The Hungarian Uprising

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The Hungarian Uprising

• Key Question How secure was the USSRs control
  over Eastern Europe, 1948-c.1989?

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The Hungarian Rising, 1956

• The Hungarians thought that life in Hungary
  should change. There were three main reasons for
  this
• The death of Stalin
• The new leadership of Khrushchev and the policy
  of peaceful co-existence
• A revolt in Poland in June 1956 which had led to
  some changes there

3
Reform in Hungary

• In October 1956, Imre Nagy was elected Prime
  Minister of Hungary after a series of
  demonstrations in the capital Budapest. The
  demonstrations had caught the government of the
  Soviet Union out. It was not ready to deal with
  this, so it made a decision to withdraw.

• The Hungarians wanted to end Soviet control of
  their country. They wanted more freedom and more
  contact with the West. Some even hoped that
  Soviet troops would leave Hungary.

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The Soviet Union could beat the Hungarians easily
but hoped that withdrawal would allow things to
calm down.

• But Nagy began to introduce reforms
• 1. Control of newspapers, magazines and radio
  stations was lifted
• 2. Non-communists were allowed to be part of the
  government
• 3. Hungary was to leave the Warsaw Pact
• 4. Free Elections were promised.

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The Rising is crushed

• Khrushchev would not accept these changes. Nagy
  had gone to far.
• On 4th November 1956 the Soviet armies returned
  in strength and crushed the revolt. The
  Hungarians fought hard but were no match for
  them. Over 30,000 Hungarians were killed. Over
  200,000 fled to western Europe. The Soviet
  authorities promised Nagy safety, but he was
  later arrested and executed. All the reforms
  were cancelled!