Holiday: October 23

On October 23rd, the Hungarians celebrate a national holiday for two reasons.  First, it is a celebration of the foundation of the Republic of Hungary in 1989, when it declared independence from the Soviet Union.  Second, it is the anniversary of the start of the world-famous revolution of 1956 when the Hungarian people revolted against the Stalin dictatorship and attempted to overthrow the Soviet rulers.  This was one of the most significant events in modern Hungarian history.

On this day, college students in Budapest went on a peaceful march to protest the Stalin rule of their land.  The communist party leaders sent their forces against the students, and shot into the crowd.  That night, the people of Budapest took to weapons and began a crusade to overthrow the government.  Several days later, the regime gave in to their demands, and the Soviets withdrew. 

In the first few days of November, the Hungarian nationals attempted to restore democracy to their country, appointing new leadership with the ability to have multiple parties (instead of the solitary governmental party in the communist system).  The new leadership withdrew from the Warsaw Pact and declare the country neutral.  They asked for aid from the West, which had previously promised that it would aid any country who attempted to withdraw from the USSR.  However, this aid never came, because the larger world community was wary of starting another world war.

The Soviets, seeing that Hungary did not have the aid necessary from the world community, changed its mind.  On November 11th they took power back completely after several days of intense fighting.  Documents released in 1993 showed that 2652 Hungarians and 720 Soviets died in the clashes.  At this point, about a quarter million Hungarians left the country, escaping towards the West.

In 1957 January those who had participated in the revolution were jailed in masses and many of them were executed.  Those who weren't executed were commonly brutally tortured - including women and minors.  The UN and the world in general condemned the repression.  It was forbidden in the decades following the revolution to talk about it unless you wanted to be branded a revolutionary and face persecution, jailing, or even death.