The Hungarian Uprising

Thirteen days in Budapest

On the evening of 23 October 1956 a crowd of students and workers in Budapest pulled down the eight-metre bronze statue of Stalin that had stood in the city park since 1951, leaving only the boots on the plinth. Across the city, the secret police, the AVH, opened fire on a crowd outside the radio building. By morning Hungary was in revolt. Within a day Imre Nagy, a reforming communist the Soviets had sacked eighteen months earlier, was prime minister. Within a week Soviet troops had pulled out of the capital, Nagy had promised free elections, and on 1 November he declared Hungary neutral and out of the Warsaw Pact. On 4 November the Red Army came back with around 1,000 tanks. By the 10th it was over. Around 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet soldiers were dead, 200,000 people had fled to Austria, and Nagy was hiding in the Yugoslav embassy. The exam asks why it happened, what Nagy did, why Khrushchev crushed it, and what it meant for the Cold War. It also asks those questions in three shapes: two consequences for 8 marks, a narrative for 8, and the importance of Hungary for a wider development. This module gives you the dated evidence and the shapes.

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with the moment it mattered, because a bare definition earns nothing in an 8-mark answer.

The rising, in order

Put these six events of 1956 in the order they happened.

• Khrushchev denounces Stalin in the Secret Speech, and later Rakosi is replaced as Hungarian party leader
• Students march in Budapest, the Stalin statue comes down and the AVH fires on the crowd at the radio building
• Nagy becomes prime minister and, after a week of fighting, Soviet troops withdraw from Budapest
• Nagy declares Hungary neutral, announces withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and appeals to the United Nations
• Operation Whirlwind: Soviet tanks return and Kadar is installed
• Nagy is executed after a secret trial

Why did Hungary rise in October 1956?

Hungary had been quiet under Rakosi for seven years. Which explanation best accounts for the rising of October 1956?

• Rakosi had run one of the harshest regimes in the bloc, with around 2,000 executed and 200,000 imprisoned, on top of food shortages and Soviet troops in the country; the Secret Speech of February 1956 and the removal of Rakosi in July seemed to say that Moscow would now allow reform; and when Poland won concessions from Khrushchev in October without a Soviet invasion, Hungarian students concluded that they could do the same.
• The United States promised to send troops if Hungary rose.
• Nagy organised the rising from the start.
• Tito invaded Hungary to free it from the Soviets.

Poland and Hungary, October 1956

The question may ask why Khrushchev accepted one and crushed the other. The comparison is the answer, and the key is the Warsaw Pact.

The reforms of Nagy

Five statements about the last week of October 1956. Tap the TWO that describe reforms announced by Nagy, as opposed to events that happened to him.

• On 30 October the government announced the end of the one-party state and invited the Smallholders and Social Democrats back into a coalition.
• On 30 October Soviet units began pulling out of Budapest and Moscow issued a declaration promising to respect the sovereignty of the satellites.
• On 1 November the government declared Hungary a neutral state, gave notice of leaving the Warsaw Pact, and asked the United Nations to recognise its neutrality.
• On 29 October Israel attacked Egypt and on 31 October British and French aircraft began bombing Egyptian airfields.
• On 31 October the Soviet Presidium reversed its decision of the previous day and voted to intervene with force.

Consequences of the rising

Select the THREE statements that are true consequences of the Hungarian Uprising.

• Around 200,000 Hungarians, 2 per cent of the population, fled to Austria and beyond, and around 26,000 were put on trial at home, of whom about 350 were executed.
• The West learned that it would not risk war for Eastern Europe: the UN passed resolutions, the US took in refugees, and neither did anything to stop the tanks.
• Soviet control of the bloc was confirmed: Kadar kept Hungary in the Warsaw Pact, and no satellite tried to leave it again until 1989.
• NATO sent troops into Hungary in November 1956.
• Khrushchev was removed from power for the invasion.
• Hungary held free elections in 1957.

Why Khrushchev sent the tanks back

The importance question on this bullet asks what Hungary shows about Soviet control or about the Cold War. The answer needs the decision of 31 October, and the reasons behind it. On 30 October the Soviet Presidium had voted to withdraw and published a declaration promising to respect the satellites. Within a day it changed its mind. Three things changed it. The Warsaw Pact: a neutral Hungary would have broken the ring of allies between the Soviet border and the West, and Romania and Czechoslovakia might follow. Suez: with Britain and France attacking Egypt from 31 October, Khrushchev calculated that the West was in no position to complain and that a Soviet retreat would look like weakness beside a Western attack. The hardliners: Molotov and the Chinese were pressing for force, and Khrushchev needed to show he was not soft after the Secret Speech. This meant that the limit of reform in the bloc was set in November 1956: change inside the party and inside the Pact might be tolerated, as in Poland; anything that touched the alliance would be crushed, whatever the West said. Every later crisis, from Berlin in 1961 to Prague in 1968, was fought within that limit. A judgement that names the limit and the date reaches the top level.

In the shoes of Nagy and Khrushchev

Four decisions in the last two weeks of October and the first of November 1956. Choose what was actually done, and notice what each choice led to.

• 28 October. You are Nagy, prime minister for four days. The AVH is being lynched, the Soviet garrison is fighting in the streets, and the workers councils will not obey the party. What do you do?
• 1 November. Soviet troops have left Budapest but new units are crossing the border from the east. You are Nagy. What do you do?
• 31 October. You are Khrushchev. Yesterday the Presidium voted to pull out. This morning the British and French are bombing Egypt, Nagy is talking about leaving the Pact, and Molotov says you are losing the empire. What do you do?
• 4 November. You are Eisenhower, three days from a presidential election, with your two main allies fighting a war you oppose at Suez. Soviet tanks are in Budapest and Nagy has appealed to you. What do you do?

From cause to consequence

Because Khrushchev attacked Stalin in the Secret Speech of _____ 1956, Hungarians believed reform would be allowed. Because Poland got its reformer accepted in October without an invasion, students in _____ marched on 23 October expecting the same. Because the neutrality declaration of 1 November meant leaving the _____, Moscow chose force over withdrawal. Because Britain and France were attacking Egypt at _____, Washington had no united alliance with which to respond. And because the tanks won in a week and no Western soldier came, the satellites learned that reform must never touch the _____.

Measure the exodus

After the rising was crushed, about 200,000 Hungarians fled the country, out of a population of about 10 million. What percentage of the population left?

The 8-mark consequences question

Question 1 might read: Explain two consequences of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. Each consequence is marked as a consequence plus supporting detail, for 4 marks. Which answer scores all four marks for ONE consequence?

• One consequence was that Soviet control over Eastern Europe was confirmed. Kadar, installed by the Soviets on 4 November, kept Hungary inside the Warsaw Pact and executed around 350 people for the rising, and no satellite attempted to leave the Pact again until 1989, because the invasion had shown that Moscow would use force to keep the alliance intact.
• One consequence was that lots of people died and Hungary stayed communist.
• One consequence was that Rakosi had been very harsh and so the Hungarians wanted to be free.
• On 23 October the students marched, on 24 October Nagy became prime minister, on 1 November he left the Warsaw Pact and on 4 November the tanks came.

A narrative paragraph, marked

Question 2: Write a narrative account analysing the key events of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. You may use: the reforms of Nagy; the Soviet invasion of 4 November. The rising began on 23 October 1956 when a student march in Budapest, inspired by the concessions Poland had won that month, ended with the toppling of the Stalin statue and the AVH firing on the crowd at the radio building. The next day the party, unable to control the streets, made Imre Nagy prime minister, and Soviet troops already in the country entered the city and fought the rebels for a week. Because Nagy chose to lead the rising rather than suppress it, on 30 October he announced the end of the one-party state and Soviet units withdrew from Budapest, which led the rebels to believe they had won. This in turn pushed Nagy further: on 1 November he declared Hungary neutral and announced withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. That declaration was the turning point, because it threatened the Soviet defensive ring in Europe, and Khrushchev, who had voted to withdraw on 30 October, reversed the decision on the 31st. What earned the marks: events in sequence with dates; each event linked to the next by because, which led and in turn, so that the account analyses rather than lists; and the turning point named. One more paragraph, from Operation Whirlwind on 4 November to the fall of the last resistance and the arrest of Nagy, and the answer reaches the top level.

Write the narrative account

Write a narrative account analysing the key events of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. You may use the following in your answer: the reforms of Nagy; the Soviet invasion of 4 November. You must also use information of your own.

• The span: from the march of 23 October to the fall of Budapest and the arrest of Nagy
• Detail that counts: a name, a number or a place
• Events of your own: the Secret Speech, Poland, Suez or the decision of the Presidium on 31 October

The importance question

Question 3 might read: Explain the importance of the Hungarian Uprising for relations between the superpowers. Which answer best explains the importance, rather than describing the event?

• The rising was important because it fixed the rules of the Cold War in Europe: Eisenhower condemned the invasion at the UN and did nothing else, which showed Moscow that the West would not fight for the satellites and showed the satellites that the West would not come; at the same time Khrushchev proved that de-Stalinisation stopped at the Warsaw Pact. This meant that both sides now knew where the line was, and every later European crisis, including Berlin in 1961 and Prague in 1968, was handled without either side crossing it.
• The rising was important because on 23 October students marched, Nagy became prime minister, and on 4 November the Soviets invaded with 1,000 tanks and killed 2,500 people.
• The rising was important because 200,000 Hungarians fled and Kadar ruled for thirty years.
• The rising was important because it nearly caused a nuclear war between America and Russia.