Friday, March 21, 2014
Hungarian Revolt
In October 1956, the Hungarian army joined protesters to overthrow Hungary's Soviet controlled government. They wanted to pick their own leader and have peace. Opposed to Poland's uprising, Hungary's revolt was more intense. Everyone had joined to revolt with Hungarian flags that had the communist hammer-and-sickle emblem cut out. This showed that Hungary was trying to leave the "Iron Curtain"and leave communism and that had upset the Soviets. Another way the Hungarians showed their dislike for communism was that they toppled a statue of Stalin. A Hungarian communist leader named Imre Nagy, promised free elections and demanded that the Soviet troops leave Hungary as he had formed a new government. Soviets tanks invaded Budapest with infantry units, Hungarians responded with pistols and bottles but the Soviets overpowered them. While fighting against the Soviets Hungary had asked the US for help, the US promised to come in 3 weeks as that would give time for the fight to burn out. But the US never came as they did not want to start a WW3. The Soviet invaders had executed Nagy and replaced the Hungarian government with pro Soviet leaders. This opened the eyes to the Soviets as they are understanding that communism is not working for everyone.
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Also, expanding with the uprising in Poland, it was never against communism. Actually, the uprising in Poland was to just acquire a new communist leader and government, so the Soviets did not feel threatened at all. They did not feel like they were an enemy, but with the full-blown Hungarian uprising, against communism, it really did feel like a direct hit. They needed to take out what was against them, and since the uprising was anti-communist, they felt that it needed to be put out. Do you think that this experience made the Soviets nervous of future anti-communist uprisings?
ReplyDeleteThis revolt seemed like the start of an anti communist uprising in Europe. Countries followed Hungary and they felt that communism was not working in Eastern European countries. This symbolized countries wanting independence and to get rid of not only Communism, but the USSR in whole.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this revolt was one of the events that shocked the soviets. It was like the beginning of a strong opposition to the communism. This event led the Soviets to feel threaten that they had to invade Hungary. The soviets even had to replace the Hungarian government with pro soviet leaders.
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