Budapest is a city of which I have many fond
memories, having spent several years of my
life living there. It is a city of two halves,
the rolling hills of Buda being divided from
the Hungarian Plain and the city of Pest by
the Duna, the Danube river. It is a city marked
by bridges, the castle district on the Western
Bank and the stunning Parliament buildings
on the Eastern Bank. But, while I am sitting
here with my fond memories of a city I love,
you may be asking yourself why I’m talking
about Budapest. Well, from a Cold War context,
the city played host to a pivotal event in
the course of the conflict. Budapest in 1956
witnessed the first serious attempt by a country
inside the Soviet sphere of influence to break
free from the chains of Moscow. This was an
event that would, when all was said and done,
loom large in the minds of other nations,
in East and West, until 1989, when we get
to the end of our Cold War story. I am your
host David, and today, we are going to be
setting the stage for the Hungarian Revolution
of 1956. This is...The Cold War.
Now, as you all remember we did a video about
a year ago on the Sovietization of Hungary
in the postwar period so we aren’t going
to go into detail on that process, but we
do need to recap a little bit, in order to
properly explain how and why the Revolution
happened. By 1949, the Hungarian Working People’s
Party, headed by Rakosi Matyas was firmly
in control of Hungary. All other political
parties were banned, the country had been
renamed a People’s Republic and a constitution
modeled on the 1936 Soviet Constitution had
been adopted. Symbolically, Communist emblems
had been included onto the national flag and
the coat of arms.
Rakosi, the self-declared “best disciple
of Stalin in Hungary” enjoyed almost unlimited
power, largely the result of his strong relationship
with the top Soviet leadership, particularly
Stalin. Of course, it hadn’t always been
Rakosi as the uncontested head of Hungarian
Communism. In the years immediately after
the Soviet ‘liberation’ of Hungary, there
were two centres of power in the Hungarian
communist movement. There were the communists
who had operated against the wartime Horthy
government and then the Nazi occupation. This
faction was led by a man named Rajk Laszlo
and was far more popular than the second faction,
the Moscow communists, who had been in exile
in the Soviet Union during the war years and
had only returned in the wake of the Red Army’s
arrival. This was the faction led by Rakosi
but was also made up of prominent post-war
politicians such as Gero Erno, who became
the Minister of Finance.
This split between Rakosi and Rajk, driven
by the threat Rajk posed to Rakosi’s leadership
eventually came to a head in 1949 when Rakosi
had Rajk arrested on charges of espionage.
He was accused of spying on behalf of Stalin’s
now arch-nemesis...Josip Tito. Rajk was tried
and naturally found guilty of participation
in a plot against Rakosi and Gero. He was
then executed in a fit of oppression worthy
of the Evil Moustache Man in Moscow. Included
in the waves of arrests that followed was
the Minister of the Interior Kadar Janos;
remember that name for later.
Now, that wave of oppression. It has been
estimated that over 2,000 people were deemed
a mix of class enemies, spies, deviants and
or saboteurs and were subsequently executed.
On top of this, over 100,000 people were imprisoned
and tens of thousands were sent into labour
camps. This included Hungarians who were deemed
to be bourgeois, members of the intelligentsia,
aristocrats, and former members of the old
regime. Now those are designations you might
expect to find, but also among those arrested
were members of the Hungarian Workers Party
who opposed Rakosi’s methods or what he
stood for. This was a purge.
At the same time this was going on, Rakosi
was developing a cult of personality, with
himself at the centre. And his friend, Stalin,
of course. Busts, monuments and portraits
of both men began to appear across the country.
All public speeches and even academic writings
were mandated to make glowing references to
both men. Those loyal to the regime, however,
were rewarded while at the same time, those
deemed not-loyal were punished. Over 26,000
people, from the middle and upper class in
Budapest, were forcibly removed from their
homes to make way for members of the Hungarian
Communist Party.
Rakosi began to reshape the economy of Hungary,
along Stalinist principles. This was always
going to be a difficult task, as Hungary was
forced to pay reparations to The Soviet Union,
Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia for the role
it had played as a member of the Axis.In 1946,
the Hungarian National Bank estimated reparation
payments at between 19 and 22% of the annual
national income. This is of course where we
would mention Marshall Plan aid coming to
the rescue...except Hungary declined to participate
in the Marshall Plan on ideological grounds.
So, what did the Hungarian economy look like?
Rakosi, like the true Stalinist he was, focused
economic investment and development on heavy
industry, at the expense of Hungary’s traditional
strengths such as textile manufacture and
agriculture. This was done because heavy industry
and not cloth was the only way to prepare
for the upcoming global war against the capitalists.
Now, we have to point out that not only was
Hungary moving away from its strong suit but
much of the raw output of its new industries
was largely being sent off the Soviet Union
for use there. When all of this was combined
with the purging of many of the country's
economic professionals, seriously problems
began to occur. The real income of Hungarian
workers in 1952 had dropped by two thirds
when compared to 1938 figures.
And then 1953 rolled around. We pointed out
in a past video that it was a monumental year
because The Tankie-in-Chief died. Obviously,
the repercussions were not just felt in the
Soviet Union, but in the satellite states
as well, Hungary certainly being no exception.
Like a Magical Golden Ring to rule them all,
to find them all, to bring them all and in
the darkness bind them when that ring was
destroyed, things began to crumble.
In Hungary, the cult of personality surrounding
both Stalin and Rakosi began to be questioned,
criticised and even rejected. As new power
dynamics began to assert themselves in the
Kremlin, new people and positions gained influence.
Rakosi, as a devout Stalinist, found his position
becoming more and more unstable. Unpopular
at home due to the waves of repression and
the economic mismanagement, in July of 1953
Rakosi was forced by Moscow to step down as
the Prime Minister although he still retained
his position as First Secretary of the Hungary
Workers Party. He was replaced as Prime Minister
by another of the Moscow exiles, Nagy Imre.
Nagy set about trying to liberalize both the
economic and political situation in the country.
He began to steer the economy back towards
consumer goods rather than heavy industry
and reduced the taxation rate on peasants,
all in an effort to increase living standards.
Political prisoners were released, forced
labour camps were closed and members of the
communist party who had been expelled were
allowed back into the party. Peter Gabor,
the leader of the AVH, the State Protection
Authority or secret police, was arrested and
put in prison. The AVH had been responsible
for the carrying out of the waves of repression
and had a reputation for both cruelty and
brutality.
So things are looking up for Hungary at this
point, right? Well, politics in Moscow being
what they were, the answer to the question
is “no”. Just as Rakosi was tied to Stalin,
Nagy was tied to Malenkov, who you of course
recall seemed ascendant in the period after
Stalin’s death. However, as Khrushchev gained
the upper hand in the Kremlin, Nagy’s power
diminished, to the point that Rakosi was able
to stage a comeback in Budapest. Rakosi, still
First Secretary, continued to wield a great
deal of influence and he used a massive propaganda
campaign to accuse Nagy of economic mismanagement.
Nagy was forced to retire as a result.
And then the Secret Speech happened! As Khrushchev
solidified his power in Moscow by turning
on Stalinism and those most publicly associated
to it, Rakosi’s position in Hungary was
again on shaky ground. So much so, that in
July 1956, Rakosi was forced to step down
from all his political offices and he actually
fled to the Soviet Union, where he lived for
the rest of his life. Gero Erno took over
as First Secretary, a move that proved to
be very unpopular with many Hungarians.
Of course, as we set the stage for the Revolution
that was to come, it is also important to
factor in a few more details. Stalin’s death,
the Secret Speech and the start of the Thaw
did not only have an impact on the Soviet
Union and on Hungary but on many of the countries
behind the Iron Curtain. Poland for example,
saw the death of its Stalinist leader Boleslaw
Bierut in 1956, and in the wake of mass protests
in the city of Poznan, the reformist politician
Wladyslaw Gomulka was allowed to take over,
giving more local control to Poland. Along
with this, a large number of Soviet Army troops
were withdrawn from the country. How could
Hungary NOT see this and hope for similar!
Polish successes emboldened not only Hungarian
reformers but also students, members of the
intelligentsia and moderates across the country.
Public forums began to be organized, discussing
the challenges the country faced as well as
how to tackle and fix these challenges. These
so-called Petofi circles, named after the
National Poet and hero of the Revolution of
1848 Petofi Sandor, attracted thousands of
participants. On October 6, 1956 Rajk Laszlo,
executed in 1949 you’ll remember, was reburied
in a ceremony that attracted huge crowds.
Spurred on by the prospect of reform, student
groups began to organize themselves.
Hungary, a country with a long tradition of
Revolution, successful or not, was waking
up. Following years of military dictatorship,
war and destruction, of occupation and now
of communist dictatorship, momentum was building
for change to occur in the country. Led by
a government that was both unstable and unpopular,
the country faced deep economic challenges.
No longer restrained by the threat of direct
Stalinist force, the discontent of the people
was boiling up, bolstered by the positive
changes that they were witnessing in other
Eastern European nations. Hungary and Hungarians
felt that change was now possible. The stage
was set for the dramatic, and deadly, events
that were to play out in October and November
of 1956.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of The
Cold War. We will be bringing you the second
part of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution soon
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