Thousands of New Yorkers will be pausing today to reflect on the revolution that erupted 50 years ago this coming Monday, and on the tragedy that followed 12 days later, when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary and crushed the revolt against communist rule.The invasion consigned the Hungarian people to another generation of slavery under communism, and the thing to remember about it is the point that is made in the adjacent columns by one of the journalists who remained most loyal to the vision of a free Hungary, Peter Keresztes. He spent the climactic years of the Cold War with the Wall Street Journal editorial page in Europe and went on, after the liberation of his homeland, to launch and edit the Hungarian edition of Readers Digest. And his point is that over the long run democracy always prevails over tyranny.

The editor of the Sun, who worked with Mr. Keresztes during those years, likes to tell of how he came to hire the dapper American-Hungarian. He had asked Mr. Keresztes to try knocking out an editorial. Mr. Keresztes fastened on a phrase that had been included in a recent issue of Time magazine — a reference to the “beloved Janos Kadar,” who was then the Hungarian communist dictator. He wrote a devastating several paragraphs, puncturing the notion that any communist head of government could enjoy any legitimacy. One of the things to remember at this moment is that war is often a time of illusions, and one has always to be on one’s toes.

Back in June, on a visit to a Europe seething with anti-Americanism, President Bush visited Budapest to participate in one of the early markings of the anniversary of the anti-Communist uprising in Hungary. We remarked at the time that the Iraqis, Iranians, Lebanese, and even Syrians and Egyptians are in the midst of a Budapest moment just now. Iraqis are braving violence to vote and form a free constitutional government. Iranian students are rallying against their government. Lebanese are struggling valiantly against Syrian — that is to say, Iranian — domination. In Egypt the winds of democracy are stirring. It is a moment to remember that tyranny is not inevitable and that the yearnings of people to be free are, as Mr. Bush has often said, universal. And when the West betrays them, generations of freedom can be lost.