The swollen Pinka Stream

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"Very few people know why The Soviet Union –under the leadership of rezsnyev- decided to raise the landmines in 1966. The final decision was greatly influenced by the Pinka Stream which got the thing moving in 1965. How did it happen? In 1957 -when the Iron Curtain descended for the second time- the bed of Pinka Stream was mined 50-70 m long from the frontier towards the inside of the country in order to hinder escape. Hungary was submerged by the greatest frozen flood of all time at the end of March 1965. Every river including Pinka overflowed and the landmines were washed out. Pinka Stream leaves Hungary at Pornóapáti and after an 8 km long reach in Austria, comes back at Szentpéterfa. After it returned to its bed, hundreds of landmines were inactivated by the explosives experts in Austria in the Summer of 1965. Unfortunately they couldn’t find all of them, and these mines killed two little girls. The Austrian Government requested the assistance of the United Nations to try to persuade the Soviet Union to raise the mines. The Soviet Union chose to do so in 1965, but the landmines had to be replaced, as the Austrian-Hungarian border couldn’t have functioned without the Iron Curtain. Then came the third period-the electrical signaling system-SZ100."

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Sándor Goják, about Iron Curtain

Sándor Goják was born in Borjád village (Baranya county) on 25th February 1947. His father was a mine worker and his mother was a housewife. The family had four children. After finishing primary school, he moved to Budapest. He played in Dózsa Football Team of Újpest as a kid soccer team player, later he was a member of the Youth Team. He was trained at an engine fitter’s vocational school. He completed it in 1964. He was drafted into the army as a frontier guard on 22nd February 1965. The military training was in Nyírbátor then he went to military officer’s school. He served as a platoon sergeant in Pornóapáti. He was discharged on 15th February 1968. He got married in 1971 and had two daughters. He worked for MÁV Vehicle Repair in Szombathely from 1971. He was a a group leader there. He continued his studies and graduated from engineering tertiary school. He built a villa on Vashegy in the neighbourhood of Felsőcsatár in 1981. He ran a wine bar there from 1990. From that time on he began to collect artefacts and stories of the 41 years during the Iron Curtain period and to build the museum. Iron Curtain Museum of Felsőcsatár officially opened in 2001.

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Felsőcsatár

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The first written mention of Felsőcsatár as Chatar, meaning 'shieldmaker', goes back to 1244. It was a serf village in the feudal era. Grapevine-growing in the village can be traced back to the middle ages. The village is situated on the bank of the Pinka brook, 20 kilometers west of Szombathely. The right bank of the brook today already belongs to Austria. In 1921 the border marking committee reinforcing the Treaty of Trianon awarded the village to Austria, but as a result of a public outcry, it became part of Hungary in March 1323. Due to its location, Felsőcsata and its surroundings had been a tightly controlled area from 1948 till the tearing down of the Iron Curtain and only holders of a special permit could access it. The mill on the Pinka brook was built in the 16th century and generated electric power since 1927. Felsőcsatár also hosts the Iron Curtain Museum founded by Sándor Goják.

The swollen Pinka Stream

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Sándor Goják, about Iron Curtain

Felsőcsatár

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