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26 Dec 13
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09 Dec 13
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was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the government of the People's Republic of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956.
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Despite the failure of the uprising, it was highly influential, and came to play a role in the downfall of the Soviet Union decades later.
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27 Sep 13
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The revolt began as a student demonstration, which attracted thousands as they marched through central Budapest to the Parliament building, calling out on the streets using a van with loudspeakers via Radio Free Europe
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22 Sep 13
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spontaneous nationwide revolt against the government of the People's Republic of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies
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23 October until 10 November 1956
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first major threat to
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Soviet control
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since the USSR's forces drove out the Nazis at the end of World War II and occupied Eastern Europe
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failure of the uprising, it was highly influential, and came to play a role in the downfall of the Soviet Union decades later
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marched through central Budapest to the Parliament building
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began as a student demonstration
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student delegation entering the radio building to try to broadcast the students' demands was detained
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When the delegation's release was demanded by the demonstrators outside, they were fired upon by the State Security Police (ÁVH) from within the building. As the news spread, disorder and violence erupted throughout the capital
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government collapsed
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battling the State Security Police (ÁVH) and Soviet troops
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militia
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revolt spread quickly
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Pro-Soviet communists and ÁVH members were often executed or imprisoned and former prisoners were released and armed
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demanded political changes
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Radical impromptu workers' councils
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new government formally disbanded the ÁVH, declared its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and pledged to re-establish free elections
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changed its mind and moved to crush the revolution
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4 November, a large Soviet force invaded Budapest and other regions of the country. The Hungarian resistance continued until 10 November. Over 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops were killed in the conflict, and 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees.
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Hungary was a member of the Axis powers
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Hungarian military participated in
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By 1944 Soviet armies were advancing towards Hunga
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Fearing invasion, the Hungarian government began armistice negotiations with the Allies, but these were ended when Nazi Germany invaded and occupied the country and set up their own pro-Axis regime, the Government of National Unity (Hungary).
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At the time, Hungary was a multiparty democracy, and elections in 1945 produced a coalition government under Prime Minister Zoltán Tild
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After World War II, the Soviet Army occupied Hungary
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After the elections of 1945, the portfolio of the Interior Ministry, which oversaw the Hungarian State Security Police (Államvédelmi Hatóság, later known as the ÁVH), was forcibly transferred from the Independent Smallholders Party to a nominee of the Communist Party.[9] The ÁVH employed methods of intimidation, falsified accusations, imprisonment, and torture to suppress political opposition.[10] The brief period of multi-party democracy came to an end when the Communist Party merged with the Social Democratic Party to become the Hungarian Working People's Party, which stood its candidate list unopposed in 1949. The People's Republic of Hungary was then declared.[8]
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By 1949, the Soviets had concluded a mutual assistance treaty, the Comecon, with Hungary, that granted the Soviet Union rights to a continued military presence, assuring ultimate political control.
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The Hungarian Working People's Party set about to modify the economy into socialism by undertaking radical nationalization based on the Soviet mode
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By 22 October 1956, Technical University students had resurrected the banned MEFESZ student union,[12] and staged a demonstration on 23 October that set off a chain of events leading directly to the revolution.
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Hungary became a communist state under the severely authoritarian leadership of Mátyás Rákosi
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Under Rákosi’s reign, the Security Police (AVH) began a series of purges, first within the Communist Party to end opposition to Rákosi’s reign.
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The Rákosi government thoroughly politicised Hungary's educational system to supplant the educated classes with a "toiling intelligentsia".[18] Russian language study and Communist political instruction were made mandatory in schools and universities nationwide. Religious schools were nationalized and church leaders were replaced by those loyal to the government.[
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Under Rákosi, Hungary's government was among the most repressive in Europe.[
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The post-war Hungarian economy suffered from multiple challenges. Hungary agreed to pay war reparations approximating US$300 million, to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, and to support Soviet garrisons.[
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the Hungarian currency experienced marked depreciation, resulting in the highest historic rates of hyperinflation known.[23]Hungary's participation in the Soviet-sponsored COMECON (Council Of Mutual Economic Assistance) prevented it from trading with the West or receiving Marshall Plan aid.[24]
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In addition, Rákosi began his first Five-Year Plan in 1950-based on Stalin’s industrial program of the same name that sought to raise industrial output by 380 percent
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never achieved these outlandish goals
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moderate liberalization
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On 5 March 1953, Joseph Stalin died
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Rákosi remained General Secretary of the Party, and was able to undermine most of Nagy's reforms.
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April 1955, he had Nagy discredited and removed from office.
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After Khrushchev's "secret speech"
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Rákosi was deposed as General Secretary of the Party and replaced by Ernő Gerő on 18 July 1956.
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14 May 1955, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact
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declaration of neutrality established Austria as a demilitarised and neutral country
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his raised Hungarian hopes of also becoming neutral and in 1955 Nagy had considered "...the possibility of Hungary adopting a neutral status on the Austrian pattern"
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emboldened many Hungarians to hope for similar concessions for Hungary and these sentiments contributed significantly to the highly charged political climate that prevailed in Hungary in the second half of October 1956.
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Within the Cold War context of the time, by 1956, a fundamental tension had appeared in US policy towards Hungary and the Eastern Bloc generally. The United States hoped to encourage East European countries to break away from the bloc through their own efforts but wanted to avoid a US-Soviet military confrontation, as escalation might lead to into nuclear war.
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summer of 1956, relations between Hungary and the US began to improve.
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he US responded very favourably to Hungary's overtures about a possible expansion of bilateral trade relations.
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pace of negotiations was slowed by the Hungarian Ministry of Internal Affairs, which feared that better relations with the West might weaken Communist rule in Hungary.[37]
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Hungary's desire for better relations was partly attributable to the country's catastrophic economic situation.
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Rákosi's resignation in July 1956 emboldened students
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very popula
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These forums, called Petőfi circles
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On 16 October 1956, university students in Szeged snubbed the official communist student union, the DISZ, by re-establishing the MEFESZ (Union of Hungarian University and Academy Students), a democratic student organization, previously banned under the Rákosi dictatorship.
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Within days, the student bodies of Pécs, Miskolc, and Sopron followed suit. On 22 October, students of the Technical University compiled a list of sixteen points containing several national policy demands.
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—a national hero
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23 October 1956, approximately 20,000 protesters convened next to the statue of
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József Bem
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President of the Writers’ Union, read a manifesto to the crowd,[43] the students read their proclamation, and the crowd then chanted the censored patriotic poem the "National Song", which refrains: "This we swear, this we swear, that we will no longer be slaves."
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cut out the Communist coat of arms from the Hungarian flag,
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the crowd crossed the River Danube to join demonstrators outside the Parliament Building. By 18:00, the multitude had swollen to more than 200,000 people;[45] the demonstration was spirited, but peaceful.[46]
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First Secretary Ernő Gerő broadcast a speech condemning the writers' and students' demands.[46] Angered by Gerő's hard-line rejection, some demonstrators decided to carry out one of their demands, the removal of Stalin's 30-foot-high (9.1 m) bronze statue
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a large crowd gathered at the Radio Budapest building, which was heavily guarded by the ÁVH.
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was detained and the crowd grew increasingly unruly as rumours spread that the protesters had been shot
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attempting to broadcast their demands
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ÁVH tried to re-supply itself by hiding arms inside an ambulance, but the crowd detected the ruse and intercepted it.
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Tear gas was thrown from the upper windows and the ÁVH opened fire on the crowd, killing many.
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ungarian soldiers sent to relieve the ÁVH hesitated and then, tearing the red stars from their caps, sided with the crowd.[
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Provoked by the ÁVH attack, protesters reacted violently
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23 October, Hungarian Working People's Party Secretary Ernő Gerő requested Soviet military intervention "to suppress a demonstration that was reaching an ever greater and unprecedented scale."
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24 October, acting in accordance with orders of Georgy Zhukov, the Soviet defence minister, Soviet tanks entered Budapest
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That day, Imre Nagy replaced András Hegedüs as Prime Minister.[52] On the radio, Nagy called for an end to violence and promised to initiate political reforms that had been shelved three years earlier. The population continued to arm itself as sporadic violence erupted.[53]
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Armed protesters seized the radio building. At the offices of the Communist newspaper Szabad Nép unarmed demonstrators were fired upon by ÁVH guards who were then driven out as armed demonstrators arrived.[53] At this point, the revolutionaries' wrath focused on the ÁVH;[54] Soviet military units were not yet fully engaged, and there were reports of some Soviet troops showing open sympathy for the demonstrators.[55]
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25 October, a mass of protesters gathered in front of the Parliament Building. ÁVH units began shooting into the crowd from the rooftops of neighbouring buildings.[56][57] Some Soviet soldiers returned fire on the ÁVH, mistakenly believing that they were the targets of the shooting.[44][58] Supplied by arms taken from the ÁVH or given by Hungarian soldiers who joined the uprising, some in the crowd started shooting back.[
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The majority of Hungarian military units in Budapest and the countryside remained uninvolved, as the local commanders generally avoided using force against the protesters and revolutionaries.
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From 24 to 29 October, however, there were 71 cases of armed clashes between the army and the populace in fifty communities, ranging from the defence of attacks on civilian and military objectives to fighting with insurgents depending on the commanding officer.
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The attacks at the Parliament forced the collapse of the government
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Communist First Secretary Ernő Gerő and former Prime Minister András Hegedüs fled to the Soviet Union; Imre Nagy became Prime Minister and János Kádár First Secretary of the Communist Party.[61] Revolutionaries began an aggressive offensive against Soviet troops and the remnants of the ÁVH.
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Szoborpark
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led by Bela Kiraly, after attacking the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, carried out killings of dozens of suspected communists, state security members, and military personnel.
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In Budapest and other areas, the Hungarian Communist committees organised defence.
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revolutionary councils arose nationwide, assumed local governmental authority, and called for general strikes.
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As the Hungarian resistance fought Soviet tanks
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Spontaneous revolutionary militias arose, such as the 400-man group loosely led by József Dudás, which attacked or murdered Soviet sympathisers and ÁVH members.[65] Soviet units fought primarily in Budapest; elsewhere the countryside was largely quiet. One armoured division stationed in Budapest, commanded by Pál Maléter, instead opted to join the insurgents. Soviet commanders often negotiated local cease-fires with the revolutionaries.[66]
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Budapest, the Soviets were eventually fought to a stand-still and hostilities began to wane.
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In some regions, Soviet forces managed to quell revolutionary activity.
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Fighting had virtually ceased between 28 October and 4 November, as many Hungarians believed that Soviet military units were indeed withdrawing from Hungary.[69] There were at least 213 suspected or genuine Hungarian Working People's Party members lynched or executed during this period
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The rapid spread of the uprising in the streets of Budapest and the abrupt fall of the Gerő-Hegedüs government left the new national leadership surprised, and at first disorganised.
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Nagy, a loyal party reformer
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initially appealed to the public for calm and a return to the old order.
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Nagy, the only remaining Hungarian leader with credibility in both the eyes of the public and the Soviets, "at long last concluded that a popular uprising rather than a counter-revolution was taking place"
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Nagy announced an immediate and general cease-fire over the radio and, on behalf of the new national government, declared the following:
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- that the government would assess the uprising not as counter-revolutionary but as a "great, national and democratic event"
- an unconditional general ceasefire and amnesty for those who participated in the uprising; negotiations with the insurgents
- the dissolution of the ÁVH
- the establishment of a national guard
- the immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops from Budapest and negotiations for the withdrawal of all Soviet forces from Hungary
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Nagy formally declared Hungary’s withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact as well as Hungary’s stance of neutrality.
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On 1 November
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stressed that Hungary should be a neutral, multi-party social democracy.
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Political parties that were previously banned, such as the Independent Smallholders and the National Peasants' Party, reappeared to join the coalition.[
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Local revolutionary councils formed throughout Hungary,[78][79][80][81] generally without involvement from the preoccupied National Government in Budapest, and assumed various responsibilities of local government from the defunct Communist party.
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By 30 October, these councils had been officially sanctioned by the Hungarian Working People's Party, and the Nagy government asked for their support as "autonomous, democratic local organs formed during the Revolution".[82] Likewise, workers' councils were established at industrial plants and mines, and many unpopular regulations such as production norms were eliminated. The workers' councils strove to manage the enterprise whilst protecting workers' interests, thus establishing a socialist economy free of rigid party control.[83] Local control by the councils was not always bloodless; in Debrecen, Győr, Sopron, Mosonmagyaróvár and other cities, crowds of demonstrators were fired upon by the ÁVH, with many lives lost. The ÁVH were disarmed, often by force, in many cases assisted by the local police.[82]
In total there were approximately 2,100 local revolutionary and workers councils with over 28,000 members. These councils held a combined conference in Budapest decided to end the nationwide labour strikes and resume work on 5 November, with the more important councils sending delegates to the Parliament to assure the Nagy government of their support.[59]
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- Simultaneous movements towards multi-party parliamentary democracy, and a democratic national council of workers, which could "lead towards a capitalist state." Both movements challenged the pre-eminence of the Soviet Communist Party in Eastern Europe and perhaps Soviet hegemony itself. For the majority of the Praesidium, the workers' direct control over their councils without Communist Party leadership was incompatible with their idea of socialism. At the time, these councils were, in the words of Hannah Arendt, "the only free and acting soviets (councils) in existence anywhere in the world".[102][103]
- Khrushchev stated that many in the Communist Party would not understand a failure to respond with force in Hungary. Destalinisation had alienated the more conservative elements of the Party, who were alarmed at threats to Soviet influence in Eastern Europe. On 17 June 1953, workers in East Berlin had staged an uprising, demanding the resignation of the government of the German Democratic Republic. This was quickly and violently put down with the help of the Soviet military, with 84 killed and wounded and 700 arrested.[104] In June 1956, in Poznań, Poland, an anti-government workers' revolt had been suppressed by the Polish security forces with between 57[105] and 78[106][107] deaths and led to the installation of a less Soviet-controlled government. Additionally, by late October, unrest was noticed in some regional areas of the Soviet Union: while this unrest was minor, it was intolerable.
- Hungarian neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact represented a breach in the Soviet defensive buffer zone of satellite nations.[108] Soviet fear of invasion from the West made a defensive buffer of allied states in Eastern Europe an essential security objective.
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John Foster Dulles, the United States Secretary of State recommended on 24 October for the United Nations Security Council to convene to discuss the situation in Hungary, little immediate action was taken to introduce a resolution,[119] in part because other world events unfolded the day after the peaceful interlude started, when allied collusion started the Suez Crisis.
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The problem was not that Suez distracted US attention from Hungary but that it made the condemnation of Soviet actions very difficult
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Richard Nixon later explained, "We couldn't on one hand, complain about the Soviets intervening in Hungary and, on the other hand, approve of the British and the French picking that particular time to intervene against [Gamel Abdel] Nasser"
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Responding to the plea by Nagy at the time of the second massive Soviet intervention on 4 November, the Security Council resolution critical of Soviet actions was vetoed by the Soviet Union; instead resolution 120 was adopted to pass the matter onto the General Assembly. The General Assembly, by a vote of 50 in favour, 8 against and 15 abstentions, called on the Soviet Union to end its Hungarian intervention, but the newly constituted Kádár government rejected UN observers
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During the uprising, the Radio Free Europe (RFE) Hungarian-language programs broadcast news of the political and military situation, as well as appealing to Hungarians to fight the Soviet forces, including tactical advice on resistance methods. After the Soviet suppression of the revolution, RFE was criticised for having misled the Hungarian people that NATO or United Nations would intervene if citizens continued to resist.[124]
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On 1 November, Imre Nagy received reports that Soviet forces had entered Hungary from the east and were moving towards Budapest.[125] Nagy sought and received false assurances from Soviet ambassador Yuri Andropov that the Soviet Union would not invade.
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The Cabinet
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declared Hungary's neutrality, withdrew from the Warsaw Pact, and requested assistance from the diplomatic corps in Budapest and the UN Secretary-General to defend Hungary's neutrality.[126] Ambassador Andropov was asked to inform his government that Hungary would begin negotiations on the removal of Soviet forces immediately.[127][128]
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a Hungarian delegation
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were invited to attend negotiations on Soviet withdrawal at the Soviet Military Command at Tököl, near Budapest. At around midnight that evening, General Ivan Serov, Chief of the Soviet Security Police (KGB) ordered the arrest of the Hungarian delegation,[129] and the next day, the Soviet army again attacked Budapest.
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On 3 November,
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4 November, Ferenc Münnich announced on Radio Szolnok the establishment of the "Revolutionary Workers'-Peasants' Government of Hungary".
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second Soviet interventio
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The 8th Mechanized Army under command of Lieutenant General Hamazasp Babadzhanian and the 38th Army under Lieutenant General Hadzhi-Umar Mamsurov from the nearby Carpathian Military District were deployed to Hungary for the operation.[133] Some rank-and-file Soviet soldiers reportedly believed they were being sent to Berlin to fight German fascists.[134] By 21:30 on 3 November, the Soviet Army had completely encircled Budapest.
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Thus before a single shot was fired, the Soviets had effectively split the city in half, controlled all bridgeheads, and were shielded to the rear by the wide Danube river.
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4 November, Soviet tanks penetrated Budapest along the Pest side
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Operation Whirlwind combined air strikes, artillery, and the co-ordinated tank-infantry action of 17 divisions.[136]
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4 and 9 November, the Hungarian Army put up sporadic and disorganised resistance, with Marshal Zhukov reporting the disarming of twelve divisions, two armoured regiments, and the entire Hungarian Air Force. The Hungarian Army continued its most formidable resistance in various districts of Budapest and in and around the city of Pécs in the Mecsek Mountains, and in the industrial centre of Dunaújváros (then called Stalintown). Fighting in Budapest consisted of between ten and fifteen thousand resistance fighters, with the heaviest fighting occurring in the working-class stronghold of Csepel on the Danube River.[137] Although some very senior officers were openly pro-Soviet, the rank and file soldiers were overwhelmingly loyal to the revolution and either fought against the invasion or deserted. The United Nations reported that there were no recorded incidents of Hungarian Army units fighting on the side of the Soviets
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4 November, Imre Nagy broadcast his final plea to the nation and the world, announcing that Soviet Forces were attacking Budapest and that the Government remained at its post.
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An emergency Cabinet meeting was held in the Parliament but was attended by only three ministers.
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4 November,[143] in the town of Szolnok, János Kádár proclaimed the "Hungarian Revolutionary Worker-Peasant Government". His statement declared "We must put an end to the excesses of the counter-revolutionary elements. The hour for action has sounded. We are going to defend the interest of the workers and peasants and the achievements of the people's democracy."
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During the same hour, the parliamentary guard laid down their arms, and forces under Major General K. Grebennikm captured Parliament and liberated captured ministers of the Rákosi-Hegedüs government. Among the liberated were István Dobi and Sándor Rónai, both of whom becoming members of the re-established socialist Hungarian government.[137] Hungarian civilians bore the brunt of the fighting, as Soviet troops spared little effort to differentiate military from civilian targets.[147]For this reason, Soviet tanks often crept along main roads firing indiscriminately into buildings.[146] Hungarian resistance was strongest in the industrial areas of Budapest, which were heavily targeted by Soviet artillery and air strikes.[148]
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The longest holdouts against the Soviet assault occurred in Csepel and in Dunaújváros, where fighting lasted until 11 November before the insurgents finally succumbed to the Soviets.[59] At the end of the fighting, Hungarian casualties totalled at around 2,500 dead with an additional 20,000 wounded. Budapest bore the brunt of the bloodshed, with 1,569 civilians killed.[59] Approximately 53 percent of the dead were workers, and about half of all the casualties were people younger than thirty. On the Soviet side, 699 men were killed, 1,450 men were wounded, and 51 men were missing in action. Estimates place around 80 percent of all casualties occurring in fighting with the insurgents in the eighth and ninth districts of Budapest.
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- On 23 October, the honest socialist Hungarians demonstrated against mistakes made by the Rákosi and Gerő governments.
- Fascist, Hitlerite, reactionary, counter-revolutionary hooligans financed by the imperialist west took advantage of the unrest to stage a counter-revolution.
- The honest Hungarian people under Nagy appealed to Soviet (Warsaw Pact) forces stationed in Hungary to assist in restoring order.
- The Nagy government was ineffective, allowing itself to be penetrated by counter-revolutionary influences, weakening then disintegrating, as proven by Nagy's culminating denouncement of the Warsaw Pact.
- Hungarian patriots under Kádár broke with the Nagy government and formed a government of honest Hungarian revolutionary workers and peasants; this genuinely popular government petitioned the Soviet command to help put down the counter-revolution.
- Hungarian patriots, with Soviet assistance, smashed the counter-revolution.
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Nagy's appeal to the United Nations was not reported. After Nagy was arrested outside of the Yugoslav embassy, his arrest was not reported. Nor did accounts explain how Nagy went from patriot to traitor.[152] The Soviet press reported calm in Budapest while the Western press reported a revolutionary crisis was breaking out. According to the Soviet account, Hungarians never wanted a revolution at all.[151]
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With most of Budapest under Soviet control by 8 November, Kádár became Prime Minister of the "Revolutionary Worker-Peasant Government" and General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party. Few Hungarians rejoined the reorganised Party, its leadership having been purged under the supervision of the Soviet Praesidium, led by Georgy Malenkov and Mikhail Suslov.[162] Although Party membership declined from 800,000 before the uprising to 100,000 by December 1956, Kádár steadily increased his control over Hungary and neutralised dissenters. The new government attempted to enlist support by espousing popular principles of Hungarian self-determination voiced during the uprising, but Soviet troops remained.[163] After 1956 the Soviet Union severely purged the Hungarian Army and reinstituted political indoctrination in the units that remained. In May 1957, the Soviet Union increased its troop levels in Hungary and by treaty Hungary accepted the Soviet presence on a permanent basis.
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Nagy and his group were arrested when attempting to leave the embassy on 22 November and taken to Romania.
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The remainder of the group was returned to Budapest in 1958. Nagy was executed, along with Pál Maléter and Miklós Gimes, after secret trials in June 1958. Their bodies were placed in unmarked graves in the Municipal Cemetery outside Budapest.[167]
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During the November 1956 Soviet assault on Budapest, Cardinal Mindszenty was granted political asylum at the United States embassy, where he lived for the next 15 years, refusing to leave Hungary unless the government reversed his 1949 conviction for treason. Because of poor health and a request from the Vatican, he finally left the embassy for Austria in September 1971.
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Despite Cold War rhetoric by the Free World espousing a roll-back of the domination of Eastern Europe by the USSR and Soviet promises of the imminent triumph of socialism, national leaders of this period as well as later historians saw the failure of the uprising in Hungary as evidence that the Cold War in Europe had become a stalemate.
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Foreign Minister of West Germany recommended that the people of Eastern Europe be discouraged from "taking dramatic action which might have disastrous consequences for themselves." The Secretary-General of NATO called the Hungarian revolt "the collective suicide of a whole people".[170] In a newspaper interview in 1957, Khrushchev commented "support by United States... is rather in the nature of the support that the rope gives to a hanged man.
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In January 1957, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, acting in response to UN General Assembly resolutions requesting investigation and observation of the events in Soviet-occupied Hungary, established the Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary.
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Time magazine named the Hungarian Freedom Fighter its Man of the Year for 1956. The accompanying Time article comments that this choice could not have been anticipated until the explosive events of the revolution, almost at the end of 1956. The magazine cover and accompanying text displayed an artist's depiction of a Hungarian freedom fighter, and used pseudonyms for the three participants whose stories are the subject of the article.
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Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány referred to this famous Time Man of the Year cover as "the faces of free Hungary" in a speech to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1956 uprising.[183] Prime Minister Gyurcsány, in a joint appearance with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, commented specifically on the Time cover itself, that "It is an idealised image but the faces of the figures are really the face of the revolutionaries"
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At the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, the Soviet handling of the Hungarian uprising led to a boycott by Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland.[185] At the Olympic Village, the Hungarian delegation tore down the Communist Hungarian flag and raised the flag of Free Hungary in its place. A confrontation between Soviet and Hungarian teams occurred in the semi-final match of the water polo tournament. The match was extremely violent, and was halted in the final minute to quell fighting amongst spectators. This match, now known as the "blood in the water match", became the subject of several films.[186][187] The Hungarian team won the game 4–0 and later was awarded the Olympic gold medal. In 1957, Norway was invited to the first ever Bandy World Championship but declined because the Soviet Union was invited too.
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In December 1991, the preamble of the treaties with the dismembered Soviet Union, under Mikhail Gorbachev, and Russia, represented by Boris Yeltsin, apologised officially for the 1956 Soviet actions in Hungary. This apology was repeated by Yeltsin in 1992 during a speech to the Hungarian parliament.
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26 Apr 12
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the removal of Stalin's 30-foot-high (9.1 m) bronze statue that was erected in 1951 on the site of a church, which was demolished to make room for the Stalin monument
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a large crowd gathered at the Radio Budapest building, which was heavily guarded by the ÁVH. The flash point was reached as a delegation attempting to broadcast their demands was detained and the crowd grew increasingly unruly as rumors spread that the protesters had been shot. Tear gas was thrown from the upper windows and the ÁVH opened fire on the crowd, killing many
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Armed revolutionaries quickly set up barricades to defend Budapest, and were reported to have already captured some Soviet tanks by mid-morning.
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Armed protesters seized the radio building. At the offices of the Communist newspaper Szabad Nép unarmed demonstrators were fired upon by ÁVH guards who were then driven out as armed demonstrators arrived.
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At this point, the revolutionaries' wrath focused on the ÁVH
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On 25 October, a mass of protesters gathered in front of the Parliament Building. ÁVH units began shooting into the crowd from the rooftops of neighboring buildings.[53][54] Some Soviet soldiers returned fire on the ÁVH, mistakenly believing that they were the targets of the shooting.[41][55] Supplied by arms taken from the ÁVH or given by Hungarian soldiers who joined the uprising, some in the crowd started shooting back.[41][53]
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09 Dec 11
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rapid spread of the uprising in the streets of Budapest
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at first disorganized. Nagy
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for calm and a return to the old order. Yet Nagy, the only remaining Hungarian leader with credibility in both the eyes of the public and the Soviets, "at long last concluded that a popular uprising rather than a counter-revolution was taking place".[65] Calling the ongoing insurgency "a broad democratic mass movement" in a radio address on 27 October, Nagy formed a government which included some non-communist ministers. This new National Government abolished both the ÁVH and the one-party system.[66][67] Because it held office only ten days, the Nationa
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Local revolutionary councils
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autonomous, democratic local organs formed during the Revolution
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workers' councils were established at industrial plants and mines
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manage the enterprise whilst protecting workers' interests
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protests not as an ideological struggle, but as popular discontent over unresolved basic economic and social issues
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The Soviet Government is prepared to enter into the appropriate negotiations with the government of the Hungarian People's Republic
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presence of Soviet troops on the territory of Hungary.
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images of the victims were nevertheless used as propaganda by various Communist organs
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whether Hungary's declaration to exit the Warsaw Pact caused the second Soviet intervention
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the decision to intervene militarily was taken one day before Hungary declared its neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact
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the Hungarian declaration of neutrality caused the Kremlin to intervene a second time.
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One of his speechwriters later said that the declaration of neutrality was an important factor in his subsequent decision to support intervention.
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some Hungarian leaders of the revolution as well as students
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08 Jun 09
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04 Jun 08
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29 Apr 08
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An estimated 2,500 Hungarians died, and 200,000 more fled as refugees.
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In June 1956, a violent uprising by Polish workers in Poznań was put down by the government, with scores of protesters killed and wounded.
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Hungarian soldiers sent to relieve the ÁVH hesitated and then, tearing the red stars from their caps, sided with the crowd.[40][44] Provoked by the ÁVH attack, protesters reacted violently. Police cars were set ablaze, guns were seized from military depots and distributed to the masses and symbols of the communist regime were vandalised.[45]
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Nagy called for an end to violence and promised to initiate political reforms which had been shelved three years earlier. The population continued to arm itself as sporadic violence erupted.
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A ceasefire was arranged on October 28, and by October 30 most Soviet troops had withdrawn from Budapest to garrisons in the Hungarian countryside.
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"The Soviet Government is prepared to enter into the appropriate negotiations with the government of the Hungarian People's Republic and other members of the Warsaw Treaty on the question of the presence of Soviet troops on the territory of Hungary."[73]
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In addition, some Hungarian leaders of the revolution as well as students had called for their country's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact much earlier, and this may have influenced Soviet decision making.
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The last pocket of resistance called for ceasefire on 10 November.
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Over 2,500 Hungarians and 722 Soviet troops had been killed and thousands more were wounded.
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A General Assembly resolution was approved, deploring the repression of the Hungarian people and the Soviet occupation, but no other action was taken.[146]
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