Translated material
"Whirlwind" over Budapest
50 years ago, the operation of Soviet troops in Hungary began
Protests against Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany are still ongoing in Hungary, but the number of protesters is steadily decreasing - yesterday there were 30 people standing in one of the squares in Budapest, while thousands gathered in September and October. Today's events in Hungary are perceived through the prism of what happened in this country exactly 50 years ago - we are talking about the suppression of the 1956 uprising by Soviet troops. And not only because of the coincidence in dates, but also because demonstrators this fall used historical parallels, and opponents of the current government even rolled out an old Soviet tank onto the streets of the capital on October 23.Last weekend, another day of remembrance was held in Hungary, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the uprising. President Laszlo Solyom and Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany laid wreaths at the monument to the 2,502 Hungarians who died in those days.
More than 50 thousand supporters of the opposition Hungarian Civil Union, seeking the resignation of Prime Minister Gyurcsany, marched with a torchlight through the center of Budapest. The rally, organized by right-wing groups, took place on Sabadshag Square in front of the monument to Soviet soldiers-liberators. Hungarian nationalists demanded the demolition of the monument, which was taken under police protection during the rally. However, a survey by the Hungarian research center Tarki, conducted shortly after this, showed that there are few Russophobes in Hungary - 65% of Hungarians surveyed were in favor of closer relations with Russia.
“Half a century ago,” says András Lenart, rector of the Institute for the History of the 1956 Uprising, “both moderate communists and surviving supporters of the Nazi dictator of Hungary, Ferenc Szálasi, fought shoulder to shoulder on the streets of Budapest. The only thing that united everyone was hatred of the Soviet occupiers.” However, the past half century has erased mutual grievances and accusations. The map of Eastern Europe itself has changed. Former allies of the USSR under the Warsaw Pact became members of NATO.
The formidable Soviet empire disintegrated into independent states, and the “modern Russia” that replaced it is not the Soviet Union. This was emphasized by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Hungary in February 2006. Laying flowers at the monument to the victims of the events of 1956, Putin said: “We all feel in our souls a moral responsibility for these events.” In response, Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom said that Hungary does not draw a parallel between today's Russia and the USSR of 1956.
In an interview with Vremya Novostei, Hungarian Ambassador to Russia Arpad Székely noted: “The events of 1956 today do not affect the development of bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia. This applies to relationships not only at the intergovernmental level, but also at the everyday level.” Our interlocutor emphasized that there are no anti-Russian sentiments among Hungarians. Mr. Ambassador is confident that the events of 1956 no longer play any role in the political relations between Russia and Hungary. “Although we cannot forget history in order to prevent its repetition,” Mr. Székely said.
In connection with the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian events, the Vremya Novostei newspaper recalls how the events unfolded in November 1956, which ended with the defeat of the rebellious Hungarian people...
Having learned on November 1 about the statement of Imre Nagy, the new Prime Minister of Hungary, about his country’s withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev became vigorously active. On the same day, the head of the Hungarian Workers' Party (HWP), János Kádár, was flown to Moscow and appealed to the Soviet leadership with a request to put a military end to the uprising in Budapest. Khrushchev, after negotiations with Kadar, met in Brest the same evening with the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP), Władysław Gomułka, who supported the idea of suppressing the uprising.
The next day in Bucharest, Khrushchev met with the President of Czechoslovakia, Antonin Novotny, the First Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Todor Zhivkov, and the First Secretary of the Romanian Party of Labor (RPT), Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who spoke in favor of a Soviet military invasion of Hungary. Khrushchev held the most difficult negotiations with the leader of Yugoslavia, Joseph Broz Tito, on the island of Brijuni in the Adriatic Sea on the night of November 3, 1956. Tito agreed to provide moral assistance to the USSR, seeing in the development of Hungarian events a threat to his sole rule in Yugoslavia.
Having secured the support of the allies, the Soviet government hastily began to develop a military operation, codenamed “Whirlwind”. The command of the operation was entrusted to Marshal Ivan Konev. To hide its plans, Moscow continued negotiations with the government of Imre Nagy, begun back in October, on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary. However, on November 3, the negotiations were interrupted, and the members of the Hungarian government participating in them were arrested. On November 4 at 6:15 a.m. the operation began. To participate in it, eleven Soviet ground divisions, several air formations, as well as units of airborne troops were transferred to Hungary. By November 11, the armed uprising was defeated throughout Hungary. During the invasion of Hungary, the Soviet army lost 720 soldiers and officers killed. The remaining small groups of rebels finished off the Hungarian officer regiments that had sworn allegiance to Kadar.