Tribune Excerpts
The following article appeared in the July 2006 Edition of the Macedonian Tribune
From Detsa Begaltsi to Hungarian Freedom Fighter to loyal US citizen
By Virginia Surso
Mike and Sotir were lucky to be on the train bound for Budapest, Hungary, a more westernized country compared with other destinations such as Romania or one of the many Soviet republics. They arrived in Budapest at night and were dazzled by the bright lights of the first big city they had ever seen.
Immediately, those in charge separated the boys from the girls. The children stripped off their clothes, which were burned. Their heads were shaved and their bodies sprayed to rid them of lice. A doctor checked them over, pronounced most of them healthy and took care of those who needed care.
“That first night we slept six-in-a-bed made up with clean white sheets. We thought we were in heaven.”
The next day, the children were told they could not pray because the people in charge did not believe in God.
“Oh my God, we thought. For sure, we are going to hell. What do they mean we cannot pray?”
Later that day, they were sent to a Russian army headquarters in a village near a lake. It was a small village. Each family had one or two children and cared for the Macedonian children much as foster parents. Mike’s “father” taught him to ride a bike. He took him up a huge hill, put him on the bike and away he went all the way down the hill. “I think I hit every tree on the way down, but I was so excited. I had never seen a bike in my life.” Mike also remembers going to school in Budapest. The boys lined up and the man in charge came through and designated the trade each boy would pursue. He was selected to become a tool and die maker. He studied Russian, Hungarian, Greek and Macedonian in night school (the latter two for when he returned home), and two to three hours each day, he worked toward an apprenticeship. “They taught in the German tradition. If you didn’t learn, they hit you up the side of the head,” Mike remembers. | 
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By graduation time, he was a category five tool and die maker and made pretty good money. He also was required to join the Hungarian Communist youth organization.
“We cried when Stalin died. We cried when a Greek Communist died. We were brainwashed.”
 Above: Mike (left) scored the winning goal for his soccer team in Hungary. Tied 1 – 1, with only a couple of minutes to go, the other team pulled their goalie, Mike scored on a diagonal kick which nearly hit the side. |
In 1956, he took an active role in the Hungarian revolution. One night he and his friends lured a tank down a dead-end street. A group of Soviet soldiers who looked more Mongolian than Slavic walked behind the tank. The young revolutionaries escaped through a manhole, and the tank was forced to back up. Apparently, due to lack of communication between the tank and the troops behind it, all of them were crushed. As a wanted man, Mike slipped across the border into Austria with a group of friends. They gave a guide all the money they had, and he provided safe passage. They had to be careful not to end up in Czechoslovakia, another Soviet bloc state. The friends slept in a barn and left the next day by bus for Vienna – free men. |
