There are many differing lines on the Hungarian Revolution of 1956; Stalinists say it was a “fascist uprising” or “counter-revolution” to justify drowning the revolution in blood. The Western line taken up by liberals and authoritarians alike, uncomfortable with the true nature of the revolt, is that the revolution was simply a “nationalist uprising.” The truth is that the revolution of 1956 was a mass uprising of Hungarian workers and peasants against the exploitative, oppressive rule of the Stalinist bureaucracies of both Russia and Hungary. The revolution did not seek privatisation or a return to the order of the old capitalists, but to fight for genuine workers’ control over society. For socialists today, having an honest understanding of this revolution and those like it is vital to understanding both the importance of “socialism from below” and the true nature of those nations ruled by bureaucracies, not workers. Much of the information in this article is drawn from the pamphlet Hungary ‘56 by Andy Anderson and the book Hungarian Tragedy by Peter Fryer, a communist journalist who was in Hungary throughout the revolution. The book contains many firsthand accounts.
Background
In 1918, during the Russian Civil War, which followed the October Revolution, the Hungarian communist party came to government and declared themselves the “Hungarian Socialist Republic”. After only 4 months, the government was deposed by foreign military intervention led by Romania resulting in admiral Miklós Horthy coming to power as dictator of Hungary. Horthy ruled Hungary for decades and has often been characterised as a fascist. At this time Hungarians were hyper-oppressed; communists and other political opponents were murdered en masse. Horthy was an ally of Nazi Germany for most of the Second World War and was rampantly anti-semitic. The Horthy regime deported hundreds of thousands of Jews to Nazi concentration camps. Near the end of the war, Hitler, fearing the Hungarians were secretly negotiating peace with the Allies, ordered the invasion and occupation of Hungary, which deposed Horthy. Eventually, German forces were driven out of Hungary by the Red Army.
The first government set up in Soviet-occupied Hungary, with Soviet backing, was the government of Béla Miklós. Miklós had been the first Hungarian to receive the highest Nazi honour: “Knight Grand Cross of the Iron Cross” from Adolf Hitler himself. This government still considered Horthy the legitimate ruler of Hungary. In 1945, elections were held, which led to three major parties being elected to parliament: the smallholders, the social democrats, and the Communist Party. By 1948, the communists had fully won power. Not through workers’ revolution and the smashing of the state, but via, as Hungarian Stalinist leader Mátyás Rákosi put it, “salami tactics”. They prioritised winning control of the Ministry of the Interior (police and secret police) and the Ministry of Defence. They used these positions to crush the smallholders’ party and forcefully subsume the social democrats. They also used these positions to suppress challenges from the left wing of the Party. In 1949, new elections were held in which all candidates were selected by the Communist Party. The Communists won, and shortly afterward the Hungarian People’s Republic was officially proclaimed.
There are two things it is important to understand when looking at the causes of the Hungarian Revolution: one was the exploitative role of Russia, which in turn feeds into the second cause which was the political and economic situation in Hungary. In the years following the Russian liberation of Hungary, harsh reparations were extracted; the USSR took significant amounts of money and machinery from Hungary, representing a significant burden on the economy. Additionally, the USSR enforced a massively unequal trading relationship with Hungary. Prior to the Hungarian nationalisation of industry, the USSR co-owned many Hungarian enterprises with local capitalists; following nationalisation, the USSR co-owned these enterprises with the Hungarian state. This relationship was also unequal, with a much higher share of profits being sent to Russia.
Then there is the matter of how the working class relates to the economic and political running of society. Even following the expropriation of industry from the capitalists, absolute authority was vested in state-appointed privileged managers who drove workers according to a five-year plan over which the workers had no say. The working class held no control over their workplaces; in fact, independent trade unions and the act of striking were illegal. Instead of workers having their surplus labour value extracted by capitalists, it was being extracted by the State over which they had no control. In Hungary, dissent was met with a heavy hand. Even relatively minor forms of dissent were dealt to by the AVO (the secret police), and by no means did this only extend to non-communists; the AVO was also used liberally in the crushing of dissent, or even suspicion of dissent, within the Communist Party. All of the above resulted in steadily deteriorating conditions of the working class.
The Spark and the Revolutionary Explosion
In 1953, Stalin died, and his successor Nikita Khrushchev took the opportunity to expose some of the highly oppressive nature of Stalin’s rule and began to loosen the iron grip of the bureaucracy on the workers of Russia and the eastern Soviet state, if only slightly. This somewhat emboldened workers. In Poland, a nation that was similarly being exploited by the USSR, workers took action. In the Polish city of Pozan, workers of a locomotive factory, after failing to negotiate for better pay and working conditions, went on strike; soon after, they were joined by the workers of many more workplaces. Massive demonstrations took place with demands such as an end to highly exploitative workplace practices, “Russian troops Out of Poland”, and “Freedom and Bread”. This defiance was met with violence. Russian forces surrounded the city, but in the end, loyal Polish forces were sent in to crush the protests. Soon after, protesters were put on trial and punished.
In the Hungarian capital of Budapest the newly-formed Petőfi Circle, a forum for debate and discussion founded by an organisation of young (and mostly anti-Stalinist) communists, called for a demonstration in solidarity with the Polish workers. This demonstration was set for 23 October 1956. The organisers applied for permission to hold the protest, which initially was granted. Following intervention from higher-ups in the bureaucracy, permission was withdrawn, and the demonstration was banned. As the date drew nearer, organisers made clear that they would protest regardless of the ban. On the day of the protest, the Hungarian bureaucracy capitulated, and permission was once again given.
The demonstration started with several marches of thousands of people starting from different points in the city, converging on the Bust of Józef Bem. When about 50,000 people had arrived (many thousands more were still en route), a representative of the writers’ union, a once state-sanctioned organisation but now centre of resistance, read out the following demands:
1. An independent national policy based on the principles of socialism. 2. Equality in relations with the U.S.S.R. and the People’s Democracies. 3. A revision of economic agreements in the spirit of the equality of national rights. 4. The running of the factories by workers and specialists. 5. The right of peasants freely to decide their own fate. 6. The removal of the Rakosi clique [the hardline Stalinist leadership of the Communist Party], a post in the Government for Imre Nagy [a communist politician seen as an ally to the people], and a resolute stand against all counter-revolutionary attempts and aspirations. 7. Complete political representation of the working class – free and secret ballot in elections to Parliament and to all autonomous organs of administration.
The demonstration swelled to some 100,000, and, following a rather infuriating broadcast from the government, the crowd decided to march to the radio station to have their demands broadcast. As they got nearer, they were met with a wall of heavily-armed AVO men. The protesters negotiated to send a delegation to the radio station. Hours passed, and they heard nothing from their delegation. The crowd became suspicious and, eventually, suspecting foul play, surged forward and pushed the AVO men aside. They marched up to the radio station and met another line of AVO men in their way. The AVO men opened fire into the crowd. Far from the expected reaction of dispersal, the crowd became enraged and surged forward, overwhelming the secret police and seizing their weapons. The revolution had begun.
The Revolution Moves Forward
Workers across the city were arming themselves. Workers of arms factories who had joined the protest returned to their factories and together with the night shift loaded trucks with arms to be distributed among the revolutionary workers and students. The Hungarian army within the city did not impede the revolutionaries. In fact, large numbers of them handed over their weapons, and some even joined the side of the workers and students. By 1am, the workers had occupied the main points in the city including the radio building; however, the radio transmitters were evacuated by the AVO, and Radio Budapest broadcasts continued, slandering the uprising as “fascists and counter-revolutionaries.” In the early morning, many thousands of workers and students were taking part in mass meetings and street demonstrations, arguing the way forward. A “revolutionary council of workers and students” was set up and began to provide leadership to the movement.
The Hungarian Communist Party leadership was in disarray. They sacked the prime minister and replaced him with Imre Nagy, the politician whom many workers saw as an ally. He was indeed more sympathetic to the cause of the workers, but this clearly had notable limits. At 8am on 24 October, it was announced that the government had invoked the Warsaw Pact, the calling in of Russian armed forces to help “restore order”. Very shortly after, fighting began between the workers and students on one side, and the Russian forces on the other. Nagy swiftly took to the radio and made an appeal to “the people of Budapest” (certainly a softer tone than “fascists” or “counter-revolutionaries”) to lay down their arms. In exchange, he promised minor concessions and that fighters would not be subject to summary jurisdiction (as opposed to usual legal proceedings). This appeal had little effect.
Mass peaceful demonstrations were still occurring in Budapest by 25 October, and several massacres of these protests were carried out by AVO forces. It is clear that sections of the Russian forces, who were told they were fighting fascists and counter-revolutionaries, were uncomfortable with the situation. Fraternisation with Russian soldiers was not uncommon. There were even instances of Russian tanks joining protests instead of halting them. In one instance protesters were chatting with Russian tank crews when AVO forces fired on them from rooftops – the soldiers sheltered protesters behind their tanks and opened fire on the AVO forces. Among the demands of the workers was asylum for Russian soldiers who had sided with the revolutionaries.
For three days, fierce fighting raged. On one side, trained Russian and AVO forces with tanks, artillery guns, and other military equipment. On the other side, the students and workers of Budapest, joined by sections of the Hungarian army which had defected, armed with light weapons and Molotov cocktails. The struggle was not limited to street fighting, nor was it confined to Budapest. On 24 October, the revolutionary council put out a call for a general strike. In response, the vast majority of the Hungarian industrial proletariat, along with large sections of non-industrial workers, went out on strike, with many taking to the streets. Industry was halted and food production and distribution came under the control of workers and peasants. Hundreds of revolutionary councils were set up across the nation. From small towns to industrial cities, ordinary people took up the fight.
To get a grasp on the nature of the revolution beyond its mass proletarian character, it is helpful to examine the demands put forward by the movement. Amongst various councils’ demands, the newly formed National Council of Free Trade Unions published a series of political and economic demands in line with those also being put forward by revolutionary councils across Hungary. These included demands for a new government representative of the movement’s progressive character, “that the new government start immediate negotiations for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Hungarian territory”, the “Constitution of Workers’ Councils in all the factories, to establish (a) workers’ management and (b) a radical transformation of the system of central planning and direction of the economy by the state”, the recognition of a worker militia, and a range of other highly supportable demands. These do not exactly sound like the demands of fascists or those seeking the restoration of capitalism; in fact, many of the members and leading figures of the revolutionary councils were self-proclaimed communists.
Direct armed conflict waned when the Nagy government announced concessions: the abolition of the AVO, the “reorganisation” of the government, and the intention of negotiations for the withdrawal of Russian troops. However, this was not the end of the fight. At the call of a meeting of delegates of revolutionary councils across Hungary, the general strike strengthened and expanded. They decreed it would be maintained until their demands had been more adequately met. A state of “dual power” existed in Hungary at this time; workers through their councils had practical control over most of the country. The Nagy government operated so long as the workers allowed it.
The Revolution Drowned in Blood
Following negotiations between the USSR and the Nagy government, Russian troops began to withdraw. Tragically, this was not genuine on the part of the Russians; they only withdrew outside of Budapest, then used the opportunity to pour in fresh army units. The Nagy government grew concerned and officially withdrew its invocation of the Warsaw Pact. It was too little, too late. In the early morning of 4 November 1956, Russian shells landed in Budapest.
Despite knowing that this time around they were facing the full determined might of the world’s second superpower (hundreds of thousands of troops, thousands of tanks and heavy artillery pieces, and so on), the oppressed peoples of Hungary did not flinch. Men and women took up their arms and took to the streets. They set up barricades and defensive positions and fought passionately. It took the better part of 10 days for USSR forces to defeat large-scale resistance in the main industrial centres, but ultimately, they were crushed.
Horrific terror was brought upon the people of Hungary. AVO agents came out of hiding and took bloody revenge. Imre Nagy himself was not spared. He fled to the Yugoslav embassy and agreed to take asylum in Yugoslavia. This was not to be. He was kidnapped, brought to Romania, given a sham trial, and executed.
Even after the events above, the working class continued to struggle. The general strike lasted long after armed resistance was quelled. Strike waves continued into 1957 until the workers’ councils were thoroughly crushed. Hungary was then ruled by a new government, one that did not draw its power from the people of Hungary, but from the terror of its secret police and a Russian occupation.
The above events make clear that the so-called “workers’ states” of the former USSR, its Eastern European puppet, and subsequently all those states ruled by Stalinist bureaucracies are anything but. It is critically important for socialists today to reject the oppressive politics of state capitalism and fight tooth-and-nail for a society in line with the genuine principles of Marxism: liberation from oppression and exploitation, workers’ control over society, and the crushing of the ruling class, whether they are private capitalists or monstrous bureaucracies. Additionally, the Hungarian revolution reminds us of the enormous revolutionary potential of the working class. We should honour their memory by waging with all our might a struggle for a better world in the 21st century.
Banner Image: Hungarian protesters march in Budapest on October 25, 1956. Image credit: Nagy Gyula on Wikimedia Commons.
