| Hungarian Revolution Of 1956 |
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The Hungarian RevolutionAlternate references are "Hungarian Revolt" and "Hungarian Uprising"; "Revolution" is used as it conforms to both English (see U.S. Department of State background on Hungary) and Hungarian ("forradalom") conventions. There is a distinction between the "complete overthrow" of a revolution and an uprising or revolt that may or may not be successful ( to the Parliament Building . A student delegation entering the Radio Building in an attempt to broadcast Their Demands was detained. When the delegation's release was demanded by the demonstrators outside, they were fired upon by the State Security Police (ÁVH) from within the building. The news spread quickly and disorder and violence erupted throughout the capital. The revolt spread quickly across Hungary , and the government fell. Thousands organized into militias, battling the State Security Police (ÁVH) and Soviet troops. Pro-Soviet communists and ÁVH members were often executed or imprisoned, as former prisoners were released and armed. Impromptu councils wrested municipal control from the communist party, and demanded political changes. The new government formally disbanded the ÁVH, declared its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and pledged to re-establish free elections. By the end of October, fighting had almost stopped and a sense of normality began to return. After announcing a willingness to negotiate a withdrawal of Soviet forces, the Politburo changed its mind and moved to crush the revolution. On November 4 , a large Soviet force invaded Budapest, killing thousands of civilians. Organized resistance ceased by November 10 , and mass arrests began. An estimated 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees. By January 1957, the new Soviet-installed government had suppressed all public opposition. These Soviet actions alienated many Western Marxists , yet strengthened Soviet control over Central Europe , cultivating the perception that communism was both irreversible and monolithic. Public discussion about this revolution was suppressed in Hungary for over 30 years, but since the thaw of the 1980s it has been a subject of intense study and debate. At the inauguration of the Third Hungarian Republic in 1989, October 23 was declared a national holiday. PRELUDE After which set off a chain of events leading directly to the revolution. Postwar occupation After World War II, Hungary fell under the Soviet 2006 By 1949 the Soviets had concluded a Mutual Assistance Treaty with Hungary which granted the Soviet Union rights to a continued military presence, assuring ultimate political control.In 1949 the ruling communist parties of the founding states of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance were also linked internationally through the Cominform Library of Congress Country Studies Appendix B -- Germany (East) Hungary began the postwar period as a multiparty free democracy, and elections in 1945 produced a ", which sliced away the elected government's influence.1 Retrieved 8 October 2006 In 1945, Soviet Marshal Kliment Voroshilov forced the freely elected Hungarian government to yield the Interior Ministry to the Hungarian Communist Party . Communist Interior Minister László Rajk established the Hungarian State Security Police (''Államvédelmi Hatóság'', later known as the ÁVH), which employed methods of intimidation, false accusations, imprisonment and torture, to suppress political opposition.UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) The brief period of Multiparty Democracy came to an end when the Hungarian Communist Party merged with the Social Democratic Party to become the Hungarian Workers' Party , which stood its candidate list unopposed in 1949. The People's Republic Of Hungary was declared. Political repression and economic decline ]] Hungary became a or were executed, including ÁVH founder László Rajk.2 (page 49). Gati describes "the most gruesome forms of psychological and physical torture...The reign of terror (by the Rákosi government) turned out to be harsher and more extensive than it was in any of the other Soviet satellites in Central and Eastern Europe." He further references a report prepared after the collapse of communism, the Fact Finding Commission ''Torvenytelen szocializmus'' (Lawless Socialism): "Between 1950 and early 1953, the courts dealt with 650,000 cases (of political crimes), of whom 387,000 or 4 percent of the population were found guilty. (Budapest, Zrinyi Kiado/Uj Magyarorszag, 1991, 154). The Rákosi government thoroughly politicized Hungary's educational system in order to supplant the educated classes with a "toiling intelligentsia".In February 1950, the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party defined the supplantation of bourgeois leaders as its main goal. József Darvas, the Minister of Education and Religion from February 1950, wrote about secondary educational reforms in the pedagogical magazine ''Köznevelés'' (, was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for treason. Douglas, J. D. and Philip Comfort (eds.) (1992). ''Who's Who in Christian History'', p. 478. Tyndale House: Carol Stream, Illinois. ISBN 0-8423-1014-2 Under Rákosi, Hungary's government was among the most repressive in Europe. The postwar Hungarian economy suffered from multiple challenges. Hungary agreed to pay , 2006 These policies had a cumulative negative effect, and fueled discontent as foreign debt grew and the population experienced shortages of goods. International events Lying In State in Lenin's Mausoleum ]] On March 5 , 1953 , Joseph Stalin died, ushering in a period of Moderate Liberalization during which most European communist parties developed a reform wing. In Hungary, the reformist Imre Nagy replaced Mátyás Rákosi, "Stalin's Best Hungarian Disciple", as Prime Minister.8 However, Rákosi remained General Secretary of the Party, and was able to undermine most of Nagy's reforms. By April 1955, he had Nagy discredited and removed from office.9 (page 64) After Khrushchev's "secret Speech" of February 1956, which denounced Stalin and his protégés,10 Rákosi was deposed as General Secretary of the Party and replaced by Ernő Gerő on July 18 , 1956 .UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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