THE HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION, 1956 term paper

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s secret speech to the Twentieth Party Congress in February 1956 stunned the communist world by revealing the crimes of Josif Stalin and denouncing Stalin’s autocratic rule. After learning of Khrushchev’s speech, dissidents throughout Europe began to agitate for change. Communists in Poland and Hungary were heartened to learn that Khrushchev had endorsed the view that “the ways of socialist development vary in different countries and conditions.”

In April 1956, Communist Poland’s leaders granted political amnesty to 20,000 political prisoners. Later that same month thousands of Polish coal miners went on strike. Khrushchev did not intervene, and he permitted the Polish Communist Party to install Wladyslaw Gomulka as premier. Gomulka was a loyal communist who proposed a moderate policy of improving conditions in the mines and relaxing some state controls, but he kept very close military ties to the Soviet Union.

Emboldened by the Polish example, Hungarian reformers, particularly students, increased their demands for political reform in Hungary. On 23 October 1956, thousands of students took to the streets of Budapest demanding reform. The first target of the student demonstrators was a forty-foot bronze statue of Stalin, which they pulled down, dismembered, and painted with graffiti. When the students attempted to take over a radio station, the government ordered the Hungarian army into Budapest. Although a few shots were fired, the army quickly went over to the side of the demonstrators. The government of Erno Gero was paralyzed. To salvage the situation, the Russian advisors in Budapest selected Imre Nagy as premier, expecting him to imitate Gomulka’s cautious reform policies. Although a communist, Nagy proved to be an independent-minded reformer. He released from prison József Cardinal Mindszenty, the Roman Catholic leader of Hungary. Mindszenty, who had been serving a life sentence for political crimes, called for the immediate dismantling of the communist dictatorship in Hungary. Nagy refused to discipline Mindszenty and announced that his communist government would welcome opposition parties. Thousands of cheering Hungarians took to the streets of Budapest to celebrate. On 30 October, Nagy declared Hungary a multiparty state, and the next day he announced Hungary’s withdrawal from the Soviet Union’s military alliance, the Warsaw Pact. Seemingly the Russians agreed with these dramatic changes. But on 4 November 1956, Soviet troops along with 2,500 tanks rolled into Budapest and opened fire in the crowded streets. At least 3,000 Hungarians were killed and more than 200,000 Hungarians fled their country. Imre Nagy was arrested and eventually executed. Cardinal Mindszenty sought sanctuary in the U.S. Embassy and remained there until 1971. The Russians installed Janos Kadar, a tough Hungarian communist, who launched a campaign of political repression that signaled to the world that Khrushchev could be just as brutal as Stalin in repressing dissent.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. Investigate the role of Imre Nagy in the revolution and try to determine why he was executed.
2. Before and after the revolt József Cardinal Mindszenty was the Hungarian symbol of resistance to communism. Discuss his popularity and the reasons why he symbolized anti-communism to many people.
3. In a research paper on the decision by the Soviet Union to intervene in Hungary, write about the reasons for Soviet intervention and the military tactics they used. 4. After reading György Konrád’s novel The Case Worker (see Suggested Sources), write a paper on its portrait of life in communist Hungary.
5. Discuss how the Eisenhower administration reacted to the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution and assess the reasons for the approach it took.
6. Set up a panel discussion on the connections between the Hungarian Revolution and the Suez Canal Crisis.

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “Khrushchev’s ‘Secret Speech’ at the Twentieth Party Congress, 1956” (#51) and “Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Suez Crisis, 1956” (#52). Search under Cold War and John Foster Dulles.

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Beke, László. A Student’s Diary: Budapest, October 16–November 1, 1956. Translated by Leon Kossar and Ralph M. Zoltan. New York: Viking Press, 1957. A short, accessible eyewitness account by a student participant.

Haraszti-Taylor, Eva, ed. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956: A Collection of Documents from the British Foreign Office. Nottingham: Astra, 1995. Candid views of British observers of the street violence.

Lasky, Melvin J., ed. The Hungarian Revolution: A White Book. The Story of the October Uprising as Recorded in Documents, Dispatches, Eye-Witness Accounts, and World-Wide Reactions. New York: Praeger, 1957. An accessible collection of eyewitness accounts.

Lomax, Bill. Hungarian Workers’ Councils in 1956. Translated by Bill Lomax and Julian Schöpflin. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990. A powerful expression of the idealism and realities of the uprising.

Mindszenty, József. Memoirs: József Cardinal Mindszenty. Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Macmillan, 1974. A poignant set of reflections by the spiritual leader of Hungary.

Nagy, Imre. On Communism: In Defense of the New Course. New York: Praeger, 1957. A succinct explanation of Nagy’s appeal.

Secondary Sources

Barber, Noël. Seven Days of Freedom: The Hungarian Uprising 1956. New York: Stein and Day, 1974. A reliable introduction to the revolt. Fehér, Ferenc. Hungary 1956 Revisited: The Message of a Revolution, a Quarter of a Century After. Boston: Allen and Unwin, 1983. A personal retrospective that captures the idealism of the revolt.

Gadney, Reg. Cry Hungary! Uprising 1956. New York: Atheneum, 1986. A brief introduction to the revolt.

Granville, Johanna C. In the Line of Fire: The Soviet Crackdown on Hungary, 1956–1958. Pittsburgh: Center for Russian and East European Studies, 1998. A crisp summary of recent scholarship.

Király, Béla K., and Paul Jónás, eds. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 in Retrospect. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978. A fine collection of articles including one on Nagy’s trial.

Konrád, György. The Case Worker. Translated by Paul Aston. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974. This novel captures the oppressive atmosphere of Hungary in the 1950s.

Radványi, János. The Secret Trial of Imre Nagy. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1994. An insight into the brutality of the communist system.

World Wide Web

“The National Security Archive.” http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/. Good links to Soviet decisions on Hungary.