In the autumn of 1956, events took place that, after the fall of the communist regime, were referred to as the Hungarian uprising, and in Soviet sources were called a counter-revolutionary rebellion. But, regardless of how they were characterized by certain ideologists, it was an attempt by the Hungarian people to overthrow the pro-Soviet regime in the country by force of arms. 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 took place 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 occupying forces from Austria.
Immediately after the end of the war in Hungary, general elections were held, in which the Independent Party of Smallholders with a significantwon a majority victory over the communist HTP - the Hungarian Workers' Party. As it became known later, the ratio was 57% against 17%. However, relying on the support of the contingent of Soviet armed forces in the country, already in 1947, the HTP seized power through machinations, 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, not without reason their leader Matthias Rakosi received the nickname of the best student of Stalin among the people. He was awarded 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 flagrant arbitrariness, industrialization and collectivization were carried out by force, and in the field of ideology, any manifestations of dissent were mercilessly suppressed. The country also launched a struggle with the Catholic Church.
During the years of Rakosi's rule, a powerful state security apparatus was created - AVH, which included 28 thousand employees, assisted by 40 thousand informants. All aspects of the life of the citizens of Hungary were under the control of this service. As it became known in the post-communist period, dossiers were filed on a million inhabitants of the country, of which 655 thousand were persecuted, and 450 thousand were serving various prison terms. They were used as free labor in mines and mines.
In the field of economics, as well as in political life,an extremely difficult situation. It was caused by the fact that, as a military ally of Germany, Hungary had to pay the USSR, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia a significant reparation, 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.
Short political thaw
Certain changes in the life of the country came 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, Mathias 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 taken by him, political persecution was stopped and their former victims were amnestied. By a special decree, Nagy put an end to the internment of citizens and their forced eviction from cities on a social basis. 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 food and light industry. On top of that, government agencies eased pressure on agriculture, reduced tariffs for the population and lowered food prices.
Resumption of the Stalinist 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 inner-party struggle in the VPT. Displacedfrom the post of head of government, but retaining a leading position in the party, Mathias Rakosi managed to defeat his political opponent through behind-the-scenes intrigues and with the support of the Soviet communists. As a result, Imre Nagy, on whom most of the country's ordinary people pinned their hopes, was removed from office and expelled from the party.
The consequence of this was the renewal of the Stalinist line of government by the Hungarian communists and the continuation of political repressions. All this caused extreme dissatisfaction among the general public. The people began to openly demand the return to power of Nagy, 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 reason to keep its troop contingent in Hungary.
The Hungarian uprising was the result of the aggravation of the political situation in the country in 1956. An important role was played by the events of the same year in Poland, where open anti-communist demonstrations took place. 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 Union of Youth”, which was an analogue of the Soviet Komsomol, and joining the student union that existed before, but dispersed by the communists.
As was often the case in the past, students gave the impetus to the uprising. Already on October 22, they formulated and presenteddemands to the government, including 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. Banners with such slogans were prepared to be carried by the participants of the nationwide demonstration planned for the next day.
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, including military, assistance.
By the evening of the same day, the newly appointed first secretary of the HTP, Erno Görö, spoke on the radio condemning the demonstrators and threatening them. In response, a crowd of demonstrators rushed to storm the building where the broadcasting studio was located. An armed clash took place between them and the units of the state security forces, as a result of which the first dead and wounded appeared.
Regarding the source of the weapons received by the demonstrators in the Soviet media, the assertion was made 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 the reinforcements sent to help the defenders of the radio. It was also mined in the warehouses of civil defense and inoccupied police stations.
Soon the uprising engulfed all of Budapest. The army units and state security units did not put up serious resistance, firstly, because of their small number - there were only two and a half thousand of them, and secondly, because many of them openly sympathized with the rebels.
The first entry of Soviet troops into Hungary
In addition, orders were issued not to open fire on civilians, and this made it impossible for the military to take serious action. As a result, by the evening of October 23, many key objects were in the hands of the people: weapons depots, 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 buy time, again appointed Imre Nagy as prime minister, and 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 entry into the country of 6500 military personnel, 295 tanks and a significant number of other military equipment. In response, the urgently formed Hungarian National Committee turned to the US President with a request for 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 the house, as a result of which a Soviet officer was killed and a tank was set on fire. This provoked a return fire that cost the lives of hundreds of demonstrators. The news of the incident quickly spread throughout the country and causedmassacres of residents with state security officers and just 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, the clashes continued throughout the following days. The replacement of the first secretary of the HTP, Erno Gero Janos Kadaroam, did not affect the current situation either. In many areas, the leadership of party and state institutions simply fled, and in their place, local governments spontaneously formed.
Withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country and the beginning of chaos
According to the participants in the events, after the ill-fated incident on the square in front of the parliament, the Soviet troops did not take active steps against the demonstrators. After Prime Minister Imre Nagy's statement about the condemnation of the former "Stalinist" methods of leadership, the disbandment of the state security forces and the start of negotiations on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country, many had the impression that the Hungarian uprising had achieved the desired results. The fighting in the city stopped, 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 are in complete anarchy. The former power structures were destroyed, and new ones were not created. The government, which met in Budapest, had practically no influence on what was happening on the streets of the city, and there was a sharp surge in crime, since they released from prisons along with political prisonersfree more than ten thousand criminals.
In addition, the situation was aggravated by the fact that the Hungarian uprising of 1956 very soon became radicalized. This resulted in massacres against military personnel, former employees of state security agencies, and even ordinary communists. In the building of the Central Committee of the HTP alone, more than twenty party leaders were executed. In those days, photographs of their mutilated bodies flew around the pages of many world publications. The Hungarian revolution began to take on the features of a "senseless and merciless" rebellion.
Re-entry of the armed forces
The subsequent suppression of the uprising by the Soviet troops became 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 renounced their obligations at a critical moment, leaving Moscow free to intervene in the current situation. The Hungarian uprising of 1956 was practically doomed to defeat when, on October 31, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU, N. S. Khrushchev spoke in favor of taking the most radical measures to establish communist rule in the country.
Based on his orders, USSR Minister of Defense Marshal G. K. Zhukov led the development of a plan for an armed invasion of Hungary, called "Whirlwind". It provided for the participation in hostilities of fifteen tank, motorized and rifle divisions, with the involvement of the air force and landing units. Almost allleaders of the countries participating in the Warsaw Pact.
Operation Whirlwind began with the arrest of the newly appointed Minister of Defense of Hungary, Major General Pal Maleter, on November 3 by the Soviet KGB. This happened during negotiations that took place in the city of Thököl, not far from Budapest. The entry of the main contingent of the armed forces, commanded personally by G. K. Zhukov, was carried out in the morning of the next day. The official reason for this was the request of the government headed by Janos Kadar. In a short time, the 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 deceit, put on trial and, together with Pal Maleter, will be publicly hanged as traitors to the Motherland.
Active suppression of the rebellion
The main events unfolded on November 4th. In the center of the capital, the Hungarian rebels offered desperate resistance to the Soviet troops. To suppress it, flamethrowers were used, as well as incendiary and smoke shells. Only the fear of a negative reaction of the international community to the large number of civilian casu alties kept the command from bombarding 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 following decades. As soon as the pro-Soviet regime was finally established in the country, mass arrests began.participants in the recent uprising. The history of Hungary began to develop again according to the Stalinist scenario.
According to researchers, during that period, about 360 death sentences were handed down, 25 thousand citizens of the country were prosecuted, and 14 thousand of them were serving various terms of imprisonment. For many years behind the "iron curtain" that fenced off the countries of Eastern Europe from the rest of the world, Hungary turned out to be. The USSR, the main stronghold of the communist ideology, closely followed everything that happened in the countries under its control.
