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Hungarian Revolution (1956) - Coggle Diagram
Hungarian Revolution (1956)
Why were the Hungarian people unhappy and what were they fighting to defend?
Although non-communists won the 1945 election, by 1948 the communists had taken over by taking control of the secret police (the AVH) and eliminating their political opponents. The Hungarian leader, Matyas Rakosi, was a hard-line communist fully in league with Moscow.
Hungarians had no freedom of speech. The AVH created a climate of fear, arresting anyone who spoke out against communism. Even something as simple as listening to Western music could lead to arrest.
Thousands of Soviet troops and officials were stationed in Hungary, which were a drain on the Hungarian economy, creating economic hardship for ordinary people.
The Russian language was being forced upon the people - with Hungarian street signs being replaced with Russian versions, and Russian being imposed as the language in schools.
What
Encouraged by the new freedom of debate and criticism, a rising tide of unrest and discontent in Hungary broke out into active fighting in October 1956
Rebels won the first phase of the revolution, and Imre Nagy became premier, agreeing to establish a multiparty system
On November 1, 1956, he declared Hungarian neutrality and appealed to the United Nations for support, but Western powers were reluctant to risk a global confrontation
On November 4 the Soviet Union invaded Hungary to stop the revolution, and Nagy was executed for treason in 1958
Nevertheless, Stalinist-type domination and exploitation did not return, and Hungary thereafter experienced a slow evolution toward some internal autonomy
Hungarian Revolution, popular uprising in Hungary in 1956, following a speech by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in which he attacked the period of Joseph Stalin’s rule
Replaced by Kadar
Nagy's Reforms
Free elections to choose the government.
An impartial legal system to ensure fair trials.
The total withdrawal of the Soviet army from Hungary.
Farmers to be allowed private ownership of their land (instead of it being state owned).
Hungary to leave the Warsaw Pact and declare neutrality in the Cold War.
The Soviet Crackdown
Khrushchev refused to accept Hungary leaving the Warsaw Pact as it would leave a gap in the USSR’s buffer zone with Western Europe.
Thousands of Soviet tanks and soldiers entered Hungary to crackdown on the protests. Many Hungarians tried to flee but were blocked from leaving the country; others were killed or injured. Many thousands of Hungarians were arrested and 26,000 Hungarians were tried with additional imprisonments and executions as a result.
Nagy was arrested and executed. He was replaced by János Kádár who crushed the remaining resistance.
The international reaction to the attempted revolution indicated that, despite its declaration that it would roll-back communism, the countries of NATO were unwilling to intervene in Soviet bloc countries.
The UN declared its disgust at the treatment of Hungarians by their government, and aid money was raised for the refugees. Communist parties in some Western European countries like Italy, Britain and France, began to change their opinion of the USSR. However, there was no military intervention to support the Hungarian rebels.
Soviets put a brutal end to Hungarian Revolution
A spontaneous national uprising that began 12 days before in Hungary is viciously crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on November 4, 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter-million Hungarians fled the country.
The problems in Hungary began in October 1956, when thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding a more democratic political system and freedom from Soviet oppression
On November 4, 1956, Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest to crush, once and for all, the national uprising. Vicious street fighting broke out, but the Soviets’ great power ensured victory
In response, Communist Party officials appointed Imre Nagy, a former premier who had been dismissed from the party for his criticisms of Stalinist policies, as the new premier
Nagy tried to restore peace and asked the Soviets to withdraw their troops. The Soviets did so, but Nagy then tried to push the Hungarian revolt forward by abolishing one-party rule. He also announced that Hungary was withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact (the Soviet bloc’s equivalent of NATO).
At 5:20 a.m., Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy announced the invasion to the nation in a grim, 35-second broadcast, declaring: “Our troops are fighting. The Government is in place.”
Within hours, though, Nagy sought asylum at the Yugoslav Embassy in Budapest. He was captured shortly thereafter and executed two years later
Nagy’s former colleague and imminent replacement, János Kádár, who had been flown secretly from Moscow to the city of Szolnok, 60 miles southeast of the capital, prepared to take power with Moscow’s backing.
Response
The Soviet action stunned many people in the West. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had pledged a retreat from the Stalinist policies and repression of the past, but the violent actions in Budapest suggested otherwise
An estimated 2,500 Hungarians died and 200,000 more fled as refugees. Sporadic armed resistance, strikes and mass arrests continued for months thereafter, causing substantial economic disruption.
Inaction on the part of the United States angered and frustrated many Hungarians. Voice of America radio broadcasts and speeches by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had recently suggested that the United States supported the “liberation” of “captive peoples” in communist nations
During that time, approximately 30,000 Hungarian refugees were allowed to enter the United States. Yet, as Soviet tanks bore down on the protesters, the United States did nothing beyond issuing public statements of sympathy for their plight
Impact on Soviet Control & Cold War
NATO unwilling to intervene in Soviet bloc countries
Cold war moving away from Europe