1. The Hungarian Revolution

Soviet Exploitation of Hungarian Resources I: this night is flawless don't you let it go

- Hungary's uranium reserves were mined to exhaustion to support the Soviets' nuclear weapons programme - russia was in charge of exploration and extraction of the ore - Hungary was responsible for providing the infrastructure - moscow was the only buyer and set the price alone - moscow also dictated the pace at which the ore would be exploited - the russians would have the reserves free of charge and the russians who worked there would be exempt from taxes. housing installations for the workers was Hungary's responsibility

kadar being a wonderful man

he created a uniquely Hungarian form of communism - 'gulyas communism'. it got rid of all the worst features of eastern-european socialism, but still jept the communist party in power hungary was 'the merriest barracks in the prison camp'

Who was at the top of Rakosi's list for arrests?

he had a list of 400 names and Imre Nagy's was at the top of prominent figures he would arrest 'at once'

Agnes Gergely

fired from her job as a teacher for saying that there was a 'revolution' in 1956 during a class

What happened to Laszlo Rajk?

he was a former communist minister who fell victim to one of rakosi's show trials

were there any defections (ie. soviets going to the hungarian side)?

hardly any - just 59 soviet soldiers were reported missing and it later turned out that they were all killed

what was Ike told in 1953?

In August 1953, 8 months after entering the white house, Eisenhower was informed by his defence experts that they were certain that the Soviets had the H-bomb

The Sixteen Points: 3.

'A new Government must be consituted under the direction of Comrade Imre Nagy; all the criminal leaders of the Stalin-Rakosi era must be immediately relieved of their duties.'

CIA guidelines in the RFE handbook

'Broadcasts should emphasise Western determination to undermine Communist regimes' - broadcasters couldn't use the words 'peace' and 'disarmament' in relation to the Soviet bloc because these words may signal acceptance of russian control over eastern europe

The first Russian words most Hungarians learned was the phrase...

'Davai tchassey' ('Give me your watch') - use this quote to describe the looting

Hungary in the percentage deal (or as Churchill called it, 'the naughty document')

'Hungary was another country to be split 50/50.' Churchill later described

The Sixteen Points: 8.

'Our foreign trade agreements and the exact total of reparations that can never be paid must be made public. We demand precise and exact information on the uranium deposits in our country, on their exploitation, and on the concessions accorded the Russians in this area. We demand that Hungary has the right to sell uranium freely at world market prices to obtain hard currency.'

the joke in the rebel centres (4 november 1956)

'The Russians say they have come as our friends. Imagine if they had said they were our enemies.'

The Sixteen Points: 15.

'The students of the Technological University of Budapest declare unanimously their solidarity with the workers and students of Warsaw and Poland in their movement towards national independence.'

The Sixteen Points: 16.

'The students of the Technological University of Budapest will organise as rapidly as possible local branches of the MEFESZ and they have decided to convoke at Budapest on Saturday 27 October a Youth Parliament at which all the nation's youth will be represented by their delegates.'

give the old joke in hungary that describes hungarians getting jailes

'There are still three classes in this country: those who have been in jail; those who are in jail; and those who will be in jail.'

what banner was splayed across the entrance of the corvin cinema?

'There are three great powers - the US, the USSR and the Corvin group.'

The Sixteen Points: 12.

'We demand complete recognition of freedom of opinion and expression, of freedom of the press and radio, as well as the creation of a new daily newspaper for the MEFESZ Organisation (Hungarian federation of University and College Students organisations)

The Sixteen Points: 9.

'We demand complete revision of the norms in effect in industry and an immediate and radical adjustment of salaries in accordance with the just requirements of workers and intellectuals. We demand that a minimum living wage be fixed for workers.'

The Sixteen Points: 11.

'We demand reviews by independent tribunals of all political and economic trials as well as the release and rehabilitation of the innocent. We demand the repatriation of prisoners of war and civilian deportees in the Soviet Union including prisoners sentenced outside Hungary.'

The Sixteen Points: 6.

'We demand revision and readjustment of Hungarian-Soviet and Hungarian-Yugoslav relations in the fields of politics, economics, and cultural affairs on a basis of complete political and economic equality and non-interference in the internal affairs of one by the other.'

The Sixteen Points: 13.

'We demand that the statue of Stalin, symbol of Stalinist tyranny and political oppression, be removed as quickly as possible and be replaced by a monument to the martyred fighters for freedom of 1848/49.'

The Sixteen Points: 10.

'We demand that the system of distribution be organised on a new basis and that agricultural products be utilised in a rational manner. We demand equality of treatment for individual farms.'

The Sixteen Points: 14.

'We demand the replacement of emblems that are foreign to the Hungarian people by the old Hungarian arms of Kossuth. We demand for the Hungarian Army new uniforms conforming to our national traditions. We demand that 15 March be declared a national holiday and that 6 October be a day of national mourning on which schools will be closed.'

a well-rehearsed saying, criticising Soviet occupation

'We have had three great tragedies in Hungary - the Tartar conquest in the thirteenth century, the 150-year Turkish occupation - and the Soviet liberation.'

The Sixteen Points: 4.

'a public enquiry into the criminal activities of Mihaly Farkas and his accomplices. Matyas Rakosi, who is the person most responsible for all crimes of the recent past, as well as for the ruin of our country, must be brought back to Hungary for trial before a people's tribunal.'

what did stalin call writers?

'engineers of the mind'

The Sixteen Points: 1.

'evacuation of all soviet troops'

The Sixteen Points: 5.

'general elections by universal secret ballot, be held throughout the country to elect a new National Assembly, with all political parties participating. We demand that the right of workers to strike be recognised.'

what was kruschev's main policy?

'peaceful coexistence' - he denounced stalin as a wicked tyrant at the 20th congress of the soviet communist party on 25 february 1956

The Sixteen Points: 7.

'the complete reorganisation of Hungary's economic life under the direction of specialists. The entire economic system, based on a system of planning, must be re-examined in the light of conditions in Hungary and in the vital interests of the Hungarian people.'

The Sixteen Points: 2.

'the election by secret ballot of all Party members, from top to bottom, and of new officers for the lower, middle and upper echelons of the Hungarian Workers' party. These officials shall convoke a Party Congress as early as possible in order to elect a Central Committee.'

eisenhower being insufferable

- 'We have never incited anybody to rebel.' - 'I don't believe we had the support of the UN to go and make this an all-out war' - when the soviets came in, 'it was a fait accompli' - in his second term, eisenhower took lessons from hungary and propaganda to eastern europe was toned down

describe eisenhower's rhetoric and what he got occupied with during the hungarian crisis

- 'rolling back Communism' - 'liberating captive people' - the Suez crisis: when British and French forces attacked Egypt and tried to occupy the Suez Canal

America lowering expectations for satellite detachment

- A National Security Committee paper of 1956 clearly stated that 'the detachment of any major European satellites fro the Soviet bloc does not now appear feasible except by Soviet acquiescence or by war.' - the russians rejected the former option and Ike wasn't going to war - eisenhower regularly cited this paper - A CIA report noted that in Hungary, 'there are few potential underground leaders' - neither american spies nor diplomats sent accurate accounts of the public pressure building up in Hungary: the uprising was unexpected

describe the instant justice served to AVO officers

- AVO officers were hanged by their legs, beaten until they were nearly dead and then burned - one of the hungarian features of the instant justice was that often under the body, there was a pile of cash always untouched. this was to symbolise the fact that the dead AVO had had blood money no hungarian should ever keep - the best estimate is that somewhere between 90 and 100 were lynched - people sometimes mistook an innocent for an AVO. eg. members of the air force and of the entertainment branch of Honved would wear blue collars on their uniforms, just like the AVO and so they would be attacked by the Hungarians

1 November 1956

- Nagy was told that the soviets were returning to hungary: a column of 850 tanks had been seen early in the morning outside Miskolc, near the czech border, they were moving south and had crossed one of hungary's major rivers, the tisza. they were reaching towns controlling the railway lines into the capital. nagy was told that there were two planes at his disposal - nagy didn't want 'the public to be agitated': he called for an information blackout on troop movements - western journalists were leaving as fast as they could to Suez which was flooding front pages and reporters were despatched elsewhere - As Sefton Delmer's byline put it, 'This is not news anymore' - gomulka 'objected strongly' when kruschev told him that the soviets were to settle things with force in hungary. gomulka offered warsaw as a venue for russo-hungarian talks, but the russians refused - nagy announced that hungary would quit the warsaw pact and would ask the Great Powers to guarantee HUngary's neutrality 'with immediate effect' - at 9 am in washington, ike was chairing a meeting with the national security council and as he entered the room, before he sat down, he announced, 'I do not want you to take up the situation in the Soviet satellites today. I want to concentrate on the Middle East.' - nagy asked andropov if he could give a guarantee that no fresh troops would come into hungary, andropov remained silent. nagy then asked everyone on the table whether they agreed to the decision to leave the warsaw pact, all of them agreed but kadar 'was reluctant' - america, the ussr and the secretary general all made sure that only the suez was discussed

Hungary post-war financial trouble (the root, perhaps?)

- The hungarian national budget for 1946-7 set aside as war reparations, 8 times the sum alloted for post-war reconstruction - In 1948, the UN estimated that the total material loss to Hungary of Soviet reparations, occupation and looting was 40% of national income

give an example of AVO brutality

- Writer Paul Ignotus was interrogated by Lieutenant-Colonel Gyula Prinz, the chief torturer - Prinz had tortured around 25,000 people in his lifetime - Ignotus was told to stand by the wall holding a pencil between his nose and mouth, when the pencil fell, he was beaten up until he was swollen and bruised and a couple of teeth kicked out for his writing

describe an encouraging RFE talk

- a former HUngarian soldier, Gyula Litterati-Lootz explained exactly how to make a Molotov cocktail, recommended ways to disable Soviet T-34 tanks by throwing grenades into their turrets and gave a guide for designing home-grown landmines with small amounts of explosives - Julian Borsanyi declared that the freedom fighters should ignore the ceasefire - there were fewer soviet troops in hungary than expected and so they had a better chance of 'victory' then ever expected - all of these broadcasts received the approval of senior CIA officers who had been monitoring RFE - they discouraged support of Nagy, and pointed to his background as a communist: 'No Communist is a good Communist' and that the new government 'must not be accepted even on a provisional basis'

What happened in March 1956?

- a new opposition group had been established, the Petofi Circle - The Petofi Circle was a debating group, created by the Communist youth organisation DISZ and run by enthusiastic communists - they did more to destabilise Hungary's Communist party than any other force - its meetings turned into huge public events where for the first time since 1948, politics could be discussed freely - eg. in a debate on 'socialist science', part of the story about russia's exploitation of Hungarian Uranium was exposed and the crowds were furious - eg 2. on 7 July, HUngary's most prominent journalists and writers debated a free press: 6,000 people queued in the streets outside the hall until 4 am, listening to the debate on loudspeakers

sexual assault inflicted by soviet troops

- a report made by the Swiss embassy at the time estimates around 150,000 out of a female population of around 4.5 million - abortion laws were liberalised as a result - a woman by the name of Alaine Polcz, in her early twenties at the time, was repeatedly raped and it left her with syphilis

demonstrations after the crisis in foreign cities

- all major cities outside the soviet bloc saw big demonstrations against the invasion: - in london, 13 bricks were thrown at the hungarian legation' - in belgravia, large demonstrations were carried outside the Embassy for a full week - In Luxembourg, the soviet ambassador and his family hid in the basement of the Embassy when protesters marched inside the building and set in on fire just before a cocktail party was set to begin - In Bonn, demonstrators threw bricks at the russian legation and flags on official buildings flew at half mast - In The Hague, grocers refused to deliver food to the Soviet Embassy and a hotel declined to let the Russians hold a reception that had been booked weeks previously - In Rotterdam, dockworkers would not unload Soviet ships

aftermath ii

- arrests began: on 8 november, Sandor Kopacsi was tricked into handing himself over to the KGB by an old russian friend - all demonstrations had been banned under russian martial law, but on 4 december, 30,000 women dressed in black, marched through central Budapest in silent protest against the invasion - 180,000 people: young, energetic, and well-educated, had left hungary. their absence created a significant problem - scores of thousands simply walked out of the country or took a train as near to the border as they could and made their escape into austria - throughout most of november and the first week of december, russian troops left large parts of the border with austria unguarded. later, kadar tightened his chokehold and hungary was once more a prison - the US accepted 150,000 refugees - britain and france accepted around 30,000 each

what did students do in late october 1956

- at 3 pm on Monday 22 october, more than 5000 students went into the main lecture hall at Budapest Technological University - by the end of the meeting, at around midnight, a committee of young authors wrote The Sixteen Points: the manifesto for the revolution - they wanted their manifesto to be read over the radio - overnight, they plastered flysheets of their demand all over Budapest's walls and trees - they also agreed to hold a demonstration the next day, using the excuse that they were showing sympathy for the poles

describe events in poland in the summer of 1956

- at the end of june 1956, riots broke out in poznan, demonstrators attacked the polish police in protest over the fact that the government had increased food prices but not wages - 53 workers were killed by the polish army and the polish government wasn't able to control the demonstrators - they were very easily crushed within a day by soviet troops - on 20 october, wladislaw gomulka took charge, he and kruschev then reached a peaceful compromise: kruschev accepted gomulka and acknowledged his right to seek 'a Polish road to socialism'. in return, the poles guaranteed that their reforms wouldn't threaten local communist party rule or the unity of the soviet bloc

why did the AVO become a REALISTIC threat in Hungary?

- because almost a million Hungarians were informers of the AVO, roughly 10% of the population - Midszenty, the bishop, alongside 24 priests of his entourage was carried off by stormtroopers and jailed after regularly preaching against the 'Marxist evil'. he was then tortured for days into making a confession that was entirely unbelievable. If this could happen to a Prince of the Church, it could happen to anyone

The Great Terror: Hungarian edition

- between 1950 and 1953, more than 1.3 million people were prosecuted, and half of them were jailed, - an additional 50,000 were arrested on false charges and more than 2,350 were executed, but many of them rotted in police cells - 3 concentration camps, including Recsk in the Matra mountains, and Kistarcsa held more than 40,000 inmates - and yet, Zoltan Biro, Rakosi's half brother, claimed that there were 'still around 500,000 hostile elements in the country' - 13,000 'class enemies', mainly aristocrats, former officers, factory owners, high gentry and senior civil servants were forced to leave Budapest and other towns to go to work on ghastly farms in brutal conditions, all to create suitable housing for new bureaucratic party bosses

RFE: Radio Free Europe

- broadcasting 20 hours a day - anti-communist propaganda - spoke about america's mission of 'liberating enslaved people' - in Hungary it was extremely popular, in a poll conducted by the Austrian Institute for Market Opinion and Research of Hungarian refugees in Austria, 85% of the respondents said they listened regularly to RFE and around 65% listened to Hungarian radio

Describe Hungary's inflation crisis after the war (save this for the causes of the cold war quizlet)

- due to the pressure of paying reparations and the successive years of poor harvest, the currency collapsed and Hungary faced record-hyperinflation - $1 was worth 1,320 pengo in July 1945, 296,000 in November 1945 and 4.6 quadrillion by the summer of 1946 - the wall paper in Budapest rooms was now decorated in large banknotes

kruschev's intriguing comment

- on 28 october 1956 - 'The English and French are in a real mess in Egypt. We shouldn't get caught in the same company.'

27 october 1956

- farmers brought food directly to budapest and showed their support for the uprising by handing out free food - many people in budapest had never eaten so well as during the revolution - old newspapers were publishing again revolutionised, the communist newspaper, A Free People was filled with articles and columns from Party members in support of the uprising - the trade union paper, Nepszava (People's voice) exposed party member privileges: free villas in the best parts of the country, free nannies for their children, a warehouse filled with the choicest foods only for them - the police paper, Magyar Rendor, in its first issue, headlined its front page 'With the people through fire and water' - Nagy announced his cabinet: some of the old guard were out (eg. Bata who wanted Hungarian troops to fire on the demonstrators) and reform-minded communists were in (eg. Gyorgy Lukacs, the respected philosopher, was appointed Minister of Culture'), there was the appointment of 4 non-communists, 2 of which had been well-known figures, in the past, - the new government was welcomed with jeers, civil disobedience, a firmer strike call and hundreds of protest telegrams - at this point, 350 soviet tanks were on the street, 325 hungarian civilians were dead and 2,200 were wounded - the most furious battle of the revolution took place at the killian barracks: russian shellfire destroyed most of the windows in the barracks, killed 20 hungarians and destroyed 6 buildings along the boulevard on Ulloi Avenue. the hungarians destroyed 4 tanks, 6 soviets were killed - the US charge d'affaires, Spencer Barnes, recommended considering giving material help to the freedom fighters - at 1 pm, hungary was discussed at the UN, Dulles warned the president against showing any support for Nagy - rebels began increasing their demands: asking for withdrawal from the warsaw pact and an immediate declaration of neutrality

31 october 1956 ii

- fresh soviet troops were crossing back into the country from elsewhere eg. a report saif that units from the 115th parachute regiment of the 13th airmobile Guards Division had arrived from Lvov at Veszprem airport, 80 km west of budapest with 1,120 troops, a dozen 82mm trench mortars and 18 large cannons. when nagy questioned this, he was told that they meant nothing and were simply a routine - meanwhile, the british and the french were bombing cairo and egyptian airfields - in an interview to Radio Vienna, when asked if he would leave the warsaw pact, he states that they had just begun negotiations. when asked whether he would accept western aid, he answered in the affirmative - at 8:30 am in washington, the head of the CIA gave his daily morning intelligence briefing to Ike, and almost all of their conversation was about the Suez. when they touched on hungary, they believed in the sincerity of the 'declaration - at 4 pm, dulles reminded ike that hungary was to be discussed the next day at the national security council, ike replied that he thought the Suez was the higher priority - in budapest, celebration parties continued

conditions in hungary after the crackdown

- from the spring after the revolution, soviet soldiers stayed in barracks near budapest or tried to be less noticeable in other cities and towns: officers wore civilian clothes - over the next 3 years, the occupation army was halved - with the help of russian loans, wages wnet up by 15 to 20% by the summer of 1957 - kadar relaxed his grip: he released more prisoners in april 1960 - the communist party gained power again and soon its membership rose once more to around 800,000 - in november 1962, he promised full amnesty to prinoers arrested after the uprising: almost all prisoners were released

29 october 1956 ii

- general kiralyi and the police chief kopacsi prepared detailed plans to set up the National Guard which would oversee the Ministries of Defence and the Police, replace the AVO, and unite the scattered student militia groups and rebel freedom fighting bands into a revolutionary army - some groups joined it whereas others preferred to stay on their own

Eisenhower's policy towards the USSR

- he claimed that truman's policy of 'containment' was far too 'passive' - eisenhower advocated 'rollback' of communism - not by war but all means other than military conflict - John Foster Dulles, his secretary of state, declared that the 'liberation of the captive people' behind the Iron curtain would become a Republican administration's goal. time and time he said that this policy would be 'activist' and would include steps by the CIA to supply and coordinate patriotic resistance movements in the eastern european satellites

imre nagy

- he was kidnapped and held at russian military headquarters for 4 days in budapest - each day, feren munnich visited and tried to persuade nagy to resign, recant and declare his support for kadar's government. nagy refused - ladar repeatedly gave assurances of nagy's safety - early in the new year, the leaders of the satellite states came together and addressed the 'treason' committed by nagy - zhou enlai, second in command to mao, several times referred to nagy and his associates as 'traitors and renegades'. he wouldn't have done this if it was likely to embarrass his host - kadar couldn't wait 'to pull out the bad tooth' - nagy had a trial that lasted between 9 and 15 june. throughout his trial, he insisted that he was 'still' the Premier - he was hanged at dawn on 16 June 1958 and the HUngarians found out in a terse statement over the radio the next day

what effect did kruschev's tongue lashing of stalin have on hungary?

- if stalin was such a criminal, what about rakosi who had been 'Stalin's best pupil'? - people felt slightly free: at a public meeting in March, a schoolteacher by the name of Gyorgy Litvan, interrupted a speech by Stalin and said, 'You have lost the trust of your people: resign'

Matyas Rakosi kill count

- in nearly ten years of power, Rakosi jailed and killed as many Hungarians, proportionately as Stalin had done in the USSR - as a result, placards and posters on street corners showed rakosi's ugly features under the slogan 'Stalin's best pupil' - he asked stalin for guidance, personally on 22 occasions

Kadar

- on 14 november 1956, he promised that nobody would come to hard as a result of 'the great popular movement of the last few weeks', he repeated this promise several times during november - he tried to negotiate with the strike leaders of the Central Workers' Council of Greater Budapest. Racz agreed to lift strike

what form of people power was exerted in the end of 1955?

- in october 1955, 59 prominent writers and artists signed a manifesto that protested against 'administrative methods' used against intellectuals and demanding more freedom of expression - on 3 december 1955, rakosi demanded that the ringleaders of the writers' revolt retract the petition and toe the partyline. they refused.

aftermath iv

- kadar set up new 'People's Courts' with extraordinary powers - 22,000 people were imprisoned after the revolution throughout the 50s where reprisals took place - death sentences were given to 229 people, but more carried out - in some cases, people who went to jail had their jail time increased on appeal - around 330 were executed

Rural hungary

- known in the interwar years as Europe's breadbasket - in just 3 years, 300,000 peasants had left the countryside and moved to the tows because of Gero's 'battle for industry' - farming became a failure and food rationing was tight in the early 1950s - in the early 1950s, peasants' income decreased by 50% - anyone who possessed over 8 to 15 hectares (depending on the soil's quality) of land would be put on the 'kulak lists' and sent to forced labour camps. their children expelled from university, and their land and houses would be confiscated - rakosi stated that to beat up a kulak was a revolutionary deed

31 October 1956

- kruschev has a crucial session with the kremlin magnates and watches newsreels that were screening scenes from budapest, including the battle at republic square and the lynching of AVO officers. he concludes decisively, 'Our troops must not be taken out of Hungary or Budapest... if we withdraw from hungary, this will encourage the american, english and french imperialists', only the economic planning official said that an invasion of hungary now 'would vindicate NATO' - in russia, a loosely formed intellectual movement was cause for concern. although it had been kept in check, kruschev worried that, encouraged by the hungarians, the soviet writers might try to make an equivalent of the petofi circle - student protests erupted in colleges including at the prestigious Moscow State University. THe KGB were ordered to arrest students and faculty staff who denounced the first military intervention in HUngary - at Yaroslavl, the KGB crushed demonstrations in which hundreds of people carried banners throughout the city demanding that soviet troops withdraw from hungary - at this point, Mao had adopted support for the idea of a swift and strong response to the hungarian crisis by the soviets - the US legation reported back to washington that there was barely any soviet military presence left in hungary - soviet units began heading west towards the auustrian border when the agreement was that they would leave to the ussr

28 october 1956

- more than 50 soviet tanks move into position along the boulevard early in the morning with more field guns and extra ammunition. the idea was to wipe out the resistance at the kilian barracks and the corvin passage. nagy was asked for his approval of an attack, he refused and threatened resignation. the hungarian soldiers wouldn't participate either. and so the soviets withdrew a third of their force and agreed to the ceasefire after a ferocious 2 hour battle where 3 tanks were lost - 500 troops had been killed by now - throughout the western capitals, there were demonstrations in support of the hungarians who had challenged the ussr - the ceasefire was announced on the radio at 1:20 pm - gero, piros, and bata, were sent back to moscow with barely enough time to pack - by the time the ceasefire was declared, around 1000 hungarians and more than 500 soviet soldiers had died

aftermath iii

- most of the AVO and its 40,000 members joined the Kadar regime's new security force: the Karhatalom - the Karhatalom had a special 'R' section, Riado Cseopart (Alarm Groups) that was responsible for organising massive reprisals against revolutionaries. their methods weren't brutal: they did not practise torture - from late november, they began hunting down anyone who had been directly involved in the uprising - kadar tried to abolish the CWC, they called another strike which brought the country to a halt. Kadar said he would negotiate but when Racz and Bali were brought to Parliament for the meeting, they were jailed. the strike was called off and they rot in prison for 6 years - Uncle Szabo, the leader of the fighters at Szena square, was hanged on 19 January 1957 - Tildy was arrested and sentenced to 6 years - Attila Szigethy, leader of the revolution in the provinces, was captured as well, but he killed himself before he could be arrested - Milos Gimes, one of the inspirational voices of the uprising, had started an undergroun movement with a newspaper called October 23rd through which he tried to keep the spirit of the revolution alive. he was caught in mid-december, tried with Nagy and executed - writers went on strike, they lived on royalties from old books and stood firmly for months

Nagy's relationship with his followers after the ceasefire

- nagy disagreed with the rebels a bit: nagy was convinced that they would never win an absolute victory against the ussr but the rebels saw the initial compromises as the start for further negotiation - his door was open: he would see newly created Revolutionary Councils or Workers' Councils who would push him to make demands that he knew the soviets had little chance of accepting - at one point, on 29 october, he snapped in front of the 3 day old Revolutionary Committee of Hungarian Intellectuals, 'the time for hotheads has ended'

29 october 1956

- one of the first things the new government did, under the direction of economist Zoltan Vas, was stop food exports. for the first time in years, Budapest shops were bursting with meat and fresh vegetables. - aid flights with medical supplies, especially blood plasma, were constantly arriving at first from eastern bloc countries, but now the soviets allowed aid from the west - people gained the confidence to speak to each other about the revolution and so the phone lines never went dead, a study among refugees later suggested that the average people had made 300 and 400 calls in thirteen days asking questions like 'Can it be true the Russians are going?' - in a symbolic gesture at 9 am, Nagy moves his office into the parliament building - some of the youth from Szena square gained entry into the compound of luxurious villas on Rose Hill where the Communist elite used to live, the security guards lifted the gates and simply allowed them in and left. they were shocked by everything in the area - thousands of secret police documents were discovered and long queues formed of people who wanted to know what was written about them, many of the hungarians were deeply disturbed eg. Gyorgy Szabo learnt that an old friend of his was a police spy - bohlen assured the ussr that 'we do not see these states [the eastern european states, that is] as potential military allies', bohlen also had an uneasily feeling about the ussr and warned the usa that the announcement to withdraw might have been a 'trick' - nagy disagreed with the rebels a bit: nagy was convinced that they would never win an absolute victory against the ussr but the rebels saw the initial compromises as the start for further negotiation

4 November 1956

- operation whirlwind began, and at 4 am, konyev issued the code word: Thunder - 150,000 troops from 10 divisions - 2,500 of russia's most modern tanks and plenty of air support - more than 20,000 troops along the border with austria to forestall any kind of possible western intervention - kiralyi phoned nagy but nagy clearly states, 'You must not open fire.' - nagy accepted the offer of sanctuary at the yugoslva embassy - at 6 am, ton a soviet-controlled radio station, hungarians heard janos kadar proclaiming the formation of a new HUngarian Revolutionary Worker-Peasant government - most hungarian soldiers were donfined to barracks on 4 november and were systematically disarmed when russian troops re-entered budapest - the hungarian army barely put up a struggle, save for a small battle around 50 km north-west of budapest at soroksar - the ussr ruthlessly attacked the main battle centres: the Corvin Cinema, the Kilian Barracks, the eastern railway station, Ulloi Avenue, in central pest and in buda at szena square, zsigmond moricz square and moscow square. this time they used jets - Radio Free Kossuth went dead at 8:07, the final words were from the old playwright Gyula Hay: 'Help Hungary. Help!' - at the same time the soviet tanks rolled into hungary once more, ike was warned that the trouble in the Suez 'contains the danger of turning into a Third World War' if not stopped

relationship between ussr and china in 1956

- relations were deteriorating but chairman mao's opinion was important in moscow - kruschev was told that mao, at this stage, wanted the ussr to make a deal with the hungarians and that there was no reason for hasty measures to crush the rebellion - kruschev agreed and left the chinese on good terms - btw this was a meeting on 30 october 1956

30 october 1956

- russian troops continued to withdraw from budapest, as they left, they were booed and jeered - ussr said that all troops gone after 36 hours - kruschev approved of nagy's government, 'The Nagy government had won the support of the people' Pravda declared on 30 october 1956 - Cardinal Jozsef Midszenty, the Prince Primate of Hungary, is set free. after his torture and trial, he had spent most of the last 8 years in solitary confinement - between 7,500 and 8,000 political prisoners were released from jails throughout the country - at 2:30 pm, nagy declares that 'The Cabinet abolishes the one-party system and places the country's government on a basis of democratic cooperation between coalition parties.', he then makes a new Cabinet of six members: 3 communists, 2 smallholders and 1 from the peasants party. within an hour of this, more and increasingly impossible demands flowed in - the national radio station was pryed out of stalinist hands and given to nagy's long time trusted supporter. it was renamed Free Radio Kossuth and at 3:06 pm, it promised its listeners 'we shall tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth' - over the next few days, Ike had dozens of meetings and phone calls about the middle east and very few about hungary - zoltan tildy, the former smallholders leader. necame Nagy's influential deputy - bela kovacs accepted the position in Nagy's government - jozsef kovago, had been released from jail a few days ago was given back his post as mayor of budapest - the queue of recruits outside the social democratic headquarters was so long, it blocked part of Rakoczi Avenue, one of Budapest's main roads, the same enthusiasm was seen at the smallholders party

1 november 1956 ii

- shortly before 10:30 am in manhattan, the teleprinter on the 22nd floor of the UN building received a telex from an operator identified as DIPLOMAG BUDAPEST 'TO UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK... ARE YOU THERE?' - nagy then asked for 'the question of Hungary's neutrality and the defence of this neutrality by the four Great Powers' to be 'put on the agenda' - the day's session was due to begin in 3 hours, therefore the UN officials decided that Nagy wasn't referring to today, but rather their next meeting: 12 november

statement 'On Friendship and Cooperation between the USSR and other Socialist States'

- signed by ussr on 30 october 1956 - promised that russian troops would leave budapest - soviets would negotiate the presence of soviet troops with the hungarian government and other signatories of the warsaw pact - it admitted the violations and mistakes which infringe the principles of equality between sovereign states - it talked of creating some kind of commonwealth of independent socialist states - recognised the right of hungary and all the other satellites to national sovereignty - statement was originally drafted earlier in the summer, following the trouble at Poznan - british ambassador, Sir William Hayter, was usually well-informed about communism and soviet intentions and he reported back to the foreign office, stating that he believed in the sincerity of this declaration

Austrian Peace Treaty

- signed on 15 May 1955 - the USSR removed troops from Austria - but the previous day, Hungary became a member of the Warsaw Pact which allowed soldiers to stay - 75,000 russian troops and airmen - known as the Special Corps - were stationed in Hungary in three divisions

aftermath

- some commercial districts that had been rebuilt just after the war, lay in ruins again - at the corvin cinema, few fighters were left but they decided to make an escape to the west on 6 november - the kilian barracks held out until 9 november 1956 - 'red csepel' hung on until 11 november - around 2,600 hungarians had died since the revolution on 23 october 1956: roughly 2/3 of them since the second invasion on 4 november - there was a general strike that brought the country to a complete halt - people hated Kadar: myriad placards plastered the city, 'Lost: the confidence of the people. Honest finder is asked to return it at once to Janos Kadar, at 10,000 Soviet tanks Street' - Kadar was under probation by the Kremlin: 2 KGB officers followed him everywhere

24 october 1956

- soviet troops entered budapest between 2 and 3 am, the ussr sent 6000 men and 700 tanks. a further 20,000 infantry, 1,100 tanks and 185 heavy guns were placed in reserve. 159 planes could provide air support for ground forces and 2 soviet bomber divisions were on standby - Nagy threatened martial law to anyone who didn't 'cease fighting before 14.00 today and lay down their arms' live on radio at midday: not a single freedom fighter handed over a weapon - soviet representatives arrived and admitted to moscow that the soviets were doing most of the fighting, 'to single shots we replied with salvoes' - 3,000 freedom fighters had taken up arms on that day, 80 had died and 450 were wounded - other cities felt inspired: Debrecen saw 140,000 people, roughly a third of the population, come outside to demonstrate. in industrial towns, workers were the most eager to join the rebellion - in 'red' csepel, the workers took over their factories - 20 soviets died and 40 were wounded , 4 tanks and 4 armoured vehicles had been shot to pieces

23 october 1956

- student demonstration in budapest - shouts began with 'Long live the Youth of Warsaw' and ended up with 'Gero into the Danube', 'Ruszik Haza' ('Russians go home'), and 'To Parliament' - Gero phones the Soviet Ambassador Andropov and asks for troops, Andropov agreed - 7:45 pm, the Special Corps prepared for combat - at 9:37 pm, the Stalin statue fell with much effort - Nagy begins his speech with 'Comrades' and the crowd roars back in protest, 'No. We are not Comrades.' - police refused to shoot at their countrymen, and Colonel Laszlo Zolomy 'forbade [shooting] against the crowd' - Most of the troops did not fight at all and simply returned to their barracks, some troops joined the Hungarian side, they handed their weapons and ammunitions to the citizens: anyone who asked was handed a rifle - eg. Lieutenant Colonel Janos Solymosi sided with the Hungarians and opened police weapons' stores - Workers removed at least 1000 rifles from one of the arms factories in Budapest and loaded them onto lorries for the protesters

the most brutal form of AVO torture

- the 'wolf's bandage' - the prisoners' wrists would be tied to their knees and they would then be hung downwards from a pole. the torturers would then beat a male prisoners' testicles and then order them to drink salt water so their swollen tongue would almost strangle them - this would go on for days

How famous was the Literary Gazette? (take this opportunity to revise the Hungarian name for this magazine)

- the Irodalmi Ujsag - the Irodalmi Ujsag printed 40,000 copies a week - it always sold out within an hour of hitting bookstalls - afterwards, it would be sold for 3 times its cover price

political impact of hungarian crisis in europe

- the Left was weakened throughout the world - In Britain and France, where the communist party had been almost strong enough to take power in fair elections, the hungarian crisis saw the communist parties split down the middle - the French CP lost around half its members - the italian communists broke with moscow - the british CP, always weak, lost 2/3rds of its members - the Danish CP ceased to exist altogether - for optimists in the west, the crisis was 'the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire'

Soviet Exploitation of Hungarian Resources I: long hair slicked back white t-shirt

- the Lengyeltoti oilfield was located in eastern hungary. they were the only reserves in the country and the communists had construction plans - experts warned the managers and politicians that too hasty exploitation could cause flooding - the advice was rejected as the plan was regarded as sacrosanct - they fulfilled the quotas - the oilfield flooded

4 November 1956 ii (America being insufferable)

- the US heard that general franco in spain intended to offer help to hungary - robert murphy reported that the spanish cabinet wanted to send a 'volunteer force' to budapest on 4 november - eisenhower went out of his way to make sure that franco stayed silent - washington stated, 'The US Government can lend no support, either overt or covert, to any military intervention in Hungary in the present circumstances. We hope that Spain will take no precipitate action of its own.'

26 october 1956

- the freedom fighers came up with ingenious tricks to attack the soviet tanks eg. they would cover some of the roads with silk and pour soapy water all over the fabric, the soviet T34s would slip and slide, and crash into each other - In Szena Square, the vast majority of the fighters were teenagers: - At the Corvin Cinema, children as young as twelve were fighting - Peter Mansfeld, the 15 year old rebel at Szena Square, took part in some of the bitter fighting but mainly smuggled weapons to other guerrilla groups: after the revolution, he participated in petty crimes and got in trouble with the police, the police recognised him as one of the freedom fighters and he was hanged on 21 march 1959 - Nagy was allowed to choose the government he wanted but was warned 'not to go too far', he began listening to the fighters more and stopped calling them 'counter-revolutionaries' - At midday in Mosonmagyarovar, a small town of 5000 people or so, there was a demonstration in which they marched and shouted 'Ruszkik haza'. The AVO crushed it after the demonstrators asked to 'Take down the red star' at the AVO headquarters. 52 were killed and 86 were injured - meanwhile in america, Ike developed an 'active non-involvement' policy. he turned down requests from the CIA for permission to fly over Hungary and drop supplies and weapons to the freedom fighters.

what crucial economic thing happened on 31 december 1951?

- the government announced a prices and wages 'reform' package - Prices, which included some essential foods, rose between 11% and 20% and pay was cut by roughly the same amount - This was supposed to be some kind of 'blow in the face of Imperialist and Western warmongers' - throughout budapest on 31 december, there were wall posters with the sentence, 'Another deadly blow at the imperialists and we will all starve'

2 November 1956

- the independent newspapers that had sprung up over the past couple of days didn't really report the move in of soviet troops, but word of mouth travelled fast - 2 field armies from the carpathian military district - the 38th army and the 8th mechanised army - had been sent to hungary to join the Special Corps. They had more than sufficient, artillery, air power, and armour 'to restore order in Budapest within three to four days' - the hungarians had 50 anti-aircraft guns and 400 canons. 50,000 soldiers in and around budapest and National Guard troops and armed rebel groups numbering up to 10,000 - the russians had promised talks about the practical details of the promised soviet troop withdrawals - according to kruschev, suez provided a 'favourable moment' for the operation, 'this will help us... because Britain, France and Israel are wagin a war against Egypt. they are bogged down there.' - the UN did nothing to recognise Hungarian neutrality. Ike had just announced a $20 million package of food and medical aid for Suez.

how did the ussr sovietize Hungary?

- the rigorous education system based on 'gymnasium' schools was altered to the Soviet model: Russian was the only foreign language taught to children - the national flag was changed, it was still the red, white and green tricolour but the emblem became a soviet-style hammer and sickle - public holidays would now conform to those in the ussr eg. the 20th of august, the traditional Feast St Stephen honouring Hungary's first kind and patron saint, became Constitution day - Cthe army was reorganised and soldiers would now wear soviet uniforms with soviet lapel badges

25 october 1956

- the soviets sent reinforcements overnight: 14,000 extra troops, 250 more tanks - ike saw an intelligence briefing informing him of british and french forces reinforcing their air bases in the med and the preparation of their fleets - some students who spoke russian talked to the soviet troops, they printed flyers out overnight in russian, 'you are not shooting at fascists but at workers, peasants, and university students', the troops were convinced and they all went to parliament together. when they reached, there were 5000 people there already, protesting for gero's removal - in what became known as the Parliament Massacre, the soviets fired first at the protestors, 75 died, 282 were wounded - hungarians lined up in front of the american legation shouting 'Why is the UN doing nothing? Make them send troops.' - the british embassy allowed a small delegation in and the delegation demanded that britain raise the problem of soviet troops in budapest in the UN

30-31 october 1956 ii

- there had been demonstrations in poland in support of the hungarians, around 300,000 people were at the Warsaw rally - in romania, students in bucharest and in many towns in transylvania held big protest marches - an unofficial student movement created at Bolyai University in Cluj drew in hundreds of members including many faculty staff who belonged to the romanian communist party - some students from transylvania wanted to join the hungarian army - the romanian leaders then set up an emergency general command staff led by nicolae ceausescu who were given extraordinary powers including the right to shoot-to-kill orders to the police and declare a state of emergency - when the time for the second invasion came, the czechs and the romanians were so keen on a crackdown on hungary, they asked if their troops could participate.. kruschev refused - a KGB report from Czechoslovakia reported student demonstrations in Bratislava and other provincial cities alongside 'a growing hostility and mistrust of the Soviet Union' - the czech government sent a highly secretive telegram to the ussr, stating that events in hungary were having a 'deleterious psychological effect'. czech troops were sent to reinforce security along the 560-kilometre border with hungary. if they didn't act decisively, 'things in czechoslovakia will collapse'

what did kruschev's secret speech about destalinisation bring on?

- there were disturbances in georgia in the spring of 1956 alongside riots in tbilisi and other cities - the ussr declared martial law throughout georgia and sent in tanks to quell the troubloe - new riots were being threatened in georgia by the time of the hungarian crisis

what happened to the revolutionaries after the ceasefire was declared?

- there were fewer students and intellectuals - those people had gone back to writing resolutions and proclamations. many of them were in their early teens who should have been at school but schools were closed - an survey conducted by an american university stated that more than 3/4 of them were under the age of 30

why did the hungarian economy go up in flames as soon as the communists touched it?

- they tried to turn a predominantly agricultural country with some light industry, into a 'nation of coal and steel' almost overnight - Gero's Five Year Plans ruined things even furthered: - each worker was assigned a 'norm' which was a personal production schedule each of them had to reach: the wages of workers who failed to reach the target were decreased. those of whom that exceeded the 'norm' found that the next month, their 'norm' was increased - because they had proved that they were capable of producing more - and so they were effectively paid less. for a while, the quantity rose but at the expense of quality and Russia cancelled dozens of contracts with Hungarian enterprises because the goods were inferior

Soviet financial gains by Hungarian occupation

- they were entitled to all German-owned property in Hungary - 1/3 of hungarian industry had been controlled by German capital, worth around $1 billion - 200 complete factories, and the machinery from 300 more were dismantled and sent to the USSR - the USSR took over entire industries and set up companies under joint Russian-Hungarian ownership - 1/3 of the gold and silver reserves were taken by the russians - $200 million had to be paid as reparations to the ussr and $50 million to other neighbouring 'victorious nations', Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia

living conditions FOR SOVIET SOLDIERS INVOLVED IN THE REVOLUTION

- they were tired, demoralised and hungry - tank crews had to 'live off the land' which was a problem because if they were to get food from shops, they would become targets for urban guerrillas - soviet troops were low on supplies

3 November 1956

- zoltan tildy insisted that the upcoming talks with the soviets were genuine - shortly after 10 am, the talks about soviet withdrawal began - the National Guard commander under Bela Kiralya, ordered Hungarian tanks back to barracks and all 'civilians' with arms and ammunition to hand them in immediately - the soviets took the hungarians to the soviet military base of Tokol on csepel island, 20 km south of budapest - reports came from near the austrian border that soviet troops had amassed in western hungary, forming a pincer movement against the capital - midszenty called nagy's government 'heirs of the fallen regime' - in New York, Lodge condemned the use of soviet military force to suppress the efforts of the hungarian people to reassert their rights, but it was never put to vote and the americans agreed to adjourn to see if the talks at Tokol solved anything - at Tokol, the hungarians find out that it was a trap: Ivan Serov, head of the KGB walks in and says, 'I am placing all of you under arrest' - Maleter was captured by the Soviets, the only soldier who might have been able to organise effective resistance against them

describe the three kinds of shops in hungary

1. where ordinary people queued, sometimes for several hours, for rationed goods 2. where the Hungarian elite went, which offered a far wider range of goods, some imported from the West. the basics were 25% cheaper than at regular stores 3. where a handful of russian 'advisers' and army officers went, the prices there were around 50% less than those in the shops used by most hungarians

population of hungary // population of budapest

10 million // 1.5 million

describe an article that appeared in the Literary Gazette

Tamas Aczel was a passionately committed communist who won the Soviet Union's Stalin Prize, wrote a story that revealed all the details on the existence of a holiday village for senior Communist officialson the shores of Lake Balaton - separated from the real world by high walls and barbed wire

give an example of one of the councils formed after imre nagy came to power

The Workers' Councils and Revolutionary Councils were an immediate form of democracies. Respected figures were elected regardless of whether or not they were communists

What did the Hungarians think of Erno Gero?

They hated him. The saying went around: 'They have replaced a bald Rakosi with a thin one.'

aftermath polls

a thousand hungarian refugees were polled by american academics directly after the revolution. 96% of them felt that the foreign radio broadcasts made them believe help would come from the West. among these refugees were extremely intelligent writers like Tamas Aczel who became a literature professor at an American university

kruschev after the crisis

admitted that he hadn't handled the crisis decisively enough, he thought the soviets should have marched into budapest earlier

give an example of hungarian soldiers fighting against their own countrymen

at 4 pm on 27 october, 500 young people marched to Tiszakecscke, unfurled the new revolutionary flag, sang the national anthem and tore down any red stars they could see - a plane from the HUngarian army, under the orders of Colonel-General Gyurko, strafed the demonstrators, killing 17 and wounding 110

What percentage of Hungarians practised the Roman Catholic religion?

at least 70%

describe gomulka

during the nazi occupation, he had been a popular leader of communist resistance but he was also a nationalist and didn't see eye to eye with many polish communists, loyal to stalin

the suez crisis

egyptian president Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal in July 1956. The British and the French, alongside Israel, were planning to attack Egypt because of that. Ike did not want to expand the Cold War to another continent. Ike hoped that the BRitish and the French would draw back at the last moment - as a general himself, he didn't see the point of it: it wouldn't protect their oil supplies which were under no threat. the war may also risk a potential conflict with the USSR

what would happen when people tried to change jobs?

in 1951, around 15,000 people who tried to change jobs were charged with 'endangering the interest of the economic plan' and most of them were jailed.

what percentage of hungarians listened to RFE during the uprising?

more than 80% of Hungarians

were the british better informed about the prospect of revolution?

no. their ambassador to hungary, sir Leslie Fry clearly stated in a despatch to the foreign secretary that 'it is highly improbable that a bold hazard will be attempted'

How many communist party members were there in 1950 and how many were left in 1953?

out of the 850,000 communist party members in 1950, almost half were in prison, in labour camps, exiled or dead by 1953

describe budapest's first unofficial political demonstration since the communists took power

some 500 students marched to the Batthyany monument in Buda and shouted anti-communist slogans. the police broke up the demonstration quickly and peacefully

AVO bell fright

the hungarian public lived in fear of the AVO, the term 'Csengőfrász' was widely used in the late 1940's and 50's to describe the terror throughout the country of the ring at the door in the middle of the night when the secret police worked best

4 november 1956 - arms disparity

the ussr had 3 times the number of troops, 5 times the number of tanks and heavy guns - molotov cocktails and light weapons were useless against the T54 tanks the USSR had sent to budapest as reinforcements. these tanks were newer, faster, more manouevrable and had been built with heavier armour-plating

'peace loans'

these were effectively an extra 12% tax extracted from workers each month - these were 'contributions in the fight against imperialism' and although they were voluntary, anyone who refused to pay them would be publicly named and shamed or even fired

a perk of the AVO torturer

they are paid roughly 20 times the national average - equivalent to a judge's salary

What did the RFE do that reminds you of the candy bomber from the berlin airlift days?

they launched Operation Red Sox and Operation Focus in Hungary where balloons dropped millions of leaflets on the country with morale-lifting sentences like 'The regime is weaker than you think' and 'The hope lies with the people'

what did the communists do to the hungarian economy?

they ruined it: - the forces collectivisation caused widespread famine - the first 4 years of communist rule saw living standards fall by 20% while the average working week had lengthened - to buy a drab, ill-fitting suit, it would cost an annual workers' salary a year and a half's pay

what did the freedom fighters do to the hungarian flag?

they snipped out the communism emblem at the centre of the hungarian red, white and green tricolour

Literary Gazette

this was the writers' union magazine, otherwise known as Irodalmi Ujsag

were western journalists covering the revolution?

yes