Szabadsag at 70
A young Hungarian girl, Erika Kornélia Szeles, emerges from a building housing resistance fighters in Budapest, carrying a Mauser, November 1956. Note the knocked-out Soviet ISU-152 heavy self-propelled gun casually in the background. Photo by Danish journalist Vagn Hansen.
After 11 years under a generally disliked Soviet occupation, a series of quiet events led to a full-blown rebellion in Budapest, with ripples across Hungary, in late October-early November 1956, remembered today in the country as the 1956 Revolution (1956-os forradalom).
At the time, the Soviets only had a two-division Special Corps in the country, along with forward elements of three other divisions, about 20,000-30,000 men depending on the season and the regular annual arrival and departure of conscripts.
In typical Russian style, the pushback was handled poorly and sparked a heavy, armor-led response against the Hungarian populace. The engagements were sharp, with the Soviet Operation Whirlwind (Operation Vikhr) deploying as many as 12 fresh divisions from the Carpathian and Kyiv Military Districts in the USSR, as well as units moved in from neighboring Romania, with upwards of 2,000 tanks and armored vehicles.
By comparison, the Hungarian People’s Army (Magyar Néphadsereg) had approximately 120,000 troops organized into 9 active ground divisions and supporting air components. While its officer corps, with dual command held by Red commissars (known in Hungarian as politikai tiszt, or political officers), was largely paralyzed, many Hungarian troops joined the rebellion, bringing small arms with them.
The cry of “Szabadság” (freedom, liberty) and “Ruszkik, haza!” (“Russians, go home!”) was a common refrain. The Hungarians had fought the Russians in 1812, 1848-49, 1914-18, and 1941-45, the latter including a brutal 50-day Red Army siege of Budapest that killed some 38,000 of its residents, so you can see the historic enmity.
Over the first week of November, the Soviets lost at least 699 killed, 51 missing (or deserted), and 1,980 wounded in Hungary, according to Russian military historian General G. F. Krivosheev.
These losses came primarily in the 8th and 9th districts around the Corvin Passage (Corvin köz) and Móricz Zsigmond körtér along with the Kilian Barracks, where Hungarian freedom fighters used anti-tank tactics and Molotov cocktails in narrow streets to good effect.
Additionally, defecting Hungarian Army units–specifically Colonel Pál Maléter and men of the 1st Hungarian Armored Division–brought formal military anti-tank guns and 76mm field artillery into the city defense. They were joined by members of the irregular National Guards (Nemzetőrség), many of whom had fought the Soviets on the Eastern Front just a decade earlier.
Although the figures are all over the place and the Russians never officially owned up to them, photos from the battle show somewhere around 50 tanks (primarily WWII-era T-34-85s, along with several newer T-54s and a small number of IS-3 heavies) and 60 APCs (mainly BTR-40 and BTR-150), augmented by a few SPGs (ISU-152s and SU-76Ms), destroyed or abandoned to the rebels, with several hundred others damaged.
For NATO intelligence, the appearance of the AKM carbine, BTRs, and T-54s was of keen interest, although there were few assets on the ground to exploit them.
For many in the West, images of destroyed Russian armor were a joy to behold.
The butcher’s bill paid by the rebels was high, with some 3,000 Hungarians killed and over 20,000 wounded. When the smoke cleared, something like 35,000 were arrested and at least 229 executed– including the good Colonel Pál Maléter. Another 1,000 Hungarians were deported to labor camps in the USSR.
Over 200,000 Hungarians (almost 2 percent of the total population) fled the country as refugees, mostly escaping across the Austrian border before it was sealed. Many of these exiles would later show up in the French Foreign Legion and U.S. Army Special Forces, the latter courtesy of the Lodge Act, where their native language skills, deep knowledge of Warsaw Pact geography, and tactical experience fighting Soviet armor were prized.
As for the Soviets after 1956, they kept as many as 100,000 troops and upwards of 27,000 vehicles in Hungary for the rest of the Cold War, typically two tank divisions, two motor rifle divisions, Spetsnaz units, an air army, and a long logistics train across some 100 garrisons. This included another 30,000–40,000 civilian family members and support staff. The message was clear: the Red Army wasn’t going anywhere.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the thawing of East-West relations, Moscow finally began withdrawing to its own borders, and 15 drawn-out months later, the last military transport train left Hungary on 16 June 1991.
Soviet Southern Group of Forces commander, Lt. Gen. Viktor Silov, crossed the border into Ukraine three days later, ending nearly 47 years of unwelcome military presence.
