Hungarian Uprising 1956 Flashcards
When was the Hungarian Uprising
July-November 1956
What was life like under Communist rule
News was censored, secret police (ACH) was active, religion was banned, and the curriculum was tightly controlled.
What was life like for the people - stats
2,000 executed and 100,000 imprisoned in the process of Communists gaining control.
People very poor
How did the war make it worse
Hungary had been devastated by bombs yet food and industrial goods were sent to Russia. Ordinary people saw standard of living fall and they had to pay for the costs of occupying Soviet Forces.
Who lead Hungary before the Uprising between 1949 and 1956
Matyas Rakosi
What was the issue with Rakosi
He was a hard-line communist who crushed political opposition
What caused Rakosi to retire due to ‘ill health’
He asked the USSR to help arrest 400 political opponents and there had been protests in July against the poor standards of living
Who was appointed after Rakosi
Erno Gero in an attempt to stop protests by the people
What was the problem with Gero and what happened
The people didn’t want him either and wanted the reformer Imre Nagy to take over
What emboldened the people to protest for Nagy
- There were signals that Eisenhower (US President) would support them and they had intervened in the Korean War
- In June 1956 the solidarity strike in Poland had got Russia to concede some demands
- Stalin had died in 1953 and Khrushchev gave a de-Stalinisation speech in 1956 which seemed to suggest and step towards relaxing some restrictions in Soviet colonies
When was the first protest for Nagy
23 October 1956
(mainly students)
How was the first protest received
23 - Police fired tear gas and opened fire on the crowd
24 - Russian troops were sent in and tanks + soldiers guarded key sites such as the parliament.
What followed the events of 23-24 October on the 25th
Protestors gathered at the parliament building and politicians loyal to Russia were force to flee
What happened following the 25th October 1956
On the 28th Khrushchev agreed to Nagy’s demands and pulled Russian troops out of Budapest (Temporary retreat)
What did the new government do in 28 October - 3 November 1956
- Introduced democracy
- Introduced freedom of speech and religion
- Released Joseph Mindszenty (a cardinal) and other political prisoners
- Most importantly, Nagy announced that Hungary would leave the Warsaw pact.
- On 1 November Nagy appealed to UN to help resolve the conflict
What was Khrushchev’s response and when.
4 November - He reversed course under pressure from allies such as China and in Russia and felt he could not allow a country to leave the Warsaw Pact.
What did Khrushchev do on 4 November
Moved 1,000 tanks into the capital, captured Hungary’s airfields, highway junctions and bridges.
What happened after the army was used by the USSR
Janos Kadar was installed in power and Nagy was arrested and secretly executed in June 1958, apparently ‘as a lesson to all other leaders in socialist countries’
What were the consequences of the Hungarian Uprising
20-30,000 Hungarians killed (1,000 Soviets)
200,000 fled the country
35,000 protestors arrested and 300 executed afterwards
Nagy’s reforms were reversed
Tension between East and West rose
Khrushchev appeared stronger
How did the West respond
- The UN condemned the USSR’s actions
- America accepted 80,000 refugees
- Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland boycotted the 1956 Olympics
- Key - they could not send aid due to the Warsaw pact as it would start a war.
- Therefore it looked weak
