Péter Medák (born 23 December 1937) is a Hungarian-British film and television director.
156-708: Born in Budapest , Hungary , he was the son of Elisabeth (née Diamounstein) and Gyula Medak, a textile manufacturer. His family was Jewish . In 1956, he fled his native country for the United Kingdom due to the Hungarian Uprising . There he embarked on a career in the film industry, starting as a trainee and gradually rising to the position of film director. Medak was signed to direct television films for MCA Universal Pictures in 1963. In 1967, he signed with Paramount Pictures to make feature films. His first such film
312-639: A democratic socialist political system based upon land reform and (public) state ownership in the economy ; Hungarian membership to the United Nations ; and all freedoms and rights for the citizens of Hungary. After Veres proclaimed the manifesto demanding Hungarian sovereignty, the crowd chanted the Hungarian patriotic poem National Song ( Nemzeti dal ) , which the Soviet-controlled Rákosi government of Hungary had banned from public performance;
468-524: A Spanish diplomat. Some other diplomats also abandoned diplomatic protocol and rescued Jews. There are two monuments for Wallenberg, one for Carl Lutz and one for Giorgio Perlasca in Budapest. Following the capture of Hungary from Nazi Germany by the Red Army , Soviet military occupation ensued, which ended only in 1991. The Soviets exerted significant influence on Hungarian political affairs. In 1949, Hungary
624-570: A church, the Inner City Parish Church (Budapest) . The minaret and Turkish entranceway were removed. The shape of the architecture is its only hint of exotic past—"two surviving prayer niches facing Mecca and an ecumenical symbol atop its cupola: a cross rising above the Turkish crescent moon". After 1686, the Baroque architecture designated the dominant style of art in catholic countries from
780-722: A combined conference in Budapest that decided to end the nationwide labour strikes and to resume work on 5 November, with the more important councils sending delegates to the Parliament to assure the Nagy government of their support. On 24 October 1956, the Politburo of the USSR discussed how to resolve the political revolts that had occurred in Warsaw Pact countries, specifically the Polish October and
936-522: A delegation to deliver their demands in the Parliament, but government guards and a company of the Ministry of Defence's armoured regiment, backed by seven Soviet T-54 tanks lined up in front of the Parliament, kept the demonstrators away from the building. The events at Astoria were repeated, with demonstrators trying to make friends with the Soviet soldiers, handing out bilingual leaflets and some climbing on top of
1092-457: A highly popular destination in Europe. The previously separate cities of Buda, Óbuda, and Pest were officially unified in 1873 and given the new name Budapest . Before this, the towns together had sometimes been referred to colloquially as "Pest-Buda". Pest is often used pars pro toto for the entire city in contemporary colloquial Hungarian, although it is also used to refer to all parts of
1248-425: A land area of about 525 square kilometres (203 square miles). Budapest, which is both a city and municipality , forms the centre of the Budapest metropolitan area , which has an area of 7,626 square kilometres (2,944 square miles) and a population of 3,303,786. It is a primate city , constituting 33% of the population of Hungary. The history of Budapest began when an early Celtic settlement transformed into
1404-621: A mistaken imitation of the Anglo–French intervention to Egypt. In Russia, on 30 October 1956, the Presidium of the CPSU decided to not depose the new Hungarian government. Marshal Zhukov said: "We should withdraw troops from Budapest, and, if necessary, withdraw from Hungary, as a whole. This is a lesson for us in the military-political sphere". The Presidium then adopted and published the Declaration of
1560-692: A neutral country in the geopolitical cold war between the US and the USSR. Austria's declaration of geopolitical neutrality allowed the Communist government of PM Nagy to publicly consider "the possibility of Hungary adopting a neutral status on the Austrian pattern". In June 1956, the Polish Army violently repressed the workers' uprising at Poznań against the economic policies of the Polish People's Republic . In October,
1716-638: A rapid increase in the average temperature. The weather in late March and in April is often very agreeable during the day and fresh at night. Budapest's long summer – lasting from May until mid-September – is warm or very warm. Sudden heavy showers also occur, particularly in May and June. The autumn in Budapest (mid-September until late October) is characterised by little rain and long sunny days with moderate temperatures. Temperatures often turn abruptly colder in late October or early November. Mean annual precipitation in Budapest
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#17329059807941872-529: A transitional climate between a humid temperate climate ( Köppen : Cfa , Trewartha : Doak ), and a humid continental climate ( Köppen : Dfa , Trewartha : Dcao ), with warm to hot summers and chilly winters. Winter (November until early March) can be cold and the city receives little sunshine. Snowfall is fairly frequent in most years, and nighttime temperatures of −10 °C (14 °F) are not uncommon between mid-December and mid-February. The spring months (March and April) see variable conditions, with
2028-415: A wide range of styles and from distinct time periods, from the ancient times as Roman City of Aquincum in Óbuda (District III), which dates to around 89 AD, to the most modern Palace of Arts , the contemporary arts museum and concert hall. Most buildings in Budapest are relatively low: in the early 2010s there were around 100 buildings higher than 45 metres (148 ft). The number of high-rise buildings
2184-457: A year before the end of World War II , Budapest was partly destroyed by British and American air raids (first attack 4 April 1944 ). From 24 December 1944 to 13 February 1945, the city was besieged during the Battle of Budapest . Budapest sustained major damage caused by the attacking Soviet and Romanian troops and the defending German and Hungarian troops. More than 38,000 civilians died during
2340-520: Is a blend of several architectural styles, with a focus on Hungary's specialities. One of the leading Art Nouveau architects, Ödön Lechner (1845–1914), was inspired by Indian and Syrian architecture as well as traditional Hungarian decorative designs. One of his most beautiful buildings in Budapest is the Museum of Applied Arts . Another examples for Art Nouveau in Budapest is the Gresham Palace in front of
2496-467: Is a wedge with a 56 angle degree made in rusted iron that gradually becomes shiny, ending in an intersection to symbolize Hungarian forces that temporarily eradicated the Communist leadership. From the 1960s to the late 1980s Hungary was often satirically referred to as " the happiest barrack " within the Eastern bloc , and much of the wartime damage to the city was finally repaired. Work on Erzsébet Bridge ,
2652-429: Is around 23.5 inches (596.9 mm). On average, there are 84 days with precipitation and 1988 hours of sunshine (of a possible 4383) each year. From March to October, average sunshine totals are roughly equal to those seen in northern Italy ( Venice ). The city lies on the boundary between Zone 6 and Zone 7 in terms of the hardiness zone . Weather Atlas (UV) Budapest has architecturally noteworthy buildings in
2808-411: Is difficult to defend a plain. King Béla IV of Hungary , therefore, ordered the construction of reinforced stone walls around the towns and set his own royal palace on the top of the protecting hills of Buda. In 1361 it became the capital of Hungary. The cultural role of Buda was particularly significant during the reign of King Matthias Corvinus . The Italian Renaissance had a great influence on
2964-512: Is found. Various cultures converged in Hungary seemed to coalesce well with each other, as if all these different cultures and architecture styles are digested into Hungary's own way of cultural blend. A precedent to show the city's self-conscious is the top section of the city's main square, named as Szechenyi . When Turks came to the city, they built mosques here which was aggressively replaced with Gothic church of St. Bertalan. The rationale of reusing
3120-500: Is kept low by building legislation, which is aimed at preserving the historic cityscape and to meet the requirements of the World Heritage Site . Strong rules apply to the planning, authorisation and construction of high-rise buildings and consequently much of the inner city does not have any. Some planners would like see an easing of the rules for the construction of skyscrapers, and the possibility of building skyscrapers outside
3276-539: The -s- is pronounced /ʃ/ as in wash ; in IPA: Hungarian: [ˈbudɒpɛʃt] . The origins of the names "Buda" and "Pest" are obscure. Buda was Linguistically, however, a German origin through the Slavic derivative вода ( voda , water) is not possible, and there is no certainty that a Turkic word really comes from the word buta ~ buda 'branch, twig'. According to a legend recorded in chronicles from
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#17329059807943432-515: The Aromanian diaspora during the 19th century. In 1918, Austria-Hungary lost the war and collapsed; Hungary declared itself an independent republic ( Republic of Hungary ). In 1920 the Treaty of Trianon partitioned the country, and as a result, Hungary lost over two-thirds of its territory, and about two-thirds of its inhabitants, including 3.3 million out of 15 million ethnic Hungarians. In 1944,
3588-595: The Battle of Budapest in 1945, as well as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 . Budapest is a global city with strengths in commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment. Hungary's financial centre , Budapest is also the headquarters of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology , the European Police College and the first foreign office of
3744-453: The Battle of Southern Buh , settled in the territory at the end of the 9th century displacing the founding Bulgarian settlers of the towns of Buda and Pest, and a century later officially founded the Kingdom of Hungary . Research places the probable residence of the Árpáds as an early place of central power near what became Budapest. The Tatar invasion in the 13th century quickly proved it
3900-681: The Budapest University of Technology and Economics had reestablished the MEFESZ Students' union , which the Rákosi government earlier had banned for their politically incorrect politics. Initially, the Hungarian People's Republic was a socialist state headed by the Communist government of Mátyás Rákosi (r. 1947–1956), a Stalinist who was beholden to the USSR. To ensure ideological compliance within his Stalinist government, Rákosi used
4056-545: The Chain Bridge linking Buda with Pest was opened as the first permanent bridge across the Danube and in 1873 Buda and Pest were officially merged with the third part, Óbuda (Old Buda), thus creating the new metropolis of Budapest. The dynamic Pest grew into the country's administrative, political, economic, trade and cultural hub. Ethnic Hungarians overtook Germans in the second half of the 19th century due to mass migration from
4212-694: The China Investment Promotion Agency . Over 40 colleges and universities are located in Budapest, including Eötvös Loránd University , Corvinus University , Semmelweis University , University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics . Opened in 1896, the city's subway system, the Budapest Metro , serves 1.27 million, while the Budapest Tram Network serves 1.08 million passengers daily. The central area of Budapest along
4368-626: The Danube above the hot springs, and he ordered all the old buildings that he found there to be restored and he built them in a circular and very strong wall that in the Hungarian language is now called Budavár [Buda Castle] and by the Germans Etzelburg [Attila Castle] There are several theories about Pest. One states that the name derives from Roman times , since there was a local fortress ( Contra-Aquincum ) called by Ptolemy "Pession" ("Πέσσιον", iii.7.§ 2). Another has it that Pest originates in
4524-772: The Danube Promenade , both designed by architect Frigyes Feszl (1821–1884). Another noteworthy structure is the Budapest Western Railway Station , which was designed by August de Serres and built by the Eiffel Company of Paris in 1877. Art Nouveau came into fashion in Budapest by the exhibitions which were held in and around 1896 and organised in connection with the Hungarian Millennium celebrations. Art Nouveau in Hungary ( Szecesszió in Hungarian)
4680-616: The Danube River is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has several notable monuments of classical architecture , including the Hungarian Parliament and the Buda Castle . The city also has around 80 geothermal springs , the largest thermal water cave system, second largest synagogue , and third largest Parliament building in the world. Budapest attracts around 12 million international tourists per year, making it
4836-575: The Eastern Bloc , including the Hungarian People's Republic. The geopolitical principles of the Warsaw Pact defence treaty included "respect for the independence and [the] sovereignty of [the member] states" and the practise of "non-interference in their internal affairs". Then, on 15 May 1955, a day after the USSR established the Warsaw Pact, the Austrian State Treaty established Austria as
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4992-532: The Habsburgs began in the Hungarian capital in 1848 and was defeated one and a half years later, with the help of the Russian Empire. 1867 was the year of Reconciliation that brought about the birth of Austria-Hungary . This made Budapest the twin capital of a dual monarchy. It was this compromise which opened the second great phase of development in the history of Budapest , lasting until World War I . In 1849
5148-724: The Hungarian Social Democratic Party merged with the Communist Party and became the Hungarian Working People's Party , whose candidate stood unopposed in the 1949 Hungarian parliamentary election . Afterwards, on 20 August 1949, the Hungarian People's Republic was proclaimed and established as a socialist state, with whom the USSR then concorded the COMECON treaty of mutual assistance, which allowed stationing troops of Red Army soldiers in Hungary. Based upon
5304-462: The Hungarian Uprising , was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union (USSR). The uprising lasted 12 days before being crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on 4 November 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter of a million Hungarians fled
5460-613: The Hungarian Working People's Party ( Magyar Dolgozók Pártja ). The new government of Imre Nagy disbanded the ÁVH, declared Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact , and pledged to re-establish free elections. By the end of October the intense fighting had subsided. Although initially willing to negotiate the withdrawal of the Soviet Army from Hungary, the USSR repressed the Hungarian Revolution on 4 November 1956, and fought
5616-692: The Kingdom of Romania , and the Kingdom of Bulgaria . In 1941, the Royal Hungarian Army participated in the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia (6 April 1941) and in Operation Barbarossa (22 June 1941), the invasion of the USSR. In the event, by 1944, the Red Army were en route to the Kingdom of Hungary, after first having repelled the Royal Hungarian Army and the armies of the other Axis Powers from
5772-659: The Matthias Church , where much of the original material was used (originally built in Romanesque style in 1015). The next chapter in the history of human architecture is Renaissance architecture . One of the earliest places to be influenced by the Renaissance style of architecture was Hungary, and Budapest in particular. The style appeared following the marriage of King Matthias Corvinus and Beatrice of Naples in 1476. Many Italian artists, craftsmen and masons came to Buda with
5928-521: The Middle Ages , "Buda" comes from the name of its founder, Bleda , brother of Hunnic ruler Attila . Attila went in the city of Sicambria in Pannonia, where he killed Buda , his brother, and he threw his corpse into the Danube . For while Attila was in the west, his brother crossed the boundaries in his reign, because he named Sicambria after his own name Buda's Castle. And though King Attila forbade
6084-519: The Roman town of Aquincum , the capital of Lower Pannonia . The Hungarians arrived in the territory in the late 9th century, but the area was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241–42. Re-established Buda became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture by the 15th century. The Battle of Mohács , in 1526, was followed by nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule. After the reconquest of Buda in 1686,
6240-577: The Sixteen Political, Economic, and Ideological Points against the USSR's geopolitical hegemony upon Hungary. The Hungarian Writers' Union ceremoniously proclaimed Hungary's anti-Soviet political solidarity with anti-communist reformers in Poland when they laid a commemorative wreath at the statue of the Polish hero Gen. Józef Zachariasz Bem who also was a hero of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 ; likewise,
6396-557: The Stalin Monument in Budapest , which had been erected in place of a razed church, in 1951; and, by 21:30 hrs – an hour and a half later – the nationalist and anti-communist protestors had destroyed the eight-metre-tall statue of Josef Stalin. Also at 20:00 hrs, a crowd of nationalist and anti-communist protestors had gathered outside the Magyar Rádió building, which was guarded by the ÁVH secret police. Violence soon occurred between
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6552-561: The 14th century and No. 31 Úri Street, which has a Gothic façade that dates back to the 15th century. Other buildings with Gothic features are the Inner City Parish Church , built in the 12th century, and the Mary Magdalene Church, completed in the 15th century. The most characteristic Gothic-style buildings are actually Neo-Gothic , like the most well-known Budapest landmarks, the Hungarian Parliament Building and
6708-523: The 17th century to the 18th century. There are many Baroque-style buildings in Budapest and one of the finest examples of preserved Baroque-style architecture is the Church of St. Anna in Batthyhány square . An interesting part of Budapest is the less touristy Óbuda, the main square of which also has some beautiful preserved historic buildings with Baroque façades. The Castle District is another place to visit where
6864-521: The 1980s, the city's population reached 2.1 million. In recent times a significant decrease in population occurred mainly due to a massive movement to the neighbouring agglomeration in Pest county , i.e., suburbanisation. In the last decades of the 20th century the political changes of 1989–90 ( Fall of the Iron Curtain ) concealed changes in civil society and along the streets of Budapest. The monuments of
7020-442: The 21st century, Budapest faces new challenges in its architecture. The pressure towards the high-rise buildings is unequivocal among today's world cities, but preserving Budapest's unique cityscape and its very diverse architecture, along with green areas, forces Budapest to balance between them. The Contemporary architecture has wide margin in the city. Public spaces attract heavy investment by business and government also, so that
7176-413: The 525 square kilometres (203 square miles) occupied by the city, 83 square kilometres (32 square miles) is green area, park and forest. The forests of Buda hills are environmentally protected. The city's importance in terms of traffic is very central, because many major European roads and European railway lines lead to Budapest. The Danube was and is still an important water-way and this region in
7332-472: The Budapest radio station and demanded to publish their demands. The regime ordered troops to shoot into the crowd. Hungarian soldiers gave rifles to the demonstrators who were now able to capture the building. This initiated the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 . The demonstrators demanded to appoint Imre Nagy to be Prime Minister of Hungary . To their surprise, the central committee of the " Hungarian Working People's Party " did so that same evening. This uprising
7488-434: The Chain Bridge, the Hotel Gellért , the Franz Liszt Academy of Music or Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden . It is one of the world's outstanding urban landscapes and illustrates the great periods in the history of the Hungarian capital. UNESCO The second half of the 20th century also saw, under the communist regime, the construction of blocks of flats ( panelház ), as in other Eastern European countries. In
7644-431: The Civic Party , headed by President Zoltán Tildy and Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy . Nonetheless, on behalf of the USSR, the Hungarian Communist Party continually used salami tactics to wrest minor political concessions, which continually diminished the political authority of the coalition government – despite the Communist Party only having received 17 percent of the votes in the parliamentary election of 1945. After
7800-418: The Government of the USSR on the Principles of Development and Further Strengthening of Friendship and Cooperation between the Soviet Union and other Socialist States , which said that "The Soviet Government is prepared to enter into the appropriate negotiations with the government of the Hungarian People's Republic, and [with] other members of the Warsaw Treaty, on the question of the presence of Soviet troops in
7956-430: The Hungarian Army restored order in Csepel; two days later, the Hungarian Revolutionaries recaptured Csepel after the Hungarian Army's withdrawal on 29 October. In the Angyalföld area of Budapest, the communists and 350 armed workers and 380 communist soldiers defended the Láng factory. Anti-fascist Hungarian veterans of the Second World War participated in recapturing the offices of the Szabad Nép communist newspaper. At
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#17329059807948112-493: The Hungarian Communist Party retained the confidence of the Hungarian people, because the Hungarians were protesting unresolved socio-economic problems, not ideology. Meanwhile, in the West, the concurrent Suez Crisis (29 October – 7 November 1956) of the French and the British empires' seizure of the Suez Canal from Egypt voided the political possibility of Western military intervention to Hungary. On 28 October, Khrushchev said that Soviet military intervention to Hungary would be
8268-463: The Hungarian Communist Party, ÁVH policeman, and pro-Soviet Hungarian soldier they encountered; and most Red Army troops withdrew from Budapest to garrisons in the Hungarian countryside. Fighting ceased between 28 October and 4 November, as many Hungarians believed that Soviet military units were withdrawing from Hungary. According to post-revolution communist sources, there were approximately 213 Hungarian Working People's Party members executed during
8424-400: The Hungarian Communist Party. The Nagy government freed the political prisoner General Béla Király to restore order to Hungary with a National Guard force composed of policemen, soldiers, and Revolutionaries loyal to Hungary. On 30 October 1956, Gen. Király's National Guard attacked the building of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party and killed every pro-Soviet officer of
8580-401: The Hungarian People's Republic from receiving American financial aid through the Marshall Plan (1948). Socially, the imposition of Soviet-style economic policies and the payment of war reparations angered the peoples of Hungary, whilst the cumulative effects of economic austerity fuelled anti-Soviet political discontent as the payment of foreign debt took precedence over the material needs of
8736-519: The Hungarian Revolt. Led by Vyacheslav Molotov , the hardline faction of the CPSU voted for military intervention, but were opposed by Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov who sought a political resolution to the Hungarian revolt. In Budapest, the Soviet delegation reported to Moscow that the Hungarian political situation was less confrontational than reported during the revolt proper. In pursuit of political resolution, Khrushchev said that Ernő Gerő's 23 October request for Soviet intervention indicated that
8892-428: The Hungarian Revolution against the USSR's control of Hungary, and negotiated ceasefire agreements with the revolutionaries; nonetheless, the Hungarian Revolution took many communist prisoners who were registered to lists that identified the prisoner either for summary execution or as an enemy of the people . In the Csepel area of Budapest, 250 communists defended the Csepel Iron and Steel Works, and, on 27 October,
9048-447: The Hungarian Revolution against the USSR; from amongst the crowd outside the parliament, the armed revolutionaries shot at the roof-top ÁVH policemen. Meanwhile, nationalist and anti-communist loyalties had fractured the chain of command of the Hungarian Army in response to the communist government's order to militarily repress the popular demonstrations against the Soviet control of Hungary. The Hungarian Army units in Budapest and in
9204-404: The Hungarian anti-communist revolution, but Nagy's declaration of Hungarian neutrality decided his dispatching the Red Army into Hungary. The USSR invaded the Hungarian People's Republic, because: In the People's Republic of Hungary, the anti-communist militants concluded that "the [Hungarian Communist] Party is the incarnation of bureaucratic despotism " and that "socialism can develop only on
9360-491: The Hungarian people, yet their standard of living diminished because of the compulsory financial contributions towards the industrialisation of Hungary, which reduced the disposable and discretionary income of individual Hungarian workers. That poor economy was further diminished by the bureaucratic mismanagement of resources, which caused shortages of supplies, and the consequent rationing of bread and sugar, flour and meat, et cetera. The net result of those economic conditions,
9516-434: The Hungarian people. On 5 March 1953, the death of Stalin allowed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to proceed with the de-Stalinization of the USSR, which was a relative liberalization of politics that afterward allowed most European communist parties and the communist parties of the Warsaw Pact to develop a reformist wing – within the structures of the Philosophy of Marxism and orders from Moscow. Hence,
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#17329059807949672-414: The Hungarian revolutionaries until Soviet victory on 10 November; repression of the Hungarian Uprising killed 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet Army soldiers, and compelled 200,000 Hungarians to seek political refuge abroad, mostly to Austria . During the Second World War (1939–1945), the Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946) was a member of the Axis powers – in alliance with Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy ,
9828-428: The Huns and the other peoples to call that city Buda's Castle, but he called it Attila's Capital, the Germans who were terrified by the prohibition named the city as Eccylburg, which means Attila Castle, however, the Hungarians did not care about the ban and call it Óbuda [Old Buda] and call it to this day. The Scythians are certainly an ancient people and the strength of Scythia lies in the east, as we said above. And
9984-463: The MEFESZ student union held a parallel demonstration of Hungarians' political solidarity with the Poles. In the afternoon of 23 October 1956, approximately 20,000 protestors met beside the statue of General József Bem , a national hero of Poland and Hungary. To the amassed crowd of protestors, the intellectual Péter Veres , the president of the Writers' Union ( Írószövetség ), read a manifesto demanding Hungarian independence from all foreign powers;
10140-434: The MEFESZ, and ten anti-Soviet demands, e.g. free elections and the departure of Soviet troops from Hungary, etc.; days later, the university students at Pécs , Miskolc , and Sopron followed suit. On 22 October, at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics , one of the law students from the original group of twelve students, announced that the MEFESZ student union was again politically active, and then proclaimed
10296-411: The Nagy government in talks about withdrawing the Red Army from Hungary. Moreover, Mao Zedong influenced Khrushchev's decision to repress the Hungarian uprising. The deputy chairman of the Chinese Communist Party , Liu Shaoqi , pressed Khrushchev to militarily repress the Hungarian Revolution. Although Sino–Soviet relations were unstable, the opinion of Mao carried great weight among the members of
10452-425: The Nagy government's political and socio-economic reforms; by 18 April 1955, Rákosi had so discredited Nagy that the USSR deposed Nagy as head-of-state of Socialist Hungary. Three months of plotting and conspiring rid Rákosi and the Hungarian Communist Party of Imre Nagy, who was reduced to a political non-person. On 14 April Prime Minister Imre Nagy was stripped of his Hungarian Communist Party offices and functions and
10608-411: The Nazi government , encouraged Hungarian Catholics not to vote for the Arrow Cross Party , and was imprisoned for this dissent by the Arrow Cross-led Government of National Unity . In the 1950–1952 period, the ÁVH forcibly relocated more than 26,000 non-communist Hungarians and confiscated their housing for members of the Communist Party of Hungary, and so eliminated the political threats posed by
10764-426: The Polish communist politician Władysław Gomułka in Brest, Belarus; and then spoke with the Romanian, Czechoslovak, and Bulgarian leaders in Bucharest, Romania. Finally, Khrushchev went to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and spoke with Tito ( Josip Broz ) who persuaded Khrushchev to install János Kádár as the new leader of the People's Republic of Hungary, instead of Ferenc Münnich . Two months after
10920-419: The Polish government appointed the politically rehabilitated , reform communist Władysław Gomułka as First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party to deal with the USSR, and, by 19 October 1956, Gomułka had successfully negotiated greater trade agreements and fewer Red Army troops stationed in Poland. The USSR's concessions to Poland – known as the Polish October – emboldened Hungarians to demand from
11076-422: The Presidium of the CPSU. Initially, Mao opposed a second intervention, which was communicated to Khrushchev on 30 October, before the Presidium met and decided against a Hungarian intervention; later, Mao changed his mind and supported intervention to Hungary. In the 1–3 November 1956 period, Khrushchev informed the USSR's Warsaw Pact allies of his decision to repress the Hungarian Revolution. Khrushchev met with
11232-586: The Pálvölgyi cave (total length 7,200 m or 23,600 ft) and the Szemlőhegyi cave (total length 2,200 m or 7,200 ft). The hills were formed in the Triassic Period. The highest point of the hills and of Budapest is János Hill , at 527 metres (1,729 feet) above sea level . The lowest point is the line of the Danube which is 96 metres (315 feet) above sea level. Budapest is also rich in green areas. Of
11388-525: The Red Army. Also on that day, Imre Nagy became prime minister in place of András Hegedüs . In a national radio broadcast, PM Nagy asked a ceasefire between the Red Army and the Hungarian Revolutionaries, and agreed to initiate postponed political reforms decided in 1953. Despite the pleas of PM Nagy, groups of revolutionaries in Budapest armed themselves and continually fought the Red Army. At
11544-631: The Russo–American Cold War. About 8000 political prisoners were released, most notably Cardinal József Mindszenty . Banned political parties, such as the Independent Smallholders and the National Peasant Party ("Petőfi Party"), reappeared to join the coalition. In 1,170 communities in Hungary, there were 348 cases of revolutionary councils dismissing the local administrators; 312 cases of revolutionary councils sacking
11700-464: The Slavic word for cave, пещера , or peštera . A third cites пещ , or pešt , referencing a cave where fires burned or a limekiln. The first settlement on the territory of Budapest was built by Celts before 1 AD. It was later occupied by the Romans . The Roman settlement – Aquincum – became the main city of Pannonia Inferior in 106 AD. At first it was a military settlement, and gradually
11856-610: The Soviet forces in Hungary were on their way to the headquarters of the Hungarian Workers' Party (MDP) on Akadémia Street, where they were to attend a meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC), which was to begin at 10 a.m. Under pressure from the Soviet delegates, the CEC relieved Ernő Gerő of his position as party leader and elected János Kádár in his place. Meanwhile, the crowd demonstrating at Kossuth Square elected
12012-647: The USSR like concessions for the Hungarian People's Republic, which much contributed to the Hungarians' greatly idealistic politics in October 1956. On 13 October 1956, a group of 12 students from the university faculties in Szeged met to play cards, and snubbed the DISZ, the official communist student union, by re-establishing the MEFESZ (Union of Hungarian University and Academy Students),
12168-600: The V. district is in the very center of Pest and inaugurates a new circle that then loops back through Pest to Buda as the VI., VII., VIII., IX., XI., and XII. districts. Districts XIII., XIV., XV., XVI., XVII., XVIII., XIX., XX., XXI., and XXII. form yet another semicircle in outermost Pest. Districts X. and XXIII. form irregularities within the overall pattern. 1956 Hungarian Revolution Soviet invasion and victory The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; Hungarian : 1956-os forradalom ), also known as
12324-592: The abuses of power committed by Stalin and his inner-circle protégés, in Russia and abroad. Therefore, the de-Stalinization of Hungarian People's Republic featured Rákosi's dismissal as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Hungary, and his replacement by Ernő Gerő , on 18 July 1956. From the Western perspective, the countries of western Europe co-operated with the CIA's propaganda radio network, Radio Free Europe , to broadcast
12480-526: The agglomeration in Pest county. The capital extends 25 and 29 km (16 and 18 mi) in the north–south, east–west direction respectively. The Danube enters the city from the north; later it encircles two islands, Óbuda Island and Margaret Island . The third island Csepel Island is the largest of the Budapest Danube islands, however only its northernmost tip is within city limits. The river that separates
12636-532: The assembled protestors from the roof of the building of the Agricultural Ministry. In the fog of war, some Red Army soldiers mistakenly returned the fire towards the roof, having mistakenly believed themselves the targets. The Hungarian revolutionaries armed themselves with weapons captured from ÁVH policemen and with weapons donated by anti-communist soldiers who had deserted the Hungarian Army for
12792-471: The base of the former Islamic building mosque and reconstruction into Gothic Church but Islamic style architecture over it is typically Islamic are still visible. An official term for the rationale is spolia . The mosque was called the djami of Pasha Gazi Kassim, and djami means mosque in Arabic. After Turks and Muslims were expelled and massacred from Budapest, the site was reoccupied by Christians and reformed into
12948-893: The best examples are the Hungarian National Museum , the Lutheran Church of Budavár (both designed by Pollack) and the seat of the Hungarian president , the Sándor Palace . The most iconic and widely known Classicist-style attraction in Budapest is the Széchenyi Chain Bridge . Budapest's two most beautiful Romantic architecture buildings are the Great Synagogue in Dohány Street and the Vigadó Concert Hall on
13104-508: The best-known landmark Buda Royal Palace and many other buildings were built in the Baroque style. The Classical architecture and Neoclassical architecture are the next in the timeline. Budapest had not one but two architects that were masters of the Classicist style. Mihály Pollack (1773–1855) and József Hild (1789–1867), built many beautiful Classicist-style buildings in the city. Some of
13260-555: The bosses; and 215 cases of the locals burning the communist administrative records of their communities. In 681 communities, anti-communist and nationalist Hungarians damaged and destroyed symbols of the hegemony of the USSR, such as the Red Star, and statues of Josef Stalin and of Lenin; 393 communities damaged Soviet war memorials; and 122 communities burned the books of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. Local revolutionary councils formed throughout Hungary, generally without involvement from
13416-441: The buildings on the other side of the square. Another Soviet tank coming from a nearby street fired aimed shots at the demonstrators trying to take cover. This action claimed the most lives. The number of the dead is still disputed, with estimates ranging from 75 to 1000. According to another version of the events, which already appeared during the revolution but still unproven, the ÁVH policemen and/or communist partisans fired into
13572-501: The call of the party organisation, swept the Danube-Tisza Interfluve six times, smashing everything". As Hungarian revolutionaries fought the soldiers and tanks of the Red Army with small arms and Molotov cocktails in the streets of Budapest, throughout Hungary, revolutionary workers' councils assumed government power and called general strikes to halt the economy and the functioning of civil society. In ridding Hungary of
13728-950: The centre of the Pannonian Basin , lies on an ancient route linking the hills of Transdanubia with the Great Plain. By road it is 216 kilometres (134 mi) south-east of Vienna , 545 kilometres (339 mi) south of Warsaw , 1,565 kilometres (972 mi) south-west of Moscow, 1,122 kilometres (697 mi) north of Athens , 1,235 kilometres (767 mi) north-east of Rome , 788 kilometres (490 mi) north-east of Milan , 443 kilometres (275 mi) south-east of Prague , 343 kilometres (213 mi) north-east of Zagreb , 748 kilometres (465 mi) north-east of Split and 1,329 kilometres (826 mi) north-west of Istanbul . The 525 square kilometres (203 sq mi) area of Budapest lies in Central Hungary , surrounded by settlements of
13884-679: The centre of the Carpathian Basin lies at the cross-roads of trade routes . Budapest is one of only three capital cities in the world which has thermal springs (the others being Reykjavík in Iceland and Sofia in Bulgaria ). Some 125 springs produce 70 million litres (15,000,000 imperial gallons; 18,000,000 US gallons) of thermal water a day, with temperatures ranging up to 58 Celsius. Some of these waters have been claimed to have medicinal effects due to their high mineral contents. Budapest has
14040-571: The city center in its broadest sense, corresponding roughly to the 1873 municipal boundaries. Budapest's districts are numbered according to three concentric semicircles. The I. district is a small area in central Buda, including the Castle Quarter . District II. is in Buda to the castle's northwest while district III. stretches along the northernmost part of Buda and includes the former Óbuda. District IV. continues this semicircle in northernmost Pest, but
14196-764: The city east of the Danube. Conversely, Buda colloquially means all districts to the Danube's west—including the former Óbuda. The Danube islands—including Csepel , the city's XXI. district—are part of neither Buda nor Pest. All varieties of English pronounce the -s- as in the English word pest . The -u in Buda- is pronounced either /u/ like food (as in US : / ˈ b uː d ə p ɛ s t / ) or /ju/ like cue (as in UK : / ˌ b ( j ) uː d ə ˈ p ɛ s t , ˌ b ʊ d -, ˈ b ( j ) uː d ə p ɛ s t , ˈ b ʊ d -/ ). In Hungarian,
14352-585: The city has gained entirely new (or renovated and redesigned) squares, parks and monuments, for example the city central Kossuth Lajos square , Deák Ferenc square and Liberty Square . Numerous landmarks have been created in the last decade in Budapest, like the National Theatre , Palace of Arts, Rákóczi Bridge , Megyeri Bridge , Budapest Airport Sky Court among others, and millions of square meters of new office buildings and apartments . But there are still large opportunities in real estate development in
14508-651: The city rose around it, making it the focal point of the city's commercial life. Today this area corresponds to the Óbuda district within Budapest. The Romans constructed roads, amphitheaters , baths and houses with heated floors in this fortified military camp. The Roman city of Aquincum is the best-conserved of the Roman sites in Hungary . The archaeological site was turned into a museum with indoor and open-air sections. The Magyar tribes led by Árpád , forced out of their original homeland north of Bulgaria by Tsar Simeon after
14664-606: The city's historic core has been raised. In the chronological order of architectural styles Budapest is represented on the entire timeline, starting with the Roman City of Aquincum representing ancient architecture . The next determinative style is the Gothic architecture in Budapest. The few remaining Gothic buildings can be found in the Castle District. Buildings of note are no. 18, 20 and 22 on Országház Street, which date back to
14820-608: The city. Contemporary Budapest is divided into 23 districts (Hungarian: kerületek , sg. : kerület ), each with a mayor and municipal government elected separately from the general municipal government. The districts and the general municipal government have constitutionally and legally defined, non-overlapping areas of competence. Each district has a municipally recognized name, some of which correspond to how locals call that area or neighborhood (e.g., Belváros , V. district; Terézváros , VI. district), others which (e.g., Újbuda , XI. district) are neologisms. Street signs display
14976-582: The city. His library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana , was Europe's greatest collection of historical chronicles and philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century, and second in size only to the Vatican Library . After the foundation of the first Hungarian university in Pécs in 1367 ( University of Pécs ), the second one was established in Óbuda in 1395 ( University of Óbuda ). The first Hungarian book
15132-453: The city. These were great examples of Ottoman architecture , which was influenced by Muslims from around the world including Turkish, Iranian, Arabian and to a larger extent, Byzantine architecture as well as Islamic traditions. After the Holy League conquered Budapest, they replaced most of the mosques with churches and minarets were turned into bell towers and cathedral spires. At one point
15288-643: The conflict. All bridges were destroyed by the Germans. The stone lions that have decorated the Chain Bridge since 1852 survived the devastation of the war. Between 20% and 40% of Greater Budapest's 250,000 Jewish inhabitants died through Nazi and Arrow Cross Party , during the German occupation of Hungary , from 1944 to early 1945. Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz rescued tens of thousands of Jews by issuing Swiss protection papers and designating numerous buildings, including
15444-410: The considerably larger Pest spreads out on a flat and featureless sand plain on the river's opposite bank. Pest's terrain rises with a slight eastward gradient, so the easternmost parts of the city lie at the same altitude as Buda's smallest hills, notably Gellért Hill and Castle Hill. The Buda hills consist mainly of limestone and dolomite, the water created speleothems , the most famous ones being
15600-521: The cost of war reparations was "between 19 and 22 per cent of the annual national income" of Hungary, an onerous national expense aggravated by the hyperinflation consequent to the post-war depreciation of the Hungarian pengő . Moreover, participation in the Soviet-sponsored Council of Mutual Economic Assistance ( COMECON ) prevented direct trade with the countries of the West, and also prevented
15756-558: The country. The Hungarian Revolution began on 23 October 1956 in Budapest when university students appealed to the civil populace to join them at the Hungarian Parliament Building to protest against the USSR's geopolitical domination of Hungary through the Stalinist government of Mátyás Rákosi . A delegation of students entered the building of Magyar Rádió to broadcast their sixteen demands for political and economic reforms to civil society, but were detained by security guards. When
15912-469: The countryside remained uninvolved in the Revolution, because local commanders avoided politics in order to avoid repressing the revolutionaries. Order was restored in the 24–29 October period after the Hungarian Army had fought 71 firefights with the nationalist and with the anti-communist revolutionaries in fifty communities. On 26 October, in the town of Kecskemét, outside the office of State Security and
16068-474: The crowd repeatedly chanted the refrain: "This we swear, this we swear, that we will no longer be slaves." At 20:00 hrs, the first secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party, Ernő Gerő broadcast a hardline speech condemning the political demands of the intelligentsia and of the university students. Angered by Gerő's rejection, some protestors realised one of their demands, and demolished
16224-469: The democratic student union banned by the Stalinist Rákosi government. The MEFESZ students distributed hand-written notes in classrooms to inform faculty and students of the time and place for the meeting on 16 October 1956. A professor of law was chairman of committee who formally reestablished the MEFESZ student union, with the proclamation and publication of a twenty-demand manifesto, ten demands about
16380-440: The dictatorship were removed from public places, into Memento Park . In the first 20 years of the new democracy, the development of the city was managed by its mayor, Gábor Demszky . In October 2019, opposition candidate Gergely Karácsony won the Budapest mayoral election , meaning the first electoral blow for Hungary's nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán since coming to power in 2010. Budapest, strategically placed at
16536-456: The distinct sloping central square in Budapest became a bustling Oriental bazaar, which was filled with "the chatter of camel caravans on their way to Yemen and India". Budapest is in fact one of the few places in the world with functioning original Turkish bathhouses dating back to the 16th century, like Rudas Baths or Király Baths . Budapest is home to the northernmost place where the tomb of influential Islamic Turkish Sufi Dervish, Gül Baba
16692-517: The district and that neighborhood's colloquial name. The latter are often the names of villages that were gradually annexed to the city (e.g., Sashalom , Budafok ) or of superseded administrative units of former boroughs. After the unification of Buda, Pest, and Óbuda in 1873, Budapest initially had 10 districts. It was during the interwar period that Károly Szendy 's 1934-1944 mayoral administration first seriously considered annexing peripheral towns and villages. This only came about, however, after
16848-473: The economic model of the USSR, the Hungarian Working People's Party established the socialist economy of Hungary with the nationalization of the means of production and of the natural resources of the country. Moreover, by 1955, the relatively free politics of Hungary allowed intellectuals and journalists to freely criticise the social and economic policies of the Rákosi government. In that vein of relative political freedom, on 22 October 1956, students from
17004-466: The education system with a toiling intelligentsia who would assist in the Russification of Hungary; thus the study of Russian language and communist political instruction were mandatory at school and at university; religious schools were nationalized and church leaders replaced with communist officials. In the early 1950s, the Rákosi government's socialist economics increased the per capita income of
17160-612: The election in 1945, control of the State Protection Authority ( Államvédelmi Hatóság , ÁVH) was transferred from the Independent Smallholders Party of the coalition government to the Hungarian Communist party. The ÁVH repressed non‑communist political opponents with intimidation and false accusations, imprisonment and torture . The brief, four‑year period of multi-party democracy ended when
17316-575: The enterprise while protecting workers' interests, establishing a socialist economy free of rigid party control. Local control by the councils was not always bloodless; in Debrecen , Győr , Sopron , Mosonmagyaróvár and other cities, crowds of demonstrators were fired upon by the ÁVH, with many lives lost. The ÁVH were disarmed, often by force, in many cases assisted by the local police. In total, there were approximately 2,100 local revolutionary and workers councils with over 28,000 members. The councils held
17472-455: The first king of Scythia was Magog, son of Japhet, and his people were called Magyars [Hungarians] after their King Magog, from whose royal line the most renowned and mighty King Attila descended, who, in the 451st year of Our Lord's birth, coming down from Scythia , entered Pannonia with a mighty force and, putting the Romans to flight, took the realm and made a royal residence for himself beside
17628-560: The foundations of direct democracy." For the anti-communists, the struggle of the Hungarian workers was "for the principle of direct democracy" and that "all power should be transferred to the Workers Committees of Hungary." In response, the Presidium broke the de facto ceasefire and repressed the Hungarian Revolution. The Soviet Union's plan was to declare a "Provisional Revolutionary Government" led by János Kádár, who would appeal for Soviet assistance to restore order to Hungary. Kádár
17784-442: The guard tanks. At a few minutes after 11 a.m., General Serov decided to inspect the situation on Kossuth Square, accompanied by several Soviet and Hungarian officers and a tank. Seeing several Soviet soldiers fraternising with the demonstrators, Serov ordered the firing of warning shots, which caused a mass panic on the square. In the ensuing confusion, the Soviet tanks lined up in front of the Parliament building responded by targeting
17940-527: The head of the Budapest party committee, Imre Mező, also was killed. Within hours, news reportage and filmed scenes of the Hungarian anti-communist revolt that occurred in Republic Square were broadcast in the USSR; and the CPSU made propaganda of the images of the communist victims of the Hungarian Revolt. The leaders of the Hungarian Revolution condemned the attack upon the ÁVH headquarters and asked
18096-418: The influence of and control from the USSR, the revolutionaries destroyed the symbols of Communism, such as the red star and Red Army monuments, and burned communist literature. Moreover, Revolutionary militias, such as the 400-man militia led by József Dudás attacked and murdered pro-Soviet Hungarians and ÁVH policemen. The Hungarian Army armoured division stationed in Budapest, commanded by Pál Maléter led
18252-621: The last to be rebuilt, was finished in 1964. In the early 1970s, Budapest Metro 's east–west M2 line was first opened, followed by the M3 line in 1976. In 1987, Buda Castle and the banks of the Danube were included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites . Andrássy Avenue (including the Millennium Underground Railway , Hősök tere , and Városliget ) was added to the UNESCO list in 2002. In
18408-437: The local jail, Hungarian Army's Third Corps, led by Major General Lajos Gyurkó , shot seven anti-communist protestors and arrested the organizers of the anti-Soviet protest. On Gyurkó's order Hungarian Air Force fighter planes shot up demonstrators with cannon fire in various towns (see hu:Tiszakécskei sortűz ), earning the praise of János Kádár after the defeat of the "counter-revolution" as "the only division commander who, at
18564-521: The mass demonstration outside the Astoria , accompanied by three Soviet tanks, which the demonstrators climbed on, fraternising with the crews. At the same time a column of Soviet tanks carrying two delegates of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) sent to Hungary, Politburo members Anastas Mikoyan and Mikhail Suslov , as well as KGB Chairman Ivan Serov and Mikhail Malinin , commander-in-chief of
18720-504: The national crisis, PM Nagy would: On 1 November, the Nagy government formally declared Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and Hungary's international status as a politically non-aligned country. Because of being in power for only ten days, the National Government did not explain their policies in detail; however, contemporary newspaper editorials stressed that Hungary should be a multiparty social democracy uninvolved in
18876-453: The nationalist and anti-communist intelligentsia and by the local bourgeoisie . According to their particular politics, anti-communist Hungarians were either imprisoned in concentration camps or were deported to the USSR or were killed, either summarily or after a show trial ; the victims included the communist politician László Rajk , the minister of the interior who established the ÁVH secret police. The Rákosi government politicised
19032-483: The new queen. Today, many of the original renaissance buildings disappeared during the varied history of Buda, but Budapest is still rich in renaissance and neo-renaissance buildings, like the famous Hungarian State Opera House , St. Stephen's Basilica and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences . During the Turkish occupation (1541–1686), Islamic culture flourished in Budapest; multiple mosques and baths were built in
19188-503: The next few years, all of the former Hungarian lands, except areas near Temesvár ( Timișoara ), were taken from the Turks. In the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz , these territorial changes were officially recognized as the end of the rule of the Turks, and in 1718 the entire Kingdom of Hungary was removed from Ottoman rule . The 19th century was dominated by the Hungarian struggle for independence and modernisation. The national insurrection against
19344-638: The now famous Glass House (Üvegház) at Vadász Street 29, to be Swiss protected territory. About 3,000 Hungarian Jews found refuge at the Glass House and in a neighboring building. Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest by giving them Swedish protection papers and taking them under his consular protection. Wallenberg was abducted by the Russians on 17 January 1945 and never regained freedom. Giorgio Perlasca , an Italian citizen, saved thousands of Hungarian Jews posing as
19500-751: The number of Christians was down to about a thousand, and by 1647 it had fallen to only about seventy. The unoccupied western part of the country became part of the Habsburg monarchy as Royal Hungary . In 1686, two years after the unsuccessful siege of Buda , a renewed campaign was started to enter Buda. This time, the Holy League 's army was twice as large, containing over 74,000 men, including German , Croat , Dutch , Hungarian, English, Spanish, Czech , Italian, French, Burgundian , Danish and Swedish soldiers, along with other Europeans as volunteers, artillerymen , and officers. The Christian forces seized Buda, and in
19656-547: The offices of the communist newspaper Szabad Nép , the ÁVH guards fired upon unarmed protestors; in turn, anti-communists attacked and drove out the ÁVH policemen from the newspaper building. The Hungarian revolutionaries then avenged themselves against the ÁVH policemen. On 25 October, a crowd gathered in Kossuth Square in front of the Hungarian parliament building, which was a mixed group of civilian demonstrators including women, children, and elderly. Most of them came from
19812-554: The only Communist Hungarian leader with political credibility among Hungarians, the political actions of the Nagy government allowed the USSR to view the Hungarians' anti-Soviet protests as a popular uprising, rather than as an anti-communist counter-revolution . On 28 October 1956, the Nagy Communist government announced the ceasefire among the nationalist, the anti-communist, and the Communist Hungarians, and that, to resolve
19968-477: The overpopulated rural Transdanubia and Great Hungarian Plain . Between 1851 and 1910 the proportion of Hungarians increased from 35.6% to 85.9%, Hungarian became the dominant language, and German was crowded out. The proportion of Jews peaked in 1900 with 23.6%. Due to the prosperity and the large Jewish community of the city at the start of the 20th century, Budapest was often called the "Jewish Mecca" or "Judapest". Budapest also became an important center for
20124-402: The period. The new communist government of Prime Minister Imre Nagy was surprised by the rapidity with which the Hungarian Revolution extended from the streets of Budapest to all of Hungary, and the consequent collapse of the old Gerő–Hegedüs communist government. As head of government, PM Nagy asked every Hungarian to exercise political forbearance in order to restore civil order to Hungary. As
20280-465: The political purging of Hungarian society. At 02.00 hrs., on 24 October 1956, Soviet defence minister Georgy Zhukov ordered the Red Army to occupy Budapest – the capital city of a Warsaw Pact country. By 12.00 hrs of 24 October, Red Army tanks were stationed outside the parliament building, and Red Army soldiers held the bridges and crossroads that controlled access to Budapest, while Hungarian revolutionaries barricaded streets to defend their city from
20436-553: The preoccupied National Government in Budapest, and assumed various responsibilities of local government from the defunct Communist party. By 30 October , the councils had been officially sanctioned by the Hungarian Working People's Party, and the Nagy government asked for their support as "autonomous, democratic local organs formed during the Revolution". Likewise, workers' councils were established at industrial plants and mines, and many unpopular regulations such as production norms were eliminated. The workers' councils strove to manage
20592-418: The protestors to cease and desist from mob violence. On 30 October, at Budapest, Anastas Mikoyan and Mikhail Suslov spoke with Prime Minister Imre Nagy who told them that Hungarian geopolitical neutrality was a long-term political objective for the Hungarian People's Republic, which he wanted to discuss with the presidium of the CPSU. Khrushchev considered the geopolitical options for the USSR's resolving
20748-646: The reformist communist Imre Nagy became prime minister (1953–55) of the Hungarian People's Republic, in replacement of the Stalinist Mátyás Rákosi (1946–56), whose heavy-hand style of communist government had proved counter-productive to the interests of the USSR in Hungary. Despite not being prime minister of Hungary, Rákosi remained politically powerful as the General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party, and so undermined many of
20904-477: The region entered a new age of prosperity, with Pest-Buda becoming a global city after the unification of Buda, Óbuda and Pest on 17 November 1873, with the name 'Budapest' given to the new capital. Budapest also became the co-capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire , a great power that dissolved in 1918, following World War I . The city was the focal point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and
21060-661: The rise of state communism in Hungary . In 1950, for reasons of social and industrial policy—including the Hungarian Working People's Party 's desire to proletarianize the traditionally right-wing suburbs—7 cities with county rights and 16 towns were annexed to the capital to form contemporary Greater Budapest (Hungarian: Nagy-Budapest ). This reorganized the city into 22 districts, a number that grew to 23 after Soroksár seceded from Pesterzsébet in 1994. The contemporary city thus consists of 6 districts in Buda, 16 in Pest, and Csepel . Today, districts I., II., XI., and XII. in Buda and V., VI., VII., VIII., and IX. in Pest make up
21216-402: The sides when the protestors heard rumours of the arrest and detainment of a delegation of students who had entered the radio station in effort to broadcast their political demands to the entire country. The situation escalated after protestors heard rumours that the ÁVH had killed their delegation of comrades sent to broadcast the anti–Soviet message. In response, from the windows of the building,
21372-488: The speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences to the countries of eastern Europe, expecting that, as Secretary of the CPSU, Khrushchev's anti–Stalinist speech would substantively contribute to the destabilisation of the internal politics of the Warsaw Pact countries. On 14 May 1955, with the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance , the USSR established the Warsaw Pact with seven countries of
21528-565: The student protestors outside the radio building demanded the release of their delegation, a group of police from the ÁVH ( State Protection Authority ) fatally shot several of the students. Consequently, Hungarians organized into revolutionary militias to fight against the ÁVH; local Hungarian communist leaders and ÁVH policemen were captured and summarily executed; and political prisoners were released and armed. To realize their political, economic, and social demands, local soviets (councils of workers) assumed control of municipal government from
21684-489: The symbols of Russian communism in Hungary. On 23 October 1956, the Secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party, Ernő Gerő, asked for the USSR's military intervention in order "to suppress a demonstration that was reaching an ever-greater and unprecedented scale", which threatens the national security of the Hungarian People's Republic . To that end, the USSR already had planned the invasion and occupation of Hungary, and
21840-483: The territory of Hungary." In Hungary, on 30 October, consequent to hearing rumours of that the secret police had anti-communist prisoners, and rumours of the ÁVH shooting anti-communist demonstrators in the city of Mosonmagyaróvár armed protestors attacked the ÁVH detachment guarding the headquarters building of the Hungarian Working People's Party in Köztársaság tér (Republic Square), in Budapest. The anti-communists killed more than 20 ÁVH officers and ÁVH conscripts;
21996-417: The territory of the USSR. Fearful of the Red Army's occupation of the Kingdom of Hungary, the royal Hungarian government unsuccessfully sought an armistice with the Allies, which was a betrayal of the Axis powers. The Germans launched Operation Margarethe (12 March 1944) to establish the Nazi Government of National Unity of Hungary; the short-lived puppet government existed for less than a year and Hungary
22152-399: The town of Szarvas , armed guards defended the Hungarian Communist Party and the communist government of Hungary. In the event, the Revolutionaries' successful attacks upon the Parliament collapsed the communist government of Hungary; and First Secretary Ernő Gerő and ex-PM András Hegedüs fled Hungary to the USSR; Imre Nagy became prime minister, and János Kádár became the first secretary of
22308-414: The two parts of the city is 230 m (755 ft) wide at its narrowest point in Budapest. Pest lies on the flat terrain of the Great Plain while Buda is rather hilly. The wide Danube was always fordable at this point because of a small number of islands in the middle of the river. The city has marked topographical contrasts: Buda is built on the higher river terraces and hills of the western side, while
22464-459: The weapons for themselves. The Hungarian Army sent soldiers to support the ÁVH policemen defending the Magyar Rádió building, but some of the soldiers tore off the red-star insignia on their caps and joined the side of the anti-government protestors. ÁVH policemen used guns and tear gas, while the protestors set police cars afire and distributed weapons captured from the military and police forces, and acted on their anti–Soviet politics by destroying
22620-412: The ÁVH ( State Protection Authority ) to purge 7,000 politically dissident " Titoists " and " Trotskyists " from the Communist Party of Hungary , for being "Western agents" whose participation in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) interfered with Stalin's long-term plans for world Communism . Among the Stalinist governments of the Eastern Bloc , the Rákosi government of the Hungarian People's Republic
22776-409: The ÁVH threw tear gas grenades at and fired upon the many anti-communist and nationalist protestors assembled outside the Magyar Rádió building, and soon required resupply and reinforcement. In suppressing the Hungarians' anti-government protestations, the ÁVH smuggled weapons and ammunition in an ambulance for delivery to them at the Magyar Rádió building, but the protestors hijacked the ambulance and
22932-585: Was Negatives (1968). Some of his most notable other works are The Ruling Class (1972), The Changeling (1980), The Krays (1990) and Let Him Have It (1991). Medak has also directed a number of TV episodes and films, including The Feast of All Saints (a mini-series ), Homicide: Life on the Street , The Wire and Carnivàle . His marriage to his first wife, Katherine LaKermance, with whom he had two children, ended when she died in London in 1972. He had two further children with his second wife, British actress Carolyn Seymour , from whom he
23088-409: Was an anti-Soviet revolt that lasted from 23 October until 11 November. After Nagy had declared that Hungary was to leave the Warsaw Pact and become neutral, Soviet tanks and troops entered the country to crush the revolt. Fighting continued until mid November, leaving more than 3000 dead. A monument was erected at the fiftieth anniversary of the revolt in 2006, at the edge of the City Park . Its shape
23244-421: Was declared a communist People's Republic ( People's Republic of Hungary ). The new Communist government considered the buildings like the Buda Castle symbols of the former regime, and during the 1950s the palace was gutted and all the interiors were destroyed (also see Stalin era ). On 23 October 1956 citizens held a large peaceful demonstration in Budapest demanding democratic reform. The demonstrators went to
23400-473: Was in Moscow in early November, and was in communication with the Soviet embassy whilst still a member of the Nagy government. The USSR sent diplomatic delegations to other communist governments in Eastern Europe and to the People's Republic of China in effort to avoid misunderstandings that might provoke to regional conflicts, and broadcast propaganda explaining their second Soviet intervention to Hungary. The Soviet diplomats disguised their intentions by engaging
23556-404: Was later divorced. Medak's third wife was opera singer Julia Migenes ; the marriage lasted from 1988 to 2003. Budapest Budapest is the capital and most populous city of Hungary . It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second largest city on the Danube river. The city has an estimated population of 1,752,286 over
23712-472: Was most repressive of political, sexual, and religious minorities. In 1949, the Rákosi government arrested, tortured and convicted Cardinal József Mindszenty in a show trial for treason against Hungary, for collaboration with Nazi Germany in the Holocaust in Hungary – the religious persecution of Hungarian Jews, and the political persecutions of Hungarian communists and of Hungarian anti-Nazis . Mindszenty had, in fact, been an active opponent of
23868-427: Was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945 after the Siege of Budapest . At the end of the Second World War (1939–1945), the Kingdom of Hungary was in the geopolitical sphere of influence of the USSR. In the political aftermath of the War, Hungary was a multiparty democracy , in which the 1945 Hungarian parliamentary election produced a coalition government composed of Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and
24024-461: Was printed in Buda in 1473. Buda had about 5,000 inhabitants around the year 1500. The Ottomans conquered Buda in 1526, as well as in 1529, and finally occupied it in 1541. The Ottoman Rule lasted for more than 150 years. The Ottoman Turks constructed many prominent bathing facilities within the city. Some of the baths that the Turks erected during their rule are still in use 500 years later, including Rudas Baths and Király Baths . By 1547
24180-458: Was sacked as prime minister on 18 April. Despite having been out of political favor with the USSR since January 1955, Nagy had refused to perform the requisite communist penance of ' self-criticism ', and refused to resign as PM of Hungary. In February 1956, as the First Secretary of the CPSU, Nikita Khrushchev initiated the de-Stalinization of the USSR with the speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences , which catalogued and denounced
24336-419: Was that the Hungarian workers' disposable income in 1952 was two-thirds of the disposable income of Hungarian workers in 1938. Besides paying for the Red Army occupation of socialist Hungary, the Hungarians also paid war reparations (US$ 300 million) to the USSR, to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic , and to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . In 1946, the Hungarian National Bank reported that
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