On October 22, 1956, Hungarians took to Parliament Square in Budapest to protest the Pro-Stalinist regime in Hungary. The movement, led mainly by students and workers, advocated for economic and social reforms and the removal of Stalinist leaders like Mátyás Rákosi. The Hungarian Revolt came shortly after Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Soviet Union, denounced Joseph Stalin’s cult of personality and dictatorial rule. Hungarians took the words of Khruschev seriously and sought to overthrow the government and reject Soviet control and repression. In response, the Soviet government installed Imre Nagy, a reformist who was previously critical of Stalin, as Hungarian premier, with the hope that it would quell the protests. Nagy then tried to institute a multi-party system and withdrew Hungary from the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance of soviet controlled states.
The Kremlin believed that Nagy had overreached and threatened Soviet control of Hungary. They sent military forces into Budapest and a brutal battle resulted. An estimated 2,500 unarmed civilians were gunned down on October 25, resulting in an all-out war between Hungarian peasants and the Soviet army. Hungarians fought for their lives, using Molotov cocktails and rifles stolen from the military. Because of broadcasts by Radio Free Europe, an American-funded broadcast network, many continued to fight because they thought the United States would intervene. Although a ceasefire was reached on October 28th, Khrushchev and his allies decided that the loss of a satellite state would not be accepted at any cost. On November 4th, Soviet troops initiated a brutal counter-attack that resulted in a Soviet victory. By the end of the conflict, thousands of Hungarians had died, many more fled the country, and Nagy was executed. The revolution was led initially by students and intellectuals but transcended into a grassroots movement of Hungarians. Some were armed with nothing more than kitchen utensils and gasoline but were nonetheless willing to sacrifice themselves in the name of reform.
The brutal repression of the Hungarian Uprising demonstrated to the other satellite states that no state could leave the Warsaw Pact and that no state was to reform or abolish the communist monopoly. As a result, leaders in these states had to manage local unrest and reform while abiding by the Kremlin’s rules. They had to adjust without being accused of becoming market-oriented. In Poland, Władysław Gomułka, newly instituted in 1956, sought to increase the relationship between church and state while also re-commercializing agriculture. Frightened by the events in Budapest, he denied any further reforms, opting instead for economic stagnation. In East Germany, Walter Ulbricht also sought economic reforms, eliminating quantitative targets for efficiency in favor of profit-centered ones. He also increased wages and leisure time, instituting a 5 day work week. The new Hungarian leader, János Kádár, extended the rights of trade unions and increased trade deals with the West for technology. In short, with the haunting example of the Hungarian revolt in mind, leaders had to reconcile reforms with Soviet control.
Meanwhile, the Eisenhower administration was preoccupied with events in the Suez Canal. They did not intervene directly for fear of escalation. They opted instead to pass a UN aid motion and a condemnation of the quashed uprising. They also passed a specific immigration quota for Hungarian refugees, allowing 30,000 of them to resettle in the United States.
The American media hailed the uprising as an inspiring grassroots embrace of liberalism. On December 23rd, 1956, The New York Times released an article titled “Youth vs. Communism: A Hungarian’s Story”. In this article, a Hungarian student and revolutionary, protected by the pseudonym “Janos Hollo”, discusses how students were at the helm of the revolt. The writer takes an obviously critical tone of communism, saying that the students rose up because of a “dictatorship which robs people of their identity”, adding that the regime perpetrated “horrors reminiscent of the darkest middle ages. It did not succeed in hiding its lies, its cruelties, its catastrophic economic difficulties behind its loud propaganda machinery”.
An editorial in the New York Times published on December 12, 1956, was even more scathing against the Communist actions in Hungary. Titled “Hungary Fights on”, the article commends the Hungarian people for their “courage” and “defiance” in defeating a “politically and morally bankrupt policy”. The article goes on to accuse the quashed uprising as a failed “debacle” to “reimpose slavery” by the Soviets.
The interview of the Hungarian dissident, when combined with the language in the editorial article, shows that the American press was clearly in favor of the nascent revolution.
Bibliography
Craig, Campbell, and Fredrik Logevall. America’s Cold War: The Politics of Insecurity Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica. “Hungary – The Kádár Regime.” Accessed February 14, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/place/Hungary.
Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs. Hungary, 1956. 18 July 2008, https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/lw/107186.htm.
HUNGARY FIGHTS ON.” New York Times (1923-Current file), Dec 12, 1956, pp. 38. ProQuest, http://newman.richmond.edu:2048/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/hungary-fights-on/docview/113670171/se-2?accountid=14731.
Janos Hollo. “Youth Vs. Communism: A Hungarian’s Story:” NEW YORK TIMES (1923-CURRENT FILE), Dec 23, 1956 pg 102.
Kemp-Welch, Anthony. “Eastern Europe: Stalinism to Solidarity.”The Cambridge History of the Cold War, vol. 2, edited by Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad, .. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010: 219–37
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The 1956 Hungarian Revolution. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2021.