Tens of thousands joined the demonstration, and by evening crowds had toppled a giant statue of Stalin. When protesters tried to broadcast their demands at the radio building, the security police opened fire, and the protest became an armed revolt. The reformer Imre Nagy became prime minister and announced Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. On November 4 Soviet tanks crushed the revolution. About 2,500 Hungarians were killed, some 200,000 fled abroad, and Nagy was later executed.
Stalin's death in 1953 and Khrushchev's denunciation of him in 1956 had loosened the grip of Hungary's hardline leadership. In October, news that Poland had forced concessions from Moscow inspired Budapest students, who drew up 16 demands, including free elections, the withdrawal of Soviet troops and the return of Imre Nagy, a reform-minded communist who had been ousted in 1955.
On the afternoon of October 23 the students marched to the statue of the Polish-born general Józef Bem, a hero of Hungary's 1848 revolution, and were joined by workers and other citizens. A crowd gathered outside parliament, and another cut down the eight-meter bronze statue of Stalin in the city park, leaving only his boots on the plinth. At the radio station, where a delegation was trying to read the demands on air, State Protection Authority officers fired on the crowd. Soldiers sent to restore order handed weapons to the protesters.
After days of fighting, Soviet forces withdrew from Budapest, and for a brief moment the revolution seemed to have succeeded. Then, on November 4, Soviet troops returned in force. János Kádár was installed as leader. Nagy, who took refuge in the Yugoslav embassy, was seized and hanged in 1958.
Key people: Imre Nagy, Ernő Gerő, János Kádár, Nikita Khrushchev