When Hungary was among the defeated countries after the Second World War (1945), the USSR in their words liberated the country and introduced their form of Stalinism to Hungary and other Eastern European countries. Unfortunately this so-called liberation was the complete opposite of freedom. Now Hungary was a puppet regime of the strong Soviet Union and the people were then subjected to no rights, no freedom of speech and constant food shortages. The oppression, which had been supervised by the communist Soviet Union-in the defeated and occupied Hungary-was one of the most cruel and dreadful 50 years of coercion in Hungarian History. The communist regime had trampled underfoot all the human and constitutional rights of the once democratic Hungary. Russia and its communist ideology were feared by most of the European nations, but not all the countries enjoyed distinctive attention. To realize the attention towards Hungary, The Russians started to emerge into Hungary’s life and political system from several sides; one side was of the development of the AVO (Allamvedelmi Osztaly).
The AVO, later named the AVH was founded in 1945. The AVO was organized in accordance with Soviet principles back home. Each satellite country must have a secret police in order to maintain the works of Soviet Communism. From the very beginning of power the AVO succeeded in turning the once democratic Hungary into a strict Communist regime controlled between the Government’s of Moscow and Hungary. As Endre Martin an honest witness of all these events said, “The AVH was organized in accordance with the Soviet Pattern”. To ensure complete power within Hungary, The communist party along with the Hungarian Secret Police prepared it’s plan in detail: “ The essential tasks of the new political system became the eradication of dissent and the mobilization of mass support. To promote these goals they developed an exceedingly high regulative capability which rested in the first instance on the secret police”(Vali 180). The AVO had their own cause completely supported and had detailed records of every citizen and highly effective ways of interrogating and torturing victims and prisoners. All of these aspects caused deep fear and resentment towards the AVO.
Under Stalin, Hungary became a Soviet Satellite against the will of the majority. Those who openly objected were either jailed or subjected to torture under the AVO. In many cases the families of those brave enough to voice their own opinions were also dragged into this mess of Soviet Solutions. It is in this way that the AVO ruled over the people with an iron fist and the people had no choice but to surrender to Soviet Rule.
Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty who had bravely opposed the German Nazi’s and the Hungarian Fascist’s in World War II was arrested by the AVO in December 1948 and was falsely accused of treason. After 5 weeks of brutal torture by the AVO he confessed to the charges put against him and was condemned to life imprisonment. The protest churches were also purged and their leaders were replaced by those remaining to stay loyal to Rakosi’s government.
Most people who entered the AVO were social outcasts or rejects of society. They had few friends and often-felt hate towards the rest of the population. The communist officials would know who these certain people were, seek them out; force them to be candidates to the AVO and them train them to be members of the AVO. After the training, these people eventually became the most brutal of interrogators and torturers.
Often, if you were taken as a prisoner by the AVO, you would be brought into a room with several other prisoners and made to stand in front of a line of AVO guards. The guards then proceeded asking each prisoner which metal pole they would like to be beaten with today. The guards would beat them until completely exhausted and then through the bodies in a bath of acid. In some cases the prisoners would still be conscious upon being thrown into the bath of an acid.
With 30,000 members forming the AVO organization, it is not hard to see why the Hungarian people lived in constant fear of these people. If anyone were even suspected of saying anything against the government they would be tortured until they confessed and then killed.
SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE
The Hungarian revolution of 1956 in retrospect was published in 1977 and was written by Bela K. Kiraly and Paul Jonas, who both lived and worked in Hungary for quite a few years. They’re knowledge of Hungarian history is very extensive and the fact that this book was written nearly 20 years after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 makes this quite a reliable source. The fact that since 1956 new findings about the Hungarian revolution have come out so therefore they’re knowledge of this event would be more extensive than a book that was written say the year or the year after this event took place. The purpose of this book is to give a detailed account of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 in retrospect. The book covers certain areas of the Hungarian people’s struggle for freedom and outlines areas such as intellectual aspects of the Hungarian revolution, economic aspects of the Hungarian revolution, political aspects of the Hungarian Revolution, international aspects of the Hungarian revolution and military aspects of the Hungarian revolution. These aspects show how the Hungarian people were deprived of their freedom in many areas and the AVO are specifically talked about in connection with most of these aspects. Bela K. Kiraly, P.H.d, is professor of history, Brooklyn College and Graduate school, City university of New York. In 1956 with the rank of major general, he was commander in chief, national Guard of Hungary; commandant of Budapest; and chairman revolutionary Council of national defense. Paul Jonas, PhD, is professor of economics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. The two joint authors positions make them a very valuable source because of their experience with Hungarian affairs and the actual time they worked in Hungary is very influential as the time coincides with the beginning of the Hungarian Revolution.
The Hungarian Secret Police arrested George Paloczi-Horvath in 1949. He wrote about his experiences in the daily herald on 11th of December 1956. His source is very valuable because it gives an eyewitness account into the atrocities committed by the AVO and reading it from someone who was arrested and tortured by the AVO gives the source no limitations what so ever. The fact that this account was published in 1956 directly after the revolution gives the observer a clearer idea as to why the AVO were the ones most responsible for making the Hungarian people’s life a living hell. He gives eyewitness accounts of how he was tortured by the AVO and forced to own up to a crime that he never committed. Like thousands of innocent Hungarian’s, he was a helpless victim of the AVO and their torture chambers.
The Hungarian Tragedy by Peter Fryer was published in December of 1956 and gives a detailed account of the events that happened throughout the Hungarian Revolution. This source is very reliable as it was written by a noted expert on Hungarian affairs and was also published only a short while after the revolution took place. The book is very detailed and has eyewitness accounts of events that the author had witnessed while in Hungary. The fact that the author was in Hungary make the events more clear to the reader because they have not been filtered over and over and had the actual events inaccurately published.
ANALYSIS
One of the difficulties about analyzing the events of the Hungarian revolution, or in this case the
AVO’S role in instigating the speed of which the revolution broke out is that there are many sources available, but difficulty in finding which one is reliable or not to the reader. Some sources have been published by Hungarian writers who give their accounts of what happened and some by western writers who witnessed all these events on a television screen in the comfort of their own home. There is a chance that some works published by Hungarians could contain bias nature because of the Hungarian people’s loathing for the Soviet Government and the AVO (Hungarian secret police). Sources published in Hungary may also be subject to censorship or falsification as the government keep a watchful eye on what is being published in a hard line communist country such as Hungary.
There is definite evidence to support the argument that the AVO was most responsible for the Hungarian’s revolting when they did. Had they’re been no Secret Police the people would still have been living under a communist government but what not have to fear opening their mouths or getting falsely convicted of a crime they did not commit. George Paloczi-Horvath states in his article about the AVO published in the Daily Herald that “ Like many others, I was arrested by the AVO in 1949” “ I believed that we would be able to assert our innocence. But I soon found out that our fate was worse than if we had been found guilty, because we had nothing to give away in the torture chambers. I was thrown into an icy cell cubicle 3 yards by four. There was a wooden plank for a bed, and a bright naked light glared in my face day and night. Later, it was a great relief to return to this bleak place” This is evidence of the Hungarians hatred towards the AVO. They would show up unexpectedly at people’s houses and take who ever they thought may be guilty. The person/person’s captured would be tortured both physically and mentally until they confessed to crimes they never committed. The reason the Hungarian people needed to revolt against the government was that they were living each day petrified of what might happen to them or their family and this aspect I believe, left them no choice but to revolt in 1956.
CONCLUSION
The Hungarian revolution of 1956 was to a very large extent a direct result of the AVO’S actions towards their own citizens. If a person wakes up every day wondering when their time will come for arrest and torture it will destroy the human mind more so than having little food or no proper shelter to live in. A person’s greatest fear is that of death and more so of a painful death, which the AVO were most notorious for. This organization killed people every day and no trouble with it, so in this case the Hungarians were victims of their tyranny upon a nation. It is this compelling fear of the AVO that I believe so swiftly instigated the revolt against the Hungarian Government and the AVO.
The West was responsible for the deaths in Hungary in 1956
When the Soviet Union dominated Eastern Europe during the 1940s, many countries, including Hungary, were plundered for resources and their economies geared toward the benefit of the USSR. Because of this, the people of Hungary had long been dissatisfied with Russian despotism. An attempted revolution occurred in 1956 with a loss of around 27,000 lives. Although the role of the USSR is was significant in initiating the events in Hungary, and thus causing the consequential deaths and destruction, it can be argued that the West was actually responsible for what took place in Hungary. Through negligence, broken promises, and refusal of assistance, the situation in Hungary worsened and revolution was unsuccessful. Hungary could only be freed from the tyranny of the USSR over thirty years later.
At the Yalta Conference in 1945, the West gave power over Hungary to the USSR, the first instance where the West predetermined Hungary¡¯'s fate. During the 1940s and 1950s, US foreign policy had hardened, introducing policies of containment and later rollback to control the stop spread of communism. The year that Hungary had fallen to Soviet control, 1947, was the same year that the Truman Doctrine was announced. US president Harry Truman said, ¡°"I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."¡± Yet the US had done nothing to stop the USSR's takeover of Eastern Europe. It seemed that the Truman Doctrine, containment, and Iron Fist approach were all meaningless terms. The US said they would bear the responsibility of keeping free nations from turning communist, but they did not keep to their word.
In Hungary, a number of reasons contributed to the uprising in 1956. One reason was the Hungarians thought the West or UN would be able to assist them in the revolution. Such a presumption is not unjustified, for the Truman Doctrine had stated that it was the duty of the US to help countries against attack of communism. Hungary had been incorporating capitalist ideas - in 1956 the new government had introduced democracy and freedoms (freedom of speech and freedom of religion). It is understandable that they would expect assistance from the largest, wealthiest capitalist country in the world, the US. Yet the US again ignored the Truman Doctrine and did not go in to help Hungary when revolution broke out. Without support the West had promised, Hungary seemed to stand alone to face the USSR.
When the Soviet Red Army entered Hungary, Imre Nagy appealed to the West for help - but the West again refused. Eisenhower didn¡¯'t think Hungary was worth starting a possible world war. In addition, Great Britain and France were preoccupied with the Suez Crisis. A website remarks: "The world was too busy with the Suez Canal Crisis to care much. Oil was apparently regarded as much more valuable than the blood of thousands of Hungarian youths. What is the price of a young life compared to the market value of gasoline?" Hungary's only other hope, the United Nations, was rendered useless since both China and the USSR vetoed any suggestion for action.
The factors above prove that the West played a significant role in determining the fate of Hungary. Hungary was given to the USSR at Yalta; nothing was done when the USSR took over the country by using salami tactics from 1945-1947; and the West refused to aid Hungary in revolution against Soviet domination in 1947. Thus, it can be argued that the West was more responsible for the events that occurred in Hungary, leading to death and suffering and marking Hungary's fate for years to come.
1 comment:
I can't read this.
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