The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a spontaneous, nationwide uprising against the Soviet-backed communist regime, fueled by a desire for freedom and self-determination, which was ultimately brutally suppressed by Soviet military intervention.
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so as you all already know from the
title of the episode
today we are going to be discussing the
events of the hungarian revolution
this episode builds on our last episode
where we laid all the groundwork
explaining the situation in hungary
leading up to october of 1956
so if you haven't already seen that
episode you
really should go watch it go now go
okay now where were we right budapest in
october of 1956
was at a leading edge in changing
feelings towards socialism
the death of stalin three years before
gustaf's secret speech a few months earlier
earlier
years of political oppression and
economic stagnation
all of this was coming together in a
movement demanding
real change i'm your host david and today
today
we are looking at the 1956 hungarian uprising
uprising
okay so as i've mentioned the
liberalizing atmosphere that was developing
developing
after stalin's death was certainly
giving new hope to hungarians
interested in bringing reforms to their
own country
but it wasn't just the changes in the
soviet union they were looking at
they had also just seen a spate of
successful reforms
enacted in poland after the so-called
puzdan june
a smallish revolt that had taken place
in the city of poznan
here's the link to the video that we did
on that now
not only had poland installed a new
reformist government
with more local control but they had
also arranged for the removal of
large numbers of soviet army troops from poland
poland
as you'll recall following stalin's
death rakoshi matias the stalinist
post-war hungarian
leader had been removed from leadership
replaced by the reformer
noj imre who had set about releasing
political prisoners
and reinstating to the hungarian workers
party anti-rakoshi members
who had previously been expelled public
forums were being held with
workers students and intellectuals all
taking part
finally when rakoshi ousted nudge and
regained power
no rollbacks on these liberalizations occurred
occurred
even when rakoshi was permanently ousted
and replaced by their
parent guerra erno no re-stalinization
occurred as you can imagine all of this
bolstered hope for increased
permanent freedoms in the country that
brings us to october 1956
agitation and public calls for change
were becoming more prevalent
on october 23rd over 20 000 people
gathered in budapest at the statue of
joseph bem
a polish revolutionary who had taken
part in the 1848
hungarian revolution at that gathering
the president of the writers union of
hungary vedas peter
read a manifesto to the crowd what has
become known as the sixteen points
it demanded the withdrawal of all soviet
troops from hungary
free and open multi-party elections a
new government
led by node imre to lead hungary to
those elections
as well as the complete reorganization
of the hungarian economy
the 16 points also called for freedom of
the press
and the restoration of hungary's
national symbols
in place of the communist ones that had
been adopted since the end of the war
it was this gathering that first
witnessed one of the most prominent symbols
symbols
of the revolution a hungarian flag being waved
waved
with the communist coat of arms cut from
the middle
this crowd on bem square then
spontaneously moved
from bem square across the river to the
parliament buildings
to continue the demonstration there at
this point the working day for many was ending
ending
and the crowd swelled to as many as 200
000 people
despite the large crowd things remained peaceful
peaceful
although there were hints that things at
this point were
beginning to radicalize the constant
outcry from the demonstrators
where calls for the soviets simply
referred to as russians
to go home by the evening of the 23rd
the hungarian leadership had grasped the
severity of the situation
guerra made the decision to publicly condemn
condemn
both the 16 points and the
demonstrations as a whole
he also made a private request to the
soviet ambassador
to hungary for military assistance the
ambassador's name by the way
yuri vladimirovich andropov remember
that name
for later back in the square outside
parliament where the demonstration was occurring
occurring
calls for nudge to speak increased until
at 8 45 pm
on the evening of the 23rd he appeared now
now
his speech that night actually called
for the dispersal of the demonstration
to allow him time to secure the reforms
everyone was looking for
this is actually totally on brand for
nudge who was
not a firebrand revolutionary but rather
more of a moderate
understand that nudge was still a
dedicated communist
one who believed in gradual reforms to
transition to increased sovereignty
and possibly even democracy for his country
country
the crowd left parliament but did not disperse
disperse
instead splitting into two groups one group
group
moved towards the building housing
hungarian radio and the other towards
stalin square
the second group moved on to stalin
square at the edge of the vatos light
the city square and set about destroying
the statue of stalin
a gift that had been presented to the
country in 1951
to mark the vlog's 70th birthday
according to kopachi shandor the head of
the police at the time
the demonstrators placed a thick steel
rope around the neck of the 25 meter
tall stalin statue
while the other people arriving in
trucks with oxygen cylinders
and metal cutting blowpipes were setting
to work on the statue's bronze shoes
an hour later the statue fell down from
its pedestal
only the boots remained and hungarian
flags were quickly
planted in them now the second group
that left parliament that night
had moved towards hungarian radio the crowd
crowd
entered the building and demanded that
the 16 points
be read over the radio waves the request
was refused
and a standoff began a rumor began to spread
spread
outside the building that those inside
had been detained by the avh
the secret police and tension began to spiral
spiral
this is where the demonstrations took a
significant turn
the avh opened fire on the crowd killing
three this did not disperse the crowd
but only angered it instead
and violence flared the avh realizing
their predicament
called for the hungarian military to
provide support and troops were dispatched
dispatched
however the soldiers not only didn't
move against the crowd
but actively joined them and began
firing on the avh troops
the avh troops at the direction of
kobachi shandor
then declared themselves for the
demonstrators and joined the burgeoning revolution
revolution
they opened their weapons depots and the revolutionaries
revolutionaries
began to arm themselves soviet
leadership in moscow quickly understood
the gravity of the situation
and after short discussion immediately
decided that the best course of action
would be to dismiss gera as first
secretary of the hungarian workers party
and appoint nudge as the new prime
minister in place of hegedus
andhras who had been pm since 1955.
this would be done in exchange for nudge
agreeing to accept that soviet troops
would remain in hungary to
ensure stability this was actually an
offer which nudge accepted
in the early morning hours of october
24th 6 000 soviet troops
accompanying hundreds of tanks entered budapest
budapest
and took control of the city's main
streets and squares
opposing them armed rebels had three
main strongholds
in budapest on the pesh side of the
river was the area surrounding the
cordovan theater
as well as the area around badoch square
while on the buddha side
they had invested themselves around cena square
square
below the castle district of course we
would be remiss
if we didn't also point out that
budapest was not
the only site of revolt hungarians in debretsen
debretsen
mishkotz and chepau had all taken to the streets
streets
in support the entire country was tense
and divided and not just between the
soviet-backed government supporters
and the protesters but within the
factions of the protesters themselves
on one side was nudge who called for
calmness so that reforms could be enacted
enacted
however many of the protesters did not
want to wait for reform
they wanted immediate action to
dismantle the entire system
then and there the soviets continued to move
move
new troops into the city as fighting continued
continued
but were forbidden to use artillery or airstrikes
airstrikes
as they engaged with the demonstrators so
so
clearly fighting is going on but who was
fighting who
well as you can guess the protesters
were fighting the soviet troops
but were being brought into the city the
protesters were
also fighting avh troops who largely had
remained loyal to the moscow-backed government
government
in part out of fear of what would happen
to them if the regime they had so
brutally served
suddenly fell but where did the
hungarian army stand on all this
well it was largely divided some units
were protecting
or had even joined the protesters while
other units were actively fighting
against them
trying to put down the rebellion the
next day
october 25th saw another large demonstration
demonstration
outside of the parliament building at
some point during the demonstration
either adh or soviet troops it's unclear which
which
opened fire resulting in the deaths of 75
75
people the result of this massacre was a
massive boost in support for the rebels i'm
i'm
going to call them rebels now including
hundreds of the demonstrators
moving into the rebels strongholds it's
likely that at this point there were
perhaps up to 2 000 armed rebels
in budapest after the massacre on the 25th
25th
the reaction of men like gerard and
hegeduce was
not to stay and find a way to quell the
rebellion but
rather to flee the country to the soviet union
union
the rebellion was spreading and by then
debertsen miesgolds chapel
and page were under full control of the rebels
rebels
in budapest skirmishes continued with
the rebels finding success
even repelling an assault by soviet
troops on the corvin theater
destroying four tanks in the process
nudge understood that the situation in
his country was precarious
with a real possibility that the
conflict would spiral
out of control endangering the uprising itself
itself
on october 27th he announced the
formation of a new government
one which included four non-communists
at the same time he was negotiating with
representatives from moscow
anastasia and mikhail souslav in an
attempt to win some of the reforms
demanded by the rebels
by the next day the 28th a ceasefire had
been arranged
the fighting had claimed the lives of
over 1 000 rebels
and at least 500 soviet troops the agreement
agreement
nudge came to stipulated that soviet
troops would be withdrawn not only from
budapest but
also from hungary in exchange the nudge
government would restore order to the country
country
and disarm the rebels nudge also
announced on the 28th
his support of the revolution that the
avh was being dissolved
and that a new national guard was to be formed
formed
made up of elements of the police the
army and the rebels
in addition 8 000 political prisoners
were to be released and political parties
parties
which had been banned under the rakoshi
regime were allowed to operate
so everything seems good for the
hungarians right
well as i'm sure you can guess it didn't
stay that way
in the days following the ceasefire the
crowds of demonstrators
captured and then subsequently lynched
several hundred members of the avh
and the hungarian workers party the most
significant example of this
happened on the 30th when a renewed
skirmish between the rebels and the avh
broke out at the headquarters of the
hungarian workers party
the avh troops surrendered and 23 of
their officers
were then summarily executed this
anti-communist violence was as you can imagine
imagine
not at all well received in moscow and
strengthened the argument of those who
wanted to forcibly put down the rebellion
rebellion
but what was the overall viewpoint from moscow
moscow
well from the beginning it was divided
on one side were those who wanted to
immediately resort to force
but there was a more moderate group
notably led by khrushchev
and zhukov who feared a disastrous
international outcome
similar to that being suffered by the
french and the british in the suez at
the same time
that the hungarian revolt was playing out
out
grushov was hoping for an outcome
similar to what had been arranged in poland
poland
where the nudge government would remain
communist and
inside the soviet sphere of influence in fact
fact
on the 30th before the attack and
execution of the avh
troops in budapest the soviet government
had pledged to tolerate the nudge government
government
and would reconsider the status of
soviet troops stationed in warsaw pact nations
nations
when soviet leadership heard about the
anti-communist attacks
and the murder of the adh troops this
line of moderate thinking was swept from
the table
clearly seeing the depth of
anti-communist mood in the country
and coupled with nudge's recent decision
to withdraw from the warsaw pact
coupled with a declaration of neutrality
a decision to act
was made on october 31st the pilot
bureau reversed its earlier decision
and resolved to use force to put down
the revolution
the date was set for november 4th
as soviet troops began to mass on the
hungarian border
nudge was reassured by ambassador andropov
andropov
that there was nothing to fear and it
was routine
troop movements nudge not anybody's fool
understood what was happening and in a
bid to draw on international support
from the west
publicly announced the withdrawal from
the warsaw pact and declared hungary
neutral on november 3rd ambassador andropov
andropov
met with the hungarian minister of
defense malette
pal himself a colonel of an armored division
division
who had defected to the rebels after
being initially ordered to destroy them
they met at the toko soviet barracks to
discuss the terms of the soviet withdrawal
withdrawal
although the meetings seemed to go well
malator was
arrested by the kgb towards the end of
the meeting
by this point soviet troops had
encircled budapest
and the hungarian army found themselves
totally unprepared
for what was to come nudge was reluctant
to order his own troops to fire on the soviets
soviets
still hoping to find a peaceful solution now
now
there could only be one possible outcome
in the early hours of november 4th
soviet forces
went into action and brutal repression followed
followed
nudge fled to the yugoslavian embassy
where he sought refuge
as fighting intensified gadar yanosh
announced the establishment of a new government
government
the hungarian revolutionary
worker-peasant government
nudge was lured out of the u.s lab embassy
embassy
on the promise of safe passage from
hungary but was promptly arrested
nudge was executed two years later
lacking any central control no
widespread organized resistance was possible
possible
and the defense of budapest and other
regions of hungary
fell to isolated pockets of rebels which
the soviet army
systematically crushed by the 9th of november
november
the fighting was done and hungary had
been subdued
no outside support would be forthcoming
for the rebels as
the west was otherwise distracted by the
suez crisis
and was not willing to risk a war with
the soviet union
in all between 2 500 and 3 000
hungarians died as a result of the fighting
fighting
and estimates of those wounded ranged
anywhere from 13 000 to 20
000 people on the soviet side over 700
soldiers were killed
and as many as 1 500 wounded in the fighting
fighting
significantly though over 180 000
hungarians fled the country most heading
west across the border into neighboring austria
austria
of those who remained in hungary 22 000
people were brought before the courts
and imprisoned and as many as 350 people
were executed would remain
head of a soviet-backed communist
hungary until 1988
by which time the winds of change had
begun to blow
we hope you've enjoyed this second
episode of the cold war channel's presentation
presentation
of the 1956 hungarian revolution please
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