Toronto - Canadian Hungarians remember bloody uprising against the Soviet rule in 1956. -- There was freedom in the air on October 23, 1956 when Hungarian students began demonstrating against the Communist government. The Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had died three years before; and in March of 1956, Nikita Khrushchev had spoken out against Stalin at the 20th Party Congress. Repression was easing within the Soviet Union, and the leaders of the Satellite countries like Gomulka of Poland and Nagy of Hungary felt they could try to liberalize. Led by students and workers, the spontaneous Hungarian Revolution began. The Soviets, however, felt that they were losing control in Hungary, so they sent in their tanks and troops. The Freedom Fighters fought hard, but by November 4th, the Hungarians had lost. It wasn't until 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall that the Soviet Union finally collapsed. Now as we look back, we can see that the Hungarian Revolution really was the first serious crack in the Soviet system and a proud moment in the life of that small Central European country.
