Hungarian Uprising Malin+Rosalie

Malin Eggert, Rosalie Schewe

THE HUNGARIAN UPRISING 1956

Sources

Tasks

Summary

Causes

INDEX

course

ReaCTIOns

protagonist

reSULTS

Pre-History

Summary

On October 22, 1956, Five Thousand Students in Budapest drew up a manifesto, which demanded, among other things, free elections, freedom of association, economic reforms, and the departure of Soviet troops from Hungary. The following day, many people became active in the streets and tore down a statue of Stalin. For about two weeks, people destroyed many symbols of the communist regime. Many of the Hungarian soldiers left the troops and gave up their weapons. In early November, Soviet tanks began to enter the city to put down the Hungarian revolution. About two thousand people got killed and another fifteen thousand were injured. Many people got arrested. There was a mass exodus, with more than two hundred thousand people leaving Hungary. Eisenhower got accused of not helping the Hungarian freedom fighters after they called for revolution. The West, which could have helped the Hungarians, also remained inactive. Unlike the Soviet Union, the United States did not act. One of the reasons was that Austria had banned their passage both by land and air. After the alleged withdrawal from Hungary, the latter stormed back into the country a few days later for the suppression. Moreover, they had no idea how to deal with such an enormous uprising. A defeat of the Americans would have become a strategic defeat all over the world. With the Hungarian Revolution, it turned out that communism in Eastern Europe was not as strong as suspected.

Pre-History

Before 1939, the Hungarian government was anti-Russian and anti-Communist. After WWI, they still became an involuntary part of the Soviet Empire and built 1940 an alliance with Hitler. Since 1944, Soviet forces have occupied Hungary. Such as that the leader Mátyás Rákosi was under complete control of Moscow. The popularity also had to live under unnormal conditions. There was no freedom of speech, which means that no outspeaking or opposing against the communist rule was allowed. The poverty in Hungary increased due to the Soviet troops. Furthermore, the Soviet culture, such as the Russian language, got forced on the Hungarians. This lead to the penalization of the Catholic church.

cAUSES

After Stalin died in 1953, reactions against his dictatorship came up, and Nikita Khrushchev became the new Soviet leader. In July 1953, Rákosi got replaced by Imre Nagy, who promised a new course for Hungary. Nevertheless, he got dismissed from office and expelled from the party at the beginning of 1955. In his secret speech to the Communist party, he denounced Stalin's actions and started, in addition to that, the de-Stalinization policy. Even though the Eastern bloc still got clear limits from Khrushchev, they began again to think that freedom could be possible - although the countries in the Soviet sphere of influence still can not leave the Warsaw Pact or turn away from communism. In July 1956, Rákosi got reinstated, and protests against his Regime came up. He got replaced with the also unliked Ernő Gerő. He made an announcement, which declared that there would not be a concession on Nagy and his group's matters. The Hungarian people wanted the leadership and the reforms from Imre Nagy. In addition, they aimed for the redress of the nation's grievances.

protagonists

Nikita Khrushchev

- first secretary of Communist Party of SU 1953-1964- premier of SU 1958-1964

Imre Nagy

- Hungarian prime minister 1953-1955, 1956- minister posts 1944-1948

Mátyás Rákosi

-leader of communist party Hungary 1945-1956- Hungarian prime minister 1952-1953

János Kádár

- Hungarian communist leader-General Secretary of Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party

Nikita Khrushchev

He was on April 17 in 1894, born in Kalinova, and died on September 11, 1971, in Moscow.Khrushchev was from 1953 to 1964 first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and from 1958 to 1964, also premier of the Soviet Union. Through his de-Stalinization policy, repercussions spread throughout the communist world. He wanted a peaceful coexistence between the communist East and the capitalist West. Without losing his ideology, his goal was to improve the Soviet system. During his humanization, he released several million political prisoners from the labor camps of the Gulag.

Imre Nagy

Imre Nagy was born on June 7, 1896, in Kaposvár and was excecuted on June 16, 1958.He was the Hungarian prime minister from 1953-1955 and part of 1956 during the Hungarian uprising.In WWI, he spends a lot of time in Russia as a prisoner of war. After this, he converted to communism.Imre Nagy was known for his liberalism and reforms. As a result, he lost his role as a premier minister, later got deported to Romania, and was condemned for treason. 16 June 1989, 31 Years later, he got rehabilitated and reburied, which had a significant role in ending the rule of the communist in Hungary.

Mátyás Rákosi

The Hungarian communist Mátyás Rákosi was born on March 9, 1892, in Ada, Austria-Hungary, and died on February 5, 1971, in Gorky, Russia.From 1949 to 1956, he ruled Communist Hungary and was also Hungary’s Communist Party leader. Rákosi was a known supporter of Stalin. Due to his experience in a prisoner-of war-camp in WWI, his view got radicalized.Mátyás Rákosi was Hungary's most powerful man while Stalin lived. After his death, his influence decreased. One of the "sixteen points" even was him to be tried by a people's tribunal. Some years after the Hungarian Uprising, he eventually got expelled from the communist party.

János Kádár

János Kádár was born on May 26, 1912, in Fiume, Austria-Hungary, and died on July 6, 1989, in Budapest, Hungary.After the failure of the Uprising of 1956, he was the prime minister until 1958 and got reenacted in 1961 (-1965). He also was in charge of the more powerful position as secretary of the communist party in Hungary. The Hungarian communist leader tolerated some freedom of speech and moderate liberalization. Throughout the years, he shaped the land policy. Nevertheless, did he play a significant role in the failure of the Uprising and the resulting execution of Imre Nagy.

11/01

11/02+03

11/04

10/31

Course

10/25

10/24

10/23

10/26-29

1956

Soviet Union

United States of America

Reactions

Next

Consequences

After the Hungarian Uprising, more than 200.000 people have fled to the west. Among them were many intellectuals and scholars. Moreover, thousands of Hungarians have been without evidence or any appropriate trial arrested and imprisoned, and sometimes even deported to the Soviet Union. Also, a lot of the communist regime’s opponents got executed, Imre Nagy as an example.János Kádár increased his control over Hungary and canceled out differently-minded people. The Soviet presence was due to its increased troop level in Hungary and a new enforced treaty more or less accepted. Upon the post-revolution reconstruction, he managed to alleviate much of the people’s oppression. The Hungarian government pursued a new form of Communism because it incorporated parts of free-market economics. It was the so-called Goulash Communism. Hungary was even seen as one of the happiest countries in the Soviet sphere of influence until the Iron Curtain fall, where Hungary was one of the first countries to leave the East block due to the remaining active anti-communist opposition.

Consequences

Nevertheless, the Uprising pointed out the weakness of the Soviet system and underlined the Hungarian's free will regarding reforms to obtain a better life. Therefore, Kádár tried to reassure them and made many promises, although several of them he did not implement since, as an example, it got determined that Hungary belonged to the eastern block and has to comply with the Soviet Union's foreign policy.Although the failure of the Uprising in the short term was a warning to other Eastern European countries that they could not leave the Warsaw Pact and had to pursue communism on the USSR's terms, it Farsighted, paved the way for revolts against the common Oppressor. For example, the Prague spring in 1968, which needed more than 650.000 Soviet troops to shut down the People demanding more liberal reforms.

• Test your knowledge with Kahoot game pin: 0379793

• You are a Western diplomat at the time of the uprising. Make a pro-contra list of whether you want to intervene in the uprising.

• Work on the task for the following monument

Tasks

3. With what hidden agenda could the artist have approached the work? How would you have designed a work of art on the subject matter?

2. Put the iron spike in the historical context of events. Note the procedure at the time.

1. Describe the effect of the monument with your feelings.

Tasks

Sources

Primary source:https://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-projects/evhe/central-monument-of-the-1956-hungarian-revolution-and-war-of-independence-project-pages.htmlSecondary sources:https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3h9mnb/revision/11https://www.britannica.com/event/Hungarian-Revolution-1956https://alphahistory.com/coldwar/hungarian-uprising/https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/the-hungarian-uprising/https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/the-cold-war/the-hungarian-uprising-of-1956/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikita-Sergeyevich-Khrushchevhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zghnqhv/revision/5https://dailyhistory.org/What_caused_the_Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956%3Fhttps://historylearning.com/modern-world-history/coldwar/janos-kadar/https://historylearning.com/modern-world-history/coldwar/matyas-rakosi/https://rupertcolley.com/2015/06/07/imre-nagy-a-brief-biography/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-put-brutal-end-to-hungarian-revolution