Accra, Oct. 15, GNA – In October 1956, the people of Hungary stood up against the oppression of Soviet rule. The subsequent uprising almost succeeded but the Soviet Union finally re-established its control and the revolution was quashed by brutal efficiency.
From March 1944, during the Second World War, Hungary was occupied by the forces of Nazi Germany, being liberated by the Soviet Union’s Red Army on April 4, 1945.
Backed by Joseph Stalin, Hungary’s fledging communists bullied their way into power. Having destroyed all political opponents, the communists consolidated their grip on power and in 1949, Hungary had officially become the People’s Republic of Hungary.
In just a matter of years, more than 300,000 Hungarians were purged under the communist rule: exiled, imprisoned or killed.
On 23 October 1956, students in Budapest staged a peaceful demonstration, having, the night before, drawn up a list of 16 demands
These include the need for a new government led by Imre Nagy; that all criminal leaders of the Stalinist era be immediately relieved of their duties; general election by universal and secret ballot to elect a new National Assembly with all political parties participating; for the Russian language to cease being a compulsory subject in Hungarian schools; and for the removal of Soviet troops from Hungary.
By the evening of the 23rd, the demonstration had reached 200,000 in number. ‘Russians go home!’ they shouted. Red stars were torn down from buildings.
A 30-foot bronze statue of Stalin in the city’s Hero Square, erected five years previously as a gift to the dictator from the Hungarian People, was pulled down.
A delegation of protestors tried to broadcast their demands on national radio, demanding that the radio should belong to the people. The police opened fire and killed several demonstrators.
The communist regime condemned the protest and sent in the troops, but found that many of his soldiers sided with the demonstrators.
What had begun as a peaceful demonstration turned very quickly into a full-scale revolution.
On 28 October, the Soviet Union withdrew its troops from Hungary. People sensed victory. Political parties, long since banned, reformed; new newspapers sprung up, most only a side long, plastered up on shop fronts, trees and street lamps.
The new Prime Minister, Imre Nagy, promised open elections and a coalition government.
But the Soviet Union ordered the tanks back in. They reappeared in Hungary on November 3, and entered Budapest the following day. This time, with brutal efficiency, the uprising was crushed.
Nagy appeared on Radio Budapest early on the morning of November 4, as the tanks started their devastating work in the capital: ‘This is Imre Nagy speaking. Today at daybreak Soviet forces started an attack against our capital, obviously with the intention to overthrow the legal Hungarian democratic government. Our troops are still fighting; the Government is still in its place. I notify the people of our country and the entire world of this fact.’
And that was it. Nagy’s voice disappeared – no one ever heard it again. Seconds later, the National Anthem played, not the communist version but the anthem that brought tears to patriotic hearts. A couple hours later, at 8.10, Radio Budapest broadcast its last appeal, ‘Help Hungary… help, help, help,’ before being taken off air.
Just after 1 pm on November 4, Moscow radio announced, ‘The Hungarian counter-revolution has been crushed.’ Nagy sought sanctuary in the Yugoslavian embassy and was replaced by the harder János Kádár, who, loyal to Moscow, welcomed the return of Soviet forces to crush the ‘counter-revolutionary threat’.
More than 200,000 Hungarians fled across the border into Austria and the West until that escape route was sealed off. Thousands were executed or imprisoned by Kádár’s regime in reprisal.
Imre Nagy, lured out of the embassy by a promise of safe passage to Belgrade, a promise written by Kádár himself, was arrested and taken to Romania. Later, he was smuggled back into Hungary, charged with treason, tried and, on the orders of Kádár, was executed on June 16, 1958.
His body was buried within the prison yard.
The remains of Nagy were reinterred during a formal public funeral on the 31st anniversary of his execution.
There were more than 100,000 mourners in attendance. Just two months after Nagy’s reburial, his country played an important part in accelerating the collapse of communism. Soviet troops finally withdrew from Hungary in 1991.
The October 23, is now celebrated as a Hungarian national holiday.
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