V o L u m e I : a d

swept Latin America and South Africa. Yet the end of the Cold War also ex-

posed the inability of the international community to enforce human rights

even in the most extreme cases of genocide, such as in Rwanda, the Sudan,

and the former Yugoslavia.

Aviezer Tucker

See also

Carter, James Earl, Jr.; Charter 77; Glasnost; Gorbachev, Mikhail; Helsinki Final Act;

Perestroika; Reagan, Ronald Wilson; Sakharov, Andrei; Soviet Union; United

Nations

References

Donnelly, Jack. International Human Rights. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1993.

Falk, Barbara J. The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central Europe: Citizen Intellectuals

and Philosopher Kings. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2003.

Falk, Richard. Human Rights and State Sovereignty. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1981.

Forsythe, David P. Human Rights and World Politics. Lincoln: University of Nebraska

Press, 1983.

Liang-Fenton, Debra, ed. Implementing U.S. Human Rights Policy: Agendas, Policies,

and Practices. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2004.

Müllerson, Rein. Human Rights Diplomacy. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Tucker, Aviezer. The Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence from Patoc hka to Havel.

Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh University Press, 2000.

Hungarian anticommunist uprising (23 October–4 November 1956) brutally

suppressed by Soviet military intervention.

By the spring of 1953 the Hungarian economy was in deep crisis. The

economic policies of the Communist Party, under the leadership of ErnoP

GeroP, president of the National Economic Council, were proving unsuccess-

ful. The farms produced by land reform were too small for Hungary’s econ-

omy, and the government had emphasized heavy industry despite a lack of

natural resources to sustain it. Neither Prime Minister Mátyás Rákosi nor the

top leadership of the Communist Party dealt effectively with the difficulties.

On 4 July 1953 Imre Nagy, with Soviet support, replaced Rákosi as prime

minister. Nagy introduced a reform program dubbed the New Course. It

included reformation of the administration, an end to or reduction in forced

labor, an accommodation with religion, an end to police brutality, curtail-

ment of the power of the secret police, amnesty for political prisoners, allow-

ing peasants to end the collective farms, and relaxation of economic controls

and the pace of industrialization. These were also the demands of the rebels

in 1956.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev became concerned about these

reforms. When the political climate in Moscow changed in favor of the

hard-liner Rákosi in the spring of 1955, Nagy was forced to resign. Rákosi’s

Hungarian Revolution

939

Hungarian Revolution

(1956)

---

reappointment and the suspension of Nagy’s reform program were badly

received in Hungary.

The Poznana riots in Poland in June 1956 and Wfladysflaw Gomuflka’s

return to power there encouraged the Hungarian reformers. With the situa-

tion in Hungary fast deteriorating, Khrushchev ordered Rákosi to resign as

party secretary on 18 July 1956. But Rákosi’s Stalinist replacement, ErnoP GeroP,

was not acceptable to party moderates, who favored greater liberalization.

GeroP proved just as unpopular as Rákosi.

By 1956 there was widespread dissatisfaction in Hungary. Under Rákosi

the economy had deteriorated. A poor harvest and a fuel shortage in the fall

of 1956 coupled with events in Poland added to the already serious situation.

At the same time there was rising discontent among Hungary’s intellec-

tuals, who had come to enjoy limited freedom in the thaw following the March

1953 death of Josef Stalin. In 1955 nearly sixty of them signed a memoran-

dum that called for an end to rigid state regimentation of Hungarian cultural

life. Although most were forced to retract this daring measure, by spring and

summer of 1956 there was a rising chorus of protest. The principal outlet for

the intellectuals was a debating society known as the PetoPfi Club, named for

Sándor PetoPfi, the young nationalist poet who had died in the Hungarian War

of Independence (1848–1849). The dissidents were not anticommunists;

rather, they demanded that the government bring its policies and practices

into line with stated communist ideals.

940

Hungarian Revolution

20°E

45°N

15°E

25°E

Da

nube  R.

Adriatic

Sea

D

ra

va

  R

.

Szeged

Szolnok

Györ

Debrecen

Miskolc

Pécs

Budapest

C Z E C H O S L O V A K I A

R O M A N I A

Y U G O S L A V I A

A U S T R I A

H U N G A R Y

N

0

25

50 mi

0

25 50 km

Soviet troop deployments

Uprisings

H

UNGARIAN

 R

EVOLUTION

, 1956

---

All the while, Nagy’s popularity was on the increase, and intellectuals

and journalists were demanding reinstitution of his reform program. Reform-

ers within the party warned that if he did not return and the government

was not reorganized under his leadership, there would be an explosion. The

party leadership, however, resisted such steps.

College and university students were now committed to political change.

Students from the Technical University founded a new independent youth

organization, convening an assembly on 22 October 1956 to finalize their

main demands for political and social change. The demands included the

withdrawal of Soviet troops, appointment of a new government with Nagy as

prime minister, political pluralism, new economic policies, and trials for

Rákosi and his fellow communists. The minister of interior authorized the

student-led demonstration scheduled for 23 October.

The demonstration began peacefully at the statue of PetoPfi. The pro-

testers’ next stop was the statue of József Bem, hero of the Polish Revolution

of 1830 and of the Hungarian War of Independence. Originally planned as an

expression of sympathy for the Polish movement, the march reflected acute

dissatisfaction with the Hungarian government. The students then laid a

wreath at the Bem statute and read out their list of demands. Emboldened

by the growing crowd, the students instead of disbanding moved to Kossuth

Square in front of the Parliament building. A series of events that evening

transformed the reform movement into rebellion.

In front of the Parliament building, more than 200,000 people listened to

Nagy’s speech. In it he agreed to most of the demands, but as a moderate

reformer he refused to institute radical changes. Disappointed, the crowd

moved on to the building housing the National Radio Network with the

objective of announcing their demands on the air. A speech made by GeroP,

general secretary of the Communist Party, was broadcast instead. In the

speech, GeroP made arrogant and incendiary remarks that enraged the demon-

strators and led to an escalation of tensions. Fighting then broke out between

the demonstrators and police defending the National Radio complex. When

police tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas first and then opened fire, the

crowd stormed the radio building and occupied it. On 24 October, Hungar-

ian military officers and soldiers joined the demonstrators. The demonstrators

toppled a large statue of Stalin, chanting “Russians go home,” “Away with

GeroP,” and “Long live Nagy.”

In an emergency meeting on the evening of 23 October, the party’s Cen-

tral Committee voted to bring back Nagy as prime minister. The appointment

was announced the next day, and Nagy delivered a radio speech announcing

amnesty for the protesters if they stopped the fighting. Also that day, Soviet

troops began moving into Budapest and taking up positions in the city.

The demonstration consequently assumed an anti-Soviet, nationalist

character. Over the next four days sporadic fighting occurred between the

Soviet troops and the so-called Freedom Fighters, groups of students, workers,

and former prisoners. On 25 October in the course of a huge demonstration

in front of the Parliament building, Soviet tanks opened fire on the crowd.

Hungarian Revolution

941

Instead of

disbanding, the

students moved 

to Kossuth Square 

in front of the

parliament building.

---