On Friday night Daniel and I attended a ceremony at our school commemorating the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Yesterday (October 23rd) was also a national holiday in Hungary.
My understanding of the events that transpired in 1956 is quite limited, but as it was such an important episode in Hungarian history, I feel that I should at least try to provide a quick summary.
In the lead up to October 1956, a number of events took place which created an atmosphere for revolution in Hungary. These included the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, the creation of the Warsaw Pact in 1955, changing political and social conditions in Austria and Poland, and the removal of Mátyás Rákosi as a powerful political figure in Hungary.
Sensing that the time was ripe for wide-ranging change in Hungary, students, journalists and academics began to be more active and vocal about the country's political situation. This eventually culminated in a group of students drawing up a list of 16 demands and taking it to the parliament in Budapest on 23 October 1956. By evening, a crowd of approximately 200,000 people had gathered.
When the Hungarian government officially refused to agree to the students' demands, the crowd began to take matters into its own hands - some of the protesters dismantled a massive public statue of Stalin and cut out the communist logo from Hungarian flags (this act became a symbol of the Hungarian revolution and was incorporated into the www.google.hu homepage yesterday).
Eventually the protests spread to other buildings in Budapest and then escalated into violence when the state police began to arrest protesters and shoot at the crowds. The news of these atrocities spread quickly and disorder and further violence erupted throughout the capital and across the country. Eventually the government fell.
In the days that followed, impromptu resistance councils sprung up all over Hungary and demanded political change. A new government was quickly formed and soon announced its intention to disband the state police service, withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and re-establish free elections. By the end of October 1956, fighting had slowed and things seemed to be returning to normal.
After initially declaring a willingness to comply with the new Hungarian Government's request to withdraw Red Army forces from Hungary, the Soviets soon backflipped and moved to crush the revolution. On 4 November 1956, a large Soviet force invaded Budapest and other regions of the country. Hungarian soldiers and civilians fought fiercely against the invading Soviet troops until 10 November 1956 when the last pocket of Hungarian resistance called for a ceasefire.
During the conflict over 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops were killed, and more than 13,000 Hungarians and 1,200 Soviet troops were injured. In addition, some 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees.
By January 1957, the new Soviet-installed government had suppressed all public opposition. The Hungarian revolution had failed.
It was not until 1989, over three decades after the initial revolution, that Hungary finally implemented many of the reforms that it had been fighting so long and hard to realise. Between 16–20 October 1989, the Hungarian Parliament adopted wide-ranging legislation that transformed Hungary from a People's Republic into the Republic of Hungary. This long-anticipated feat was officially declared on 23 October 1989, the 33rd anniversary of the 1956 revolution.
- Amanda
My understanding of the events that transpired in 1956 is quite limited, but as it was such an important episode in Hungarian history, I feel that I should at least try to provide a quick summary.
In the lead up to October 1956, a number of events took place which created an atmosphere for revolution in Hungary. These included the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, the creation of the Warsaw Pact in 1955, changing political and social conditions in Austria and Poland, and the removal of Mátyás Rákosi as a powerful political figure in Hungary.
Sensing that the time was ripe for wide-ranging change in Hungary, students, journalists and academics began to be more active and vocal about the country's political situation. This eventually culminated in a group of students drawing up a list of 16 demands and taking it to the parliament in Budapest on 23 October 1956. By evening, a crowd of approximately 200,000 people had gathered.
When the Hungarian government officially refused to agree to the students' demands, the crowd began to take matters into its own hands - some of the protesters dismantled a massive public statue of Stalin and cut out the communist logo from Hungarian flags (this act became a symbol of the Hungarian revolution and was incorporated into the www.google.hu homepage yesterday).
Eventually the protests spread to other buildings in Budapest and then escalated into violence when the state police began to arrest protesters and shoot at the crowds. The news of these atrocities spread quickly and disorder and further violence erupted throughout the capital and across the country. Eventually the government fell.In the days that followed, impromptu resistance councils sprung up all over Hungary and demanded political change. A new government was quickly formed and soon announced its intention to disband the state police service, withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and re-establish free elections. By the end of October 1956, fighting had slowed and things seemed to be returning to normal.
After initially declaring a willingness to comply with the new Hungarian Government's request to withdraw Red Army forces from Hungary, the Soviets soon backflipped and moved to crush the revolution. On 4 November 1956, a large Soviet force invaded Budapest and other regions of the country. Hungarian soldiers and civilians fought fiercely against the invading Soviet troops until 10 November 1956 when the last pocket of Hungarian resistance called for a ceasefire.
During the conflict over 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops were killed, and more than 13,000 Hungarians and 1,200 Soviet troops were injured. In addition, some 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees.
By January 1957, the new Soviet-installed government had suppressed all public opposition. The Hungarian revolution had failed.
It was not until 1989, over three decades after the initial revolution, that Hungary finally implemented many of the reforms that it had been fighting so long and hard to realise. Between 16–20 October 1989, the Hungarian Parliament adopted wide-ranging legislation that transformed Hungary from a People's Republic into the Republic of Hungary. This long-anticipated feat was officially declared on 23 October 1989, the 33rd anniversary of the 1956 revolution.
- Amanda
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