A-Infos (en) Britain, Anarchist Federation Organise #67 - Organise! remembers the fiftieth anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

The Soviet army advanced into Eastern Europe in 1944. If certain people believed 
that this would lead to liberation, they were soon to be proved wrong. Not only 
was capitalism not abolished but the old fascist regimes, like those in Hungary, 
Romania and Bulgaria, which had operated as willing junior partners of the 
Nazis, were maintained in a sense in that the old political structures were 
maintained. The personnel of the regimes were for the most part, kept in place. 
The Soviet leader Molotov remarked that above all "law and order had to be 
maintained to prevent the rise of anarchy"!
The new Hungarian government had at its head Bela Danolki-Miklos, a general 
decorated by Hitler and who had acted as go-between linking the Nazi regime and 
the fascist government of Admiral Horthy, who in 1919 had launched an horrendous 
White Terror against the first Hungarian Revolution.

Horthy, because of his Magyar nationalism, had proved to be an unsteady ally of 
Hitler, who had sent in a German occupying army.

Many Hungarians were stunned when a Nazi dignitary, who still recognized Horthy 
as the legitimate leader of the country, was put in place at the head of a 
government, with the window dressing of a few socialists and Communists.

The Soviet regime had an objective of controlling the country through setting up 
a Hungarian Communist Party divested of any elements who still dreamed of any 
real form of communism. The Party gained control of the Ministry of the Interior 
and its secret police, the AVO. In 1948 it got control of the Ministry of 
Defence. It chopped up the opposition by allying with one current against 
another. It used torture and murder and repression. The forces of repression 
were a curious mixture of the old scum of the Horthy regime and the new scum of 
the Communist Party.

HUNGARY BECOMES A RUSSIAN COLONY

Russia imposed severe reparations on Hungary which drove living standards down 
and led for a time to famine. Moscow demanded $300million in equipment and 
agricultural products. These went to Russia for the most part, the rest being 
sent to Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

Despite the repression of the AVO and the presence of the Red Army, the 
situation in Hungary became explosive. Moscow had to reduce its demands from 25% 
to 10% of national budget of Hungary spent on reparations.

Massive nationalizations led to an economy co-managed by the Hungarian 
government and the Soviet Union. Workers in nationalized industries suffered 
appalling conditions, based on piecework with rewards for higher productivity 
(Stakhanovism) with the lowest wages for the majority!

A long struggle between the working class and the new regime began in this 
period. Absenteeism and doing as little as possible at work were the main 
weapons of the working class. The regime denounced "lazy workers" and the falls 
in productivity and the bad quality of goods manufactured. In 1948 the Minister 
of Industry said: "The workers have adopted a terrorist attitude towards the 
directors of nationalized industries."

A law was passed forbidding workers to leave their workplace without permission.

At the same time from 1948 to 1950, the Communist Parties of Eastern Europe 
expelled from their ranks a large number of what they called supporters of 
"Titoism" (in Hungary, nearly 500,000 were expelled!)

In March 1953, Stalin died. Workers' revolts broke out in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia 
where a demonstration of Skoda workers and arms factory workers was savagely 
repressed. Two weeks later, the workers of East Berlin rose up, setting off 
revolts throughout East Germany viciously put down by Russian tanks.

The Soviet leadership had to adopt a new strategy. In Hungary this meant that 
the `hard' leader Rakosi was demoted and the `soft' Imre Nagy was appointed as 
Prime Minister. Several reforms were put through: light industries were revived, 
which hitherto had suffered at the expense of heavy industry which the USSR had 
needed, there was increased production of consumer products, individual peasants 
were given aid, and repression became less severe. The Kremlin hoped that this 
would quieten the Hungarian working class.

After Khrushchev came to power in the USSR, Nagy was dismissed and Rakosi put 
back in place. Most of the concessions put through in the last 20 months were 
taken away little by little. Pressure to increase reparations redoubled.

THE POLISH WORKERS REVOLT

On 28th June 1956 the workers of Poznan demonstrated demanding the withdrawal of 
the Russians, the end of piecework and `Bread and Freedom'. Again the revolt was 
brutally crushed.

In Hungary workers continued their struggles with a series of strikes. This 
encouraged intellectuals, artists, writers and students to put forward their 
demands. The Petofi Circle was founded by students in the Communist Youth 
organisation. This became an important centre for debate and discussion. At the 
same time underground pamphlets began to circulate, literary reviews appeared 
and semi-public meetings took place. Rakosi made an attempt to forbid these 
meetings but failed. He wanted a massive roundup, but the Soviets were fearful 
of things getting out of control and intervened to have Rakosi dismissed again. 
He was replaced by his right hand man, Gero.

This allowed the Writers Union to boot out all Rakosi supporters from its 
leadership, replacing them with dissidents and even non-Communists.

The regime tried to curry favour by exonerating Rajk, a Communist dissident 
executed earlier for Titoism. Two hundred thousand people turned up when Rajk's 
body was exhumed to be re-buried for an official funeral. Before his disgrace 
Rajk had been in charge of the AVO. Most of those who turned up that day came 
not to honour Rajk but to show their opposition to the regime.

OCTOBER 1956 - THE WORKERS ENTER THE STRUGGLE

Through local union branches workers called for the running of the factories by 
the workers. The National Committee of Unions turned these demands into `union 
democracy' and `worker's control'.

These new demands added a revolutionary content to the agitation which up to 
then had been one of protest. The Petofi Circle took up the demands of the 
workers and turned them into a narrow demand to be made on the government. 
Learning that the old Polish leadership had had to resign, despite the support 
of Moscow, the intellectuals thought that their moment had come. The Petofi 
Circle called for a demonstration of solidarity with their "Polish brothers" for 
23rd October. The government banned the protest but then backed down when it 
learnt that people were massing throughout Budapest. Fifty thousand gathered to 
hear a resolution from the Writers' Union. This called for national independence 
on socialist principles, equality of relations with the USSR and a revision of 
the economic agreements, direction of the factories by the workers and 
technicians, the departure of Rakosi and for a new government with electoral 
freedom.

The demonstration was due to end but many taking part decided to march on 
Parliament. A hundred thousand gathered. It was decided to go to the main radio 
station so that the demands could be broadcast. On the way there, a huge statue 
of Stalin was dragged off its plinth and smashed.

Thousands more joined the march, including many workers. At the radio station, 
AVO thugs hidden in the building fired on the crowd, killing many. The crowd 
continued to advance, overwhelmed the police outside and took their arms to fire 
at the building.

Workers returned to arms factories where they worked and loaded lorries with 
arms which were taken to the radio station.

The panicking Communist Party leaders put the `soft' Nagy back as Premier. But 
it was under his leadership that the government called on the Red Army to help 
"restore order".

"It was the workers who..saved the struggle from complete collapse. They saw the 
Nagy issue as largely irrelevant. In the society they were glimpsing through the 
dust and smoke of the battle in the streets, there would be no Prime Minister, 
politicians, and no officials or bosses ordering them about," says Andy 
Anderson, author of Hungary 1956.

"The young workers led the way and everyone followed them," - 21 year old worker 
at United Electric factory in a Budapest suburb.

Workers and students set up a revolutionary council. The battle continued around 
the radio station. Nagy called for the laying down of arms and promised 
widespread democratisation. This failed to deter many people. The revolutionary 
Council of Workers and Students called for a general strike.

TANKS COME IN

Russian tanks moved in and many barricades were built against them. Fighting 
went on for three days in Budapest with workers and students using molotovs, 
arms they had captured and even a small field gun with which they bombarded the 
tanks.

Meanwhile the revolution was spreading.

At Magyarovar the AVO fired on a crowd killing over a hundred people. Armed 
workers and students from nearby Gyor arrived. The AVO headquarters was 
captured, and the surviving AVO thugs were beaten to death or lynched.

The general strike spread through Budapest and out into the main industrial 
towns. Revolutionary committees and councils were set up all over Hungary. 
Councils were formed in the mines, the steel mills, the power stations. Many 
issued programmes. Their essential demands were revolutionary in that they shook 
the foundations of the bureaucracy and were almost certain to lead from there to 
the creation of real communism.

Peasants and farm workers organised food deliveries to the urban workers and 
drove out the State farm collective managers. In some areas land was 
redistributed, in other the collectives continued under their control.

Soon Budapest prison was captured and all the political prisoners were released. 
When revelations came of the terrible conditions, torture and beatings, almost 
every AVO man captured was killed by the crowds.

Nagy now promised the disbanding of the AVO, and the Red Army withdrew from 
Budapest. However, this was merely to regroup. Nagy was warned by the councils 
that unless the Red Army withdrew completely, they would force them to.

The Nagy government assured the people that the Russians would not attack again. 
But soon Pal Maleter and Kovacs, who had been leading lights in the Budapest 
fighting, were arrested during negotiations with the Red Army. The Red Army 
opened fire on all the major cities on November 4th. MIG fighters strafed the 
population. The working class bore the brunt of the fighting that followed. Many 
Russian tanks were destroyed.

The AVO came out of the holes in which they had been hiding and began to hang 
insurgents in groups on the bridges over the Danube in Budapest. Many of those 
hanged were workers.

THE ARMED RESISTANCE ENDS

By November 14th, armed resistance on a large scale had ended. Although many 
began to return to work, the strike continued in most industries.

The new government under Janos Kadar started to arrest members of the councils. 
But the councils continued to consolidate their power and Kadar was forced to 
hold talks with them.

He began to use other means to destroy the councils. He started issuing ration 
cards, but only to those who returned to work, and used the Red Army to stop 
food deliveries to the towns by peasants. Nagy, seen as too liberal, was 
arrested. Later he and Maleter and others were executed in Moscow.

Kadar began arresting more workers' delegates, as well as delegates of student 
bodies. Many came forward to take their place. When the State realized this, 
they went in for wholesale arrests of workers. Mass demonstrations continued, 
and workers fought the AVO and the army when they came to arrest their 
delegates. Many were gunned down by the AVO. The arrests and executions 
continued through 1957. It was announced that the workers councils would be 
replaced by works councils, controlled by trade union bureaucrats, completely 
subservient to the State. And finally it was announced that any remaining 
councils were to be abolished.

THE WEST

It comes as no surprise that the Hungarian working class received no support, no 
arms, no medical supplies from the Western powers. What they fought for was as 
much opposed to capitalist democracy as it was to the state capitalism of the 
Soviet Union.

As for the Western trade unions, they did nothing. The International 
Confederation of Free Trade Unions rejected an appeal from the workers councils 
for an international boycott. Contrast this with the action of Liverpool and 
Hull dockers who refused to touch cargoes on Soviet ships.

The Hungarian Revolution helped dispel the clouds of mystification around the 
USSR and its satellites. It reaffirmed the notion of unrelenting struggle by the 
working class against all bosses and masters, no matter how they attempt to 
disguise themselves as the workers' representatives.

It lights the way to a new society for which so many working people have given 
their lives.

The best way to honour the Hungarian Revolution is to continue the struggle for 
human emancipation and the coming of a new society based on equality and social 
justice.
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