Soviet Troops Suppress the Hungarian
Revolution: November 4, 1956
Global Events, 2014
From World History in Context
Key Facts
Global Context
Africa
Ghana gains its independence from Great Britain on March 6, 1957, becoming the first nation in sub­
Saharan Africa to reclaim sovereignty from a foreign empire.
Asia and Oceania
The North Vietnamese Communist Party approves war against South Vietnam in January 1959,
formalizing the Vietnam War (1954–1975).
Central and South America
A military coup in Argentina topples the government and forces President Juan Perón (1895–1974)
to flee the country in 1955.
Europe
The first commercial nuclear power plant begins operations in Great Britain in 1956.
Middle East
The Suez Crisis begins in 1956 when British, French, and Israeli forces invade Egypt after the
Egyptian government nationalized the Suez Canal.
North America
In 1955 Rosa Parks (1913–2005) is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, after refusing to give up her
seat on a bus to a white man. African Americans in the city launch the Montgomery bus boycott in
protest, sparking the civil rights movement.
Key Figures
Political Leaders
Ernö Gerö (1898–1980), leader of Hungary in 1956.
Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971), leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1954.
Imre Nagy (c. 1895–1958), leader of Hungary from 1953 to 1956.
Mátyás Rákosi (1892–1971), leader of Hungary from 1945 to 1953 and 1955 to 1956.
Background
Almost immediately after the end of World War II (1939–1945), former wartime allies the United States
and the Soviet Union began a decades­long struggle for global political influence known as the Cold
War (1945–1991). The Cold War essentially pitted Western­style democracy and capitalism against
Soviet­style Communism. In the chaos following World War II, the Soviets moved quickly to establish
political control of various Eastern European countries, establishing puppet governments.
Hungary had been a German ally during World War II, although its role was complicated. The
Hungarian government secretly attempted to reach peace agreements with the United States and the
United Kingdom, but not the Soviet Union; upon learning of this covert effort, Germany moved in and
occupied Hungary. The Soviets moved into Hungary in 1944, forcing the Germans to surrender in
1945. By 1949 the People’s Republic of Hungary, firmly under Soviet domination, had been formed
under the leadership of hardline leader Mátyás Rákosi (1892–1971).
Rákosi was a disciple of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) and zealously pursued Stalin’s
policies in Hungary. He purged the Hungarian Communist Party of those deemed disloyal to Stalin and
himself. A wave of police terror saw the expulsion of more than 350,000 Hungarians as well as the
executions of hundreds of Communists, including the interior minister László Rajk (1909–1949). Rákosi
also conducted a full­scale implementation of the Soviet Union’s economic model, including the mass
collectivization of agriculture and the nationalization of all industrial and manufacturing enterprises.
In 1953 Stalin died, and Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) assumed power in the Soviet Union.
Krushchev disagreed with many of Stalin’s brutal policies, and efforts to tone down Stalinist influence
included the removal of Rákosi as prime minister of Hungary in 1953 in favor of the more reform­
minded Imre Nagy (c. 1895–1958). Rákosi remained active in party leadership, however, and had
Nagy removed for deviating from party policy in 1955. Rákosi reversed many of the liberalization
polices Nagy had implemented, but a democratic movement had begun to develop amongst Hungary’s
students and intellectuals. Rákosi’s repressive policies only served to embolden the leaders of the
nascent Hungarian democratic movement, and Soviet leaders attempted to quiet unrest by removing
Rákosi in 1956, replacing him with Ernö Gerö (1898–1980).
The Event
The spark for what became known as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 came from an uprising in
Poland that had forced concessions from the Soviet­backed regime in power there. Originally formed
as a show of solidarity with the Poles, the Hungarian demonstration quickly turned into an anti­Soviet,
anti­Communist movement. On October 23, 1956, about twenty thousand Hungarians, many of them
university students, convened peacefully in the capital city of Budapest. A delegation read a
proclamation outlining reforms that were needed in the Soviet­influenced government, which included
the removal of Soviet forces from Hungary and the reintroduction of a multiparty political structure. The
crowd marched through the center of the city to the parliament building. The demonstrators gained
strength as they moved through the city. By nightfall, almost two hundred thousand people were
crowded into the central square. At about eight o’clock, Gerö broadcast a speech rejecting the
demands of the delegation.
The peaceful gathering grew increasingly unruly. One man grabbed a Hungarian flag and cut out the
Communist coat of arms. A crowd of people toppled the huge statue of Stalin that had been erected
five years earlier. Part of the delegation tried to enter the Radio Budapest building to air their demands
to the rest of the nation, but they were stopped at the door. Suddenly, shots were fired on the crowd
from within the building. Mayhem ensued as people fell beneath a rain of bullets. People ran to get
away as the streets filled with tear gas.
Rather than disperse the crowd, the government’s reaction only fueled the unrest. Shock was followed
by outrage as people realized that the Hungarian Security Police had fired on unarmed demonstrators.
The mob turned violent, intent on destroying any symbol of authority. The revolt spread quickly across
Hungary as insurgents fought the state police and Soviet troops and called for a general strike. The
Gerö government collapsed, and a new government was put into place with Nagy as its leader. This
new government pledged to establish free elections and announced its withdrawal from the Warsaw
Pact, a treaty for mutual defense for the countries of Eastern Europe. A cease­fire was announced on
October 28, and fighting stopped.
Although the Soviet Union had initially pledged to withdraw its troops from Hungary, Khrushchev
reversed this decision and decided to crush the revolution. On November 4, he sent a large contingent
of Soviet troops into Budapest. Hungarian resistance continued, but the small militia forces were no
match for the Soviet military machine. More than twenty­five hundred Hungarians were killed and
twenty thousand injured. Fearing retribution, hundreds of thousands of Hungarians fled the country as
the new Soviet­backed government headed by János Kádár (1912–1989) exacted retribution. Nagy
was among the 361 people hanged for their role in the revolt, while approximately 16,000 others
received prison sentences. The revolt was over by November 11.
The Soviets continued their domination of Eastern Europe. In 1961 they built a wall around East Berlin,
Germany, cutting the residents off from the rest of the city and the rest of the world. The huge cement
wall was guarded by soldiers who had orders to stop anyone from trying to leave the Soviet­controlled
eastern part of the city, using extreme force if need be. Prior to the construction of the Berlin Wall, East
Berliners were allowed to visit friends and relatives in West Berlin, but the Soviet Union feared that the
growing disparity between east and west would fuel unrest, much like it had in Hungary.
The Soviet Union struggled to keep its iron hold on its satellite nations. In 1968 Czechoslovakia’s newly
elected leader, Alexander Dubcek (1921–1992), promised a series of reforms that would loosen
government control and increase citizen participation in politics. Students, the press, and others
rejoiced at the notion of being able to speak more freely. During what has since become known as the
Prague Spring, the air of reform swept the nation. However, Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982), who
replaced Khrushchev as the leader of the Soviet Union, agreed with Soviet leaders that it was
important to maintain a Communist hard­line approach. On the night of August 21, 1968, the hopes of
the Czech people came to an end with the ominous sight of Soviet tanks approaching Prague. More
than five hundred thousand Soviet troops occupied the city. Dubcek was arrested and replaced with
someone more sympathetic to Communism. With the end of the Prague Spring, the Soviet Union had
demonstrated once again that it was committed to Communism and would do whatever was required to
protect its influence in Eastern Europe.
Global Effect
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was the first major anti­Soviet uprising in Eastern Europe. The fact
that it had to be suppressed by the Soviet military showed that the Soviets could only remain in power
through the force of their military rather than through popular support of their ideology. The
suppression of grassroots demonstrations in the Soviet satellite states undermined the idealist
philosophy on which the Russian Revolution (1917) had been built, providing sharp contrast to the
dream held by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) of putting power in the hands of the
people. The speed with which the revolt spread across Hungary also indicated the deep level of
discontent with Soviet control.
The Soviet response to reform efforts also changed the nature of East­West relations. When Stalin
died in 1953, Western countries hoped that the new regime would open the government and allow its
people more freedom, but the events of the 1950s and 1960s demonstrated that change would be slow
at best. When Soviet leaders violently squelched calls for reform in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and
other Eastern European nations, the West denounced their actions. Concerned about sparking
another world war, the West stopped short of military intervention, however. These events contributed
to Cold War animosities between the United States and the Soviet Union, which played out in other
arenas, most notably the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the space race.
Further Readings
Books
Bischof, Günter, Stefan Karner, and Peter Ruggenthaler. The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact
Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010.
Gati, Charles. Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt. Palo
Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006.
Györkei, Jeno, and Miklós Horváth. Soviet Military Intervention in Hungary, 1956. New York: Central
European University Press, 1999.
Kenez, Peter. Hungary from the Nazis to the Soviets: The Establishment of the Communist Regime in
Hungary, 1944–1948. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Rottman, Gordon, and Chris Taylor. The Berlin Wall and the Intra­German Border. Oxford, UK: Osprey,
2008.
Zubok, Vladislav M. A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008.
Websites
“Hungarian Uprising.” Spartacus Educational.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDhungarianU.htm (accessed on November 30, 2011).
“World: Europe Remembering the Prague Spring.” BBC News (August 21, 1998).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/155500.stm (accessed on November 30, 2011).
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2014 Gale, Cengage Learning.
Source Citation
"Soviet Troops Suppress the Hungarian Revolution: November 4, 1956." Global
Events: Milestone Events Throughout History. Ed. Jennifer Stock. Vol. 4: Europe.
Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2014. World History in Context. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
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