Global InformationHungarian Revolution of 1956 information
| Hungarian Revolution of 1956 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Cold War | |||||||
 The Hungarian flag (1949–1956) with the communist coat of arms cut out was a revolutionary symbol | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Soviet UnionUntil 28 October:  HungaryFrom 4 November: Kádár government |
 Hungarian revolutionariesFrom 28 October: Hungary (Nagy government) | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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| Units involved | |||||||
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Soviet Armed Forces KGB ÁVH Loyalist elements of the MN |
Armed citizens Demonstrators Pro-Revolution elements of the MN | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | ||||||
| Political support | |||||||
 Working People's Party (loyalists, to 28 October) Socialist Workers' Party (from 4 November) |
Working People's Party (dissidents, to 31 October) Socialist Workers' Party(to 4 November) Smallholders' Party Social Democratic Party Petőfi Party Democratic People's Party Independence PartyOther reformed parties | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
| ||||||
| 3,000 civilians killed[3] | |||||||
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; Hungarian: 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union (USSR).[nb 2] The uprising lasted 12 days before being crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on 4 November 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter of a million Hungarians fled the country.[4][5]
The Hungarian Revolution began on 23 October 1956 in Budapest when university students appealed to the civil populace to join them at the Hungarian Parliament Building to protest against the USSR's geopolitical domination of Hungary through the Stalinist government of Mátyás Rákosi. A delegation of students entered the building of Magyar Rádió to broadcast their sixteen demands for political and economic reforms to civil society, but were detained by security guards. When the student protestors outside the radio building demanded the release of their delegation, policemen from the ÁVH (State Protection Authority) shot and killed several of them.[6]
Consequently, Hungarians organized into revolutionary militias to fight against the ÁVH; local Hungarian communist leaders and ÁVH policemen were captured and summarily killed or lynched; and political prisoners were released and armed. To realize their political, economic, and social demands, local soviets (councils of workers) assumed control of municipal government from the Hungarian Working People's Party (Magyar Dolgozók Pártja). The new government of Imre Nagy disbanded the ÁVH, declared Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, and pledged to re-establish free elections. By the end of October the intense fighting had subsided.
Although initially willing to negotiate the withdrawal of the Soviet Army from Hungary, the USSR repressed the Hungarian Revolution on 4 November 1956, and fought the Hungarian revolutionaries until Soviet victory on 10 November; repression of the Hungarian Uprising killed 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet Army soldiers, and compelled 200,000 Hungarians to seek political refuge abroad, mostly to Austria.[7][8]
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- ^ Györkei, J.; Kirov, A.; Horvath, M. (1999). Soviet Military Intervention in Hungary, 1956. New York: Central European University Press. p. 370. ISBN 963-9116-35-1.
- ^ UN General Assembly Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary (1957) "Chapter V, footnote 8" (PDF).
- ^ "B&J": Jacob Bercovitch and Richard Jackson, International Conflict : A Chronological Encyclopedia of Conflicts and Their Management 1945–1995 (1997) p. 85
- ^ "This Day in History: November 4, 1956". History.com. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
- ^ "The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A History in Documents". National Security Archive. 4 November 2002. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
- ^ "Hungarian Revolt of 1956", Dictionary of Wars(2007) Third Edition, George Childs Kohn, Ed. pp. 237–238.
- ^ "Hungarian Refugee Cards, 1956-1957, Now Available in JDC Names Index | JDC Archives". Retrieved 5 January 2024.
- ^ Niessen, James P. (11 October 2016). "Hungarian Refugees of 1956: From the Border to Austria, Camp Kilmer, and Elsewhere". Hungarian Cultural Studies. 9: 122–136. doi:10.5195/AHEA.2016.261. ISSN 2471-965X.