Petofi, whose patriotic poetry became a rallying cry for the 1956 uprising. "When I asked for the book, the little old man's voice dropped and he said, 'Follow me,' " Julia Karcic said. "He led us to a hidden door where he kept all the authors who were patriots. The book had been printed in secret." Though Oct. 23 is celebrated, the turn of events that led to the return of Soviet rule a short time later are too painful to relive, the Karcics said. "The uprising -- that's the spirit we remember," Maria Karcic said.

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