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5. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956
In October, 1956, Hungarian students protested against the domestic policies imposed by the government, and enforced by the AVH. The AVH were the Hungarian form of secret police, installed and trained by Beria. When the AVH fired upon and took out several students during one such protest, the Hungarian people rose up in outrage. Armed militias formed to combat the AVH. Captured AVH officers were frequently lynched, and armed mobs controlled the streets, often fighting each other as well as the instruments of the government. A new government formed, led by Imre Nagy, which ordered the disbandment of the secret police, and scheduled democratic elections. Since the 1953 death of Josef Stalin, Nagy had steadily worked to decrease the Soviet influence on Hungary’s domestic programs and long-term plans. Yet Nagy remained committed to communism as the preferred manner of government in Hungary.
On October 24, at the request of officials of the deposed Soviet-installed government, tanks and troops of the Soviet Army occupied Budapest. In Hungarian cities and in the countryside, the people who supported removing the Soviets took up arms. Most of the Hungarian Army stood to the side as the Soviets brutally suppressed the rebellion. Roughly 3,500 Hungarians, some supportive of the Soviets and some opposed to them, were taken during the rebellion. Another 16,000 or so were wounded, injured, or displaced from their homes. Another 3,000 civilians were ended simply because they were in the way of one side or the other. The United States government under President Eisenhower did little during the crisis, other than to protest the brutality via the United Nations. There was, by that time, little they could do. By then, the Soviets had the bomb, and military superiority in Europe.