This Day in Anarchist History, October 23rd 1956 we remember the Hungarian Revolution when student protesters and the broader Hungarian working classes took on the Secret Police and the Red Army.

After days of striking and rioting that boiled into a firefight, protesters were able to defeat the country’s Secret Police and even negotiated the withdrawal of the Red Army from Hungary… for a time, that is.

Impromptu proletarian militias wasted no time looting factories to arm themselves. Unfortunately time was in too short supply as the Red Army tanks were sent back just days later, this time with orders to brutally crush the revolt. 3,000 Hungarians were killed, about 20,000 were imprisoned and hundreds of thousands more fled. There was very little dissent from Hungary for the rest of the USSR’s existence.

The post The Hungarian Revolution first appeared on Dissident Voice.

This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.