F. The Hungarians were very patriotic, and they hated Russian control – which included censorship, the vicious secret police (called the AVH after 1948), disapproval of western clothes and Russian control of what the schools taught.
U. Khrushchev put Janos Kadal in as the new leader. He took months to crush all resistance and had 35000anti-Commusits arrested with 300 executed.
L. Russia stayed in control behind the Iron Curtain – no other country tried to get rid of Russia troops until Czechoslovakia in 1968
C. On 23 October 1956, there were riots of students, workers and soldiers. They smashed up the statue of Stalin, and attacked the AVH and Russian soldiers.
T. By 1956, 1000s of Soviet troops and officials were stationed in Hungary. The Hungarians had to pay for this.
G. In November 1956, 200.000 Hungarians fled across the border to Austria to escape the Soviet forces.
I. Hungarians were poor, yet much of the food and industrial goods they produced was sent to Russia. Much of the country’s money was being spent on the arms race.
V. On 24 October 1956, Imre Nagy took over as Prime Minister. He asked Khrushchev to take out the Russian troops
R. Hungary was led by a hard-line Communist called Rakosi from 1945-1956
A. Hungarians thought that the United Nations or the new US president, Eisenhower, would help them establish neutrality and independence.
J. Nagy and his fellow leaders were imprisoned and executed.
W. Rakosi was replaced by a new leader Erno Gero who was not much better.
E. The Hungarians were religious, but the Communist Party had banned religion, and put the leader of the Catholic Church in prison.
D. Hungary remained in the Warsaw Pact but Kadal cautiously introduced some of the demanded reforms from the rebels.
B. On 4 November 1956, at dawn, 1000 Russian tanks rolled into Budapest. By 8.10 am they had destroyed the Hungarian army and captured Hungarian Radio – its last words broadcast were ‘Help! Help! Help”!’ Hungarian people – even children – fought them with machine guns. Some 4000 Hungarians killed fighting the Russians.
M. 29 October – 3 November 1956: The new Hungarian government introduced democracy, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion (the leader of the Catholic Church was freed from prison). 1000s of local councils were set up to replace Soviet power. 1000s of Hungarian soldiers defected with their weapons and joined the rebels. Nagy also announced that Hungary was going to leave the Warsaw Pact.
K. People in the West were horrified – many British Communists left the Communist Party
Q. The media did not tell the truth and constantly reported that life was better than it had ever been.
N. The West realised it could do nothing about the Iron Curtain countries – but this made Western leaders even more determined to ‘contain’ communism
P. When the Communist Party tried to destalinise Hungary, things got out of control. In June 1956, the Hungarian leader Rakosi asked for permission to arrest 400 trouble-makers, but Khrushchev would not let him and ordered him to retire.
H. Some Hungarian street names had been replaced by Russian names.
O. On 28 October 1956, Khrushchev agreed, and the Russian army pulled out of Budapest
S. The west protested to Khrushchev but offered no help as they were preoccupied with the Suez Crisis.
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