The relevant precedent was not Austria, where Communist rule had never been established and there were no “gains of socialism” to be defended against revolutionaries. That turned out to be wishful thinking, as the Soviet Union crushed the Hungarian Revolution.
Moscow’s acceptance of Austrian neutrality and withdrawal of its army fueled hopes that Hungary might follow the same path. The “Brezhnev Doctrine” from Khrushchev to Andropov These events of 1956 would shape Soviet and American policy toward Eastern Europe, and developments within that region, for the next three decades of the Cold War. People around the world demonstrated solidarity with the Hungarian revolutionaries, but the U.S and other Western governments were deterred from intervention by the reality of a nuclear Soviet Union with local military control (and the distraction of the simultaneous British/French/Israeli military intervention in Egypt). Two hundred thousand Hungarians fled their homeland.
It installed a new Hungarian Communist leadership under Janos Kadar that imprisoned hundreds and executed leaders of the revolution, including Prime Minister Imre Nagy and defense minister Pal Maleter. For a week the revolution seemed to succeed, but when the new government proclaimed an end to Communist Party rule and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, Moscow crushed the uprising with overwhelming military force. Contingents of the Soviet army intervened, but as Marshal Zhukov later admitted, incurred heavy losses at the hands of the revolutionaries and temporarily withdrew. While political power in Poland remained in the hands of the Communist Party, in Hungary protest turned into revolution on October 23 when the secret police fired on unarmed demonstrators. In October banished Polish Communist leader Gomulka resumed command of the Communist Party, defusing a threat of Soviet military intervention while sanctioning limited liberal reforms. In June Polish workers revolted in Poznan. In February 1956 Khrushchev denounced Stalin in a “secret speech” that quickly became public and sent shock waves throughout the Communist world. Signing the Austrian State Treaty in May, Moscow liquidated its occupation zone and withdrew all military forces from the country by November. This year marks the 60 th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution, the most violent of several upheavals in Soviet-dominated Central and Eastern Europe during 1956 that shattered Communists’ unwavering belief in Josef Stalin while demonstrating Moscow’s continued resolve to use military force to maintain control of Eastern Europe.Ī year earlier, Soviet leader Khrushchev had reconciled with Yugoslavia’s Tito, legitimizing national communism independent of the USSR. This article was originally published in the Hoover Digest ( 2016 No.
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