Hungary 1956
The Hungarian uprising in 1956 was a vital moment in the Cold War, showing both the aspirations of the peoples of Eastern Europe but also the determination of the Soviet Union not to lose its grip. It also demonstrated the limits of Western power. Despite a desire to “roll back” the Soviet Empire in Europe, President Dwight Eisenhower did not help the Hungarians, in order to avoid the risk of general war.
And it coincided with another international crisis, Suez, the effect of which on Soviet actions has always intrigued historians.
However, secret documents that have emerged since the end of the Cold War also demonstrate that the Soviet intervention was not quite the cut-and-dried decision that it appeared at the time.
There was a brief moment when it hesitated.
The BBC News writes about the moment when When the Soviet Union nearly blinked, the refugees drama, the brain drain that followed the uprising, along with a timeline of how the Hungarian Revolution was won, lost and won again.
“October 23, 1956, is a day that will live forever in the annals of free men and nations. It was a day of courage, conscience and triumph. No other day since history began has shown more clearly the eternal unquenchability of man’s desire to be free, whatever the odds against success, whatever the sacrifice required.” - President John F. Kennedy, on the first anniversary of the Hungarian revolution.
The change the Hungarian 1956 uprising produced in Russia’s image in the West is even more stretched by Andy H, an English blogger living in Romania:
Hungarian readers may be interested to learn that the 1956 events more or less destroyed the far left in the UK (obviously no major deal compared to what upheaval it caused in Hungary). After the second world war, the communist party was quite strong in Britain, but 1956 split it completely asunder between those who supported the uprising and those who advocated mother Russia sending the tanks in. To this day, the derogatory slang term for Stalinists in the UK (yes there are some) is “tankies“.
More audio and photos on the hungary1956.com and the REImagineFreedom.org websites.
Flickr photos byeszter.
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