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Richard Lettis: The Hungarian Revolt |
Hungary: The First Six Days[31]
LESLIE B. BAIN BUDAPEST
The first people who found themselves in the field against the Communist
regime in Hungary were those whom that regime had pampered the most: writers,
journalists, engineers, athletes, students, artists, and the like. Nine-tenths
of those who started the demonstrations were students whose tuition and
living expenses were paid by the government and who had been picked from
the families of workers, peasants, and Communist Party officials. Yet they
marched into the open to make their demands and then, when these were refused,
stayed in the streets to fight. The first blood on the fateful evening
of October 23 was shed by men of this kind.
DOWN WITH STALIN!
After the first demonstration that Tuesday in Parliament Square, half of
the two hundred thousand demonstrators went home. The other half broke
into several groups and marched through the streets. One of these went
to Kossuth Radio House to broadcast its demands. These had been published
earlier in leaflets; and while each university group had a slightly different
set, which varied to include specific grievances at different schools,
the main political demands were the same as those that had been drawn up
two days earlier during a mass meeting of students at Szeged. They included
the extradition and punishment of Matyas Rakosi, the dismissal of Erno
Gero, the appointment of Imre Nagy as Premier, the removal of Soviet shields
to be replaced by Kossuth shields as Hungary's emblem, and the adjustment
of taxes, wages, and working hours.
A deputation of three students followed by thousands more arrived at the
radio station, which had been heavily occupied by the AVH, the hated and
dreaded security police. The AVH ordered the demonstrators to disband,
then brought out tear gas and fire hoses to halt the masses of students
pouring in from all sides.
The students attacked with pots and pans and pieces of coal they had picked
up at a nearby restaurant. The AVR began firing -first into the air, later
into the surging students. Another group of students raced to an arms plant,
where more shooting developed. A third group of students went to the Stalin
Memorial, and there a detachment of police joined forces with them. Stalin's
statue came toppling down before a happy, dancing crowd.
But at the broadcasting station the situation rapidly deteriorated. A Hungarian
Army detachment arrived and demanded a cease-fire. The students obeyed
but the AVH refused to evacuate the building. When two army officers were
shot, the army retaliated instantly, and so began the first pitched battle
between the army and the AVH, New army detachments arrived and began distributing
weapons to the students. By eleven o'clock, several thousand students had
arms, and the first round of the battle was won. The army received orders
to withdraw.
During the night more guns were acquired by the students, who had by now
developed a taste for fighting. The city police either joined them or gave
up their arms willingly. Even so, the students were not much of a fighting
force.
WORKERS, ARISE!
It was 4 A.M. when the first Soviet tanks and armored cars arrived in the
city. Overnight another series of events had occurred. Workers in the suburbs
had held meetings and drawn up demands generally in line with those of
the students. To these had been added several specific points about factory-management
councils and general increases in wages. At dawn the workers began marching
in-to the city. Only about fifteen hundred of them were armed. All the
rest had nothing but their bare hands and flags. No one was in command.
Whoever spoke the loudest or made the most sense was obeyed. Impromptu
committees and delegations formed, but the general impression was of huge
convergent masses chanting slogans such as "Down with Gero!"
"Punish the murderers!" "We want Nagy!" Later in the
morning, another cry was taken up that was heard all through the subsequent
days: "Out with the Russkies!"
All through this second day furious battles raged. On one side were seventy
Soviet tanks, fifty armored cars, and small arms and automatic weapons.
On the other were twenty-five thousand students and nearly two hundred
thousand workers steadily pouring in from outlying districts. The rebels
had at this time about four thousand small arms. To escape the wildly shooting
Soviets and AVH men, the insurgents broke into small groups and occupied
strategic corner buildings. Some entrenched themselves in military barracks.
But still there was no central command, and each rebel unit operated on
its own. This lack of organization contributed largely to the heavy casualties.
No one plotted this revolt. It just happened.
The second night brought great changes in the situation. Nagy became Prime
Minister. The rebel groups disbanded. Only a few remained manning the barricades.
The night was quiet.
At this point it did not seem likely that the revolt would continue. It
probably would not have gone on but for the tragic events that occurred
between ten and eleven the next morning. A peaceful and unarmed demonstration
arrived before the Parliament Building to shout [20/21]
THE GENTLE REBELS
It is difficult if not altogether impossible to convey any notion of these
people's fighting gallantry. Wherever the rebels were students and workers,
there was not a single case of looting. Shop windows without glass were
filled with desirable goods, yet nothing was touched. An incident I saw
will illustrate this. Windows from a candy store and an adjacent flower
shop were smashed and the sidewalk was littered with candy boxes. All these
boxes were replaced in the glassless windows, but the flowers strewn about
were gathered and placed on the bodies of dead rebels.
The masses of embattled students and workers never became a mob, but from
time to time there appeared a few groups of marginal characters who gathered
on street corners and started yelling "Exterminate the Jews!"
Several cases of hard liquor were freely distributed and many people got
drunk.
Nothing like this happened where either students or workers were assembled,
but there was enough anti-Semitism around during the first night as well
as during subsequent days to present a distinct danger signal in a country
which only recently had gone through several years of intense Jew hating
and which had maintained an official anti-Semitic policy since 1919. During
the fifth and sixth days I saw four people attacked and beaten because
they may have been Jews. Not severely, but nevertheless their clothes were
torn and they were bleeding. The slogan was that Rakosi, Gero, and Mihaly
Farkas -three Jews- were responsible for all the misery that had descended
on the country. Still, during the first six days of the revolt these episodes
could be considered both sporadic and exceptional.
RISING NATIONALIST TIDE
Here and there, wherever a group started rioting, a few individuals seemed
inclined to strike a note of extreme nationalism. I even wondered at times
whether these nationalist elements had a supreme command. I did my best
to find it, but I never succeeded in obtaining any convincing evidence.
Yet the nationalist tide kept rising. A close associate of Nagy admitted
on Saturday, the fifth day, that the revolt was beyond the control of those
who had started it. Nagy decided that a final bid should be made. He advanced
a program: The revolt was to be declared a national patriotic uprising
and was to be handled as such. Again, he proposed an amnesty for all rebels
and dissolution of the AVH, and promised the early withdrawal of all Soviet
troops from Budapest and negotiations with Moscow for removal of all Soviet
troops from Hungarian soil. The next day he appointed non-Communists Bela
Kovacs and Zoltan Tildy to Cabinet posts. Two days later he announced the
formation of a new Cabinet ending the one-party system and prom ised that
free elections would be held.
The Nagy government kept floundering. The insurrection drifted. Then on
Sunday, November 4, the Russian tanks that had been ringing the city opened
fire. [21]
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Richard Lettis: The Hungarian Revolt |