Was the Hungarian uprising anti-communist?

Dear friends, comrades. Many of you are aware of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. The uprising was mostly anti-Soviet. But was it anti-communist? The facts are very contradictory.
 
Possibly. Imre Nagy was said to be anti-stalinist, & for some reason, anti-soviet.

But, you have to remember at the time, Mátyás Rákosi, who was General Secretary at the time, was very repressive & a hardline stalinist. I would say the reason for the Revolution was to bring change to the current repressive government.

Another thing that kind of irks me though about Imre Nagy, is that he legalized the "Independent Smallholders' Party", which was a right-wing to almost far-right party & was part of Zoltan Tildy's short lived government when he was President of non-communist Hungary at the time.

But in terms of the Revolution being anti-communist? Possibly, there were probably factions in the uprising that were right-wing to far-right, & of course anti-communist. Some important figures in the revolution wanted to get out of the Warsaw Pact & out of the USSR's sphere of influence altogether, & fall into the US's sphere of influence & possibly join NATO.
 
As Tony Benn might have put it, the Hungarian Uprising was not anti-communist, but it did contain anti-communists within it. This is where the contradiction lies in my opinion, because it's relatively easy to point to anti-communist figures involved in the uprising despite Nagy's leadership. Nonetheless, Nagy genuinely wanted to a build a non-aligned socialist state and given his popularity he would have almost certainly been elected to do so, in this sense the uprising can't be described as anti-communist.
 
As Tony Benn might have put it, the Hungarian Uprising was not anti-communist, but it did contain anti-communists within it. This is where the contradiction lies in my opinion, because it's relatively easy to point to anti-communist figures involved in the uprising despite Nagy's leadership. Nonetheless, Nagy genuinely wanted to a build a non-aligned socialist state and given his popularity he would have almost certainly been elected to do so, in this sense the uprising can't be described as anti-communist.
Were the ranks of the Hungarian special services and army the former Hortists or Salashists?
 
Were the ranks of the Hungarian special services and army the former Hortists or Salashists?

There were some former "reformed" Arrow Cross members in the ÁVH. Apparently they were deemed as useful because, whilst they had to sign waivers renouncing fascism, these documents also acted as their confessions, which could be used against them at a moments notice. In regards to the Hungarian People's Army, there were certainly a large number of Hungarian WW2 veterans involved, including former career officers who could be considered Horthyist.
 
Last edited:
There were some former "reformed" Arrow Cross members in the ÁVH. Apparently they were deemed as useful because, whilst they had to sign waivers renouncing fascism, these documents also acted as their confessions, which could be used against them at a moments notice. In regards to the Hungarian People's Army, there were certainly a large number Hungarian WW2 veterans involved, including former career officers who could be considered Horthyist.
Do you have sources? They are useful to me - it is necessary to prove that the former fascists fought on both sides of the barricades.
 
Do you have sources? They are useful to me - it is necessary to prove that the former fascists fought on both sides of the barricades.

I think I read it first in Retroactive Justice by Istvan Rev. I can't find any sources to prove directly that there were fascists fighting to retain the Rakosi regime, only that there were some involved within it during its existence.
 
I think it was more Anti-Soviet-Domination. Most supporters of the revolution wanted a higher standard of living and less state control than under Rákosi, more ideologically I think it can be described as Titoist e.g. achieving a kind of non-aligned Socialism similar to what Tito achieved in Yugoslavia, though it cannot be denied that there were Horthyists, Fascists, and Hungarists among the more desperate general revolutionaries who simply joined the revolution because there was nothing to eat.
 
I think to an extent it was because the motivations of those involved seemed to be nationalistic and patriotic (throwing off Soviet domination), as well as a desire for a loosening of political restrictions, hinting at some forms of liberalism. Nagy himself was a socialist, of course, so it was ideologically diverse.

But to a degree, liberalism and nationalism are two distinctly antithetical ideologies to Communism, so yes, you could call it anti-Communist. I don't think that the end goal of the uprising was supposed to be doctrinaire Marxism.

There were both left (social democracy and land reform) and right (more political freedoms, Hungarian nationalism and sovereignty) elements of the uprising, but it did not seem as if it was some kind of true believers hardcore Communist rebellion, and the rhetoric of those involved did not include things like condemnations of the "deviationists" and "anti-party cliques" like in other more Communist but anti-Russian protests in China.
 
Last edited:
In Budapest and elsewhere all the major factories formed workers councils and on the 14th November they convened in the Egyesült Izzó factory to form the Central Workers Council of Greater Budapest with over 500 delegates each from different factory councils and district councils including delegates from councils in the provinces like Borsod. Their demands included workers control of the factories through the workers councils, a "truly socialist" democratic government and the re-establishment of the independent trade unions with a right to strike. On the 19th November all the revolutionary councils from the provinces convened in Budapest to form a National Workers Council and the Russian Major General Grebennik even met with the CWC to discuss demands.

Several times members of the NWC leadership were recalled by their members for faltering in the face of the Russians and in their place more revolutionary members were elected instead. When the Russians attempted to arrest the leaders of these workers councils the threat of the workers on strike were enough to turn the Russians back. Finally on the 11th December the government agreed to a meeting at the Parliament in Budapest but once the leadership arrives they were arrested and the workers went on strike once again as a result. The older workers and leaders involved in this struggle were often those who had been involved in the 1919 revolution or had been involved in the strikes against the Horthy government or later.

Yes, there were also elements of nationalists and liberals involved in the broad struggle but at the very base was a militant working class seeking control of their workplaces. The Stalinists point to the fascists involved to disguise the existence of the workers councils and the West-aligned liberals. The West points to the liberals to hide the fascists and the workers councils.
 
In Budapest and elsewhere all the major factories formed workers councils and on the 14th November they convened in the Egyesült Izzó factory to form the Central Workers Council of Greater Budapest with over 500 delegates each from different factory councils and district councils including delegates from councils in the provinces like Borsod. Their demands included workers control of the factories through the workers councils, a "truly socialist" democratic government and the re-establishment of the independent trade unions with a right to strike. On the 19th November all the revolutionary councils from the provinces convened in Budapest to form a National Workers Council and the Russian Major General Grebennik even met with the CWC to discuss demands.

Several times members of the NWC leadership were recalled by their members for faltering in the face of the Russians and in their place more revolutionary members were elected instead. When the Russians attempted to arrest the leaders of these workers councils the threat of the workers on strike were enough to turn the Russians back. Finally on the 11th December the government agreed to a meeting at the Parliament in Budapest but once the leadership arrives they were arrested and the workers went on strike once again as a result. The older workers and leaders involved in this struggle were often those who had been involved in the 1919 revolution or had been involved in the strikes against the Horthy government or later.

Yes, there were also elements of nationalists and liberals involved in the broad struggle but at the very base was a militant working class seeking control of their workplaces. The Stalinists point to the fascists involved to disguise the existence of the workers councils and the West-aligned liberals. The West points to the liberals to hide the fascists and the workers councils.
But then I think that the insurgents can be divided into factions - workers' socialists, extreme nationalists and liberals.
 
Yes, there were also elements of nationalists and liberals involved in the broad struggle but at the very base was a militant working class seeking control of their workplaces. The Stalinists point to the fascists involved to disguise the existence of the workers councils and the West-aligned liberals. The West points to the liberals to hide the fascists and the workers councils.

Ok - but militant working class does not equal communist (unless you only accept Marx). The uprising was against the existing government - I doubt if there was any other major issue which crossed all factions. Very similar to Russia in 1918 really - except in Hungary's case the existing government held on to power with the support of outside military intervention instead of being toppled and eventually being taken over by another faction.
 
I believe it wasn't initially, but as things started to spiral out of control, and people started to hang members of the AVH, it quickly became an anti-communist insurrection. I also read somewhere that at one point Nagy had to be escorted from a stage when he started to address the public as "comrades" and they booed him off, throwing stuff at him.
 
Top