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On This Day: Hungarian Uprising against Soviet domination begins
The revolt, which was brutally crushed by Red Army forces 18 days later after the deaths of 3,000 civilians, was the first threat to Moscow’s rule in Eastern Europe
OCTOBER 23, 1956: The Hungarian Uprising began on this day in 1956 after hundreds of thousands took to the streets to demand an end to Soviet domination.
The revolt, which was brutally crushed by Red Army forces 18 days later after the deaths of 3,000 civilians, was the first threat to Moscow’s rule in Eastern Europe.
It began with a spontaneous protest in capital Budapest, demanding that former Prime Minister Imre Nagy, who was a liberal communist, be returned to power.
Students marched through the streets with loudspeakers on a van broadcasting Radio Free Europe, a banned American-funded news service.
Violence began when they tried to storm the state radio building to broadcast to the people after communist party Chairman Ernö Gerö vowed to maintain Soviet ties.
Police opened fire on the demonstrators, who by then were also calling free elections, freedom of the press and a withdrawal of Soviet troops.
Gerö ordered Red Army tanks onto the streets to disperse the crowds, who were also angered by the massive economic decline since communists took power in 1945.
But in spite of the bloodshed and terror, by 9.30pm, 200,000 protesters were on the streets and had toppled a 30ft statue of the late Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
They planted Hungarian flags with the communist shield cut out of the centre into the boots of the former strongman, who imposed stringent reparations.
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Shocked by the revolt, the country’s ruling Working People’s Party held an emergency meeting the same night in and re-instated Nagy as premier.
But Soviet tanks remained on the streets and the uprising continued.
A British Pathe newsreel showed people tearing down communist symbols, burning propaganda and Soviet flags.
Two days later, Red Army tanks opened fire on a crowd in Parliament Square at point-blank range and killed hundreds of people.
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It shocked both the local communists and the Kremlin – prompting the Hungarians to sack Gerö and the Soviets to pull their troops out of Budapest on October 30.
Nagy formed a government, which was dedicated to lifting the Moscow’s shackles by exiting the Warsaw Pact, introducing liberal economic and electoral reforms.
But USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev changed his mind – fearing the changes could undermine Soviet influence elsewhere – and sent the tanks back in on November 4.
Thousands died in the ruthless crackdown, whose brutality shocked the world, and another 200,000 fled the country.
Nagy took refuge in the embassy of Yugoslavia, which although communist was not aligned with the USSR, but was abducted by KGB agents.
The failed uprising deterred reform elsewhere in Eastern Europe, until the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia in 1968, which again was brutally crushed by the Soviets.
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Communism did not end in Hungary and the other satellite states until reformist Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev vowed not to intervene in 1989.
Beginning with Poland and Hungary – and ending with Bulgaria – they all collapsed within a year.
