Hungarian uprising of 1956. How the Soviet Army suppressed the Hungarian uprising (37 photos)
Introduction
hungarian uprising cold war
Hungarian Uprising of 1956 (October 23 - November 9, 1956) (in the post-communist period of Hungary known as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, in Soviet sources as the Hungarian Counter-Revolutionary Rebellion of 1956) - an armed uprising against the pro-Soviet regime of the People's Republic in Hungary in October - November 1956, suppressed by Soviet troops.
The Hungarian uprising became one of the important events period of the Cold War, which demonstrated that the USSR was ready to maintain communist regimes in the Warsaw Pact countries by military force.
Throughout the existence of the USSR, this revolution was considered counter-revolutionary, and the suppression of the uprising was positioned as the suppression of the new emergence of fascism on the territory of Hungary. In books and printed publications, only one point of view was “expressed” - the opinion of the communist authorities. Few people could openly voice the story from eyewitnesses in those days. After gaining independence from the communist system and changing the constitution in 1989, new facts from the history of the 1956 uprising began to emerge, which forced many people to reconsider their attitude to the events of those years.
What was the catalyst and cause of the revolution? What are the requirements and consequences? This work describes the previous prerequisites, as well as the events themselves in Hungary in 1956.
1956 in Hungary: causes and consequences of events
On February 13, 1945, after a two-month operation, the Red Army completed the Budapest campaign and took the city; a red flag was hoisted in the capital of Hungary. In a country that was an ally of Nazi Germany in World War II, Moscow created a puppet government and established Soviet power. In Hungary, the fascist regime was replaced by the Red dictatorship. This system, which operated in Hungary for fifty years, existed only thanks to the support of the Red Army and Soviet intelligence services.
After the Second World War, the establishment of a communist regime began in Hungary, which belonged to the Soviet sphere of influence. In 1949, the communists held formal elections in the country and formalized their rise to power. This process was led by the leader of the Hungarian Communist Party, Matthias Rakosi.
The Hungarian Communist Party did not come to power; it had neither opportunities nor support in society. There were not enough followers; in the elections the communists received only 1/6 of the votes. The guarantor of their strength was the Soviet Red Army, units of which were located in Hungary. The Communist Party came to power thanks to their efforts. The Soviet army used violent methods to remove democratically elected representatives from power. With the help of soldiers, the Hungarian police were governed.
The construction of communist Hungary proceeded at an accelerated pace, Hungarian communism was an analogue of the Soviet-Stalinist model, Rakosi, who considered himself a student of Stalin, imitated the “Leader” in everything. A one-party system was established in the country. Security services persecuted members of opposition parties. Freedom of speech was limited. The active propagation of the Russian language and culture began. The government announced the nationalization of banks, enterprises and transport system. A reform was carried out that implied collectivization. As a result, the country's standard of living fell catastrophically. These reforms strengthened the anti-communist sentiment that existed in Hungarian society. Hungary was on the verge of an uprising.
On July 13, 1953, the leader of the Hungarian communists, Matthias Rakosi, was summoned to the Kremlin and subjected to severe criticism for the severe situation in the country. economic situation. The dictatorship imposed in Hungary was so unpopular, it placed an unbearable burden on Hungarian society, that it was felt in Moscow. It became clear that Hungary was not following the path of stabilization, but on the contrary, the situation was becoming more and more aggravated. Every day the attitude of Hungarian residents towards communism worsened, which not unreasonably gave cause for concern to the Kremlin. Rákosi, who was always considered a devoted supporter of Stalin, lost his leadership position in Hungary after the death of the “Leader”. The new leaders of the Kremlin did not trust him; a new leader was supposed to come to power in Hungary, although Rakosi retained leadership of the party, but Moscow considered that his tenure as head of the republic was not advisable. On the recommendation of the Kremlin, fifty-seven-year-old Imre Nagy became the new prime minister.
Imre Nagy, who had been a member of the Bolshevik Party since 1917, was an acceptable figure for Moscow, being good specialist he was well versed in agriculture. At the same time, he was a Moscow cadre and played important role in food provision. Also, one of his advantages was his good knowledge of the Russian language, since it was easier to negotiate with him and keep in touch at any time. After the establishment of the socialist regime in Hungary, he always held high positions in the Hungarian government, the only exception was 1949, when Nagy criticized the collectivization of Hungary, he was removed from his position in the Rakosi government and expelled from the party, but after repentance he was reinstated in the party and returned to the government.
After his appointment as Prime Minister, Imre Nagy immediately began to implement reforms to liberalize Hungary. He wanted to painlessly transform the Stalinist system created by Rakosi, the process of forced collectivization was stopped, and the release and amnesty of political prisoners began. Censorship was partially lifted from the Hungarian press.
Nagy tried to democratize, but not dismantle the socialist system, but these processes were met with hostility by Matthias Rakosi and his supporters. There were big disagreements between Rakosi and Nagy, there was a real struggle
At that time, their influence in the party was still quite strong, however new course supported most of intelligentsia and students. The press published articles that criticized errors in the socialist system.
Moscow reacted negatively to the reforms carried out by Imre Nagy, as it was afraid that Nagy might have gone too far with his reforms. For the Soviet leaders of that time, the changes that came as a result of the reforms were not acceptable. The head of the Hungarian government was summoned to Moscow. On January 8, 1955, at a meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, in which Nagy took part, Nikita Khrushchev accused the Chairman of the Hungarian Council of Ministers of factionalism. Three months later, on instructions from the Kremlin, the Central Committee of the Hungarian Workers' Party (HWP) dismissed Imre Nagy from the post of head of government and expelled him from the party again.
Nagy's resignation increased dissatisfaction with the communist system in Hungarian society. Representatives of the intelligentsia, students, and party members who supported Nagy demanded that his course be continued. Literature prohibited by censorship was distributed among the population, including revolutionary poems by the famous poet Sandor Petofi.
For Hungary, Petőfi means as much as Rustaveli for Georgians, Shakespeare for the British, Pushkin for the Russians, and Shevchenko for the Ukrainians. In Hungary, his name is associated not only with poetry, but also with the struggle for freedom. In 1848, Sándor Petőfi was one of the leaders of the Hungarian revolution; the Young Hungary organization he founded became the flagship of the revolution. In 1849, the poet died fighting for freedom. He was killed in a battle with Russian Cossacks. A hundred years later, a new revolution was associated with the name of Petőfi, now the Hungarians opposed the Soviet occupation, and only youth were at the forefront. In 1955, students formed the Sandor Petofi circle in Hungary, it became the center of debate, at the meeting they openly protested against the Soviet system, which in turn became the reason for a close look at the organization from Moscow. The USSR Ambassador to Hungary, Yuri Andropov, informed the Kremlin almost every day about anti-Soviet meetings. In the summer of 1956, the communists banned the circle, but this did not lead to the desired result.
The situation in Hungary was getting more and more out of control. The communists tried to defuse the situation with personnel changes in the government. On July 17, 1956, Matthias Rákosi, the first secretary of the VPT, was removed from his post and the chairman of the economic committee of the government, Erne Gerö, was elected in his place. But this was not enough.
Erne Gerö was an orthodox Stalinist, former right hand Rakosi, who committed the same crimes as Rakosi himself. For the Hungarians, this again became a tragedy; the Kremlin again brought a communist to power, and not someone who the people would trust and who could correct the situation.
Two months after Gero's appointment, the congress of the Writers' Union openly expressed its support for Imre Nagy and demanded his rehabilitation. The communist leadership, which was gradually losing its influence in the country, was forced to reinstate Nagy in the party. But this was already able to stop the anti-communist movement. The first large-scale march, which was of an anti-communist nature, took place on October 6, 1956. The occasion was the reburial of the ashes of Rajko Laszlo, a communist executed in 1949 and rehabilitated after the death of Stalin. More than one hundred thousand people took part in the procession; it was then that anti-Stalinist slogans appeared on the streets of Budapest; as it later turned out, this was just the beginning.
On October 16th, university students in Szeged left the pro-communist Democratic Youth League and revived the union of students of Hungarian universities and academies. The union had clear anti-Soviet demands. Almost all Higher Ones joined the new union educational establishments Hungary. At noon on October 22nd, a meeting took place at the Budapest University of Technology, which at that time was called the Budapest University of Civil Engineering and Industry. Students in the amount of 600 people drew up a manifesto, which consisted of 16 points, the main demands - conclusion Soviet troops from Hungary, the appointment of free elections, the release of political prisoners, the restoration of national symbols and holidays, the abolition of communist censorship, the return of Imre Nagy to the post of chairman of the government.
At 14:00 on October 23, the central streets of Budapest were filled with people, demonstrators walked to the monument to Józef Bem, one of the leaders of the 1848 revolution. As they walked, the number of demonstrators increased, and ordinary citizens joined the students. By 15:00, 200,000 Hungarians had gathered at the Bam monument, demonstrators cut off communist symbols from Hungarian flags and chanted anti-Soviet slogans. From the monument to Bam, people moved towards parliament, some of the students went to the state radio building.
By 6 o'clock in the evening, students approached the radio building, they demanded to read live a manifesto consisting of 16 points of demands. By this time, the building was taken under the protection of reinforced state security units, which brought weapons and ammunition into the building in ambulances. Representatives of the student delegation were allowed in to negotiate with the radio management, but they never returned. By 9 p.m., as thousands of demonstrators stood in front of the radio, tear gas grenades were thrown at protesters from the windows of the building, and a few minutes later security personnel opened fire on unarmed people.
Demonstrators disarmed the guards around the radio perimeter and began storming the building, with people coming to help from all over the city. On October 24 at 2 a.m., to suppress anti-Soviet protests, the first Soviet tanks appeared on the streets of Budapest.
After a meeting of the presidium with the first members of the Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev decides to send troops to the capital of Hungary. By order of the Minister of Defense, Marshal Zhukov, a special corps of Soviet troops located on the territory of Hungary was to suppress the protests.
To defuse the situation, on the night of October 24, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the VPT, it was decided to return Imre Nagy to the post of Prime Minister, but this had no effect on the people who took to the streets. Appearance on the streets of Budapest Soviet army led to an increase in patriotic sentiments. The Soviet military tried to come to the aid of the Hungarian security forces besieged in the radio building, but encountered fierce resistance and were forced to retreat.
On the morning of October 24, the radio station building had already completely come under the control of demonstrators. In parallel with this, the rebels captured the base of one of the Hungarian units and took weapons. By 14:00, Soviet troops took control of the parliament building, the Central Committee, the airport and the railway station. Almost all residents of Budapest joined the resistance movement; unarmed people expressed their protest by destroying communist symbols: monuments to Stalin, burning the works of Lenin, red flags.
On October 24 at 15:00, Imre Nagy addressed the population on the radio and called on everyone to remain calm. He promised the rebels that no harsh measures would be taken against them if they laid down their arms. Despite the authority of the prime minister, not a single Hungarian abandoned the armed struggle. Several thousand soldiers and officers of the Hungarian army went over to the side of the rebels, and the rebels acquired heavy military equipment. The real battle began in Budapest. The Hungarians shot at Soviet soldiers from the roofs and attics of multi-story buildings, erected barricades and blocked the streets.
To fight the rebels, the Soviet leadership transferred a mechanized division stationed in Romania to Hungary, which entered Budapest on October 25th. Its composition was approximately 6,000 soldiers and officers, up to 400 armored vehicles and 156 artillery pieces. About 3,000 Hungarians fought against them, the bulk of them were workers and students, there were also professional soldiers of the Hungarian army who went over to the side of the rebels, their tactics were determined by the available weapons. The rebels fought Soviet troops in small groups, mostly armed with grenades, machine guns and Molotov cocktails. Soviet tank crews, who did not know the city and found it difficult to maneuver in the narrow streets, were easy targets for the Hungarian fighters. The Hungarians fired at Soviet equipment and Soviet soldiers from all sides. After six days of fierce fighting, the losses of the Soviet division amounted to more than 60 tanks and about 400 people killed.
On October 25, the Kremlin dismissed Erne Gero from his post as secretary, and instead appointed Politburo member János Kador. At the same time, to overcome the crisis, Imre Nagy began negotiations with a delegation of workers who supported the rebels. It was at these meetings that Nagy realized that without accepting the demands of the rebels, the fighting would not stop.
On October 27, Nagy held negotiations with Suslov and Mikoyan; he explained to Kremlin representatives that partial satisfaction of the demands of the rebels would not create a danger to socialism in Hungary. To defuse the situation, Nagy asked for Soviet troops to be withdrawn from Budapest.
On October 28th in Moscow, at a meeting of the Central Committee, Nikita Khrushchev gives the order for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Budapest. Moscow is studying the current situation and waiting further development events. It takes time to mobilize additional armed forces of the USSR, since it was clearly impossible to stop the offensive with the available forces.
On October 29, units of Soviet troops began to leave Budapest. Several units remained in the city that provided security for the Soviet embassy and the building of the Hungarian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Street fighting stopped in Budapest, but the situation still remained tense. The rebels demanded the withdrawal of all Soviet troops from the entire territory of Hungary, the country's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and the declaration of neutrality.
On October 30, Imre Nagy abolishes the one-party system and announces the creation of a coalition government; all this, and primarily the danger of Hungary leaving the Warsaw Pact, caused a harsh reaction from Moscow.
On October 30, an event in the Middle East was added to these events - the “Suez Crisis”. Israel, France and Great Britain carried out military intervention against Egypt, a state friendly to the Soviet Union. Khrushchev, who always closely monitored the balance of power in the international arena, toughened his position towards Hungary.
On October 31, the next emergency meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee was held in Moscow, at which Khrushchev demanded the creation of a new workers' and peasants' government in Hungary under the leadership of Janos Kador. By decision of the Kremlin, the suppression of the protest in Budapest was entrusted to Marshal Konev.
On the morning of November 1, Imre Nagy was informed that new military units of the Soviet army would be introduced into Hungary. The Prime Minister demanded an explanation from the Soviet Ambassador Yuri Andropov, the answer was extremely vague. In such a situation, Nagy convened a government meeting at which he raised the question of the country's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, which was supported unanimously.
On November 1, Soviet troops surrounded Budapest. The command distributed a special order among the military; the need for the operation was explained to the soldiers as follows: “At the end of October, in our brotherly Hungary, the forces of reaction and counter-revolution rose up in rebellion with the aim of destroying the people’s democratic system, eliminating the gains of the revolutionary working people and restoring the old landowner-capitalist order in it... The task of the Soviet troops is to assist the Hungarian people in defending their socialist gains, in defeating the counter-revolution and eliminating the threat of the return of fascism."
On November 4, 1956 at 5:30 am, the Soviet military command launched Operation Whirlwind. About 60,000 soldiers, approximately 6,000 armored vehicles, artillery and aircraft took part in the operation. Despite the overwhelming superiority of the Soviet army, the population of Budapest selflessly fought against the invaders; the Hungarians showed particular resistance in battles in front of the parliament, the royal palace, and Moscow Square. The most difficult thing for the Soviet troops was to take the Korvin cinema, where the Hungarian headquarters was located. They were able to take it only on November 7th, thereby breaking the main resistance of the Hungarians, although fighting continued in the city. The last center of resistance in Csepel was destroyed by Soviet troops on November 9th.
In addition to Budapest, the Red Army was fought in other cities of Hungary; the Soviet soldiers were resisted by Dior, Miskolc, Pecs, Deblenc and Dekezcsab. Despite the general uprising, the popular anti-communist uprising was defeated.
On November 7, the new head of government, Janos Kador, entered Budapest under the protection of Soviet tanks. With his first order, he restored in Hungary the administration that had operated in Hungary before the uprising began. Imre Nagy, who had been hiding for some time in the Yugoslav Embassy, was arrested.
As a result of Operation Whirlwind, the losses of the Soviet side amounted to more than 700 people killed and more than 1,500 wounded, about 3,000 Hungarian citizens died, great amount civilians were injured and most of Budapest was completely destroyed.
After the suppression of the uprising in Hungary, mass repressions began; arrests were led by the chairman of the State Security Committee, Ivan Serov. During the entire period of repression, more than 15,000 people were arrested, most of them were placed in prison. From 1956 to 1960, the court sentenced 270 people to capital punishment.
To escape political terror, Hungarian citizens tried to flee abroad, the rebels and their families fled to Austria and Yugoslavia. After the uprising was crushed, about 200,000 people fled their homeland. Due to the huge flow of refugees, the Austrian government was forced to open refugee camps on its territory.
On June 9, 1958, a closed trial began in the People's Court of Hungary in the case of former Prime Minister Imre Nagy and several of his associates, he was accused of high treason and conspiracy.
On June 15, Imre Nagy was sentenced to death penalty. The sentence was carried out the next day. Hungarian freedom was delayed for another forty years.
Conclusion
The Hungarian revolution of 1956 ended in failure and suffered very heavy human losses, but it cannot be said that this event was meaningless. Important lessons were learned, especially for ourselves as the Hungarian people. I would like to highlight and emphasize a couple of main points:
First. In your desire to be independent and free people, you can only rely on yourself. Imre Nagy, being a good and authoritative official, somewhat overestimated the capabilities of Hungary’s “Western” allies. His calculation relied on assistance from the UN and the USA, but in fact, and in connection with “ cold war", the allies did not want to openly intervene in the conflict, so as not to further aggravate relations between the USA and the USSR. If Hungary left the socialist camp, the status quo on the world stage of the Soviets would be greatly shaken, and would become a precedent for similar revolutions in other countries that are part of the USSR.
Second. Although there was a physical defeat in the revolution, it was a victory from the point of view of ideas and thoughts, the thought of the revival of an independent Hungary. Yes, we had to wait 40 long years for it, but the “germ” of freedom was laid precisely in 1956 by the forces of workers, students and intelligentsia defending their civic position.
Literature
1. Gati, Ch. Deceived expectations. Moscow, Washington, Budapest and the Hungarian uprising of 1956/Part. Gati - M.: Moscow School of Political Studies, 2006 - 304 p.
2. Kontler, L. History of Hungary. Millennium in the center of Europe/L. Kontler - M.: The whole world, 2002 - 656 p.
3. Lavrenov, S. Ya. “Whirlwind” in Budapest, 1956 // Soviet Union in local wars and conflicts / S. Ya. Lavrenov, I. M. Popov - M.: Astrel, 2003 - 778 p.
4. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%E5%ED%E3%E5%F0%F1%EA%EE%E5_%E2%EE%F1%F1%F2%E0%ED%E8 %E5_1956_%E3%EE%E4%E0
5. http://time-4.livejournal.com/6015.html
6. http://tankiwar.ru/vooruzhennye-konflikty/vengriya-1956-god
On November 4, 1956, Soviet tanks entered Budapest to suppress the uprising, which was joined by the top local communist party. IN Soviet time The uprising in Hungary was classified as reactionary, counter-revolutionary and even fascist. But in fact, a very significant part of the rebel leaders were communists and even belonged to the local communist party. Life recalls the details of this conflict.
After the end of World War II, Hungary, like other Eastern European countries, was included in the sphere of influence of the USSR. This meant that a gradual transition from a capitalist economy to a socialist one would begin there. IN different countries this process was led by local communist leaders, so the processes were different. The ultra-Stalinist regime of Matthias Rakosi was established in Hungary.
Rákosi is an old communist, he participated in the attempted revolutionary seizure of power together with Bela Kun in 1919. Later he sat in a Hungarian prison, serving a life sentence for underground political activity. In 1940, the USSR exchanged it for captured Hungarian banners captured by the Russian imperial army in 1848. So Rakosi found himself back in the Soviet Union.
Together with Soviet troops, Rákosi returned to Hungary at the end of the war and received support from Moscow. The new Hungarian leader tried to follow Stalin in everything and even surpass him. A very tough regime of the sole power of Rakosi was deployed in the country, which dealt with both politically unreliable citizens and his political competitors. After the Hungarian Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party merged into one party in power, Rakosi began to destroy his rivals.
Almost all major communists who were not part of Rakosi's inner circle of trusted people were subjected to repression. Foreign Minister Laszlo Rajk was shot. Gyula Kallai, who replaced him in this post, was imprisoned. The future long-time leader of Hungary, János Kádár, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Rakosi was ferocious and ruthless, but in 1953 Stalin died, and the political situation in Moscow changed dramatically. There it was decided to switch to collective rule, dictatorship sharply went out of fashion. The new Moscow authorities looked at Rakosi as a maniac and relied on Imre Nagy.
Nagy was captured by Russian troops during the First World War; in 1917, like many other Hungarians, he joined the Bolsheviks and participated in the Civil War. Then for a long time worked in the Comintern, was associated with the NKVD and was considered reliable person. Nagy enjoyed special confidence from Beria and Malenkov. The leader of Yugoslavia, Tito, who was considered Rakosi's personal enemy, also sympathized with Nadya.
loosen the nuts", screwed Rakosi to the limit, and also announced the priority of development light industry and about abandoning too expensive and not entirely necessary projects in heavy industry. Taxes and tariffs for the population were lowered.
However, Rakosi was not going to give up his position so easily. His group strengthened in the party apparatus, and the offended Hungarian leader was waiting in the wings. Already at the beginning of 1954, as a result of the apparatus struggle, Malenkov lost his post as head of the Soviet government. Beria was shot even earlier. Nagy lost his powerful patrons, and Rakosi went on the offensive. The post of first secretary of the party was again higher than the head of government. Soon Nagy was removed from all posts and expelled from the party. And Rakosi began to curtail his policies.
But already in 1956 a powerful blow awaited him again. At the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev publicly debunked the Stalinist cult of personality. This dealt a powerful blow to the positions of the Stalinists in the people's democracies. In the new conditions, the best Hungarian student of Stalin could no longer remain in power, but managed to prepare his replacement. His protégé, former chief of state security (AVH) Ernő Gerő, became the new first secretary. The choice was in the best traditions of Rakosi, because Gero bore the unspoken nickname of the Butcher of Barcelona for his very specific activities during civil war in Spain, where he cleared the ranks of the Republicans from Trotskyists and “wrong socialists.”
thaw." These events had big influence on Hungary, inspiring Hungarians to protest.
Geryo did not suit either Moscow or the Hungarians themselves. He did not have time to fully master the levers of power. The party intelligentsia openly sympathized with Nagy.
Revolution
On October 22, Budapest students sent demands in the spirit of democratization and deracosization to party newspapers. They demanded the return of Imre Nagy to the party, trials of Rakosi and his supporters guilty of mass repressions, and so on. These student manifestos were published in several newspapers that sympathized with Nagy.
A student demonstration was scheduled for October 23 under the slogans of democratization of socialism. The authorities hesitated, giving conflicting instructions. The demonstration was first banned, then allowed, then banned again, which caused discontent among the already incensed population. As a result, almost a third of Budapest came to the demonstration.
For the first few hours it was peaceful, but gradually the crowd became radicalized. This was partly facilitated by the unsuccessful actions of Geryo, who spoke on the radio, calling the demonstrators fascists and counter-revolutionaries.
Although the rally itself was clearly a surge popular discontent, the events that began later were clearly well organized and thought out in advance. The rebels did everything too competently and harmoniously. In just a few minutes, rebel groups were organized and began to act with amazing speed and synchronicity, capturing weapons depots and police stations. The rebels tried to get into the Radio House to read out their demands throughout the country. The building was defended by state security officers, and soon the first victims appeared.
The fact that there were practically no troops in Budapest greatly helped the rebels. The army went to Soviet Hungary from the Horthys, who fought on the side of the Nazis in World War II. For this reason, Rakosi did not trust the army and tried to solve all issues of order and control with the help of the AVH. It is clear that in such conditions the military did not feel much sympathy for the old regime and did not actively oppose the rebels, and some soldiers themselves began to go over to their side.
By evening, the police de facto went over to the side of the rebels, refusing to oppose them on the orders of the head of the city law enforcement service. The situation became critical for Görö: in just a few hours, the rebels seized weapons warehouses, key highways, bridges across the Danube, blocked and disarmed the military units in the city, and occupied printing houses. Geryo requested military assistance from Moscow.
On the morning of October 24, units of the Special Corps of Soviet Forces in Hungary entered Budapest. At the same time, Imre Nagy was appointed head of government. That same morning, he addressed the population by radio, calling for an end to the fighting and promising significant changes.
It seemed that the situation was about to return to normal. Moscow treated Nagy well and had no intention of drowning the unrest in blood. However, the uprising developed according to its own laws. Nagy had virtually no influence on the so-called grassroots initiative. Throughout Hungary, local authorities began to emerge parallel to the councils, which were not subordinate to anyone. In addition, everyone was extremely excited, so the incidents with Soviet soldiers were only a matter of time.
On October 25, the rebels set fire to a Soviet tank, which responded by opening fire on the aggressive crowd. Several dozen people died. The information immediately spread around the barricades. From that moment on, the second phase of the revolution began.
The rebel detachments, who still had weapons in their hands, began to catch state security agents on the streets, who were then mercilessly lynched. The situation got out of control, the Hungarian military began to openly go over to the side of the rebels in entire units. The concessions of the Hungarian government and even Nagy himself could no longer do anything about the raging elements. There was a complete breakdown of the state apparatus. AVH agents fled, the army either did not intervene or joined the rebels, the police did not work.
Nagy had two options: either again ask Moscow about military assistance, or try to lead a revolution using your popularity. He chose the riskier second option. On October 28, Nagy announced that a revolution was taking place in the country. As the head of government, he gave orders to the remaining loyal army units to stop resistance, and to all party activists to surrender their weapons and not offer resistance to the rebels. After this, he abolished the AVH, whose employees fled, taking refuge in the location of Soviet units.
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It was also decided to create a new government led by the loyal Janos Kadar. As for Nagy, the Kremlin did not plan any particular bloodthirstiness towards him. They even wanted to include him in the new government. In addition, a meeting was scheduled with Tito, who also patronized Nagy, and then it was necessary to enlist the support of the leaders of other countries of the socialist camp.
Three days were spent negotiating with the leaders of the people's democracies, as well as Tito. In the end, everyone agreed that events in Hungary had gone too far and only armed intervention could save the situation.
Vortex
On November 4, Operation Whirlwind began. Soviet troops were returning to Budapest. This time not to silently indicate their presence, but to break the rebels in battle. The deployment of troops was carried out in connection with an official request from Kadar.
Soviet troops could not use aviation in order to avoid large losses among the population. Therefore, it was necessary to storm every house in the city center where the rebels fortified themselves. In provincial cities, resistance was much weaker.
Nagy called for defense against invasion and appealed to the UN for help. However, he did not receive serious support from Western countries. The fighting continued for three days. By November 7, the situation in the country was brought under control, only isolated pockets of resistance remained. Nagy took refuge in the Yugoslav embassy, some of the field commanders were arrested, and some of the leaders of the uprising fled the country.
Causes of the uprising
There is still no single point of view on what the Hungarian uprising of 1956 was all about. Depending on political preferences, some researchers consider it a spontaneous popular uprising, while others consider it a well-organized and prepared uprising.
There is no doubt that many Hungarians were indeed dissatisfied with the Rakosi regime - both because of the difficult economic situation in the country and because of large-scale repressions. But at the same time, in the first hours of the uprising, individual participants showed remarkable organization, which was hardly possible to do spontaneously, improvising on the fly.
Hungarian Freedom" Miklos Gimes was not only a member of the party, but also fought in the ranks of Tito's Yugoslav partisans. Geza Losonczy joined the Hungarian Communist Party even before the war. Even one of the most brutal field commanders, József Dudas, famous for his bloody reprisals against state security agents and communists, himself was a convinced communist. From the age of 14 he was a communist activist, was engaged in underground work, was imprisoned in a Romanian prison for this, and during the war he had close ties with the communist underground. Even while engaging in bloody massacres, he declared that he was acting in the interests of the working class and peasants, in the name of socialism. And at the trial he assured that he was a convinced socialist, and justified his actions by revolutionary expediency. Another field commander, Janos Szabo, was also an old communist - back in 1919 he joined the Hungarian Red Army, which appeared after the first seizure of power by the communists. All They were united either by disappointment in Rakosism, or by the fact that they suffered from repression during the reign of the Hungarian dictator.
There were not so many ideological anti-communists in the ranks of the rebels. Of the more or less obvious rebels in the leadership, the only one who stood out was Gergely Pogratz, who held nationalist views.
Consequences
goulash communism" by Janos Kadar.
Anti-Soviet protests and demonstrations in post-war countries building socialism began to appear under Stalin, but after his death in 1953 they took on a wider scale. Mass protests took place in Poland, Hungary, and the German Democratic Republic.
The decisive role in the initiation of the Hungarian events was played, of course, by the death of I. Stalin, and the subsequent actions of Nikita Khrushchev to “expose the cult of personality.”
As you know, in World War II, Hungary took part on the side of the fascist bloc, its troops participated in the occupation of the territory of the USSR, and three SS divisions were formed from Hungarians. In 1944-1945, Hungarian troops were defeated, its territory was occupied by Soviet troops. Hungary (as a former ally of Nazi Germany) had to pay significant indemnities (reparations) in favor of the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, amounting to up to a quarter of Hungary’s GDP.
After the war, free elections were held in the country, provided for by the Yalta agreements, in which the Party of Small Farmers received a majority. However, the control commission, which was headed by the Soviet Marshal Voroshilov, gave the winning majority only half of the seats in the Cabinet of Ministers, and the key posts remained with the Hungarian Communist Party.
The communists, with the support of Soviet troops, arrested most of the leaders of the opposition parties, and in 1947 they held new elections. By 1949, power in the country was mainly represented by communists. The Matthias Rakosi regime was established in Hungary. Collectivization was carried out, mass repressions began against the opposition, the church, officers and politicians of the former regime and many other opponents of the new government.
WHO IS RAKOSI?
Matthias Rakosi, born Matthias Rosenfeld (March 14, 1892, Serbia - February 5, 1971, Gorky, USSR) - Hungarian politician, revolutionary.
Rakosi was the sixth child in a poor Jewish family. During the First World War he fought on the Eastern Front, where he was captured and joined the Hungarian Communist Party.
Returned to Hungary, participated in the government of Bela Kun. After his fall, he fled to the USSR. Participated in the governing bodies of the Comintern. In 1945 he returned to Hungary and headed the Hungarian Communist Party. In 1948, he forced the Social Democratic Party to unite with the CPV into a single Hungarian Labor Party (HLP), of which he was elected general secretary.
RAKOSI DICTATORSHIP
His regime was characterized by political terror carried out by the state security service AVH against the forces of internal counter-revolution and the persecution of the opposition (for example, former Minister of the Interior Laszlo Rajk was accused of “Titoism” and orientation towards Yugoslavia, and then executed). Under him, the nationalization of the economy and accelerated cooperation in agriculture took place.
Rákosi called himself “Stalin’s best Hungarian student,” copying the Stalinist regime in the smallest detail, to the point that in the last years of his reign, the Hungarian military uniform was copied from the Soviet one, and stores in Hungary began selling rye bread, which had not previously been eaten in Hungary .
Since the late 1940s. launched a campaign against the Zionists, while eliminating his political rival, Minister of Internal Affairs Laszlo Rajk.
After Khrushchev’s report at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Rakosi was removed from the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the WPT (instead, Erno Geryo took this position). Soon after the uprising in Hungary in 1956, he was taken to the USSR, where he lived in the city of Gorky. In 1970, he was asked to give up active participation in Hungarian politics in exchange for returning to Hungary, but Rákosi refused.
He was married to Feodora Kornilova.
WHAT DIRECTLY CAUSED THE UPRISING?
When it comes to the reasons for the demonstrations of many thousands that began in Budapest in October 1956, which then grew into mass riots, as a rule, they talk about the Stalinist policy of the Hungarian leadership led by Matthias Rakosi, repressions and other “excesses” of socialist construction. But it's not only that.
Let's start with the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Magyars did not consider their country to be to blame for the outbreak of World War II and believed that Moscow dealt with Hungary extremely unfairly. And although the former Western allies of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition supported all the points of the 1947 peace treaty, they were far away, and the Russians were nearby. Naturally, the landowners and bourgeoisie, who lost their property, were unhappy. Western radio stations Voice of America, BBC and others actively influenced the population, calling on them to fight for freedom and promising immediate assistance in the event of an uprising, including an invasion of Hungarian territory by NATO troops.
The death of Stalin and Khrushchev's speech at the 20th Congress of the CPSU gave rise to attempts at liberation from communists in all Eastern European states, one of the most striking manifestations of which was the rehabilitation and return to power of the Polish reformer Wladyslaw Gomulka in October 1956.
After the monument to Stalin was toppled from its pedestal, the rebels tried to cause maximum destruction to it. The hatred of Stalin on the part of the rebels was explained by the fact that Matthias Rakosi, who carried out the repressions in the late 40s, called himself Stalin’s faithful disciple.
An important role was also played by the fact that in May 1955, neighboring Austria became a single neutral independent state, from which, after the signing of a peace treaty, allied occupation forces were withdrawn (Soviet troops had been stationed in Hungary since 1944).
After the resignation of the General Secretary of the Hungarian Labor Party, Matthias Rakosi, on July 18, 1956, his closest ally Erno Geryo became the new leader of the Hungarian Labor Party, but such small concessions could not satisfy the people.
The Poznan uprising in July 1956 in Poland, which caused great resonance, also led to an increase in critical sentiment among the people, especially among students and the writing intelligentsia. From the middle of the year, the Petőfi Circle began to actively operate, in which the most pressing problems facing Hungary were discussed.
STUDENTS STARTED AN UPRISING
On October 16, 1956, university students in Szeged organized an organized exit from the pro-communist “Democratic Youth Union” (the Hungarian equivalent of the Komsomol) and revived the “Union of Students of Hungarian Universities and Academies,” which existed after the war and was dispersed by the government. Within a few days, branches of the Union appeared in Pec, Miskolc and other cities.
On October 22, students from the Budapest University of Technology joined this movement, formulating a list of 16 demands to the authorities and planning a protest march from the monument to Bem (Polish general, hero of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848) to the monument to Petőfi on October 23.
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon a demonstration began, in which, in addition to students, tens of thousands of people took part. The demonstrators carried red flags, banners with slogans about Soviet-Hungarian friendship, the inclusion of Imre Nagy in the government, etc. On the squares of Jasai Mari, on the Fifteenth of March, on the streets of Kossuth and Rakoczi, radical groups joined the demonstrators, shouting slogans of a different kind. They demanded the restoration of the old Hungarian national emblem, the old Hungarian national holiday instead of the Day of Liberation from Fascism, the abolition of military training and Russian language lessons. In addition, demands were put forward for free elections, the creation of a government led by Nagy and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary.
At 20 o'clock on the radio, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the WPT, Erne Gere, made a speech sharply condemning the demonstrators. In response to this, a large group of demonstrators tried to enter the broadcasting studio of the Radio House with a demand to broadcast the program demands of the demonstrators. This attempt led to a clash with the Hungarian state security units AVH defending the Radio House, during which the first dead and wounded appeared after 21:00. the rebels received or took from reinforcements sent to help guard the radio, as well as from civil defense depots and captured police stations.
A group of rebels entered the Kilian Barracks, where three construction battalions were located, and seized their weapons. Many construction battalion members joined the rebels. Fierce fighting in and around the Radio House continued throughout the night.
At 11 p.m., based on the decision of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, the Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, Marshal V.D. Sokolovsky, ordered the commander of the Special Corps to begin moving to Budapest to assist the Hungarian troops “in restoring order and creating conditions for peaceful creative labor.” Units of the Special Corps arrived in Budapest at 6 a.m. and began fighting the rebels.
On the night of October 24, about 6,000 Soviet army troops, 290 tanks, 120 armored personnel carriers, and 156 guns were brought into Budapest. In the evening they were joined by units of the 3rd Rifle Corps of the Hungarian People's Army (HPA).
Members of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee A. I. Mikoyan and M. A. Suslov, KGB Chairman I. A. Serov, Deputy Chief of the General Staff Army General M. S. Malinin arrived in Budapest.
On the morning of October 25, the 33rd Guards Mechanized Division approached Budapest, and in the evening - the 128th Guards Rifle Division, which joined the Special Corps.
At this time, during a rally near the parliament building, an incident occurred: fire was opened from the upper floors, as a result of which a Soviet officer was killed and a tank was burned. In response, Soviet troops opened fire on the demonstrators, resulting in 61 people killed and 284 wounded on both sides.
A FAILED ATTEMPT TO FIND A COMPROMISE
The day before, on the night of October 23, 1956, the leadership of the Hungarian Communist Party decided to appoint Imre Nagy as Prime Minister, who had already held this post in 1953-1955, distinguished by his reformist views, for which he was repressed, but shortly before the uprising he was rehabilitated. Imre Nagy was often accused of sending a formal request to Soviet troops to help suppress the uprising without his participation. His supporters claim that this decision was made behind his back by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party Ernő Gerő and former Prime Minister András Hegedüs, and Nagy himself was opposed to the involvement of Soviet troops.
In such a situation, on October 24, Nagy was appointed to the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers. He immediately sought not to fight the uprising, but to lead it.
On October 28, Imre Nagy recognized the popular outrage as justified, speaking on the radio and declaring that “the government condemns the views that view the current grandiose popular movement as a counter-revolution.”
The government announced a ceasefire and the start of negotiations with the USSR on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary.
By October 30, all Soviet troops were withdrawn from the capital to their places of deployment. State security agencies were dissolved. The streets of Hungarian cities were left virtually without power.
On October 30, the government of Imre Nagy decided to restore the multi-party system in Hungary and create a coalition government of representatives of the VPT, the Independent Party of Smallholders, the National Peasant Party and the reconstituted Social Democratic Party. It was announced that free elections would be held.
And the uprising, already uncontrollable, continued.
The rebels captured the Budapest town committee of the VPT, and over 20 communists were hanged by the crowd. Photos of hanged communists with signs of torture, with faces disfigured by acid, went around the whole world. This massacre was, however, condemned by representatives of the political forces of Hungary.
There was little Nagy could do. The uprising spread to other cities and spread... The country quickly fell into chaos. Railway communications were interrupted, airports stopped operating, shops, shops and banks were closed. The rebels scoured the streets, catching state security officers. They were recognized by their famous yellow boots, torn into pieces or hanged by their feet, and sometimes castrated. The captured party leaders were nailed to the floors with huge nails, with portraits of Lenin placed in their hands.
The development of events in Hungary coincided with the Suez crisis. On October 29, Israel and then NATO members Great Britain and France attacked Soviet-backed Egypt with the aim of seizing the Suez Canal, near which they landed their troops.
On October 31, Khrushchev at a meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee said: “If we leave Hungary, this will encourage the American, British and French imperialists. They will understand our weakness and will attack.” It was decided to create a “revolutionary workers’ and peasants’ government” led by Janos Kadar and conduct a military operation to overthrow the government of Imre Nagy. The plan for the operation, called “Whirlwind,” was developed under the leadership of the USSR Minister of Defense Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.
On November 1, the Hungarian government, when Soviet troops were ordered not to leave the units’ locations, decided to terminate the Warsaw Pact by Hungary and handed a corresponding note to the USSR Embassy. At the same time, Hungary turned to the UN asking for help in protecting its neutrality. Measures were also taken to protect Budapest in case of "possible external attack."
Early in the morning of November 4, new Soviet military units began entering Hungary under the overall command of Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.
On November 4, the Soviet Operation Whirlwind began and on the same day the main objects in Budapest were captured. Members of Imre Nagy's government took refuge in the Yugoslav embassy. However, detachments of the Hungarian National Guard and individual army units continued to resist Soviet troops.
Soviet troops carried out artillery strikes on pockets of resistance and carried out subsequent mopping-up operations with infantry forces supported by tanks. The main centers of resistance were the working-class suburbs of Budapest, where local councils managed to lead more or less organized resistance. These areas of the city were subjected to the most massive shelling.
Soviet troops (totaling 31,550 soldiers and officers) were thrown against the rebels (more than 50 thousand Hungarians took part in the uprising) with the support of Hungarian workers' squads (25 thousand) and Hungarian state security agencies (1.5 thousand).
Soviet units and formations that took part in the Hungarian events:
Special case:
- 2nd Guards Mechanized Division (Nikolayevsko-Budapest)
- 11th Guards Mechanized Division (after 1957 - 30th Guards Tank Division)
- 17th Guards Mechanized Division (Yenakievsko-Danube)
- 33rd Guards Mechanized Division (Kherson)
- 128th Guards Rifle Division (after 1957 - 128th Guards Motorized Rifle Division)
7th Guards Airborne Division
- 80th Parachute Regiment
- 108th Parachute Regiment
31st Guards Airborne Division
- 114th Parachute Regiment
- 381st Parachute Regiment
8th Mechanized Army of the Carpathian Military District (after 1957 - 8th Tank Army)
38th Army of the Carpathian Military District
- 13th Guards Mechanized Division (Poltava) (after 1957 - 21st Guards Tank Division)
- 27th mechanized division (Cherkasy) (after 1957 - 27th motorized rifle division).
In total, the following took part in the operation:
personnel - 31550 people
tanks and self-propelled guns - 1130
guns and mortars - 615
anti-aircraft guns - 185
BTR - 380
cars - 3830
END OF THE UPRISING
After November 10, until mid-December, the workers' councils continued their work, often entering into direct negotiations with the command of Soviet units. However, by December 19, 1956, the workers' councils were dispersed by state security agencies and their leaders were arrested.
Hungarians emigrated en masse - almost 200,000 people (5% of the total population) left the country, for whom refugee camps had to be created in Austria in Traiskirchen and Graz.
Immediately after the suppression of the uprising, mass arrests began: in total, the Hungarian special services and their Soviet colleagues managed to arrest about 5,000 Hungarians (846 of them were sent to Soviet prisons), of which “a significant number were members of the VPT, military personnel and students.”
Prime Minister Imre Nagy and members of his government were deceived on November 22, 1956, lured out of the Yugoslav Embassy, where they had taken refuge, and taken into custody on Romanian territory. They were then returned to Hungary and put on trial. Imre Nagy and former Defense Minister Pal Maleter were sentenced to death on charges of treason. Imre Nagy was hanged on June 16, 1958. In total, according to some estimates, about 350 people were executed. About 26,000 people were prosecuted, of whom 13,000 were sentenced to various prison terms. By 1963, all participants in the uprising were amnestied and released by the government of János Kádar.
After the fall of the socialist regime, Imre Nagy and Pal Maleter were ceremonially reburied in July 1989.
Since 1989, Imre Nagy has been considered a national hero of Hungary.
The initiators of the protests were students and workers of large factories. The Hungarians demanded free elections and the withdrawal of Soviet military bases. In fact, workers' committees took over power throughout the country. The USSR sent troops into Hungary and restored the pro-Soviet regime, brutally suppressing resistance. Nagy and several of his government colleagues were executed. Several thousand people died in the battles (according to some sources, up to 10,000).
In the early 50s, there were other demonstrations on the streets of Budapest and other cities.
In November 1956, the director of the Hungarian News Agency, shortly before artillery fire leveled his office, sent a desperate message to the world - a telex announcing the beginning of the Russian invasion of Budapest. The text ended with the words: “We will die for Hungary and for Europe”!
Hungary, 1956. Self-defense units on the Hungarian border await the appearance of Soviet military units.
Soviet tanks were brought into Budapest on the orders of the communist leadership of the USSR, which took advantage of a formal request from the Hungarian government.
The first Soviet armored vehicles on the streets of Budapest.
Plan
Introduction
1 Prerequisites
2 Strengths of the parties
2.1 Soviet units and formations that took part in the Hungarian events
3 Beginning
3.1 October 23
3.2 October 24
3.3 October 25
3.4 October 26
3.5 October 27
3.6 October 28
3.7 October 29
3.8 October 30. Anarchy
4 Re-introduction of Soviet troops
4.1 October 31 - November 2
4.2 November 3
4.3 November 4
4.4 November 5-7
5 The End
6 Losses of the parties
7 Consequences
Bibliography
Introduction
Hungarian uprising of 1956 (October 23 - November 9, 1956) (in the communist period of Hungary known as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, in Soviet sources as the Hungarian counter-revolutionary uprising of 1956) - armed uprisings against the regime of people's democracy in Hungary, accompanied by massacres of communists from the VPT , employees of the State Security Administration (AVH) and internal affairs (about 800 people).
The Hungarian uprising was one of the important events of the Cold War period, demonstrating that the USSR was ready to maintain the inviolability of the Warsaw Pact (WPT) with military force.
1. Prerequisites
The uprising, which in the USSR and Hungary until 1991 was called a counter-revolutionary revolt, in modern Hungary - a revolution, was largely caused by the difficult economic situation of the local population.
In World War II, Hungary took part on the side of the fascist bloc, its troops participated in the occupation of the territory of the USSR, and three SS divisions were formed from Hungarians. In 1944-1945, Hungarian troops were defeated, its territory was occupied by Soviet troops. But it was on the territory of Hungary, in the area of Lake Balaton, in the spring of 1945 that Nazi troops launched the last counteroffensive in their history.
After the war, free elections were held in the country, provided for by the Yalta agreements, in which the Party of Small Farmers received a majority. However, the coalition government imposed by the Allied Control Commission, which was headed by the Soviet Marshal Voroshilov, gave half the seats in the cabinet to the winning majority, while key posts remained with the Hungarian Communist Party.
The communists, with the support of Soviet troops, arrested most of the leaders of the opposition parties, and in 1947 they held new elections. By 1949, power in the country was mainly represented by communists. The Matthias Rakosi regime was established in Hungary. Collectivization was carried out, a policy of forced industrialization was launched, for which there were no natural, financial and human resources; Mass repressions carried out by AVH began against the opposition, the church, officers and politicians of the former regime and many other opponents of the new government.
Hungary (as a former ally of Nazi Germany) had to pay significant indemnities to the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, amounting to up to a quarter of GDP.
On the other hand, the death of Stalin and Khrushchev’s speech at the 20th Congress of the CPSU gave rise to attempts at liberation from communists in all Eastern European states, one of the most striking manifestations of which was the rehabilitation and return to power of the Polish reformer Wladyslaw Gomulka in October 1956.
An important role was also played by the fact that in May 1955, neighboring Austria became a single neutral independent state, from which, after the signing of a peace treaty, allied occupation forces were withdrawn (Soviet troops had been stationed in Hungary since 1944).
A certain role was played by the subversive activities of Western intelligence services, in particular the British MI6, which trained numerous cadres of “people's rebels” at its secret bases in Austria and then transferred them to Hungary
2. Strengths of the parties
More than 50 thousand Hungarians took part in the uprising. It was suppressed by Soviet troops (31 thousand) with the support of Hungarian workers' squads (25 thousand) and Hungarian state security agencies (1.5 thousand).
2.1. Soviet units and formations that took part in the Hungarian events
· Special case:
· 2nd Guards Mechanized Division (Nikolaev-Budapest)
· 11th Guards Mechanized Division (after 1957 - 30th Guards Tank Division)
· 17th Guards Mechanized Division (Yenakievo-Danube)
· 33rd Guards Mechanized Division (Kherson)
· 128th Guards Rifle Division (after 1957 - 128th Guards Motorized Rifle Division)
· 7th Guards Airborne Division
· 80th Parachute Regiment
· 108th Parachute Regiment
· 31st Guards Airborne Division
· 114th Parachute Regiment
· 381st Parachute Regiment
· 8th Mechanized Army of the Carpathian Military District (after 1957 - 8th Tank Army)
· 38th Army of the Carpathian Military District
· 13th Guards Mechanized Division (Poltava) (after 1957 - 21st Guards Tank Division)
· 27th mechanized division (Cherkasy) (after 1957 - 27th motorized rifle division)
In total, the following took part in the operation:
· personnel - 31550 people
· tanks and self-propelled guns - 1130
· guns and mortars - 615
· anti-aircraft guns - 185
· cars - 3830
The internal party struggle in the Hungarian Labor Party between Stalinists and supporters of reforms began from the very beginning of 1956 and by July 18, 1956 led to the resignation of the General Secretary of the Hungarian Labor Party, Matthias Rakosi, who was replaced by Erno Geryo (former Minister of State Security).
The removal of Rakosi, as well as the Poznan uprising of 1956 in Poland, which caused great resonance, led to an increase in critical sentiment among students and the writing intelligentsia. From the middle of the year, the Petőfi Circle began to actively operate, in which the most pressing problems facing Hungary were discussed.
On October 16, 1956, some university students in Szeged organized an organized exit from the pro-communist “Democratic Youth Union” (the Hungarian equivalent of the Komsomol) and revived the “Union of Students of Hungarian Universities and Academies,” which existed after the war and was dispersed by the government. Within a few days, branches of the Union appeared in Pec, Miskolc and other cities.
Finally, on October 22, students from the Budapest University of Technology (at that time the Budapest University of Construction Industry) joined this movement and formulated a list of 16 demands to the authorities (the immediate convening of an extraordinary party congress, the appointment of Imre Nagy as prime minister, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country , destruction of the monument to Stalin, etc.) and planned for October 23 a protest march from the monument to Bem (Polish general, hero of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848) to the monument to Petőfi.
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon a demonstration began, in which about a thousand people took part - including students and members of the intelligentsia. The demonstrators carried red flags, banners with slogans about Soviet-Hungarian friendship, the inclusion of Imre Nagy in the government, etc. On the squares of Jasai Mari, on the Fifteenth of March, on the streets of Kossuth and Rakoczi, radical groups joined the demonstrators, shouting slogans of a different kind. They demanded the restoration of the old Hungarian national emblem, the old Hungarian national holiday instead of the Day of Liberation from Fascism, the abolition of military training and Russian language lessons. In addition, demands were put forward for free elections, the creation of a government led by Nagy and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary.
At 20 o'clock on the radio, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the WPT, Erne Gere, made a speech sharply condemning the demonstrators.
In response to this, a large group of demonstrators stormed the broadcasting studio of the Radio House, demanding that the program demands of the demonstrators be broadcast. This attempt led to a clash with the Hungarian state security units AVH defending the Radio House, during which the first dead and wounded appeared after 21:00. The rebels received weapons or took them from reinforcements sent to help guard the radio, as well as from civil defense warehouses and captured police stations. A group of rebels entered the Kilian Barracks, where three construction battalions were located, and seized their weapons. Many construction battalion members joined the rebels.
Fierce fighting in and around the Radio House continued throughout the night. The head of the Budapest Police Headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Sandor Kopachi, ordered not to shoot at the rebels and not to interfere with their actions. He unconditionally complied with the demands of the crowd gathered in front of the headquarters for the release of prisoners and the removal of red stars from the facade of the building.
At 11 p.m., based on the decision of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, the Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, Marshal V.D. Sokolovsky, ordered the commander of the Special Corps to begin moving to Budapest to assist the Hungarian troops “in restoring order and creating conditions for peaceful creative labor.” Formations and units of the Special Corps arrived in Budapest at 6 a.m. and began fighting with the rebels.
On the night of October 23, 1956, the leadership of the Hungarian Communist Party decided to appoint Imre Nagy as Prime Minister, who had already held this post in 1953-1955, distinguished by his reformist views, for which he was repressed, but shortly before the uprising he was rehabilitated. Imre Nagy was often accused of sending a formal request to Soviet troops to help suppress the uprising without his participation. His supporters claim that this decision was made behind his back by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party Ernő Gerő and former Prime Minister András Hegedüs, and Nagy himself was opposed to the involvement of Soviet troops.
In the fall of 1956, events occurred that, after the fall of the communist regime, were called the Hungarian Uprising, and in Soviet sources were called a counter-revolutionary rebellion. But, regardless of how they were characterized by certain ideologists, this was an attempt by the Hungarian people to overthrow the pro-Soviet regime in the country by armed means. It was one of the most important events of the Cold War, which showed that the USSR was ready to use military force to maintain its control over the Warsaw Pact countries.
Establishment of the communist regime
To understand the reasons for the uprising that occurred in 1956, one should dwell on the internal political and economic situation of the country in 1956. First of all, it should be taken into account that during the Second World War, Hungary fought on the side of the Nazis, therefore, in accordance with the articles of the Paris Peace Treaty, signed by the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, the USSR had the right to keep its troops on its territory until the withdrawal of the allied occupation forces from Austria.
Immediately after the end of the war, general elections were held in Hungary, in which the Independent Party of Smallholders won a victory over the communist HTP - the Hungarian Working People's Party - with a significant majority of votes. As it became known later, the ratio was 57% versus 17%. However, relying on the support of the contingent of the Soviet armed forces located in the country, already in 1947, the VPT seized power through fraud, threats and blackmail, arrogating to itself the right to be the only legal political party.
Stalin's student
The Hungarian communists tried to imitate their Soviet party members in everything; it was not for nothing that their leader Matthias Rakosi received the nickname among the people of Stalin’s best student. He received this “honor” due to the fact that, having established a personal dictatorship in the country, he tried to copy the Stalinist model of government in everything. In an atmosphere of blatant arbitrariness, any manifestations of dissent were carried out by force and in the field of ideology were mercilessly suppressed. The country also witnessed a struggle with the Catholic Church.
During the reign of Rakosi, a powerful state security apparatus was created - AVH, which numbered 28 thousand employees, assisted by 40 thousand informants. All aspects of life were under the control of this service. As it became known in the post-communist period, dossiers were opened for a million inhabitants of the country, of whom 655 thousand were persecuted, and 450 thousand served various prison terms. They were used as free labor in mines and mines.
In the economic field, just as in the current situation, an extremely difficult situation has developed. It was caused by the fact that, as a military ally of Germany, Hungary had to pay significant reparations to the USSR, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, the payment of which took almost a quarter of the national income. Of course, this had an extremely negative impact on the living standards of ordinary citizens.
Brief political thaw
Certain changes in the life of the country occurred in 1953, when, due to the obvious failure of industrialization and the weakening of ideological pressure from the USSR caused by the death of Stalin, Matthias Rakosi, hated by the people, was removed from the post of head of government. His place was taken by another communist, Imre Nagy, a supporter of immediate and radical reforms in all areas of life.
As a result of the measures he took, political persecution was stopped and their previous victims were amnestied. By a special decree, Nagy put an end to the internment of citizens and their forced eviction from cities on social grounds. The construction of a number of unprofitable large industrial facilities was also stopped, and the funds allocated for them were directed to the development of the food and light industry. In addition, government authorities eased pressure on agriculture, reduced tariffs for the population and lowered food prices.
Resumption of Stalin's course and the beginning of unrest
However, despite the fact that such measures made the new head of government very popular among the people, they were also the reason for the aggravation of the internal party struggle in the VPT. Removed from the post of head of government, but retaining a leading position in the party, Matthias Rakosi, through behind-the-scenes intrigue and with the support of Soviet communists, managed to defeat his political opponent. As a result, Imre Nagy, on whom the majority of ordinary residents of the country pinned their hopes, was removed from office and expelled from the party.
The consequence of this was the resumption of the Stalinist line of state leadership carried out by the Hungarian communists and the continuation of this. All this caused extreme discontent among wide sections of the public. The people began to openly demand the return of Nagy to power, general elections built on an alternative basis and, most importantly, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country. This last requirement was especially relevant, since the signing of the Warsaw Pact in May 1955 gave the USSR the basis for maintaining its contingent of troops in Hungary.
The Hungarian uprising was the result of an aggravation of the political situation in the country in 1956. The events of the same year in Poland, where open anti-communist protests took place, also played an important role. Their result was an increase in critical sentiment among students and the writing intelligentsia. In mid-October, a significant part of the youth announced their withdrawal from the Democratic Youth Union, which was an analogue of the Soviet Komsomol, and joining the previously existing student union, but dispersed by the communists.
As often happened in the past, the impetus for the uprising was given by students. Already on October 22, they formulated and presented demands to the government, which included the appointment of I. Nagy to the post of Prime Minister, the organization of democratic elections, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country and the demolition of monuments to Stalin. Participants in the nationwide demonstration planned for the next day were preparing to carry banners with such slogans.
October 23, 1956
This procession, which began in Budapest at exactly fifteen o'clock, attracted more than two hundred thousand participants. The history of Hungary hardly remembers another such unanimous manifestation of political will. By this time, the ambassador of the Soviet Union, the future head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, urgently contacted Moscow and reported in detail about everything that was happening in the country. He ended his message with a recommendation to provide the Hungarian communists with comprehensive assistance, including military assistance.
By the evening of the same day, the newly appointed first secretary of the VPT, Ernő Görö, spoke on the radio condemning the demonstrators and threatening them. In response to this, a crowd of demonstrators rushed to storm the building where the broadcasting studio was located. An armed clash occurred between them and units of the state security forces, as a result of which the first killed and wounded appeared.
Regarding the source of weapons received by the demonstrators, the Soviet media put forward the assertion that they had been delivered to Hungary in advance by Western intelligence services. However, from the testimony of the participants in the events themselves, it is clear that it was received or simply taken away from reinforcements sent to help the radio defenders. It was also mined from civil defense warehouses and captured police stations.
Soon the uprising spread throughout Budapest. Army units and state security units did not put up serious resistance, firstly, because of their small numbers - there were only two and a half thousand people, and secondly, because many of them openly sympathized with the rebels.
In addition, orders were received not to open fire on civilians, and this deprived the military of the opportunity to take serious action. As a result, by the evening of October 23, many key objects were in the hands of the people: weapons warehouses, newspaper printing houses and the Central City Station. Realizing the threat of the current situation, on the night of October 24, the Communists, wanting to gain time, again appointed Imre Nagy as Prime Minister, and they themselves turned to the USSR government with a request to send troops to Hungary in order to suppress the Hungarian uprising.
The result of the appeal was the introduction of 6,500 military personnel, 295 tanks and a significant number of other military equipment into the country. In response to this, the urgently formed Hungarian National Committee appealed to the US President with a request to provide military assistance to the rebels.
First blood
On the morning of October 26, during a rally on the square near the parliament building, fire was opened from the roof of a house, as a result of which a Soviet officer was killed and a tank was set on fire. This provoked return fire, which cost the lives of hundreds of demonstrators. The news of what happened quickly spread across the country and became the reason for massacres of residents against state security officers and simply the military.
Despite the fact that, wanting to normalize the situation in the country, the government announced an amnesty to all participants in the rebellion who voluntarily laid down their arms, clashes continued throughout the following days. The replacement of the first secretary of the VPT, Ernö Gerö, with Janos Kadaroam, did not affect the current situation. In many areas, the leadership of party and government institutions simply fled, and local government bodies spontaneously formed in their place.
As participants in the events testify, after the ill-fated incident on the square in front of the parliament, Soviet troops did not take active action against the demonstrators. After the statement by the head of government, Imre Nagy, about the condemnation of the previous “Stalinist” methods of leadership, the dissolution of the state security forces and the beginning of negotiations on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country, many were under the impression that the Hungarian uprising had achieved the desired results. The fighting in the city stopped, and for the first time in recent days, silence reigned. The result of Nagy's negotiations with the Soviet leadership was the withdrawal of troops, which began on October 30.
These days, many parts of the country found themselves in a situation of complete anarchy. The previous power structures were destroyed, and new ones were not created. The government, which met in Budapest, had virtually no influence on what was happening on the streets of the city, and there was a sharp surge in crime, as more than ten thousand criminals were released from prisons along with political prisoners.
In addition, the situation was aggravated by the fact that the Hungarian uprising of 1956 very quickly became radicalized. The consequence of this was massacres of military personnel, former employees of state security agencies, and even ordinary communists. In the building of the central committee of the VPT alone, over twenty party leaders were executed. In those days, photographs of their mutilated bodies spread across the pages of many world publications. The Hungarian revolution began to take on the characteristics of a “senseless and merciless” rebellion.
Re-entry of the armed forces
The subsequent suppression of the uprising by Soviet troops was made possible primarily as a result of the position taken by the US government. Having promised I. Nagy’s cabinet military and economic support, the Americans at a critical moment abandoned their obligations, allowing Moscow to freely intervene in the current situation. The Hungarian uprising of 1956 was practically doomed to defeat when on October 31, at a meeting of the CPSU Central Committee, N. S. Khrushchev spoke in favor of taking the most radical measures to establish communist rule in the country.
Based on his orders, Marshal G.K. Zhukov led the development of a plan for an armed invasion of Hungary, called “Whirlwind”. It provided for the participation in military operations of fifteen tank, motorized and rifle divisions, with the involvement of the air force and airborne units. Almost all leaders of the Warsaw Pact member countries spoke in favor of this operation.
Operation Whirlwind began with the arrest of the newly appointed Hungarian Defense Minister, Major General Pal Maleter, on November 3 by the Soviet KGB. This happened during negotiations held in the city of Thököl, near Budapest. The entry of the main contingent of the armed forces, commanded personally by G.K. Zhukov, was carried out on the morning of the next day. The official reason for this was the request of the government, headed by In a short period of time, troops captured all the main objects of Budapest. Imre Nagy, saving his life, left the government building and took refuge in the Yugoslav Embassy. Later, he will be lured out of there by deception, put on trial and, together with Pal Maleter, publicly hanged as traitors to the Motherland.
Active suppression of the uprising
The main events unfolded on November 4. In the center of the capital, the Hungarian rebels offered desperate resistance to the Soviet troops. To suppress it, flamethrowers, as well as incendiary and smoke shells were used. Only the fear of a negative reaction from the international community to the large number of civilian casualties kept the command from bombing the city with planes already in the air.
In the coming days, all existing pockets of resistance were suppressed, after which the Hungarian uprising of 1956 took the form of an underground struggle against the communist regime. To one degree or another, it did not subside over the subsequent decades. As soon as the pro-Soviet regime was finally established in the country, mass arrests of participants in the recent uprising began. The history of Hungary again began to develop according to the Stalinist scenario.
Researchers estimate that during that period, about 360 death sentences were imposed, 25 thousand citizens of the country were prosecuted, and 14 thousand of them served various prison terms. For many years, Hungary also found itself behind the “Iron Curtain” that fenced off the countries of Eastern Europe from the rest of the world. The USSR, the main stronghold of communist ideology, vigilantly monitored everything that was happening in the countries under its control.