Imre Nagy

• when did Imre Nagy become Prime Minister?

  24th October 1956
• what were Imre Nagy's reforms?

  • free elections - with other political parties allowed
  • freedom of speech and freedom of the press
  • Hungary would leave the Warsaw Pact, and become a neutral country
• what was Khrushchev's response to Nagy's reforms?

  • Khrushchev saw Nagy's policy to leave the Warsaw Pact as too far - if Hungary left, it would influence other Eastern Bloc countries to leave as well.
  • on 4th November 1956, 6000 soviet tanks and 200,000 soviet troops invaded Budapest.
• describe what followed after the invasion of Budapest (4th November 1956)...

  • Hungarians resisted this invasion using guns, and ambushed Soviet tanks in the street.
  • it took the USSR two weeks to crush this revolt. in the end, between 3000 and 20,000 Hungarians and around 700 soviet soldiers had been killed.
• what as the West's reaction to the Hungarian invasion?

  • Western powers didn't help the Hungarians..

  1. West was afraid to send military support to Hungary, because members of the Warsaw Pact were ready to fight alongside the USSR.
  2. the arms race threatened to turn the dispute into a nuclear war.
  3. world leaders and the United Nations were too focused on the Suez crisis in Egypt.

  • however, there was huge public sympathy in the West for the Hungarians. including public demonstrations in Western Europe.
• suggest some consequences of the Hungarian Uprising...

  • 200,000 Hungarian refugees fled Hungary
  • Nagy was arrested and later executed by the USSR in 1958
  • Khrushchev proved that despite 'destalinisation' he was willing to do anything to maintain control in the Eastern Bloc.
  • the USA had shown that they wouldn't interfere with events in the Eastern Bloc.