View source for Hungarian Revolution of 1956

{{Short description|Citizen rebellion in Hungary}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Hungarian Revolution of 1956
| partof            = the [[Cold War]]
| image             = Hungarian Revolution of 1956 collage.jpg
| image_size        = 300
| caption           = From top to bottom, left to right: The rebels' flag · Speaker addresses to a crowd from an abandoned Soviet tank · Caricature of [[Mátyás Rákosi]] with suitcases going to the Soviet border · Search for Stalinist era mass graves and underground party bunkers · Hungarian Patriot, [[Time Person of the Year|Time Magazine Man of the Year]] · Severed Stalin's head of a toppled monument · Young Hungarian rebel · Civilians flee from Soviet bombing · Ruins in Budapest after the Soviet bombings
| date              = {{start and end date|1956|6|23|1956|11|11|df=y}}{{Clear}}{{start and end date|1956|10|23|1956|11|3|df=y}} (main phase){{Clear}}{{start and end date|1956|11|4|1956|11|11|df=y}} (suppression)
| place             = [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]]
| result            = Revolution suppressed
| combatant1        = {{Plainlist|
* '''{{flagcountry|USSR|1955}}'''
* Until 28 October:
* {{flagcountry|HPR|1949}}
* From 4 November:
* {{flagd|HPR|1949}} [[Revolutionary Workers'-Peasants' Government of Hungary|Kádár government]]
}}
| combatant2        = {{Plainlist|
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} '''Hungarian revolutionaries'''
* From 28 October:
* {{flagcountry|HPR|rev}} ([[Governments of Imre Nagy|Nagy government]])
}}
| commander1        = {{plainlist|
* {{flagd|USSR|1955}} '''[[Nikita Khrushchev]]'''
* {{flagd|USSR|1955}} [[Yuri Andropov]]
* {{flagd|USSR|1955}} [[Ivan Konev]]
* {{flagd|USSR|1955}} [[Ivan Serov]]
* {{flagd|USSR|1955}} [[Georgy Zhukov]]
* {{flagd|USSR|1955}} [[Kuzma Grebennik]]
* {{flagd|USSR|1955}} [[Gennady Obaturov]]
* {{flagd|USSR|1955}} [[Vasily Sokolovsky]]
* {{flagd|HPR|1949}} '''[[Ernő Gerő]]'''
* {{flagd|HPR|1949}} [[András Hegedüs]]
* {{flagd|HPR|1949}} [[László Piros]]
* {{flagd|HPR|1949}} [[István Bata]]
* {{flagd|HPR|1949}} '''[[János Kádár]]'''
* {{flagd|HPR|1949}} [[Ferenc Münnich]]
* {{flagd|HPR|1949}} [[Antal Apró]]}}
| commander2        = {{plainlist|
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} '''[[Imre Nagy]]'''{{Executed}}
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} [[Pál Maléter]]{{Executed}}
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} [[Miklós Gimes]]{{Executed}}
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} [[Géza Losonczy]]
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} [[Zoltán Tildy]]
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} [[Béla Kovács (politician, 1908)|Béla Kovács]]
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} [[Anna Kéthly]]
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} [[József Dudás]] {{Executed}}
* {{nowrap|{{flagd|HPR|rev}} [[Sándor Kopácsi]]{{POW}}}}
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} [[Béla Király]]
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} [[Gergely Pongrátz]]
}}
| units1            = {{Plainlist|
* {{flagd|USSR}} [[Soviet Armed Forces]]
* {{flagicon image|Emblema KGB.svg|size=22px|border=}} [[KGB]]
* {{flagicon image|Emblem of the State Protection Authority.svg|size=22px|border=}} [[State Protection Authority|ÁVH]]
* {{flagd|HPR|1949}} Loyalist elements of the [[Hungarian People's Army|MN]]
}}
| polstrength1      = {{Plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Flag of the Hungarian Working People's Party.svg}} [[Hungarian Working People's Party|Working People's Party]] (loyalists, to 28 October)
* {{nowrap|[[File:Red star.svg|20px]] [[Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party|Socialist Workers' Party]]}} (from 4 November)
}}
| units2            = {{Plainlist|
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} [[Militia|Armed citizens]]
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} [[Political demonstration|Demonstrators]]
* {{flagd|HPR|rev}} Pro-Revolution elements of the [[Hungarian People's Army|MN]]
}}
| polstrength2      = {{Plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Flag of the Hungarian Working People's Party.svg}} [[Hungarian Working People's Party|Working People's Party]] (dissidents, to 31 October)
* [[File:Red star.svg|20px]] [[Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party|Socialist Workers' Party]]
* (to 4 November)
* [[File:Wheat-icon.svg|15px]] {{nowrap|[[Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party|Smallholders' Party]]}}
* [[File:MSZDP logo, 1945.svg|15px]] [[Social Democratic Party of Hungary|Social Democratic Party]]
* {{flagicon image|Flag of the National Peasant Party (Hungary).svg}} [[National Peasant Party (Hungary)|Petőfi Party]]
* [[File:Logo of the Democratic People's Party (Hungary, 1947).svg|15px]] [[Christian Democratic People's Party (Hungary)|Democratic People's Party]]
* [[File:Hungarian Independence Party logo, 1947.svg|15px]] [[Hungarian Independence Party|Independence Party]]
* Other reformed parties
}}
| strength1         = {{ubl|31,550 troops|1,130 tanks{{refn|The UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) estimated 75,000–200,000 soldiers and 1,600–4,000 tanks [http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf OSZK.hu] (p. 56). Soviet archives (available in [[Lib.ru]], Maksim Moshkow's Library) list 31,550 soldiers, 1,130 tanks, and [[self-propelled artillery]] pieces. [http://fan.lib.ru/c/chekmarew_w_a/text_0200.shtml Lib.ru] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209184727/http://fan.lib.ru/c/chekmarew_w_a/text_0200.shtml |date=9 February 2010 }} {{in lang|ru}}.|group=nb}}}}
| strength2         = Unknown
| casualties1       = {{ubl|722 killed|1,540 wounded<ref>{{cite book|last1=Györkei|first1=J.|last2=Kirov|first2=A.|last3=Horvath|first3=M.|date=1999|title=Soviet Military Intervention in Hungary, 1956|location=New York|publisher=Central European University Press|page=370|isbn=963-9116-35-1}}</ref>}}
| casualties2       = {{ubl|2,500–3,000 killed|13,000 wounded|200,000 exiled<ref name="UNchVnote8">UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url=http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf|title=Chapter&nbsp;V, footnote&nbsp;8}}</ref>}}
| casualties3       = 3,000 civilians killed<ref>"B&J": Jacob Bercovitch and Richard Jackson, International Conflict : A Chronological Encyclopedia of Conflicts and Their Management 1945–1995 (1997) p. 85</ref>
}}

The '''Hungarian Revolution of 1956''' (23 October – 4 November 1956; {{langx|hu|1956-os forradalom}}), also known as the '''Hungarian Uprising''', was an attempted countrywide [[revolution]] against the government of the [[Hungarian People's Republic]] (1949–1989) and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the [[Soviet Union]] (USSR).{{refn|Alternate names for the revolution are ''Hungarian Uprising'' and ''Hungarian Revolt''; the first term used the word ''felkelés'' ("uprising"); in the Communist period of 1957–1988, the term used was ''Ellenforradalom'' (Counter-revolution); and, since 1990, the official term for the Hungarian Revolution is the phrase: ''Forradalom és szabadságharc'' (Revolution and the Fight for Freedom), which evokes the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848]]. Linguistically, whereas the English ''revolution'' corresponds to the Hungarian ''forradalom'' [https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/26566.htm (U.S. State Dept. background on Hungary)], the Oxford English Dictionary distinguishes between a ''revolution'', which deposes a government, and an armed ''revolt'', which might fail or succeed.|group=nb}} The uprising lasted 15 days before being crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on 7 November 1956 (outside of Budapest firefights lasted until at least 12 November 1956).<ref name=Granville>Granville, Johanna. The First Domino: International Decision Making During the Hungarian Crisis of 1956, pp. 94–195.</ref> Thousands were killed or wounded, and nearly a quarter of a million Hungarians fled the country.<ref>{{cite web |title=This Day in History: November 4, 1956 |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-put-brutal-end-to-hungarian-revolution |website=History.com |date=24 November 2009 |access-date=16 March 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A History in Documents |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/ |website=National Security Archive |access-date=16 March 2023 |date=4 November 2002}}</ref>

The Hungarian Revolution began on 23 October 1956 in [[Budapest]] when [[Student|university students]] appealed to the civil populace to join them at the [[Hungarian Parliament Building]] to protest against the USSR's geopolitical domination of Hungary through the [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] government of [[Mátyás Rákosi]]. A delegation of students entered the building of [[Magyar Rádió]] to broadcast their [[Demands of Hungarian Revolutionaries of 1956|sixteen demands]] for political and economic reforms to civil society, but were detained by security guards. When the student protestors outside the radio building demanded the release of their delegation, a group of police from the ÁVH ([[State Protection Authority]]) fatally shot several of the students.<ref>George Childs Kohn, ed. (2007). "Hungarian Revolt of 1956". ''The Dictionary of Wars'' Third Edition. pp. 237–238.</ref>

Consequently, Hungarians organized into revolutionary [[militia]]s to fight against the ÁVH; local Hungarian communist leaders and ÁVH policemen were captured and summarily executed; and political prisoners were released and armed. To realize their political, economic, and social demands, local [[Soviet (council)|soviet]]s (councils of workers) assumed control of municipal government from the [[Hungarian Working People's Party]] ({{lang|hu|Magyar Dolgozók Pártja}}). The new government of [[Imre Nagy]] disbanded the ÁVH, declared Hungary's withdrawal from the [[Warsaw Pact]], and pledged to re-establish free elections. By the end of October the intense fighting had subsided.

Although initially willing to negotiate the withdrawal of the [[Soviet Army]] from Hungary, the USSR repressed the Hungarian Revolution on 4 November 1956, and fought the Hungarian revolutionaries until Soviet victory on 10 November; repression of the Hungarian Uprising killed 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet Army soldiers, and compelled 200,000 Hungarians to seek political refuge abroad, mostly to [[Austria]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hungarian Refugee Cards, 1956-1957, Now Available in JDC Names Index {{!}} JDC Archives |url=https://archives.jdc.org/hungarian-refugee-cards-1956-1957-now-available-in-jdc-names-index/ |access-date=2024-01-05 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Niessen|first=James P.|date=2016-10-11|title=Hungarian Refugees of 1956: From the Border to Austria, Camp Kilmer, and Elsewhere|url=https://ahea.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/ahea/article/view/261|journal=Hungarian Cultural Studies|volume=9|pages=122–136|doi=10.5195/AHEA.2016.261|issn=2471-965X|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Background==
===Second World War===
During the [[World War II|Second World War]] (1939–1945), the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] (1920–1946) was a member of the [[Axis powers]] – in alliance with [[Nazi Germany]], [[Fascist Italy]], the [[Kingdom of Romania]], and the [[Tsardom of Bulgaria (1908–1946)|Kingdom of Bulgaria]]. In 1941, the [[Hungary in World War II|Royal Hungarian Army]] participated in the Nazi [[invasion of Yugoslavia]] (6 April 1941) and in [[Operation Barbarossa]] (22 June 1941), the invasion of the USSR. In the event, by 1944, the [[Red Army]] were on the way to the Kingdom of Hungary, after first having repelled the Royal Hungarian Army and the armies of the other Axis Powers from the territory of the USSR.<ref name= brittannica>{{cite web| url = https://www.britannica.com/place/Hungary/War-and-renewed-defeat| title = History of Hungary: War and renewed defeat| website = Encyclopaedia Britannica| access-date = 18 August 2021}}</ref>

Fearful of the Red Army's occupation of the Kingdom of Hungary, the royal Hungarian government unsuccessfully sought an armistice with the Allies, which was a betrayal of the Axis powers. The Germans launched [[German invasion of Hungary (1944)|Operation Margarethe]] (12 March 1944) to establish the Nazi [[Government of National Unity (Hungary)|Government of National Unity]] of Hungary; the short-lived puppet government existed for less than a year and Hungary was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945 after the [[Siege of Budapest]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tihanyi|first=Gyula|title=The Second World War|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1990|isbn=0-14-01-1341-X|location=US|pages=506}}</ref><ref name="brittannica" />

===Soviet occupation===
{{History of Hungary}}
At the end of the Second World War (1939–1945), the Kingdom of Hungary was in the geopolitical [[sphere of influence]] of the USSR. In the political aftermath of the War, Hungary was a [[Multi-party system|multi-party]] [[democracy]], in which the [[1945 Hungarian parliamentary election]] produced a coalition government composed of [[Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party|Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and the Civic Party]], headed by President [[Zoltán Tildy]] and Prime Minister [[Ferenc Nagy]]. Nonetheless, on behalf of the USSR, the [[Hungarian Communist Party]] continually used [[salami slicing tactics]] to wrest minor political concessions, which continually diminished the political authority of the coalition government – despite the Communist Party only having received 17 percent of the votes in the parliamentary election of 1945.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kertesz |first=Stephen D. |title=Diplomacy in a Whirlpool: Hungary between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia |chapter-url=http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/dipl/dipl08.htm |chapter=Chapter VIII (Hungary, a Republic) |pages=139–152 |publisher=University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana |year=1953 |isbn=0-8371-7540-2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070903085107/http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/dipl/dipl08.htm |archive-date=3 September 2007}} Retrieved 8 October 2006</ref><ref name="UNPara47">UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web |url=http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II. A (Developments before 22 October 1956), para. 47 (p. 18)}}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

After the election in 1945, control of the [[State Protection Authority]] ({{lang|hu|Államvédelmi Hatóság}}, ÁVH) was transferred from the Independent Smallholders Party of the coalition government to the Hungarian Communist party.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter IX D, para. 426 (p. 133) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> The ÁVH repressed non‑communist political opponents with [[intimidation]] and false accusations, imprisonment and [[torture]].<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II.N, para 89(xi) (p. 31) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> The brief, four‑year period of multi-party democracy ended when the [[Social Democratic Party of Hungary]] merged with the Communist Party and became the [[Hungarian Working People's Party]], whose candidate stood unopposed in the [[1949 Hungarian parliamentary election]]. Afterwards, on 20 August 1949, the [[Hungarian People's Republic]] was proclaimed and established as a socialist state, with whom the USSR then concluded the [[Comecon|COMECON]] treaty of mutual assistance, which allowed stationing troops of Red Army soldiers in Hungary.<ref name="UNPara47"/>

Based upon the economic model of the USSR, the Hungarian Working People's Party established the [[Socialist economics|socialist economy]] of Hungary with the [[nationalization]] of the [[means of production]] and of the natural resources of the country. Moreover, by 1955, the relatively free politics of Hungary allowed [[intellectual]]s and journalists to freely criticise the social and economic policies of the Rákosi government.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II. A (Developments before 22 October 1956), paragraphs 49 (p. 18), 379–380 (p. 122) and 382–385 (p. 123) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> In that vein of relative political freedom, on 22 October 1956, students from the [[Budapest University of Technology and Economics]] had reestablished the MEFESZ [[students' union]], which the Rákosi government earlier had banned for their politically incorrect politics.<ref name="Crampton295">Crampton, R. J. (2003). ''Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century–and After'', p. 295. Routledge: London. {{ISBN|0-415-16422-2}}.</ref>

===Stalinist Hungary===
Initially, the Hungarian People's Republic was a [[Socialism|socialist]] state headed by the Communist government of [[Mátyás Rákosi]] (r. 1947–1956), a [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] who was beholden to the USSR.<ref>'''Video''': Hungary in Flames [http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-43.html CEU.hu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017054207/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-43.html |date=17 October 2007 }} producer: CBS (1958) – Fonds 306, Audiovisual Materials Relating to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, OSA Archivum, Budapest, Hungary ID number: HU OSA 306–0–1:40</ref> To ensure ideological compliance within his Stalinist government, Rákosi used the ÁVH to purge 7,000 politically dissident [[Titoism|Titoists]] and [[Trotskyism|Trotskyists]] from the Communist Party of Hungary, for being "Western agents" whose participation in the [[Spanish Civil War]] (1936–1939) interfered with Stalin's long-term plans for [[world communism]].<ref name="Litván 1996">{{cite book |last=Litván |first=György |title=The Hungarian Revolution of 1956: Reform, Revolt and Repression, 1953–1963 |year=1996 |publisher=Longman |location=London |page=19 |isbn=978-0582215047}}</ref><ref name="Tokes317">Tőkés, Rudolf L. (1998). ''Hungary's Negotiated Revolution: Economic Reform, Social Change and Political Succession'', p. 317. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. {{ISBN|0-521-57850-7}}</ref><ref name=wilson>{{Cite book| title =Budapest 1900: A Historical Portrait of a City and its Culture | author= John Lukacs | publisher= Grove Press |year= 1994 |page=222 |isbn=978-0-8021-3250-5}}</ref> Among the Stalinist governments of the [[Eastern Bloc]], the Rákosi government of the Hungarian People's Republic was most repressive of political, sexual, and religious minorities.<ref name="UNPara47"/><ref name=lawsoc/><ref name="hungarianspectrum.org">{{cite web |title = József Mindszenty: An inveterate anti-Semite or a national hero? |date = 24 April 2016 |url=https://hungarianspectrum.org/2016/04/24/jozsef-mindszenty-an-inveterate-anti-semite-or-a-national-hero/ |website=[[Hungarian Spectrum]] |archive-date=25 April 2016 |url-status = usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425055228/https://hungarianspectrum.org/2016/04/24/jozsef-mindszenty-an-inveterate-anti-semite-or-a-national-hero/}}</ref><ref name="jta.org">{{cite web |title = Budapest Jews Score Anti-semitic Tenor of Statement by Hungarian Cardinal |url=https://www.jta.org/1947/07/13/archive/budapest-jews-score-anti-semitic-tenor-of-statement-by-hungarian-cardinal |date = 13 July 1947 |publisher=[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]]}}</ref>

[[File:Rákosi Mátyás fortepan 56324.jpg|thumb|right|[[Mátyás Rákosi]] addresses an audience in Budapest, 1948.]]

In 1949, the Rákosi government arrested, tortured and convicted Cardinal [[József Mindszenty]] in a show trial<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marshall J. Breger, Herbert R. Reginbogin |title=The Vatican and Permanent Neutrality |date=2022 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1793642172 |page=127}}</ref> for [[treason]] against Hungary, for [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaboration]] with Nazi Germany in [[the Holocaust in Hungary]] – the religious persecution of Hungarian Jews, and the political persecutions of Hungarian communists and of Hungarian [[Anti-fascism|anti-Nazis]].<ref name="hungarianspectrum.org"/><ref name="jta.org"/> Mindszenty had, in fact, been [[Hungary_in_World_War_II#Resistance_movement|an active opponent of the Nazi government]], encouraged [[Catholic Church in Hungary|Hungarian Catholics]] not to [[1939 Hungarian parliamentary election|vote]] for the [[Arrow Cross Party]], and was imprisoned for this dissent by the Arrow Cross-led Government of National Unity.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Paksy |first1=Zoltán |title=Mindszenty József nézetei és politikai tevékenysége |url=https://www.multunk.hu/2014-4-szam/?s=Paksy%20Zolt%C3%A1n%20Mindszenty |pages=213–215 |date=2014 |publisher=Korunk}}</ref>

====Political repression====
In the 1950–1952 period, the ÁVH forcibly relocated more than 26,000 non-communist Hungarians and confiscated their housing for members of the Communist Party of Hungary, and so eliminated the political threats posed by the nationalist and anti-communist [[intelligentsia]] and by the local [[bourgeoisie]]. According to their particular politics, anti-communist Hungarians were either imprisoned in [[concentration camp]]s or were [[population transfer in the Soviet Union|deported to the USSR]] or were killed, either summarily or after a [[show trial]]; the victims included the communist politician [[László Rajk]], the minister of the interior who established the ÁVH secret police.<ref name="Tokes317"/><ref name=lawsoc>{{Cite book| last=Gati | first=Charles | title=Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt | publisher=Stanford University Press |year= 2006 | isbn=0-8047-5606-6|page=49 }} Gati describes "the most gruesome forms of psychological and physical torture{{nbsp}}... The reign of terror [of the Rákosi government] turned out to be harsher, and more extensive than [the reign of terror] in any of the other Soviet satellite [countries] in Central and Eastern Europe." In the post-communist period, the fact-finding commission, ''Törvénytelen szocializmus'' (Lawless Socialism), reported that "between 1950 and early 1953, the courts dealt with 650,000 cases [of political crimes], of whom 387,000 or 4 percent of the population were found guilty." (Budapest, Zrínyi Kiadó/Új Magyarország, 1991, p. 154).</ref>

The Rákosi government politicised the education system with a ''toiling intelligentsia'' who would assist in the Russification of Hungary; thus the study of Russian language and communist political instruction were mandatory at school and at university; religious schools were nationalized and church leaders replaced with communist officials.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Kardos, József| title=Monograph | journal=Iskolakultúra | volume=6–7 | issue=June–July 2003 | pages=73–80 | publisher=[[University of Pécs]] | year=2003 | url=http://epa.oszk.hu/00000/00011/00072/pdf/tan-konf-vita2003-6-7.pdf | access-date=9 October 2006 |language=hu}}</ref><!--In February 1950, the Central Committee of the Hungarian Working People's Party said that their goal was the supplantation of bourgeois leaders in education. In the pedagogical magazine ''Köznevelés'' (17 September 1950) the minister of education and religion, [[József Darvas]], said that: "The conversion of different grammar schools to industrial technical institutes, agricultural technical institutes, economical vocational high schools, and training-colleges for school teachers and kindergarten instructors tends to the success of the five-year plan, by supplying many of the needed technicians." On 30 October 1950, at school and at university, the Russification of Hungarian education included mandatory Russian language and Marxism-Leninism to every curriculum; by 1951, 107 new course books were issued, 61 were Soviet textbooks translated to Hungarian. Moreover, the number of students was to be increased by 30,000 in the course of five years.--><ref>{{Cite book | editor-last=Burant | editor-first=Stephen R. | title=Hungary: a country study |edition=2nd |publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress |year=1990 |page=320 |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/hutoc.html }}, Chapter 2 (The Society and Its Environment) "Religion and Religious Organizations"</ref>

====Economic decline====
In the early 1950s, the Rákosi government's socialist economics increased the per capita income of the Hungarian people, yet their standard of living diminished because of the compulsory financial contributions towards the [[industrialisation]] of Hungary, which reduced the [[Disposable income|disposable and discretionary income]] of individual Hungarian workers. That poor economy was further diminished by the bureaucratic mismanagement of resources, which caused shortages of supplies, and the consequent rationing of bread and sugar, flour and meat, et cetera.<ref>{{Cite book| last=Bognár | first=Sándor |author2=Iván Pető |author3=Sándor Szakács | title=A hazai gazdaság négy évtizedének története 1945–1985 (The History of Four Decades of the National Economy, 1945–1985) | publisher=Budapest: Közdazdasági és Jogi Könyvkiadó | year=1985 | isbn=963-221-554-0 |pages= 214, 217|language=hu}}</ref> The net result of those economic conditions, was that the Hungarian workers' disposable income in 1952 was two-thirds of the disposable income of Hungarian workers in 1938.<ref name="transformation">"[http://www.rev.hu/history_of_45/tanulm_gazd/gazd_e.htm Transformation of the Hungarian economy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070917033739/http://www.rev.hu/history_of_45/tanulm_gazd/gazd_e.htm |date=17 September 2007 }}". The Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution (2003). Retrieved 27 August 2006.</ref>

Besides paying for the Red Army occupation of socialist Hungary, the Hungarians also paid [[war reparations]] (US$300 million) to the USSR, to the [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]], and to the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]].<ref>The Avalon Project at Yale Law School: [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/hungary.htm#art12 Armistice Agreement with Hungary; 20 January 1945] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060409202246/http://yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/hungary.htm#art12 |date=9 April 2006 }}. Retrieved 27 August 2006.</ref> In 1946, the [[Hungarian National Bank]] reported that the cost of war reparations was "between 19 and 22 per cent of the annual national income" of Hungary,<ref>{{Cite book | last=Kertesz | first=Stephen D.|title=Diplomacy in a Whirlpool: Hungary between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia | chapter-url=http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/dipl/dipl16.htm#16|chapter=Memorandum of the Hungarian National Bank on Reparations, Appendix Document 16 | publisher=University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana|year=1953|isbn=0-8371-7540-2|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070125063724/http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/dipl/dipl16.htm#16 | archive-date=25 January 2007 }}</ref> an onerous national expense aggravated by the [[hyperinflation]] consequent to the post-war [[depreciation]] of the [[Hungarian pengő]].<ref>Magyar Nemzeti Bank – English Site: [http://english.mnb.hu/Engine.aspx?page=mnben_1_jegybankrol&ContentID=2326 History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060830203417/http://english.mnb.hu/Engine.aspx?page=mnben_1_jegybankrol&ContentID=2326 |date=30 August 2006 }}</ref> Moreover, participation in the Soviet-sponsored Council of Mutual Economic Assistance ([[Comecon|COMECON]]) prevented direct trade with the countries of the West, and also prevented the Hungarian People's Republic from receiving American financial aid through the [[Marshall Plan]] (1948).<ref>{{Cite book | last=Kertesz | first=Stephen D. | title=Diplomacy in a Whirlpool: Hungary between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia | chapter-url=http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/dipl/dipl10.htm#2 | chapter=Chapter IX (Soviet Russia and Hungary's Economy) | page=158 | publisher=University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana | year=1953 | isbn=0-8371-7540-2 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070907151115/http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/dipl/dipl10.htm#2 | archive-date=7 September 2007 }}</ref> Socially, the imposition of Soviet-style economic policies and the payment of war reparations angered the peoples of Hungary, while the cumulative effects of [[Austerity|economic austerity]] fuelled anti-Soviet political discontent as the payment of foreign debt took precedence over the material needs of the Hungarian people.<ref name="LibCongressHungaryEconomy">Library of Congress: Country Studies: Hungary, Chapter 3 [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/hutoc.html#hu0138 Economic Policy and Performance, 1945–1985]. Retrieved 27 August 2006.</ref>

===International events===
[[File:Nagy Imre fortepan 74215.jpg|thumb|right|In the Eastern bloc, Hungarian Prime Minister [[Imre Nagy]] (centre) proved too progressive a Communist in his government's pursuit of the Hungarian road to Socialism, taking it too far out of the Soviet Union's orbit (October 1956).]]
{{Eastern Bloc sidebar}}

====De–Stalinization====
On 5 March 1953, the death of [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] allowed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to proceed with the [[de-Stalinization]] of the USSR, which was a relative liberalization of politics that afterward allowed most European communist parties and the communist parties of the Warsaw Pact to develop a [[Reformism|reformist wing]] – within the structures of the [[Marxism|philosophy of Marxism]] and orders from Moscow. Hence, the reformist communist [[Imre Nagy]] became prime minister (1953–55) of the Hungarian People's Republic, in replacement of the Stalinist Mátyás Rákosi (1946–56), whose heavy-hand style of communist government had proved counter-productive to the interests of the USSR in Hungary.<ref>{{cite journal | author=János M. Rainer | title = Stalin and Rákosi, Stalin and Hungary, 1949–1953 | date = 4 October 1997 |journal="European Archival Evidence. Stalin and the Cold War in Europe" Workshop, Budapest, 1956 Institute | url =http://www.rev.hu/portal/page/portal/rev/tanulmanyok/1945_56/rmj5 | access-date = 23 October 2009 }}</ref>

Despite not being prime minister of Hungary, Rákosi remained politically powerful as the General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party, and so undermined many of the Nagy government's political and socio-economic reforms; by 18 April 1955, Rákosi had so discredited Nagy that the USSR deposed Nagy as head-of-state of Socialist Hungary. Three months of plotting and conspiring rid Rákosi and the Hungarian Communist Party of Imre Nagy, who was reduced to a political non-person. On 14 April Prime Minister Imre Nagy was stripped of his Hungarian Communist Party offices and functions and was sacked as prime minister on 18 April. Despite having been out of political favor with the USSR since January 1955, Nagy had refused to perform the requisite communist penance of '[[Criticism and self-criticism (Marxism–Leninism)|self-criticism]]', and refused to resign as PM of Hungary.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Gati | first = Charles | title = Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt | publisher = Stanford University Press |year= 2006 | isbn = 0-8047-5606-6 |page=64 }}</ref>

In February 1956, as the First Secretary of the CPSU, Nikita Khrushchev initiated the de-Stalinization of the USSR with the speech ''[[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|On the Personality Cult and its Consequences]]'', which catalogued and denounced the abuses of power committed by Stalin and his inner-circle protégés, in Russia and abroad.<ref>{{cite web|author=Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, First Secretary, Communist Party of the Soviet Union|title=On the Personality Cult and its Consequences|publisher=Special Report at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|date=24–25 February 1956 | url = http://www.uwm.edu/Course/448-343/index12.html|access-date = 27 August 2006|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060804155735/http://www.uwm.edu/Course/448-343/index12.html |archive-date = 4 August 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> Therefore, the de-Stalinization of Hungarian People's Republic featured Rákosi's dismissal as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Hungary, and his replacement by [[Ernő Gerő]], on 18 July 1956.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II. A (Developments before 22 October 1956), paragraph 48 (p. 18) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

From the Western perspective, the countries of western Europe co-operated with the CIA's propaganda radio network, [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|Radio Free Europe]], to broadcast the speech ''On the Personality Cult and its Consequences'' to the countries of eastern Europe, expecting that, as Secretary of the CPSU, Khrushchev's anti–Stalinist speech would substantively contribute to the [[destabilisation]] of the internal politics of the Warsaw Pact countries.<ref>Weiner, Tim. ''Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA'' (2008) p. 144.</ref>

====The establishing of the Warsaw Pact====
On 14 May 1955, with the  [[Warsaw Pact|Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance]], the USSR established the Warsaw Pact with seven countries of the Eastern Bloc, including the Hungarian People's Republic. The geopolitical principles of the Warsaw Pact defence treaty included "respect for the independence and [the] sovereignty of [the member] states" and the practise of "non-interference in their internal affairs".<ref>{{cite web|date=November 1998|editor-last=Halsall|editor-first=Paul|title=The Warsaw Pact, 1955; Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1955warsawpact.html|access-date=8 October 2006|work=Internet Modern History Sourcebook|publisher=Fordham University}}</ref> Then, on 15 May 1955, a day after the USSR established the Warsaw Pact, the [[Austrian State Treaty]] established Austria as a neutral country in the geopolitical cold war between the US and the USSR.<ref>German-language video, ''Berichte aus Budapest: Der Ungarn Aufstand 1956'' [http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-29.html CEU.hu] Director: Helmut Dotterweich, (1986) – Fonds 306, Audiovisual Materials Relating to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, OSA Archivum, Budapest, Hungary ID number: HU OSA 306–0–1:27</ref> Austria's declaration of geopolitical neutrality allowed the Communist government of PM Nagy to publicly consider "the possibility of Hungary adopting a neutral status on the Austrian pattern".<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|title=Chapter VIII The Question of the Presence and the Utilization of the Soviet Armed Forces in the Light of Hungary's International Commitments, Section D – The demand for the withdrawal of Red Army troops, para. 339 (p. 105)|url=http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf}}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

In June 1956, the [[Polish Land Forces|Polish Army]] violently repressed the [[1956 Poznań protests|workers' uprising at Poznań]] against the economic policies of the [[Polish People's Republic]]. In October, the Polish government appointed the [[Political rehabilitation|politically rehabilitated]], reform communist [[Władysław Gomułka]] as First Secretary of the [[Polish United Workers' Party]] to deal with the USSR, and, by 19 October 1956, Gomułka had successfully negotiated greater trade agreements and fewer Red Army troops stationed in Poland.<ref name="satellite">{{cite web| title = Notes from the Minutes of the CPSU CC Presidium Meeting with Satellite Leaders, 24 October 1956 | work = The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, A History in Documents | publisher = George Washington University: The National Security Archive | date = 4 November 2002 | url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/doc5.pdf | access-date = 2 September 2006}}</ref> The USSR's concessions to Poland – known as the [[Polish October]] – emboldened Hungarians to demand from the USSR like concessions for the Hungarian People's Republic, which much contributed to the Hungarians' greatly idealistic politics in October 1956.<ref name="Machcewicz">{{cite web|last = Machcewicz|first = Paweł|title = 1956 – A European Date|publisher = culture.pl|date = June 2006|url = https://culture.pl/en/article/1956-a-european-date-annus-mirabilis-1956|access-date = 26 March 2021|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130512213728/http://www.culture.pl/web/english/culture-full-page/-/eo_event_asset_publisher/Ny17/content/1956-a-european-date-annus-mirabilis-1956|archive-date = 12 May 2013}}</ref>

==Uprising and Revolution==
===Political discontent===
{{Revolution sidebar}}

On 13 October 1956, a group of 12 students from the university faculties in [[Szeged]] met to play cards, and snubbed the DISZ, the official communist student union, by re-establishing the MEFESZ (Union of Hungarian University and Academy Students), the democratic student union banned by the Stalinist Rákosi government.<ref name="Crampton295"/> The MEFESZ students distributed hand-written notes in classrooms to inform faculty and students of the time and place for the meeting on 16 October 1956. A professor of law was chairman of committee who formally reestablished the MEFESZ student union, with the proclamation and publication of a twenty-demand manifesto, ten demands about the MEFESZ, and ten anti-Soviet demands, e.g. free elections and the departure of Soviet troops from Hungary, etc.; days later, the university students at [[Pécs]], [[Miskolc]], and [[Sopron]] followed suit.

On 22 October, at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, one of the law students from the original group of twelve students, announced that the MEFESZ student union was again politically active, and then proclaimed the [[Demands of Hungarian Revolutionaries of 1956|Sixteen Political, Economic, and Ideological Points]] against the USSR's geopolitical hegemony upon Hungary.<ref name=sixteen>Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Resolution by Students of the Building Industry Technological University: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1956hungary-16points.html Sixteen Political, Economic, and Ideological Points, Budapest, 22 October 1956]. Retrieved 22 October 2006.</ref> The [[Hungarian Writers' Union]] ceremoniously proclaimed Hungary's anti-Soviet political solidarity with anti-communist reformers in Poland when they laid a commemorative wreath at the statue of the Polish hero [[Józef Bem|Gen. Józef Zachariasz Bem]] who also was a hero of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848]]; likewise, the MEFESZ student union held a parallel demonstration of Hungarians' political solidarity with the Poles.<ref name="Machcewicz"/><ref name="UN">[http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf United Nations Report of the Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary]. p. 145, para 441. Retrieved 11 April 2007.</ref>

===Initiating gunfire===
In the afternoon of 23 October 1956, approximately 20,000 protestors met beside the statue of General [[Józef Bem]], a national hero of Poland and Hungary.<ref>Hungarian-language video: ''The First Hours of the Revolution'' [http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-42.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226010326/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-42.html|date=26 February 2008}} director: György Ordódy, producer: Duna Televízió – Fonds 306, Audiovisual Materials Relating to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, OSA Archivum, Budapest, Hungary ID number: HU OSA 306–0–1:40</ref> To the amassed crowd of protestors, the intellectual [[Péter Veres (politician)|Péter Veres]], the president of the Writers' Union (''Írószövetség''), read a manifesto demanding Hungarian independence from all foreign powers; a [[democratic socialism|democratic socialist]] political system based upon [[land reform]] and (public) [[state ownership]] in the [[economy]]; Hungarian membership to the [[United Nations]]; and all [[human rights|freedoms and rights]] for the citizens of Hungary.<ref>{{cite web|title=SIR – The Whole Body of Hungarian Intellectuals Has Issued the Following Manifesto|url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/30th-november-1956/15/sirthe-whole-body-of-hungarian-intel--lectuals-has|work=The Spectator Archive|access-date=7 October 2013}}</ref> After Veres proclaimed the manifesto demanding Hungarian sovereignty, the crowd chanted the Hungarian patriotic poem [[Nemzeti dal|National Song (''Nemzeti dal'')]], which the Soviet-controlled Rákosi government of Hungary had banned from public performance; the crowd repeatedly chanted the refrain: "This we swear, this we swear, that we will no longer be slaves."<ref name="Heller">{{Cite book|last = Heller|first = Andor|title = No More Comrades|publisher = Henry Regnery Company|year = 1957|location = Chicago|url = http://www.historicaltextarchive.com/books.php?op=viewbook&bookid=13&cid=15#N_1_|pages = 9–84|asin=B0007DOQP0|access-date = 2006-10-11|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061108181307/http://historicaltextarchive.com/books.php?op=viewbook&bookid=13&cid=15#N_1_|archive-date = 2006-11-08|url-status = dead}} {{page range too broad|date=October 2020}}</ref>{{page range too broad|date=October 2020}}

[[File:Sztálin szobor Budapest 1956.jpg|thumb|right|In Budapest, anti-communists and nationalists place a Hungarian national flag atop a demolished statue of Josef Stalin.]]

At 20:00, the first secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party, Ernő Gerő broadcast a hardline speech condemning the political demands of the intelligentsia and of the university students.<ref name="UN report 2C p55">UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II. C (The First Shots), para 55 (p. 20) & para 464 (p. 149) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> Angered by Gerő's rejection, some protestors realised one of their demands, and demolished the [[Stalin Monument (Budapest)|Stalin Monument in Budapest]], which had been erected in place of a razed church, in 1951;<ref>{{cite magazine | url = http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,841895,00.html | title = A Hollow Tolerance | magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date = 23 July 1965 | access-date = 23 October 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070630135115/http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,841895,00.html | archive-date = 30 June 2007 | url-status = dead}}</ref> and, by 21:30 hrs – an hour and a half later – the nationalist and anti-communist protestors had destroyed the eight-metre-tall statue of Josef Stalin.<ref name="UN report 2C p55" />

Also at 20:00, a crowd of nationalist and anti-communist protestors had gathered outside the [[Magyar Rádió]] building, which was guarded by the ÁVH secret police. Violence soon occurred between the sides when the protestors heard rumours of the arrest and detainment of a delegation of students who had entered the radio station in effort to broadcast their political demands to the entire country. The situation escalated after protestors heard rumours that the ÁVH had killed their delegation of comrades sent to broadcast the anti–Soviet message. In response, from the windows of the building, the ÁVH threw tear gas grenades at and fired upon the many anti-communist and nationalist protestors assembled outside the Magyar Rádió building, and soon required resupply and reinforcement.<ref name="UN report 2C p56">UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II. C (The First Shots), para. 56 (p. 20) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

In suppressing the Hungarians' anti-government protestations, the ÁVH smuggled weapons and ammunition in an ambulance for delivery to them at the Magyar Rádió building, but the protestors hijacked the ambulance and the weapons for themselves. The Hungarian Army sent soldiers to support the ÁVH policemen defending the Magyar Rádió building, but some of the soldiers tore off the red-star insignia on their caps and joined the side of the anti-government protestors.<ref name="Heller"/>{{page range too broad|date=October 2020}}<ref name="UN report 2C p56" /> ÁVH policemen used guns and tear gas, while the protestors set police cars afire and distributed weapons captured from the military and police forces, and acted on their anti–Soviet politics by destroying the symbols of Russian communism in Hungary.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II. C (The First Shots), paras. 56–57 (p. 20.) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

===Deposing the communist government===
On 23 October, Gerő asked for the USSR's military intervention in order "to suppress a demonstration that was reaching an ever-greater and unprecedented scale", which threatens the national security of the Hungarian People's Republic.<ref name = satellite/> To that end, the USSR already had planned the invasion and occupation of Hungary, and the political purging of Hungarian society.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Gati | first = Charles | title = Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt | publisher = Stanford University Press |date=2006 |isbn = 0-8047-5606-6 |page=160}} Gati said that "discovered in declassified documents, the Soviet Ministry of Defense had begun to prepare for large-scale turmoil in Hungary as early as July 1956. Codenamed 'Wave', the plan called for restoration of order in less than six hours{{nbsp}}... the Soviet Army was ready. More than 30,000 troops were dispatched to – and 6,000 reached – Budapest by the 24th, that is, in less than a day".</ref> At 02:00 on 24 October 1956, Soviet defence minister [[Georgy Zhukov]] ordered the Red Army to occupy Budapest – the capital city of a Warsaw Pact country.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II.C, para 58 (p. 20) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

[[File:Kossuth Lajos utca a Ferenciek tere felől nézve. 1956. október 25-e délután, - Fortepan 24652.jpg|thumb|right|Kossuth Lajos Street seen from Ferenciek Square: anti-Soviet demonstrators march in protest against the USSR's control of Hungary, 25 October 1956.]]
[[File:II. János Pál pápa (Köztársaság) tér, a pártház ostromakor kivégzett védő holtteste. Fortepan 24462.jpg|thumb|right|The corpse of a communist officer killed defending the headquarters of the Hungarian Communist Party, Republic Square, Budapest.]]
[[File:Jack Metzger – Ungarischer Freiheitskampf, 1956 (Com M05-0448-0001).jpg|thumb|right|Anti-communist Hungarian revolutionaries amid the damaged buildings of Budapest, November 1956.]]

By 12:00 on 24 October, Red Army tanks were stationed outside the parliament building, and Red Army soldiers held the bridges and crossroads that controlled access to Budapest, while Hungarian revolutionaries barricaded streets to defend their city from the Red Army.<ref name="Heller"/> Also on that day, Imre Nagy became prime minister in place of [[András Hegedüs]].<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter IV.C, para 225 (p. 71)}}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> In a national radio broadcast, Nagy asked a [[ceasefire]] between the Red Army and the Hungarian Revolutionaries, and agreed to initiate postponed political reforms decided in 1953. Despite the pleas of Nagy, groups of revolutionaries in Budapest armed themselves and continually fought the Red Army.<ref name="Chapter II.C, para 57 p. 20">UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II.C, para 57 (p. 20) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

At the offices of the communist newspaper ''[[Szabad Nép]]'', the ÁVH guards fired upon unarmed protestors; in turn, anti-communists attacked and drove out the ÁVH policemen from the newspaper building.<ref name="Chapter II.C, para 57 p. 20"/> The Hungarian revolutionaries then avenged themselves against the ÁVH policemen.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II.N, para 89(ix) (p. 31) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> On 25 October, a crowd gathered in Kossuth Square in front of the [[Hungarian Parliament Building]], which was a mixed group of civilian demonstrators including women, children, and elderly. Most of them came from the mass demonstration outside the [[Astoria, Budapest|Astoria]], accompanied by three Soviet tanks, which the demonstrators climbed on, fraternising with the crews. At the same time a column of Soviet tanks carrying two delegates of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) sent to Hungary, Politburo members [[Anastas Mikoyan]] and [[Mikhail Suslov]], as well as KGB Chairman [[Ivan Serov]] and [[Mikhail Malinin]], commander-in-chief of the Soviet forces in Hungary were on their way to the headquarters of the Hungarian Workers' Party (MDP) on Akadémia Street, where they were to attend a meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC), which was to begin at 10:00. Under pressure from the Soviet delegates, the CEC relieved Ernő Gerő of his position as party leader and elected [[János Kádár]] in his place. Meanwhile, the crowd demonstrating at Kossuth Square elected a delegation to deliver their demands in the Parliament, but government guards and a company of the Ministry of Defence's armoured regiment, backed by seven Soviet T-54 tanks lined up in front of the Parliament, kept the demonstrators away from the building. The events at Astoria were repeated, with demonstrators trying to make friends with the Soviet soldiers, handing out bilingual leaflets and some climbing on top of the guard tanks. At a few minutes after 11:00, General Serov decided to inspect the situation on Kossuth Square, accompanied by several Soviet and Hungarian officers and a tank. Seeing several Soviet soldiers fraternising with the demonstrators, Serov ordered the firing of warning shots, which caused a mass panic on the square. In the ensuing confusion, the Soviet tanks lined up in front of the Parliament building responded by targeting the buildings on the other side of the square. Another Soviet tank coming from a nearby street fired aimed shots at the demonstrators trying to take cover. This action claimed the most lives. The number of the dead is still disputed, with estimates ranging from 75 to 1000.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BLOODY THURSDAY, 1956: THE ANATOMY OF THE KOSSUTH SQUARE MASSACRE {{!}} Hungarian Review |url=https://hungarianreview.com/article/20140115_bloody_thursday_1956_the_anatomy_of_the_kossuth_square_massacre/ |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=hungarianreview.com|date=6 January 2014 }}</ref>

According to another version of the events, which already appeared during the revolution but still unproven, the ÁVH policemen and/or communist partisans fired into the assembled protestors from the roof of the building of the Agricultural Ministry.<ref name="Chapter X.I, para 482 p. 153">UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter X.I, para 482 (p. 153) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| last = Gati | first = Charles | title = Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt | publisher = Stanford University Press |date=2006 | isbn = 0-8047-5606-6|page=159 }}</ref> In the fog of war, some Red Army soldiers mistakenly returned the fire towards the roof, having mistakenly believed themselves the targets.<ref name="Heller" />{{page range too broad|date=October 2020}}<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II.F, para 64 (p. 22) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> The Hungarian revolutionaries armed themselves with weapons captured from ÁVH policemen and with weapons donated by anti-communist soldiers who had [[Desertion|deserted]] the [[Hungarian People's Army]] for the Hungarian Revolution against the USSR; from amongst the crowd outside the parliament, the armed revolutionaries shot at the roof-top ÁVH policemen.<ref name="Heller" />{{page range too broad|date=October 2020}}<ref name="Chapter X.I, para 482 p. 153" />

Meanwhile, nationalist and anti-communist loyalties had fractured the chain of command of the Hungarian Army in response to the communist government's order to militarily repress the popular demonstrations against the Soviet control of Hungary. The Hungarian Army units in Budapest and in the countryside remained uninvolved in the Revolution, because local commanders avoided politics in order to avoid repressing the revolutionaries.<ref name="Lendvai 2008">{{cite book|last=Lendvai|first=Paul|title=One Day That Shook the Communist World: The 1956 Hungarian Uprising and Its Legacy|year=2008|publisher=Princeton UP|location=Princeton, NJ}}{{page needed|date=October 2020}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2020}} Order was restored in the 24–29 October period after the Hungarian Army had fought 71 firefights with the nationalist and with the anti-communist revolutionaries in 50 communities.<ref name="Lendvai 2008"/>{{page needed|date=October 2020}} On 26 October, in the town of Kecskemét, outside the office of State Security and the local jail, Hungarian Army's Third Corps, led by Major General {{ill|Lajos Gyurkó|hu|Gyurkó Lajos (katonatiszt)}}, shot seven anti-communist protestors and arrested the organizers of the anti-Soviet protest.<ref name="Lendvai 2008"/>{{page needed|date=October 2020}} On Gyurkó's order Hungarian Air Force fighter planes shot up demonstrators with cannon fire in various towns (see [[:hu:Tiszakécskei sortűz]]), earning the praise of János Kádár after the defeat of the "counter-revolution" as "the only division commander who, at the call of the party organisation, swept the Danube-Tisza Interfluve six times, smashing everything".

[[File:Protesters with body of AVH personnel.jpg|thumb|right|Protesters kicking the body of a slain ÁVH agent]]

As Hungarian revolutionaries fought the soldiers and tanks of the Red Army with small arms and [[Molotov cocktail]]s in the streets of Budapest, throughout Hungary, revolutionary [[workers' council]]s assumed government power and called [[general strike]]s to halt the economy and the functioning of civil society. In ridding Hungary of the influence of and control from the USSR, the revolutionaries destroyed the symbols of Communism, such as the [[red star]] and Red Army monuments, and burned communist literature. Moreover, Revolutionary militias, such as the 400-man militia led by [[József Dudás]] attacked and murdered pro-Soviet Hungarians and ÁVH policemen.<ref>Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), [http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111091 KGB Chief Serov's report, 29 October 1956], (by permission of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars) Retrieved 8 October 2006</ref> The Hungarian Army armoured division stationed in Budapest, commanded by [[Pál Maléter]] led the Hungarian Revolution against the USSR's control of Hungary, and negotiated ceasefire agreements with the revolutionaries;<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter IV.C, para 167 (p. 53) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> nonetheless, the Hungarian Revolution took many communist prisoners who were registered to lists that identified the prisoner either for summary execution or as an [[enemy of the people]].<ref>Berecz, János. ''1956 Counter-Revolution in Hungary'' (1986) Akadémiai Kiadó. p. 116.</ref>{{Better source needed|date=November 2024}}

[[File:II. János Pál (Köztársaság) tér, a pártházhoz kötődő feltételezett kazamaták keresése. Fortepan 24518.jpg|thumb|Suspected ÁVH agents digging at [[Liberty Square (Budapest)|Republic Square]] in search of mass grave of Stalinist repressions and underground escape tunnels]]
In the [[Csepel]] area of Budapest, 250 communists defended the Csepel Iron and Steel Works, and, on 27 October, the Hungarian Army restored order in Csepel; two days later, the Hungarian Revolutionaries recaptured Csepel after the Hungarian Army's withdrawal on 29 October. In the [[Angyalföld]] area of Budapest, the communists and 350 armed workers and 380 communist soldiers defended the Láng factory. Anti-fascist Hungarian veterans of the Second World War participated in recapturing the offices of the ''Szabad Nép'' communist newspaper. At the town of [[Szarvas]], armed guards defended the Hungarian Communist Party and the communist government of Hungary.<ref>Berecz, p. 117.</ref>{{Better source needed|date=November 2024}} In the event, the Revolutionaries' successful attacks upon the Parliament collapsed the communist government of Hungary;<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II.F, para 65 (p. 22) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> and Gerő and ex-PM András Hegedüs fled Hungary to the USSR; Nagy became prime minister, and János Kádár became the first secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter XII.B, para 565 (p. 174) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

The Nagy government freed the political prisoner General [[Béla Király]] to restore order to Hungary with a National Guard force composed of policemen, soldiers, and Revolutionaries loyal to Hungary.<ref name=ng>{{Cite book|last = Gati| first = Charles| year = 2006| title = Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt (Cold War International History Project Series)| publisher = Stanford University Press| isbn = 0-8047-5606-6}} (pp. 176–177)</ref> On 30 October 1956, Király's National Guard attacked the building of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party and killed every pro-Soviet officer of the Hungarian Communist Party, ÁVH policeman, and pro-Soviet Hungarian soldier they encountered;<ref>[http://www.polit.ru/article/2006/10/30/mify_vengr/ Олег Филимонов: Мифы о восстании – ПОЛИТ.РУ]. Polit.ru (30 October 2006). Retrieved 28 October 2016.</ref> and most Red Army troops withdrew from Budapest to garrisons in the Hungarian countryside.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II. F (Political Developments) II. G (Mr. Nagy clarifies his position), paragraphs 67–70 (p. 23) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

===Interlude===
Fighting ceased between 28 October and 4 November, as many Hungarians believed that Soviet military units were withdrawing from Hungary.<ref>'''Video''':{{Cite book|title=Revolt in Hungary |url=http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-44.html |author=Narrator: [[Walter Cronkite]], producer |publisher=CBS |year=1956 |work=Fonds 306, Audiovisual Materials Relating to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, OSA Archivum, Budapest, Hungary |id=HU OSA 306–0–1:40 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071117094223/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-44.html |archive-date=17 November 2007}}</ref> According to post-revolution communist sources, there were approximately 213 Hungarian Working People's Party members executed during the period.<ref>''Ellenforradalmi erők a magyar októberi eseményekben'' 1–5, Budapest: a Magyar Népköztársaság Minisztertanácsa Tájekoztatási Hivatala, 1956–8; available in translation as ''The counter-revolutionary forces in the October events in Hungary'' 1–5 (volumes after 2 variously titled, including 5: ''The counter-revolutionary conspiracy of Imre Nagy and his accomplices'') Budapest: Information Bureau of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People's Republic, 1957–1958; names 213 people killed by the rebels.</ref>

====New government====
[[File:Flyer. Imre Nagy, Head of government -1956.10.27.tiff|thumb|right|The political flyer announces: A New Government Has Been Formed. Prime Minister Imre Nagy is head of the government, 27 October 1956.]]

The new Nagy government was surprised by the rapidity with which the Hungarian Revolution extended from the streets of Budapest to all of Hungary, and the consequent collapse of the old Gerő–Hegedüs communist government. As head of government, Nagy asked every Hungarian to exercise political forbearance in order to restore civil order to Hungary. As the only Communist Hungarian leader with political credibility among Hungarians, the political actions of the Nagy government allowed the USSR to view the Hungarians' anti-Soviet protests as a popular uprising, rather than as an anti-communist [[Counter-revolutionary|counter-revolution]].<ref>{{Cite book| last = Gati | first = Charles | title = Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt | publisher = Stanford University Press |year= 2006 | isbn = 0-8047-5606-6 |page=173}}</ref> On 28 October 1956, the Nagy government announced the ceasefire among the nationalist, the anti-communist, and the Communist Hungarians, and that, to resolve the national crisis, Nagy would:

* consider the revolt as a "great, national and democratic event", and not an anti-communist counter-revolution
* effect an unconditional ceasefire and grant political amnesty for the revolutionaries
* negotiate with the revolutionaries
* disband the ÁVH security police
* establish a national guard for Hungary
* arrange the immediate withdrawal of the Red Army from Budapest and from Hungary {{citation needed|date=April 2021}}

On 1 November, the Nagy government formally declared Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and Hungary's international status as a politically non-aligned country.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II. F (Political developments), paragraph 66 (p. 22) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| last = Zinner | first = Paul E. | title = Revolution in Hungary | publisher = Books for Libraries Press | year = 1962|isbn = 0-8369-6817-4 }}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2020}} Because of being in power for only ten days, the National Government did not explain their policies in detail; however, contemporary newspaper editorials stressed that Hungary should be a multiparty [[social democracy]] uninvolved in the Russo–American Cold War.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary''(1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter XII. D (Reassertion of Political Rights), paragraph 339 (p. 105) and paragraph 583 (p. 179) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> About 8,000 political prisoners were released, most notably Cardinal [[József Mindszenty]].<ref name="IC"/><ref>'''Video''': Revolt in Hungary {{cite web|url=http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-44.html |title=1956-44 |access-date=8 February 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071117094223/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-44.html |archive-date=17 November 2007 }} Narrator: [[Walter Cronkite]], producer: CBS (1956) – Fonds 306, Audiovisual Materials Relating to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, OSA Archivum, Budapest, Hungary ID number: HU OSA 306–0–1:40</ref> Banned political parties, such as the Independent Smallholders and the [[National Peasant Party (Hungary)|National Peasant Party]] ("Petőfi Party"),<ref name=VM>Vincent E McHale (1983) ''Political parties of Europe'', Greenwood Press, p. 508 {{ISBN|0-313-23804-9}}</ref> reappeared to join the coalition.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary''(1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II. F (A Brief History of the Hungarian Uprising), paragraph 66 (p. 22) and footnote 26 (p. 183) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

[[File:Kossuth Lajos utca - Károly (Tanács) körút sarok. Fortepan 23591.jpg|thumb|right|A crowd cheers Hungarian troops in Budapest.]]

In 1,170 communities in Hungary, there were 348 cases of revolutionary councils dismissing the local administrators; 312 cases of revolutionary councils sacking the bosses; and 215 cases of the locals burning the communist administrative records of their communities. In 681 communities, anti-communist and nationalist Hungarians damaged and destroyed symbols of the hegemony of the USSR, such as the Red Star, and statues of Stalin and of Lenin; 393 communities damaged Soviet war memorials; and 122 communities burned the books of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin.<ref name="Litván 1996"/><ref name="Lendvai 2008"/>{{page needed|date=October 2020}}

Local revolutionary councils formed throughout Hungary,<ref>{{cite web|title=Video: Report on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution |year=1956 |author=[[George Mikes]], BBC correspondent |url=http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-01.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017054158/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-01.html |archive-date=17 October 2007}} Fonds 306, Audiovisual Materials Relating to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, OSA Archivum, Budapest, Hungary ID number: HU OSA 306–0–1:1</ref><ref>[http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=250&issue=112 ''Hungary: workers' councils against Russian tanks''] in ''[[International Socialism (magazine)|International Socialism]]'' Issue: 112 (Posted: 12 October 6)</ref><ref>[http://libcom.org/library/hungary-56-proletariat-storming-heaven-mouvement-communiste ''Hungary '56: "the proletariat storming heaven" – Mouvement Communiste'']. Libcom.org (19 July 2011). Retrieved on 2016-10-28.</ref><ref>Andy Anderson [http://libcom.org/history/articles/hungary-56 1956: The Hungarian Revolution] – [http://libcom.org/library/Hungary5615 ''15. The Workers' Councils'']</ref> generally without involvement from the preoccupied National Government in Budapest, and assumed various responsibilities of local government from the defunct Communist party.<ref name=rc>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter XI (Revolutionary and Workers' Councils), paragraph 485–560 (pp. 154–170) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> By {{awrap|30 October}}, the councils had been officially sanctioned by the Hungarian Working People's Party, and the Nagy government asked for their support as "autonomous, democratic local organs formed during the Revolution".<ref name=rc/> Likewise, [[workers' council]]s were established at industrial plants and mines, and many unpopular regulations such as production norms were eliminated. The workers' councils strove to manage the enterprise while protecting workers' interests, establishing a socialist economy free of rigid party control.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II. E (Revolutionary and Workers' Councils), paragraph 63 (p. 22) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> Local control by the councils was not always bloodless; in [[Debrecen]], [[Győr]], Sopron, [[Mosonmagyaróvár]] and other cities, crowds of demonstrators were fired upon by the ÁVH, with many lives lost. The ÁVH were disarmed, often by force, in many cases assisted by the local police.<ref name=rc/>

In total, there were approximately 2,100 local revolutionary and workers councils with over 28,000 members. The councils held a combined conference in Budapest that decided to end the nationwide labour strikes and to resume work on 5 November, with the more important councils sending delegates to the Parliament to assure the Nagy government of their support.<ref name="Lendvai 2008"/>{{page needed|date=October 2020}}

====Soviet perspective====
On 24 October 1956, the Politburo of the USSR discussed how to resolve the political revolts that had occurred in Warsaw Pact countries, specifically the Polish October and the Hungarian Revolt. Led by [[Vyacheslav Molotov]], the hardline faction of the CPSU voted for military intervention, but were opposed by Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov who sought a political resolution to the Hungarian revolt. In Budapest, the Soviet delegation reported to Moscow that the Hungarian political situation was less confrontational than reported during the revolt proper. In pursuit of political resolution, Khrushchev said that Gerő's 23 October request for Soviet intervention indicated that the Hungarian Communist Party retained the confidence of the Hungarian people, because the Hungarians were protesting unresolved socio-economic problems, not ideology.<ref name = satellite/> Meanwhile, in the West, the concurrent [[Suez Crisis]] (29 October – 7 November 1956) of the French and the British empires' seizure of the [[Suez Canal]] from Egypt voided the political possibility of Western military intervention to Hungary. On 28 October, Khrushchev said that Soviet military intervention to Hungary would be a mistaken imitation of the Anglo–French intervention to Egypt.<ref name="mastny200203">{{cite web |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/ACFB01.pdf |title=NATO in the Beholder's Eye: Soviet Perceptions and Policies, 1949–56 |publisher=Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars |work=Cold War International History Project |date=March 2002 |access-date=6 May 2013 |author=Mastny, Vojtech |archive-date=2 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102012302/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/ACFB01.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the Soviet Union, on 30 October 1956, the Presidium of the CPSU decided to not depose the new Hungarian government.<ref>{{cite web| title=Working Notes from the Session of the CPSU CC Presidium on 30 October 1956|work=Cold War International History Project|publisher=Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars|date=30 October 1956|url= https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113647.pdf?v=b526795646b3eee83f2e8be08ecb77ec | access-date = 20 October 2006}}</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6061852.stm "When the Soviet Union nearly blinked"], BBC News, 23 October 2006</ref> Zhukov said: "We should withdraw troops from Budapest, and, if necessary, withdraw from Hungary, as a whole. This is a lesson for us in the military-political sphere". The Presidium then adopted and published the ''Declaration of the Government of the USSR on the Principles of Development and Further Strengthening of Friendship and Cooperation between the Soviet Union and other Socialist States'', which said that "The Soviet Government is prepared to enter into the appropriate negotiations with the government of the Hungarian People's Republic, and [with] other members of the Warsaw Treaty, on the question of the presence of Soviet troops in the territory of Hungary."<ref>[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1956soviet-coop1.html Declaration of the Government of the USSR on the Principles of Development and Further Strengthening of Friendship and Cooperation between the Soviet Union and other Socialist States] 30 October 1956, Printed in The Department of State Bulletin, XXXV, No. 907 (12 November 1956), pp. 745–747. Retrieved 19 October 2006.</ref>

[[File:Szent István körút a Falk Miksa (Néphadsereg) utca felől a Honvéd utca felé nézve. A szovjet csapatok ideiglenes kivonulása 1956. október 31-én. Fortepan 24787.jpg|thumb|right|The Soviet repression of the Hungarian Revolution saw [[T-54/T-55|T-54]] tanks patrolling the streets of Budapest, until the Red Army temporarily withdrew on 31 October 1956.]]
[[File:II. János Pál pápa (Köztársaság) tér, MDP Budapesti Pártbizottságának székháza. Fortepan 24495.jpg|thumb|right|The damaged headquarters of the Hungarian Communist Party, on Köztársaság tér, in Budapest.]]

In Hungary, on 30 October, consequent to hearing rumours of that the secret police had anti-communist prisoners, and rumours of the ÁVH shooting anti-communist demonstrators in the city of Mosonmagyaróvár, armed protestors attacked the ÁVH detachment guarding the headquarters building of the Hungarian Working People's Party in Köztársaság tér (Republic Square), in Budapest.<ref name=rc/><ref name=Kramer1>Mark Kramer, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/ACF19B.pdf "New Evidence on Soviet Decision-making and the 1956 Polish and Hungarian Crises" (PDF)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071203141129/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/ACF19B.pdf |date=3 December 2007 }}, Cold War International History Project Bulletin, p. 368.</ref><ref name=revhu>The Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Part 3. [http://www.rev.hu/history_of_56/ora3/ora3_e.htm Days of Freedom]</ref> The anti-communists killed more than 20 ÁVH officers and ÁVH conscripts; the head of the Budapest party committee, Imre Mező, also was killed.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Gati | first = Charles | title = Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt | publisher = Stanford University Press |date=2006 | isbn = 0-8047-5606-6|page=177}}</ref><ref name=parsons>{{cite journal | last = Parsons | first = Nicholas T | title = Narratives of 1956 | journal = The Hungarian Quarterly | volume = XLVIII | issue = Summer 2007 | url = http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no186/18.html | access-date = 27 April 2008 | url-status = usurped | archive-url = https://archive.today/20080608182839/http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no186/18.html | archive-date = 8 June 2008 }}</ref> Within hours, news reportage and filmed scenes of the Hungarian anti-communist revolt that occurred in Republic Square were broadcast in the USSR; and the CPSU made propaganda of the images of the communist victims of the Hungarian Revolt.<ref name=parsons/><ref>Taubman, William. ''[[Khrushchev: The Man and His Era]]'' (2005), {{ISBN|978-0-7432-7564-4}}, p. 296.</ref> The leaders of the Hungarian Revolution condemned the attack upon the ÁVH headquarters and asked the protestors to cease and desist from mob violence.<ref>{{cite book|last = Szakolczai|first = Attila|editor-last = Pál|editor-first = Germuska|editor2-last = Zoltán|editor2-first = Lux|location = Budapest|title = Lesson 3: The Days of Freedom|work = The History of the Hungarian revolution of 1956|publisher = The Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution|url = http://www.rev.hu/history_of_56/ora3/ora3_e.htm|access-date = 2009-10-06}}</ref>

On 30 October, at Budapest, Anastas Mikoyan and Mikhail Suslov spoke with Nagy who told them that Hungarian geopolitical neutrality was a long-term political objective for the Hungarian People's Republic, which he wanted to discuss with the presidium of the CPSU.<ref>Kramer, Mark. [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/ACF19B.pdf "New Evidence on Soviet Decision-making and the 1956 Polish and Hungarian Crises" (PDF)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071203141129/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/ACF19B.pdf |date=3 December 2007 }}, Cold War International History Project Bulletin, p. 369.</ref><ref>Sebestyen, Victor, ''Ungernrevolten 1956: Tolv dagar som skakade världen'' (2006), p. 286.</ref> Khrushchev considered the geopolitical options for the USSR's resolving the Hungarian anti-communist revolution, but Nagy's declaration of Hungarian neutrality decided his dispatching the Red Army into Hungary.<ref>Sebestyen, Victor. ''Ungernrevolten 1956: Tolv dagar som skakade världen'' (2006), p. 286. (Cites Burlatsky, ''Khrushchev and the first Russian Spring'' [1991], pp. 88–94.)</ref> The USSR invaded the Hungarian People's Republic, because:<ref>{{cite web|last=Rainer|first=János M.|title=Decision in the Kremlin, 1956 – The Malin Notes |work=Paper presented at Rutgers University|publisher = The Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution | date = 1 November 1996 | url = http://www.rev.hu/sulinet56/online/szerviz/szakirod/kremls.htm | access-date = 23 October 2009 }}</ref><ref name="presidium1nov">Cold War International History Project: [https://web.archive.org/web/20081122043327/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.document&identifier=691D4148-E19B-5847-386420CC1E24B87C&sort=Coverage&item=Soviet%20Union Working Notes from the Session of the CPSU CC Presidium on 1 November 1956]; . Retrieved 6 December 2008.</ref>

* Simultaneous political movements towards multi-party, parliamentary democracy, and a democratic national council of workers might "lead towards a capitalist state" in Hungary and Poland, each movement challenged the authority of communist parties in eastern Europe.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Arendt| first = Hannah| author-link = Hannah Arendt| title = Origins of Totalitarianism| publisher = Harcourt| orig-year = 1951| year = 1958| location = New York| url = https://archive.org/details/originsoftotali100aren/page/480| pages = [https://archive.org/details/originsoftotali100aren/page/480 480–510]| isbn = 0-15-670153-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last = Auer|first = Stefan|title = Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism and the Revolutions in Central Europe: 1956, 1968, 1989|journal = Eurozine|date = 25 October 2006|url = http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-10-25-auer-en.html|access-date = 12 March 2019|url-status = dead|archive-date = 12 November 2006|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061112165830/https://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-10-25-auer-en.html}}</ref>
* The militarists in the CPSU would not understand the USSR's failure to intervene in Hungary. That de-Stalinisation had alienated the hardline members of the CPSU, for whom anti-communist protests threatened Soviet hegemony in eastern Europe. That the [[East German uprising of 1953|workers' uprising in East Germany]] (17 June 1953) – the repression of which killed 84 protestors and produced 700 anti-communist prisoners – required a new Communist government for the [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]].<ref>Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), [http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/110024.pdf?v=44e8834f7ae7294020d5e423a1c013a1 Report from A. Grechko and Tarasov in Berlin to N. A. Bulganin], (by permission of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars) Retrieved 10 October 2006</ref> That the [[1956 Poznań protests|workers' protests at Poznań]] (June 1956) – the repression of which killed 57–78 anti-communist protestors – created the Polish October movement, which installed a Polish Communist government less dependent on orders from Moscow.<ref name="Paczkowski">Paczkowski, Andrzej. ''Pół wieku dziejów Polski'', Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa 2005, {{ISBN|83-01-14487-4}}, p. 203</ref><ref name="Jastrząb">Ł. Jastrząb, "Rozstrzelano moje serce w Poznaniu. Poznański Czerwiec 1956 r. – straty osobowe i ich analiza", Wydawnictwo Comandor, Warszawa 2006</ref><ref name="Wójtowocz">{{in lang|pl}} Wójtowicz, Norbert. ''Ofiary "Poznańskiego Czerwca"'', Rok 1956 na Węgrzech i w Polsce. Materiały z węgiersko–polskiego seminarium. Wrocław październik 1996, ed. Łukasz Andrzej Kamiński, Wrocław 1996, pp. 32–41.</ref>
* Hungarian geopolitical neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact breached the [[buffer zone]] of [[satellite state]]s by which the USSR protected themselves from invasion.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Okváth | first = Imre | title = Hungary in the Warsaw Pact: The Initial Phase of Integration, 1957–1971 | journal = The Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact | year = 1999}}</ref>

In the People's Republic of Hungary, the anti-communist militants concluded that "the [Hungarian Communist] Party is the incarnation of bureaucratic despotism" and that "socialism can develop only on the foundations of direct democracy." For the anti-communists, the struggle of the Hungarian workers was "for the principle of direct democracy" and that "all power should be transferred to the Workers Committees of Hungary."<ref name="James2013">{{cite book|author=CLR James|title=Modern Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZfafAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA165|access-date=18 September 2013|date= 2013|publisher=PM Press|isbn=978-1-60486-311-6|page=165}}</ref> In response, the Presidium broke the ''de facto'' ceasefire and repressed the Hungarian Revolution.<ref>{{cite web| title = Overview | work = The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, A History in Documents | publisher = George Washington University: The National Security Archive | year = 1999 | url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/ | access-date = 4 September 2006}}</ref> The Soviet Union's plan was to declare a "Provisional Revolutionary Government" led by János Kádár, who would appeal for Soviet assistance to restore order to Hungary. Kádár was in Moscow in early November, and was in communication with the Soviet embassy whilst still a member of the Nagy government.<ref>Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), [http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113648 Working Notes from the Session of the CPSU CC Presidium on 3&nbsp;November, 1956, with Participation by J. Kádár, F. Münnich, and I. Horváth], (by permission of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars) Retrieved 8 October 2006</ref><ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II. J (Mr. Kádár forms a government), para. 77–78 (pp. 26–27) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> The USSR sent diplomatic delegations to other communist governments in Eastern Europe and to the People's Republic of China in effort to avoid misunderstandings that might provoke to regional conflicts, and broadcast propaganda explaining their second Soviet intervention to Hungary. The Soviet diplomats disguised their intentions by engaging the Nagy government in talks about withdrawing the Red Army from Hungary.<ref name = presidium>{{cite web| title = Working Notes and Attached Extract from the Minutes of the CPSU CC Presidium Meeting, October 31, 1956 | work = The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, A History in Documents | publisher = George Washington University: The National Security Archive | date = 4 November 2002 | url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/doc6.pdf |access-date = 8 July 2006}}</ref>

Moreover, [[Mao Zedong]] influenced Khrushchev's decision to repress the Hungarian uprising. The deputy chairman of the [[Chinese Communist Party]], [[Liu Shaoqi]], pressed Khrushchev to militarily repress the Hungarian Revolution.<ref>Short, Philip. ''Mao: A Life'' (2001), p. 451.</ref><ref>Gaddis, John Lewis. ''The Cold War: A New History'' (2005), p. 109.</ref> Although Sino–Soviet relations were unstable, the opinion of Mao carried great weight among the members of the Presidium of the CPSU. Initially, Mao opposed a second intervention, which was communicated to Khrushchev on 30 October, before the Presidium met and decided against a Hungarian intervention;<ref>Sebestyen, Victor. ''Ungernrevolten 1956: Tolv dagar som skakade världen'' (2006), p. 247. {{ISBN|91-518-4612-8}}.</ref> later, Mao changed his mind and supported intervention to Hungary.<ref>Taubman, William. ''Khrushchev: The Man and His Era'' (2005), {{ISBN|978-0-7432-7564-4}}, p. 297.</ref>

In the 1–3 November 1956 period, Khrushchev informed the USSR's Warsaw Pact allies of his decision to repress the Hungarian Revolution. Khrushchev met with the Polish communist politician Władysław Gomułka in Brest, Belarus; and then spoke with the Romanian, Czechoslovak, and Bulgarian leaders in Bucharest, Romania. Finally, Khrushchev went to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and spoke with [[Josip Broz Tito|Tito]] who persuaded Khrushchev to install Kádár as the new leader of the People's Republic of Hungary, instead of [[Ferenc Münnich]].<ref>Mark Kramer, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/ACF19B.pdf "New Evidence on Soviet Decision-making and the 1956 Polish and Hungarian Crises" (PDF)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071203141129/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/ACF19B.pdf |date=3 December 2007 }}, Cold War International History Project Bulletin, pp. 373–374.</ref><ref>Stankovic, Alobodan. [http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/118-1-194.shtml "Yugoslav Diplomat who Defied Soviet Leaders Dies"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213062146/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/118-1-194.shtml |date=13 December 2007}}, Radio Free Europe Research, 5 August 1982.</ref> Two months after the USSR repressed the Hungarian Revolution, Tito told [[Nikolay Firyubin]], the [[List of ambassadors of Russia to Yugoslavia|Soviet ambassador to Yugoslavia]], that "(political) reaction raised its head, especially in [[Croatia]], where the [[reactionary]] elements openly incited the employees of the Yugoslav security organs to violence."<ref>Granville, Johanna. ''[https://www.academia.edu/23951275/The_First_Domino_International_Decision_making_during_the_Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956 The First Domino: International Decision Making During the Hungarian Crisis of 1956.]'' Texas A & M University Press, 2004 (p. 103).</ref>

==== Polish response ====
[[File:Tablica upamiętniająca solidarność polsko-węgierską podczas rewolucji węgierskiej na Krakowskim Przedmieściu w Warszawie.JPG|thumb|upright=0.8|Plaque commemorating Polish-Hungarian solidarity during the Hungarian revolution of 1956, at [[Krakowskie Przedmieście]] Street 5, in [[Warsaw]].]]

The events in Hungary were met with a spontaneous reaction in Poland. Hungarian flags were displayed in many Polish towns and villages. After the Soviet invasion, the help given by the ordinary [[Pole and Hungarian brothers be|Poles to Hungarians]] took on a considerable scale. Citizen organizations and self-acting aid committees were established throughout Poland to distribute aid to the Hungarian population, e.g. the Social Civic Committee of Creative Associations (Bydgoszcz), the Student Committee for Aid to Hungarians ([[Kraków]]), the Society of Friends of Hungarians (Tarnów), the Committee to Aid the Hungarians (Lublin), and the Committee for Aid to Hungarians (Człuchów). In addition to the official support coordinated by the Polish Red Cross, one convoy was dispatched – one organized by the Student Aid Committee for Hungarians from Kraków. Other such initiatives were prevented.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Solidarność polsko-węgierska '56 – Norbert Wójtowicz|url=https://opoka.org.pl/biblioteka/I/IH/polak_wegier.html|access-date=3 September 2021|website=Opoka|date=14 September 2007|language=pl}}</ref>

By 12 November, over 11,000 honorary blood donors had registered throughout Poland. [[Polish Red Cross]] statistics show that by air transport alone (15 aircraft), 44 tonnes of medication, blood, and other medical supplies were delivered to Hungary. Assistance sent using road and rail transport was much higher. Polish aid is estimated at a value of approximately US$2&nbsp;million in 1956 dollars.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wójtowicz|first=Norbert|date=2006|title=Solidarność polsko-węgierska '56 (w relacjach prasy) [ Polish-Hungarian solidarity '56 (in press relations)] |url=https://www.academia.edu/17502746|journal=Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej|language=pl}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://polskieradio24.pl/art3_1683425|title=Węgry: odsłonięto pomnik polskiej solidarności i pomocy w 1956 roku|website=PolskieRadio24.pl|access-date=2019-12-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aAYWAQAAMAAJ&q=pomoc+dla+w%C4%99gier+w+1956| title=Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej|date=2006| publisher=IPN|language=pl}}</ref>

====International perspective====
[[File:1956 november 5. Eindhoven.jpg|thumb|right|Dutch anti-communists march in support of the Hungarian Revolution in [[Eindhoven]], [[Netherlands]] on 5 November 1956]]

On 24 October 1956, U.S. Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]] (r. 1953–1959) recommended that the [[United Nations Security Council]] convene to discuss the USSR's invasion and occupation of the Hungarian People's Republic, without decisive result,<ref>{{cite journal | author = Csaba Békés | title = The Hungarian Question on the UN Agenda: Secret Negotiations by the Western Great Powers 26 October – 4 November 1956. (British Foreign Office Documents) | journal=Hungarian Quarterly | date=Spring 2000 | url =http://www.rev.hu/portal/page/portal/rev/tanulmanyok/1956/hungquest|access-date = 7 December 2008 }}</ref> because, despite the [[Protocol of Sèvres]] (22–24 October 1956), the Suez Crisis prevented the West from criticizing the imperialism of the USSR; the U.S. vice president [[Richard Nixon]] said that: "We couldn't, on one hand, complain about the Soviets intervening in Hungary, and, on the other hand, approve of the British and the French picking that particular time to intervene against [Gamal Abdel] [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Nasser]]."<ref name="BorhiContRoll" /> Despite earlier demands for the [[rollback]] of communism and of the [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] liberation of eastern Europe, Dulles told the USSR that: "We do not see these states [Hungary and Poland] as potential military allies."<ref name="IC">{{cite book |last1=Applebaum |first1=Anne |title=Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944–1956 |date=2012 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=978-0385515696 |page=459}}</ref>

On 4 November 1956, the USSR vetoed the Security Council's resolution criticising the USSR's invasion of Hungary. In its stead, [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 120]] was passed, which charged the General Assembly to meet to discuss the matter. Despite 50 votes for withdrawal, 8 votes against withdrawal, and 15 abstentions from the matter, the communist Kádár government of Hungary rejected the presence of UN observers in the Hungarian People's Republic.<ref>''Hungarian Revolt, 23 October–4 November 1956'' Richard Lettis and William I. Morris, Eds., Appendices [http://www.historicaltextarchive.com/books.php?op=viewbook&bookid=13&post=2#N_1_ The Hungary Question in the United Nations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061108180724/http://historicaltextarchive.com/books.php?op=viewbook&bookid=13&post=2#N_1_ |date=8 November 2006}} . Retrieved 3 September 2006.</ref>

In the U.S., two facts determined the inaction of the Eisenhower government: (i) the U.S. Army study, ''Hungary, Resistance Activities and Potentials'' (January 1956), which recommended against U.S. military intervention to Hungary on the side of the Hungarian revolutionists;<ref>{{cite web| title = Study Prepared for U.S. Army Intelligence "Hungary, Resistance Activities and Potentials" (January 1956) | work = The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, A History in Documents | publisher = George Washington University: The National Security Archive | date = 4 November 2002 | url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/doc1.pdf | access-date = 3 September 2006}}</ref> and (ii) the secret warfare of the National Security Council that encouraged anti-communist political discontent in the Eastern Bloc only through [[psychological warfare]], [[sabotage]], and [[economic warfare]].<ref name="BorhiContRoll">{{cite journal | last = Borhi | first = László | title = Containment, Rollback, Liberation or Inaction? The United States and Hungary in the 1950s | journal = Journal of Cold War Studies | volume = 1 | issue = 3 | pages = 67–108 | year = 1999 | doi = 10.1162/152039799316976814 | s2cid = 57560214 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title = Minutes of the 290th NSC Meeting (12 July 1956) | work = The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, A History in Documents | publisher = George Washington University: The National Security Archive | date = 4 November 2002 | url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/doc2.pdf | access-date = 3 September 2006}}</ref>

According to A. Ross Johnson in the ''[[International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence]]'': "Contrary to allegations that continue to this day, RFE Hungarian broadcasts did not foment revolution, urge Hungarians to fight the Soviets, or promise Western assistance. They did criticize would-be reform leader Imre Nagy in personally vituperative terms and contained emotional bombast that Hungarian listeners could easily have interpreted as indicating Western solidarity and support."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ross Johnson|first=A.|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08850607.2018.1488498|title=Managing Media Influence Operations: Lessons from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|journal=[[International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence]]|volume=31|issue=4|date=December 2018|pages=681–701|publisher=[[Routledge]]|doi=10.1080/08850607.2018.1488498|s2cid=158225194|url-access=subscription}}</ref> After the USSR defeated the anti-communist Hungarian Revolution, the revolutionists criticised the CIA and its RFE network for having deceived the Hungarians into believing that the West—NATO and the US—would expel the USSR from the Hungarian People's Republic. Although incitements to violence were officially against RFE policy, an internal analysis by RFE adviser William Griffith found, as summarized by the [[National Security Archive]] at [[George Washington University]], that "RFE broadcasts in several cases had implied that foreign aid would be forthcoming if the Hungarians succeeded in establishing a 'central military command'" and "appealed to the Hungarians to 'continue to fight vigorously'". Griffith himself wrote that "There were relatively few real policy violations"—specifically four out of more than 300 broadcasts under review—but conceded that "summaries often failed to reflect the content of the program as it was finally written (this is not the case only with programs where policy violation occurred; the summaries during the period under review in many other cases proved to be very inaccurate descriptions of the programs finally produced)."<ref>{{cite web| title = Policy Review of Voice For Free Hungary Programming from 23 October to 23 November 1956 (15 December 1956) | work = The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, A History in Documents | publisher = George Washington University: The National Security Archive | date = 4 November 2002 | url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/doc10.pdf | access-date = 2 September 2006}}</ref> László Borhi, writing in the ''[[Journal of Cold War Studies]]'', states that the RFE broadcasts sanctioned by CIA official [[Cord Meyer]] were often "incautious, even reckless" and undermined parallel efforts by the Eisenhower administration to negotiate Hungarian independence in a framework similar to [[Finlandization]]: "These contradictory policies sabotaged the overall approach. The harder the insurgents fought, the less chance there was for a negotiated settlement. But the unwillingness of the United States to counter Soviet military action meant that the Hungarian quest for liberation was suicidal."<ref name="BorhiContRoll"/>

In 1998, the Hungarian ambassador [[Géza Jeszenszky]] criticised Western inaction in 1956 as disingenuous, recalling that the political influence of the United Nations readily applied to resolving the [[Korean War]] (1950–1953).<ref name=cnn>CNN: Géza Jeszenszky, Hungarian Ambassador, [http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/guides/debate/chats/jeszensky/ Cold War Chat (transcript)]. Retrieved 8 November 1998. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010511072116/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/guides/debate/chats/jeszensky/ |date=11 May 2001 }}</ref> Moreover, the study ''Hungary, 1956: Reviving the Debate over U.S. (In)action During the Revolution'' confirms that the Eisenhower government did not intervene to the Hungarian Revolution – which occurred in the Soviet sphere of influence – because the USSR would have responded with a nuclear war.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/us-soviet-flashpoints/2017-05-10/hungary-1956-reviving-debate-over-us-inaction-during| title=Hungary, 1956: Reviving the Debate over U.S. (In)action during the Revolution| publisher=National Security Archive| date=10 May 2017}}</ref>

== Soviet invasion ==
[[File:1956-11-01 War in Egypt.ogv|thumb|thumbtime=2:39|start=2:39|1 November newsreel about the situation in Hungary]]

On 1 November, Nagy received reports that Soviet forces had entered Hungary from the east and were moving towards Budapest.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter VIII.D, para 336 (p. 103) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> Nagy sought and received assurances, which proved to be false, from [[List of ambassadors of Russia to Hungary|Soviet Ambassador]] [[Yuri Andropov]] that the Soviet Union would not invade. The Cabinet, with Kádár in agreement, declared Hungary's neutrality, withdrew from the Warsaw Pact and requested assistance from the diplomatic corps in Budapest and [[Dag Hammarskjöld]], UN Secretary-General, to defend Hungary's neutrality.<ref>[http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/collections/colltopic.cfm?lng=en&id=20933&navinfo=15697 Imre Nagy's Telegram to Diplomatic Missions in Budapest Declaring Hungary's Neutrality (1 November 1956)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924072800/http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/collections/colltopic.cfm?lng=en&id=20933&navinfo=15697 |date=24 September 2015}} by permission of the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zürich and the National Security Archive at the George Washington University on behalf of the PHP network</ref> Andropov was asked to inform his government that Hungary would begin negotiations on the removal of Soviet forces immediately.<ref>{{cite web | title = Andropov Report, 1 November 1956 | publisher = Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), www.CWIHP.org, by permission of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars | url = http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111094 | access-date = 4 September 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title = Minutes of the Nagy Government's Fourth Cabinet Meeting, 1 November 1956 | work = The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, A History in Documents | publisher = George Washington University: The National Security Archive |date = 4 November 2002 | url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/doc7.pdf | access-date = 2 September 2006}}</ref>

On 3 November, a Hungarian delegation led by Defence Minister Pál Maléter was invited to attend negotiations on Soviet withdrawal at the Soviet Military Command at [[Tököl]], near Budapest. At around midnight that evening, General Ivan Serov, Chief of the Soviet Security Police ([[KGB]]) ordered the arrest of the Hungarian delegation,<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II.I, para 75 (p. 25) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> and the next day, the Soviet army again attacked Budapest.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II.I, para 76 (p. 26) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

[[File:Fortepan 12830 Rákóczi út - Akácfa utca sarok. Kiégett szovjet BTR-152 páncélozott lövészszállító jármű..jpg|thumb|left|A Soviet-built [[BTR-152]] armored personnel carrier burns on a Budapest street, November 1956.]]

The second Soviet intervention, codenamed "Operation Whirlwind", was launched by [[Marshal of the Soviet Union|Marshal]] [[Ivan Konev]].<ref name = presidium1nov/><ref name=troops>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter IV. E (Logistical deployment of new Soviet troops), para 181 (p. 56) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> The [[Southern Group of Forces|five Soviet divisions stationed in Hungary]] before 23 October were reinforced; Soviet forces soon reached a total strength of 17 divisions.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Györkei| first = Jenõ| author2 = Kirov, Alexandr|author3=Horvath, Miklos| title = Soviet Military Intervention in Hungary, 1956| publisher = Central European University Press| year = 1999| location = New York|page = 350| isbn = 963-9116-36-X }}</ref> The [[8th Tank Army|8th Mechanized Army]] under command of Lieutenant General [[Hamazasp Babadzhanian]] and the 38th Army under Lieutenant General Hadzhi-Umar Mamsurov from the nearby [[Carpathian Military District]] were deployed to Hungary for the operation.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Schmidl | first = Erwin |author2=Ritter, László | title = The Hungarian Revolution 1956 (Elite) | url = https://archive.org/details/hungarianrevolut1956schm | url-access = limited | publisher = Osprey Publishing |date=2006 | isbn = 1-84603-079-X |page=[https://archive.org/details/hungarianrevolut1956schm/page/n29 54] }}</ref> Some rank-and-file Soviet soldiers reportedly believed they were being sent to [[East Berlin]] to fight German fascists.<ref name="Fryer">{{Cite book | last = Fryer | first = Peter | author-link = Peter Fryer | title = Hungarian Tragedy | publisher = D. Dobson | year = 1957 | location = London | pages = Chapter 9 (The Second Soviet Intervention) | url = http://www.vorhaug.net/politikk/hungarian_tragedy/9_the_second_intervention.html | asin= B0007J7674 | no-pp = true | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061201133936/http://www.vorhaug.net/politikk/hungarian_tragedy/9_the_second_intervention.html | archive-date = 1 December 2006 }}</ref> By 21:30 on 3 November, the Soviet Army had completely encircled Budapest.<ref name="UN report 5C p196">UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter V.C, para 196 (pp. 60–61) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

At 03:00 on 4 November, Soviet tanks penetrated Budapest along the [[Pest, Hungary|Pest]] side of the Danube in two thrusts: one up the Soroksári road from the south and the other down the [[Váci út|Váci road]] from the north. Thus, before a single shot was fired, the Soviets had effectively split the city into two, controlled all bridgeheads and were shielded to the rear by the wide Danube River. Armoured units crossed into [[Buda]] and, at 04:25, fired the first shots at the army barracks on Budaörsi Road. Soon, Soviet artillery and tank fire were heard in all of the districts of Budapest.<ref name="UN report 5C p196" /> Operation Whirlwind combined air strikes, artillery, and the co-ordinated tank–infantry action of 17 divisions.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Györkei | first = Jenõ | author2 = Kirov, Alexandr|author3=Horvath, Miklos| title = Soviet Military Intervention in Hungary, 1956 | publisher = Central European University Press | year = 1999 | location = New York | page = 350 | isbn = 963-9116-36-X }}</ref> The Soviet army deployed [[T-34|T-34-85]] [[medium tank]]s as well as the new [[T-54/T-55|T-54s]], [[Heavy tank|heavy]] [[IS-3]] tanks, 152mm [[ISU-152]] mobile [[assault gun]]s and open-top [[BTR-152]] armored personnel carriers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://paris1814.com/tankmuseum/uniform56|title=Soviet army uniform, Budapest 1956 {{!}} Русский Париж|language=ru-RU|access-date=2019-04-22}}</ref>

[[File:József körút a Corvin (Kisfaludy) köznél. Harcképtelenné tett ISU-152-es szovjet rohamlövegek, a háttérben egy T-34-85 harckocsi. Fortepan 24854.jpg|thumb|Two disabled Soviet [[ISU-152]] [[assault gun]]s in Budapest's [[Józsefváros|8th District]] with an abandoned [[T-34|T-34/85]] tank in the background]]
[[File:Corvin (Kisfaludy) köz, Corvin mozi. Fortepan 24782.jpg|thumb|Corvin Cinema after the end of the revolution]]

Between 4 and 9 November, the Hungarian Army put up sporadic and disorganised resistance, with Zhukov reporting the disarming of twelve divisions, two armoured regiments and the entire Hungarian Air Force. Hungarian fighters continued their most formidable resistance in various districts of Budapest (most famously the [[Battle of the Corvin Passage]]), in and around the city of Pécs in the [[Mecsek|Mecsek Mountains]], and in the industrial centre of [[Dunaújváros]] (then called Sztálinváros). There were ten to fifteen thousand resistance fighters fighting in Budapest, with the heaviest fighting occurring in the working-class stronghold of Csepel on the Danube River.<ref name="Lindvai 2008">{{cite book|last=Lindvai|first=Paul|title=One Day That Shook the Communist World: The 1956 Hungarian Uprising and Its Legacy|year=2008|publisher=Princeton UP|location=Princeton, NJ}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2020}} Although some very senior officers were openly pro-Soviet, rank-and-file soldiers were overwhelmingly loyal to the revolution and either fought the invasion or deserted. The UN reported that there were no recorded incidents of Hungarian Army units fighting for the Soviets.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter V. B (The Second Soviet Military Intervention), para 188 (p. 58) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

At 05:20 on 4 November, Nagy broadcast his final plea to the nation and the world, announcing that Soviet forces were attacking Budapest and that the government was remaining at its post.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter VII. D (The Political Background of the Second Soviet Intervention), para 291 (p. 89) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> The radio station, Free [[Kossuth Rádió]], stopped broadcasting at 08:07.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter VII. D (a silent carrier wave was detected until 9:45 am), para 292 (p. 89) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> An emergency Cabinet meeting was held in the Parliament but was attended by only three ministers. As Soviet troops arrived to occupy the building, a negotiated evacuation ensued, leaving Minister of State [[István Bibó]] as the last representative of the National Government remaining at his post.<ref name="Bibo">{{Cite book | last = Bibó | first = István | title = Democracy, Revolution, Self-Determination | publisher = Columbia University Press | year = 1991 | location = New York | pages = [https://archive.org/details/democracyrevolut0000bibo/page/325 325–327] | isbn = 0-88033-214-X | url = https://archive.org/details/democracyrevolut0000bibo/page/325 }}</ref> He wrote ''[[For Freedom and Truth]]'', a stirring proclamation to the nation and the world.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bibó |first1=István |author-link1=István Bibó |others=ifj. István Bibó, Tibor Huszár |title= Válogatott tanulmányok |trans-title= Assorted studies | url=http://mek.niif.hu/02000/02043/html/index.html |access-date=30 October 2009 |volume=4, 1935–1979 |language=hu |trans-chapter=Declaration, 4 November 1956 |chapter=Nyilatkozat, 1956. November 4. |chapter-url= http://mek.niif.hu/02000/02043/html/524.html|quote=in Hungarian: Magyarok! Nagy Imre miniszterelnök a ma hajnali szovjet támadáskor a szovjet követségre ment a tárgyalások folytatására, és onnan visszatérni már nem tudott. A reggel összehívott minisztertanácson a Parlament épületében tartózkodó Tildy Zoltánon kívül már csak B. Szabó István és Bibó István államminiszter tudott megérkezni. Mikor a Parlamentet a szovjet csapatok körülfogták, Tildy államminiszter a vérontás elkerülése végett megállapodást kötött velük, mely szerint ők megszállják az épületet, a benne levő polgári személyek pedig szabadon távozhatnak. Ő, a megállapodáshoz tartva magát, eltávozott. Az országgyűlés épületében egyedül alulírott Bibó István államminiszter maradtam, mint az egyedüli törvényes magyar kormány egyedüli képviselője. Ebben a helyzetben a következőket nyilatkozom: In English: To My Fellow Hungarians! When the Soviet Army attacked today at dawn, Prime Minister Nagy Imre went to the Soviet Embassy to negotiate and could not return. Tildy Zoltán, who was already in the Parliament building, and ministers Szabó István and Bibó István attended the council of ministers meeting that was convened this morning. As Soviet troops surrounded the Parliament building, minister Tildy Zoltán, to avoid bloodshed, reached an agreement, by which Soviet soldiers would occupy the Parliament building and allow all civilians to evacuate. According to this agreement, he then departed. Only the undersigned, Bibó István, remained in the Parliament building as the only representative of the only existing legal Hungarian government. Under these circumstances, I make the following declaration: ([[s:For Freedom and Truth|Available in English]])}}</ref>

[[File:Erzsébet (Lenin) körút, a Royal Szállóval (ma Corinthia Hotel) szemben. Fortepan 15317.jpg|thumb|''Ruszkik haza!'' ("Russians go home!") slogan in Budapest]]

At 06:00, 4 November,<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter VII.E, para 296 (p. 90) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> in the town of [[Szolnok]], Kádár proclaimed the "Hungarian Revolutionary Worker-Peasant Government". His statement declared: "We must put an end to the excesses of the counter-revolutionary elements. The hour for action has sounded. We are going to defend the interest of the workers and peasants and the achievements of the people's democracy."<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter VIII.B, para 596 (p. 185) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

Later that evening, Kádár called upon "the faithful fighters of the true cause of socialism" to come out of hiding and take up arms. But Hungarian support did not materialise, and fighting did not take the form of a civil war, but rather, in the words of a United Nations report, that of "a well-equipped foreign army crushing by overwhelming force a national movement and eliminating the Government".<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter VIII. B (The Political Background of the Second Soviet Intervention), para 600 (p. 186) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

[[File:Üllői út a Nagykörút felől a Vajdahunyad utca felé nézve. Fortepan 24768.jpg|thumb|Rubble after the end of fighting in Budapest's 8th District]]

By 08:00, organised defence of the city evaporated after the radio station had been seized, and many defenders fell back to fortified positions.<ref name="UN report 5C p197">UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter V.C, para 197 (p. 61) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> Between 08:00 and 09:00, the parliamentary guard laid down its arms, and forces under Major General [[Kuzma Grebennik]] captured Parliament and liberated captured ministers of the Rákosi–Hegedüs government. Among the liberated were [[István Dobi]] and [[Sándor Rónai]], both of whom became members of the re-established socialist Hungarian government.<ref name="Lindvai 2008"/> As Soviet troops also came under attack in civilian quarters, they were unable to differentiate military from civilian targets.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter V.C, para 198 (p. 61) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> For that reason, Soviet tanks often crept along main roads and fired indiscriminately into buildings.<ref name="UN report 5C p197" /> Hungarian resistance was strongest in the industrial areas of Budapest, with Csepel heavily targeted by Soviet artillery and air strikes.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter V. B (The Second Soviet Military Intervention), para 200 (p. 62) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

The last holdouts against the Soviet assault were located in Csepel and in Dunaújváros, where fighting lasted until 11 November, before insurgents finally succumbed to the Soviets.<ref name="Lendvai 2008"/>{{page needed|date=October 2020}} When the fighting ended, Hungarian casualties totalled approximately 2,500 dead and 20,000 wounded. Budapest bore the brunt of the bloodshed, with 1,569 civilians killed.<ref name="Lendvai 2008"/>{{page needed|date=October 2020}} Approximately 53% of the dead were workers; half of all Hungarian casualties were people younger than thirty. On the Soviet side, 699 men were killed, 1,450 wounded, and 51 [[missing in action]]. An estimated 80% of all Soviet casualties occurred in the fighting against insurgents in the eighth and ninth districts of Budapest.<ref name="Lendvai 2008"/>{{page needed|date=October 2020}}<ref>Mark Kramer, "The Soviet Union and the 1956 Crises in Hungary and Poland: Reassessments and New Findings", ''Journal of Contemporary History'', Vol. 33, No. 2, April 1998, p. 210.</ref><ref>Péter Gosztonyi, "Az 1956-os forradalom számokban", ''Népszabadság'' (Budapest), 3 November 1990</ref>

===Soviet perspective===
Soviet reports of the events surrounding, during and after the disturbance were remarkably consistent in their accounts, more so after the Second Soviet intervention cemented support for the Soviet position among international communist parties. ''[[Pravda]]'' published an account 36 hours after the outbreak of violence that set the tone for all further reports and subsequent Soviet historiography:<ref name=Barghoorn_SFP />{{page needed|date=October 2020}}

# On the afternoon of Tuesday, October 23, 1956, the "honest," socialist, Hungarian working people staged a demonstration against the anti-party mistakes committed by the Rakosi and Gero governments.
# Fascist, Hitlerite, reactionary, counter-revolutionary hooligans, financed, trained, and equipped by the imperialist, capitalist west, took advantage of the demonstration to begin a counter-revolution.
# The honest Hungarian working people under Imre Nagy appealed to Soviet forces stationed in Hungary under the Warsaw Pact for assistance in restoring order.
# The Nagy government proved to be weak, and it permitted counter-revolutionary influences to penetrate its ranks. It became helpless and fell apart. This is demonstrated by the fact that Nagy denounced the Warsaw Pact.
# The Hungarian patriots under János Kádár broke with the Nagy government and formed the Hungarian revolutionary workers and peasants government. This genuinely popular government asked the Soviet command for help in suppressing the counter-revolution.
# The Hungarian patriots, assisted by Soviet forces, smashed the counter-revolution.

The first Soviet report came out 24 hours after the first Western report. Nagy's appeal to the United Nations was not reported. After Nagy was arrested outside the Yugoslav embassy, his arrest was not reported. Also, accounts failed to explain how Nagy went from patriot to traitor.<ref>Pravda (Moscow), 4 November [227/228]: "Without the Slightest Delay", Moscow. "Imre Nagy turned out to be, objectively speaking, an accomplice of the reactionary forces. Imre Nagy cannot and does not want to fight the dark forces of reaction&nbsp;... The Soviet Government, seeing that the presence of Soviet troops in Budapest might lead to further aggravation of the situation, ordered troops to leave Budapest, but ensuing events have shown that reactionary forces, taking advantage of the non-intervention of the Nagy Cabinet, have gone still further&nbsp;... The task of barring the way to reaction in Hungary has to be carried out without the slightest delay – such is the course dictated by events&nbsp;..." [http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/revolt/rev16.htm Retrieved 2007-10-8 Hungarian-history.hu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017045841/http://hungarian-history.hu/lib/revolt/rev16.htm |date=17 October 2007}}</ref> The Soviet press reported calm in Budapest, but the Western press reported a revolutionary crisis was breaking out. According to the Soviet account, Hungarians never wanted a revolution at all.<ref name=Barghoorn_SFP>Barghoorn, Frederick. ''Soviet Foreign Propaganda''. Princeton University Press. 1964.</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2020}}

In January 1957, representatives of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania met in Budapest to review internal developments in Hungary since the establishment of the Soviet-imposed government. A communiqué on the meeting "unanimously concluded" that Hungarian workers, with the leadership of the Kádár government and the support of the Soviet army, defeated attempts "to eliminate the socialist achievements of the Hungarian people".<ref name=communique>George Washington University: The National Security Archive, [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/doc11.pdf Communiqué on the Meeting of Representatives of the Governments and the Communist and Workers' Parties of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Soviet Union] (Budapest, 6 January 1957), Retrieved 7 December 2008</ref>

The Soviet, Chinese, and Warsaw Pact governments urged Kádár to proceed with the interrogation and trial of the ministers of the Nagy government, and asked for punitive measures against the "counter-revolutionists".<ref name=communique/><ref>George Washington University: The National Security Archive, [http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/doc12.pdf Minutes of the Meeting between the Hungarian and Chinese Delegations] in Budapest on 16 January 1957, Retrieved 7 December 2008</ref> In addition, the Kádár government published an extensive series of "white books" (''The Counter-Revolutionary Forces in the October Events in Hungary'') that documented real incidents of violence against Communist Party and ÁVH members and the confessions of Nagy's supporters. The "white books" were widely distributed in several languages in most socialist countries and, while based in fact, they present factual evidence with a colouring and narrative that are not generally supported by non-Soviet-aligned historians.<ref>''The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A History in Documents'' by Csaba Békés & Malcolm Byrne (Published by Central European University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|978-963-9241-66-4}}), p. 375, para 4: "the (Kádár) régime had to find an explanation for the revolution and collapse of the old régime in October 1956&nbsp;... they chose to interpret the uprising as a conspiracy by anti-communist, reactionary forces. This is why they labeled many ordinary citizens' actions as crimes. Critical opposition attitudes were described as "a plot to overthrow the people's democratic régime", and workers and peasants who took part in the revolt were called "jailbirds, ragamuffins, and kulaks." Armed resistance to occupying forces became "murder and wrecking state property." This kind of terminology became part of the official ideology of the régime toward the outside world." Also p. 375, footnote 40: "For a typical survey of propaganda intended for distribution abroad, see the so called "White Books" entitled ''The Counter-Revolutionary Forces in the October Events in Hungary'', 4 vols., (Budapest: Information Bureau of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People's Republic, 1956–1957)&nbsp;... The White Books published in the individual counties of Hungary in 1957–1958 summarized local "counter-revolutionary" events."</ref>

==Aftermath==
[[File:Budapest 339070207 1144456206223179 4357879065500815081 n.jpg|thumb|A monument commemorating those who died during the fighting on 25 October 1956]]

===Hungary===
In the immediate aftermath, many thousands of Hungarians were arrested. Eventually, 26,000 of these were brought before the Hungarian courts, 22,000 were sentenced and imprisoned, 13,000 were interned, and 229 were executed. Approximately 200,000<ref>Casardi, A. (17 April 1957) [http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_archives_hungarian_revolution/20130904_C-M_57_65-ENG.PDF Report on Hungarian Refugees]. ''NATO''</ref> fled Hungary as refugees. Many resettled in Austria in the winter of 1956. These were helped by [[CARE]], an international relief organization. CARE provided refugees with welcome kits consisting of pajamas, knitting tools, school supplies, food, and water. The U.S. Department of Agriculture worked with CARE to use military vessels to transport over 500,000 packages to Vienna, where the Red Cross distributed supplies to refugees.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kemény |first1=János |title=The Hungarian Refugee Crisis of 1956 and the Challenges of Organizational Adaptation |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/hungarian-refugee-crisis-1956-and-challenges-organizational-adaptation |website=www.wilsoncenter.org |date=13 March 2024 |publisher=The Wilson Center |access-date=March 26, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Fink">{{cite book|last1 = Fink|first1 = Carole|last2 = Hadler|first2 = Frank|last3 = Schramm|first3 = Tomasz|display-authors = 1|title = 1956: European and global perspectives, Volume 1 of Global history and international studies|publisher = Leipziger Universitätsverlag|year = 2006|location = Leipzig|page = 16|isbn = 3-937209-56-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference|last1 = Molnár|first1 = Adrienne|last2 = Kõrösi|first2 = Zsuzsanna|display-authors = 1|title = The handing down of experiences in families of the politically condemned in Communist Hungary|work = IX. International Oral History Conference|year = 1996|location = Gotegorg|access-date = 2008-10-10|url = http://www.rev.hu/portal/page/portal/rev/tanulmanyok/kadarrendszer/kzsma1|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070607034837/http://www.rev.hu/portal/page/portal/rev/tanulmanyok/kadarrendszer/kzsma1|archive-date = 7 June 2007|url-status = dead}}</ref><ref name="Cseresneyes">{{cite journal|last = Cseresnyés|first = Ferenc|title = The '56 Exodus to Austria|journal = The Hungarian Quarterly|volume = XL|issue = 154|pages = 86–101|publisher = Society of the Hungarian Quarterly|url = http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no154/086.html|date = Summer 1999|access-date = 2006-10-09|url-status = usurped|archive-date = 2004-11-27|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20041127172402/http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no154/086.html}}</ref> Hungarian refugees of the conflict were resettled across 37 different countries, with most going to Austria.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The resettlement of Hungarian refugees in 1956  |url=https://www.fmreview.org/resettlement/cellini |access-date=2024-01-05 |website=Forced Migration Review |first1=Amanda |last1=Cellini |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105054737/https://www.fmreview.org/resettlement/cellini |archive-date=2024-01-05 }}</ref> Former Hungarian Foreign Minister Géza Jeszenszky estimated that 350 were executed.<ref name=cnn/> Sporadic resistance and strikes by workers' councils continued until mid-1957, causing economic disruption.<ref>{{Cite book|author1=Csaba Békés |author2=Malcolm Byrne |author3=János Rainer |title=The 1956 Hungarian revolution: a history in documents|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EdWI_oSbfl0C&q=Hungarian%20revolution%20of%201956%20resistance%20strikes%201957&pg=PA364 |access-date=31 October 2009|year=2002 |publisher=Central European University Press|isbn= 963-9241-66-0|page=364 |chapter=Hungary in the Aftermath, Introduction |quote=I call upon the Hungarian people to regard neither the occupation force nor the puppet government it may install as a legal authority but rather to employ every means of passive resistance against it&nbsp;... (István Bibó minister of state of the Petőfi Party) Despite the devastation of the Soviet attack, most of Hungarian society seemed to respond to Bibó's plea and continued to defy the new régime , keeping Soviet and Hungarian security forces tied up for months dealing with strikes, demonstrations, sabotage, work slowdowns, and other acts of resistance (Document No. 102)}}</ref> By 1963, most [[political prisoner]]s from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution had been released.<ref>Békés, Csaba, Malcolm Byrne, János M. Rainer (2002). ''Hungarian Tragedy'', p. L. Central European University Press: Budapest. {{ISBN|963-9241-66-0}}.</ref>

With most of Budapest under Soviet control by 8 November, Kádár became Prime Minister of the "Revolutionary Worker-Peasant Government" and General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party. Few Hungarians rejoined the reorganised Party, its leadership having been purged under the supervision of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet|Soviet Praesidium]], led by [[Georgy Malenkov]] and Mikhail Suslov.<ref name = situation>{{cite web| title = Situation Report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party by Malenkov-Suslov-Aristov (22 November 1956) | work = The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, A History in Documents | publisher = George Washington University: The National Security Archive | date = 4 November 2002 | url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/doc9.pdf | access-date = 2 September 2006}}</ref> Although Party membership declined from 800,000 before the uprising to 100,000 by December 1956, Kádár steadily increased his control over Hungary and neutralised dissenters. The new government attempted to enlist support by espousing popular principles of Hungarian self-determination voiced during the uprising, but Soviet troops remained.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter XIV.I.A, para 642 (p. 198), János Kádár's 15 points (4 November 1956) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> After 1956 the Soviet Union severely purged the Hungarian Army and reinstituted political indoctrination in the units that remained. In May 1957, the Soviet Union increased its troop levels in Hungary and by treaty Hungary accepted the Soviet presence on a permanent basis.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Annex A (Agreement between the Hungarian People Republic and the government of the USSR on the legal status of Soviet forces) pp. 112–113) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

The [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross]] and the [[Austrian Armed Forces|Austrian Army]] established refugee camps in [[Traiskirchen]] and [[Graz]].<ref name="Cseresneyes"/><ref>International Committee of the Red Cross: [http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/57JN8C#a1 ICRC action in Hungary in 1956] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220004646/http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/57JN8C#a1 |date=20 February 2009 }}. Retrieved 7 December 2008.</ref> Nagy along with [[György Lukács]], [[Géza Losonczy]], and László Rajk's widow, Júlia, took refuge in the [[Embassy of Serbia, Budapest|Embassy of Yugoslavia]] as Soviet forces overran Budapest. Despite assurances of safe passage out of Hungary by the Soviets and the Kádár government, Nagy and his group were arrested when attempting to leave the embassy on 22 November and taken to Romania. Losonczy died while on a hunger strike in prison awaiting trial when his jailers "carelessly pushed a feeding tube down his windpipe".<ref>Fryer, Peter (1997). ''Hungarian Tragedy'', p. 10. Index Books: London. {{ISBN|1-871518-14-8}}.</ref>

The remainder of the group was returned to Budapest in 1958. Nagy was executed, along with Maléter and [[Miklós Gimes]], after secret trials in June 1958. Their bodies were placed in unmarked graves in the [[New Public Cemetery, Budapest|Municipal Cemetery]] outside Budapest.<ref name="BBCJune16">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/16/ "On This Day 16 June 1989: Hungary reburies fallen hero Imre Nagy"] British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reports on Nagy reburial with full honors. Retrieved 13 October 2006.</ref>

During the November 1956 Soviet assault on Budapest, Cardinal Mindszenty was granted political asylum at the United States embassy, where he lived for the next 15 years, refusing to leave Hungary unless the government reversed his 1949 conviction for treason. Because of poor health and a request from the [[Holy See|Vatican]], he finally left the embassy for Austria in September 1971.<ref>{{cite news | title = End of a Private Cold War | magazine = Time |date = 11 October 1971 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903181,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071017045917/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903181,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 17 October 2007 | access-date = 3 September 2006 }}</ref>

Nicolas Krassó was one of the left leaders of the Hungarian uprising and member of the ''[[New Left Review]]'' editorial committee. In an interview he gave to [[Peter Gowan]] shortly before his death, Krassó summed up the meaning of the Hungarian Revolution with a recollection from Stalin's short speech in the 19th Congress of the Soviet Union in 1952: "Stalin kept silent throughout the Congress till the very end when he made a short speech that covers about two and a half printed pages. He said there were two banners that the progressive bourgeoisie had thrown away and which the working class should pick up – the banners of democracy and national independence. Certainly nobody could doubt that in 1956 the Hungarian workers raised these banners high."<ref>{{cite book|last=Ali|first=Tariq|title='Hungary 1956: A Participant's Account' in The Stalinist Legacy: Its Impact on 20th-Century Politics|publisher=Harmondsworth|year=1984|isbn=978-1608462193}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2020}}

===International===
Despite Cold War rhetoric from western countries espousing rollback of the Soviet domination of eastern Europe, and Soviet promises of socialism's imminent triumph, national leaders of this period (as well as later historians) saw the failure of the Hungarian Revolution as evidence that the Cold War had come to a stalemate in Europe.<ref>Johns Hopkins University Professor Charles Gati, in his book ''Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt'' (see Further reading, below), agreed with a 2002 essay by Hungarian historian Csaba Bekes, "Could the Hungarian Revolution Have Been Victorious in 1956?". Gati states: "Washington implicitly acknowledging the division of the continent into two camps, understood that Moscow would not let go of a country bordering on neutral but pro-Western Austria and an independent Yugoslavia, so it shed&nbsp;... tears over Soviet brutality, and exploited the propaganda opportunities" (p. 208.)</ref>

In West Germany, Foreign Minister [[Heinrich von Brentano]] recommended that the people of Eastern Europe be discouraged from "taking dramatic action which might have disastrous consequences for themselves". [[Paul-Henri Spaak|The Secretary-General of NATO Paul-Henri Spaak]] called the Hungarian revolt "the collective suicide of a whole people".<ref>{{cite news | title = How to Help Hungary | magazine = Time | date = 24 December 1956 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808812,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930213423/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808812,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 30 September 2007 | access-date = 3 September 2006 }}</ref> In a December 1956 meeting of the West German [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social-Democratic Party]], Central Board member [[Herbert Wehner]] condemned what he termed the uprising's "fever of destruction against everybody believed to be members or officials of the Communist Party."<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=National Guardian |page=10 |volume=9 |number=14 |date=21 January 1957 |location=New York |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/national-guardian/1957-01-21-9-14-nat-guardian.pdf |last=Bendiner |first=Elmer |title=The great Socialist debate: Chou in spotlight as arbiter |via=Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref> In a newspaper interview in 1957, Khrushchev commented, "support by United States&nbsp;... is rather in the nature of the support that the rope gives to a hanged man".<ref>{{Cite book| last = Simpson| first = James| title = Simpson's Contemporary Quotations: The Most Notable Quotes since 1950| publisher = HarperCollins| year = 1997| url = https://archive.org/details/simpsonscontempo00jame_0/page/ | page=15 |isbn = 0062701371}}</ref> <!-- 1 Nov 9 – moved the following nonessential text to remark pending reference: "Twelve years later, when Soviet-led forces ended a [[Prague Spring|similar movement toward liberalization]] in [[Czechoslovakia]], First Secretary [[Alexander Dubček]], recalling the Hungarian experience, asked his citizens not to resist the occupation."-->

[[File:Eleanor Roosevelt and the Hungarian Freedom Fighters at Camp Roeder in Salzburg, Austria - NARA - 195987.jpg|thumb|[[Eleanor Roosevelt]] meets exiled Hungarian revolutionaries at Camp Roeder in Salzburg, 10 May 1957]]

In January 1957, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, acting in response to UN General Assembly resolutions requesting investigation and observation of the events in Soviet-occupied Hungary, established the Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary.<ref>{{cite report|author = United Nations Secretary-General|title = Report of the Secretary-General Document A/3485|publisher = United Nations|date = 1957-01-05|url = https://www.un.org/depts/dhl/dag/docs/a3485e.pdf|access-date = 2006-10-13}}</ref> The committee, with representatives from [[Australia]], Ceylon (now [[Sri Lanka]]), [[Denmark]], [[Tunisia]] and [[Uruguay]], conducted hearings in New York, Geneva, Rome, Vienna and London. Over five months, 111 refugees were interviewed including ministers, military commanders and other officials of the Nagy government, workers, revolutionary council members, factory managers and technicians, communists and non-communists, students, writers, teachers, medical personnel, and Hungarian soldiers. Documents, newspapers, radio transcripts, photos, film footage, and other records from Hungary were also reviewed, as well as written testimony of 200 other Hungarians.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter I. D (Organization and Function of the Committee), paragraphs 1–26 (pp. 10–13) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref>

The governments of Hungary and Romania refused entry to the officials of this committee, and the government of the Soviet Union did not respond to requests for information.<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter I. E (Attempts to observe in Hungary and meet Imre Nagy), paragraphs 32–34 (p. 14) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> The 268-page Committee Report<ref>[http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf UN General Assembly (1957) ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'']. Retrieved 14 October 2006.</ref> was presented to the General Assembly in June 1957, documenting the course of the uprising and Soviet intervention and concluding that "the Kádár government and Soviet occupation were in violation of the human rights of the Hungarian people".<ref>UN General Assembly ''Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'' (1957) {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=Chapter II. N (Summary of conclusions), paragraph 89 (pp. 30–32) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> A General Assembly resolution was approved, deploring "the repression of the Hungarian people and the Soviet occupation", but no other action was taken.<ref>United Nations General Assembly, Thirteenth Session: [http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3b00f06b36.html Resolution 1312 (XIII) The Situation in Hungary (Item 59, p. 69] (12 December 1958)</ref>

The chairman of the Special Committee was [[Alsing Andersen]], a Danish politician and leading figure of Denmark's Social Democratic Party, who had served in the Buhl government in 1942 during the Nazi German occupation of Denmark. He had defended collaboration with the occupation forces and denounced the resistance.<ref>ed. A. T. Lane. ''Biographical dictionary of European labor leaders''. Volume 1. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995. p. 20.</ref><ref>[http://www.gravsted.dk/person.php?navn=alsingandersen Alsing Andersen]. Gravsted.dk. Retrieved on 28 October 2016.</ref> The Committee Report and the motives of its authors were criticised by the delegations to the United Nations from the Soviet Union and Kádár government. The Hungarian representative disagreed with the report's conclusions, accusing it of falsifying the events, and argued that the establishment of the committee was illegal. The committee was accused of being hostile to Hungary and its social system.<ref>United Nations Yearbook. 1957. p. 63</ref> An article in the Soviet journal ''International Affairs'', published by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, carried an article in 1957 in which it denounced the report as a "collection of falsehoods and distortions".<ref>K. Danilov "The Provocation Continues". ''International Affairs'', No. 8, Vol. 3, 1957, pp. 54–61.</ref>

''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' named the Hungarian Freedom Fighter its [[Time Person of the Year|Man of the Year]] for 1956. The accompanying ''Time'' article comments that this choice could not have been anticipated until the explosive events of the revolution, almost at the end of 1956. The magazine cover and accompanying text displayed an artist's depiction of a Hungarian freedom fighter, and used pseudonyms for the three participants whose stories are the subject of the article.<ref>{{Cite news | title = Freedom Fighter | newspaper = Time | date = 7 January 1957 | url = http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1956.html| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070101205530/http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1956.html| url-status = dead| archive-date = 1 January 2007}}. Retrieved 21 September 2008.</ref> In 2006, Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány referred to this famous ''Time'' cover as "the faces of free Hungary" in a speech marking the 50th anniversary of the uprising.<ref>
[http://www.miniszterelnok.hu/mss/alpha?do=2&st=1&pg=2&m10_doc=546 Formal Address] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719143637/http://www.miniszterelnok.hu/mss/alpha?do=2&st=1&pg=2&m10_doc=546 |date=19 July 2011 }}  of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány in the Hungarian Parliament (23 October 2006). Retrieved 21 September 2008.</ref> Mr Gyurcsány (in a joint appearance with British Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]]) commented "It is an idealised image but the faces of the figures are really the face of the revolutionaries".<ref>[http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page10194 Statement with the Hungarian Prime Minister (11 October 2006)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113042113/http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page10194 |date=13 January 2012 }}  Retrieved 22 September 2008</ref>

At the [[1956 Summer Olympics]] in Melbourne, the Soviet handling of the Hungarian uprising led to a boycott by Spain, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.<ref>[http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Olympic-Games/All-Past-Olympic-Games/Summer/Melbourne--Stockholm-1956/ Melbourne/Stockholm 1956 (All facts) Olympic.org] Retrieved 29 August 2010.</ref> A confrontation between Soviet and Hungarian teams occurred in the [[Water polo at the 1956 Summer Olympics|semi-final match]] of the [[water polo]] tournament on 6 December. The match was extremely violent, and was halted in the final minute to quell fighting among spectators. This match, now known as the "[[Blood in the Water match|blood In the water match]]", became the subject of several films.<ref>Radio Free Europe: [http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/05/0e5164bb-fd53-4562-88c5-9aac69e5845c.html Hungary: New Film Revisits 1956 Water-Polo Showdown]. Retrieved 13 October 2006.</ref><ref>[http://european-films.net/content/view/603/57/ Szabadság, szerelem (Children of Glory)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017070604/http://european-films.net/content/view/603/57/ |date=17 October 2007 }}  (film) 2006.</ref> The Hungarian team won the game 4–0 and later was awarded the Olympic gold medal. [[Norway national bandy team|Norway]] declined an invitation to the inaugural [[1957 Bandy World Championship|Bandy World Championship]] in 1957, citing the presence of a team from the [[Soviet Union national bandy team|Soviet Union]] as the reason.

On Sunday, January 6, 1957, as millions of Americans watched [[Ed Sullivan]]'s popular television [[variety show]], with the nearly 22 year-old [[Elvis Presley]] headlining for the third time, Sullivan told viewers Presley felt "so keenly about Hungarian relief, he urges all of us through the country to remember that immediate aid is needed." The host followed this with Elvis singing an unrecorded number, the gospel song ''[[Peace in the Valley]]'', saying "he feels that this is sort of in the mood that he'd like to create." By the end of 1957, these contributions, distributed by the Geneva-based [[International Committee of the Red Cross|International Red Cross]] as food rations, clothing and other essentials, had amounted to some [[Swiss franc|CHF]] 26&nbsp;million (US$6&nbsp;million in 1957 dollars), the equivalent of ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|6000000|1957|r=-5}}}} in today's dollars.{{Inflation-fn|US}} On 1 March 2011, [[István Tarlós]], the [[mayor of Budapest]], made Presley an honorary citizen posthumously, and a plaza located at the intersection of two of the city's most important avenues was named after Presley as a gesture of gratitude.

Meanwhile, as the 1950s drew to a close the events in Hungary produced fractures within the Communist political parties of Western European countries. In San Marino, some moderate Socialist members of a Socialist-Communist coalition government broke their alliance with the Communists, who failed to condemn the Soviet Union's repression of the Hungarians. This schism resulted in a perfect 30–30 split in the council that paralyzed the government and led to the [[fatti di Rovereta]], a constitutional crisis which resulted in the victory of a new democratic government and brought the twelve years of communist rule in San Marino to an end.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-02-14 |title=1957 {{!}} The Rovereta Affair |url=http://www.1957.sm/ |access-date=2024-01-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214042430/http://www.1957.sm/ |archive-date=14 February 2015 }}</ref> The [[Italian Communist Party]] (PCI) suffered a split. According to the official newspaper of the PCI, ''[[l'Unità]]'', most ordinary members and the Party leadership, including [[Palmiro Togliatti]] and [[Giorgio Napolitano]], supported the actions of the Soviet Union in suppressing the uprising.<ref>The following are references in English on the conflicting positions of [https://web.archive.org/web/20071017045856/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808752,00.html ''l'Unità''], [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930215213/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808824,00.html Antonio Giolitti and party boss Palmiro Togliatti], [https://web.archive.org/web/20070903094148/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,868066,00.html Giuseppe Di Vittorio] and [https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-219206/socialism Pietro Nenni].</ref> However, [[Giuseppe Di Vittorio]], chief of the communist trade union [[Italian General Confederation of Labour|CGIL]], spoke out against the leadership's position, as did prominent party members [[Antonio Giolitti]], [[Loris Fortuna]], and many others influential in the Communist Party. [[Pietro Nenni]] of the [[Italian Socialist Party]], a close ally of the PCI, opposed the Soviet intervention as well. Napolitano, elected in 2006 as [[President of Italy|President of the Italian Republic]], wrote in his 2005 political autobiography that he regretted his justification of Soviet action in Hungary, stating at the time he believed that party unity and the leadership of Soviet Communism was more important.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Napolitano | first = Giorgio | year = 2005 | title = Dal Pci al socialismo europeo. Un'autobiografia politica (From the Communist Party to European Socialism. A political autobiography) | publisher = Laterza | language = it|isbn = 88-420-7715-1}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2020}}

The [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] (CPGB) suffered the loss of thousands of party members following the events in Hungary. Though [[Peter Fryer]], correspondent for the CPGB newspaper ''[[Morning Star (British newspaper)|The Daily Worker]]'', reported on the violent suppression of the uprising, his dispatches were heavily censored by the party leadership.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Black |first=Ian |date=2006-10-21 |title=How Soviet tanks crushed dreams of British communists |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/oct/21/politics.past |access-date=2024-10-13 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref name="Fryer"/> Upon his return from Hungary Fryer resigned from the paper. He was later expelled by the Communist Party.

In France, moderate communists, such as historian [[Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie]], resigned, questioning the [[French Communist Party]]'s policy of supporting Soviet actions. The French philosopher and writer [[Albert Camus]] wrote an [[open letter]], ''The Blood of the Hungarians'', criticising the West's lack of action. Even [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], still a determined Communist, criticised the Soviets in his article ''Le Fantôme de Staline'', in ''Situations VII''.<ref>Sartre, Jean-Paul (1956), [https://www.humanite.fr/node/329963 L'intellectuel et les communistes français {{in lang|fr}}] Le Web de l'Humanite, 21 June 2005. Retrieved 24 October 2006.</ref> [[Left communism|Left communists]]{{who|date=March 2021}} were particularly supportive of the revolution.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) viewed the events of the revolution in context of its concern with the Soviet de-Stalinization of 1956 and the sort of problems along the lines of the Eastern European uprisings that China might eventually have to face.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Wu |first=Yiching |title=The cultural revolution at the margins : Chinese socialism in crisis |date=2014 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-41985-8 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |pages=30 |oclc=881183403}}</ref> Some Chinese leaders viewed the events, together with the protests in Poland, as demonstrating the dangers of overemphasizing development of heavy industry while underemphasizing people's livelihoods.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Hou |first=Li |title=Building for Oil: Daqing and the Formation of the Chinese Socialist State |date=2021 |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |isbn=978-0-674-26022-1 |edition= |series=[[Harvard-Yenching Institute]] monograph series |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=74}}</ref> Mao cited the repressions in Hungary as a lesson: "You forbid people to strike, to petition, or to make unfavorable comments, you simply resort to repression in every case, until one day you become a Rákosi."<ref name=":0" /> Later, as the CCP leadership became concerned with the degree of criticism from the lower levels of the party and from outside of the party during the [[Hundred Flowers Campaign|Hundred Flowers campaign]], Mao again cited the Hungarian revolution, describing China as at risk of a "Hungarian Incident" if it did not win this "major battle".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wu |first=Yiching |title=The cultural revolution at the margins : Chinese socialism in crisis |date=2014 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-41985-8 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |pages=34 |oclc=881183403}}</ref>

===Commemoration and legacy===
[[File:Budapešť, Hösök tére, pamětní deska 1956.jpg|thumb|Memorial plaque at the [[Embassy of Serbia, Budapest]] in memory of [[Imre Nagy]], who took sanctuary in what was the Yugoslav embassy during the Hungarian Revolution.]]

In the north-west corner of [[MacArthur Park]] in [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], the Hungarian-American community built a commemorative statue to honour the Hungarian freedom fighters. Built in the late 1960s, the obelisk statue stands with an American eagle watching over the city of Los Angeles. There are several monuments dedicated to the Commemoration of the Hungarian Revolution throughout the United States. One such monument may be found in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Cardinal Mindszenty Plaza. There is also a monument of "A Boy From Pest" in the town of [[Szczecin]], Poland. [[Denver]] has Hungarian Freedom Park, named in 1968 to commemorate the uprising.<ref>{{cite web |title=Hungarian Freedom Park |url=https://tclf.org/landscapes/hungarian-freedom-park |website=The Cultural Landscape Foundation |access-date=2 March 2020}}</ref>

Public discussion about the revolution was suppressed in Hungary for more than 30 years. Since the thaw of the 1980s, it has been a subject of intense study and debate. At the inauguration of the Third Hungarian Republic [[End of communism in Hungary|in 1989]], 23 October was declared a [[Public holidays in Hungary|national holiday]].

On 16 June 1989, at the 31st commemoration of his execution, Nagy's body was reburied with full honours.<ref name="BBCJune16"/> The Republic of Hungary was declared in 1989 on the 33rd anniversary of the Revolution, and 23 October is now a Hungarian national holiday.<ref>{{cite web | title = National Symbols | work = Fact Sheets on Hungary | publisher = Ministry of Foreign Affairs | year = 2003 | url = http://www.mfa.gov.hu/NR/rdonlyres/98D131BF-BFB4-4545-B9BE-BAB02F71A1D9/0/National_Symbols.pdf | access-date = 24 February 2012 | archive-date = 22 November 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111122033657/http://www.mfa.gov.hu/NR/rdonlyres/98D131BF-BFB4-4545-B9BE-BAB02F71A1D9/0/National_Symbols.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref>

In December 1991, the preamble of the treaties signed with the dismembered Soviet Union, under [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], and Russia, represented by [[Boris Yeltsin]], officially apologised for the Soviet actions of 1956 in Hungary. Yeltsin made the apology in person during a 1992 speech to the Hungarian Parliament.<ref name = cnn/>

In 2000, the Hungarian government passed "Ilona Tóth's law", absolving those that were convicted for their involvement with the revolution, inspired by the case of [[Ilona Tóth]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=James |first=Beverly Ann |url=https://archive.org/details/imaginingpostcom0000jame |title=Imagining Postcommunism: Visual Narratives of Hungary's 1956 Revolution |date=2005 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=978-1-60344-595-5 |pages=85 |language=en}}</ref>

On 13 February 2006, the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. U.S. Secretary of State [[Condoleezza Rice]] commented on the contributions made by 1956 Hungarian refugees to the United States and other host countries, as well as the [[German reunification|role of Hungary]] in providing refuge to East Germans during the 1989 protests against communist rule.<ref>{{cite press release | title = U.S. State Department Commemorates the 1956 Hungarian Revolution | publisher = American Hungarian Federation | date = 13 February 2006 | url = http://www.americanhungarianfederation.org/news_1956_StateDepartment_Reception_2006-02-13.htm|access-date = 8 October 2006 }}</ref> U.S. President [[George W. Bush]] also visited Hungary on 22 June 2006 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary.<ref>{{cite press release | title = Hungary a Model for Iraq, Bush Says in Budapest | publisher = International Information Programs | date = 22 June 2006 | url = http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/June/200606221431051CJsamohT0.2036402.html | access-date = 14 October 2006 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080215035207/http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/June/200606221431051CJsamohT0.2036402.html | archive-date = 15 February 2008 }}</ref>

In August 2023, a history textbook written by former Minister of Culture of Russia [[Vladimir Medinsky]], claimed that the 1956 Hungarian Revolution was a fascist uprising organised by the West.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-09-12 |title=Soviet invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia were wrong, Putin says |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66784638 |access-date=2023-09-25}}</ref> On 25 September 2023, Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade [[Péter Szijjártó]] said "labelling these people as fascists is simply unacceptable".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-25 |title=Hungary's Energy Supply is Guaranteed, Says Russian Foreign Minister |url=https://hungarytoday.hu/hungarys-energy-supply-is-guaranteed-says-russian-foreign-minister/ |access-date=2023-09-25 |website=Hungary Today |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Hungary|Soviet Union}}
* [[1956 Georgian demonstrations]] 
* [[Anti-Rightist Campaign]]
* "[[Avanti ragazzi di Buda]]", an Italian song about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
* [[Cultural representations of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956]]
** ''[[Children of Glory]]'' (2006)
** [[House of Terror]] museum in Budapest
* [[East German uprising of 1953]]
* [[Foreign interventions by the Soviet Union]]
* [[List of conflicts related to the Cold War]]
* [[Poznań protests of 1956]]
* [[Prague Spring]] (1968)
* [[Proletarian internationalism]]
* [[Quỳnh Lưu uprising]] 
* [[Romanian anti-communist resistance movement]]
* [[Significant events of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956]]
** [[Blood in the Water match|"Blood in the Water" match]] at the [[1956 Summer Olympics]]
* [[Tankie]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=nb}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|colwidth=30em}}
* {{cite book | last = Bibó | first = István | title = Democracy, Revolution, Self-Determination | publisher = Columbia University Press | year = 1991 | location = New York | pages = [https://archive.org/details/democracyrevolut0000bibo/page/331 331–354] | isbn = 0-88033-214-X | url = https://archive.org/details/democracyrevolut0000bibo/page/331 }}
* {{cite book | last = Gadney | first = Reg | year=1986 | title = Cry Hungary: Uprising 1956 | publisher = Macmillan Pub Co | pages = [https://archive.org/details/cryhungaryuprisi0000gadn/page/169 169 pages] | isbn = 0-689-11838-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/cryhungaryuprisi0000gadn/page/169 }}
* {{cite book| last = Gati | first = Charles | year = 2006 | title = Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt (Cold War International History Project Series) | publisher = [[Stanford University Press]] | pages = 264  | isbn= 0-8047-5606-6}}
* {{cite book| last = Granville | first = Johanna | year = 2004 | title = The First Domino: International Decision Making during the Hungarian Crisis of 1956 | publisher = Texas A&M University Press | pages = 323 | isbn= 1-58544-298-4}}
* {{cite book| last = Györkei | first = Jenõ | author2 = Kirov, Alexandr|author3=Horvath, Miklos | title = Soviet Military Intervention in Hungary, 1956 | publisher = Central European University Press | year = 1999 | location = New York | page = 350 | isbn= 963-9116-36-X }}
* {{cite book | last = Kertesz | first = Stephen D. | title = Diplomacy in a Whirlpool: Hungary between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia | url = http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/dipl/dipl00.htm | publisher = University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana | year = 1953 | isbn = 0-8371-7540-2 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070903000540/http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/dipl/dipl00.htm | archive-date = 3 September 2007 }}
* {{cite book| last = Lendvai | first = Paul | title = One Day That Shook the Communist World: The 1956 Hungarian Uprising and Its Legacy | publisher = Princeton UP | year = 2008 | page = 254 | isbn =  978-0-691-13282-2 }}
* {{cite book| last = Litván | first = György | title = The Hungarian Revolution of 1956: Reform, Revolt and Repression, 1953–1963 | publisher = Longman | year = 1996 | page = 221 | isbn = 0-582-21505-6 }}
* Matthews, John P.C. (2007). ''Explosion: The Hungarian Revolution of 1956''  New York: Hippocrene, {{ISBN?}}
* {{cite book| last = Michener | first = James A. | author-link = James A. Michener | title = [[The Bridge at Andau]] | publisher = Fawcett | year = 1985|edition=reissue | location = New York | isbn= 0-449-21050-2}}
* {{cite book| last = Morris | first = William E. | editor = Lettis, Richard | date = 2001|edition=Reprint | title = The Hungarian Revolt: 23 October – 4 November 1956 | publisher = Simon Publications | isbn= 1-931313-79-2}}
* {{cite book| last = Péter | first = László | title = Resistance, Rebellion and Revolution in Hungary and Central Europe: Commemorating 1956 | publisher = UCL SSEES | year = 2008 | location = London | page = 361 | isbn = 978-0-903425-79-7}}
* Schmidl, Erwin A. & Ritter, László. (2006) ''The Hungarian Revolution, 1956''; Osprey Elite series #148. {{ISBN|978-1-84603-079-6}}
* {{cite book | last = Sebestyen | first = Victor | title = Twelve Days: The Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution | publisher = Pantheon | year = 2006 | location = New York | pages = [https://archive.org/details/twelvedaysstoryo00sebe/page/340 340] | isbn = 0-375-42458-X | url = https://archive.org/details/twelvedaysstoryo00sebe/page/340 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sugar | first = Peter F. | editor = Hanak, Peter | editor2 = Frank, Tibor | year = 1994 | title = A History of Hungary: From Liberation to Revolution (pp. 368–383) | publisher = Bloomington: Indiana University Press | pages = [https://archive.org/details/historyofhungary00pete/page/448 448] | isbn = 0-253-20867-X | url = https://archive.org/details/historyofhungary00pete/page/448 }}
* Watry, David M. (2014). ''Diplomacy at the Brink: Eisenhower, Churchill, and Eden in the Cold War''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press {{ISBN?}}
* {{cite book| last = Zinner | first = Paul E. | title = Revolution in Hungary | publisher = Books for Libraries Press | year = 1962 | pages = 380  | isbn= 0-8369-6817-4 }}

===Historiography and memory===
* Cash, John Joseph. "Commemoration and Contestation of the 1956 Revolution in Hungary". ''Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies'' (2011): 247–258.
* Cox, Terry. ''Hungary 1956 – forty Years On'' (London: F. Cass, 1997)
* Csipke, Zoltán. "The changing significance of the 1956 revolution in post-communist Hungary". ''Europe-Asia Studies'' 63.1 (2011): 99–128 [https://is.muni.cz/el/fss/podzim2019/MVZb2091/um/Memory1956.pdf Online].
* Erőss, Ágnes. "'In memory of victims': Monument and counter-monument in Liberty Square, Budapest". ''Hungarian Geographical Bulletin'' 65.3 (2016): 237–254. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Agnes_Eross2/publication/308993779_In_memory_of_victims_Monument_and_counter-monument_in_Liberty_Square_Budapest/links/57fd11d508ae49db47552457/In-memory-of-victims-Monument-and-counter-monument-in-Liberty-Square-Budapest.pdf Online]
* Gyáni, Gábor. "Memory and discourse on the 1956 Hungarian revolution". ''Europe-Asia Studies'' 58.8 (2006): 1199–1208.
* Gyáni, Gábor. "Revolution, uprising, civil war: the conceptual dilemmas of 1956". ''European Review of History'' – ''Revue européenne d'histoire''. 15.5 (2008): 519–531. [http://w3.osaarchivum.org/updates/2006/blitz/gyani_gabor_eng.pdf Online]
* Heller, Ágnes, and Ferenc Fehér. ''Hungary 1956 Revisited: The Message of a Revolution{{snd}}a Quarter of a Century After'' (George Allen and Unwin, 1983).
* Mark, James. "Antifascism, the 1956 Revolution and the politics of communist autobiographies in Hungary 1944–2000". ''Europe-Asia Studies'' 58.8 (2006): 1209–1240. [https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10036/3094/Antifascism%201956%20Revolution%20and%20Politics%20James%20Mark%2023%20July%202006.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Online]
* Nyyssönen, Heino, and Jussi Metsälä. "Building on legacy and tradition: commemorations of 1956 in Hungary". ''National Identities'' 21.4 (2019): 379–393. [https://trepo.tuni.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/116983/building_on_legacy_and_tradition_2019.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Online]

===Primary sources===
* Beke, Laszlo. ''A Student's Diary: Budapest, October 16 – November 1, 1956'' (NY: Macmillan, 1957).
* {{Cite book| editor1-last = Bekes | editor1-first = Csaba | editor2-last = Byrne|editor2-first=Malcolm |editor3-last=Rainer|editor3-first=Janos| year = 2003 | title = The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A History in Documents (National Security Archive Cold War Readers) | publisher = Central European University Press | pages = 600  | isbn= 963-9241-66-0}}
* Granville, Johanna (1999) [http://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp/article/view/80 In the Line of Fire: New Archival Evidence on the Soviet Intervention in Hungary, 1956], ''Carl Beck Paper'', no. 1307 (1999). {{open access}}
* Haraszti-Taylor, Eva, ed. ''The Hungarian Revolution of 1956: A Collection of Documents from the British Foreign Office'' (Nottingham: Astra Press, 1995).
* [[Michael Korda|Korda, Michael]]. ''Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956''. Harper Perennial (2006). {{ISBN|978-0-06-077262-8}}
* Lasky, Melvin J. ''[https://archive.org/details/hungarianrevolutionlasky The Hungarian Revolution; A White Book: The Story of the October Uprising As Recorded in Documents, Dispatches, Eye-Witness Accounts, and World-wide Reactions]'' (Frederick A. Praeger, 1957).
* Lomax, William, ed. ''Hungarian Workers' Councils in 1956'' (East European Monographs, 1990).
* Nagy, Imre. ''On Communism: In Defense of the New Course'' (Praeger, 1957).
* {{Cite book| last = Napolitano | first = Giorgio | year = 2005 | title = Dal Pci al socialismo europeo. Un'autobiografia politica (From the Communist Party to European Socialism. A political autobiography) | publisher = Laterza | language = it | isbn= 88-420-7715-1}}
* United Nations: ''Report of the Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary'', General Assembly, Official Records, Eleventh Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/3592), New York, 1957 {{cite web|url= http://mek.oszk.hu/01200/01274/01274.pdf |title=(268 pages) }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.47&nbsp;MB)}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Hungarian Revolution of 1956}}
* Ürményházi, Attila J.(2006) [https://web.archive.org/web/20060807225525/http://www.hungary1956.com/docs/Urmenyhazi_HungarianRevolution_1956.pdf "The Hungarian Revolution-Uprising, Budapest 1956"]

===Historical collections===
* [http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/9/1956-polish-and-hungarian-crises 1956 Hungarian Revolution Collection] of the [[Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars]], [[Cold War International History Project]], containing documents and other source materials relating to the 1956 Revolution.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050323015643/http://www.rev.hu/ Institute of Revolutionary History, Hungary] A Hungarian language site providing historical photos and documents, books and reviews, and links to English language sites.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170324222313/http://osaarchivum.org/digitalarchive/av/ OSA Digital Archive] Videos of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
* [https://archive.org/details/1956_Hungarian_Revolution_as_Depicted_in_Newsreels Universal Pictures and Warner Pathé newsreels regarding the revolution]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/4/newsid_2739000/2739039.stm "On this day 4 November 1956: Soviet troops overrun Hungary"] (Accessed 12 October 2006) – BBC reports on the first day of the second Soviet intervention and the fall of the Nagy government.
* [https://www.marxists.org/subject/hungary/index.htm Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Archive] at [[marxists.org]]
* [http://libcom.org/library/hungary-56-andy-anderson Hungary '56] Andy Anderson's pamphlet, written in 1964 and originally published by [[Solidarity (UK)]], about events of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, focusing on Hungarian demands for economic and political self-management. ([[AK Press]] 2002, {{ISBN|0-934868-01-8}})
* {{Internet Archive short film|id=gov.archives.arc.2569633|name=Big Picture: Operation Mercy}}
* {{Internet Archive short film|id=gov.archives.arc.1683326|name=Hungarian Revolution Aftermath (1956)}}
* {{Internet Archive short film|id=gov.archives.arc.2049945|name=Hungarian Revolution (1956)}}

===Other academic sources===
* [http://mek.oszk.hu/09600/09691/index.phtml The 1956 Hungarian revolution and the Soviet bloc countries: reactions and repercussions] (MEK)
* [http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/us-soviet-flashpoints/2017-05-10/hungary-1956-reviving-debate-over-us-inaction-during Hungary, 1956: Reviving the Debate over U.S. (In)action during the Revolution], published by the [[National Security Archive]]

===Feature films===
* ''[[The Beast of Budapest]]'', a 1958 American film
* [http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/05/0e5164bb-fd53-4562-88c5-9aac69e5845c.html ''Freedom's Fury'']—The 2005 documentary film depicting events surrounding the Hungarian–Soviet confrontation in the Olympic water polo tournament, now known as the "blood in the water match". Narrated by Mark Spitz, produced by Lucy Liu and Quentin Tarantino.
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468559/ ''Torn from the Flag'']—Documentary film 2007. The significant global effects of the Hungarian revolution of 1956.
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1042885/ ''Freedom Dance'']—Multi award-winning animated documentary produced by [[Steven Thomas Fischer]] and Craig Herron. The film retells the escape of Edward and Judy Hilbert from Communist Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The film is narrated by Golden Globe-winning actress [[Mariska Hargitay]].
* ''[[The Unburied Man]]''—Drama film on the life of Imre Nagy.
* [https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0317522/ ''The Forgotten Faces'']—An amateur short film which retells the Hungarian revolution of 1956. Written and directed by [[Peter Watkins]] and filmed on the streets of [[Canterbury]], England.

===Commemorations===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091030033237/http://www.hungary1956.com/ The 1956 Portal] – A resource for Hungarian-American organizations to highlight and promote their 1956 Hungarian Revolution commemoration activities, including 1956 photos, videos, resources, and events across the United States
* [http://www.freedomfighter56.com/en_stories_2all.html Freedom Fighter 56] – Personal stories of survival and escape from participants in the revolution
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080915210152/http://www.multiculturalcanada.ca/node/1521 1956 Hungarian Memorial Oral History Project] – Multicultural Canada oral history collection of revolution refugees in Canada
* [http://mek.oszk.hu/09400/09426/index.phtml From the noon bell to the lads of Pest]

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