I am trying to source some of the information presented in this series. However, I can't find the presenters name anywhere or his credentials as a historian. Help?
Indeed! I was thinking the same thing! That alone secured my Subscription! I was three when this happened. My Grampa had left Budapest in 1916, but many family members stayed, and perished during these events… It’s when I realized I needed to learn some Hungarian just out of “self defense”, so I could understand why the adults were so upset…
My mom didnt hear about the revolution until the curtain fell and we have been having memorial days (she was born in 1970, in a small town in Hungary, teaching about the revolution was taboo)
@@9wowable I am from czechoslovakia, we knew about it from the beginning. But it was a taboo subject officially. However I did not know, never heard of strike/uprising in pilsen, 80 km from where I lived for years, until I studied in pilsen and a friend told me. His father was in it. To this day people do not know much about it.
It is true. I am also Hungarian and there have always been two subjects we were not allowed to be taught about: The treaty of Trianon and the revolution in 1956. These "pages" were missing from the books of my teacher both in elementary and high school. They just simply jumped through this whole topic...and those who dared to teach about were fired...uumh "sent" to other schools. And this one happened in the 90's ! It is like if i write down the truth here. If i dare to say, they delete it. My father was 13 years old when soviets marched into Budapest and he lived in District 8th which was the worst warzone that time around. I am not going to continue now because my comment will be deleted or i will be banned.
I was there when the Stalin statue came down. I was five, with brothers nine, and 11. We all sneaked across the Austrian border. Walked through 2 kilometers of mine field. 5 pairs of feet, and never hit a mine.
@@TheColdWarTV I'd have to ask my 95 yr old mother when she gets up as I was only 5yrs old. I do remember huge floodlights going on, and some Austrian solder fired a few shot at the Russians. From there we went to Switzerland for 2 years, where I first went to school. From there, some went to the US, some to Canada, and some to Australia.
4 ปีที่แล้ว
@@paulfrancis8836 Thank god & congratulations! Maybe that mine field was deliberately janky.....? The layers perhaps actually thought about those who might later flee....? Just a thought and would be the good fortune of those Hungarians in '56 betrayed/abandoned by the West! Alternate 'punishment' for Bolshevics: Beheading and preservation of the heads in 'cold storage'-----for poss. later use....!
My parents fled after the revolution. They both crosses the border into Austria separately with whatever clothes they had on and whatever they could cram into small suitcases. My parents were in the “second wave” of refugees and flew on an airplane to America where they met. Their romance continued while they detained at Camp Kilmer where they learned English, and were prepared to enter the workforce. They later married and settled in Chicago. No one runs to Communism. They will flee it only. My parents were fortunate to make it out.
I met an old Hungarian refugee in Melbourne Australia a few years ago. He was still emotionally wounded from having to leave in 1956 and being not allowed to go back for his father's funeral twenty years later.
@@centralasia6827 Wow man, as a political ally for Germany back then they had 0 choice, and USSR(later in the cold war era it was published that the Germans did that with USSR planes) planes bombed Hungary, then Horthy had no choice aswell, and you can see when they wanted to jump out to save the people they get occupied by Germany easily.
That's a bit more complex. Before and during the Grand Amnesty of 1963, the Kádár regime took advantage of a few facts: a general lack of being able to learn forbidden languages, a general lack of Hungarian diasporas abroad, and a general lack of familiarity with self enterprise forced some Hungarians to return, out of whom the regime found some willing participants who gladly played a part in propaganda movies regaling about how the amnesty was real (which was technically true) and there was nothing to fear. Generally, there were 2 types of people who still refused to return: those, who did wage armed combat (and who weren't exempt if there was evidence of them killing anybody) and those who felt that Kádár, a former minister under Rákosi is just another Stalinist who devised the ruse to imprison them. It is a controversial subject, but there were two other subgroups. For this, one must know that evidently even in the most oppressive of regimes, not everybody is a political prisoner, some do time for conventional crimes. Bear in mind that in 1956, just a decade after the trials of Arrow Cross Party members and other fascist collaborators, some were still sitting in jail for war crimes and rebels freed prisoners during the uprising. Naturally, the Western stance was that they are not to accept communist accusations against residents, which made the work of the Wiesenthal Center that much harder.
Later that year Hungary vs USSR water polo match at Melbourne Olympic Games 1956. The team left before the start of the revolution. It was noted as one of the most physically intense Olympic Games matches as the Hungarian team fought back on behalf of their now lost country against the invader.
The so-called Blood in the Water match. Global politics played out in a swimming pool on the other side of the world. Many of the Hungarians on the team had no idea if their families were alive or had been killed.
I'm so glad we donated so much blood for our Hungarian friends in 1956 because it actually made us a family by definition! Love and respect from Poland!
My family is Hungarian from Southern Slovakia (actually very close to the village Gerő Ernő was from). And even though we weren’t part of the revolutionary Hungary. My grandad was 14 when the revolution happened they had no idea what was going on at the time (news did spread quickly here thoguh), but he still remembers the columns of Soviet Tanks driving down our village heading to Budapest from the nearby military base, then coming back up again afterwards. ironically the same happened in reverse when Czechoslovakia was occupied in the 60's.
My great grandparents with my 7 year old grandma at the time were deported from Szenc because of the Benes Laws. Always wondered why some were deported and some weren't.
@@pampalini9344 Yup. My grandmother still has family over there. Cried in the middle of a shop there cause it stood on the place of their former house.
@@csfelfoldi What a coincidence that we meet :DDD A lot Hungaryan speaking pepole are still here . Did you konw where they lived ? Maybe in my street :DD
My grandfather, a Spanish Republican who fought against Fascism in the Spanish Civil War and in the French Resistance, tore up his Communist Party card in disgust at the treatment of Hungarians by the Soviets in 1956.
A few weeks after the revolution, if I recall, in December of '56 that Khrushchev let the children of Spanish revolutionaries get back to Spain from Soviet captivity.
Thank you for covering this topic thats pretty personal to my family, both my grandfather and great uncle took some part in the revolution. My grandfather was on the last day of his mandatory military service when the soviet tanks came over the border near Ukraine in november, upon hearing the tanks in the early morning everyone stationed there ran out and the next thing my grandfather saw was one of his comrade's head rolling on the ground, probably decapitated by machinegun fire, him and 4 other soldiers were sent out to hold a bridge not far from where they were stationed with nothing but a machine gun, their commander in chief fled and he was left as commander, he quickly ordered for the firing pin to be removed from the gun and thrown into the river under the bridge, they called in saying that they were given a faulty weapon and requested to evacuate. After the revolution he had to serve an extra year in the Hungarian military. My great uncle on the other hand was only 16 during the revolution and quickly joined, theres actually a photo of him holding a machinegun somewhere out there and after the revolution he was sentenced to death and escaped to Switzerland and never returned to Hungary.
Smart move. When my dad was i the borderguard he only kept a couple of bullets in his magazines, he didnt wanted to kill anyone and gave zero shits if someone wanted to escape.
My father was also assigned to patrol the border. He said that he left his station and used the riverbed to escape. He found shelter in a barn. And was confronted by farmers. He told them he left his post. They said they knew of a underground smuggling systen to get refugees to Canada. My Father's last name was Fekete.
My grandpa was there all along. He was the son of a wealthy peasent who were deemed kulaks and had all their belongings taken away. Since all better job oppurtinites were denied from people like him, he ended up being a teamster in Budapest when the revolution started. He participated in toppling the statue. He told stories on how they trapped tank columns in narrow streets and rained on them down with molotovs, or how they practiced firing an artillery gun in a park (he himself was a veteran of WW2), and how they pitied the frightened soviet soldiers when who were clearly just as much victims. In the end he fleed back to his home village where however he was quickly charged and imprisoned. He served about 6 years in like 4 prisons until the amnesty. He was still not allowed to settle down in the HALF of the country he was from so had to come to the western part where I live today. Till the end of his life he had a burning hatred for communism, and because he was branded anyway he never backed down from voicing his opinion knowing they can't put him any more down (not just because of '56 but having experienced the stalinist style persecution personally, even suffering outright torture). He was often at the market and constantly shittalked the communist party. In one example when some well known party figure died he corrected people saying he didn't perish but said "megdöglött" which is a term we use for animals, when applied for humans it is considered super dehumanizing and demeaning. When he went for a job interview and was asked if he served prison time (something the questioner obviously knew holding his papers) he shouted "of course I did, i fought in 56 against the communist vermins, why do I not look like honest Hungarian man to you?". From what my father told he constantly did these sheinigans just to poke needles at the regime. His biggest regret in life was that in 1989-1991 when the regime collapses its members weren't given the same treatment. He reputedly regularly harassed ex-communists by promising them the same they did to them. Sadly it never came to be and their descendants hold many key positions. Rest in peace grandpa.
Thank you for sharing your story. This has a lot of parallels with my grandparents and uncles. They all fled Hungary, except for my grandfather because my grandmother was a simple peasant woman who was afraid to leave. This costed my grandfather's life as he was tortured and killed, the family owned factory was taken away and converted to a shoe factory by the communist. It took 2 generations to get ourselves out of poverty and ensure that the 3rd generation is brought up without fear of where they are going to sleep or how they are going to find their next meal. The communist did tremendous amount of harm.
If that's true, and you really had original archives, then you would realize that the ethno-religious identity of the communist leaders in Hungary was quite peculiar, not the same as that of the Hungarian people at all.
Great episode. Living memory for many in Hungary and beyond. Canada received the largest number of Hungarian refugees per population after the Revolution. More than 38000 Hungarians were allowed to settle in the country. Many of them had their tickets to Canada payed by the government of Canada.
Like the entire Sopron University forestry teachers (and families) who went to British Columbia en masse and helped the lumber industry ! My family were late defectors (in February 1957) and arrival in Canada 7 months later. Funny anecdote the McGill University sponsored plane landed in Gander , it was minus 25 degrees and my father thought we were tricked to land in Siberia! I was a baby and 1956 still resonates with me today, as I speak the language fluently.
It was very appreciated that Canada took all the refugees in after and during the uprising and paid the ticket to get here. When we got here we all received $5 per person Ticket to come across the Ocean was around $125 and A train ticket to your final place of your choosing Around $35 . There was no welfare so you where on your own, we all had to get some sort of job. That really was the best way to go to different Country no hand out. Since I was 11 years old I had a job that paid 25 cent an hour working on different farms as a hired man, whit no regret. And all the people that came the same way we all made it in this land. And we paid back every thing what Canada has given us 10000 times over. That is why immigration legally works the best way in any Country.
My Hungarian Father in law ( who passed away with Covid Oktober 2021) was in Budapest at this time saw his friend killed, he escaped Hungary while being shot at escaping via Austria to eventually England at the age of 16. He made many friends and was very successful in England and made a large (Nagy) Family. Thanks to him I now live in central Budapest, a wonderful city I love very much and every day I am reminded by my surroundings of those events. God bless Hungary and it's people.
Same here :) Well my mum’s parents left Hungary for Australia in the late 40’s. Just after the Second World War, and trying to leave before the Soviet Union took over
@@bigbeartanner Glad to have Hungarians come to USA. I had a great neighbor of an Armenian women and a Hungarian man. Their kid was my friend, and I learned that later, both of them fled their original countries during the cold war. God bless them!
The way my grandmother discovered about the revolution: Her parents sent her to buy some vegetables from the market, and when she got there, there was already a shootout.
Roughly a century apart Russian troops quelled a Hungarian revolt against the then Austrian Hapsburg monarchy and then against their own puppet communist dictatorship.
Made in Hungary 1956 born in the USA 1957 my mother was six months pregnant with me and they almost wouldn't let her get on the plane because they were worried of a miscarriage but the doctor finally gave the OK it was safe to fly
My Father was a Sailor on the USS Ft Mandan. That ship and others picked up and transported thousands of non-communist refugees from Hungary. As you said, there was a lot going on at that time and I believe the United States did not make this publicly known. I truly enjoyed this video. Remembering the story my father had told me about this one excercise, of many amazing things done on the USS Ft Mandan. Take Care and be safe, John
My dad fled Budapest in early November, a little under a month before his 8th birthday, and has described how the horrific images of bodies everywhere are burned in his memory to this day. He lived in district VIII, and I had no idea is was basically a central rebel stronghold. Thank you so much for this well-researched, and historically accurate depiction. Cheers!
My father took me with him to fight for freedom against the communist regime. He talked about the west abandoning us when we needed help. The Russian tank gunners killed two of my friends not more than ten feet from me. In December we, my mother and younger sister, escaped under fire through a mine field to Austria unharmed. I still have flashbacks on that.
my father also fled, along with his brother and mother, sad, my father was part of the golden team program for 8 years as a teenager player . . . obviously I wasn't too bad at soccer either, naturally a world class player, some thought I was one of the best in the world at 17
Hello The Cold War. I sometimes go to Mass at a Hungarian Church on the side of town I happen to live because I can walk on a nice day. There are two shrines, one to St. Steven of Hungary and one to the uprising of 1956. If you would like pictures or what have you, no problem. Great work as always, thank you.
The only country that offered military aid to the Hungarians in 1956 was Spain. FRANCO, who was a furious anti-communist and military man, was so enthusiastic in helping them that he planned to send a contingent of 100,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Hungarians (twice the number of volunteers of the Blue Division on the Russian Front). This desire to actively participate in the Hungarian revolution of 1956 can be explained because at that time 20 years had passed since the Spanish civil war and this was the occasion to remember good old days fighting against the communists again, Franco never stopped being a soldier. In the end, these intentions remained in humanitarian aid only for logistical reasons, due to the lack of collaboration (for fear of the USSR) of the transit countries, it became impossible to transfer that contingent of soldiers.
The wife of a former employer was Hungarian, and, as a young teen, had escaped to the West with her family around 1960. While crossing the border, a young woman with their group stepped on a mine, and both her legs were blown off. They were forced to walk away and leave as the mine explosion and her agonized screams were attracting the attention of border guards.
My grandfather was a border guard in his early 20s after the revolution. He let many families through the border, but he had to be cautious because of the older guards, they were sometimes very cruel to the fleeing families.
Andrew Robinson WW2 was after the 20s. Don’t underestimate the viscousness of Bolsheviks/communists particularly in the Jewish communist officers under Bela Kun’s regime
In Romania the aftermath was the abolishment of the Hungarian Autonomous Zone in Eastern Transylvania and the forced merger of the Hungarian state university - the Bolyai University with a Romanian university, the splitting off of the Medical University that they moved to a different city (that was only finally abolished in 2018). A lot of professors were sacked and the Romanians used the 1956 events to their maximum extent to go back on the rights they were forced to give to the 2 million Hungarians in Transylvania in 1948 (to gain back control of Transylvania from the Soviet troops that were protecting the Hungarian minority here from genocide). The Romanian state policy of destroying the Hungarian minority is unchanged, the end of the Cold War did not change it and the Romanian state used and uses every excuse they have to further cut back rights, take away churches, school buildings and close schools and Universities whenever they can. The Romanian president openly mocks Hungarians in national television, war cemeteries from WW1/WW2 that were left alone are now bulldozed over and fake Romanian crosses installed over Hungarian graves ... and the world does not care. Romania will use every single excuse they have against Hungarians they have been doing it for 100 years now, consistently, in monarchy, in fascism, in communism and in capitalism and "democracy". They are in the EU they are in NATO they are important to the Americans and the Americans decided that the rights of the Hungarian minority here are of no concern of theirs so the Romanians just do whatever they please, the president gets a Charlemagne medal one day and incites ethnic hatred on national television the other day, Europe could not care less.
This bothers me to a great extent. Especially now, when there is so much discussion about cultural and ethnic genocide in Western countries. Unfortunately, Romania's strategic position provided them with a free pass to do whatever they want with their minorities. Meanwhile, Romania has a lot of good PR in the west presenting itself as a dynamic and hip country with great opportunities for growth, completely ignoring the authoritarian governing styles of their leaders. The Romania I see is a country in almost constant political turmoil where every leader plays the Hungarian card whenever their position is threathened.
It wasn't a decision made by the Romanian people, actually students supported the Hungarian revolt, but by Gheorghiu-Dej, Stalin's favourite apostle in Romania, that was the de facto leader of Romania. Dej did all of this and was servile to the USSR in order to persuade Khrushchev to get the Red Army out of Romania and to gain some autonomy in the Soviet Bloc to direct Romania along a more nationalistic line. It is a shameful part of Romanian history.
This is funny considering that the Hungarians have oppressed and tried to force the majority Romanian population in Transylvania to Magyarize for hundreds of years. Now, to address your claims: 1. "The Romanian state policy of destroying the Hungarian minority is unchanged, the end of the Cold War did not change it" - this is mostly false because in the regions with high Magyar populations the administration is usually bilingual and there's wide usage of Hungarian and even German in all official signs and documents. The education system offers students the possibility to study in Hungarian or even German, from kindergarten all the way to university without being discriminated against. As a matter of fact the political party Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) has been part of a coalition government almost continuously since 1996. During this time the magyar minority not only has preserved its rights and minority focused institutions but has also gained some more, a list of them can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Alliance_of_Hungarians_in_Romania 2. "take away churches, school buildings" - during the communist regime all property belonged to the state, this includes any and all church property of any creed. Tt's true the state has done a poor job giving said property back in a timely manner to their rightful owner but it hasn't discriminated against anyone, be it a private individual or institution. 3. "cemeteries from WW1/WW2 that were left alone are now bulldozed over and fake Romanian crosses installed over Hungarian graves" - the cemeteries were restored not too long ago by a Hungarian NGO and they only restored what they believed to be Hungarian graves. The problem here is that the graves they restored are very likely to actually belong to soldiers from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds as the Austro-Hungarian army had soldiers from more than a dozen different ethnicities (including Romanian), not to mention the likelihood that the soldiers buried there may have been from opposing sides. This has been seen as disrespectful by a lot of Romanians. I'll be fair and admit that the way in which the local authorities have tried to fix this issue has been rather shameful. Historically, there has been a lot of bad blood between Romania and Hungary, Romanians and Hungarians, and neither side is innocent. I'm sure everyone has an opinion on which side was worse. Not getting everything you want doesn't mean you're oppressed.
I'm an 8th grader, and in Hungary we learn history starting in 5th grade. So just imagine: I waited 3 years, and about 5 months to finally learn about the Hungarian revolution. We only discussed the first day of the revolution today (and we'll learn about the rest on wednesday.), like how the peaceful procession turned into a bloody revolution. For me this was one of the most interesting lesson ever. :)
Around 1980 in Jacksonville, Florida I knew a man who was a teenager in Budapest when the H.R. happened in 1956. He fled the country with his parents and immigrated to the United States. He said *the normal Russian soldiers doing the fighting were told that the Nazi's had risen again and taken over Hungary.* He told me of a specific bridge (I've forgotten which) in Budapest where *the Soviets took the heads of those they'd killed and stuck them on top of the lamp-posts.* I never asked him if he'd been part of the fighting. It seemed he was just glad to escape alive and the thought he may have resisted never occurred to me until watching your video just now.
I have never seen any verified beheadings, the only lamppost hangings I know of were done by rebels against ÁVH officers. The uprising was very complex, and yes, former Arrow Cross members and other antisemites did fight, and some even reached out to Horthy to come home (the former governor for life lived among other former Nazis in Estoril this despite the Nazis kidnapping his son).
I wonder "What If" the Hungarian Revolution had been far less radical and more moderate. And "What If" the moderates in the Soviet Government had prevailed when it came to Hungry. How different would history have been? My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.
@@cmoore9664 I'm not sure it would necessarily have an effect. The current Hungarian government under Prime Minister Orban and Fidesz has pursued a nationalist policy, one that has unfortunately somewhat antagonized some "mainstream" Western forces like the EU, for better or worse, and aligned ever closer with Russia, sympathizing with Putinist Russian nationalism, with which they share some similarities
@@cmoore9664 Mind you, I am rather sympathetic to Orban, but I don't agree with his friendliness toward Russia or Putin I'm not a fan of Russian revanchism, and indeed, am much more sympathetic to Ukrainian nationalism
The episode is awsome and put together simply, so everyone understands the situation right on the go. One thing I would point out is the inconsistentcy in the names. You used the family names first then the given names (e. g. Nagy Imre) but then flipped it when it came to squares and places (Zsigmond Móricz square iso Móricz Zsigmond). I don't mind I know them, but foreigners watching this may get confused.
I think the non-Hungarian order is in the parts of the video they used from Historigraph while their own content (including the spoken word) uses the Hungarian order.
A bunch of Hungarian Forestry students fled the country during this time and actually finished their university education here at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
If you think the outcome would have been different if only the Hungarians had moderated their demands , think again. In 1968 Dubcek did just that. And received “ fraternal assistance “. in the form of Russian tanks The Ruskis have but one response to any attempt at independence
@@thefederalist7807 if those are the cia backed fascist lead revolts, highly YES why not? Crushing reactionaries especially of the national Bourgeois class is always good and even fun
Just picked up a 53' M44, and being of Hungarian blood, this is interesting. My Hungarian family told me of this history, but it is another aspect to view it. They fought and started a new life for me and future generations.
Great video and pronouncing of the Hungarian names. My father and uncles were involved in the revolution and had to flee Hungary. They were adamant that the propaganda from Radio Free Europe had fueled hope there would be US and/or NATO intervention for a successful Hungarian revolution. You can hear that in the last broadcasts from the revolutionary radio station in Budapest during the last minutes of the revolution. Again great video looking forward to watching the next one.
Interestingly there were queues of volunteers in Leeds, England hoping to help Hungarians. They were refused passports by British home office. I have this from a friend who stood in that queue
Thanks for this show. It is really important to remember the Hungarians' fight for freedom. However, you missed at least two important pieces of information: 1. you never mentioned card. Mindszenty and 2. in communist Poland there were widespread blood donations for the Hungarians, something that was quite opposite to the official policy of the communist block.
My son-in-laws family was able to leave Hungary during the revolution when the Hungarians opened the border to Austria for a few days. They were the first family to arrive in Los Angeles as Hungarian refugees. His mother was the first child in their family to be born in the US. The Hungarians had hoped for help or at least diplomatic pressure from the West but alas-poor timing. The Hungarian revolution happened at the same time as the Suez Crises so that is where the gaze from the West was turned at that time. James Michener wrote a great little book about the Revolution as he was a UN observer at the Austrian border for the few days opening and talked to many Hungarians after they had crossed.
1956 - the year my mother fled Hungary - but her mother and sister remained. She made her way to Austria and accepted an arranged marriage with my father (who immigrated to the US shortly after the war and was sponsored by the US soldiers who captured him around Normandy as a 17 year old “soldier” working in NYC as a long shore man and then an accountant... also fought for the - right - side in Korea) my mother didn’t dare to go back until 1977 when her mom was dying and my brother and I got to see Communism first-hand... a neighbor at my aunt’s apartment reported “Americans” to the secret police... decades late I went back in 1992 and that same neighborhood apologized and became a close friend
And, to think, as bad as things are getting to be here in the US of A, I’m actually thinking of moving back and retiring in my mother’s homeland... as it’s more affordable and safer 🤔
Actually, it looks like the politicians in Australia and New Zealand have gone even WORSE Covid Crazy!?! Someone tell them that this virus 🦠 strikes old people with comorbidities and more young people still die of the seasonal flu... seen people arrested for not wearing masks out doors or planing to attend anti-lock down rallies!?! At least here there are Red States that pretty much tell the Blue States to f*ck off...
I wonder if the French and British weren't too busy trying to grasp onto their collapsing empires, if the West would have taken a firmer stand in support of Hungary.
Very insightful comment there .. yeah mate let's just invade East Germany and Austria aswell Hungary just to help by causing a bigger war in 1956 .. maybe also look at the area's controlled by France and United Kingdom after the war .. excuse me America don't mind us just off to help the Hungarians with our armies just passing through ..
Maybe there would have been more international condemnation. But that's about it. Whatever else was going on at the moment, intervening in Hungary would've meant direct conflict with the Soviet army itself. Avoiding that made the Cold War "cold" instead of turning the world (or Europe) into a nuclear wasteland.
This and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia isn’t talked about enough even in history courses in college. Thanks for shining some light on this
@@JohnDoe-be5td Is this why they oppressed the working class and literally killed striking workers on numerous occations? Krostadt, the Putilov strikes, the Tambov rebelion to name a few. The Soviets are nothing more than counter-revolutionary state capitalist despots that betrayed the working class.
On behalf of my father who took part in 1956 Revolution and Hungary. I just wanna thank the United States of America for dropping leaflets that read hold out help is on the way!!!!!! Thank you president Eisenhower for not lifting a finger and not allowing Spain to bring weapons or ammunition to Hungary. Which made the wholesale torture and slaughter of freedom loving Hungarians much easier. I'd like to think that if perhaps Hungary had oil or another resource that the US finds valuable they might have felt the need to spread some that democracy they talk so much about.
You can visit near Nagykanizsa where the former MAORT-owned American suburban houses still stand, which the American company lost in the 1947 show trial.
Sadly, the facts about Moskow's turning point (the brutal attack on AVH during cease-fire) is not really mentioned at all, or very biased in the Hungarian school history textbooks... Thanks for that. It would be nice if you can do a video about Kádár's era, the "Gulash Communism" , since it is quite unique among eastern bloc countries (well, all are unique, but still).
@@mayukhmitra5819 There is a board game called Days of Ire (Pesti Srácok) I have it I played it it is actually good. A tiny bit similar to Twilight Struggle. boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/192802/days-ire-budapest-1956
Ah, yes ! The Molotov cocktail. The official drink and proud sponsor of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution ! Our uncle said people in their desperation broke off the handle of frying pans (palacsinta sütő) and tossed them onto roads, stopping entire tank columns in their tracks . The Russians thought they were land mines.
Andropov made some deal with Nagy to not execute lads under 18 years of age. So they ended up in prison. When they reached the age of 18 they were executed. There are witnesses of dreadful tortures in those prisons, some on TH-cam, you might have to use translator for some.
A well done episode. I'm sure that though the time you are getting the necessary experience to produce the quality of the content that this trouble era is needed.
"Soviet military were forbidden to call in airstrikes and artillery" obviously you shouldnt do that if you want to be seen as the big socialiste Brother lol
If this happened during Stalin's tenure those troops would have been sent to the Gulags for not causing collateral damage. In a weird way this was progress and less people died than otherwise could have. Also Stalin would likely have deported a few hundred thousand to Siberia as punishment. 3k dead was a half days work for the NKVD. Not that the Hungarians should be grateful but they certainly got off far better then they would have under Stalin.
Imagine being a mighty kingdom, then dual partner in one of the largest European empires, and then a few decades later being a small soviet satellite state. Poor Hungary
I oppose soviet violence and oppression, I don't in any way support the control of hungry or any other country by any imperialist power communist or capitalist. With that out of the way, hungary had it coming, they spend 3 decades fighting on all the wrong sides and committing horrific shit, countries who behave like that end up in pretty bad positions unless you are a super power ofc edit: spelling
@@KZ-xt4hl And as you can see Hungary is still there. We have survived the greatest empires the world has seen. And now you have it coming. We are coming.
As a hungarian, I find this video 100% correct! A big thing to learn was, that the West didn't help us at all! We can count only on ourselves. West only said nice words, but didn't help at all. Never to forget!
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin divided Europe after WW2: the Soviets wanted to control Central and Eastern Europe, while the USA controlled West Europe - they were luckier.@@angelamonk716
@@attilahalmai4590 ty. I was just reading up on Mark Twain views on the American Spanish War and the Paris Treaty, and learned WOW was he ever a rebel against Imperialism. Was 100 percent against both. I know that is irrelevant to topic here , just wanted to mention cause I got feeling many don't know such things.
Also learned that Magyar is a hush hush term in reference to the original foundation of Hungary. Interesting stuff..been reading all evening, topic after topic.
It is because of this pivotal event that I have the fortune of being born an American citizen. My grandmother along with my mother and aunt escaped just weeks after the Hungarian Revolution ended with the re-invasion by Soviet troops. They would arrive in the United States in the early days of January 1957 and shortly thereafter became naturalized citizens. I THANK GOD every day for my grandmother's bravery for what she did. She faced great danger leaving and had to fight back her intense love of her home country. However, she felt their future was bleak under communism. She was a proud Hungarian woman but an even more proud American. She would return every year to visit her brother, sister and their families well into her 80's. She passed at 93 back in 2008 due to surgery complications. She had circulatory issues in her leg that was causing infection in her foot. Doctor told her either the foot gets amputated, or they do surgery to unblock the artery. She vehemently responded, "Nobody is taking my foot!". You know the one of two that carried her out of her homeland to freedom.
I remember the Hungarian government declaring it an internal Chinese affair. My personal opinion is different, I genuinely believe in the 1984 Sino-British Agreement, though I don't like how some protesters looked up to an American president who doesn't believe in civil rights many of his own citizens would have helped Hong Kong.
You know, knowing that you're a Canadian based channel, every time I watch a video I can't help but think of Igor Gouzenko, and a novel I once read. I can't remember the title or author, but it was undoubtedly inspired by Gouzenko. A defector is being debriefed in a city that is cold, snowy and miserable. Through the entire book, you're led to believe it's a Western defector to the East. It closes with the defector looking out the window, across the snow, at the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill.
Makes me think the channel should interview former West Germans who had an embassy in Nova Scotia where GDR citizens on their way to Cuba could and did file for asylum.
@Jonathan Williams because it was against fascist rule in potugal and not against US but if a democratic nation anger fucking us they will destroy that nation or support dictatorships like what happened in latin America
It was during the Hungarian revolution that the west got its first good look at the then new Soviet infantry rifle, the AK-47. Many of the revolutionaries got their hands on them and they are seen in some of the photos that made it to the west.
One of my son's is now married to a lovely lady of Hungarian background. These two episodes of the effects of the cold war on Hungary have been enlightening. I have had the privilege to visit Budapest/Hungary twice in the past few years and it is a place I love. Whilst there remains much evidence of the Communist regime/era it is a land which I feel shows promise, that drab greyness is disappearing, and, apart from a few dodgy taxi drivers (the bane of all tourists !) the people are lovely. But there remains undertones of the after-effects of those evil communists which I hope can and will disappear in the coming years. I look forward to returning to Hungary in the future, and further examining its past. Onwards and upwards for Hungary (and any country once invaded by evil !)
Today’s generations still feel the incredibly damaging impact the soviet union had on this country. It’s like with burn victims: their wounds can heal, sure… but constant reminders of the pain, agony, torture, and the lenghty recovery will always remain. I go to school in an area which was heavily impacted by cheap, soviet architecture. Tall, concrete blocks, cheap rundown buildings and the overwhelming abudance of greyness. My school itself is poorly made, blocky, unwelcoming and overall depressing looking. I dread each morning that I walk from the decrepit trainstation to that sad excuse of an institution. And even something as benign as the architecture around us has an affect on people. Feelings of frustration and hopelessness spread like a disease, especially in winter months. I truly despise the people who lived before my time and made these awful living conditions possible. And the ones who let it happen. Let us never forget what they did to us. Let us never forget why we are the way we are today.
Shoutout to Historigraph for giving us permission to use his video on the Hungarian Revolution: th-cam.com/video/EqImvCnO15w/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for the amazing content
I knew those maps from somewhere! Great collab.
@@AhmedIbrahim-by9hetoxic hater
@@yasinibrahim Sorry for the bad etiquette, it was my child who was on my account. Please accept my apologies.
I am trying to source some of the information presented in this series. However, I can't find the presenters name anywhere or his credentials as a historian. Help?
Hearing someone pronouncing hungarian names almost flawlessly for the first time(even knowing that the family name comes first), I'm impressed!
Never knew that until now!
Especially knowing that Magyarul S sounds like sh in shore, and GY being the palatal D, Ð.
Same! I am American but if Hungarian ancestry. This makes me so happy!!!🤗
Indeed! I was thinking the same thing! That alone secured my Subscription!
I was three when this happened. My Grampa had left Budapest in 1916, but many family members stayed, and perished during these events… It’s when I realized I needed to learn some Hungarian just out of “self defense”, so I could understand why the adults were so upset…
He is not Hungarian, but he said in another video that he lived in Budapest for a few years, so that would explain his pronunciation.
My mom didnt hear about the revolution until the curtain fell and we have been having memorial days (she was born in 1970, in a small town in Hungary, teaching about the revolution was taboo)
it's weird, im hungarian but my family were from then Czechoslovakia and we knew about it from pretty much the beginning.
@@9wowable I am from czechoslovakia, we knew about it from the beginning. But it was a taboo subject officially. However I did not know, never heard of strike/uprising in pilsen, 80 km from where I lived for years, until I studied in pilsen and a friend told me. His father was in it. To this day people do not know much about it.
It is true. I am also Hungarian and there have always been two subjects we were not allowed to be taught about: The treaty of Trianon and the revolution in 1956. These "pages" were missing from the books of my teacher both in elementary and high school. They just simply jumped through this whole topic...and those who dared to teach about were fired...uumh "sent" to other schools. And this one happened in the 90's ! It is like if i write down the truth here. If i dare to say, they delete it.
My father was 13 years old when soviets marched into Budapest and he lived in District 8th which was the worst warzone that time around. I am not going to continue now because my comment will be deleted or i will be banned.
Wish you could say more. But there is no such thing as freedom of speech.
@@ericpayne4577 its not like the Tijamen (i hope i spelled that right) square massacre anymore
I was there when the Stalin statue came down. I was five, with brothers nine, and 11. We all sneaked across the Austrian border. Walked through 2 kilometers of mine field. 5 pairs of feet, and never hit a mine.
Do you know if you crossed at Andau?
No offense but this doesn't seem believable
@@TheColdWarTV I'd have to ask my 95 yr old mother when she gets up as I was only 5yrs old. I do remember huge floodlights going on, and some Austrian solder fired a few shot at the Russians. From there we went to Switzerland for 2 years, where I first went to school.
From there, some went to the US, some to Canada, and some to Australia.
@@paulfrancis8836 Thank god & congratulations! Maybe that mine field was deliberately janky.....? The layers perhaps actually thought about those who might later flee....? Just a thought and would be the good fortune of those Hungarians in '56 betrayed/abandoned by the West!
Alternate 'punishment' for Bolshevics: Beheading and preservation of the heads in 'cold storage'-----for poss. later use....!
My parents fled after the revolution. They both crosses the border into Austria separately with whatever clothes they had on and whatever they could cram into small suitcases. My parents were in the “second wave” of refugees and flew on an airplane to America where they met. Their romance continued while they detained at Camp Kilmer where they learned English, and were prepared to enter the workforce. They later married and settled in Chicago.
No one runs to Communism. They will flee it only. My parents were fortunate to make it out.
I met an old Hungarian refugee in Melbourne Australia a few years ago. He was still emotionally wounded from having to leave in 1956 and being not allowed to go back for his father's funeral twenty years later.
These things were not known by public! Actually we had a very happy nation till 1956! Since then we are struggeling and waiting for Miracle!
Much more people were executed after the Saint Revolution than You mentioned! God Bless Them, Who died for our Homeland. Hungaria!
@@petronellakatona310 the soviets kicked ur ass. My grandfather fought against u, u invaded the Soviet Union, and then try to make urself as a victim.
@@centralasia6827 Wow man, as a political ally for Germany back then they had 0 choice, and USSR(later in the cold war era it was published that the Germans did that with USSR planes) planes bombed Hungary, then Horthy had no choice aswell, and you can see when they wanted to jump out to save the people they get occupied by Germany easily.
That's a bit more complex. Before and during the Grand Amnesty of 1963, the Kádár regime took advantage of a few facts: a general lack of being able to learn forbidden languages, a general lack of Hungarian diasporas abroad, and a general lack of familiarity with self enterprise forced some Hungarians to return, out of whom the regime found some willing participants who gladly played a part in propaganda movies regaling about how the amnesty was real (which was technically true) and there was nothing to fear.
Generally, there were 2 types of people who still refused to return: those, who did wage armed combat (and who weren't exempt if there was evidence of them killing anybody) and those who felt that Kádár, a former minister under Rákosi is just another Stalinist who devised the ruse to imprison them. It is a controversial subject, but there were two other subgroups. For this, one must know that evidently even in the most oppressive of regimes, not everybody is a political prisoner, some do time for conventional crimes. Bear in mind that in 1956, just a decade after the trials of Arrow Cross Party members and other fascist collaborators, some were still sitting in jail for war crimes and rebels freed prisoners during the uprising. Naturally, the Western stance was that they are not to accept communist accusations against residents, which made the work of the Wiesenthal Center that much harder.
Love Hungaria and Hungarian people.
Brave, amaizing and talented people.
Ria Ria Hungaria from Poland!
Likewise buddy. Together we bring down Brussels.
The Polish people were always our Brothers and Sisters!
Dzieki bracie
@@Pltlght2571 Lmfao you rather let them down.
@@tommeiner9983 as you wish. But those neo marxist anti-pepole will go down.
Later that year Hungary vs USSR water polo match at Melbourne Olympic Games 1956. The team left before the start of the revolution. It was noted as one of the most physically intense Olympic Games matches as the Hungarian team fought back on behalf of their now lost country against the invader.
The so-called Blood in the Water match. Global politics played out in a swimming pool on the other side of the world. Many of the Hungarians on the team had no idea if their families were alive or had been killed.
That was a casual waterpolo match, had nothing to do with the revolution. The players was not the cause of the soviet murderers
damn...
@@alien332 its mainly the symbolism
@@adhitya858 I know, its just stupid, it alters the reality
My grandpa was there, at 14 years old.
I'm so proud him!
Nyugodj békében papa 🖤
your grandpa is GAY- Glory to the glorious soviet union, screw zionism
My grandfather also, at 17 years old he made the revolution and then he escaped to France, these mens were strong
My grandfather Zoltan escaped to NYC through the red cross at 17. We are all here because of these brave souls. 🙂
What does he think about Judaism? Ask him!
I'm so glad we donated so much blood for our Hungarian friends in 1956 because it actually made us a family by definition! Love and respect from Poland!
My family is Hungarian from Southern Slovakia (actually very close to the village Gerő Ernő was from). And even though we weren’t part of the revolutionary Hungary. My grandad was 14 when the revolution happened they had no idea what was going on at the time (news did spread quickly here thoguh), but he still remembers the columns of Soviet Tanks driving down our village heading to Budapest from the nearby military base, then coming back up again afterwards. ironically the same happened in reverse when Czechoslovakia was occupied in the 60's.
My great grandparents with my 7 year old grandma at the time were deported from Szenc because of the Benes Laws. Always wondered why some were deported and some weren't.
@@csfelfoldi eyy you mean Senec ? In slovak ?
@@csfelfoldi Because i live in Senec :D
My Great Grandparents lived in Slovak vilage in south Hungary and then moved here to Senec
@@pampalini9344 Yup. My grandmother still has family over there. Cried in the middle of a shop there cause it stood on the place of their former house.
@@csfelfoldi What a coincidence that we meet :DDD
A lot Hungaryan speaking pepole are still here . Did you konw where they lived ? Maybe in my street :DD
My grandfather, a Spanish Republican who fought against Fascism in the Spanish Civil War and in the French Resistance, tore up his Communist Party card in disgust at the treatment of Hungarians by the Soviets in 1956.
Mugged by reality
A few weeks after the revolution, if I recall, in December of '56 that Khrushchev let the children of Spanish revolutionaries get back to Spain from Soviet captivity.
Thank you for covering this topic thats pretty personal to my family, both my grandfather and great uncle took some part in the revolution. My grandfather was on the last day of his mandatory military service when the soviet tanks came over the border near Ukraine in november, upon hearing the tanks in the early morning everyone stationed there ran out and the next thing my grandfather saw was one of his comrade's head rolling on the ground, probably decapitated by machinegun fire, him and 4 other soldiers were sent out to hold a bridge not far from where they were stationed with nothing but a machine gun, their commander in chief fled and he was left as commander, he quickly ordered for the firing pin to be removed from the gun and thrown into the river under the bridge, they called in saying that they were given a faulty weapon and requested to evacuate. After the revolution he had to serve an extra year in the Hungarian military.
My great uncle on the other hand was only 16 during the revolution and quickly joined, theres actually a photo of him holding a machinegun somewhere out there and after the revolution he was sentenced to death and escaped to Switzerland and never returned to Hungary.
They are great brother as we having a revltion in Iraq its pretty good to read about others and how they died for their countries.❤
Smart move. When my dad was i the borderguard he only kept a couple of bullets in his magazines, he didnt wanted to kill anyone and gave zero shits if someone wanted to escape.
My mother to fought in the revolution and fled to Switzerland
The country which I was born
My grandparents came to sweden from hungary during the revolution as refugees, its very interesting to hear about others stories about this.
My father was also assigned to patrol the border. He said that he left his station and used the riverbed to escape. He found shelter in a barn. And was confronted by farmers. He told them he left his post. They said they knew of a underground smuggling systen to get refugees to Canada.
My Father's last name was Fekete.
Where the term "Tankie insult" came from
My grandpa was there all along. He was the son of a wealthy peasent who were deemed kulaks and had all their belongings taken away. Since all better job oppurtinites were denied from people like him, he ended up being a teamster in Budapest when the revolution started. He participated in toppling the statue. He told stories on how they trapped tank columns in narrow streets and rained on them down with molotovs, or how they practiced firing an artillery gun in a park (he himself was a veteran of WW2), and how they pitied the frightened soviet soldiers when who were clearly just as much victims.
In the end he fleed back to his home village where however he was quickly charged and imprisoned. He served about 6 years in like 4 prisons until the amnesty. He was still not allowed to settle down in the HALF of the country he was from so had to come to the western part where I live today.
Till the end of his life he had a burning hatred for communism, and because he was branded anyway he never backed down from voicing his opinion knowing they can't put him any more down (not just because of '56 but having experienced the stalinist style persecution personally, even suffering outright torture). He was often at the market and constantly shittalked the communist party. In one example when some well known party figure died he corrected people saying he didn't perish but said "megdöglött" which is a term we use for animals, when applied for humans it is considered super dehumanizing and demeaning. When he went for a job interview and was asked if he served prison time (something the questioner obviously knew holding his papers) he shouted "of course I did, i fought in 56 against the communist vermins, why do I not look like honest Hungarian man to you?". From what my father told he constantly did these sheinigans just to poke needles at the regime.
His biggest regret in life was that in 1989-1991 when the regime collapses its members weren't given the same treatment. He reputedly regularly harassed ex-communists by promising them the same they did to them. Sadly it never came to be and their descendants hold many key positions.
Rest in peace grandpa.
Thank you for sharing your story. This has a lot of parallels with my grandparents and uncles. They all fled Hungary, except for my grandfather because my grandmother was a simple peasant woman who was afraid to leave. This costed my grandfather's life as he was tortured and killed, the family owned factory was taken away and converted to a shoe factory by the communist. It took 2 generations to get ourselves out of poverty and ensure that the 3rd generation is brought up without fear of where they are going to sleep or how they are going to find their next meal. The communist did tremendous amount of harm.
@@UsaSzerelem “wealthy peasant” has got to be the stupidest thing I’ve read this month 😂
@@UsaSzerelem lol. Deserved it.
"Boo hoo, they took the family factory and we had to live like the workers we exploited!!!! We're the victims here!!!"
@@Jmj__ 20 bucks his grandfather also fought for the fascists
@@mikeyorkav4039
What's a matter, Popov? Did Azov gut your pig brother? Don't be sad, atleast you got a TV out of it.
I did a 110-page independent research project in Budapest on this, based on original archives. Amazing job on this video!
If that's true, and you really had original archives, then you would realize that the ethno-religious identity of the communist leaders in Hungary was quite peculiar, not the same as that of the Hungarian people at all.
My mom was one of the 120 000 that fled for Austria as a child. Her whole family eventually settled in Canada
@@postnutclarity3055 On foot, hiding in ditches. Mom was about the same age.
my father as well
Thank you for covering this! ❤
szívesen!
nice name lad
Great episode. Living memory for many in Hungary and beyond. Canada received the largest number of Hungarian refugees per population after the Revolution. More than 38000 Hungarians were allowed to settle in the country. Many of them had their tickets to Canada payed by the government of Canada.
Like the entire Sopron University forestry teachers (and families) who went to British Columbia en masse and helped the lumber industry ! My family were late defectors (in February 1957) and arrival in Canada 7 months later. Funny anecdote the McGill University sponsored plane landed in Gander , it was minus 25 degrees and my father thought we were tricked to land in Siberia! I was a baby and 1956 still resonates with me today, as I speak the language fluently.
It was very appreciated that Canada took all the refugees in after and during the uprising and paid the ticket to get here. When we got here we all received $5 per person Ticket to come across the Ocean was around $125 and A train ticket to your final place of your choosing Around $35 . There was no welfare so you where on your own, we all had to get some sort of job.
That really was the best way to go to different Country no hand out. Since I was 11 years old I had a job that paid 25 cent an hour working on different farms as a hired man, whit no regret. And all the people that came the same way we all made it in this land. And we paid back every thing what Canada has given us 10000 times over. That is why immigration legally works the best way in any Country.
Yeah I think my Dad moved to Canada shortly after too. I hope Russia is not moving back in there soon.
My Hungarian Father in law ( who passed away with Covid Oktober 2021) was in Budapest at this time saw his friend killed, he escaped Hungary while being shot at escaping via Austria to eventually England at the age of 16.
He made many friends and was very successful in England and made a large (Nagy) Family. Thanks to him I now live in central Budapest, a wonderful city I love very much and every day I am reminded by my surroundings of those events. God bless Hungary and it's people.
My mother is Hungarian and my grandfather decided to leave once things got hairy and move to Australia they arrived here in 1956 I am glad they did
Same here :)
Well my mum’s parents left Hungary for Australia in the late 40’s. Just after the Second World War, and trying to leave before the Soviet Union took over
same, but it was my grandparents that fled to america
@@bigbeartanner Glad to have Hungarians come to USA. I had a great neighbor of an Armenian women and a Hungarian man. Their kid was my friend, and I learned that later, both of them fled their original countries during the cold war. God bless them!
I like your Hungarian pronunciation, and I love that you say the names in Hungarian order: first is the family name, second is the forename. 😊
The way my grandmother discovered about the revolution: Her parents sent her to buy some vegetables from the market, and when she got there, there was already a shootout.
My mother-in-law went out to buy some milk and saw tanks in the street
Its almost like this revolution was manufactured by outside actors
Greetings to Hungarian people .I am from Poland leaving in Australia.
Roughly a century apart Russian troops quelled a Hungarian revolt against the then Austrian Hapsburg monarchy and then against their own puppet communist dictatorship.
imagine thinking it was a dictatorship
@@shawnv123 because it was commie.
@@azstrikbonjok1171 no it was sommie because it was socialist
@@shawnv123 there's 0 difference in the two.
@@azstrikbonjok1171 there’s plenty difference in the two lmao communism has never been tried
I'm sad you never mentioned the last transmission of Nagy towards the west where they were asking for help.
I think I have heard it. I think it is online.
I love how you included Hungarian Dance # 4 by Johannes Brahms at the end. Very good.
Made in Hungary 1956 born in the USA 1957 my mother was six months pregnant with me and they almost wouldn't let her get on the plane because they were worried of a miscarriage but the doctor finally gave the OK it was safe to fly
My Father was a Sailor on the USS Ft Mandan. That ship and others picked up and transported thousands of non-communist refugees from Hungary. As you said, there was a lot going on at that time and I believe the United States did not make this publicly known.
I truly enjoyed this video. Remembering the story my father had told me about this one excercise, of many amazing things done on the USS Ft Mandan.
Take Care and be safe, John
Another amazing content. Waited all weekend for your video.
Thanks for the like.
My dad fled Budapest in early November, a little under a month before his 8th birthday, and has described how the horrific images of bodies everywhere are burned in his memory to this day. He lived in district VIII, and I had no idea is was basically a central rebel stronghold. Thank you so much for this well-researched, and historically accurate depiction. Cheers!
My grandpa fled a town called Fehégyarmat, East Hungary. He was 19 at the time
My father took me with him to fight for freedom against the communist regime. He talked about the west abandoning us when we needed help. The Russian tank gunners killed two of my friends not more than ten feet from me. In December we, my mother and younger sister, escaped under fire through a mine field to Austria unharmed. I still have flashbacks on that.
my father also fled, along with his brother and mother, sad, my father was part of the golden team program for 8 years as a teenager player . . . obviously I wasn't too bad at soccer either, naturally a world class player, some thought I was one of the best in the world at 17
Hello The Cold War. I sometimes go to Mass at a Hungarian Church on the side of town I happen to live because I can walk on a nice day. There are two shrines, one to St. Steven of Hungary and one to the uprising of 1956. If you would like pictures or what have you, no problem. Great work as always, thank you.
Amazing video! These comments are a gold mine....many stories that need to be remembered.
The only country that offered military aid to the Hungarians in 1956 was Spain.
FRANCO, who was a furious anti-communist and military man, was so enthusiastic in helping them that he planned to send a contingent of 100,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Hungarians (twice the number of volunteers of the Blue Division on the Russian Front).
This desire to actively participate in the Hungarian revolution of 1956 can be explained because at that time 20 years had passed since the Spanish civil war and this was the occasion to remember good old days fighting against the communists again, Franco never stopped being a soldier.
In the end, these intentions remained in humanitarian aid only for logistical reasons, due to the lack of collaboration (for fear of the USSR) of the transit countries, it became impossible to transfer that contingent of soldiers.
I respectfully ask you never to use Franco and humanitarian in the same sentence.
@@akosbarati2239 As well as you!
Just a reminder that liberals only enable commies & retroactively take glory
@@akosbarati2239Leftists always dislike fun.
@@akosbarati2239 Total clown lmao
Cangrats David! That was a pretty good summary of the revolution. I'm a Hungarian, and love history so I can tell. Grate videos, keep it up!
The wife of a former employer was Hungarian, and, as a young teen, had escaped to the West with her family around 1960. While crossing the border, a young woman with their group stepped on a mine, and both her legs were blown off. They were forced to walk away and leave as the mine explosion and her agonized screams were attracting the attention of border guards.
My grandfather was a border guard in his early 20s after the revolution. He let many families through the border, but he had to be cautious because of the older guards, they were sometimes very cruel to the fleeing families.
Andrew Robinson WW2 was after the 20s. Don’t underestimate the viscousness of Bolsheviks/communists particularly in the Jewish communist officers under Bela Kun’s regime
@@andreidarie4076 WW2 start 1939 -1945 Hope you update yourself before
giving us great infomation
@@andreidarie4076 He meant that his grandfather was 20something years old not that it happened on 1920'
@@andrewrobinson2565 Probably... they fought the red plague.
This is so sad. I was rooting for the revolutionaries even though I already knew the outcome.
In Romania the aftermath was the abolishment of the Hungarian Autonomous Zone in Eastern Transylvania and the forced merger of the Hungarian state university - the Bolyai University with a Romanian university, the splitting off of the Medical University that they moved to a different city (that was only finally abolished in 2018). A lot of professors were sacked and the Romanians used the 1956 events to their maximum extent to go back on the rights they were forced to give to the 2 million Hungarians in Transylvania in 1948 (to gain back control of Transylvania from the Soviet troops that were protecting the Hungarian minority here from genocide). The Romanian state policy of destroying the Hungarian minority is unchanged, the end of the Cold War did not change it and the Romanian state used and uses every excuse they have to further cut back rights, take away churches, school buildings and close schools and Universities whenever they can. The Romanian president openly mocks Hungarians in national television, war cemeteries from WW1/WW2 that were left alone are now bulldozed over and fake Romanian crosses installed over Hungarian graves ... and the world does not care.
Romania will use every single excuse they have against Hungarians they have been doing it for 100 years now, consistently, in monarchy, in fascism, in communism and in capitalism and "democracy". They are in the EU they are in NATO they are important to the Americans and the Americans decided that the rights of the Hungarian minority here are of no concern of theirs so the Romanians just do whatever they please, the president gets a Charlemagne medal one day and incites ethnic hatred on national television the other day, Europe could not care less.
This bothers me to a great extent. Especially now, when there is so much discussion about cultural and ethnic genocide in Western countries. Unfortunately, Romania's strategic position provided them with a free pass to do whatever they want with their minorities. Meanwhile, Romania has a lot of good PR in the west presenting itself as a dynamic and hip country with great opportunities for growth, completely ignoring the authoritarian governing styles of their leaders. The Romania I see is a country in almost constant political turmoil where every leader plays the Hungarian card whenever their position is threathened.
@@haraldkrausz thank you for your emphaty.
Wow. May the light of nonviolent truth carry you forward out of the clutch of your abusers.
It wasn't a decision made by the Romanian people, actually students supported the Hungarian revolt, but by Gheorghiu-Dej, Stalin's favourite apostle in Romania, that was the de facto leader of Romania. Dej did all of this and was servile to the USSR in order to persuade Khrushchev to get the Red Army out of Romania and to gain some autonomy in the Soviet Bloc to direct Romania along a more nationalistic line. It is a shameful part of Romanian history.
This is funny considering that the Hungarians have oppressed and tried to force the majority Romanian population in Transylvania to Magyarize for hundreds of years. Now, to address your claims:
1. "The Romanian state policy of destroying the Hungarian minority is unchanged, the end of the Cold War did not change it" - this is mostly false because in the regions with high Magyar populations the administration is usually bilingual and there's wide usage of Hungarian and even German in all official signs and documents. The education system offers students the possibility to study in Hungarian or even German, from kindergarten all the way to university without being discriminated against. As a matter of fact the political party Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) has been part of a coalition government almost continuously since 1996. During this time the magyar minority not only has preserved its rights and minority focused institutions but has also gained some more, a list of them can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Alliance_of_Hungarians_in_Romania
2. "take away churches, school buildings" - during the communist regime all property belonged to the state, this includes any and all church property of any creed. Tt's true the state has done a poor job giving said property back in a timely manner to their rightful owner but it hasn't discriminated against anyone, be it a private individual or institution.
3. "cemeteries from WW1/WW2 that were left alone are now bulldozed over and fake Romanian crosses installed over Hungarian graves" - the cemeteries were restored not too long ago by a Hungarian NGO and they only restored what they believed to be Hungarian graves. The problem here is that the graves they restored are very likely to actually belong to soldiers from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds as the Austro-Hungarian army had soldiers from more than a dozen different ethnicities (including Romanian), not to mention the likelihood that the soldiers buried there may have been from opposing sides. This has been seen as disrespectful by a lot of Romanians. I'll be fair and admit that the way in which the local authorities have tried to fix this issue has been rather shameful.
Historically, there has been a lot of bad blood between Romania and Hungary, Romanians and Hungarians, and neither side is innocent. I'm sure everyone has an opinion on which side was worse. Not getting everything you want doesn't mean you're oppressed.
Loved the video. Please make a video on the situation in Antarctica during the Cold War
I'm impressed by the effort made in pronouncing the names right. Been following the channel for a while, amazing content!
25,000?! I knew of the uprising but never knew it had cost so dearly
Probably more many who participated in the revolution were sentenced to death
I'm an 8th grader, and in Hungary we learn history starting in 5th grade. So just imagine: I waited 3 years, and about 5 months to finally learn about the Hungarian revolution. We only discussed the first day of the revolution today (and we'll learn about the rest on wednesday.), like how the peaceful procession turned into a bloody revolution.
For me this was one of the most interesting lesson ever. :)
Well told, sir! My complements to your ability at wrapping your tongue around thos Hungarian names! Bravo!
Around 1980 in Jacksonville, Florida I knew a man who was a teenager in Budapest when the H.R. happened in 1956. He fled the country with his parents and immigrated to the United States. He said *the normal Russian soldiers doing the fighting were told that the Nazi's had risen again and taken over Hungary.* He told me of a specific bridge (I've forgotten which) in Budapest where *the Soviets took the heads of those they'd killed and stuck them on top of the lamp-posts.* I never asked him if he'd been part of the fighting. It seemed he was just glad to escape alive and the thought he may have resisted never occurred to me until watching your video just now.
I have never seen any verified beheadings, the only lamppost hangings I know of were done by rebels against ÁVH officers. The uprising was very complex, and yes, former Arrow Cross members and other antisemites did fight, and some even reached out to Horthy to come home (the former governor for life lived among other former Nazis in Estoril this despite the Nazis kidnapping his son).
Polak, Węgier, dwa bratanki.
What does that mean?
@@---uf2zl A Pole and a Hungarian are two nephews. Meaning we're family.
It means he is a friend by default
Igazad van lengyel testvérem
🇵🇱
You are saying truth my polish brother 🇵🇱
@@lynxrufus2007
That is correct! ;)
I wonder "What If" the Hungarian Revolution had been far less radical and more moderate. And "What If" the moderates in the Soviet Government had prevailed when it came to Hungry. How different would history have been? My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.
If that did happen it’s interesting to think about Hungarian and Russian relations would be today
All Bosheviks want the same thing. To rule through over power over Gentilea.
iw would be same .. viz czechoslovakia 1968
@@cmoore9664 I'm not sure it would necessarily have an effect. The current Hungarian government under Prime Minister Orban and Fidesz has pursued a nationalist policy, one that has unfortunately somewhat antagonized some "mainstream" Western forces like the EU, for better or worse, and aligned ever closer with Russia, sympathizing with Putinist Russian nationalism, with which they share some similarities
@@cmoore9664 Mind you, I am rather sympathetic to Orban, but I don't agree with his friendliness toward Russia or Putin
I'm not a fan of Russian revanchism, and indeed, am much more sympathetic to Ukrainian nationalism
The episode is awsome and put together simply, so everyone understands the situation right on the go.
One thing I would point out is the inconsistentcy in the names. You used the family names first then the given names (e. g. Nagy Imre) but then flipped it when it came to squares and places (Zsigmond Móricz square iso Móricz Zsigmond). I don't mind I know them, but foreigners watching this may get confused.
I think the non-Hungarian order is in the parts of the video they used from Historigraph while their own content (including the spoken word) uses the Hungarian order.
I believe place names have official translations to English, and they might not have wanted to deviate from those.
Avanti ragazzi di Buda
Avanti ragazzi di Pest
Studenti, braccianti, operai
Il sole non sorge più ad Est!
Abbiamo vegliato una notte,
la notte dei cento e piú mesi!
A bunch of Hungarian Forestry students fled the country during this time and actually finished their university education here at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Nice video!
If you think the outcome would have been different if only the Hungarians had moderated their demands , think again. In 1968 Dubcek did just that. And received “ fraternal assistance “. in the form of Russian tanks
The Ruskis have but one response to any attempt at independence
The birth of the "tankie"
cringe word but yeah that’s where tankie came from
The word which we tankies still wear with pride
@@zurdddtk3025 Imagine being proud of sending tanks to suppress popular revolts.
@@thefederalist7807 if those are the cia backed fascist lead revolts, highly YES why not? Crushing reactionaries especially of the national Bourgeois class is always good and even fun
@@zurdddtk3025 The Prague Spring wasn't even fascist.
Just picked up a 53' M44, and being of Hungarian blood, this is interesting. My Hungarian family told me of this history, but it is another aspect to view it. They fought and started a new life for me and future generations.
Great video and pronouncing of the Hungarian names. My father and uncles were involved in the revolution and had to flee Hungary. They were adamant that the propaganda from Radio Free Europe had fueled hope there would be US and/or NATO intervention for a successful Hungarian revolution. You can hear that in the last broadcasts from the revolutionary radio station in Budapest during the last minutes of the revolution. Again great video looking forward to watching the next one.
It's soo sad what happened to Imre Nagy he and the hungarian people are the real heroes.
Nagy isnt a hero
Very well written and presented. It's too bad that Hungary in 1956 became a casualty of the cold War.
Interestingly there were queues of volunteers in Leeds, England hoping to help Hungarians. They were refused passports by British home office. I have this from a friend who stood in that queue
Thanks for this show. It is really important to remember the Hungarians' fight for freedom. However, you missed at least two important pieces of information: 1. you never mentioned card. Mindszenty and 2. in communist Poland there were widespread blood donations for the Hungarians, something that was quite opposite to the official policy of the communist block.
My son-in-laws family was able to leave Hungary during the revolution when the Hungarians opened the border to Austria for a few days. They were the first family to arrive in Los Angeles as Hungarian refugees. His mother was the first child in their family to be born in the US. The Hungarians had hoped for help or at least diplomatic pressure from the West but alas-poor timing. The Hungarian revolution happened at the same time as the Suez Crises so that is where the gaze from the West was turned at that time. James Michener wrote a great little book about the Revolution as he was a UN observer at the Austrian border for the few days opening and talked to many Hungarians after they had crossed.
another October Revolution. glory to the heroes and martyrs of Hungarian Revolution!
Salute to the Hungarian heroes from Malaysia. We understood the struggle against Communist menace.
Bella Kun try to bring the communism in hungary 1919
1956 - the year my mother fled Hungary - but her mother and sister remained. She made her way to Austria and accepted an arranged marriage with my father (who immigrated to the US shortly after the war and was sponsored by the US soldiers who captured him around Normandy as a 17 year old “soldier” working in NYC as a long shore man and then an accountant... also fought for the - right - side in Korea) my mother didn’t dare to go back until 1977 when her mom was dying and my brother and I got to see Communism first-hand... a neighbor at my aunt’s apartment reported “Americans” to the secret police... decades late I went back in 1992 and that same neighborhood apologized and became a close friend
And, to think, as bad as things are getting to be here in the US of A, I’m actually thinking of moving back and retiring in my mother’s homeland... as it’s more affordable and safer 🤔
Actually, it looks like the politicians in Australia and New Zealand have gone even WORSE Covid Crazy!?! Someone tell them that this virus 🦠 strikes old people with comorbidities and more young people still die of the seasonal flu... seen people arrested for not wearing masks out doors or planing to attend anti-lock down rallies!?! At least here there are Red States that pretty much tell the Blue States to f*ck off...
I wonder if the French and British weren't too busy trying to grasp onto their collapsing empires, if the West would have taken a firmer stand in support of Hungary.
No chance, they already gave away half of Europe by that time to as usually the "wonderful" and "prosperous" russian leadership
Our brethren the Greek Communists (Partisans of the Greek Civil War) played a vital part in crushing the Rebellion.
Very insightful comment there .. yeah mate let's just invade East Germany and Austria aswell Hungary just to help by causing a bigger war in 1956 .. maybe also look at the area's controlled by France and United Kingdom after the war .. excuse me America don't mind us just off to help the Hungarians with our armies just passing through ..
Maybe there would have been more international condemnation. But that's about it. Whatever else was going on at the moment, intervening in Hungary would've meant direct conflict with the Soviet army itself. Avoiding that made the Cold War "cold" instead of turning the world (or Europe) into a nuclear wasteland.
There is really nothing much they can do except actual war...
This and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia isn’t talked about enough even in history courses in college. Thanks for shining some light on this
Freedom fighters not rebels. The best 2 weeks of my life.
you took part in the revolution?
God bless you
Fascist freak
Rebels??? I'd say freedom fighters would be much more fitting.
Rebels is more neutral
@@apgames8497 We should call the soviets freedom fighters lol
I'd say degenerate nazis would be much more fitting than your delusion.
@@JohnDoe-be5td Is this why they oppressed the working class and literally killed striking workers on numerous occations? Krostadt, the Putilov strikes, the Tambov rebelion to name a few.
The Soviets are nothing more than counter-revolutionary state capitalist despots that betrayed the working class.
@@1997lordofdoom i think you missed the joke
On behalf of my father who took part in 1956 Revolution and Hungary. I just wanna thank the United States of America for dropping leaflets that read hold out help is on the way!!!!!! Thank you president Eisenhower for not lifting a finger and not allowing Spain to bring weapons or ammunition to Hungary. Which made the wholesale torture and slaughter of freedom loving Hungarians much easier. I'd like to think that if perhaps Hungary had oil or another resource that the US finds valuable they might have felt the need to spread some that democracy they talk so much about.
You can visit near Nagykanizsa where the former MAORT-owned American suburban houses still stand, which the American company lost in the 1947 show trial.
lololol
Sadly, the facts about Moskow's turning point (the brutal attack on AVH during cease-fire) is not really mentioned at all, or very biased in the Hungarian school history textbooks... Thanks for that. It would be nice if you can do a video about Kádár's era, the "Gulash Communism" , since it is quite unique among eastern bloc countries (well, all are unique, but still).
Alt hist hub: what if hungarian rebels did not fire on avh
A mini game should be made on this
@@mayukhmitra5819 There is a board game called Days of Ire (Pesti Srácok) I have it I played it it is actually good. A tiny bit similar to Twilight Struggle. boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/192802/days-ire-budapest-1956
The Hungarian dances music is such a beautiful addition!!
Ah, yes ! The Molotov cocktail.
The official drink and proud sponsor of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution !
Our uncle said people in their desperation broke off the handle of frying pans (palacsinta sütő) and tossed them onto roads, stopping entire tank columns in their tracks . The Russians thought they were land mines.
Thank you 🙏AGAIN for your work 👍🙏 it's an excellent succinct informative flawless video 👍💪.
Andropov made some deal with Nagy to not execute lads under 18 years of age. So they ended up in prison. When they reached the age of 18 they were executed. There are witnesses of dreadful tortures in those prisons, some on TH-cam, you might have to use translator for some.
Mad respect for the pronunciation of hungarian words and names, somebody must have helped who speaks the language or something cause it was top notch.
Thank you so much for this :) Very nice name pronunciation! Greetings from Budapest!
This was a great couple of episodes 👍
Thank you.
love to Hungary from Poland....
A well done episode. I'm sure that though the time you are getting the necessary experience to produce the quality of the content that this trouble era is needed.
"Soviet military were forbidden to call in airstrikes and artillery" obviously you shouldnt do that if you want to be seen as the big socialiste Brother lol
If this happened during Stalin's tenure those troops would have been sent to the Gulags for not causing collateral damage. In a weird way this was progress and less people died than otherwise could have. Also Stalin would likely have deported a few hundred thousand to Siberia as punishment. 3k dead was a half days work for the NKVD. Not that the Hungarians should be grateful but they certainly got off far better then they would have under Stalin.
Shame it failed.
Respect that it happened
shame it happened.
Shame the West didn't give a shit! Just lipservice for freedom and democracy and all the other crap.
@@dimas3829
Don't worry.
The people of Hungary are now free from Communism.
1989 was a glorious year in European history.
Imagine being a mighty kingdom, then dual partner in one of the largest European empires, and then a few decades later being a small soviet satellite state. Poor Hungary
Sad story but true... :(
I oppose soviet violence and oppression, I don't in any way support the control of hungry or any other country by any imperialist power communist or capitalist.
With that out of the way, hungary had it coming, they spend 3 decades fighting on all the wrong sides and committing horrific shit, countries who behave like that end up in pretty bad positions unless you are a super power ofc
edit: spelling
Well, none of this would have happened if it wasn't for their severe case of swollen ego 40-something years prior.
@@wahlex841 Zip it token!
@@KZ-xt4hl And as you can see Hungary is still there. We have survived the greatest empires the world has seen. And now you have it coming. We are coming.
As a hungarian, I find this video 100% correct! A big thing to learn was, that the West didn't help us at all! We can count only on ourselves. West only said nice words, but didn't help at all. Never to forget!
Respectfully can you simply give details as to why did the Soviet want to control Budapest? Trying to follow this video and it's getting complex.
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin divided Europe after WW2: the Soviets wanted to control Central and Eastern Europe, while the USA controlled West Europe - they were luckier.@@angelamonk716
@@attilahalmai4590 ty. I was just reading up on Mark Twain views on the American Spanish War and the Paris Treaty, and learned WOW was he ever a rebel against Imperialism. Was 100 percent against both. I know that is irrelevant to topic here , just wanted to mention cause I got feeling many don't know such things.
Also learned that Magyar is a hush hush term in reference to the original foundation of Hungary. Interesting stuff..been reading all evening, topic after topic.
It is because of this pivotal event that I have the fortune of being born an American citizen. My grandmother along with my mother and aunt escaped just weeks after the Hungarian Revolution ended with the re-invasion by Soviet troops. They would arrive in the United States in the early days of January 1957 and shortly thereafter became naturalized citizens.
I THANK GOD every day for my grandmother's bravery for what she did. She faced great danger leaving and had to fight back her intense love of her home country. However, she felt their future was bleak under communism. She was a proud Hungarian woman but an even more proud American. She would return every year to visit her brother, sister and their families well into her 80's.
She passed at 93 back in 2008 due to surgery complications. She had circulatory issues in her leg that was causing infection in her foot. Doctor told her either the foot gets amputated, or they do surgery to unblock the artery. She vehemently responded, "Nobody is taking my foot!". You know the one of two that carried her out of her homeland to freedom.
What is the name of soundtrack used at the end? Very good to listen to.
I think is Hungarian Rhapsody final part
@@zoltanercei1094 Thanks.
It's the start of Brahms Hungarian Dance no. 4 th-cam.com/video/HSNAy0ML-cg/w-d-xo.html
I tip my hat to you guys,well done.
Please Remember the Hong Kong anti-extradition law Protest.
1956 In Budapest
2019 In Hong Kong
Heroes in West and East.
I remember the Hungarian government declaring it an internal Chinese affair. My personal opinion is different, I genuinely believe in the 1984 Sino-British Agreement, though I don't like how some protesters looked up to an American president who doesn't believe in civil rights many of his own citizens would have helped Hong Kong.
Fascists and Tankies are the same thing. Change my mind
4:39 ah Andropov, owner of scariest weapon of Soviet Union
kudos! your hungarian is great!
You know, knowing that you're a Canadian based channel, every time I watch a video I can't help but think of Igor Gouzenko, and a novel I once read. I can't remember the title or author, but it was undoubtedly inspired by Gouzenko. A defector is being debriefed in a city that is cold, snowy and miserable. Through the entire book, you're led to believe it's a Western defector to the East. It closes with the defector looking out the window, across the snow, at the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill.
Makes me think the channel should interview former West Germans who had an embassy in Nova Scotia where GDR citizens on their way to Cuba could and did file for asylum.
Ha! Everyone uses Historigraph's animations apparently. Great stuff!
The Hungarian Revolution and the Invasion of Czechoslovakia showed the world the true face of the Soviet Union.
America not better, did you think if there country will join warsaw or withdraw from nato will America do better of course not
@@СахерСалама France actually essentially withdrew from NATO at one time, and was certainly not invaded. ;)
@@varana maybe because have nuclear weapons,
@Jonathan Williams because it was against fascist rule in potugal and not against US but if a democratic nation anger fucking us they will destroy that nation or support dictatorships like what happened in latin America
My grandparents met in Australia due to the uprising. Godbless those who took part
It was during the Hungarian revolution that the west got its first good look at the then new Soviet infantry rifle, the AK-47. Many of the revolutionaries got their hands on them and they are seen in some of the photos that made it to the west.
One of my son's is now married to a lovely lady of Hungarian background. These two episodes of the effects of the cold war on Hungary have been enlightening. I have had the privilege to visit Budapest/Hungary twice in the past few years and it is a place I love. Whilst there remains much evidence of the Communist regime/era it is a land which I feel shows promise, that drab greyness is disappearing, and, apart from a few dodgy taxi drivers (the bane of all tourists !) the people are lovely. But there remains undertones of the after-effects of those evil communists which I hope can and will disappear in the coming years. I look forward to returning to Hungary in the future, and further examining its past. Onwards and upwards for Hungary (and any country once invaded by evil !)
Very well explained Cold War Chanel. Thankyou.
Great pronunciations, the Magyar
language is difficult to master IMO.
Nice history video with clearly explained
Great couple of episodes. Sad to think of how close they were to a compromise.
Today’s generations still feel the incredibly damaging impact the soviet union had on this country. It’s like with burn victims: their wounds can heal, sure… but constant reminders of the pain, agony, torture, and the lenghty recovery will always remain. I go to school in an area which was heavily impacted by cheap, soviet architecture. Tall, concrete blocks, cheap rundown buildings and the overwhelming abudance of greyness. My school itself is poorly made, blocky, unwelcoming and overall depressing looking. I dread each morning that I walk from the decrepit trainstation to that sad excuse of an institution. And even something as benign as the architecture around us has an affect on people. Feelings of frustration and hopelessness spread like a disease, especially in winter months. I truly despise the people who lived before my time and made these awful living conditions possible. And the ones who let it happen. Let us never forget what they did to us. Let us never forget why we are the way we are today.
❤