hungarian uprising

• when was the hungarian uprising

  1956
• the hungarians hated communism because of - (Poverty)

  • Hungarians were poor, yet much of the food and industrial goods they produced was sent to Russia.
  • Much of this money was spent on weapons while the Hungarian people went hungry.
• the hungarians hated communism because of - (russian control)

  • The Hungarians were very patriotic, and they hated Russian control – which included censorship, the vicious secret police (called the AVH) and Russian control of what the schools taught and the presence of the Russian troops in the streets.
• the hungarians hated communism because of - (catholic church)

  • The Hungarians were religious, but the Communist Party had banned religion, and put the leader of the Catholic Church in prison.
• the hungarians hated communism because of - (Help from the West)

  • Hungarians thought that the United Nations or the new US president, Eisenhower, would help them.
• occurances of the hungarian uprising

  • October 23: Riots in Budapest, statue of Stalin destroyed, attacks on AVH and Russian soldiers.
  • October 24: Imre Nagy becomes Prime Minister, requests withdrawal of Russian troops.
  • October 28: Russian forces leave Budapest.
  • October 29-November 3: Hungary introduces democratic reforms, announces Warsaw Pact exit.
  • November 4: 1000 Russian tanks re-enter Budapest, crushing Hungarian resistance, 4000 casualties.
  • Janos Kadar installed as pro-Russian Prime Minister by Khrushchev.
• how did the USSR react to this opposition in hungary?

  1. Nagy’s decision to leave the Warsaw Pact – Russia was determined to keep its ‘buffer’ of states.
  2. China asked Russia to act to stop Communism being damaged.
  3. Nagy had obviously lost control; Hungary was not just destalinising – it was turning capitalist.
  4. Hard-liners in Russia forced Khrushchev to act.
  5. Khrushchev thought, correctly, that the West would not help Hungary.
• what were the impacts/effects/concequenses of the hungarian uprising?

  1. Repression in Hungary - thousands of Hungarians were arrested and imprisoned. Some were executed and 200,000 Hungarian refugees fled (ran away) to Austria.
  2. Russia stayed in control behind the Iron Curtain - no other country tried to get rid of Russian troops until Czechoslovakia in 1968.
  3. Polarisation of the Cold War - people in the West were horrified - many Communists left the Communist Party - and Western leaders became more determined to contain communism.
• how many people were killed

  4,000