What Was The Hungarian Revolution?

The Hungarian Revolution broke out on October 23, 1956 and lasted until November 4, 1956, when the revolutionaries were brutally crushed by the invading Soviet army. The revolution began as a peaceful protest, involving students, actors, authors and workers, who challenged Hungary's Stalinist, hard-line communist regime, and called for a more moderate and humane political system. Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Budapest on October 23rd, calling for the removal of communist symbols, the dismantling of Hungary's hated secret police, the installment of the moderate communist Imre Nagy as the country's new prime minister and the withdrawal of Soviet troops.

The peaceful protests turned violent late at night, on October 23, 1956, when Hungarian secret police agents shot live bullets into a crowd of protesters gathered outside the State Radio building in Budapest. A separate group of protesters then proceeded to demolish a massive statue of deceased Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in the Hungarian capital, and removed red stars and other symbols of communist rule.

The Hungarian Revolution seemed like a success at first. The hard-line communist government was removed from power, Prime Minister Imre Nagy invited non-communist politicians to take part in his new cabinet, Hungary withdrew from the Warsaw Pact and declared itself a neutral, free and democratic country, with a multi-party political system, while political prisoners locked up by the communists were freed from prisons. But on November 4, 1956, the Soviet Union shocked the world by sending in nearly 6,000 tanks and tens of thousands of troops to Hungary, in order to put down the revolution and restore communist rule. Approximately 4,000 people were killed in the fighting, including the anti-communist freedom fighters, members of the secret police who were lynched by the revolutionaries and nearly 1,000 Soviet troops who were killed during the battles. More than 200,000 Hungarians became refugees, as they fled to the West following the Soviet re-invasion.

The Hungarian Revolution is historically significant, as it was the world's first televised uprising and it was by the far the bloodiest and most radical insurrection in Europe since 1945. Once the communist regime was re-established, more than 300 revolutionaries were executed--many of whom were only 18 years old--and Prime Minister Imre Nagy was hanged in 1958, on charges of treason. October 23 is a national holiday in Hungary and people across the country remember the revolution each year.