Revolution & Betrayal
Madeline Partner
Revolution & Betrayal Hungary, 1956, and the Mirage of Freedom
01 A BRIEF HISTORY “Budapest 1956: An Anti-Totalitarian Revolution” by François Fejtö provides historical context on the situation in Hungary, and chronicles the Revolution. The full text is spread throughout the book, featured in each chapter’s introduction, and briefly summarizes the events during the time period that each chapter covers.
02 THE EXPLOSION
03 THE BATTLE
October 22nd to 23rd; Peaceful protests begin across Budapest, yet are met with violence from the Hungarian secret police (AVH/AVO) and army.
October 24th to 27th; Battle rages between Hungarian freedom fighters and a mix of Soviet troops and the Hungarian secret police.
IN THE HUNGARIAN FLAG RED symbolizes strength, and spilling blood for the fatherland. WHITE symbolizes freedom. GREEN symbolizes hope.
04 THE VICTORY
05 THE BETRAYAL
October 28th to November 2nd; The withdrawal of Soviet troops is announced, and it appears that victory has been won.
November 3rd to 4th; Soviet troops are seen re-entering the country, and calls for help to Western countries are ignored. Soviet troops re-enter Budapest on November 4th and completely crush the Revolution.
Number: 10 NUMBER: 10 10 NUMBER: 10
NOTES:
Notes: NOTES:
Budapest 1956: An Anti-Totalitarian Revolution by François Fejtö
A Brief History For some it was a revolution, for others a counter-revolution; but for everybody it was a complete surprise, both compelling and elusive. In order to understand the memorable events which took place in Hungary in October 1956, it is necessary to go back at least a dozen years to the moment when Hungary, like all of Eastern and then Central Europe, was liberated (some would say seized) by the Red Army. It was as a ‘liberator’ that the Soviet Union, at the time an ally of the Western powers, was allowed to take Hungary into its sphere of influence, along with Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia, and to retain its ‘liberating army’ on Hungarian soil for as long as it judged necessary. The Hungarian government, the first to be democratically elected in a long while, was asked to extend a warm and friendly welcome to the occupying army, not exactly an easy task.
It did not help that, in order to try to recover the areas which it had lost at the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 (two-thirds of its territory), Hungary had allowed herself to become an amenable ally of Nazi Germany for the whole of the Second World War. When German troops occupied the country in the early part of 1944, Hungary actively helped the Nazis in their pursuit of the ‘final solution’ by sending 450,000 Hungarian Jews, until then spared, to Auschwitz, and by inflicting heavy losses on the Soviet army. Under such circumstances, the Soviet Union, as both liberator and occupier, would not have found it easy to view Hungarians as anything other than enemies. Moreover, while it was supposed to be participating in the reconstruction of a devastated country, it was actually busy pillaging it in the name of war reparations. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that relations between the two countries were ambiguous.
Previous | A busy newsstand in Budapest.
The new occupier made use of several hundred Communist Party members back from exile in the USSR, and their resistance comrades, to bring the country under control. Their first objective was to start resupplying the towns. Taking advantage of the flight of the aristocracy, who under Admiral Horthy’s government, had owned nearly half the nation’s arable land, the Communists launched an agrarian reform programme which would change the country profoundly. Entrusted to Professor Imre Nagy, the only Hungarian agricultural specialist among the exile in Moscow, this reform could be said to be one of the more positive political actions of the new regime. Markets overflowed with fruit and vegetables, numerous cafes opened and restaurants stopped bothering to ask their customers for their ration tickets. All of which nurtured the illusion, shared by certain Communists, that Hungary was being rebuilt in the ‘Finland way’. However, by the autumn of 1947, relations between Moscow and its former Western allies had deteriorated. The Cold War was underway and the Soviet bloc hardened. In 1948, Yugoslavia quit the Soviet bloc and Marshall Tito became an enemy, the ‘chained-up dog of the American imperialists’. Deprived of the democratic rights it had gained in 1945, in particular the right to opposition, Hungary became a mere satellite state of the Soviet Union, and a period of police terror began, headed by another former exile back from Russia, Mátyás Rákosi. The Rákosi reign of terror may have been relatively shortlived, but it was ferocious in the extreme, with internment camps, the forced expulsion of the bourgeoisie to controlled areas in the countryside, the severe purging of Tito’s so-called sympathizers (including the trial of Lázló Rajk, the Minister NUMBER: 12
of the Interior, ordered by Stalin in 1949), the Russification of education and culture, the forced collectivization of agriculture and disproportionate over-industrialization in favour of heavy industry, especially the armaments industry. This mass terror, the domination of the Soviet model and the cult of Stalin all added to the Hungarians’ lasting hatred of Communism and explain the violence of the 1956 Hungarian uprising. In the space of just a few years, the standard of living of the entire population, both in the towns and in the countryside, dropped considerably. As early as 1953, the country was on the point of exploding. Stalin’s death went some way to defusing the Hungarian ‘time-bomb.’ Rákosi was replaced as head of government by the highly popular Imre Nagy, who restored some semblance of legitimacy, in particular by putting an end to the internment camps. He also improved the balance between heavy and light industry, abandoned the collectivization of agriculture and encouraged intellectuals to speak out about the true state of the nation. The Stalinists, however, still a majority within the Kremlin, took care to retain Rákosi as leader of the Hungarian Communist Party. In March 1955, Rákosi managed to oust Nagy, accusing him to ‘revisionism,’ the pejorative euphemism for Democratic Socialism. In 1956, a year after his reconciliation with Tito, Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Communist Party Secretary, shifted the balance of power by denouncing Stalin’s crimes at the Twentieth Party Congress and by ordering the rehabilitation of the Communist victims of the show trials of the period of terror, notably that of László Rajk in Hungary.
NOTES: HUNGARY’S INVOLVEMENT IN WORLD WAR II AND SUBSEQUENT OCCUPATION BY THE SOVIET UNION.
Rajk’s funeral, on 6 October 1956, attracted vast crowds. In dignified silence, over 300,000 people paid a collective final homage to all the innocent victims of the Rákosi reign of terror and decisively condemned those Communist leaders who like Rákosi himself, continued, despite their crimes, to occupy strategic positions. In the middle of this mass of people was Imre Nagy. For numerous writers, 1955 and 1956 were years of questioning and deep moral crisis. Until then, they had been producing edifying literature idealizing the government’s actions and the Party leadership, but some of them began to meet to speak out against this political appropriation of literary and artistic output. The circulation of Irodalmi Újság, the review of the Writer’s Union, increased tenfold. The Petöfi Circle which, since 1955, had been the forum for numerous intellectuals to debate philosophical, scientific and literary issues, extended its repertoire to include public life and political events. The meetings on censorship, on the rehabilitation of the victims of the Rákosi reign of terror of on the freedom of the press, attracted thousands of people from June 1956 onwards. In September, the Writer’s Congress expelled all the Stalinists from its leadership. The students, even though mainly of peasant or working-class origin, followed this protest movement and began to mobilize, both in Budapest and in the provinces. The impetus came from Poland where Wladyslaw Gomulka successfully rallied the majority of the Communist Party members to his movement for democracy, a victory greeted in Hungary with great outbursts of joy and enthusiasm.
NUMBER: 14
NOTES:
October 22 to 23
The Explosion All of Budapest prepared to express its solidarity with Poland on 23 October 1956. The authorities hesitated about allowing such a large demonstration, fearing it would get out of hand, but in the end they gave their permission. The crowd gathered in front of the statue of the Polish general Jōzsef Bem. The students, who were the main driving force behind the movement, had summarized the nation’s aspirations in a sixteen-point manifesto which included the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the re-establishment of opposition parties, the guarantee of a minimum wage, the return of Imre Nagy as the head of government, and student and worker solidarity with Poles. The crowd greeted the reading of the manifesto with wild enthusiasm. Imre Nagy then improvised a speech. At the first mention of the word ‘comrades,’ he was hissed
and booed. Workers from the industrial suburbs joined the procession which was slowly heading towards the national museum. The building, at the heart of the city, was an important symbol: from the top of its steps, on 15 March 1848, Sándor Petöfi had recited his famous poem, signal for the patriotic revolution to begin: Talpra Magyar! Stand up Magyars, the nation calls you to choose between liberty and slavery. The demonstrators requested that their claims be broadcast on national radio, but their request was turned down. The scheduled programme about the Party Secretary, Ernö Gerö, just back from Belgrade where he had signed a statement of friendship and cooperation with Marshall Tito, was retained. From 3pm to 8pm, precious time was lost in
Previous Protesters burning images of Rakosi, Hungary’s dictator. Right Protesters burning Soviet flags and papers.
unproductive talks between the students and representatives from the radio station. The ever-larger number of demonstrators began to grow impatient, their chanting becoming outrightly hostile towards the police and the Party Secretary. At 8pm, Ernö Gerö appeared; his speech sounded like a deliberate provocation. Far from announcing the return to power of Nagy and the acceleration of the country’s process of democratization, in a strikingly offhand way he ruled against ‘counterrevolutionaries and Fascists’ who had infiltrated the demonstration and warned the crowd against such agents provocateurs. He continued by singing the praises of Russia, of its generosity and friendliness, and called for a meeting of the Central Committee eight days hence, on 31 October. The disparity between this and the expectations of the crowds in the street was such that Gerö only NUMBER: 16
narrowly avoided being lynched by the demonstrators as he left the radio station. An emergency meeting at Party headquarters was immediately organized. Gun shots were fired. The police shots were blanks, but the damage was done. Despite Imre Nagy’s arrival, despite the fact that he grabbed a loud-hailer and promised the people that their main demands would be met, despite the fact that he was officially nominated as Prime Minister, it was too late. Rioting broke out. The crowd over threw the statue of Stalin and occupied the headquarters of the official newspapers. The offices of the Party were besieged. Hundreds of Russian books were burnt in the streets. Shooting went on late into the night in the vicinity of the national radio station. And by morning 350 were dead and thousands wounded.
NOTES: STUDENTS, WORKERS, AND CITIZENS JOIN IN PROTEST AGAINST HUNGARY’S COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT.
THE EXPLOSION
22 OCTOBER 1956
“Our hope was high and w coming change in the air even dreamed of such a and spontaneous erupti emotions; that our mask from our faces in a matte that everyone would be he liked it or not, to soo allegiance one way or t FEMALE, AGE 48, O130
NUMBER: 18
NOTES: STUDENTS, WORKERS, AND CITIZENS JOIN IN PROTEST AGAINST HUNGARY’S COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT.
THE EXPLOSION
we felt the r. But we … never sudden, dramatic, ion of all of our k would fall down er of hours, and e forced, whether on declare his
the other.”
22 OCTOBER 1956
NUMBER: 22
NOTES: STUDENTS, WORKERS, AND CITIZENS JOIN IN PROTEST AGAINST HUNGARY’S COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT.
THE EXPLOSION
22 OCTOBER 1956
Previous The Stalin statue standing proudly prior to its destruction. Left Protesters celebrating atop the pedestal where Stalin’s statue used to stand. It was destroyed in protests on October 23rd.
“[The student] demands contained such points as a demand that the Russian troops be withdrawn and that free elections be held. Now we knew quite well that the withdrawal of Russian troops was a very delicate matter. We also knew that the government would never agree to a free election.
But … we thought, that perhaps the West, learning of these events, would exert its beneficial influence.” FEMALE, AGE 48, O130
Right A man directing a tank into position to defend a building. Next A group of protesters standing atop a captured Soviet tank.
Lázló Piros, Minister of the Interior
Radio Szabadság
[Gypsy music was interrupted] A communique: In order to assure public order, the Ministry of the Interior is not permitting any public meetings and demonstrations until further notice.
At first there were only a few thousand, but then by-standers, soldiers, young high-school students, tram-car conductors joined them, and the mass soon numbered tens of thousands. The street resounded with slogans. The people of Father Bem and of Kossuth marched hand in hand. “We want new leaders! … We trust Imre Nagy! … Long live the People’s Army!” The shouting booms in the streets. The windows of the houses open. There is an air of freedom again on the streets of Budapest.
Radio Kossuth Addressing a meeting of the students of the Polytechnical University, Mihaly Fekete, Deputy Minister of the Interior, announced that the ban on the proposed students’ march had been lifted. [A musical program was interrupted at 14:23] Lázló Piros, Minister of the Interior, has withdrawn the ban imposed on public meetings and demonstrations.
NUMBER: 24
NOTES: STUDENTS, WORKERS, AND CITIZENS JOIN IN PROTEST AGAINST HUNGARY’S COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT.
THE EXPLOSION
23 OCTOBER 1956
“People were craving freedom.” FEMALE, AGE 48, O130
Right Protesters burning Soviet books. Next A crowd reaching up to grab the newest edition of the newspaper.
“They could have stopped the whole Revolution on the night of the 23rd if then they would have acted fair and given some heed to the people’s demand and just would have given a little and it would have made just a small change.” FEMALE, AGE 24, O106
An Austrian Eye-Witness, Manchester Guardian, 25 October The 5,000 students who were meeting in front of the Petofi Monument in Budapest were joined shortly after dusk by thousands of workers and others. The great crowd then marched to the Stalin monument. Ropes were wound round the statue’s neck, and, to cheers, the crowd attempted to topple the statue. But it would not budge. They finally managed to melt Stalin’s knees by using welding torches. When the body of the statue broke apart and his legs crashed to the ground, the crowd started shouting, “Russians go home, Russians go home.” They also shouted “Away with Gero,” Long live Nagy,” and “Give us back the Church.” With hammers, iron pipes and various other tools, the crowd cut and broke the monument into countless pieces. Several demonstrators told me they wanted a souvenir of that—Stalin. While the Stalin Monument was being attacked, another crowd stormed the building of the Congress of Trade Unions, broke a huge Red Star from the roof, and threw it to the pavement. Police were standing by but made no attempt to interfere. I have never seen more determination in the faces of a crowd.
NUMBER: 28
NOTES: STUDENTS, WORKERS, AND CITIZENS JOIN IN PROTEST AGAINST HUNGARY’S COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT.
THE EXPLOSION
23 OCTOBER 1956
NUMBER: 32
NOTES: STUDENTS, WORKERS, AND CITIZENS JOIN IN PROTEST AGAINST HUNGARY’S COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT.
THE EXPLOSION
23 OCTOBER 1956
Left A man taking down a Soviet red star while a crowd watches.
“A 17-year-old girl who studied at the electrical technical school in Budapest spoke of her aims that afternoon: “I joined the crowd in front of Parliament at 4:30 in the afternoon. For weeks we had been talking about reforms—at first educational, and then more and more political and economic. We were peaceful. We only wanted to better the lot of the students. No one thought it would end in revolution. We sang our national anthem and then put out the Red Star which shone on the top of the Parliament.” GEORGE SHERMAN, THE OBSERVER (LONDON), 11 NOVEMBER
“The 23rd of October, two o’clock in the afternoon, and he said: “Come there, we will meet there.” So I went there but there were so many people, my husband was there and I was there but we didn’t see each other. It was wonderful. Really it is difficult to tell it in words unless you were there and you felt that fantastic feeling in your heart. From minute to minute the whole situation changed and people spoke aloud, said freely that we don’t want to be under Soviet control and that the whole thing is a nonsense, and we want to be free, it was fantastic, we were quite overturned inside, you understand that?” “And we came to the Parliament building and in front of the Parliament building we all shout “Nagy Imre!” Imre Nagy, who was later on executed, should come out, Imre Nagy should come out, and he came out … I can still see him, and he spoke to the many many many people, and they all said you should be prime minister, be prime minister, we want Imre Nagy to be prime minister.” ELLA BOROCZ
“On October 23rd, I roamed around in the streets of Buda. Friends from the neighborhood recognized me, and we started to talk about what to do the next morning. We decided to leave our homes very early in the morning, meet and go together to Széna Square.” “There we noticed that many military trucks were driving toward the center of the city. At that time … the general verdict was that the cars were taking ammunition to the AVO’s fighting in Pest. It was decided by general consent, that this action should be stopped. We barricaded the streets with barrels gotten from a nearby garage and disarmed the first truck which was obliged to stop. The soldiers, about 25-30, handed their arms over gladly. This is how the fighting group of Széna Square was formed … The group was formed mainly of young workers and young students. And amazingly, from the first minute, many 13 and 14 year old boys and girls joined.” MALE, AGE 31, O448
“By 10 p.m. the people, by their sheer weight, were pushing in the doors of the station. At first the AVH tried to disperse us with tear-gas, and then to keep us away by a united charge with bayoneted rifles held crossways. We resisted by tripping and kicking them. Then, for fear of their lives, they began shooting. It was terrible— innocent people were killed because they could not move in the crowd. It was the last blow. NUMBER: 34
NOTES: STUDENTS, WORKERS, AND CITIZENS JOIN IN PROTEST AGAINST HUNGARY’S COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT.
THE EXPLOSION Next A crowd beats a piece of the broken Stalin statue.
Some of the people had small sporting rifles which they had taken from the officers of Mohosz—the Hungarian Voluntary Defense Federation, a military sports organization sponsored by the Communist Party. They returned the AVH fire as best they could.” “Then two trucks of soldiers arrived from Buda across the river, but neither officers nor soldiers fired on the people. No order was given, and the soldiers remained in the trucks. They began slipping their guns over the side of the trucks into our outstretched hands.” “I took a machine gun and began firing it at the AVH in the station windows. By 11 am the next day the crowd had occupied the radio station but it was totally destroyed by then.” GEORGE SHERMAN, THE OBSERVER (LONDON), 11 NOVEMBER
“When the crowd saw the body of the first killed student it began to rage; it was quite amazing that the crowd didn’t move, also the AVO men from the radio building were shooting more and more but the crowd didn’t budge.” MALE, AGE 25, O119
23 OCTOBER 1956
“When the crowd saw the body of the first killed student it began to rage .” MALE, AGE 25, O119
October 24 to 27
The Battle The Party leaders panicked. The police appeared to be incapable of controlling the nascent insurrection. Gerö called on the Soviet garrison for help, a call long attributed to Imre Nagy, despite his denial and numerous witness statements to the contrary. The appearance of Soviet tanks in the middle of the night only served to stoke the anger of the demonstrators who, meanwhile, had managed to procure weapons and ammunition. The next day, 25 October, saw Budapest sink into bloody chaos: Soviet tanks firing, demonstrators replying with Molotov cocktails, police shooting into the crowd, people falling everywhere, the dead being removed, the wounded transported to overstrained hospitals. At the end of the day, the resignation of Ernö Gerö was announced and János Kádár was nominated as leader of the Party. Once again, it was too late. The following
day, in Parliament square, men, almost certainly members of the AVO, the secret police, supported by Soviet soldiers, machine-gunned the crowd from the rooftops. For an hour, the fusillade was so intense that it was impossible to reach the wounded. Nearly a hundred people died. The unrest spread like wildfire throughout the entire country. Revolutionary committees strung up in provincial towns and villages as well as in the capital and its suburbs. Large factories were taken over by workers’ councils based on the Yugoslavian model of self-management. There seemed to be nationwide unanimity concerning three basic demands: a revival of democracy, the running of state enterprises by workers’ councils and the departure of the Soviets from the country.
Previous A dead Soviet soldier on a destroyed street in Budapest.
“[The Revolu point in Hun it is also a tu Hungarian’s stayed hom MALE, AGE 31, O448
On 25 October, Imre Nagy declared that he had relieved all Stalinists within the government of their posts and undertook to negotiate the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Without waiting for the armed confrontations to end, he attempted to form a new government, calling upon several independent figures such as the agrarian Béla Kovács, a member of the Hungarian Parliament deported by the Soviets in 1947. At the same time, he was negotiating with Anastase Mikoyan and Mikhail Suslov, representatives of the Central Committee’s Praesidium (the new name of the Politburo since 1952), sent by the Kremlin to find a political solution to the crisis, if possible a ‘Polish-style’ solution. Exhausted by these negotiations, Imre Nagy, who suffered from a weak heart, collapsed into his armchair. He was saved by Mikhail Suslov who gave him some medication which he happened to have on him in case of emergency. NUMBER: 40
For several days, Hungary was racked by total confusion. News and rumour abounded, much of it contradictory: a lasting cease-fire, the fullscale resumption of confrontations, the forthcoming intervention of American troops via Austria. Friends, enemies, advisors, members of improvised temporary governments, all deliberated within the parliament buildings. To obtain a lasting return to peace and order, wide-reaching concessions were going to be necessary.
NOTES: THE HUNGARIAN POLICE, ARMY AND SOVIET UNION TROOPS FIGHT AGAINST THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
THE BATTLE
24 OCTOBER 1956
ution] is a turning ngary’s history but urning point in every s life, whether he me or left it.”
NUMBER: 42
NOTES: THE HUNGARIAN POLICE, ARMY AND SOVIET TROOPS BATTLE AGAINST THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
THE BATTLE Left People standing in line for bread next to the dead body of a Soviet soldier. Dead Soviets were covered in lime to distinguish them from Hungarian freedom fighters.
24 OCTOBER 1956
Next Freedom fighters standing in the street.
“This is the lesson the West should learn … One should not be irresponsible, one should not throw around big words because some people—whether great or small— might take them seriously and thus be affected for life.” MALE, AGE 31, O448
NSC Staff Study on United States Policy Towards the Soviet Satellites in Eastern Europe 26. The progressive denial to the satellite peoples of access to truth and means of contact with the outside world has limited the possibilities in the propaganda field almost entirely to broadcasting, although balloons, air drops, etc., may be used occasionally with some effect to supplement this medium. The operation of adequate technical facilities for broadcasting to the satellites and the preparation of effective programs assume increasing importance in the effort to conserve and promote anti-communist sentiment against the possible inroads of the communist monopoly over the various media of information. Utilization of our propaganda facilities is conditioned by the necessity of, on the one hand avoiding any commitments regarding when and how these peoples may be liberated and any incitement to premature
revolt, and on the other hand seeking to maintain their faith in the eventual restoration of freedom. 29. Covert operations can be directed to the satellites (a) to gain intelligence,(b) to build up organizational arrangements which will strengthen capabilities for resistance and constitute an asset in the event of war or other situation where action against the regimes may be feasible and desirable, and (c) to reinforce official United States propaganda, especially with the purpose of keeping up the morale of the anti-communists and sowing confusion among the communists. To be most effective, operations of this kind should be conducted so as to avoid encouraging divisive forces among the anti-communists at home or the exiles abroad.
“America has societies cruelty to the animals should be founded wh prevent cruelty agains subjugated nations t Radio Free Europe an of America are beam enticing broadcast.” MALE, AGE 31, O448
NUMBER: 46
NOTES: THE HUNGARIAN POLICE, ARMY AND SOVIET TROOPS BATTLE AGAINST THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
s to prevent s. A society hich should st those to whom nd Voice ming their
THE BATTLE
24 OCTOBER 1956
Previous A freedom fighter standing in a destroyed street in downtown Budapest. Right Soviet tanks entering downtown Budapest.
Reuters and United Press, 25 October “I woke up this morning to the sound of machinegun fire and explosions which sounded like artillery. The trams weren’t running. The fighting was taking place along the Korut and Voerös Boulevards, and most of the side streets were blocked by tanks. Early in the morning a large number of jet fighters flew over and repeatedly opened fire at groups of civilians who were demonstrating. I couldn’t see whether the fighters were Russian of Hungarian. When I left the city by car at noon I saw a great number of dead soldiers and civilians on the streets.”
NUMBER: 50
Leslie B. Bain, The Reporter (New York), 15 November It was 4am when the first Soviet tanks and armored cars arrived in the city. Overnight another series of events had occurred. Workers in the suburbs had held meetings and drawn up demands generally in line with those of the students. To these had been added several specific points about factory-management councils and general increases in wages. At dawn the workers began marching into the city. Only about fifteen hundred of them were armed. All the rest had nothing but their bare hands and flags. No one was in command. All through this second day furious battles raged. On one side were seventy Soviet tanks, fifty armored cars, and small arms and automatic weapons. On the other were twenty-five
NOTES: THE HUNGARIAN POLICE, ARMY AND SOVIET TROOPS BATTLE AGAINST THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
THE BATTLE
24 OCTOBER 1956
John MacCormac, New York Times, 27 October thousand students and nearly two hundred thousand workers steadily pouring in from outlying districts. The rebels had at this time about four thousand small arms. To escape the wildly shooting Soviets and AVH men, the insurgents broke into small groups and occupied strategic corner buildings. Some entrenched themselves in military barracks. But still there was no central command, and each rebel unit operated on its own. This lack of organization contributed largely to the heavy casualties. No one plotted this revolt. It just happened.
A succession of Soviet tanks, armored cars and infantry bombarded for hours a whole block of legation, in one of which one lone Hungarian sniper had hidden himself. Two tanks and a fieldpiece kept up a steady fire while three others dashed up and down the street. At the end of all this could be heard a single but heroic “pop� as the lone sniper fired back from his hidden retreat. And in the middle of it a civilian calmly strolled across the line of fire with his brief case under his arm.
Right A panicked crowd running from Soviet and AVO fire.
John MacCormac, New York Times, 27 October What revived the revolt was a massacre… Since only a few minutes earlier Soviet tank crews had been fraternizing with insurgents, it is possible that the massacre was a tragic mistake. The most credible version is that the political policemen opened fire on the demonstrators and panicked the Soviet tank crews into the belief that they were being attacked. But in any case when the firing subsided Parliament Square was littered with dead and dying men and women. The total number of casualties has been estimated at 170. This correspondent can testify that he saw a dozen bodies. Far from deterring the demonstration, the firing embittered and inflamed the Hungarian people. A few minutes later and only a few blocks from the scene of the massacre, the surviving demonstrators reassembled in Szabadsag (the word means liberty) Square. When trucks filled with Hungarian soldiers drove up and warned the demonstrators that they were armed, the leader of the demonstrators brandished a Hungarian flag and replied: “We are armed only with this, but it is enough.” A crowd assembled before the United States legation in the square and shouted: “The workers are being murdered, we want help.”
NUMBER: 52
NOTES: THE HUNGARIAN POLICE, ARMY AND SOVIET TROOPS BATTLE AGAINST THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
THE BATTLE
25 OCTOBER 1956
Reuters, 25 October President Eisenhower said today that the United States Government “deplores the intervention of Soviet military forces” in Hungary. The President issued a statement on the situation in Hungary after arriving here by train from Washington for a major election campaign address tonight. His statement followed a telephone conference with Mr. Dulles. After stating that the United States “deplores the intervention,” General Eisenhower said that under the provisions of the peace treaty those forces “should have been withdrawn.” He stated
NUMBER: 54
that the presence of such forces in Hungary “as is now demonstrated, is not to protect Hungary against armed aggression from without but rather to continue an occupation of Hungary by the forces of an alien Government for its own purposes…” The President added: “The heart of America goes out to the people of Hungary.” The United States “considers the developments in Hungary as being a renewed expression of the intense desire for freedom long held by the Hungarian people.”
NOTES: THE HUNGARIAN POLICE, ARMY AND SOVIET TROOPS BATTLE AGAINST THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
THE BATTLE Left A man reading one of the new, free independent newspapers in a Budapest shop window. Next A group of freedom fighters walking down a street.
“The revolt was a reaction to the weakness of the West as well. The West has truth and justice on its side; but it did not show its force. It wastes its strength on the peripheries of the conflict.” “We were hopeful when a soldier, President Eisenhower, became President; but he did not act like a soldier. He acted like the teacher who caters to cheap popularity with his students, giving easy examinations and taking the lighter side of things.” MALE, AGE 34, O101
“Foreign policy played a very important role in this. We expected help from the West. We were led to believe that such expectation, expectation of military assistance from the West, was not entirely just a noble dream. We were basing our hopes in this respect on the broadcasts of the Radio Free Europe, BBC, Voice of America, the radio stations of Paris and of Madrid. We thought that the radio station Radio Free Europe represented the official sentiment of the Western governments. In other words, we looked upon Radio Free Europe not as an official broadcasting station of the West, but a radio station whose broadcasts and opinions were authentic. Without Radio Free Europe broadcasts the desire of the Hungarian people to regain its freedom couldn’t have maintained itself.” FEMALE, AGE 48, O130
25 OCTOBER 1956
“At the time nobody thought of the dangers.” MALE, AGE 25, O119
Right A young boy with a gun strapped to his chest. Many people, some as young as 12, joined the freedom fighters.
“Once I saw with my own eyes a young boy who was maybe 8, 9, or 10, jump on a tank, then he poured gasoline in the tank. He jumped down, he ignited the gasoline, and then he ran to the next building where he looked for shelter.” “I did everything. I carried ammunition and I used a rifle. I myself, shot. It was amazing to watch the crowd and to watch all those who took part in those fightings. There was no commander and everybody knew his duty. I would have died for the man next to me and they would have died for me. We helped each other, we fought together. It was wonderful.” MALE, AGE 25, O119
Endre Marton, Associated Press, 26 October In Buda, on the right bank of the Danube, things were much quieter although a small group of rebels found refuge on the rocky side of Gellert Hill. They were hunted by a Soviet helicopter. Shops were closed yesterday. Some state-run groceries opened today for a few hours and long queues were formed with people waiting for bread and other foodstuffs. There were neither buses, nor trams, nor taxis and only a few passenger cars. The situation was slightly better this morning until fighting flared up again after 10am. NUMBER: 58
NOTES: THE HUNGARIAN POLICE, ARMY AND SOVIET TROOPS BATTLE AGAINST THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
THE BATTLE
25 OCTOBER 1956
Eugen-GÊza Pogany, Deutsche Presse, Agentur, 27 October During the night from Thursday to Friday the guns thunder. Machine-gun and carbine shots ring out. Underneath the windows of my hotel room 20 to 25 Soviet tanks drive past. From the south, from the direction of the large working-class quarter of Csepel, one can hear dull booms—artillery fire. It is shortly before midnight. Curfew since 6pm. In spite of that youths and civilians, pistols in their hands, slink along the walls. 5 am: The battle goes on with undiminished force. It is not possible to make sure just exactly where clashes are continuing. No one is to be seen on the streets any more. 7 am: The battles continue, undiminished, as day breaks. Heavy tanks move towards Csepel, gunfire becomes heavier and heavier.
NUMBER: 60
At 10 am, as I complete this first report from Budapest, heavy clashes are raging in Soroksar (in the south of the city) on Boraros Square. The Soviets are shooting into houses there. In Csepel the workers have dug themselves in.
NOTES: THE HUNGARIAN POLICE, ARMY AND SOVIET TROOPS BATTLE AGAINST THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
THE BATTLE Next A group of freedom fighters resting from battle.
“Everybody was afraid. Afraid of combat, afraid of blood, afraid of wounds, afraid of destruction. You could often hear people say, Let us be careful.” MALE, AGE 34, O101
“On the 24th and 25th one couldn’t go out on the street because the Russians were gunning from the tanks. On the 26th or 27th, I don’t quite remember, through the radio the University, the engineering school of the University, called up all his students to go in and help and then I went in and all the radio engineers got a radio and that’s how I became a radio operator during the Revolution.” FEMALE, AGE 24, O106
“The woman speaks slowly, but with obvious emotion: “You are a journalist—you simply don’t have the right to lie! It is a lie that fascist and counter-revolutionaries are fighting in the city. We are fighting, our nation is fighting, for real democracy, for real socialism, for freedom and independence!” MARIAN BIELICKI, PO PROSTU (WARSAW), 25 NOVEMBER
25 OCTOBER 1956
“Everybody was afraid.” MALE, AGE 34, O101
Right A row of dead AVH policemen lying on the ground.
“It encouraged us during these 12 years but RFE made also statements which cost many Hungarian lives. On my way to Austria, I met a Hungarian officer who told me that RFE’s famous declaration, “Wait another day, fight another day, and help will come,” cost him 850 of his men.” MALE, AGE 25, O119 The Times, London, 27 October An American spokesman at the United Nations headquarters said his country was consulting with friendly nations on the feasibility and advisability of referring the Hungarian crisis to the United Nations. The United Nations mission here was in constant touch with the State Department, and a decision was expected to be taken soon.
NUMBER: 64
NOTES: THE HUNGARIAN POLICE, ARMY AND SOVIET TROOPS BATTLE AGAINST THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
THE BATTLE
25 OCTOBER 1956
NUMBER: 66
NOTES: THE HUNGARIAN POLICE, ARMY AND SOVIET TROOPS BATTLE AGAINST THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
THE BATTLE
25 OCTOBER 1956
Left A row of graves for those who died during the Revolution.
Noel Barber, Daily Mail (London), 27 October Tonight Budapest is a city of mourning. Black flags hang from every window. For during the past four days thousands of its citizens fighting to throw off the yoke of Russia have been killed or wounded … Traveling around the city is a nightmare, for no one knows who is friend or foe, and all shoot at everybody. There is not doubt now the revolt has been far more bloody than the official radio reports suggested. Casualties number many thousands. The Russian are just unloosing murder at every street corner … I owe my life to a young girl insurgent who, speaking a little English, helped me to safety after the Russians had opened fire on my car. “We will never give in—never”, she said, “Never until the Russians are out of Hungary and the AVH (she pronounced it Avo) is dissolved.”
Right A bread delivery to a freedom fighter headquarters during the Revolution. Next A street in downtown Budapest filled with destroyed armoured cars.
“Actually, I did not want to give up hope while there were still demonstrations going on. One felt that all was not yet lost.” MALE, AGE 29, O129
“Everyone’s aim was the same. Counts and Princes, Fascists and Communists, all were united.” “The revolt was a moral revolt. They have not lost their faith, and they were able to fight for humanism and idealism.” MALE, AGE 34, O101
Leslie B. Bain, The Reporter (New York), 15 November It is difficult, if not altogether impossible, to convey any notion of these people’s fighting gallantry. Wherever the rebels were students and workers, there was not a single case of looting. Shop windows without glass were filled with desirable goods, yet nothing was touched. An incident I saw will illustrate this. Windows from a candy store and an adjacent flower shop were smashed and the sidewalk was littered with candy boxes. All these boxes were replaced in the glassless windows, but the flowers strewn about were gathered and placed on the bodies of dead rebels. NUMBER: 68
NOTES: THE HUNGARIAN POLICE, ARMY AND SOVIET TROOPS BATTLE AGAINST THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
THE BATTLE
26 OCTOBER 1956
“Either we win, or we fall. There is no third possibility.” PAL MALETER
NUMBER: 72
NUMBER: 72
NOTES:
NOTES:
October 28 to November 02
The Victory On the morning of 28 October, the leadership, by then made up of both Party and government members, finally reached agreement on a certain number of measures aimed at satisfying the various armed factions of the uprising and at guaranteeing the process of democratization. These included the reorganization of the army and the police force, the planned departure of Soviet troops, the indictment of Gerö and two other ministers who had taken flight, a decree about workers’ councils, another about an amnesty. Two days later, on 30 October, Yuri Andropov, the Soviet ambassador, handed an important statement to Imre Nagy which appeared to endorse the choice of a peaceful solution for resolving the Hungarian crisis, as well as to confirm the future withdrawal of Soviet troops: ‘Having in mind that the further presence of Soviet military units in
Hungary could serve as an excuse for further aggravation of the situation, the Soviet government has given military command instructions to withdraw the Soviet military units from the city of Budapest as soon as this is considered necessary by the Hungarian government.’ This statement was warmly welcomed by the American and other Western press. The next day, Imre Nagy announced the re-establishment of a multiparty state and ‘the return to a governmental system based on democratic cooperation between coalition parties, as had existed in 1945.’ In an improvised speech aimed at the various delegations flooding into Parliament, he declared, deeply moved: ‘The revolutionary action has triumphed, thanks to you, its heroes. The outcome of this victory underlies the democratic government which I have just founded. We will no longer tolerate any intervention in the internal affairs of
Previous Protesters celebrating the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Budapest.
our country. From now on, our relation with the Soviet Union is based on the principle of equality of rights, national sovereignty, and non-intervention in our policies. We have banished the Rákosi-Gerö troops, together with their immeasurable crimes, which will be paid for in the eyes of the law. People have tried to sully my name, accusing me of summoning Soviet troops onto Hungarian territory. This is totally untrue.’ Shortly after this speech, he met with foreign journalists. Brimming with optimism, he stated that Hungary now had the opportunity to leave the Warsaw Pact and to become the hub of a neutral zone at the heart of Central Europe. He even went as far as to say that Hungary might recognize the German Federal Republic, a country until then boycotted by Communist states. Within forty-eight hours, the entire country was overcome with euphoria. In Budapest, the guns were silent and the government was busy governing, supported by the workers’ councils from the large factories who were preparing to go back to work. It was essential to lay the foundations of a Socialist democracy as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, in Moscow, Khrushchev had spent a few days hesitating between ‘the military path and occupation’ or ‘the peaceful path, with the withdrawal of troops and ensuing negotiations.’ By 31 October, Khrushchev chose the military path. All the members of the Presidium strongly endorsed Khrushchev’s view. Marshall Jukov was convinced that Imre Nagy was playing a double game, and Vyacheslav Molotov believed that a counter-revolutionary transitional government had been formed in Hungary and that forceful intervention was therefore necessary, and without further delay. Khrushchev suggested they warn Gomulka and Tito. He met Gomulka in Brest-Litovsk NUMBER: 74
in Poland and explained to him that: ‘We have had to revise our view on withdrawing Soviet troops from Budapest and Hungary; if we evacuate Hungary, it will encourage the French, the British, and the Americans. We have no other choice. We have conceded a lot, but there is no longer a government there with whom to negotiate.’ Accompanied by Georgi Malenkov, he also paid a secret visit to Tito, in Brioni in Croatia, to try to persuade him of the legitimacy of the Soviet intervention. At the beginning of the Hungarian uprising, Tito had not hidden his sympathy for Imre Nagy, but he allowed himself to be easily persuaded by Khrushchev, not least because he, like the Russians, feared a domino effect with other peoples’ democracies. By this time, worrying news was reaching Imre Nagy, alerting him to the presence of new Soviet troops on Hungarian territory, information which was confirmed by frontier guards who said Soviet troops were massing in Záhony. The Soviet ambassador reassured the Hungarian government, telling them that the soldiers were just there ‘to repatriate the wounded from the previous days’ confrontations’. Kádár decided to personally visit the Soviet ambassador to clarify the situation. No more was heard of him until 4 November. He was seized at the door of the Soviet embassy by two Soviet agents in uniform and pushed into a diplomatic car where Ferenc Münnich, the sole Stalinist member left in Nagy’s government, was awaiting him. They drove straight to the military airport where a Russian plane took them to Moscow. No sooner elected leader of a remodeled Communist party, than Imre Nagy’s accomplice was removed.
NOTES: THE WITHDRAWAL OF SOVIET TROOPS IS ANNOUNCED, AND A NEW GOVERNMENT IS FORMED.
THE VICTORY
At his first meeting with the Presidium, Kádár stated that Rákosi and Gerö were responsible for the Hungarian uprising. He argued against its counter-revolutionary nature, saying: ‘Initially, we did not see this, we classified it as a counter-revolution, and with this we turned [the people] against us—they didn’t feel themselves to be counter-revolutionaries. I personally took part in one meeting, and no one wanted counter-revolution.’ Münnich made a totally conflicting statement which accorded perfectly with the opinion of the majority of the Presidium. He underlined just how serious the situation in Hungary was, saying that only military intervention would succeed in re-establishing order in the country.
28 OCTOBER 1956
“Asked if he wanted a w replied: ‘Not that, but China could send volu why could the United send some to help us JOHN MACCORMAC, NEW YORK TIMES, 30 OCTOBER
NUMBER: 76
NOTES: THE WITHDRAWAL OF SOVIET TROOPS IS ANNOUNCED, AND A NEW GOVERNMENT IS FORMED.
THE VICTORY
world war, he tell me, if unteers to Korea, d States not s?’”
28 OCTOBER 1956
Noel Barber, Daily Mail (London), 29 October Premier Nagy has surrendered to all the demands of Hungary’s freedom rebels—and told the Russian troops to quit Budapest immediately. Meanwhile, as I write this in the dying city of Budapest, fresh Soviet troops, brought in from Poland, are fighting hand-to-hand street battles with the freedom fighters. Three more columns of Russian troops are on their way to the capital— one from Poland, one from Russia, and one from Romania. The bridges that span the Danube are alive with infantry—and, a new departure, artillery. Not satisfied with 75mm tank guns, the Soviets have put six or eight pieces of artillery on each of the major bridges. There is desolation everywhere and fighting lasted all day yesterday in Buda, just across the Margaret Bridge. It is clear now that the Russians grossly underestimated the qualities of the freedom fighters. Tanks have got them nowhere in the narrow streets of Budapest, where almost every window is draped with a gigantic black crêpe flag. But with the infantry it is going to be tougher. These new
NUMBER: 78
troops are clearly battle-scarred veterans and the mood is changing. Everywhere people ask me one thing: “When is help coming?” “Please, anything—even one gun.” a girl begged me. “Can’t the British help—we are fighting for the world.” said another. It makes me ill, unable to reply.
NOTES: THE WITHDRAWAL OF SOVIET TROOPS IS ANNOUNCED, AND A NEW GOVERNMENT IS FORMED.
THE VICTORY
28 OCTOBER 1956
Next A peasant man selling onions in Budapest.
Alistair Cooke, Manchester Guardian, 28 October Not since June 1950, has the Security Council been called into an emergency Sunday session to urge the condemnation of an act of war. But yesterday the United States, Britain, and France, abandoning their inclination to let the Hungarian rebellion advertise its heroic course a little longer, asked the Council to meet at once to consider “the action of foreign military forces in Hungary in violently repressing the rights of the Hungarian people.” The three Western delegates saw no hope that the Russians would accept such a stigma, and it might only have taunted them into writing a violent counter-charge. The Soviet Union cannot prevent the mere placing of the Allied protest on the agenda. But it can, and surely will, veto any action, or condemnation, that the Council might take.
John MacCormac, New York Times, 30 October The news that the United Nations Security Council had adjourned without even adopting a resolution about Hungary appeared to come as a shock to those in Budapest who heard it this morning on their radios. All along the revolutionaries have voiced dismay over failure of the West, and particularly of the United States, to give them any real help. They still have a touching reverence for everything American, but it seems doubtful that this will last much longer. Yesterday in Budapest a father held his child up to see and touch the United States flag with which the windshield of this correspondent’s car was draped. But an English-speaking member of another knot of insurgents uttered the nearest thing to a reproach yet heard. “You know, we have been rather disappointed that you have not helped us,” he said. Asked if he wanted a world war, he replied: “Not that, but tell me, if China could send volunteers to Korea, why could not the United States send some to help us?”
“There was a general atmosphere of goodness in the streets, and never before or after have I experienced this goodness and compassion among people.� ZSUZSA EASTLAND
NUMBER: 82
NOTES: THE WITHDRAWAL OF SOVIET TROOPS IS ANNOUNCED, AND A NEW GOVERNMENT IS FORMED.
THE VICTORY
29 OCTOBER 1956
Left Soviet tanks moving out of Budapest.
“Everything will be all over now; another day’s fighting and Soviet troops will withdraw. Nagy has promised. There are even rumors that the AVO is going to be dissolved.” MARIAN BIELICKI, PO PROSTU (WARSAW), 9 DECEMBER
Radio Free Gyor We have learned that … Soviet troops have started to withdraw from the capital. Troops leaving Budapest have already passed through Szekesfehervar … Do not provoke Soviet troops during this move so that armed clashes are avoided.
Leslie B. Bain, The Reporter (New York), 15 November Nagy decided that a final bid should be made. He advanced a program: The revolt was to be declared a national patriotic uprising and was to be handled as such. Again, he proposed amnesty for all rebels and dissolution of the AVH, and promised the early withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Budapest and negotiations with Moscow for removal of all Soviet troops from Hungarian soil.
Right Disabled Soviet tanks.
Vlado Teslic, Borba (Belgrade), 31 October This morning Budapest awoke in mild October sunshine. People were walking about in the vast Square of Heroes. All vehicles are flying the Hungarian tricolors. A few Soviet armored vehicles roared by. No shooting was heard. A man distributed newspapers in the street; people snatched them. Some shop-windows are riddled with bullets, but shoes, or candy, have remained untouched. Not a single factory is working; yet no one is short of food. “Such is this revolution, such are these people. And above all they are not thieves .” —a student told me.
John MacCormac, New York Times, 31 October The Hungarian people seem to have won their revolution. Soviet troops are now leaving Budapest and apparently are also leaving Hungary. This afternoon, Janos Kádár, chief of the Hungarian Communist party…broadcast to the people a promise to hold free elections, to proclaim Hungary a neutral country, and to insist on the immediate departure of Soviet troops. …“We greet you in the name of the Hungarian freedom fighters,” said one of them in German, when we had disclosed our identity. He said he had been in the barracks since October 23 … “When did you surrender?” he was asked. He drew himself up. “We never surrendered,” he said, “The Russians went away and we came out.” At 10 o’clock thousands marched in mass demonstration toward the Kilian barracks. They carried black flags to commemorate those who had died there and shouted, “Whoever is a Hungarian, join us.”
NUMBER: 84
NOTES: THE WITHDRAWAL OF SOVIET TROOPS IS ANNOUNCED, AND A NEW GOVERNMENT IS FORMED.
THE VICTORY
“From the radio from Zehony—this is a border city between the Soviet Union and Hungary— I received from this city a report that all bridges were blown up and the Soviets were building four temporary bridges during the night and the Russians are pouring into the country. That was around the end of October.” FEMALE, AGE 24, O106
Radio Free Miskolc Just now it has been announced from Kisvárda that many thousand tanks with light and heavy arms are pouring into our country. Motorized infantry is advancing towards Nyiregyhaza. New Russian units!
30 OCTOBER 1956
Right Citizens of Budapest casually walking alongside a tank.
“The West does not fully appreciate that the Soviet Union is a military power and it will make full use of its forces whenever warranted in their view. Discussions have no place in their policy. They are very systematic and it was hard to trust Western radios, even the BBC, when they insisted that the Soviet forces are withdrawing after the first revolt.” MALE, AGE 29, O129
Free Radio Kossuth [9:06] Following reports received from the city we announced at 8:00 that all Soviet forces had left Budapest. Since then we have ascertained that this is not so. A number of listeners have also objected … There are still Soviet tanks stationed in front of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Soviet Embassy; doubtless the list is far from complete. According to the latest Ministry of Defense announcement, the remaining Soviet tanks will leave the city during the morning. Through the radio the Ministry of Defense appeals to the population of the capital to refrain, out of sober good sense, from impeding the departure of the Soviet troops by a hostile action, since this would merely lead to further bloodshed. NUMBER: 86
NOTES: THE WITHDRAWAL OF SOVIET TROOPS IS ANNOUNCED, AND A NEW GOVERNMENT IS FORMED.
THE VICTORY
31 OCTOBER 1956
“We don’t want Communism.” VIKTOR WOROSZYLSKI, NOWA KULTURA (WARSAW)
Previous Men gathered around a newspaper announcing the Soviet withdrawal from Budapest. Right Freedom fighters posing next to a captured armoured vehicle.
Vlado Teslic, Borba (Belgrade), 2 November Dissatisfaction increased from hour to hour, when it was learned that Soviet troops, after withdrawing from Budapest, have taken up positions at the approaches to the capital. That is why the general strike is still in force in Hungary … More and more one hears: “We are not moving in a circle but rushing toward a catastrophe …” There is acute fear. People are constantly in the streets … any dramatic news threatens to start riots … A certain psychosis of uncertainty is being born. Today, for instance, long queues formed in front of banks and post-offices—people who want to withdraw their savings.
NUMBER: 90
Lajos Lederer, Observer Foreign News Service (London), 1 November Soviet tank units which left Budapest yesterday have dug in 10 miles outside the capital and encircled the city, except for a small stretch leaving the road open to Vienna for the medical and food supplies coming in from there. They have also forcibly occupied the large civilian airport at Ferihegy and requisitioned all civilian aircraft. Western military attachés who were able to go there this afternoon confirm the Russian move. This news, after the relief following the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from the capital, has caused great dismay among the heroic citizens of Budapest.
NOTES: THE WITHDRAWAL OF SOVIET TROOPS IS ANNOUNCED, AND A NEW GOVERNMENT IS FORMED.
THE VICTORY
01 NOVEMBER 1956
NUMBER: 92
NOTES: THE WITHDRAWAL OF SOVIET TROOPS IS ANNOUNCED, AND A NEW GOVERNMENT IS FORMED.
THE VICTORY
02 NOVEMBER 1956
Left A destroyed apartment building in Budapest. Next Protesters celebrating the Soviet withdrawal from Budapest.
Lajos Lederer, Observer Foreign News Service (London), 2 November Budapest and the entire country is tortured by anxiety over the new Russian menace. Thanksgiving candles are again burning in the windows for the fourth successive evening, but the country is gripped by nightmare fears that the results of their great victory may be lost.
Viktor Zorza, Manchester Guardian, 3 November Yesterday, Mr. Nagy said that he had asked the Big Four to recognize Hungary’s neutrality. Hungary is waiting anxiously for their reaction. The people here can understand why Moscow is delaying its reply. But why, it has asked, have the Western Governments not replied immediately that they acknowledge Hungary’s neutrality? By delaying its reply, even for a day, the West is making things easier for Moscow.
“We left with the delusion that the fight had been won.” CORRESPONDENT, THE ECONOMIST (LONDON), 17 NOVEMBER
NUMBER: 96
NOTES:
November 03 to 04
The Betrayal On 3 November, the Presidium met again, this time in the presence of both Kádár and Münnich. Partly because he was popular with Budapest’s working class, as a result of himself being a victim of the Stalinist terror, and partly because he was first and foremost a party man, Kádár was chosen to succeed Imre Nagy at the head of the new puppet government. Kádár was back in the fold and convinced of the necessity for a massive intervention of Soviet troops. Somehow, overnight, Khrushchev had succeeded in bringing him round. There are no official records of all this, but, knowing the Soviet methods of persuasion, it is not difficult to imagine what happened. Kádár had allied himself with Imre Nagy. But it was now him or Nagy. He somehow managed to convince himself that, even though he would be betraying his friend, he would be a lesser evil for his country than a reversion to Rákosi’s rule of terror.
The die was cast. All that remained was to persuade the West that the Soviet Union was acting out of legitimate defense. The best defense being attack, Moscow reproached the West for having encouraged the insurgents whose actions had imperiled the East-West balance. The Soviet delegate told the United Nations Security Council, in no uncertain terms, on the morning of 4 November, ‘Hungarian workers had presented justified demands which were exploited by Western agents, notably Americans. It was in these conditions that Imre Nagy had formed his government, following the Fascist path in order to do away with popular rule. To assist him in this task, he called upon officers from Admiral Horthy’s former government, who spread destruction, murder and brutality throughout the country in order to ensure the return of a Fascist and capitalist dictatorship.’
Previous Soviet tanks re-entering Budapest on November 4th.
The Russians were once again in the land of myth, as in 1949 when Moscow, followed by all the international Communist press, stated that Yugoslavia was in the hands of Fascist assassins. However, unlike 1949, Stalin’s successors, fully aware of the awkward position of the West, preoccupied and divided over the Suez crisis, decided to intervene militarily and destroy the Hungarian democracy, despite the fact that it was unanimously supported by the Hungarian people. They acted with full and cynical approval of all the leaders of the Communist satellite nations, as well as that of China. The second Soviet intervention was prepared in minute detail and was radically more effective than the first. The sheer might of weaponry of the Soviet army was enough to discourage resistance. At dawn on 4 November, at 4:25am precisely, Soviet troops opened fire on some barracks to the South od Budapest. Shortly afterwards, cannon fire echoed throughout the city. The rebels put up barricades at all the major crossroads. Fighting took place in Üllöi Street, Marx Square, Kálvin Square, the Kilián barracks, in front of the Corvin Cinema, on the other side of the river, in Buda, on mount Gellért, in the south train station. Imre Nagy gave the order to the leaders of the rebel groups to hold fire. At 5:20 am he addressed the Hungarian people on national radio: ‘This is Imre Nagy, President of the Council. This morning, at dawn, Soviet troops attacked the capital in order to overthrow the Hungarian democracy’s legal government. Our troops are fighting. The government is still in its place. This is to alert the Hungarian people and the entire world.’
NUMBER: 98
At 7:56 am, the Hungarian Writers’ Union launched a radio appeal to the West: ‘This is the Hungarian Writers’ Union, speaking to writers throughout the world, to all scholarly and literary societies, to all academies and scientific societies, to intelligentsia the world over, we ask each and every one of you to help and support us. There is not a moment to lose. You know what is happening, it is pointless saying any more. Help Hungary! Save her writers, scholars, workers and peasants, save our intelligentsia! Help, help!’ Help was not forthcoming and by 8:25 am the Hungarian national radio station ceased broadcasting. Kádár, back in Budapest, announced that he was taking over as head of a workers’ and peasants’ revolutionary government. The Kilián barracks resisted assaults and air raids for three days. Those besieged in the Citadel held out until 7 November. When they encountered intense resistance, the Soviets fired at houses randomly to terrorize the inhabitants and force them to surrender. By 8 November, most of the city bore the scars of bitter fighting: hundreds of buildings in ruin, thousands of others badly damaged. Men, women, children, civilians and the military, the entire population of Budapest had resisted the Soviet intruders without success. On 10 November, there was no more gunfire in the capital. Only the intellectuals continued a rearguard action, many having managed to hide and form pockets of clandestine resistance. According to an official Hungarian source, there were 2, 740 registered deaths in Budapest between October and December 1956. Nearly half of those who died in combat were under thirty years old, and one death in six was a woman.
NOTES: SOVIET TROOPS RE-ENTER HUNGARY AND RUTHLESSLY CRUSH THE REVOLUTION. THE WEST STANDS BY.
THE BETRAYAL
To avoid arrest or deportation, 200,000 people fled to the West. 25,000 civilians were arrested by the Soviet police and set to work clearing the capital and its suburbs. They were subsequently deported to Russia. 35,000 Hungarian soldiers were disarmed. A number of writers, including Tibor Déry, were held in prison for many years, only finally being released thanks to relentless pressure by Western writers. As for Imre Nagy, he was handed over to the Soviets, who kept him under house arrest in Romania until he was handed back to the Hungarian justice. He was officially arrested on 14 April 1957 and was judged for high treason. Nagy defended himself with courage but without illusions, against accusations of felony, treason and connivance with the Fascists. Condemned to death on 15 June 1958, he was hanged the next day at dawn in the courtyard of Budapest’s High Court, together with Miklós Gimes, publicist and former editor of the Party’s official newspaper. If nothing else, the rebels fighting for Hungary’s freedom managed to shake up the West’s conscience, showing them the true face of Soviet Communism. In order to crush a revolutionary movement whose aim was the spread of democracy, the Soviet Union, whilst priding itself on being a proletarian regime fighting for the liberation of the working class throughout the world, did not hesitate to fire on workers and destroy their factories. Finally, the Hungarian revolution unveiled the fundamentally deceitful nature of the Communist system for all the world to see. The Kremlin attempted to justify the intervention of its tanks by insisting that it was defending democracy against Fascism, and Socialism against an attempt to
03 NOVEMBER 1956
restore capitalism in Hungary. It is clear, however, that none of the claims by the youth and the workers’ councils had anything to do with restoring the old regime; on the contrary, they wanted the workers’ councils to take over the management of the factories. Those people subdued by Soviet power have never ceased to proclaim their commitment to freedom and democracy, values dear to Western Europe which, nevertheless, has never forced the Soviet Union to pay a strong political price for its brutality. Budapest 1956 therefore poses an awkward question for Western governments, a question which Henry Kissinger formulated in the following way: ‘would stronger Western diplomacy have been able to prevent, or at least lessen, the Hungarian tragedy?’
“Would stronger W diplomacy have b prevent, or at le the Hungarian t HENRY KISSINGER
NUMBER: 100
NOTES: SOVIET TROOPS RE-ENTER HUNGARY AND RUTHLESSLY CRUSH THE REVOLUTION. THE WEST STANDS BY.
THE BETRAYAL
Western been able to east lessen, tragedy?�
03 NOVEMBER 1956
Free Radio Kossuth Our entire position, however, will be decided by the intentions of the 200-million-strong Russian Empire as regards its military forces within our frontiers. Radio reports announce that this armed force is increasing. We are neutral. We are not giving the Russian Empire cause for bloodshed. But does it enter the minds of the leaders of the Russian Empire that we shall esteem the Russian people much more if they do not subjugate us? A country attacked usually curses the hostile attacking people. We did not attack Russia and we sincerely hope for the early withdrawal of Russian armed forces from Hungary.
NUMBER: 102
NOTES: SOVIET TROOPS RE-ENTER HUNGARY AND RUTHLESSLY CRUSH THE REVOLUTION. THE WEST STANDS BY.
THE BETRAYAL
03 NOVEMBER 1956
Left A destroyed Soviet tank and a dead soldier on the streets of Budapest.
Lajos Lederer, The Observer (London), 4 November If the Russians strike, they will face 10 million Hungarians, who will fight to the bitter end, however long it may take. Every town, every village, every house, and every flat will be a stronghold. And when these are demolished, the fight will still go on. The Russians ought to know from their own experience what partisans could do to a hated and despised army of occupation. In fact, it is by no means certain that the Soviet Army is prepared to face this great risk or that the Russian soldiers will fight the Hungarians as readily as they fought the Germans in the War. A report has just come in from Vac, some 50 miles northwest of Budapest, that the crews of 15 Russian armoured cars have gone over to the Freedom Fighters, together with their full equipment.
Interim Report of the Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary, UN General Assembly, 20 February 1957 Negotiations for the withdrawal of the Soviet troops were in fact commenced on 3 November in the Parliament building and continued during the night at Soviet headquarters at Tokol on Csepel Island. ‌According to the evidence of General Kiraly, an agreement for the withdrawal of Soviet forces was signed at 6 p.m. and the subsequent discussions at Soviet headquarters related to technique and timing; contact was maintained with the Hungarian military delegation until just past midnight, when communication was broken off; the Hungarian military delegation, headed by General Pal Maleter, was then placed under arrest.
Right Destroyed Soviet tanks on a Budapest street. Next Soviet tanks in front of the Parliament Building in Budapest, after the November 4th recapture of the city.
Lajos Lederer, The Observer (London), 18 November It was Sunday, the fourth of November. For three days Budapest had gloried in its triumph. But now the storm was coming back. The Russians, they said, were on their way in; and this time in strength.
Free Radio Kossuth Attention! Attention! Attention! Attention! Now Imre Nagy, President of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People’s Republic is going to address you! [05:19] This is Imre Nagy speaking, the President of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People’s Republic. Today at daybreak Soviet forces started an attack against our capital, obviously with the intention to overthrow the legal Hungarian democratic Government. Our troops are fighting. The Government is in its place. I notify the people of our country and the entire world of this fact. [The announcement was followed by the National anthem, and then repeated in English, Russian, and French, and German.]
NUMBER: 104
NOTES: SOVIET TROOPS RE-ENTER HUNGARY AND RUTHLESSLY CRUSH THE REVOLUTION. THE WEST STANDS BY.
THE BETRAYAL
04 NOVEMBER 1956
“[I felt] horrible, crushed, our hopes were crushed.” ZSUZSA EASTLAND
Right Destroyed Soviet tanks on a Budapest street corner. Next The wreck of a battle in downtown Budapest.
“All I remember was the tanks and their roaring in and you could hear them from our flat and mom took us all into the bathroom because it had thicker walls. [I felt] horrible, crushed, our hopes were crushed. I still remember hearing those cries for help by Mindzenty and Nagy Imre, the last voices on the radio, “Please help us.” I have a tape recording of this from Britain, actually. Segitseg, segitseg, please help us … Radio messages to the West. The last messages on the Hungarian radio. It was, I cannot describe it. I have tears when I hear it again on the radio. I can’t tell you how much better a place Hungary would have been now if.” ZSUZSA EASTLAND
“I remained [at my mother’s], and we saw in the very early dawn of the 4th of November how the Soviet tanks came in and how they surrounded Parliament, and we were sitting there two minutes from Parliament, it was really frightening, all the cannons pointed at us, into our windows.” EVA BECK
“I am still surprised and amazed to this day how it was possible that within four days the army was entirely disorganized. Once the Soviet troops struck why was the Hungarian army not more effective? On the 4th of November, why was it not organized better? These are weighty questions.” MALE, AGE 29, O129
NUMBER: 108
NOTES: SOVIET TROOPS RE-ENTER HUNGARY AND RUTHLESSLY CRUSH THE REVOLUTION. THE WEST STANDS BY.
THE BETRAYAL
04 NOVEMBER 1956
“It was so brutal, soldiers fired point blank at empty buildings, watching them collapse with a laugh.� MALE, AGE 34, O101
Agence Grance Presse (Paris), 15 November [12:30] Violent fighting in the Szena-Ter section of Buda. Regrouping of Hungarian forces in the interior of Pecs. Soviet artillery are bombarding Csepel … [13:55] The Russian occupation of the East Station. Szolnok has been bombarded by Soviet aircraft. Fighting continues in the Gellerthegy part of Buda. [14:15] Four Soviet armoured cars followed by trucks near the [French] Legation. [15:00] Soviet troops, coming from Czechoslovakie, are passing through Komaron and Gyor [15:15] According to a Hungarian source, Zoltan Tildy was arrested this morning by Russians occupying Parliament. On the other hand, three “ Nagy-ist” writers who were inside Parliament at the time got away: Erosi, Gyula Hay, and Lajos Tamasi. [15:25] Fighting continues around the railroad stations. [15:40] Soviet aircraft are flying over the city. Artillery fire on the heights of Buda. [16:00] A battle around the Astoria Hotel, 5th city district. [16:15] Acker, whose observation post is on the Embassy roof, reports fires burning in the 15th district. Violent fighting near the Austrian and French Embassies in Buda. Mortars and violent explosions nearby. [16:30] Two sixteen year-olds are ambushed behind the Duna hotel and one of them attacked a tank with a hand-grenade. He was slightly wounded. This is news from Chatelot. Girard furnishes details on the battle at Hotel Astoria. His car came up against two Soviet tanks. Bombs and shells bursting two hundred meters in front and three hundred meters behind. Numerous bottles of gasoline thrown on the tanks … The avenue is in flames. [17:50] A violent explosion near the Legation. Soviet leaflets about “the liberation” distributed by troops in the streets. [18:00] Soviet mortars installed near the Legation are firing on the city. NUMBER: 112
[18:20] A Hungarian source: Battle raging around the National Theater between the 7th and 8th city districts … [19:00] Violent engagements between the Soviets and insurgents in the Krisztinavaros quarter… [21:15] The Russians are occupying the Buda citadel which overlooks the city. [21:30] No more electricity in the 5th district (southern portion). Soviet armoured cars are withdrawing toward the suburbs in order to avoid being taken by surprise in the center of town by teams of dynamiters during the night … [22:20] New explosions … a violent exchange of machine-gun fire … The approach of tanks makes the walls shake … Street being torn up by the tread of tanks has been renamed twice. Formerly called Andrassy Road. It became Stalin Road. Then after the insurrection, covered with blood, it became the Street of Hungarian Youth. Will it be changed again? Soviet tanks are concentrated around the two buildings that house the Soviet Embassy … It is bitter and ironical to hear the East Berlin radio broadcast on the intentions of “patriots to liquidate the counter-revolutionaries.” Never has so much affrontery been associated with so sordid a crime … And the drama is only beginning [Midnight] The insurgents retire to positions in the South Station. The Russians attack with armoured cars. The Varhogy district was bombarded at regular intervals by artillery.
NOTES: SOVIET TROOPS RE-ENTER HUNGARY AND RUTHLESSLY CRUSH THE REVOLUTION. THE WEST STANDS BY.
THE BETRAYAL
04 NOVEMBER 1956
Free Radio Rakoczi
Free Radio Csokonay
This is Hungary calling! This is Hungary calling! [13:55] The last free station. Forward to the United Nations. Early this morning Soviet troops launched a general attack on Hungary. We are requesting you to send us immediate aid in the form of parachute troops over the Transdanubian provinces. It is possible that our broadcasts will soon come to the same fate as the other Hungarian broadcasting stations … For the sake of God and freedom, help Hungary!
Attention! Attention! [16:20] To all U.N. members and delegates! Delegates of the peoples! In the coming hours you will decide about the life or the death of this nation. While your sons are at peace and happy, we sons of the Hungarian nation are falling under the cruel fire of Soviet tanks and bombers. Our country has been attacked from abroad. We turn to you. You are our last citadel of hope. Exercise the opportunity which your nations have given you and save our country from destruction and slavery! We are asking for immediate and effective help. Save us from further bloodshed and give us back our neutrality. Show that the U.N. can carry out its will, and thus achieve that our country again be free! We appeal to your conscience and call on you to act immediately.
Right Grieving Hungarians.
“The Russians did not cheat Hungary. Actually, they never promised anything. But America did and a great power should have a great conscience and great remorse—everything is so great in America—why do they have small remorse if they had any at all? Does Eisenhower only want to clean his own yard? Doesn’t he mind that the roads leading to him are cluttered with dirt? Doesn’t the judgment of later centuries matter at all?” “We expected applause for a beautiful performance we put up for the West. And the West sat in comfortable boxes, enjoyed the fireworks, but forgot to applaud.” MALE, AGE 31, O448 New York Times, 5 November President Eisenhower, in an eleventh-hour move to save the freedom of Hungary, sent an urgent and personal message today to Marshal Nikolai A. Bulganin, Premier of the Soviet Union … The President’s statement read as follows: “I feel that Western opinion, which was so uplifted only a few days ago by the news that the Soviet Union intended to withdraw its forces from Hungary, has now suffered corresponding shock and dismay at the Soviet attack on the people and Government of Hungary. “I met today … to discuss the ways and means available to the United States which would result in: 1. Withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary. 2. Achieve for Hungary its own right of selfdetermination in the choice of its Government.
NUMBER: 114
I have sent an urgent message to Premier Bulganin on these points …” The President’s feelings of shock and dismay were echoed at all levels of official Washington. Some officials had suggested several days ago that the United States could have exerted some deterrent influence on the Soviet Union by some demonstrative movements of the Strategic Air Force, and by cancellation of military leaves. But those ideas did not gain Administration favor, and there was no evidence that they were discussed at President Eisenhower’s conferences during the day. High-level informants were inclined to the view that the ways and means the United States would use to influence events in Hungary would be largely confined to appeals to world opinion.
NOTES: SOVIET TROOPS RE-ENTER HUNGARY AND RUTHLESSLY CRUSH THE REVOLUTION. THE WEST STANDS BY.
THE BETRAYAL
04 NOVEMBER 1956
NUMBER: 116
NOTES: SOVIET TROOPS RE-ENTER HUNGARY AND RUTHLESSLY CRUSH THE REVOLUTION. THE WEST STANDS BY.
THE BETRAYAL
04 NOVEMBER 1956
Left A Hungarian soldier gathering dead freedom fighters to be buried. Next The grave of a young woman who was executed at the age of twenty-four for her involvement in the Revolution.
“There is much to feel guilty for.” VICTOR ZORZA, MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, 29 OCTOBER
NUMBER: 120
NOTES: SOVIET TROOPS RE-ENTER HUNGARY AND RUTHLESSLY CRUSH THE REVOLUTION. THE WEST STANDS BY.
THE BETRAYAL
04 NOVEMBER 1956
“In the name of betrayed Hungary, come back to us!”
INTERVIEWS Eva Beck, “An Interview with Eva Beck”, conducted by Virginia Major Thomas in 2008, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2010. Ella Borocz, “An Interview with Ella Borocz”, conducted by Virginia Major Thomas in 2003, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2006. Zsuzsa Eastland, “An Interview with Zsuzsa Eastland”, conducted by Virginia Major Thomas in 2005, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2006. “CURPH Interview 448 with a 1956 Hungarian Refugee: 31 Years Old, Male, Journalist, motorcycle racer”, 1957. HU OSA 414-0-2-269; Donald and Vera Blinken Collection on Hungarian Refugees of 1956: Transcripts of Refugee Interviews; Open Society Archives at Central European University, Budapest. “CURPH Interview 101 with a 1956 Hungarian Refugee: 34 Years Old, Male, High School teacher of Biology and Geography”, 1957. HU OSA 414-0-2-128; Donald and Vera Blinken Collection on Hungarian Refugees of 1956: Transcripts of Refugee Interviews; Open Society Archives at Central European University, Budapest. “CURPH Interview 129 with a 1956 Hungarian Refugee: 29 Years Old, Male, Electronic research engineer”, 1957. HU OSA 414-0-2-156; Donald and Vera Blinken Collection on Hungarian Refugees of 1956: Transcripts of Refugee Interviews; Open Society Archives at Central European University, Budapest.
NUMBER: 124
NOTES: SOURCES
“CURPH Interview 106 with a 1956 Hungarian Refugee: 24 Years Old, Female, Student, electrical engineer”, 1957. HU OSA 414-0-2-133; Donald and Vera Blinken Collection on Hungarian Refugees of 1956: Transcripts of Refugee Interviews; Open Society Archives at Central European University, Budapest. “CURPH Interview 119 with a 1956 Hungarian Refugee: 25 Years Old, Male, Worker at the radio”, 1957. HU OSA 414-0-2-146; Donald and Vera Blinken Collection on Hungarian Refugees of 1956: Transcripts of Refugee Interviews; Open Society Archives at Central European University, Budapest. “CURPH Interview 130 with a 1956 Hungarian Refugee: 48 Years Old, Female, Typographer, housewife”, 1957. HU OSA 414-0-2-157; Donald and Vera Blinken Collection on Hungarian Refugees of 1956: Transcripts of Refugee Interviews; Open Society Archives at Central European University, Budapest.
JOURNALISM
IMAGES
BĂŠkĂŠs, Csaba, et al., compilers and editors. The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A History in Documents. Central European University Press, 2002.
Photographs from the archives of Erich Lessing, compiled from Revolution in Hungary: The 1956 Budapest Uprising.
Lasky, Melvin J, editor. The Hungarian Revolution: The Story of the October Uprising as Recorded in Documents, Dispatches, Eye-Witness Accounts, and World-Wide Reactions. Frederick A. Praeger, 1957.
Photographs taken by photographers for LIFE Magazine were also used.
Konrad, George, et al. Revolution in Hungary: The 1956 Budapest Uprising. Thames & Hudson, 2006.
Dedicated to all who were involved in the Hungarian Revolution—your stories are not forgotten. Special thanks to my parents, especially my dad who helped copy-edit this book. Thank you for your constant guidance and support—I love you both! Thank you to Chrissi Cowhey, Penina Acayo Laker, Ken Botnick, and Kevin McCoy who helped me bring this book to fruition.
This book was designed by Madeline Partner during the Spring of 2019, at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Printed at Marvel Printing Company in St. Louis, MO. Printed on 80lb text Dur-o-tone Butcher White milled by French Paper Company. Cover embossed on Canapetta bookcloth. Typeset in Bennet Text Four, designed by Richard Lipton, and Franklin Gothic URW, designed by URW, but originally developed by American Type Founders in the early 20th century.