An alumna received one of Hungary’s highest awards on Oct. 22, the 69th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Elizabeth Spalding ’88, a visiting fellow of the Van Andel Graduate School and a third-generation anti-communist, was chosen by the President of Hungary, Tamás Sulyok, to receive the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary, one of the highest distinctions given by Hungary.

The Hungarian president chose Spalding to receive this award because of her dedication to anti-communism throughout her life, according to Spalding. Spalding serves as the founding director of the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington, D.C. 

Spalding has close relations to Hillsdale College; her husband, Matthew Spalding, serves as the Vice President of Washington Operations and Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government. She served as the editor-in-chief of the Collegian during her time as a student at Hillsdale College.

Communist rule in Hungary officially ended in 1989 with a peaceful transition to a parliamentary democracy. 

“What I was told by the government and then by the embassy, is that this distinction is for my teaching and scholarship, and also for my work through the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which I’ve been involved with since its inception over 30 years ago, and also for being the founding director and and the driving force behind the Victims of Communism Museum,” Spalding said.

People need to understand the continued need to fight against communism, according to Spalding.

“A lot of people will look at the fight for freedom against communism as something that’s historic, and I’d like people to understand that this is over 100 years old and still going on — modern communism’s horrible repression of people,” Spalding said. “We still have over 1.5 billion people forced to live under communism. That’s a significant percentage of the world population.”

Although Spalding has spent her life fighting communism through education and scholarship, she said the award was unexpected.

“First of all, it’s from a foreign country, and as an American, to receive the high honor, one of the highest honors from another country, seems completely unthinkable, inconceivable, and then also it’s for extraordinary merit and more of a lifetime achievement award,” Spalding said. “So I was very touched and honored.”

Péter Szijjártó, minister of foreign affairs and trade of Hungary, presented the award to Spalding on behalf of the president of Hungary.

“You could have heard a pin drop,” said Randal Teague, vice chairman of the Victims of Communism Foundation. “There was very serious attention to the proclamation that was read, to the remarks surrounding it, and to her remarks also.” 

Spalding said her passion to fight against communism is inspired by convictions against it, her family, and her education.

“Being raised as an American, educated as an American, knowing what freedom, authentic freedom really is, then I understand what totalitarianism, by contrast, is. It turned out that so much of my life has been a study of that,” Spalding said. “I’m a third generation anti-communist, and I grew up in a household where I got to meet many people who were able to escape communism. So it helped me understand the precious nature of my freedoms and also the human spirit that doesn’t want to be enslaved, and people will go to great lengths to get away from this most horrible ism.”

The Victims of Communism Museum is the only museum dedicated to the fight against communism in Washington, D.C., according to Catherine Spalding, Elizabeth Spalding’s daughter. Elizabeth Spalding uses her passion to educate as many people as she can on the current fight against communism with this platform, according to Teague.

“Her work for the museum was just the embodiment of making sure that these people, who the museum is for, that their stories were actually being told in the right way — historically, factually. She just dedicated literally years to make that happen,” Catherine Spalding said. 

The Hungarian government notified Elizabeth Spalding of her reception of the award in the summer, but the bestowing of the award took place on a significant anniversary in the fight against communism. 

“I received the award on the holiday which marks the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight, the beginning of the Hungarian Revolution, which I have done a lot of work on and a lot of education about, and is part of our museum and everything else that we do at VOC,” Elizabeth Spalding said. “So it was very meaningful to not only receive the award, but then to receive it on such an important day for Hungary and freedom everywhere around the world.”