Hungarian Uprising

• Stalin died


  March 1953
• Khrushchev came to power

  1955
• What Khrushchev did in Yugoslavia

  Apologised for Stalin's actions
• Khrushchev met with western leaders at Geneva


  1st time in over a decade
• Khrushchev's Secret Speech


  Denounced Stalin's policies and wanted peaceful co-existence without capitalist nations
• Khrushchev's 'de-stalinisation' actions


  1. Broke up Cominform

  2. Spoke of different roads of socialism
• Western promises


  Hungarians believed help would come from UN or Eisenhower
• Poverty in Hungary


  Much of the goods/foods was sent by the USSR
• Help from Yugoslavia


  Convinced Khrushchev to replace Rákosi
• Nationalism in Hungary


  Hungarians were very patriotic and hated soviet control
• Role of Catholic Church

  Cardinal Jószef Mindszenty, the leader, was banned and in prison
• Oppression in Hungary


  Secret police, censorship, control of education
• Hungarian people began to protest against Rákosi's regime, and Moscow replaced him with Ernő Gerő


  June 1956
• Students took to the streets and were supported by the workers and the Hungarian army


  October 23rd 1956
• Imre Nagy, a moderate communist, was named as leader


  October 24th 1956
• • Soviet tanks opened fire killing 12 and wounding 100+
  • Nagy forced to resign but reinstated the same day

  October 25th 1956
• Nagy released political prisoners, the most famous being cardinal Mindszenty


  October 30th 1956
• Nagy announced free elections and withdrawal from Warsaw Pact and Hungarian neutrality


  November 1st 1956
• • 200,000 soviet troops and 6000 tanks crossed border
  • Quickly captured airports,bridges and key road junctions


  November 4th 1956
• Ceasefire but fighting until 1957

  10th of November
• 200,000 Hungarians fled the country
• Nagy: 'This is not a counter revolution. This is a fight for freedom'