Tomorrow is the 23rd October, when we remember the Revolution of 1956 against the Soviet occupation and their puppet government of the Hungarian People’s Republic. The revolution and the fights afterward lasted until 10th November 1956, and it was one of the first major uprisings in the Eastern block. The revolution, as so many other before it, was defeated and a bloody vengeance started, which determined the future policy and relations within Hungary and with the Soviet Union, and still it is a sore but also proud holiday all around the country.
Brief history
To understand why the uprising happened we need to briefly go back and look at the events after the 2nd World War. In 1945 the Soviet army liberated and in the same time occupied Hungary and a 50 years long temporary deployment of Soviet troops on Hungarian soil started. With the help of the Soviet government and political tricks and cheats the Hungarian Communist Party gained power and the People’s Republic of Hungary was declared in 1949. A Stalinist dictatorship was introduced with the State Security Police (first Állam Védelmi Osztály – ÁVO, later Állam Védelmi Hivatal – AVH) in the role of arresting, torturing, internmenting or executing those, who were against the system, were thought to be against it or just simply were a nuisance for the leadership. The country was led by Mátyás Rákosi. The economy was turned into a socialist one with radical changes and nationalisation.
Due to the war reparations, the socialist type economy and nationalisation, the standard of living started to fell in the 1950s. The bad management of supplies created chronic shortages in basic foodstuffs resulting in rationing of bread, sugar, flour, and meat. People were forced to buy state bonds, to finance the non-logical industrial investments (like establishing heavy industry in a country without the necessary raw materials) and the deficit, which reduced the personal income. Foreign debt increased and all in all the people started to have less money and even less goods to buy with what left.
On 5 March 1953 Stalin died. This started, after a transition time, a kind of liberalization among the communist parties of the Eastern bloc. Rákosi was replaced by Imre Nagy as Prime Minister, who decided on some reforms and hoped that Hungary can gain a neutral state just as Austria in 1955. However, these were sabotaged by Rákosi, as he was still the General Secretary of the Party, and in 1955 Imre Nagy was removed from power. The Warsaw Pact was created on 14 May 1955, forging militarily together all the countries under Soviet influence. Among the principles of this alliance were “respect for the independence and sovereignty of states” and “non-interference in their internal affairs”. Later it turned out that the Soviet Union meant something else under these conditions.
In February 1956 Nikita Khrushchev had a secret speech, which denounced Stalin and his followers. As a result of that Rákosi was dismissed as General Secretary by Ernő Gerő on 18 July 1956. The secret speech was broadcasted throughout Eastern Europe by the Radio Free Europe, shaking the Soviet rule. A violent uprising erupted in Poznan, Poland by Polish workers in June 1956 but was quickly and violently put down by the government. Due to popular pressure in October 1956 Polish reformists ideas were approved by the Soviets (the Polish October), which gave hope for the Hungarian people for similar concessions. Meanwhile the United States encouraged the Eastern countries to move away from Soviet influence, but tried to avoid direct US – Soviet military confrontation. This ambiguous policy caused that many in Hungary thought that in case of an uprising the NATO and US would help them with full military force and they only had to hold on for a limited time against the Soviet war machine.
On 13 October 1956 university students in Szeged decided to re-establish the MEFESZ (Magyar Egyetemisták és Főiskolások Szövetsége – Union of Hungarian University and Academy Students), a democratic student organization, previously banned by Rákosi. They made hundreds of hand-written notes about it, on which they indicated that a meeting is going to be on the 16th. On the meeting 20 demands were made by the student, from which 10 had national interest: e.g.: free elections or the removal of Soviet troops from the country. The news spread around the country and other student organisations joined in Pécs, Miskolc and Sopron. On 22th October one of the students from Szeged went to the capitol, Budapest, to formally announce the re-establishment of MEFESZ and associated demands to the students of the Technical University (this where I also graduated 🙂). A new list was made with 16 points and the students decided to join the Polish solidarity demonstration with the Hungarian Writers’ Union the next day at the statue of General Bem.
On 23rd October 20.000 people joined the demonstration. After the speeches, the crowd crossed the river Danube and moved to the Parliament, where others were waiting. At 18:00 the peaceful crowd grew to 200.000. At 20:00 the radio announced that Ernő Gerő condemned the demonstration. The angry crowd went to the Stalin statue, erected in 1951, and by 21:30 the statue was toppled, and the crowd celebrated by putting national flags into Stalin’s boots, which was all that was left of it.
At the same time a large group gathered at the building of the Hungarian Radio, guarded by the State Police, ÁVH. At some point the ÁVH opened fire, killing many. The guards tried to re-supply themselves by hiding arms inside an ambulance, but the crowd found out and intercepted it. Soldiers were sent to the spot relieving the security forces but they tore off the red stars from their caps and joined the crowd. The crowd lost its peacefulness and started to ignite police cars and vandalise the symbols of the regime. During the night Ernő Gerő officially requested Soviet help and by the orders of Zhukov, Soviet tanks arrived to Budapest from 02:00 on 24 October.
By noon, on 24 October, Soviet tanks were stationed outside the Parliament, and Soviet soldiers guarded key bridges and crossroads. Armed revolutionaries quickly set up barricades to defend Budapest, and were reported to have already captured some Soviet tanks by mid-morning. On the same day Imre Nagy became Prime Minister. On the radio, he called for an end to violence and promised the political reforms. However the people continued to arm themselves as sporadic violence erupted. The radio was captured by the protesters, at one the newspapers the ÁVH opened fire on the crowd, but they were driven out by the arriving armed protestors. The population started to get vengeance on the members of the ÁVH throughout Budapest. Soviet military units were not yet fully engaged, and there were reports of some Soviet troops showing open sympathy for the demonstrators.
On 25 October ÁVH troops opened fire from the roofs on the crowd in front of the Parliament. By mistake Soviet troops opened fire on the ÁVH. The people gathered weapons from the fallen ÁVH members or the Hungarian soldiers gave them and a shootout started. After the attacks the government collapsed, some of them fled to the Soviet Union. PM was Imre Nagy and the General Secretary was János Kádár (remember this name). Revolutionaries attacked several ÁVH and Soviet units. On 30 October, after attacking the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the protesters executed dozens of suspected communists, state security members, and military personnel. Photographs showed victims with signs of torture.
Resistance fighters used improvised weapons effectively, such as the Molotov cocktail, against Soviet tanks on the narrow streets of Budapest. Councils were established nationwide assuming local governmental authority. Spontaneous revolutionary militias arose in Budapest, fighting ÁVH and Soviet units. Elsewhere in the country there was a relative peace. Soviet commanders often negotiated local cease-fires with the revolutionaries.
The Hungarian army mostly remained neutral at this time, from 24 to 29 October, however, there were 71 cases of armed fights between the national army and the protesters in fifty points of the country, ranging from the defence of attacks on civilian and military objectives to fighting with insurgents. One armoured division stationed in Budapest, commanded by Pál Maléter instead opted to join the insurgents. The government re-established the National Guard, unifying elements of the police, army and insurgent groups. A ceasefire was agreed with the Soviets on 28 October and by 30 October most of the Red Army troops left Budapest and moved back to their garrisons.
Fighting ceased until 4 November and many Hungarian thought that this could be the end of hostilities, as the Soviet left the city. A new government was formed and on 1 November Imre Nagy broadcasted on the radio, that Hungary decided to leave the Warsaw Pact and become neutral country. International response was favourable until the Suez Crisis, after that it made the condemnation of Soviet actions very difficult for the US.
The first news from Soviet reinforcement troops entering the country was given to the government on 1 November, but the Soviet ambassador assured them that they will not intervene. On 3 November a delegation, led by the Minister of Defence, Pál Maléter, was invited to attend negotiations on Soviet withdrawal at the Soviet Military Command at Tököl, which is close to Budapest. At midnight KGB arrested the delegation and an attack was started on Budapest on 4 November. The attack was codenamed “Operation Whirlwind” and was led by Ivan Konev. The original 5 divisions were reinforced and altogether 17 divisions attacked the city. By 21:30 on 3 November, the Soviet Army had completely encircled Budapest.
At 03:00 on 4 November, Soviet tanks entered Budapest, moving along the Danube on the Pest side in two thrusts: one up the Soroksári road from the south and the other down the Váci road from the north. With this the Soviets had effectively split the city in half, controlled all bridgeheads, and were shielded to the rear by the wide Danube river, without shooting a single bullet. Soviets entered Buda at 04:25 and opened fired on the army barracks on Budaörsi road. Soon after, Soviet artillery and tank fire was heard in all districts of Budapest. The operation combined air strikes, artillery, and the co-ordinated tank–infantry action. The Red Army deployed T-34/85 tanks, the new T-54s, PT-76s, IS-3 tanks, 152mm ISU-152 assault guns and BTR-152 APCs.
The Hungarian Army and Air Force was neutralised in the county between the 4 and 9 November, only in the Mecsek Mountains around Pécs and in Dunaújváros were fights between them and the Soviets, outside Budapest. In the capitol the National Guard had a force around 10.000-15.000. At 05:20 on 4 November, Imre Nagy broadcast his final plea to the nation and the world, announcing that Soviet Forces were attacking Budapest and that the Government remained at its post. The radio stopped broadcasting at 08:07. At 06:00 in Szolnok, János Kádár established a new, pro-Soviet government. By 08:00 the organised defence of Budapest ceased to exist and only some strongpoints, like the Corvin in the 8th District held out. The last fights, in Csepel and Dunaújváros, ended on 11 November. Hungarian losses were around 2.500 dead with an additional 20.000 wounded. 80% of Budapest’s houses were damaged and 1.569 civilians were killed. About half of all the casualties were people younger than thirty. The Soviet losses were 699 men killed, 1.450 wounded, and 51 were missing in action. Around 80% of all casualties occurred in the fighting with the insurgents in the 8th and 9th Districts of Budapest.
My version 
The original [http://napitortenelmiforras.blog.hu/]
After the revolution fell thousands were arrested. 26.000 of these were brought before the Hungarian courts, 22.000 were sentenced and imprisoned, 13.000 interned, and 229 executed. Approximately 200.000 fled Hungary as refugees. On 8 November Kádár became Prime Minister and General Secretary and ruled the country until his death in 1988. Key members of the revolutionary government, like Nagy and Maléter, were executed. Imre Nagy was re-buried with full honours on 16 June 1989, the 31st anniversary of his execution. In 1989 the Republic of Hungary was declared on 23 October, as a memento of the Revolution.
For the full story, I reccommend this page as a start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956
Wargaming options
If you want to have a kind of memorial game or to spice up your usual game nights/days with something unique you could have a game set in the revolution. As the year was 1956 there were equipment and vehicles from WW2 used, like the T-34/85, but the Soviets deployed their most modern troops too, with T-54, IS-3, PT-76 and the (in)famous AK-47. Both the Hungarian and Soviet armies used Soviet technology, but if you only have enough minis for one army, you can play a hypothetical scenario of a NATO invasion/help against the attacking Soviet units.
1. Student 2. Policeman 3. Worker 
Famous leaders: 1. Mrs. Havrilla 2. János Mesz 3. Tibor József Fejes 
1. Hungarian artillery first lieutenant 2,4: revolutionaries 3: nurse 
Uniforms of the Hungarian People’s Army in 1956 
Pro-revolution soldiers; 2: Pál Maléter 
Soviet soldiers. 1: Malasenko 
1: ÁVH officer 2. MVD officer 3. anti-revolutioner (Kádár Hussar or puff (pufajkás))
The uniforms did not really changed since 1945, therefore you can use the same winter clothed army that captured Berlin. The Hungarian army, as a good Eastern state, copied and used the uniform of the glorious Red Army. To model the revolutionaries you only had to paint a tricolour armband (remember the order: red, white and green) for the soldiers. The civilians can be formed by using partisans or Volkssturm, just make sure they have Russian weapons (or small enough scale not to see the difference).
Most of the fights happened in Budapest in urban environment. You can field small clashes using for example Force on Force ruleset with the additional book of Cold War Gone Hot. For larger battles I recommend Flames of War or its modern version Team Yankee, but I think the best solution would be Battlefront’s Fate of a Nation, as the time set almost the same, with some 11 years of difference. You can recreate the famous battles at Corvin cinema or Széna square, the attack against the Party House at the Köztársaság square or fights between State Police troops and university students. If you are tired of or not really keen with urban combat, I recommend to play the fights in the Mecsek Mountains or come up with some hypothetical operations: what if NATO attacks through the Austrian border and the Soviets need to stop them on the countryside? What if the Hungarian Army realised the Soviet move against Budapest and decides to attack the enemy outside the city, for example on the Great Plain (another tank battle at Debrecen?)? What if Yugoslavia decided that it is time to obtain the Southern part of Hungary and attacks both the Soviet and the Hungarian forces? Only your imagination can set a limit.
Destroyed IS-3 on Üllői street 
A Soviet T-54 at Nyugati square 
pro-revolution army T-34/85 
Destroyed T-54 on the Üllői street 
A Soviet motorcade led by a PT-76 on the Nagykörút 
Hungarian T-34s from the 33rd regiment of Esztergom at the Jászai Mari square 
Destroyed T-34/85 at Boráros square 
Medics using the covering fire of a pro-revolution T-34/85 
A SU-76 at the Buda Castle 
Captured T-34/85 in front of the Killián barracks on Üllői street. The number is covered with paint and a Kossuth emblem is painted next to it 
A T-34/85 of the 33rd regiment of Esztergom with the original markings
https://napitortenelmiforras.blog.hu/2016/07/19/pancelosok_a_forradalomban_ii
https://napitortenelmiforras.blog.hu/2016/08/17/pancelosok_a_forradalomban_iii
While learning more about the history of the revolution, planning the scenarios, campaigns or playing with your friend, please stop for just one moment, without spoiling the mood, and remember those, who were brave enough to fight against one the biggest military powers of the world and gave the highest sacrifice for the freedom of this nation.
I would like to end this post with, I think one of the most famous Hungarian verse details about 1956. Written by Sándor Márai in the poem Angel from Heaven and translated by Leslie A. Kerry:
Many can’t grasp it, though they had tried,
What rose up here like an ocean tide?
Why was world order shaking and strained?
A nation cried out. Then silence reigned.
Many are asking: what was the cause?
Who made from bones and the flesh the laws?
More and more ask it, there seems no end,
Haltingly, for they can’t comprehend –
Those, for whom Freedom bequest had brought,
Ask it: is Freedom so great a thought?
For more reference pictures, check this link on Fortepan: https://fortepan.hu/hu/photos/?q=forradalom&year_from=1956&year_to=1956
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956
https://ritkanlathatotortenelem.blog.hu/2015/10/22/rajzolt_431
https://napitortenelmiforras.blog.hu/2016/06/24/pancelosok_a_forradalomban_i
https://napitortenelmiforras.blog.hu/2016/07/19/pancelosok_a_forradalomban_ii
https://napitortenelmiforras.blog.hu/2016/08/17/pancelosok_a_forradalomban_iii
Minis with moustaches 
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