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Joseph Stalin's Death
Joseph Stalin, 73 years of age, had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died at 9:50 p.m. on March 5, 1953. Stalin's body was washed by a nurse and then carried via a white car to the Kremlin mortuary. -
"Secret Speech"
Khrushchev's secret speech, (February 25, 1956), in Russian history, denunciation of the deceased Soviet leader Joseph Stalin made by Nikita S. Khrushchev to a closed session of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Khrushchev criticized Stalin for having failed to make adequate defensive preparations before the German invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941), for having weakened the Red Army by purging its leading officers, and for mismanaging the war after the invasion. -
The Revolution has won !
On October 25 a crowd of thousands at the Budapest city centre's Astoria juncture made friends with the crew of a Russian tank row and pinned Hungarian flags on the tanks. When the people saw Russian tanks approaching from another direction with Hungarian flags on them, the word spread in the crowd: “The revolution has won!” However this wasn't the end -
Establishment of MEFESZ
one day before the Revolution - Technical University students established the "Association of Hungarian University and College Students" (MEFESZ), expressed their famous 16 claims and organized a rally to the Józef Bem statue of Budapest to pledge solidarity with the Polish demonstrators.
16 claims of students:
http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1956hungary-16points.html -
The Start of the uprising
the crowd marches to the Józef Bem statue and read out the 16 claims. a crowd of 100,000 was waiting at the Parliament for Imre Nagy, the reformist Communist politician whom they wanted to change the face of the country. When Nagy appeared at last at 9 p.m., he started his speech by calling the people "comrades" and the crowd started to whistle and boo at the much-awaited speaker in protest against the word introduced under the Communist regime. -
The Fall of Stalin
On October 23, in the evening the 18 m high statue of Joseph Stalin in Budapest's City Park was toppled, dragged to the National Theatre and there broken to small pieces. Afterwards the place where the statue had been standing has been jokingly referred to as “Boots Square”, since the only things that remained of Stalin's statue were his boots. -
Soviets Shutdown the Revolution
Hours later dozens of people died and hundreds were injured at the Parliament building when persons still not identified, and (in a subsequent onslaught) Soviet tanks opened fire on the people, part of whom had arrived from Astoria. At the nearby Communist Party national headquarters also wild shooting started among various Hungarian and Soviet units. Rounds by a Soviet tank hit the party meeting room where top party leaders were negotiating with Soviet comrades including Georgy Malenkov. -
Freedom Fighters
On October 26 freedom fighters at the Corvin köz resistance centre forced Russian tanks to flee by laying porcelain plates borrowed from a nearby public kitchen on the street pavement. The Soviet tank units, which had suffered heavy losses at Corvin köz in the previous days, did not dare to drive through the plates, believing them to be weapons. -
The Siege
several tanks of the Hungarian army arrived to Köztársaság tér to relieve the Communist Party's Budapest headquarters which was under siege. The crew of the tanks did not know Budapest. When they saw another tank firing, they didn't realize that the other tank belonged to the freedom fighters, and they started to attack the same building – which was in fact the headquarters they were supposed to save. This intervention ended the siege quickly. -
Freedom Fighters Take over
the freedom fighters, after occupying the party headquarters on Republic Square, dug huge holes in the square, using heavy vehicles. They searched for secret underground rooms because previously rumours spread that the police of the regime kept and tortured political prisoners there. Some of the holes were as deep as 10 metres. Finally nothing was found. -
Lies
On October 31 the state radio aired the famous sentence in which they admitted lying for years in favour of the dictatorship: “We lied at night, we lied at day, we lied in every wavelength” -
Uprising Shut down
A spontaneous national uprising that began 12 days before in Hungary is viciously crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on this day in 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter-million Hungarians fled the country. On November 4, 1956, Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest to crush, once and for all, the national uprising. Vicious street fighting broke out, but the Soviets’ great power ensured victory.
