THE HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS

The October morning dawned with hopeful purpose for Hungarians who had been doubling down on efforts to get their country out of the Soviet orbit. Marches were planned in Budapest that day and student activists had been spreading the word. In front of 20,000 protesters at one gathering, the head of the writers’ union read a manifesto declaring Hungary independent of all foreign powers. The crowd broke out into patriotic song and many crossed the Danube to join another demonstration, near the country’s parliament. Others converged on a square in the city dominated by a statue of Joseph Stalin. Carried away by anti-communist fervour, they tried to topple the monument with tractors and steel cables. It was only when factory workers arrived with stronger machinery that the ninemetre-tall figure finally collapsed. Tensions were rising between protesters and state authorities. That evening, Hungary’s secret police fired into a crowd gathered outside the national radio broadcaster’s headquarters, resulting in many fatalities. Hours later, Soviet tanks were rolling into the country. The Hungarian Revolution would go on until Nikita Khrushchev’s iron fist definitively crushed the uprising on Nov. 10. The grim tally: 2,500 Hungarians dead and 200,000 refugees fleeing the regime.