Hungary

• Hungary: 22nd October 1956

  students in Budapest were demonstrating - they were demanding:

  1. the appointment of Imre Nagy as prime minister
  2. the withdrawal of soviet troops from Hungary
  3. Freedom of speech and a free press
  4. multi-party elections
• Hungary: 23rd October 1956

  • the student demonstration escalated into an armed revolt
  • workers groups joined the students and seized power from local communist authorities
  • the demonstrators were fired upon by the Hungarian secret police
• Hungary: 24th October 1956

  • Nagy was appointed prime minister and immediately met with the soviet delegation to reassure them that soviet military intervention was not necessary and that the uprising could be calmed
  • the US gave the Hungarians encouragement via the 'Radio Free Europe' -this gave the Hungarians the impression that NATO would intervene and provide protection from the USSR if necessary - HOWEVER, this was wrong and NATO was never going to do this as Eisenhower accepted Hungary as a part of the soviet sphere of influence
• Hungary: 27th October 1956

  • the Secretary of State (Dulles) was instructed to announce that the US had no ulterior purpose in desiring the independence of the satellite countries
• Hungary: 28th October 1956

  • feeling reassured, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw soviet forces from Budapest and it was declared that they would withdraw from Hungary as a whole
• Hungary: What happened the days following 28th October 1956

  • USSR adopted a conciliatory stance - red army forces began to withdraw from Budapest and declared they would withdraw from Hungary as a whole due to pressure from China - it was clear from this that the USSR didn't want to engage in further military action in Hungary
  • however, there was no question that the communist regime in Hungary would be allowed to be fundamentally undermined or that the integrity of the Soviet Bloc in Eastern Europe would be compromised by these events
• Hungary: 31st October 1956

  • Khrushchev changed his mind, he feared a collapse of communist control
• Hungary: 1st November 1956

  • Nagy announced Hungary's intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and declare itself neutral
  • this was TOO FAR and Khrushchev now felt like he had no choice
• Hungary: 3rd November 1956

  • 15 divisions of the Red army and 4000 tanks moved in on Budapest and within a few days the uprising was crushed
  • a new government under the leadership of Kadar (a hard line communist loyal to Moscow) was installed
  • over 4000 Hungarians had been killed and a further 20,000 went into a self imposed exile