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subjects, but i we did, we were cursing the Russians, that was most o the timewhat it amounted to." "We were the rst generation that was not scared. Aterall we had nothing to lose and we also had the eeling that we couldn't bearthis or an entire lie."Discontent and workers' opposition thus existed long beore 1956. However,the American assessment in December 1953 by an army attaché was that"There are no organised resistance groups in Hungary; the populationdoes not now, nor will they in the uture, have the capacity to resist activelythe present regime;". With a similar attitude, the Russian leader Khrushchevthought that i he'd had ten Hungarian writers shot at the right moment, nothingwould have happened. A week beore the revolt a reader's letter to the LiteraryGazette complained about the uselessness o the intellectuals' debates: "Theworking class is, and will remain, politically passive or good, and uninterestedin such hair-splitting...and without them what good can we do?"[6] However,a Yugoslavian political analyst was more perceptive, commenting nine daysbeore the uprising, "People reuse to live in the old way, nor can the leadershipgovern in the old way. Conditions have been created or an uprising." The AVH('Allamvedelmi Hatosag', State Security Force) sensed trouble toot they andthe Russian troops garrisoned in Hungary were put on alert ve days beoreOctober 23rd.Much has been made o the dissatisaction o Communist writers andintellectuals and their supposed leading role in the revolution. The intellectuals'program was only a criticism o Stalinism. Their 'Peto Circle' debating clubwanted orderly reorm and a change in the leadership (because the StalinistsRakosi and Gero had returned to power replacing Nagy, now out o public liealtogether). The Peto Circle did not encourage the revolt: it considered thatprecipitate actions could lead to a catastrophe. They were seen by workersas Communists and supporters o the regime. Nagy became a ocus or thiskind o 'opposition', which avoured working through MDP channels, and wascertainly against demonstrations. Most o these people came out against theuprising: two such journalists thought that the crowds behaved "like idiots" onOctober 23rd. One writer though, Gyula Hay, was honest enough to see whowas stirring up that: "I am perectly willing to accept that it was not I who awokethe spirit o reedom in youth: on the contrary, it was youth who pushed metowards it." Workers started to take an interest in what the writers were gettingup to in mid-September 1956, when a meeting o the Writers' Union saw theStalinists deeated in elections. A Literary Gazette account o that meeting sold70,000 copies in hal an hour. Such a rebu to the authorities was bound tobe o interest now.The occasion o the reburial o a rehabilitated Communist, Laszlo Rajk, avictim o an earlier purge, was used by workers to demonstrate en masse.Some 200,000 attended in the rain on October 6th: an observer commented"perhaps i it had not rained, there would have been a revolution that day,"There had been no dierence between Rajk and Rakosi politically, personalrivalry resulting in Rajk's trial and execution as a 'Titoist ascist'. The workers''support' or Rajk's rehabilitation was purely symbolic: on the other side o thecoin, a top Communist said that "i Rajk could have seen this mob he wouldhave turned machine guns on to them." The same day 2-300 students inarchedaway ater the burial using the slogan, "We won't stop halway, Stalinism mustbe destroyed" Despite shouting this, the students weren't stopped by thepolice, who assumed that any kind o demonstration must be an ocial one.October 23rdIt was the students who were responsible or the event that sparked o theinevitable. On October 16th students in Szeged had broken away rom theocial organisation and set up a new association. They sent delegatescountrywide to encourage similar breaks. By the 22nd there were similargroups in most o the universities and large schools. News had reachedBudapest o events in Poland, where the Soviet army had encircled Warsawas the Polish Communist Party changed its leadership under pressure rombelow. A meeting at the Polytechnic in Budapest resolved to march on the 2Jrdin support o sixteen demands. These included support or the Polish struggleor reedom; the removal o Soviet troops; the election o MDP ocials; a newgovernment under Imre Nagy; a general election; "the complete reorganisationo Hungary's economic lie under the direction o specialists"; the right to strike;the "complete revision o the norms in eect in industry and an immediateand radical adjustment o salaries in accordance with the just requirements oworkers and intellectuals"; and a ree press and radio.[7]This mixed bag o demands could not even have begun to be met by theregime - therein lay its explosive potential. Yet underlying the demands wasthe all-too-common illusion that what had been mismanaged by 'bad' leaderscould be rectied by 'good' leaders elected to replace them. The element onaivety was compounded by the way the students asked workers or supportbut not or them to strike; they wanted a silent march only. The Interior Ministrybanned the march, which made more people resolve to go. The ban waslited ater the march went ahead anyway. Although the march started silentlyas the students wished, it became more militant as workers o the morningshit joined in ater 4 o'clock. The early slogans o support or the Poles wereovertaken by shouts or reedom and "Russians go home.'" Someone cut thecommunist symbol out o a national fag and the fag o the revolution made itsrst appearance - red, white and green with a hole in the middle. More peoplelet work to join a demonstration that they weren't orced to take part in; soldierswere sympathetic and joined in too.By dusk there were 200,000 people (about one-sixth o the whole populationo Budapest) in Parliament Square. The authorities turned o the lights,whereupon newspapers and government leafets were set alight. The crowddemanded that Imre Nagy speak to them, but by the time he turned up themood had gone beyond listening calmly to speeches. Appalled by the sight oso many people and by the fags with holes, Nagy made the mistake o startingwith the word 'Comrades!' This was greeted with boos and shouts o "We're nolonger comrades!" The people had already rejected the whole HDP, not justthe Stalinists, and the 'oppositionists' were too moderate. The disappointmentwith Nagy turned into positive talk o a strike, and a crowd o youths marchedto the Radio building.At 8 o 'clock there was an ocial broadcast by Erno Gero in which he said:"We condemn those who seek to instil in our youth the poison o chauvinismand to take advantage o the democratic liberties that our state guaranteesto the workers to organise a nationalist demonstration."[8] This did nothingto calm the situation. The crowd outside the Radio demanded access, withmicrophones in the street "so that the people can express their opinions." Adelegation was taken in by the AVH to the Radio boss, Mrs Benke: she checkedtheir ID cards and ound they were workers rom the long machinery plantand an arms actory. Similarly, Kopacsi, the Budapest police chie, questionedsome youths picked up on the demonstration and discovered they were actoryworkers, some with Party cards.When the delegation ailed to reappear, the Radio building was attacked anddeended: at about 9 o'clock the rst shots were red with many dead andwounded. The crowd had got weapons rom sympathetic police and soldiersbeore the AVH's rst shots, and as the news spread, workers rom the arsenalsbrought more. The revolution had now started in earnest. An observer elt that"it was at Stalin's statue that the workers o Budapest appeared on the scene."When the crowd had trouble getting it down, two workers etched oxy-acetylenegear to cut it down. The boots remained on the plinth, with a road sign saying'Bead End' stuck on them. Hungarian troops were greeted as riends and alliesby the crowds; workers were arriving rom Csepel in lorries with ammunition.Arms actories were raided and the telephone exchange taken.The authorities called on the sappers in a nearby barracks, and told themthat ascists had risen against the government. The sappers were met byworkers who told them the truth. More sappers arrived to deend the HDF's
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