Hungary took part on the side of the fascist bloc, its troops took part in the occupation of the territory of the USSR, three SS divisions were formed from the Hungarians. In 1944-1945, the Hungarian troops were defeated, its territory was occupied by Soviet troops. But it was on the territory of Hungary, in the region of Lake Balaton, in the spring of 1945 that the German fascist troops launched the last counteroffensive in their history.
After the war, free elections were held in the country under the Yalta Agreements, in which the Smallholders Party won the majority. However, the coalition government imposed by the Allied Control Commission, which was headed by Soviet Marshal Voroshilov, gave the winning majority half of the cabinet seats, while the key posts remained with the Hungarian Communist Party.
The Communists, with the support of Soviet troops, arrested most of the leaders of the opposition parties, and in 1947 they held new elections. By 1949, power in the country was mainly represented by the communists. In Hungary, the regime of Matthias Rakosi was established. Collectivization was carried out, a policy of forced industrialization was launched, for which there were no natural, financial and human resources; Massive repression by AVH began against the opposition, the church, officers and politicians of the former regime, as well as many other opponents new government.
Hungary (as a former ally of Nazi Germany) had to pay significant contributions to the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, which amounted to up to a quarter of GDP.
On the other hand, the death of Stalin and Khrushchev's speech at the 20th Congress of the CPSU gave rise to attempts at liberation from the Communists in all Eastern European states, one of the most striking manifestations of which was the rehabilitation and return to power in October 1956 of the Polish reformer Vladislav Gomulka.
An important role was played by the fact that in May 1955 neighboring Austria became a single neutral independent state, from which, after the signing of a peace treaty, the allied occupation troops were withdrawn (Soviet troops were in Hungary since 1944).
A certain role was played by the subversive activities of Western intelligence services, in particular the British MI6, which trained numerous cadres of "popular rebels" at its secret bases in Austria and then transferred them to Hungary.
The intra-party struggle in the Hungarian Party of Labor between Stalinists and supporters of reforms began from the very beginning of 1956 and by 18 July 1956 led to the resignation of the General Secretary of the Hungarian Party of Labor Matthias Rakosi, who was replaced by Ernö Gerö (former Minister of State Security).
The removal of Rakosi, as well as the 1956 Poznan Uprising in Poland, which caused a great resonance, led to an increase in critical sentiments among the students and the writing intelligentsia. From the middle of the year, the Petofi Circle began to operate actively, in which the most acute problems facing Hungary were discussed.
On October 16, 1956, part of the university students in Szeged organized an organized exit from the pro-communist "Democratic Youth Union" (the Hungarian counterpart of the Komsomol) and revived the "Union of Students of Hungarian Universities and Academies" that existed after the war and was dispersed by the government. Within a few days, branches of the Union appeared in Pecs, Miskolc and other cities.
Finally, on October 22, students from the Budapest Technological University (at that time - the Budapest University of Construction Industry), who formulated a list of 16 requirements for the authorities (the immediate convocation of an extraordinary party congress, the appointment of Imre Nagy as prime minister, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country, the destruction of the monument to Stalin, etc.) and planned for 23 October protest march from the monument to Bemu (Polish general, hero of the Hungarian revolution of 1848) to the monument to Petofi.
At 3 pm, a demonstration began, in which about a thousand people took part, including students and representatives of the intelligentsia. The demonstrators carried red flags, banners on which slogans were written about Soviet-Hungarian friendship, about the inclusion of Imre Nagy in the government, etc. Radical groups joined the demonstrators in Yasai Mari Square, on March 15, on Kossuth and Rákóczi streets, shouting slogans of a different kind. They demanded the restoration of the old Hungarian national emblem, the old Hungarian national holiday instead of the Day of Liberation from Fascism, the abolition of military training and Russian language lessons. In addition, demands were made for free elections, the creation of a government headed by Nagy and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary.
At 20 o'clock on the radio, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the UPT, Erne Gere, made a speech sharply condemning the demonstrators.
In response, a large group of demonstrators stormed into the radio broadcasting studio of the House of Radio, demanding to broadcast the program requirements of the demonstrators. This attempt led to a clash with the units of the Hungarian state security AVH defending the House of Radio, during which the first killed and wounded appeared after 21 hours. The insurgents received or took their weapons from reinforcements sent to help guard the radio, as well as from civil defense depots and captured police stations. A group of rebels infiltrated the Kilian barracks, where three construction battalions were located, and seized their weapons. Many construction battalions joined the rebels.
The fierce battle in and around the House of Radio continued throughout the night. The head of the Budapest Main Police Department, Lieutenant Colonel Sandor Kopachi, ordered not to shoot at the rebels, not to interfere in their actions. He unconditionally fulfilled the demands of the crowd gathered in front of the management to free the prisoners and remove the red stars from the facade of the building.
At 23:00, on the basis of the decision of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, Marshal V. D. Sokolovsky, ordered the commander of the Special Corps to start moving to Budapest to assist the Hungarian troops "in restoring order and creating conditions for peaceful creative work." The formations and units of the Special Corps arrived in Budapest at 6 o'clock in the morning and entered into battles with the rebels.
On the night of October 23, 1956, the leadership of the Hungarian Communist Party decided to appoint as Prime Minister Imre Nagy, who had already held this post in 1953-1955, distinguished by reformist views, for which he was repressed, but rehabilitated shortly before the uprising. Imre Nagy was often accused of the fact that the formal request to the Soviet troops to assist in suppressing the uprising was not sent without his participation. His supporters argue that this decision was made behind his back by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party Ernö Gerö and former Prime Minister Andras Hegedyus, and Nagy himself was opposed to the involvement of Soviet troops.
On the night of October 24, about 6,000 troops were brought into Budapest Soviet army, 290 tanks, 120 armored personnel carriers, 156 guns. In the evening they were joined by units of the 3rd Rifle Corps of the Hungarian People's Army (VNA). Part of the Hungarian military and policemen went over to the side of the rebels.
Members of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee A. I. Mikoyan and M. A. Suslov, Chairman of the KGB I. A. Serov, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Army General M. S. Malinin arrived in Budapest.
In the morning, the 33rd Guards Mech Division approached the city, in the evening - the 128th Guards Rifle Division, which joined the Special Corps. During a rally near the parliament building, an incident occurred: fire was opened from the upper floors, as a result of which he died soviet officer and the tank was burned. In response, Soviet troops opened fire on the protesters, as a result 61 people were killed on both sides and 284 were wounded.
Ernö Gerö was replaced as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party by Janos Kadar and left for the headquarters of the Soviet Southern Group of Forces in Szolnok. Imre Nagy spoke on the radio, addressing the warring parties with a proposal to cease fire.
Imre Nagy spoke on the radio and said that "the government condemns the views according to which the current anti-popular movement is viewed as counter-revolution." The government announced a ceasefire and the beginning of negotiations with the USSR on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary.
Imre Nagy abolished AVH. The fighting in the streets stopped, and for the first time in five days, silence reigned on the streets of Budapest. Soviet troops began to leave Budapest. The revolution seemed to have won.
Jozsef Dudash and his militants took over the editorial office of the Sabad Nep newspaper, where Dudash began publishing his own newspaper. Dudash announced the non-recognition of the government of Imre Nagy and the formation of his own administration.
In the morning, all Soviet troops were taken to their places of deployment. The streets of Hungarian cities were left practically without power. Some prisons associated with the repressive AVH have been taken over by insurgents. The guards offered practically no resistance and partially fled.
Political prisoners and criminals who were there were released from prisons. On the ground, trade unions began to create workers' and local councils, not subordinate to the authorities and not controlled by the communist party.
Bela Kirai's guards and Dudash's troops executed communists, AVH employees and the Hungarian military who refused to obey them. In total, 37 people died as a result of lynching.
The uprising, having achieved some temporary successes, quickly radicalized - there were murders of communists, employees of the AVH and the Hungarian Ministry of Internal Affairs, shelling of Soviet military towns.
By order of October 30, Soviet servicemen were forbidden to return fire, “succumb to provocations” and go beyond the unit's location.
There have been recorded cases of killings of Soviet servicemen on leave and sentries in various cities of Hungary.
The insurgents captured the Budapest City Committee of the UPT, and over 20 communists were hanged in a crowd. Photos of the hanged communists with signs of torture, with faces disfigured by acid, went around the world. This massacre was, however, condemned by representatives of the Hungarian political forces.
There was little Nagy could do. The uprising spread to other cities and spread ... The country quickly fell into chaos. The railway service was interrupted, airports stopped working, shops, shops and banks closed. The rebels scoured the streets, catching the security officers. They were recognized by their famous yellow boots, torn to pieces or hung by their feet, sometimes castrated. The captured party leaders were nailed to the floors with huge nails, and the portraits of Lenin were placed in their hands.
On October 30, the government of Imre Nagy decided to re-establish a multi-party system in Hungary and to create a coalition government composed of representatives of the UPT, the Independent Smallholders Party, the National Peasant Party and the re-established Social Democratic Party. The forthcoming free elections were announced.
The development of events in Hungary coincided with the Suez Crisis. On October 29, Israel, and then NATO members Great Britain and France, attacked Egypt, backed by the USSR, with the aim of seizing the Suez Canal, next to which they landed their troops.
On October 31, Khrushchev said at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU: "If we leave Hungary, it will cheer up the Americans, the British and the French imperialists. They will understand our weakness and will attack." It was decided to create a "revolutionary workers 'and peasants' government" headed by J. Kadar and conduct a military operation to overthrow the government of Imre Nagy. The plan of the operation, called "Whirlwind", was developed under the leadership of the USSR Minister of Defense GK Zhukov.
On November 1, the Hungarian government, when the Soviet troops were ordered not to leave the location of the units, made a decision on Hungary's termination of the Warsaw Pact and handed the corresponding note to the USSR Embassy. At the same time, Hungary turned to the UN with a request for help in defending its neutrality. Measures were also taken to protect Budapest in the event of a "possible external attack".
In Tekele near Budapest, right during the negotiations, the new Minister of Defense of Hungary, Lieutenant General Pal Maleter, was arrested by the KGB of the USSR.
Early in the morning of November 4, the introduction of new Soviet military units under the general command of Marshal G.K. Zhukov, the Soviet operation "Whirlwind" began. Officially, Soviet troops invaded Hungary at the invitation of the government hastily created by Janos Kadar. The main objects in Budapest were captured. Imre Nagy spoke on the radio: "This is the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Hungarian People's Republic, Imre Nagy. Early this morning, Soviet troops attacked our country with the aim of overthrowing the legitimate democratic government of Hungary. Our army is fighting. All members of the government remain in their places."
Detachments of the "Hungarian National Guard" and individual army units tried in vain to resist the Soviet troops.
Soviet troops inflicted artillery strikes on pockets of resistance and carried out subsequent sweeps with infantry forces supported by tanks. The main centers of resistance were the suburbs of Budapest, where local councils were able to lead a more or less organized resistance. These areas of the city were subjected to the most massive shelling.
By November 8, after fierce fighting, the last centers of resistance of the rebels were destroyed. Members of the government of Imre Nagy took refuge in the Yugoslav embassy. On November 10, workers' councils and student groups approached the Soviet command with a proposal for a ceasefire. The armed resistance ceased.
Marshal G.K. Zhukov "for the suppression of the Hungarian counterrevolutionary insurrection" received the 4th star of the Hero of the Soviet Union, the chairman of the KGB of the USSR Ivan Serov in December 1956 - the Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree.
After November 10, even until mid-December, the workers' councils continued their work, often entering into direct negotiations with the command of the Soviet units. However, by December 19, 1956, the workers' councils were dispersed by the state security organs, and their leaders were arrested.
Hungarians emigrated en masse - almost 200,000 people (5% of the total population) left the country, for whom refugee camps in Traiskirchen and Graz had to be created in Austria.
Immediately after the suppression of the uprising, mass arrests began: the entire Hungarian special services and their Soviet colleagues arrested about 5,000 Hungarians (846 of them were sent to Soviet prisons), including "a significant number of members of the UPT, military personnel and student youth."
Prime Minister Imre Nagy and members of his government on November 22, 1956 were fraudulently lured from the Yugoslavian embassy, \u200b\u200bwhere they were hiding, and were detained on the territory of Romania. Then they were returned to Hungary, and they were tried. Imre Nagy and former Defense Minister Pal Maleter were sentenced to death on charges of high treason. Imre Nagy was hanged on June 16, 1958. In total, according to some estimates, about 350 people were executed. About 26,000 people were prosecuted, of whom 13,000 were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, but by 1963 all participants in the uprising had been amnestied and released by the government of Janos Kadar.
According to statistics, in connection with the uprising and hostilities on both sides, in the period from October 23 to December 31, 1956, 2,652 Hungarian citizens were killed and 19,226 were wounded.
The losses of the Soviet Army, according to official figures, amounted to 669 people killed, 51 missing, 1540 - wounded.
The Hungarian events had a significant impact on the internal life of the USSR. The party leadership was frightened that the liberalization of the regime in Hungary led to open anti-communist protests and, accordingly, the liberalization of the regime in the USSR could lead to the same consequences. On December 19, 1956, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU approved the text of the Letter of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On strengthening the political work of party organizations among the masses and suppressing the sorties of anti-Soviet, hostile elements."
"Soviet troops drowned the Hungarian uprising in blood." Option - "Soviet troops brutally suppressed the Hungarian uprising."
To understand how “bloody” or “cruel” the suppression of the “uprising” was, let's turn to the numbers.
As a result of the hostilities, the Soviet troops lost 720 people killed. Hungarians - 2500. It would seem that the significant losses of the Hungarian side unequivocally speak of the cruelty of the Soviet troops.
However, as always, the devil is in the details.
The fact is that 2,500 people are Hungarians who were killed from October 23 to December 1957 throughout Hungary. Including as a result of clashes between units of the Hungarian army, police and state security troops with the rebels; as a result of the "white terror" in Budapest and other cities in the period from October 30 (the day of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Budapest) to November 4 (a large-scale Soviet offensive, the beginning of Operation Whirlwind to suppress the rebellion); as a result of fighting between various rebel groups and, finally, as a result of clashes between the rebels and Soviet units. Mass literature and newspaper articles usually overlook the fact that the Hungarian army, police and state security troops took an active part in the first phase of the rebellion (23-28.10). And the fact that battles were fought between various rebel groups is completely unknown.
Now in more detail about what constitutes the losses of the Hungarian side. So. Army battles with rebels. It is difficult to reliably say how many Hungarians were killed by the Hungarian soldiers themselves, the police and the state security when suppressing the rebellion. Although, for example, the only surviving leader of the rebellion, General Bela Kirai, testifies that at least 12 "revolutionaries" from among the defenders of the Corvin cinema were killed by order of Colonel Pal Maleter. But the losses of the Hungarian army can be calculated approximately. The fact is that the losses in Budapest of the 2nd Guards Mechanized Division of the Special Corps of the Soviet Army in the period from October 24 to October 29 can be taken as a basis. For 6 days of fighting, the division lost 350 people killed. That is, on average, the death toll was more than 50 people per day. Such high losses are explained not so much by the fierceness of the battles themselves, as by the tactics chosen by the corps command: cover of especially important objects and defense (do not open fire first). Moreover, Colonel Grigory Dobrunov, who was at that time the commander of the reconnaissance battalion of the 2nd Guards Mechanized Division, testifies that there were no clear instructions and instructions when troops were sent to Budapest. But there was a clear order "Do not shoot." Dobrunov's words are confirmed by the cipher officer of the Special Department of the Special Corps Dmitry Kapranov. Moreover, the participants in the mutiny - in particular, the current deputy of the Hungarian parliament Imre Mech - confirm this thesis. As a result, the rebels had the opportunity to throw a Molotov cocktail on tanks with impunity, then shoot the crews that jumped out, shoot from the windows of houses and throw grenades at open BTR-152s in which soldiers were moving around the city, shoot them with rifles and machine guns. The defensive tactics of the Soviet troops led to unjustifiably high losses. But the fact is that exactly the same tactics were chosen by the leadership of the Hungarian People's Army (VNA), the police, and the state security. They, with rare exceptions, did not conduct offensive actions, which naturally irritated the Soviet military, who believed that the Hungarians themselves should play the first violin. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to assume that the losses of the less protected and less armed soldiers of the VNA were at least no less than the losses of the Soviet troops. That is, at least 50 people a day on average.
But this is Budapest. There were battles in other cities as well. In Miskolc, Gyorda, Pec, the army and the police tried to fight. In Miskolc, the losses among the rebels on the first day alone amounted to at least 45 people. In some places, the rebels were bombed. Finally, in his speech on October 24, Prime Minister Imre Nagy said that as a result of the actions of the fascists (this is exactly what the national hero of Hungary Imre Nagy said - this document is stored in the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, RGASPI), many servicemen and civil servants died and mine citizens. That's a lot! And this is only for a day of mutiny.
After the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Budapest on October 30, fighting broke out in the city between various rebel groups. The deputy of Ivan Kovach, the commander of one of the most significant rebel groups in the Korovin cinema, Gabor Dilinki, testifies that on October 30, even inside the Korovinites themselves, shootings began. In particular, Gabor's own girlfriend was killed. Western correspondents have noted the beginning of the incessant shootings in Budapest after October 30 - at a time when Soviet troops were simply not there.
Particular attention is paid in Western correspondence from "free Budapest" to the actions of the detachments of Jozsef Dudas, who first decided to expropriate the assets of the National Bank. Naturally, this all happened with the shooting.
Finally, in Budapest itself, after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the so-called "White Terror" began, when Bela Kirai's guards and Dudash's troops destroyed communists, state security officers and servicemen who refused to obey them. Photos and newsreels of people hanged with signs of torture, with faces covered with acid, have spread all over the world and are well known to everyone.
On October 30, Kirai's guards shot the state security soldiers guarding the building of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party. The assault on the building was carried out on a large scale: with the involvement of infantry and tanks. Surrendered soldiers and officers were simply shot. The photo report of Life magazine correspondent John Sadjovy has spread all over the world. Like his story about it:
« Six young officers came out, one very handsome. Their shoulder straps were torn off. Quick dispute. We are not as bad as you think, give us a chance, they said. I was three feet from this group. Suddenly one began to bend. They must have been shooting very close, right in the ribs. They all fell like cut corn. Very graceful. And when they were already on the ground, the rebels still poured lead on them. I've been to the war three times, but I've never seen anything more terrible ».
Finally, the actual cruelty of the Soviet troops in the suppression of the uprising. Let us recall the total number of Hungarians killed: 2,500. Interestingly, at the time of the storming of Budapest on November 4, the city was defended, according to various estimates, from 30 to 50 thousand people. This is just Budapest. In the city of Pecs, a group of 2,000 people put up very stubborn resistance. Miskolc resisted very stubbornly. And with so many rebels resisting, 2,500 dead, including those killed in the intra-Hungarian civil conflict across Hungary ??? Amazing. Still, even if we roughly estimate how many Hungarians died in clashes with Soviet troops proper, then there will be hardly a thousand people. And this is a loss, quite comparable to ours.
For all that, the Soviet army did not use aircraft and artillery for combat purposes. Tank attacks were sporadic - in any case, the chronicle of the tanks of the rebels firing at the building of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party is known to the whole world, but for some reason there are no newsreels or photos of Soviet tanks shooting.
The "cruelty" of Soviet troops is also evidenced by the report on the hostilities in Hungary of the 12th separate Rymnik SMR of the Order of Bogdan Khmelnytsky of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR. For the uninitiated, this is special forces. Before the events in Hungary, his fighters waged an active and really tough fight against the UPA units in Ukraine. They were sent to Hungary on November 6 and arrived 3 days later. We were on a business trip for 2 months. Their tasks included: covering the Hungarian-Austrian border, eliminating the rebels, arresting the rebels, protecting important facilities. So, according to the report, during the two months of the trip, the special forces soldiers, who were not distinguished in their activities with special scrupulousness, killed ... one Hungarian. In two months! And this is not a press release. This is a top secret document for internal use. The classification has been removed just recently, and the document is kept in the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA).
Thus, it is clear that in the course of the battles with the Soviet troops, a quite comparable number of Hungarians died - within a thousand people. The rest are victims of the internal Hungarian conflict itself.
Myth 2
"Imre Nagy and Pal Maleter are Hungarian freedom fighters."
To understand this myth, it is worth reading the biographies of these heroes. Pal Maleter. At the time of the mutiny - Colonel VNA. During World War II, he fought as part of the army of fascist Hungary against the USSR. It is worth recalling here the obvious fact that the Hungarian soldiers on the Eastern Front were inferior in cruelty only to the SS. And that's not always the case. In Voronezh villages, the Magyars are remembered very well and are by no means remembered with kind words.
Maleter was captured and immediately began to re-educate himself. After a while, he was already conducting propaganda work among the Hungarian prisoners. Then he collaborates with Soviet intelligence. The trust in him is so great that in 1944 he took part in partisan actions against the Hungarians and the Germans. Actually, it is worth dwelling on this point in more detail. The fact is that during the war there were many defectors and surrendered, but just a few were given such trust. It had to be earned. Unfortunately, the GRU archives, which could shed light on the secret of such trust in Maleter and his merits, are, alas, classified. But it would be naive to believe that a person who once linked his fate with the intelligence of a country can easily leave his service.
For his actions, Maleter was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Then he studied at the Military Academy under Bela Kirai. Kirai recalls Maleter as an extremely fanatical cadet who even fainted from overwork. It even took an order to go to the hospital, as doctors feared for his health. Bela Kirai describes Maleter as follows:
"He changed his mind very often."
Knowing him military biography and his behavior during the rebellion, it is difficult to disagree with Kirai. On October 23-24, Maleter strongly opposed the rebels, declared his loyalty to the government and commitment to the cause of communism. Maleter decisively fights the rebels, which General Bela Kirai still cannot forgive him. On October 25, he with five tanks, according to Kirai, went to the Kilian barracks in order to suppress the mutiny in one of the military units. And went over to the side of the rebels.
Imre Nagy. Also a hero. He fought in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War. He was captured by the Russians. Participant civil war in Russia. Became a communist. Until 1945 he lived in the USSR with short trips abroad on the instructions of the Comintern (Soviet intelligence, if it is simpler). NKVD informer. It should be noted that when deciding on granting Nagy Soviet citizenship, admitting him to the leadership of the Comintern, his candidacy met with sharp rejection from the leaders of the Hungarian Communist Party, headed by Bela Kun. All of them were shot in 1937-1938. Except for Nagy. In 1990, KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov, at the request of the Hungarian side, sent copies of the Nagy case to Hungary. With his denunciations, slander against fellow workers ... For political purposes, these documents were hidden and have not been made public until now. Some part, however, in the early 90s leaked to the Italian press.
Then Nagy served for some time as Minister of the Interior. In this post, he achieved the return of most of the Hungarian prisoners from the USSR to Hungary, and also carried out repressions against the fascists and nationalists. At the same time, Nagy was a creature of Beria himself. The same Beria in 1953 forced Rakosi to appoint Nagy as prime minister. True, - the irony of fate - three days later Nagy was appointed prime minister, and Beria was arrested in Moscow. By 1955, Nagy was dismissed from office and expelled from the Communist Party "for right-wing views." To put it simply, Nagy, before all the Hungarian communists, grasped the tendency towards a "thaw" common to the countries of the socialist camp. As a man resentful of the Rakosi regime, in this capacity he was popular among the masses. It is characteristic that he was popular for a reason, but with the filing of Radio Free Europe, which presented the communist Nadia as a kind of lamb. Why did the West bet on Nadia? Everything is simple: his political spinelessness and personal lack of will made his figure very convenient for the outlined transition period. And, finally, Nagy probably hated his Soviet curators, who, as he knew, had powerful dirt on him. But one way or another, Nagy gradually became the leader of the Hungarian opposition. And in this capacity, he speaks already on October 23 in front of the demonstrators on the parliamentary square. As the witness, US Marine Corps Sergeant from the Embassy Security Corps James Bolek, shows, Nagy begged the people ... to disperse, but in response to his appeal, the "comrades" crowd roared:
"There are no more comrades, there is no more communism."
And on October 24, already appointed Prime Minister on orders from the USSR, Nagy in a radio speech called on, as he put it, the fascist provocateurs to lay down their arms. He calls the participants in the uprising only "fascists" and "reactionaries." At the same time, Nagy assures that Soviet troops are in Budapest exclusively at the request of the government.
Probably, Nagy realized that the power on the streets no longer belongs to those who demanded to appoint him prime minister just a day ago.
As events unfold, Nagy gradually starts doing more and more strange things. For example, it prohibits the VNA from active offensive operations. That is, it imposes on the army the same disastrous tactics that the Soviet Army has - to defend itself. On October 28, Soviet and Hungarian troops almost completely blocked the main rebel groups in Budapest, preparing for an assault and their destruction, but ... Nadia managed to convince Mikoyan, and that - Khrushchev, to withdraw his troops from Budapest.
After that, Nagy began to call yesterday's fascists revolutionaries. But Nagy had a difficult time. A military revolutionary council headed by Maleter was already operating in the country. A National Guard was created in the country, headed by Bela Kirai and former Horthy officers. Jozsef Dudash demanded a place in the government for himself and refused to disband his troops. Nagy tried to dissolve all the armed forces and start their construction anew, on the basis of the National Guard, however, Maleter opposed sharply with part of the Budapest garrison, Bela Kirai opposed Maleter, for which Maleter ordered his arrest, Dudash generally refused to obey anyone ... In addition, the United States relied in general on Cardinal Mindszenty, an active anti-communist, who called on all Hungarian Catholics to fight for freedom of faith. Mindszenty also called for denationalization, abandonment of all social gains, and the return of property to its former owners. Most of the army refused to obey both Maleter and Kirai, and even more so Mindsenty. Nagy was, after all, some kind of a communist. But on October 30, an anti-communist coup took place in Budapest. The building of the Central Committee of the party was taken by storm, the guards were shot, some of the communists were killed, and some were arrested. Nagy understood that the same awaited him. And he made an almost unmistakable move. He announced Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and the establishment of "new relations" with the West. Perhaps all this would have worked, since the West began to exert powerful pressure on the USSR, so powerful that even Zhukov and Khrushchev were inclined to revise relations with Hungary. But ... the Suez crisis broke out and the West was not up to Hungary. As a result, on November 4, SA units entered Hungary from three countries, and Nagy, calling for resistance ... fled to the Yugoslav embassy. It is very important what exactly in Yugoslavia: since 1948, Tito has been actively involved in a split in the camp of socialism, and Hungary was one of the priorities. It was with her that Stalin planned to start a war against Yugoslavia. In fact, history knows examples of how the leaders of states fought for their beliefs, or proving their case, or paying for mistakes. A similar example to Nagy is Salvador Allende. Calling for resistance, he did not flee, but died with weapons in his hands, defending his views and paying for his mistakes. Nagy acted differently. Well, every country has its own heroes. Among the Hungarians, for example, General Bela Kirai is also a hero. Yes, that one, the commander of the National Guard. He also gave his guardsmen (most of whom, according to Kirai himself, were "teenagers") the order to hold on to the end and fled to Austria, and from there to the USA. Here is such a general, such a hero. In our country, other generals are considered heroes.
What's more interesting, Imre Nagy until the end of his days formally remained ... a Soviet citizen. In the RGASPI, in the affairs of the Hungarian communist leaders Rakosi and Gere, there are documents confirming that they were deprived of Soviet citizenship when they left for Hungary in 1945. But there are no such documents in the Nagy case. As far as I know, the researchers did not find such documents regarding Nagy in other archives either.
Myth 3
the handiwork of Soviet soldiers and the Hungarian state security. "
The situation looks like this. On the morning of October 25, a crowd gathered in the square near the parliament. Mostly women and students. Opposite were Soviet tanks and armored personnel carriers with soldiers. All were quite peaceful. The Hungarians did not bully the Soviets, did not throw stones at them, but tried to communicate. Further, the widespread outline of events is as follows: shots rang out from somewhere from the rooftops, Soviet soldiers opened hurricane fire from all types of weapons, bullets hit the fleeing people, about 200 people died (according to various options, and more).
Well, actually, a different death toll is more common - 20 people. But let 200, if corpses are not enough for someone. Let's try to consider the problem from a different angle.
First, evidence is needed. But whose? Hungarians, like Russians, are interested and biased people. But we do have one important third-party piece of evidence: US Marine Sergeant James Bolek. He saw everything that happened and later described it:
“At 10 o'clock in the morning, two sailors and I were standing on the balcony of our apartment on the second floor, looking at Soviet soldiers, when someone dropped explosives from the roof of our building - at Soviet tanks and their teams on the street in front of our building. When the explosives detonated, Soviet soldiers began firing their machine guns at our building, starting from the first floor and ending with the roof. " .
So, it all started with the fact that someone threw explosives from the roof of a house or an upper floor onto a Soviet tank. Pay attention to one more detail: Soviet soldiers opened fire on the house, from where the explosives were dropped. This is also important.
Simultaneously with the shots of Soviet soldiers, machine-gun and machine-gun rounds hit from the rooftops - at the tankers and at the crowd, at people scattering in panic. There is a photo of these moments. The crowd is very scattered, not running tightly. That is, there could not be a crush and there could not be a solid defeat. Who was shot at soviet tank crews? Hardly in the crowd. Since the soldiers usually very clearly determine where the shooting is from, and respond with fire to fire, and not in general in all directions. Moreover, from the very beginning, they reacted correctly, opening fire on a very specific building. If our people fired at the crowd (which there is no evidence even from the Hungarians), it was only because they were fired at from the crowd.
But who started throwing explosives and shooting from rooftops? The Hungarians are sure that this is a provocation by the state security. But there are objections to this version.
First, by October 25, the Hungarian state security was completely demoralized. With its own troops, a huge operational apparatus, it, in fact, did nothing either to prevent the mutiny or to liquidate it in the bud. The state security units fought only in the provinces - and then only in defense. In Budapest itself, the Hungarian KGB officers did not show themselves in any way. In addition, by October 25, almost all of the district offices of the AVH (KGB) had been defeated. And why would the KGB agents arrange this? Soviet troops, at the very least, conducted operations against the rebels, as did the VNA. The task of the KGB is to seize and destroy. But under the cover of Soviet tanks, they did not. This provocation was beneficial to the organizers of the rebellion: by the evening all of Hungary knew that in front of the parliament in Budapest, Soviet soldiers and the GB had killed more than 200 Hungarians. The mutiny, which had almost subsided by October 25, flared up with renewed vigor, and sincere volunteers joined the ranks of the rebels. Part of the Hungarian garrison hesitated. All the agreements that were reached by this time were buried. Tellingly, supporters of the version that the execution in front of parliament was organized by the state security cannot imagine a single corpse of a Hungarian special services employee at the battle site or on the rooftops of houses around. Although the Soviet soldiers fired just a hurricane of fire from all types of weapons.
Myth 4
"There was a popular uprising in Hungary."
This myth does not stand up to criticism if you look at the documents, moreover, documents that are declassified and are in the public domain.
The fact remains: there was no uprising. There were several phases of a well-organized armed insurrection.
It is generally known that the events began on October 23 at 15:00 with a peaceful demonstration of students, which was joined by significant sections of the population of Budapest. Within three hours, the demonstration ended and an armed rebellion began.
But traces of a conspiracy, if there was one, must be looked for a little earlier. They are. And not so much hidden. In such an archive as RGANI, one can find such documents as the reports of the USSR Ambassador to Hungary Andropov or the KGB chairman Serov, in which they indicate that an armed insurrection is being prepared in the country. It is characteristic that these reports were sent in the summer of 1956. By the summer of 1956, the testimony of the detective of the special department under the Soviet military candidacy in Budapest, Alexander Goryunov, also belongs. It was during this period that Hungarian colleagues inform our counterintelligence officers about the existence of a conspiracy and about the preparation of a putsch.
There are also other documents. U.S. Army Intelligence Report January 6, 1956. It, in particular, points to information from a Hungarian officer, recruited back in 1954, about the existence of a conspiracy in the army. This officer reports that although the underground movement consists of a relatively small number of officers, there are cells in almost every Hungarian unit. Meanwhile, according to the testimony of the British correspondent Sherman (Observer), a certain VNA colonel played a significant role in the radicalization of the events of 23 October. On the night before the events, he met in Polytechnic University with the students and persuaded them to come out to the demonstration. Moreover, under his influence, an appeal was drawn up to the government with radical and clearly impracticable conditions, such as a ban on the export of uranium to the USSR, which, in fact, no one exported. Sherman writes that under the influence of the colonel, the demands became as radical as possible. A little later, the captured rebels pointed out the identity of the colonel. His surname is Nodar. During the mutiny, he became Bela Kirai's assistant. Characteristically, during interrogation, Nodar named Kirai one of the organizers of the rebellion. Considering that the head of the National Guard was not Nodar, who risked his life, but Kirai, who remained out of business until October 30, his testimony deserves attention. By the way, it was Nodar who was approached by the American military attaché with a request to help him in purchasing and sending to the United States of a new Soviet fighter MIG-17. Documents about this are again declassified and are in the RGANI and the Central Archives of the FSB of the Russian Federation.
There is also other evidence of the existence of a conspiracy and the preparation of a rebellion. The same Alexander Goryunov shows that shortly before the mutiny they received information that they had already prepared waybills for vehicles, that it was already known who would transport what - people, weapons ..., their routes were outlined.
Just before the start of the rebellion, members of the Hungarian youth-sports-military organization (analogous to our DOSAAF) were gathered from all over Hungary to the city. At first, they became the striking force of the rebellion.
Another point is interesting. The situation was rocking long before the events. In particular, dissatisfaction with the presence of Soviet troops in Hungary spread throughout the country. True, not because the troops are in the country at all, but because the Soviet army in Hungary lives at the expense of the Hungarian budget, thereby devouring the not-so-well-fed Hungarians. That this is nonsense is understandable. Soviet troops were on the budget of the USSR, for purchases in Hungary they paid in real money. But after all, someone brought these ideas to the masses, who immediately thought the same way. But how else: Hungary was in a state of economic crisis all the time, it was necessary to find the extreme. Rumors spread and picked up that it was cold in the houses in winter, as there was nothing to heat with: all the coal was sent to the USSR. Tellingly, during this period, coal was exported from the USSR to Hungary - due to its acute shortage in Hungary itself. We helped them, in general.
The uranium topic is worth a separate one. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, literally the uranium rush began. The United States managed to lay its hands on uranium deposits almost all over the world, except for Eastern Europe. On "our" territory, deposits were in East Germany (Gera), Czechoslovakia (Jachymov), Hungary (Pecs) and Bulgaria. We made the first atomic bombs from German and Bulgarian materials. It is clear that uranium developments were under the strict control of the USSR and were guarded by Soviet units. Serious counterintelligence work was carried out, including disinformation work. By 1956, in an atmosphere of strictest secrecy, development began on Soviet territory - in Kazakhstan. But the USA did not know this. But they knew about the deposits in Eastern Europe from the Soviet high-ranking KGB officer Iskanderov, who fled to the West and stopped in the United States in 1950 (by the way, Iskanderov's escape was one of the additional factors in the fall of the once all-powerful Abakumov). Uranium was not exported from Hungary (as well as from Czechoslovakia) to the USSR. However, the "masses" thought for something differently. And the "uranium" clause in the historical document "14 requirements" was number 6. Who inspired this nonsense to people? The answer is obvious. Those with whom the USSR in those years was in a state of nuclear confrontation. Although this moment is not hidden. All the demands of the "masses" to the government were first voiced on the air of Radio Free Europe, or to be more precise, within the framework of the CIA Operation Focus, which began in 1954.
But back to the popular uprising. As you know, the events began on October 23 at 15:00. Soviet tanks entered Budapest at 5-6 am on 24 October. Well-organized mobile groups of militants were already waiting for them, with commanders, communications, intelligence, weapons and clear coordination of actions. The Soviet troops began to suffer losses from the very first hours of participation in the Hungarian events. It is known about the good military training of Hungarian reservists and pre-conscripts. However, any military man will say that the distance from training to the creation of full-fledged combat units is very long. Soviet troops faced not teenagers, but well-trained troops. In addition, in addition to Budapest, the revolt began almost all over the country at the same time. And everywhere according to the same scheme: the seizure of authorities, radio stations, armories, police departments and AVH. It is characteristic that the events in the city of Miskolc became the second largest and most intense rebellion. The already mentioned intelligence report of the US Army indicated that it was around Miskolc that at least 10 partisan camps were located, each of which had from 40 to 50 partisans with radio stations, weapons and food depots. By the way, the area around Miskolc is the only one in Hungary where partisans can be - forests and difficult terrain.
In Budapest itself, the production and transportation of nitroglycerin was even established. For information: for sabotage, you can only use the so-called pure nitroglycerin, which cannot be made at home. Homemade, dirty nitroglycerin will explode either during manufacture or, at best, during transport. At the latest, as soon as you raise your hand to throw with a bottle filled with dirty nitroglycerin. However, in Budapest, these issues were resolved in the shortest possible time, which speaks only of the work done in advance.
How could the ubiquitous Hungarian state security have missed the conspiracy? It's simple. By 1956, state security was paralyzed by internal cleansing. Something similar happened with us a little earlier - after the arrest and execution of Beria, when in the subsequent purges the most professional intelligence and counterintelligence personnel were dispersed. In addition, in his memoirs, Alexander Goryunov shows: he and his colleagues had the impression that there are supporters of a change in the country's course in the AVH leadership itself.
The directives of the Council also speak against the version of the uprising. National Security USA. For example, in the directive NSC-158.
« Aims and Actions of the United States to Take Advantage of the Unrest in the Satellite States ”, June 29, 1953 states:“ Fuel resistance to communist oppression in such a way that the spontaneous nature is not questioned.
Organize, train and equip underground organizations capable of carrying out prolonged hostilities ».
The satellite countries mean the countries of the socialist camp.
Another directive, NSC-68, states: “ to strengthen operations by secret means in order to provoke and support unrest and uprisings in selected strategically important satellite countries. "
Oleg Filimonov
______________________________________________________________________________
The modern bourgeois Hungary, which drove out the communists, became a member of the EU, finally gained the long-awaited “freedom »
live in a capitalist "paradise »
... What kind of freedom? To become unemployed, homeless, hungry and sick, to work for someone else's capitalist uncle to the point of complete exhaustion instead of bringing your labor into social production, to be useful to the whole of society - i.e. be a respected person in society, and not a “loser »
, not a marginal, powerlessly watching the death of loved ones, for whose treatment there is no money?
In Hungary of 10 million, 40% of the population is on the verge of poverty, 15% is on the verge of poverty. Many political parties and religious denominations, from ultra-nationalists to socialists, from Hare Krishnas to Baptists, took part in the charitable food distribution in Hungary. But everyone knows that a person needs to eat every day ...
Photo of the edition "Népszava" __________________________________________________________________________________
On October 23, 1956, the Hungarian fascist rebellion began, prepared and led by Western intelligence services.
In the last twenty-five years, historians and journalists have tried to portray the Hungarian events of 1956 as spontaneous demonstrations of the popular masses against the bloody pro-Soviet regime of Matthias Rakosi and his successor Ernö Gerö. However, in fact, the scenario of this whole orgy was from beginning to end painted in the Central Intelligence Directorate, and if not for the timely intervention of the Soviet military, Hungary would have become a victim of the first Orange Revolution. It is still unknown how the Westerners would call this revolution, but the operation to carry it out was codenamed "Focus".
Operation Focus began with an information attack - using balloons Hungary began to be bombarded with leaflets. In the first half of 1956, 293 cases of their appearance in airspace countries, and on July 19 they caused a passenger plane crash.
From the evening of October 1, 1954, thousands of balloons began to be released from the Munich area. The balloons flew in waves, 200-300 in each, and each of them carried from 300 to 1000 leaflets.
The leaflets fell on fertile ground. The fact is that during the war in Hungary, which fought against the USSR on the side of Hitler, many Hungarians were killed or taken prisoner by Russia. Their relatives, naturally, had no reason to love the Russians, and many hated Russia even for the events of 1848-49.
However, the Americans pinned their hopes not so much on the masses as on the unfinished Hungarian fascists - some of them went with the Germans to Austria, and those who did not have time to escape created secret organizations inside the country. The largest of them were Sword and Cross, White Guard, Botond Division, Union of Cadets, White Partisans, Bloody Pact, Hungarian Resistance Movement and National Resistance Movement.
The Hungarian Catholic Church, led by Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, also carried out a great subversive work. Among the underground political groups, the so-called Christian party, created in 1950, played a particularly dangerous role. The Christian party considered its main task to be the cultivation of young people. Under the direct leadership of the top of the party, an illegal clerical youth organization operated, the creation of which several priests and former monks began to engage in as early as 1949-1951.
The propaganda activities of the clerics took various forms, including lectures, distribution of pamphlets and leaflets. In one of them, called "Call to Men," young people received the following instructions: "... the time will come when you will receive an order from God to destroy, destroy, destroy!"
The activities of clandestine clerical organizations could not have taken place without significant material "subsidies" from outside. Thus, the "Christian Front" received 130 thousand forints from its patrons abroad, the Congregation of Mary - 75 thousand in 1951, 75 thousand in 1954, 30 thousand in 1955 and 90 thousand forints. in November 1956, at the headquarters of Regnum Marianum, at a time when the Hungarian People's Republic security organs put an end to its criminal activities, 258,230 forints, 45 Napoleonors, 67 typewriters, 12 tape recorders, and printing equipment were found.
The role of coordinator of the so-called "popular resistance" was performed by the "Free Europe Committee" and its specialized institutions - through diplomats, spies, various emissaries, through broadcasts of targeted programs on Radio Free Europe channels.
The Hungarian events began on 23 October. At 3 pm, a demonstration began, in which about a thousand people took part, including students and representatives of the intelligentsia. The demonstrators carried red flags and banners with slogans about Soviet-Hungarian friendship written on them. However, along the way, radical groups joined the demonstrators, shouting slogans of a different kind. They demanded the restoration of the old Hungarian national emblem, the old Hungarian national holiday instead of the Day of Liberation from Fascism, the abolition of military training and Russian language lessons.
At 19:00 pm, the rebels seized several car depots and then brought the "demonstrators" to various sites in trucks and buses.
At 20 o'clock on the radio, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the VPT Ernö Gerö delivered a speech sharply condemning the demonstrators. In response, a large group of demonstrators stormed into the radio broadcasting studio of the House of Radio, demanding to broadcast the program requirements of the demonstrators. This attempt led to a clash with the units of the Hungarian state security AVH defending the House of Radio, during which the first killed and wounded appeared after 21 hours.
At the same time, an armed group of insurgents captured the Kilian barracks, where three construction battalions were located, and seized their weapons. Many construction battalions joined the insurgents. Colonel joined the rebels tank troops Pal Maleter, sent to the barracks to exhort the insurgents. He would soon become one of the military leaders of the rebellion.
The head of the Main Police Department of Budapest, Lieutenant Colonel Sandor Kopachi, ordered not to shoot at the insurgents, not to interfere in their actions. He unconditionally fulfilled the demands of the crowd gathered in front of the management to release the prisoners and remove the red stars from the facade of the building.
At 23:00, on the basis of the decision of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, Marshal Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky, ordered the commander of the Special Corps to start moving to Budapest to assist the Hungarian troops "in restoring order and creating conditions for peaceful creative work." The formations and units of the Special Corps arrived in Budapest at 6 a.m. and entered into battles with the insurgents and the Hungarian military who had joined them.
The military forces of the rebels in Budapest were concentrated primarily in the VIII and IX districts, as well as in the area of \u200b\u200bSeine square.
On the night of October 24, about six thousand servicemen of the Soviet Army were brought into Budapest with 290 T-44, T-54 and IS-3 tanks, as well as 120 BTR-152.
In the morning, the 33rd Guards Mechanized Division approached the city, and in the evening - the 128th Guards Rifle Division, which joined the Special Corps. During a rally near the parliament building, an incident occurred: fire was opened from the upper floors, as a result of which a Soviet officer died and a tank was burned. In response, Soviet troops opened fire on the protesters, as a result, 61 people were killed on both sides and 284 were wounded.
The organized counter-revolutionary forces immediately found support from the declassed elements and criminals. From all the available documents it is clear what a great role the criminal elements played in the activities of the counter-revolutionary gangs. Units of the Kishkunkhalash rifle regiment on October 26, near Budapest, entered into an armed clash with a detachment of counter-revolutionaries and captured 23 bandits. The overwhelming majority of those captured turned out to be criminals who escaped from a destroyed prison. All in all, in the period from 25 to 31 October, 9962 criminal and 3324 political criminals were released, most of the first of whom received weapons, and most of the latter were involved in the activities of the political bodies of the counter-revolution.
Simple, deluded people also participated in the battles, died. They were captured by counter-revolutionary calls and took to the streets with weapons, primarily for the sake of implementing the slogans of "national communism". The responsibility for their delusions and death lies with the "party opposition" with its demagogic ideology and propaganda. Among those who found themselves on the side of the counter-revolution, not sharing its goals, a significant part were young people. The leaders of the rebellion, the agitators of Free Europe, with astonishing cynicism used political immaturity, patriotic feelings and dreams of heroic deeds of children, adolescents and young people to their advantage. Some data can also be cited on this score.
During the period of armed clashes, a total of about 3 thousand deaths were recorded; 20% of the dead are persons under the age of 20, 28% are between the ages of 20 and 29. Among the injured, the proportion of persons aged 18 and under was 25%, and more than half were in the category from 19 to 30 years old.
The leadership of the uprising was carried out from Munich via Radio Free Europe. RFE maintained direct radio communications with some large armed groups. So, with the gang from Corvin Lane, two communication sessions were held daily: at 11 pm Free Europe transmitted its directives and instructions, and at 1 am it worked to receive information from the rebels.
Ernö Gerö was replaced as first secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party by Janos Kadar and left for the headquarters of the Soviet Southern Group of Forces in Szolnok. Prime Minister Imre Nagy spoke on the radio, addressing the belligerents with a proposal to cease fire.
On October 29, street fighting ceased, and for the first time in five days, silence reigned on the streets of Budapest. Soviet troops began to leave Budapest.
However, as soon as the troops left Budapest, the insurgents went on the offensive again.
Released from prison former officer of the Horthy army, Bela Kirai, who became a major general in the Hungarian People's Army, but was convicted of espionage and sentenced to life imprisonment, organized, together with the already mentioned Maleter, the Committee of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. The armed formations of this committee began to kill the communists and employees of the disbanded Imre Nagy AVH. There were also recorded cases of killing of Soviet servicemen on leave and sentries in various cities of Hungary.
Insurgents seized the Budapest City Committee of the Hungarian Workers' Party, and over 20 communists were hanged in a crowd. Photos of the hanged communists with traces of torture, with faces disfigured by acid, went around the world.
The uprising spread to other cities. The country quickly fell into chaos. The railway service was interrupted, airports stopped working, shops, shops and banks closed. the insurgents scoured the streets, catching the state security officers. They were recognized by their famous yellow boots, torn to pieces or hung by their feet, sometimes castrated. The captured party leaders were nailed to the floors with huge nails, and the portraits of Lenin were placed in their hands.
With each passing day, Imre Nagy grew more and more distant from his former beliefs. Already on November 1, he announced the withdrawal of Hungary from the Warsaw Pact, and the same Maleter was appointed Minister of Defense with the assignment of a general rank to him. Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, who was released from prison, also joined the government. And on November 3, Kirai was appointed commander of the National Guard.
Nagy demanded that the Soviet troops leave Hungary, and the troops of neutral Austria were concentrated on the Hungarian-Austrian border, ready to come to the aid of the rebels.
The USSR had to go to the military trick - to discuss the conditions for the withdrawal of Soviet troops to the headquarters of the Special Corps, the newly-made Major General Pal Maleter was invited. On the evening of November 3, he, as part of an official delegation, arrived at the Soviet military base Tekel on the island of Csepel near Budapest. Together with him, the delegation included Minister Ferenc Erdei, Chief of the General Staff General Istvan Kovacs and Chief of the Operations Directorate of the General Staff Colonel Miklos Syuch.
At midnight, the chairman of the KGB of the USSR, Ivan Serov, arrived in the hall where the negotiations were taking place and announced the arrest of the entire Hungarian delegation. Hungary was left without a military leadership.
Early in the morning of November 4, the introduction of new Soviet military units into Hungary began under the general command of the commander of the Warsaw Pact troops, Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Stepanovich Konev, in accordance with the plan of Operation Whirlwind. The special corps was supposed to take on the main task of routing the opposing enemy forces.
The composition of the corps remained the same, but it was reinforced with tanks, artillery and airborne units. The divisions had to solve the following tasks:
2nd Guards Mechanized Division - to capture the northeastern and central part of Budapest, capture the bridges over the Danube River, the buildings of the Parliament, the Central Committee of the VPT, the Ministry of Defense, the Nyugati station, the police department and block the military camps of the Hungarian units, prevent the rebels from entering Budapest by roads from the north and east;
33rd Guards Mechanized Division - to seize the southeastern and central parts of Budapest, seize bridges over the Danube River, the Central Telephone Station, stronghold "Corvin", Keleti station, radio station "Kossuth", plant "Csepel", Arsenal, block the barracks Hungarian military units and prevent the insurgents from approaching Budapest along the roads from the southeast;
128th Guards Rifle Division - Capture western part Budapest, capture the Central Command Post of Air Defense, Moscow Square, Mount Gellert and the fortress, block the barracks and prevent the Hungarian rebels from approaching the city from the west.
To capture the most important objects in all divisions, one or two special forward detachments were created as part of an infantry battalion, as well as from 100 to 150 paratroopers on armored personnel carriers reinforced with 10-12 tanks.
On November 4, Operation Whirlwind began. The main objects in Budapest were captured, members of the government of Imre Nagy took refuge in the Yugoslav embassy. However, the units of the Hungarian National Guard and individual army units continued to resist the Soviet forces. Soviet troops carried out artillery strikes against pockets of resistance and carried out subsequent sweeps with infantry forces supported by tanks.
By 8.30 am, paratroopers of the 108th Guards Parachute Regiment, in cooperation with the 37th Tank Regiment of the 2nd Guards Mechanized Division, captured 13 generals and about 300 officers of the Ministry of Defense and brought them to the headquarters of General of the Army Malinin. The management of the Hungarian armed forces was finally paralyzed.
Despite the complete Soviet superiority in manpower and equipment, the Hungarian rebels continued to obstruct their advance. Shortly after 8 am, Budapest Radio went on the air for the last time and appealed to writers and scientists around the world to help the Hungarian people. But by that time, the Soviet tank units were already completing the breakthrough of the defense of Budapest and occupied the bridges over the Danube, Parliament and a telephone exchange.
Particularly fierce battles, as expected, unfolded for the facilities of "Corvinus", Moscow Square, the Parliament building, the royal palace
Side by side with the Soviet troops, the Kadar hussars acted - volunteer detachments of communists dressed in quilted jackets and members of the Workers' Youth Union of Hungary.
By noon on November 5, in fact, there was only one strong point of resistance in the capital in Corvin Lane. To suppress it, 11 artillery battalions were involved, which included about 170 guns and mortars, as well as several dozen tanks. By evening, the resistance of the rebels, not only in the lane, but throughout the entire quarter, ceased.
During November 6, the Soviet grouping of forces in Budapest continued to carry out the tasks of destroying individual armed groups and points of resistance. Fighting continued until Tuesday evening, November 6.
By November 10, the fighting had ceased. Imre Nagy and his accomplices took refuge in the Yugoslav embassy, \u200b\u200bbut on the 22nd they were lured out and arrested. On June 16, 1958, he, Maleter and several other active putschists were hanged. On June 16, 1983, the remains of Nagy and Maleter were solemnly reburied in Budapest Heroes Square.
Kirai managed to avoid retaliation, who fled to Austria and soon became deputy chairman of the Hungarian Revolutionary Council in Strasbourg. Then he moved to the United States, where he founded the Hungarian Committee and the Association of Freedom Fighters. In 1990 he returned to Hungary, was promoted to Colonel General and became a Member of Parliament. He lived until July 4, 2009.
Anti-Soviet uprisings and demonstrations in post-war countries building socialism began to appear even under Stalin, but after his death in 1953 they took on a wider scale. In Poland, Hungary, the GDR, there were massive protests.
The decisive role in the initiation of the Hungarian events was played, of course, by the death of I. Stalin, and the subsequent actions of Nikita Khrushchev to "expose the personality cult."
As you know, in World War II Hungary took part on the side of the fascist bloc, its troops took part in the occupation of the territory of the USSR, three SS divisions were formed from the Hungarians. In 1944-1945, the Hungarian troops were defeated, its territory was occupied by Soviet troops. Hungary (as a former ally of Nazi Germany) had to pay significant indemnities (reparations) in favor of the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, which accounted for up to a quarter of Hungary's GDP.
After the war, free elections were held in the country under the Yalta Agreements, in which the Smallholders Party won the majority. However, the control commission, which was headed by Soviet Marshal Voroshilov, gave the winning majority only half of the seats in the Cabinet of Ministers, while the key posts remained with the Hungarian Communist Party.
The Communists, with the support of Soviet troops, arrested most of the leaders of the opposition parties, and in 1947 they held new elections. By 1949, power in the country was mainly represented by the communists. In Hungary, the regime of Matthias Rakosi was established. Collectivization was carried out, mass repressions began against the opposition, the church, officers and politicians of the former regime and many other opponents of the new government.
WHO IS RAKOSHI?
Matthias Rakosi, nee Matthias Rosenfeld (March 14, 1892, Serbia - February 5, 1971, Gorky, USSR) - Hungarian politician, revolutionary.
Rakosi was the sixth child in a poor Jewish family. During the First World War, he fought on the Eastern Front, where he was captured, and joined the Communist Party of Hungary.
He returned to Hungary, participated in the government of Bela Kun. After his fall, he fled to the USSR. Participated in the governing bodies of the Comintern. In 1945 he returned to Hungary and headed the Hungarian Communist Party. In 1948 he forced the Social Democratic Party to unite with the CPV into a single Hungarian Party of Labor (HLP), general secretary which he was elected.
Rakoshi's dictatorship
His regime was characterized by the political terror carried out by the state security service AVH against the forces of internal counter-revolution and the persecution of the opposition (for example, he was accused of "Titoism" and orientation towards Yugoslavia, and then the former Minister of the Interior Laszlo Rajk was executed). Under him, the nationalization of the economy and the accelerated cooperation of agriculture took place.
Rakosi called himself “the best Hungarian student of Stalin”, copying the Stalinist regime in the smallest detail, to the extent that in the last years of his reign, the Hungarian military uniform was copied from the Soviet one, and rye bread, which had not been eaten in Hungary before, began to be sold in Hungarian stores ...
Since the late 1940s. unleashed a campaign against the Zionists, eliminating his political rival, the Minister of the Interior Laszlo Rajk.
After Khrushchev's report at the XX Congress of the CPSU, Rakosi was removed from the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the VPT (Ernö Gerö took this position instead). Soon after the 1956 uprising in Hungary, he was taken to the USSR, where he lived in the city of Gorky. In 1970 he was asked to abandon his active participation in Hungarian politics in exchange for returning to Hungary, but Rakosi refused.
He was married to Theodora Kornilova.
WHAT DIRECTLY CAUSED THE RISE?
When it comes to the reasons for the many thousands of demonstrations that began in Budapest in October 1956, which then escalated into riots, as a rule, they talk about the Stalinist policy of the Hungarian leadership headed by Matthias Rakosi, repression and other "excesses" of socialist construction. But it's not only that.
To begin with, the overwhelming majority of Magyars did not consider their country to be to blame for the outbreak of World War II and believed that Moscow acted with Hungary extremely unfairly. And although the former western allies of the USSR anti-Hitler coalition supported all the clauses of the 1947 peace treaty, but they were far away, and the Russians were nearby. Naturally, the landowners and the bourgeoisie, who had lost their property, were dissatisfied. Western radio stations Voice of America, BBC and others actively influenced the population, urging them to fight for freedom and promising immediate assistance in the event of an uprising, including the invasion of Hungary by NATO troops.
The death of Stalin and Khrushchev's speech at the XX Congress of the CPSU gave rise to attempts at liberation from the Communists in all Eastern European states, one of the most striking manifestations of which was the rehabilitation and return to power in October 1956 of the Polish reformer Vladislav Gomulka.
After the monument to Stalin was knocked down from the pedestal, the rebels tried to inflict maximum destruction on him. The insurgents' hatred of Stalin was explained by the fact that Matthias Rakosi, who carried out repressions in the late 1940s, called himself a faithful disciple of Stalin.
An important role was played by the fact that in May 1955 neighboring Austria became a single neutral independent state, from which, after the signing of a peace treaty, the allied occupation troops were withdrawn (Soviet troops were in Hungary since 1944).
After the resignation of the General Secretary of the Hungarian Labor Party, Matthias Rakosi, on July 18, 1956, his closest associate Ernö Gerö became the new leader of the UPT, but such minor concessions could not satisfy the people.
The highly publicized Poznan Uprising in July 1956 in Poland also led to an increase in critical sentiment among the people, especially among the students and the writing intelligentsia. From the middle of the year, the Petofi Circle began to operate actively, in which the most acute problems facing Hungary were discussed.
UPRISING STUDENTS
On October 16, 1956, university students in Szeged organized an organized withdrawal from the pro-communist Democratic Youth Union (the Hungarian equivalent of the Komsomol) and revived the Hungarian University and Academy Students' Union, which existed after the war and was dispersed by the government. Within a few days, branches of the Union appeared in Pecs, Miskolc and other cities.
On October 22, students of the Budapest University of Technology joined this movement, formulating a list of 16 requirements for the authorities and planning a protest march on October 23 from the monument to Bem (Polish general, hero of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848) to the monument to Petofi.
At 3 pm, a demonstration began, in which, in addition to students, tens of thousands of people took part. The demonstrators carried red flags, banners with slogans about Soviet-Hungarian friendship, about the inclusion of Imre Nagy in the government, etc. Radical groups joined the demonstrators in Yasai Mari squares, March 15th, on Kossuth and Rákóczi streets, shouting slogans of a different kind. They demanded the restoration of the old Hungarian national emblem, the old Hungarian national holiday instead of the Day of Liberation from Fascism, the abolition of military training and Russian language lessons. In addition, demands were made for free elections, the creation of a government headed by Nagy and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary.
At 20 o'clock on the radio, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the UPT, Erne Gere, made a speech sharply condemning the demonstrators. In response, a large group of demonstrators tried to infiltrate the broadcasting studio of the House of Radio, demanding to broadcast the program requirements of the demonstrators. This attempt led to a clash with the units of the Hungarian state security AVH defending the House of Radio, during which the first killed and wounded appeared after 21 hours. the rebels received or took away from reinforcements sent to help guard the radio, as well as from civil defense depots and captured police stations.
A group of rebels infiltrated the Kilian barracks, where three construction battalions were located, and seized their weapons. Many construction battalions joined the rebels. The fierce battle in and around the House of Radio continued throughout the night.
At 23:00, on the basis of the decision of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces Marshal VD Sokolovsky ordered the commander of the Special Corps to start moving to Budapest to assist the Hungarian troops "in restoring order and creating conditions for peaceful creative work." Parts of the Special Corps arrived in Budapest at 6 a.m. and fought with the rebels.
On the night of October 24, about 6,000 Soviet army personnel, 290 tanks, 120 armored personnel carriers, 156 guns were brought into Budapest. In the evening they were joined by units of the 3rd Rifle Corps of the Hungarian People's Army (VNA).
Members of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee A. I. Mikoyan and M. A. Suslov, Chairman of the KGB I. A. Serov, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, General of the Army M. S. Malinin arrived in Budapest.
On the morning of October 25, the 33rd Guards Mech Division approached Budapest, in the evening - the 128th Guards Rifle Division, which joined the Special Corps.
At this time, during a rally near the parliament building, an incident occurred: fire was opened from the upper floors, as a result of which a Soviet officer died and a tank was burned. In response, Soviet troops opened fire on the protesters, as a result, 61 people were killed on both sides and 284 were wounded.
UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO FIND COMPROMISE
The day before, on the night of October 23, 1956, the leadership of the Hungarian Communist Party decided to appoint Imre Nagy as Prime Minister, who had already held this post in 1953-1955, distinguished by reformist views, for which he was repressed, but rehabilitated shortly before the uprising. Imre Nagy was often accused of the fact that the formal request to the Soviet troops to assist in suppressing the uprising was not sent without his participation. His supporters claim that this decision was made behind his back by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party Ernö Gerö and the former Prime Minister Andras Hegedyus, and Nagy himself was opposed to the involvement of Soviet troops.
In such a situation, on October 24, Nagy was appointed to the post of chairman of the council of ministers. He immediately sought not to fight the uprising, but to lead it.
On October 28, Imre Nagy acknowledged the popular outrage as just, speaking on the radio and stating that "the government condemns the views according to which the current grandiose popular movement is viewed as a counter-revolution."
The government announced a ceasefire and the beginning of negotiations with the USSR on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary.
Until October 30, all Soviet troops were withdrawn from the capital to the places of deployment. The state security organs were disbanded. The streets of Hungarian cities were left practically without power.
On October 30, the government of Imre Nagy decided to re-establish a multi-party system in Hungary and to create a coalition government composed of representatives of the UPT, the Independent Smallholders Party, the National Peasant Party and the re-established Social Democratic Party. The upcoming free elections were announced.
And the uprising, already uncontrollable, continued.
The insurgents captured the Budapest town committee of the UPT, and over 20 communists were hanged in a crowd. Photos of the hanged communists with traces of torture, with faces disfigured by acid, went around the world. This massacre was, however, condemned by representatives of the Hungarian political forces.
There was little Nagy could do. The uprising spread to other cities and spread ... The country quickly fell into chaos. The railway service was interrupted, airports stopped working, shops, shops and banks closed. The rebels prowled the streets, catching the state security officers. They were recognized by their famous yellow boots, torn to pieces or hung by their feet, sometimes castrated. The captured party leaders were nailed to the floors with huge nails, and the portraits of Lenin were placed in their hands.
The development of events in Hungary coincided with the Suez Crisis. On October 29, Israel, and then NATO members Great Britain and France, attacked Egypt, backed by the USSR, with the aim of seizing the Suez Canal, next to which they landed their troops.
On October 31, Khrushchev said at a meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee: “If we leave Hungary, it will cheer up the Americans, the British and the French imperialists. They will understand how our weakness is and will attack ”. It was decided to create a "revolutionary workers 'and peasants' government" headed by Janos Kadar and carry out a military operation to overthrow the government of Imre Nagy. The plan of the operation, called "Whirlwind", was developed under the leadership of the USSR Minister of Defense Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.
The Hungarian government on November 1, when the Soviet troops were ordered not to leave the location of the units, made a decision on the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact by Hungary and handed the corresponding note to the USSR Embassy. At the same time, Hungary turned to the UN with a request for help in defending its neutrality. Measures were also taken to protect Budapest in the event of a "possible external attack".
Early in the morning of November 4, the introduction of new Soviet military units into Hungary began under the general command of Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.
On November 4, the Soviet operation "Whirlwind" began and on the same day, the main objects in Budapest were captured. Members of the government of Imre Nagy took refuge in the Yugoslav embassy. However, the units of the Hungarian National Guard and individual army units continued to resist the Soviet forces.
Soviet troops carried out artillery strikes against pockets of resistance and carried out subsequent sweeps with infantry forces supported by tanks. The main centers of resistance were the workers' suburbs of Budapest, where local councils were able to lead a more or less organized resistance. These areas of the city were subjected to the most massive shelling.
Against the rebels (more than 50 thousand Hungarians took part in the uprising), Soviet troops (totaling 31,550 soldiers and officers) were thrown with the support of Hungarian workers' squads (25 thousand) and Hungarian state security bodies (1.5 thousand).
Soviet units and formations that took part in the Hungarian events:
Special case:
- 2nd Guards Mechanized Division (Nikolaev-Budapest)
- 11th Guards Mechanized Division (after 1957 - 30th Guards tank division)
- 17th Guards Mechanized Division (Enakievsko-Danube)
- 33rd Guards Mechanized Division (Kherson)
- 128th Guards Rifle Division (after 1957 - 128th Guards Motorized Rifle Division)
7th Guards Airborne Division
- 80th parachute regiment
- 108th parachute regiment
31st Guards Airborne Division
- 114th parachute regiment
- 381st parachute regiment
8th Mechanized Army of the Carpathian Military District (after 1957 - 8th Tank Army)
38th Army of the Carpathian Military District
- 13th Guards Mechanized Division (Poltava) (after 1957 - 21st Guards Tank Division)
- 27th mechanized division (Cherkassy) (after 1957 - 27th motorized rifle division).
In total, the operation was attended by:
personnel - 31,550 people
tanks and self-propelled guns - 1130
guns and mortars - 615
anti-aircraft guns - 185
BTR - 380
cars - 3830
THE END OF THE REBELLION
After November 10, even until mid-December, the workers' councils continued their work, often entering into direct negotiations with the command of the Soviet units. However, by December 19, 1956, the workers' councils were dispersed by the state security organs, and their leaders were arrested.
Hungarians emigrated en masse - almost 200,000 people (5% of the total population) left the country, for whom refugee camps in Traiskirchen and Graz had to be created in Austria.
Immediately after the suppression of the uprising, mass arrests began: in total, the Hungarian special services and their Soviet colleagues managed to arrest about 5,000 Hungarians (846 of them were sent to Soviet prisons), including "a significant number of members of the UPT, military personnel and student youth."
On November 22, 1956, Prime Minister Imre Nagy and members of his government were fraudulently lured from the Yugoslavian embassy, \u200b\u200bwhere they took refuge, and were detained in Romania. Then they were returned to Hungary, and they were tried. Imre Nagy and former Defense Minister Pal Maleter were sentenced to death on charges of high treason. Imre Nagy was hanged on June 16, 1958. In total, according to some estimates, about 350 people were executed. Approximately 26,000 people were prosecuted, of which 13,000 were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. By 1963, all participants in the uprising were amnestied and released by the government of Janos Kadar.
After the fall of the socialist regime, Imre Nagy and Pal Maleter were solemnly reburied in July 1989.
Since 1989, Imre Nagy has been considered the national hero of Hungary.
The speeches were initiated by students and workers of large factories. The Hungarians demanded free elections and the withdrawal of Soviet military bases. In fact, throughout the country, workers' committees took over. The USSR sent troops to Hungary and restored the pro-Soviet regime, brutally suppressing resistance. Nagy and several of his associates in the government were executed. Several thousand people died in the battles (according to some sources - up to 10,000).
In the early 1950s, other demonstrations took place on the streets of Budapest and other cities.
In November 1956, the director of the Hungarian News Agency, shortly before artillery fire razed his office to the ground, sent a desperate telex message to the world, heralding the beginning of the Russian invasion of Budapest. The text ended with the words: "We will die for Hungary and for Europe!"
Hungary, 1956. Self-defense units on the Hungarian border await the appearance of Soviet military units.
Soviet tanks were brought into Budapest by order of the communist leadership of the USSR, which took advantage of a formal request from the Hungarian government.
The first Soviet armored vehicles on the streets of Budapest.
In the fall of 1956, events took place that, after the fall of the communist regime, were referred to as the Hungarian uprising, and in Soviet sources they were called the counter-revolutionary insurrection. But, regardless of how they were characterized by certain ideologues, it was an attempt by the Hungarian people to overthrow the pro-Soviet regime in the country by armed means. She was included in a number of the most important events of the Cold War, which showed that the USSR is ready to use military force to maintain their control over the countries of the Warsaw Pact.
Establishment of the communist regime
To understand the reasons for the uprising that took place in 1956, one should dwell on the internal political and economic situation countries in 1956. First of all, it should be borne in mind that during World War II Hungary fought on the side of the Nazis, therefore, in accordance with the articles of the Paris Peace Treaty signed by the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, the USSR had the right to keep its troops on its territory until the withdrawal of the allied occupying forces from Austria.
Immediately after the end of the war, general elections were held in Hungary, in which the Independent Smallholders Party defeated the communist UPT, the Hungarian Party of Workers, by a significant majority. As it became known later, the ratio was 57% versus 17%. However, relying on the support of the contingent of the Soviet armed forces in the country, already in 1947, the VPT seized power through machinations, threats and blackmail, arrogating to itself the right to be the only legal political party.
Stalin's pupil
Hungarian communists tried to imitate their Soviet party members in everything; it was not for nothing that their leader Matthias Rakosi received the nickname of Stalin's best disciple among the people. He was awarded this "honor" due to the fact that, having established a personal dictatorship in the country, in everything he tried to copy the Stalinist model of government. In an atmosphere of flagrant arbitrariness, any manifestations of dissent were mercilessly suppressed in the field of ideology. A struggle against the Catholic Church has also developed in the country.
During the reign of Rakosi, a powerful state security apparatus was created - AVH, which had 28 thousand employees in its ranks, assisted by 40 thousand informers. All aspects of life were under the control of this service. As it became known in the post-communist period, dossiers were filed per million inhabitants of the country, of whom 655 thousand were persecuted, and 450 thousand were serving various sentences. They were used as free labor in mines and mines.
In the field of economics, as well as in an extremely difficult situation has developed. It was caused by the fact that, as a military ally of Germany, Hungary had to pay the USSR, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia significant reparations, which took almost a quarter of the national income to pay. Of course, this had an extremely negative impact on the standard of living of ordinary citizens.
Short political thaw
Certain changes in the life of the country came in 1953, when, due to the obvious failure of industrialization and the weakening of ideological pressure from the USSR, caused by the death of Stalin, Matthias Rakosi, hated by the people, was removed from the post of head of government. His place was taken by another communist - Imre Nagy, a supporter of immediate and radical reforms in all areas of life.
As a result of the measures he took, political persecutions were ended and their previous victims were amnestied. With a special decree, Nagy put an end to the internment of citizens and their forced eviction from cities on social grounds. The construction of a number of unprofitable large industrial facilities was also stopped, and the funds allocated for them were directed to the development of the food and light industries. On top of that, government agencies eased pressure on agriculture, reduced tariffs for the population and lowered food prices.
Renewal of the Stalinist course and the beginning of unrest
However, despite the fact that similar measures made the new head of government very popular among the people, they also served as a pretext for exacerbating the internal party struggle in the VPT. Deposed from the post of head of government, but retaining a leading position in the party, Matthias Rakosi, through behind-the-scenes intrigues and with the support of Soviet communists, managed to defeat his political opponent. As a result, Imre Nagy, on whom the majority of ordinary people in the country had pinned their hopes, was removed from office and expelled from the party.
The consequence of this was the resumption of the Stalinist line of state leadership, conducted by the Hungarian communists, and the continuation of all this caused the extreme discontent of wide sections of the public. The people began to openly demand the return to power of Nagy, general elections, built on an alternative basis and, which is extremely important, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country. This last requirement was especially relevant, since the signing of the Warsaw Pact in May 1955 gave the USSR the basis to retain its troop contingent in Hungary.
The Hungarian uprising was the result of the aggravation of the political situation in the country in 1956. The events of the same year in Poland, where open anti-communist demonstrations took place, also played an important role. Their result was the strengthening of critical sentiments among students and the writing intelligentsia. In mid-October, a significant part of young people announced their withdrawal from the Democratic Youth Union, which was an analogue of the Soviet Komsomol, and joining the student union that existed before, but dispersed by the communists.
As often happened in the past, the students gave the impetus to the beginning of the uprising. Already on October 22, they formulated and presented to the government demands, which included the appointment of I. Nagy to the post of prime minister, the organization of democratic elections, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country and the demolition of monuments to Stalin. Participants in a nationwide demonstration planned for the next day were preparing to carry banners with such slogans.
October 23, 1956
This procession, which began in Budapest at exactly fifteen o'clock, attracted more than two hundred thousand participants. The history of Hungary hardly remembers another, so unanimous display of political will. By this time, the ambassador of the Soviet Union, the future head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, urgently contacted Moscow and reported in detail about everything that was happening in the country. He ended his message with a recommendation to provide the Hungarian communists with all-round, including military, assistance.
By the evening of the same day, the newly appointed first secretary of the VPT, Ernö Gerö, spoke on the radio condemning the demonstrators and threatening them. In response, a crowd of protesters rushed to storm the building where the broadcasting studio was located. An armed clash took place between them and the units of the state security forces, as a result of which the first killed and wounded appeared.
Regarding the source of the weapons received by the demonstrators, the Soviet media alleged that they had been delivered to Hungary in advance by Western intelligence services. However, it is clear from the testimony of the participants in the events themselves that it was received or simply taken away from the reinforcements sent to help the defenders of the radio. It was also mined in civil defense warehouses and in captured police stations.
The uprising soon engulfed all of Budapest. Army and state security units did not offer serious resistance, firstly, because of their small number - there were only 2,500 people, and secondly, because many of them openly sympathized with the rebels.
In addition, an order was received not to open fire on civilians, and this prevented the military from taking serious action. As a result, by the evening of October 23, many key objects were in the hands of the people: warehouses with weapons, newspaper printing houses and the Central City Railway Station. Aware of the threat of the current situation, on the night of October 24, the communists, wishing to gain time, reappointed Imre Nagy as Prime Minister, and themselves appealed to the USSR government with a request to send troops to Hungary in order to suppress the Hungarian uprising.
The appeal resulted in the introduction of 6,500 servicemen, 295 tanks and a significant number of other military equipment... In response, the urgently formed Hungarian National Committee appealed to the US President to provide military assistance to the rebels.
First blood
On the morning of October 26, during a rally on the square near the parliament building, fire was opened from the roof of the house, as a result of which a Soviet officer died and a tank was set on fire. This provoked a return fire that cost the lives of hundreds of protesters. The news of the incident quickly spread throughout the country and became the reason for the mass reprisals of residents with state security officers and simply the military.
Despite the fact that, wishing to normalize the situation in the country, the government announced an amnesty to all participants in the rebellion who voluntarily laid down their arms, clashes continued throughout the following days. The replacement of the first secretary of the VPT Ernö Gerö by Janos Kadaroam did not affect the current situation. In many areas, the leadership of the party and government agencies they simply fled, and in their place local self-government bodies were spontaneously formed.
According to the participants in the events, after the unfortunate incident on the square in front of the parliament, Soviet troops did not take active action against the protesters. After the statement by the head of government Imre Nagy about the condemnation of the previous "Stalinist" methods of leadership, the dissolution of the state security forces and the beginning of negotiations on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country, many had the impression that the Hungarian uprising had achieved the desired results. The fighting in the city ceased, for the first time in last days silence reigned. The result of Nagy's negotiations with the Soviet leadership was the withdrawal of troops, which began on October 30.
These days, many regions of the country found themselves in an atmosphere of complete anarchy. The former power structures were destroyed, but new ones were not created. The government, sitting in Budapest, had practically no influence on what was happening on the streets of the city, and there was a sharp surge in crime, since more than ten thousand criminals were released from prisons along with political prisoners.
In addition, the situation was aggravated by the fact that the Hungarian uprising of 1956 was very soon radicalized. The consequence of this was mass executions of military personnel, former employees of the state security organs, and even ordinary communists. More than twenty party leaders were executed in the building of the central committee of the UPT alone. In those days, photographs of their mutilated bodies spread throughout the pages of many world publications. The Hungarian revolution began to take on the features of a "senseless and merciless" revolt.
Re-entering the armed forces
The subsequent suppression of the uprising by Soviet troops became possible primarily as a result of the position taken by the US government. Having promised the cabinet of I. Nagy military and economic support, the Americans at a critical moment abandoned their obligations, leaving Moscow to intervene freely in the situation. The Hungarian uprising of 1956 was practically doomed to defeat when on October 31, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU, N. S. Khrushchev spoke out in favor of taking the most radical measures to establish communist rule in the country.
On the basis of his orders, Marshal G.K. Zhukov headed the development of a plan for an armed invasion of Hungary, which was named "Whirlwind". It provided for the participation in hostilities of fifteen tank, motorized and rifle divisions, with the involvement of the air force and airborne units. Practically all the leaders of the Warsaw Pact member states spoke in favor of this operation.
Operation Whirlwind began with the arrest of the newly appointed Minister of Defense of Hungary, Major General Pal Maleter, on November 3 by the Soviet KGB. This happened during negotiations held in the city of Tököle, near Budapest. The entry of the main contingent of the armed forces, which was personally commanded by G.K. Zhukov, was made in the morning of the next day. The official reason for this was the request of the government headed. In a short time, the troops captured all the main objects of Budapest. Imre Nagy, saving his life, left the government building and took refuge in the embassy of Yugoslavia. Later, he would be tricked out of there, brought to trial and, together with Pal Maleter, publicly hanged as traitors to the Motherland.
Active suppression of the uprising
The main events unfolded on November 4. In the center of the capital, the Hungarian rebels offered desperate resistance to the Soviet troops. Flamethrowers were used to suppress it, as well as incendiary and smoke shells. Only the fear of a negative reaction from the international community to the large number of civilian casualties kept the command from bombing the city with planes that had already been lifted into the air.
In the next few days, all existing centers of resistance were suppressed, after which the Hungarian uprising of 1956 took the form of an underground struggle against the communist regime. To one degree or another, it did not subside over the following decades. As soon as the pro-Soviet regime was finally established in the country, mass arrests of participants in the recent uprising began. The history of Hungary began to develop again according to the Stalinist scenario.
According to researchers, during that period about 360 death sentences were passed, 25 thousand citizens of the country were prosecuted, and 14 thousand of them were serving various sentences. For many years, Hungary also found itself behind the "Iron Curtain" that fenced off the countries of Eastern Europe from the rest of the world. The USSR, the main stronghold of communist ideology, kept a keen eye on everything that was happening in the countries under its control.