The People's Co-operative of Hungary

Chapter 1: Rhetoric to Revolution
As promised in the more libertarian socialist countries thread, here is my first timeline. It's not the one I thought I'd tell, but it's a good one nonetheless.

Chp. 1: From Rhetoric to Revolution




In the immediate aftermath of the death of Stalin, throughout the Eastern Bloc there were numerous protest movements, buoyed by Khruschev's public denunciation of Stalin in the "Secret Speech", seeking to reform the Eastern Bloc in order to ensure basic levels of human rights, freedoms, and decency for all citizens. Of these, the most successful was that of Poland, whose protests throughout the summer of 1956 managed to ensure that Bierut would be succeeded by (relative) moderate Gomulka.




Hungary, meanwhile had throughout most of the time since the Red Army liberated Hungary been ruled by Matyas Rakosi, who for the past three years had shared power with his Prime Minister, the popular Imre Nagy, whose "New Course" for Hungary's failing economy included the scaling back of political repression and forced collectivisation in favour of a less totalitarian state, that while still unmistakably Socialist, would imitate some Western democratic ideas in order to render the state somewhat functional. Alas, in 1955, he was deposed (and expelled from the Party) in favour of Rakosi's direct rule. Styling himself "Stalin's greatest disciple", (and thus abjectly failing to take note of the winds of change blowing through the Bloc) Rakosi promptly engaged in forcible re-collectivisation and attempted to solidify his increasingly untenable position with good old Stalinist oppression. As you can expect, anyone who wasn't a Rakosi loyalist took to this turn of events rather poorly. Newspapers (meant to be a source of pro-regime propaganda) started to openly criticise Rakosi, as the vast majority of the intelligentsia (and proletariat for that matter) began to to demand Nagy's reinstatement. This faction of the party began to form the Petofi Circle and began to openly protest. They managed to get Rakosi to be forcibly resigned "on health grounds" by the Politburo in July, only to be replaced by Erno Gero, his equally Stalinist 2nd-in-command.




These protests came to a head on the 20th October, when students from the Technical University, closely affiliated with the Petofi Circle released a manifesto of 19 demands. Chief among these was the reinstatment of Nagy not just to the Party, but to the premiership. That night, Gero retaliated by placing Nagy under house arrest for "Political Action Contrary to the Revolution". Ironically, said act led to directly to the beginning of one [1].




At 15;27, Sunday October 21st, a crowd of 15,000 students peacefully protesting the arrest trough central Budapest were met with open fire led by the AVH (Hungary's secret police) and the Army. By the time the protest had dispersed thirteen minutes later, 27 had been killed. This act, which later came to be known as Bloody Sunday, inspired a second wave of protests the very next day. This protest, the first to feature the "hole in flag" design that came to symbolise the Revolution, numbered 86,000 and succeeded in shutting down the city centre as well as taking over the main radio building, using it to broadcast their manifesto, as well as spread knowledge of the protests and the massacre across Hungary. In response, by 06;00 the next morning, Gero ordered the execution of Nagy, an act carried out sometime before the 25th.




In response to this call to action, many protestors set about creating their own Workers' Councils and Labour Unions independent of Party apparatus over the next week, with the revolutionaries seizing control of most of the North and East, and by the 25th they managed to set up a temporary government in Debrecen (Budapest still being the scene of brutal fighting), declaring the Co-operative Republic with Nagy serving as President in absentia, and that the new state would continue to be Socialist, albeit with a full commitment to human rights, and the authority of the Regional Councils and Unions, which would send representatives to, and abide by the decisions of the Debrecen Soviet. Seeking to demoralise the revolutionaries, the Gero administration publicly announced Nagy's death, complete with a photo of his bullet-riddled corpse. This had the opposite effect, as Hungarians now sought to avenge their fallen leader, with the widespread anger over this murder fueling the Councils, allowing them to seize control of Budapest on the 30th, moving their capital there on the 1st November, and managing to get the Gero administration to flee to Romania by the night of the 3rd. All told, about 24,000 people were killed during the uprising, the vast majority of them Revolutionary-aligned civilians, and a further 1,700 suspected AVH members killed in sporadic and uncoordinated reprisals in the weeks following the seizure of power.




Thus, the co-operative was born, and about to pose one hell of a problem to the Politburo.




[1] The POD; in OTL, Nagy was let back into the party on the 10th Oct, the manifesto contained only 16 points, and came two days later than TTL.
 
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Chapter 2: The Messy Business of Governing
Chp. 2: The Intervention will not be Televised

As strange as it may sound, upon hearing that the Revolutionaries have declared a Soviet, the Politburo did not immediately move to turn their strongholds into the world’s largest radioactive plate of glass. On the contrary, that single proclamation effectively ensured that the Soviet would not feel the full force of the Red Army’s might just yet. While the Politburo had on the night of the 24th received a request for military assistance from the Gero administration, the Revolutionaries proving themselves to be if anything, even more committed Socialists than Gero could claim to be convinced the leadership of the United Soviet Socialist Republics that this takeover did not pose an immediate threat to their security in the Cold War sense. This, combined with the next day’s announcement of Nagy’s slaughter convinced the entire Politburo that Gero could easily take care of this ragtag bunch of barely-armed untrained teenagers who now lacked a leader given enough weaponry courtesy of Uncle Nikita and the KGB. To say that the next weeks’ events put paid to that line of thought would be an understatement.

While the capture of Budapest was enough notice to put the Warsaw Pact on high alert for an invasion of Hungary, it would still take at least 5 days to organise the damn thing. These were, as you may recall, 3 more than it took for the Revolutionaries to take control of the entirety of Hungary. This would prove to be vital, as on the 2nd, the joint forces of the US, UK, and France, themselves on the verge of staging an intervention abroad [1] manged to set up a diplomatic backchannel, where they confirmed that the moment that they learn of Gero’s defeat will be the moment that they will secretly recognise the Soviet as the legitimate government of Hungary, and would be prepared to provide political asylum and/or US arms (the other two armies’ armouries being otherwise occupied) via Austria in the near-certain event the USSR attempts to reclaim Hungary as a satellite state.

International recognition secured, the Soviet now set about the issue of turning the angry revolutionaries into an actual military, and helping themselves to the massive stockpile of weapons they found in the hastily abandoned barracks, and preparing to buy as many guns as the meagre national budget would allow [2]. Given that they knew that they only had about 48 hours to do so, they hastily decided that the informal structure that emerged within the MG would merely be formalised by way of a hasty roll call recorded on sheets of paper in each makeshift barrack, no mean feat given the fact that the Hungarian Soviet Army totalled an estimated 150,000 people [3]

Furthermore, a battle plan was devised in which all of the heavy artillery and soldiers that could move to the border with other Warsaw Pact states (the Tito-Stalin spilt had turned into a godsend) without jeopardising a second line would take position waiting for the imminent threat attempting to stall the invasion for as long as possible as the Central Council tried to convince NATO, and any non-aligned states to send a small force to help defend the border, at which point the Soviet will defer to the more experienced NATO leadership in matters of co-ordinating the attack. Furthermore, it was decided that all members of the Central Council would share the title of Head of State and that the Council as a whole will be the Cabinet as to minimise the impact of a potential decapitation strike, and to ensure some semblance of continuity if the Council has to go into hiding, and it becomes implausible to have them all in the same room.

“In the immediate aftermath of the revolution, the single most important weapon in the Soviet’s arsenal turned out to be the one they acquired first: the national radio station. With it, the Soviet was able to spread its message to the world, inform the public and if needs be the military of the progress of the revolution, and later war, and as it turned out, most vitally of all, they held one of the most powerful transmitter in the world, which ensured that as long as the Soviet had something to say, the world would listen.”

-Geoffrey Roberts “The Hungary Crisis: 1953-9”


Maleter : It depends. Best case scenario, we hold out until New Years’ At worst, we’ll fall within a week.

Gimes : A week?

M: If even.

G: And how do you define “hold out”?

M: We’re not dead.

G: As for the front?

M: Realistically, we’ll be lucky to see December without losing at least 10 km.

G: Goddamn. We really do need NATO or Tito to help us, and soon.

M: What do you expect? The entire Warsaw Pact’s Joined the Reds!

G: At least we’ve plenty of blood donated to us. Who knows, maybe [the Politburo]’ll keep us alive long enough to kill us via the Courts.

M: Thank the Polish.

G: Fighting and drinking at the end, eh? [4] Although I’m not sure why they’re supporting us, they’ve gotten Gomulka, they’ve seen the good side of the Soviets.

M: Not exactly. Rumour is PZPR wants to get rid of him lest he become their Nagy. I mean, they’ve already been protesting this year. Scared they’ll have to seek refuge in the DDR if it all boils over.

G: Still, we’re f***ed.

M: You know that lightning doesn’t strike twice? It’s not like we can anger people into action as we did over the massacre. We can’t air another call to arms!

G: Unless… [Sandor] Kopasi! You found the declassified Pact papers, correct?

Kopasi: I did.

G: Anything there about this summer?

K: Yes.

G: Anything Free Europe didn’t air?

K: Yes.

G: Anything we could use in our broadcasts?

K: Yes.

G: Excellent. Now, does anyone here know someone who speaks Polish?

- Transcript of Central Council meeting, 4th Nov. 1956.

[1] The start of the Suez Crisis is delayed by a week ITTL as a result of Eisenhower learning of the plot to invade, and attempting to at first dissuade the parties involved, and later limit the impact of the invasion on the international stage lest word get out about the role Britain and France played in it.

[2] As it turns out, whenever the bloody revolution that you just won was at least partially caused by the dire economic situation under the old regime, you might not have anything close to a balanced budget. Despite this, the Hungarian public managed, accepting these sacrifices as necessary for the revolution’s success, and the better tomorrow it promised.

[3] Assuming a high amount of conscripts deserting, especially in the later days of the conflict, and that a large portion of those who fought in the Revolution would defend the country against the imminent threat, this is actually a conservative estimate.

[4] Reference to a famous nursery rhyme.
 
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The way I see it, he'd hold the embassy, recognising that the best asset to the Red Army was having a man on the inside. Also the revolutionaries aren't stupid enough to antagonise their main threat to survival in such a way as storming their embassy for no reason.

Beyond that, spoilers.
 
You mean the tankies are going to be arrested on leaving the embassy and all the Hungarians given show trials except for a cultural theorist?
 
Chapter 3: Inciting Revoluton For Fun And Profit.
Chp. 3: Radio’s a much better instrument for that sort of thing!


The plan to use their radio station to try and provoke a Polish uprising, while bordering on the absurd, is generally seen as a key turning point in the Soviet’s attempt at legitimation. When the broadcast began at 17;45 on the 4th November, the broadcast team led by Kopasi had yet to fully go through the archives of the Gero administration [1]. As a result, while the initial call to arms was a strong attack, it couldn’t led to much action outside of more outrage at the regime, an effect tempered by Gomulka’s recent taking office. It was only whenever after going through private correspondence between Ochab and Gero that the protestors came across a letter where Ochab outlined his and the Politburo’s desire to grant Gomulka power on a temporary basis before seizing back control under pretence of ensuring the stability of the Warsaw Pact once the protests subsided, and keeping him as little more than a figurehead until then [2], it was demined that they needed to get this to air as soon as humanly possible.


When they did, the blowback was swift: Upon learning of the letter, Radio Free Europe ceased broadcasting, choosing to relay the Hungarian coverage, thus maximising the potential audience, as well as translating the text, and broadcasting it with commentary across the Warsaw Pact. The news that the reforms the Poles thought they had won were in fact, a mirage had led a lot of people to go back on the streets, and demonstrations demanding the further appointment of leaders favourable to Gomulka’s program, as well as the immediate implementation of a freely elected Sejm, economic reforms similar to Nagy’s, and the introduction of some civil liberties, chiefly among which was the right to religion, seen as a basic need for self-expression in the predominately Catholic nation.


“The letter, purported to be true by the Rebels, does indeed match rather closely the narrative voice of Comrade Gero. However, more worryingly, it effectively legitimises the concerns of, and concedes the right to protest to those who marched in Poznan. It is meant as a catalyst to further revolution against the Soviet Union, and as a diversion tactic. I am not yet aware if this gamble has paid off, and I hope it hasn’t. Make no mistake, the rebels’ Soviet does not seek to implement true Marxism, but an anarchist facsimile thereof. They also are likely to align with Tito, not the Pact. You must put them down at all costs. I have gained knowledge that they are attempting to defend their border in the worst way possible. Hence, depending on the direness of the situation faced by Comrade Ponomarenko in Warsaw, you could try to intervene in both nations at once without much issue. I merely demand that you do so at once.”


- Telegram sent by Yuri Vladmirovich Andropov to the Politburo, 4/5th [3] November 1956.


It is on the basis of this telegram, coupled with the news that Gomulka had managed to fire Ochab, along with other members of the former government from his administration [4], that the Politburo, in a midnight meeting on 5th November made the decision to split half the armed forces meant to attack the Hungarian Soviet in order to intervene in the escalating crisis in Poland, and attack both simultaneously. Unfortunately, the army manoeuvres required to make such a strategy possible meant that the beginning of the invasions would have to be postponed until 03:15 on the 7th November.


Meanwhile, 2000km away from the meeting, at 04;27 local time, the Israeli Armed Forces, receiving secret aid from the governments of Britain and France moved to take Sinai, and with it, the newly-nationalised Suez Canal in Operation Tarnegol, beginning a week-long conflict that later came to be known as the Suez Crisis.


“We're living in a completely different world than we were in 48 hours ago. The Sinai has been occupied. Poland’s moving to become a democracy [5]. The Iron Curtain is falling apart as we speak. And, if the early exit polls from L.A. for NBC News are anything to go by, President Eisenhower’s re-election may not be such a sure thing. Granted, this is just an exit poll, taken up to 12am Pacific, but it appears that the world we’ll be reporting on tomorrow will be a markedly different one from that of last week. What do you think of that, Chet?”


- David Brinkley, Huntley-Brinkley Report, 6th November 1956.




[1] The administration, believing that they would survive the revolution without much issue, failed to start destroying its documents until the 29th October, and even then of those documents to be destroyed, international communications were near the bottom of the list, as they wouldn’t be an immediate threat in the sense of legitimising the inevitable post-revolution purges by way of revealing their crimes.


[2] The historical consensus that has emerged since then is that while the letter was real, the "plan" was little more than enquiring about the plausibility of such an operation, and that Gomulka was under no such threat.


[3] While from Andropov’s perspective, he was writing the telegram at 22:27 Sunday 4th November, from the Politburo’s perspective, it was given at 00;27 Monday 5th November


[4] This move was made within hours of the protest in Warsaw reaching the Presidential Palace, and was meant as a way to ensure that Gomulka's policies (which were remarkably close to those of the protestors) wouldn’t lead to his being deposed via cabinet coup.


[5] It was widely perceived that the Polish Uprising was to be a democratic and controlled counterpart to Hungary’s revolution, an idea legitimised by Gomulka inviting members of the Alliance of Democrats to junior positions in his government as to test the feasibility of opening the political system to politicians outside the PZPR.
 
Hello all.

As today's update is going to be a bit delayed, I'm instead going to ask a couple questions to fill the void, and help me become a better writer.

1) What do you believe is going to happen next? (I've already planned out the next steps, but am a bit curious as to what you guys think)

2) Are there any things about this timeline that you guys think I'm unduly ignoring or that you believe to be ASB?

3) How would you improve the writing style of this TL? (Be honest but constructive, please.)

4) If the ridiculously frequent updates aren't an indication, I'm more or less publishing chapters as soon as I finish them. Is that a bad thing, or would you say it's affecting the quality of this TL?

Any other feedback appreciated.
Thank you.
 
1) What do you believe is going to happen next? (I've already planned out the next steps, but am a bit curious as to what you guys think)
The People's Cooperative of Hungary would ask for assistance from the West for defence. It could be the Hungarian Missile Crisis.

I suggest fleshing out more on the economics part more, internal politics and reactions from the United States.

3) How would you improve the writing style of this TL? (Be honest but constructive, please.)
Keep doing what you are doing, your writing is better than mine.

4) If the ridiculously frequent updates aren't an indication, I'm more or less publishing chapters as soon as I finish them. Is that a bad thing, or would you say it's affecting the quality of this TL?
If you want, it is your choice.
 
I’d stop centring the text justification and use left justification. Full justification is shonky outside of very high end publication systems.

You’re not making enough of the social democrats or the regional “democratic” plurality councils.

The radio station council went left much earlier than historically.

You should look up the five white books for working class leader names.
 
I've tried to look up the 5 White Books, but Google isn't exactly being cooperative right now.

Could you please give me the titles of these? It must be an interesting resource for you to recommend it.
 
I've tried to look up the 5 White Books, but Google isn't exactly being cooperative right now.

Could you please give me the titles of these? It must be an interesting resource for you to recommend it.
Book 5 is "The Counter-revolutionary Conspiracy of Imre Nagy and his Accomplices White Book, published by the Information Bureau of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People's Republic (No date)."

probably 1957.

Books 1-4 were white books attacking "social democratic" party affiliation revolutionary workers who stood for communism.

http://www.hungarianreview.com/prin...56_the_anatomy_of_the_kossuth_square_massacre
puts at least one white book as "Ellenforradalmi erők a magyar októberi eseményekben [The role of counter-revolutionary forces in the events of October 1956] – the so-called White Book. Published by the Information Office of the People’s Republic of Hungary.", but I have seen translations in English for 1-4.

Sorry that the history of revolutionary workers is so clouded :(,

Sam.
 
Chapter 4: The Magyar-Soviet War
Chp. 4: The Iron Curtain.


The additional two days that the Soviet had gained from inciting revolution for fun and profit were not put to waste, as the MGSNS as it came to be known was able to conduct further manoeuvres to the border, as well as organise its first drills as an actual military on the afternoon of the 6th. Furthermore, the Central Council moved to refine their battle plan beyond turtling at the border. They did so by splitting into two sub-committees.


The first, headed by Pal Maleter, sought to identify potential points from which the soon-to-be-renamed Warsaw Pact forces would attempt to invade, with the intent of finding potential deployment areas for the second line of attack as to ensure their being able to go where they are needed, and to ensure a more optimal allocation of frontline troops as to reflect geographical realities. The second, headed by Miklos Gimes sought to ensure the international support necessary to win the war. Even before the next night’s events it was clear that if there were to be any friendly troop deployments, they were to be delivered curtesy of Yugoslavia, and Josip Broz Tito.


This suited them well, as it was unclear how exactly the NATO troops could’ve arrived to support the Soviet, while Yugoslavia bordered them. Furthermore, Tito managed to set up a back-channel of negotiations on the 3rd, recognising the Soviet on the 4th. This allowed for the two parties to negotiate a secret military alliance, where the Yugoslav National Army would move to support the Hungarian Soviet, and help in the by now inevitable war. In exchange, the Soviet would move to join the organisation that would become the Non-Aligned Movement, and establish a free-trade zone after the war if victorious [1].


That same day, the first shipment of American weapons (numbering 10,000 guns, tanks, and anti-aircraft weapons) arrived. Despite this, the Soviet was unable to reach President Eisenhower, whose mind was (understandably) focused on his increasingly-unlikely re-election, and the potential fallout from that night’s events. In any case, this shipment was vitally important as it helped to address a key deficiency of the MGSNS: Their air disadvantage.


“If their ground plan was far from ideal, it existed, and could be counted on to at the very least, not fail for some time. On the other hand, while they had planes, mostly left behind in air force bases after the Gero administration’s hasty retreat, their manpower was severely limited: As the vast majority of the MGSNS’ soldiers were conscripts who deserted, this meant that the rest were non-commissioned, or at the very most, low-ranking officers and technical crew. Understandably, this left them at a significant disadvantage, as the vast majority of ace pilots had understandably not belonged to either of these groups, and the few that did desert instead of relocating with their superiors would be needed to train the less-experienced pilots, along with any revolutionaries seeking to pursue childhood ambitions.


This meant that any USSR-led invasion would have the ability to conduct airstrikes, and any aerial support virtually unimpeded, at least until the JNA arrived. However, the problem was at least partially addressed by this shipment, coupled with the forcible conscription of any Hungarian civilian airline pilots to serve as instructors [2], freeing the best pilots to help plan and conduct the attack from the air.”


- Geoffrey Roberts, “The Hungary Crisis: 1953-9”


If the mood in the Hungarian Soviet on the night of the 6th was a strange mixture of relief and fear, the military leadership of The Artist Formerly Known As The Warsaw Pact was undergoing the effects of vengeance and self-confidence. While it was true that there were now two rebellions to put down for the price of one, the Politburo felt confident that a very small proportion of their opponents would be actually in any state to put up a fight, even given a two day delay. This view was further boldened by Aleksander Zawadzki’s request for military intervention in Poland, in response to that day’s events.


Facing pressure from the increasingly restless protests, who had a day earlier published a formal list of demands, and the AoD’s successful co-operation during the initial crisis of confidence, Gomulka was led to believe that his best course of action to solidify his position would be making the announcement that the Sejm would be subject to open multi-party elections, and that Poland would make moves to leave the Warsaw Pact as to ensure that these would not be subjected to KGB interference [3].


If the events of Sunday didn’t serve as reason enough for the Politburo to intervene, then this announcement ensured that any and all fears held by them would now be seen as justified by everyone in the Communist movement. This ensured that the Polish intervention would get more firepower initially, as to help end this crisis early. Furthermore, Khrushchev announced in a meeting to the Politburo that from this moment onwards, in the event of any satellite state attempting to seek Socialism in a way that jeopardised the stability of the Socialist transition for any other states, the USSR would have no choice but to intervene. This policy later came to be known as the “Khrushchev Doctrine”, and is generally argued to be one of the key ideas that went on to shape the USSR’s post-1956 foreign policy.


Meanwhile, 2000km away, at 02;27 on 7th November, following a midnight-deadline ultimatum to stop the war being issued a day earlier being ignored [4]. Operation Musketeer began, as joint British and French paratroopers moved to take the Suez Canal from “the Israeli occupiers” who have gained control over it. Unfortunately, this single move went on to become one of the greatest blunders in military and geopolitical history.


You see, this invasion was based entirely on the pretence that Israel had already taken the Canal, and that the intervention would be a necessary first step to ensure that the Canal could be given back to the Nasser Regime. As a result, it was agreed upon that before they would give the signal for the ultimatum, Israel would occupy the Canal (or at least be close enough as to make it certain that they would occupy it before Musketeer makes landfall). Therefore, when the Israeli army got within 5km of the Canal on the morning of the 6th, they gave the go-ahead for Musketeer to start that night.


Unbeknownst to the British and French forces, on the evening of the 6th, a surprise counter-offensive personally organised by Gen. Nasser led to the IDF offensive being stalled, and in some areas even bushed back up to 1km within six hours of the attack’s commencement. This led to the pretext of the Western invasion becoming somewhat rendered redundant, but it wouldn’t be a massive disaster. Sure, they’d’ve to pretend to ineffectually aid Nasser a bit, before fully implementing their plan once the IDF holds up their end of the bargain, something that the Western forces should have no trouble “accidentally” ensuring.


Instead, the RAF, blindly following the plan that was previously agreed upon, launched a massive bombing campaign centred on Alexandria [5] and the military bases surrounding the Suez the morning of the 7th. This ensured that there would be an immediate and immediate backlash to the actions of the West. This wasn’t helped at all by the fact that this was coupled with air assaults on military bases near the Canal. This would’ve raised questions on its own, but while the bombing campaign was extremely devastating to the bases on the Western side of the Canal, they managed to conveniently miss any parts of the military bases that may have limited the military’s attack capability on the Eastern (and presumably meant to be Israeli-occupied) side of the Suez. Funny the way these things shake out.


While this was happening, at 03;45 [6], the group of nations controlled by the USSR launched simultaneous invasions of Poland and Hungary. While the Polish intervention was an effective coronation, doubly so given that Zawadzki had ordered the Polish Army and Milicja to start making moves against the protestors since the evening of the 5th, successfully putting them down in Katowice and Torun, and making significant inroads elsewhere.


“When the tanks came in, we had no chance. We were peaceful protesters, most of whom hadn’t seen a gun since ’46 (if even), and we were up against the army that took on Hitler, and won. The Army of the Working Class, the army that was meant to protect us, slaughtering us, ordinary people, the Proletariat who just wanted to have some bread to eat, something with which to wipe our asses [7], who just wanted to have the government respect our basic right as people to live in dignity. We were the same people that the USSR claimed in propaganda films that the Red Army would do anything to protect, and what did we get? To see personally just how little the USSR cared about us.


I will never forget seeing some young boys, Christ, they must’ve been only fifteen, sixteen at most, try valiantly, unarmed at that, to stare down the tanks by themselves so that the rest of us can escape. To this day my nightmares are haunted by the sight of one of them lying down in front of the tank, confident that it wouldn’t run him over. Do you know what I still see? I still am horrified when I think of the sight of the innards of his head spill out as the tank treads crushed his skull as if it were just a mere egg. I will never forget the events of that week, and I will always remember just how deep that “friendship”, “alliance”, and “camaraderie” really ran. Leninism was never a worker’s paradise. It was merely another totalitarian regime, albeit one wrapped up in a massive, hypocritical lie.”


- Anna Walentynowicz, Witness (2006)


Hungary on the other hand, was ready to fight for the past few days, but now had had the time to ensure that there would be a legitimate army fighting at the border even before their back-up came in. As a result, the moment that the Red Army came in, they were met with a steel wall of artillery, tanks, and manpower hellbent on holding out at all costs.


This development did a lot more damage to the Red Army than would be thought possible. After all, the soldiers were told that they would merely be making an intervention that would be little more than a police action. Instead they were forced to fight for every inch in trench warfare, where to end up in stalemate was to lose, and the only possible option.

As such, the soldiers of the Hungarian War got to experience first-hand the same horrors of war that the soldiers of ten years ago would’ve in the Great Patriotic War. A tall task for anyone, let alone an army comprised almost entirely of conscripts whose morale had just been dealt a debilitating body blow. Granted, a lot of them would likely struggle with a Poland-style action, but in that case, it would’ve been more an issue of their having morals than anything else.


Furthermore, while it was true that on the first day, the Red Army’s air advantage helped them to make some slight gains, mainly around the short border the USSR shared with Hungary, and allowed them to make the only significant “victory” of the early days of the conflict in the bombing of Debrecen that afternoon, which not only killed 2,400, but in a propaganda coup, destroyed the Deri Museum’s front façade, from which the Soviet was declared. In any case, the chances that even this front would pose an easy path to victory were scuppered by the night of the 7th, when the anti-aircraft network went into operation, and managed to shoot down 7 bombers that were likely headed for Budapest on the first night of the network's operation.


Unfortunately for the Red Army, the bad news did not stop there:


“Yugoslavia has officially joined the conflict [8]! The Rebel government has allegedly signed a treaty of mutual assistance with the Yugoslav administration before the invasion began, and the JNA has entered Hungary this morning under pretext of military aid. At least, that’s the only explanation to the fact that there are quite clearly Yugoslav soldiers moving through Budapest as we speak and there is no sort of panic whatsoever from the authorities. I am not yet sure if they are fighting the Red Army directly, but I am certain that you’ll get the reports from the front soon enough. In any case, I advise that you prepare the Red Army for an invasion of Yugoslavia as soon as possible. The stability of the Revolution is at risk! You must act at once!”


- Telegram from Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov to the Politburo, 8th November 1956.


[1] Tito’s reasoning for this deal was based around the (correct) notion that the new state would also have a Market Socialist economy, which would also be significantly smaller than Yugoslavia’s. This meant that the two economies would be similar enough as to make harmonisation between the two possible, while at the same time allowing for internal growth as Yugoslav companies would be able to expand in the failing Hungarian market, making it an effective extension of the Yugoslav economy, while at the same time the few goods produced in Hungary could help to alleviate any potential shortages without risking Yugoslav jobs.


[2] This was only possible as the vast majority of Hungarian pilots had spent time with the Air Force, ensuring that they would have some level of familiarity with the planes operated by the Force, allowing them to instruct the new recruits rather well, especially if one considers the rather limited range of manoeuvres necessary to conduct the basic air defence and support missions that these recruits were hopefully to serve in.


[3] The historical consensus that has emerged since then is that he believed the former would compensate his lack of a large power base within the Party, while the faction opposed to him was sure to get decimated in the polls, especially after the events in Poznan, and that he had no real intention of making good on his promise to have them be truly free, instead limiting them to parties which could be counted on to allow his programme of reforms to pass. The second announcement was merely meant to pacify the protestors, and ensure that the (newly purged) PZPR would still be the largest faction within the Sejm as he worked on solidifying his position and that much like the first, he had not actually planned to ever follow through on it.


[4] The ultimatum, being little more than an attempt at establishing a legitimate casus belli was deliberately set with an impossibly short deadline. This fact would later be used by historians as the first indication that the invasion was planned well in advance.


[5] While in OTL, the bombing of Alexandria was planned, but never carried out because of the sheer amount of military opposition to it, as well as the fact that the civilian casualties resulting from such a move would number in the tens of thousands, which doesn’t really convince hostile world opinion that the means justify the ends. ITTL, as the focus is on retaking the Suez Canal as soon as possible, and it is presumed by the British that the IDF would’ve already taken out a sizeable chunk of the region surrounding Alexandria, thus limiting the capability of the Egyptian army to retaliate, the plan goes through.


[6] The half-hour delay was due to torrential thunderstorms throughout Central Europe that night threatening the ability of the Red Army to stay in radio contact throughout the fronts.


[7] Fun Fact: One of the consumer goods most prone to shortages in Communist Poland was toilet paper, with the worst affected regions seeing a citizen only be allocated one roll. A year.

[8] Tito reasoned that if the USSR was to invade Hungary for estranging from the Warsaw Pact, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for the Red Army to attempt to reclaim the other non-aligned Socialist state in Europe. To this end, he had placed the JNA on high alert and ordered them to prepare for a hypothetical border defence on the 2nd. Furthermore, it should be noted that the military support offered to the Soviet was entirely indirect in nature, as to avoid a giving a legitimate reason for the Red Army to make an apperance in Yugoslavia, and had made sure to gain one very important thing in advance of the invasion starting on the 8th.

 
Well this is interesting, if Hungry pulls through and continues it's alliance with Yugoslavia that could work out well for both countries.

Also Britain and France are really screwing the pooch with the Suez.

Also I like the addition of a few deadpan quips here and there. They add a hint of levity.
 
You probably thought I've abandoned this one. Well, I'm kind of revising for University Entrance Exams, and as a result, I can't really afford to write 1,500 words a night outside of study. As a result, expect updates to slow down for the next 2 months. Sorry.

That said, Chapter 5 will come out sometime this week, and I've already started planning Chapter 6.

Meanwhile, Here's a taste of what's to come:

PCH Tank.jpg


"Banks Are Burning": A burnt out T54 Libyan Army tank lies in the Sahara during the Suez War, 17th November 1956. This photo by Tsuneko Sasamoto won an honourary Pultizer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1957, and is credited with introducing the concept of "Bokashi photography" to America. Source: AP.
 
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Chapter 5: Twin Crises
Well, I know that I promised to give y'all this about a week ago. In my defence, it's rather hard to continue a timeline when you're busy revising Maths for four hours a night. As a result, I'm going to put the ETA for the next chapter at the end of the month, as someone gave me a two week break in the middle of my exams. I'm not complaining, it just seems a bit silly. Anyway, without any further ado, here's chapter five:

Chp. 5: Who needs this “World Peace” thing, anyway?

Walter Cronkite: First of all, Mr. President, I would like to congratulate you on your successful re-election. [1]


President Eisenhower: Thank you very much, Mr Cronkite. I in turn, would like to thank you, and all of CBS News for your excellent coverage of the past few weeks’ events, not just here with the election, but also abroad, and I hope you can continue to do so for my second term in office.


WC: Thank you, Mr President, and if I may focus on the latter for a minute…


PE: You may indeed.


WC: Thank you, Sir. First off, What is your opinion on the ultimatum that the USSR has offered to Yugoslavia following their granting of assistance to the Hungarian Peoples’ Co-operative?


PE: I am resolutely opposed to it, as I think you’d imagine. In fact, I have gained assurance from President Tito himself that the aid being given to Hungary is entirely humanitarian in nature, and that as a result, the USA is prepared to intervene in the event of a Soviet invasion of Yugoslavia.


WC: Mr. President, are you not worried that this intervention isn’t going to work out like that in the Suez?


PE: As much as I kept my mouth shut about it lest it cost me the election, I was never fully supportive of the Anglo-French intervention from the moment I learnt of it…


WC: Mr President, when exactly was that? I’m sure you’ve heard of the suspicions of the world community…


PE: Put it this way, I’m a member of the community in this case.


WC: So, not long before the Ultimatum was released?


PE: That’s right.


- Interview for CBS Evening News, 9th November 1956.


Ever since Eden and Mollet had had the bright idea to invade the Suez, Eisenhower found that the system of alliances that had been created under Truman was falling apart under the insane strain of the various possible factions that now began to exist as the world saw two concurrent interventions to either support or condemn. As insignificant as this sounds, the issue with this was that it had presented a wedge issue between the US, West Germany, Canada et al. and the UK, France, and Israel that could very easily be utilised by the Warsaw Pact (provided of course, that they manage to deal with their internal issues first).


This was only made more urgent by the Tripartite forces having their next bright idea: Double down, invade the entire Egyptian coastline, and move to depose Nasser in favour of a friendly puppet despot as soon as humanly possible. This led the RAF and IDF to launch massive airstrikes on Cairo, as the French Armed Forces were tasked with taking over the rest of the coastline in what later came to be known as Operation Revise just hours after Cronkite’s interview had aired.


The initial wave of airstrikes on Cairo had worked wonders. In fact they worked so well that 100,000 who went to sleep that night didn’t seem to wake up the next day, and the paratroopers, backed by the IDF had managed to take over Tanta and Banha, both on the outskirts of the Capital. On the other front, the French managed to move 100km west, taking the small port of Marina El Alamein by daybreak. In response to that night’s events, Nasser, and the rest of the Egyptian High Command were forced to take a leaf out of Gero’s book, and fled Cairo, moving south-west into the desert plains.


“Now, despite the large size of Egypt, 99% of its Citizens live on only 5.5% of the land, mainly concentrated within 5 miles of the Mediterranean Sea, and on the banks of the Nile Delta. I mean, It’s not that hard to understand why. After all, you have to be rather brave to live in a place literally called the Death Valley, or indeed, anywhere in the Sahara, unless of course it’s so that you can easily get to your job gouging tourists out of their money in one of the many overexploited tourist traps such as the Pyramids…”


- Geography Now, “Egypt”, 2016


This turn of events horrified the Libyan government. After all, the French were moving towards the former, and Algeria was fighting for independence against the French. Indeed, Nasser had been aiding the FLN, and look what was happening to him. It therefore would have been a logical next step for France to turn Libya into an unwilling Army-only Autobahn that would have the advantage of being able to be built from both the East and West borders simultaneously. To this end, the Libyan government decided to intervene. The problem was that the Libyan Army could not manage to intervene in both conflicts at once, however much it may want to if they cared about their independence.


Luckily, the Sudanese government were caught in a similar situation. They had seen the fact that the British were headed down the Nile. Furthermore, while Sudan had gained independence earlier that year, Egypt had also been a British colony, and yet they were witnessing just how independent Egypt had really been. Therefore, while the Libyan government was busy sounding out potential allies for a hypothetical invasion in favour of Nasser’s Egypt, the Sudanese were willing to enter secret communications:


“The independence for which we have fought is at risk. We have No choice but to intervene. To defend Nasser is to defend ourselves. We are willing to work with you, and go with your idea under the condition that we will be free to lead our own campaigns in the South. Furthermore, we reserve the right to leave the conflict at any point, and to enter negotiations with the Imperial forces independent of you, if we feel we have achieved our goals. Finally, we accept that your position is more vulnerable to a two-front war than ours, but we will only be willing to send our troops to the Egyptian front if a potential Algerian front was to arise, as to allow for the easy transport of our troops to our borders, and as a precautionary measure were the Southern guerrillas to become a major issue at any point during the intervention [2].”


- Telegram from the Sudanese Sovereignty Council to King Idris I of Libya, 10th November 1956.


The plans secured, the countries entered secret talks with the only people who were likely to supply them with the guns they needed to pull such a stunt off: The USSR. The deal was agreed to rather quickly, being approved on the night of the 11th. As busy as the USSR’s arms factories were, the Politburo would have been insane to pass up such a chance to gain a position of leverage over a sizable chunk of decolonized Africa. Indeed, they were generous enough to also provide a large amount of “military advisors” along with the weapons.


Once this was all agreed to, the Libyan-Sudanese military alliance scheduled a tentative intervention on behalf of Nasser to start on the 15th, with the exact date being determined once the first shipment of arms came. That said, there was still the issue of how these supplies were to be transported to be worked out, but it all fell into place quickly enough to justify the date being set in stone on the 13th.


The bad news for Eisenhower was compounded by the bulletin from Warsaw that Gomulka had been captured by the Red Army trying to flee the country on the night of the 10th, and was to face a “trial” in Moscow sometime in the coming months. This effectively ended the Polish October, with 2,800 casualties paying the price for asking for freedom in the Warsaw Pact.


This information emboldened the Politburo to manoeuvre the Red Army regiments to Yugoslavia as soon as possible. Military or not, Tito was giving aid and comfort to the Enemy, and as such had granted Khrushchev a casus belli that would allow him to do something he was, which meant that the Politburo immediately scheduled a potential invasion of Yugoslavia to commence on the 12th [3].


In the meantime, the war in Hungary had become an effective rerun of the Western Front c.1915 as the many miles of trenches had been dug by the MGSNS in preparation for the invasion had begun to really come in handy right about now as they served as a “safety net” beyond which it would be near impossible for the Red Army to advance. This suited the Soviet just fine, as they were the ones fighting a defensive war, and it would be difficult to tell if world opinion would still be on their side were they to make the “Greater Hungary” most nationalists dreamed of a reality. At least, it suited the Soviet for the time being.


The Warsaw Pact’s forces, on the other hand were stuck repeatedly having their heads “Bang!”ed by a wall of artillery any time they tried lifting them above the makeshift hole the Soviet had dug for them with artillery, and they were even kind enough to provide the Red Army’s soldiers company in the form of the remnants of the last poor sod who was caught in the rough area. This meant that it was clear to everyone involved that this war was becoming a military stalemate, but political victory for the Soviet.


However, despite this, on or about 06:00 on the 12th November the Red Army launched its attack on Yugoslavia, mainly concentrated on the Serbian SFR, for the simple fact that they were the ones unlucky enough to share a fairly large land border with Romania.


Unfortunately for the Politburo, Tito was many things, but he wasn’t stupid enough to antagonise the USSR before making sure that he could withstand their wrath when it comes. To this end, the Red Army ran in to find that they were met with a similarly prepared army to that in Hungary, complete with its own miles of trenches, and an Air Force ready and waiting to engage the Warsaw Pact in dogfights which meant that the bombing route was also a no-go. However, Yugoslavia had something that Hungary lacked: a coastline.


As a result, the JNA had managed to limit the impact of the invasion to a total of 50km2 and less than 1,500 losses, compared with the over 3,000 the Red Army had suffered on the first two days alone. This prepared a solid foundation from which Operation Debrecen could be launched.


Operation Debrecen was the adage that the best defence was a good offence put into practice. At its commencement on 03;00 on the 14th, the JNA would exploit the demoralised and overstretched nature of the Red Army, coupled with the fact that there wasn’t really any reason for a fifth of the army near the coast in order to launch a surprise artillery barrage coupled with the army moving to take several strategic locations in Romania, most notably Timisoara. That said, within 5 hours of the operation beginning, the navy’s halved armed support would come back to bite Tito in the ass.


All this meant that the Red Army now had an even bigger quagmire on their hands, and one that the West would likely use as a pretext for their ramping up their economic sanctions (as soon as they deal with their internal issues first). Indeed, this week was effectively the point in which the Warsaw Pact sealed its fate as far as the Soviet-Hungarian War was concerned, to the tune of some 15,000 casualties.


That said all was not lost. For a start, they had managed to gain allies in Africa, and ones who would likely not object to future membership of the Pact, especially given how they were not only providing jobs for the Warsaw Pact’s arms factories, but also housing for some 15,000 “military advisors”. Granted, when word of this gets out, then NATO would have to be insane to not to try to intervene, but they’ll cross that bridge when they get there. The short-term preservation of the Warsaw Pact was more important at this moment.


Having seen the way things were going, Eisenhower knew he had to act. However, the odds that a lame-duck Congress would authorise any war were low, and the odds that the outgoing representatives would step down to reflect the “new will of the people” were even lower. Before he would decide on his course of action however, Eisenhower had an appointment to dine with his former boss on the evening of the 11th. This dinner, the conversation held throughout, and Truman’s advice would go on to change the course of history.


[1] Of course Eisenhower wins re-election. If you believed that I was going to make Stevenson win, look at OTL 1956 results, and remember that the POD was a month earlier, and not in 1954. In case you’re wondering, Ike only loses out on NY and IL from OTL.


[2] The Sudanese Civil War, despite only really starting in earnest in 1963 in OTL, had actually been fought since August of 1955 and the assimilation of South Sudan by the British imperial administration, however for the first eight years the conflict was mainly comprised of small scale guerrilla actions that were insignificant enough as to pose no issue that would force the Sudanese government to not intervene. At least, not yet.


[3] The unbelievably fast schedule for the invasion was the result of both the fact that an invasion of Yugoslavia was being planned from the moment the Politburo gained Ambassador Andropov’s telegram, and the fact that the Red Army didn’t have to mobilise any new units, merely transport them through friendly lands.

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Sorry if it sounds as if I'm setting up and not doing, but the plans for this TL (even for the rest of 1956) are far larger than my current workload would allow at the moment. Expect a return to near-daily updates in Mid-June. And I promise it won't be a Dragonball-esque set-up focused TL when it starts up fully again.
 
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