De-stalinisation

• Khrushchev's speech in 1956 criticising Stalin's repressive regimes gave the Soviet Union's satellite states the opportunity to push for a relaxation of Soviet control in their own countries.
• In the Summer of 1956, there were protests about Soviet control in Poland. In Poland, the leader: Gomulka, was able to prevent armed invasion of the Soviet Union by persuading the Soviets that whilst Poland wanted to make some of its own decisions, the Poles were totally loyal to the Warsaw Pact and to communism.
• In Hungary however, the protests about political freedom and problems caused by fuel shortages and poor harvests and riots in the capital, Budapest, were far more chaotic than those in Poland, which means the Soviet Union had no other option but to invade and intervene. This is when the leader Rakosi was replaced with Nagy, as it was believed he could bring about reforms peacefully, without threatening the Warsaw Pact.