In 1956, Hungarian students climb up the statue of Stalin and demand the democratisation of the country.

In February 1952, Matyas Rakosi, Secretary-General of the Workers’ Party and President of the Council in Hungary, outlines the strategy pursued by the Communist forces so that they may seize power in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Workers march past the Stalin monument during the May Day celebrations in Budapest in 1955.

The monumental statue of Stalin in Budapest was destroyed on 23 October 1956, at the very beginning of the Hungarian uprising of 1956. On that day, a large student and worker demonstration against the communist regime and Soviet influence degenerated into riots.

On 23 October 1956, during the Hungarian uprising, the monumental bronze statue of Stalin, created by Hungarian sculptor Sándor Mikus and unveiled in December 1951 in honour of Joseph Stalin's 70th birthday, is toppled and cut into pieces. The head of the statue then ends up on the ground at the intersection of Grand Boulevard and Rákóczi Avenue in Budapest.

On 25 October 1959, the US President, Dwight Eisenhower, strongly condemns the intervention of Soviet troops in Hungary to curb the revolt in Budapest.

On 26 October 1956, in Hanover, the German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, gives an address in which he deplores the tragic events in Hungary and denounces Moscow’s policy of repression.

On 26 October 1956, the French daily newspaper Le Monde draws attention to the power struggles within the Hungarian Government.

On 26 October 1956, the Dutch daily newspaper Het Parool summarises the rebellious and anti-establishment movements in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

On 27 October 1956, André de Staercke, Permanent Representative of Belgium to the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), drafts a confidential note on the political situation in Hungary.

On 27 October 1956, the Italian daily newspaper Il nuovo Corriere della Sera sets out the reasons for the popular uprising in Hungary and expresses concern at the political future of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

On 30 October 1956, the Soviet Government defines the principles underpinning its policies of development and cooperation with the other Socialist States and justifies sending Soviet troops into Hungary to restore order.

On 30 October 1956, Soviet tanks leave Budapest, only to return a week later to crush the Hungarian uprising by force.

On 31 October 1956, Soviet tanks left Budapest, only to return a week later to violently suppress the Hungarian uprising. In the photo, the Hungarian population watches the “temporary” withdrawal of tanks travelling along Teréz Boulevard (formerly Lenin Boulevard).

‘This is a purely Hungarian matter’. In November 1956, the international community is powerless to tackle the Soviet military intervention in Hungary.

On 1 November 1956, the French newspaper France Observateur prints an article which had been published by Pietro Nenni in the 26 October edition of the Italian newspaper Avanti and which was to create a sensation in Italy.

On 3 November 1956, Jean Paul-Boncour, French Ambassador to Budapest, sends the text of a verbal note, which was handed over by the Hungarian Foreign Minister on the night of 2 to 3 November, to Christian Pineau, French Foreign Minister.

On 4 November 1956, the US President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, sends a message to Nikolai Bulganin, President of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, calling on the USSR to withdraw its troops from Budapest.

On 7 November 1956, Nikolai Bulganin, President of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, sends a letter to the US President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, refuting the US allegations concerning Soviet policy in Hungary.

On 4 November 1956, the United Nations General Assembly deplores the Soviet military intervention in Hungary. The resolution, adopted by 50 votes, is rejected by Albania, Bulgaria, Byelorussia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union and Ukraine.

On 4 November 1956, the Soviet ambassador in Budapest, Yuri Andropov, sent a telegram to the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which he reported on the situation in the Hungarian capital following the intervention of Soviet troops.

On 5 November 1956, the Italian Communist daily newspaper L’Unità supports the Soviet intervention in Hungary to end the uprising and restore power to the Communist Party.

On 5 November 1956, the German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung describes the intervention of Soviet troops in Budapest during the night.

On 5 November 1956, the Luxembourg daily newspaper Luxemburger Wort deplores both Moscow’s use of force in Hungary and the apathy of the West.

On 5 November 1956, the Italian Communist daily newspaper L’Unità welcomes the intervention of Soviet military forces in Hungary and highlights the role played by the workers’ councils in crushing the revolt.

On 6 November 1956, in an address to the Italian Parliament, the Foreign Minister Gaetano Martino condemns Soviet military intervention in Hungary and calls on Moscow to abandon its repressive policy.

On 6 November 1956, the French newspaper La Croix considers the attitude of the Soviet press since the beginning of the Hungarian uprising. According to Pravda, the Russians were initially surprised by the scale of the revolution, which forced them to make a strategic withdrawal. They made good use of this rest period to prepare for the counter-attack and took advantage of the international situation to deal the final blow to the Hungarian uprising with impunity.

On 6 November 1956, the French daily newspaper Le Monde strongly condemns the intervention of Soviet military forces to control the Hungarian uprising and expresses concern at a possible revival of the Cold War between the East and West.

On 23 October 1956, the population of Budapest rises up against the Stalinist regime led by Ernő Gerő and Soviet domination, demanding democratic freedoms and reforms. The movement, initially peaceful, turns into a national uprising. The photo shows a large crowd demonstrating on József Boulevard in Budapest. In early November, the USSR sends an army of 200,000 soldiers and 2,000 tanks to violently suppress the uprising, putting an end to the Hungarian revolution in bloodshed.

During the Hungarian uprising in 1956, a column of Soviet armoured vehicles attacked by Hungarian insurgents is on fire at the intersection of Rákóczi Avenue and Akácfa Street in Budapest. Residents take shelter and run along a burning BTR-152 troop carrier.

Budapest, October 1956: civilian fighters take part in the uprising against the communist regime. During the Hungarian uprising of 1956, the streets of Budapest became the scene of demonstrations and fighting against Soviet oppression, symbolising the struggle for national freedom.

In 1956, during the Hungarian uprising, the buildings at numbers 62, 64 and 66 on József Boulevard in Budapest were severely damaged.

Two Soviet ISU-152 self-propelled guns and a T-34/85 battle tank (in the background) destroyed on József Boulevard, near Corvin (Kisfaludy) Street, during the Hungarian uprising of 1956.

On his return from Budapest in November 1956, a journalist gives an account of the violence of the battles in the Hungarian capital which took place following an uprising by part of the population and the army against the Communist regime.

In November 1956, the people of West Berlin demonstrate against Soviet intervention in Hungary.

At the conference held in Rome from 25 to 28 March 1987 to mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), Robert Rothschild, former Principal Private Secretary to Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Foreign Minister, outlines the circumstances in which Spaak learned of the Soviet military intervention in Hungary in November 1956.

At times, demonstrations in Western Europe against Soviet intervention in Hungary turn violent. This is the case on 7 November 1956 in Paris when several thousand students ransack and set fire to the headquarters of the French Communist Party (PCF). The clashes leave one person dead and 70 injured. In Brussels, it is students from Louvain University who take to the streets.

On 8 November 1956, following the events in Hungary, the German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, makes a government statement on the political situation in the world.

On 15 November 1956, the Dutch daily newspaper Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant analyses the repercussions of the Hungarian uprising on the political leaders and the general public in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

On 16 November 1956, Maurice Dejean, French Ambassador to the USSR, sends to Christian Pineau, French Foreign Minster, a letter in which he describes the reactions in Moscow to the support shown by the French and Chinese Communist Parties on the day after the Soviet invasion of Hungary.

In November 1956, after the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian uprising, around 200,000 people began fleeing Hungary. The Netherlands took in nearly 3,000 of them. The photo shows their arrival at the station on a humanitarian train chartered by the Red Cross.

On 27 November 1956, in an interview with the West Berlin radio station RIAS (Radio in the American Sector), Theodor Oberländer, the West German Minister for Refugees, describes the measures introduced by his Government to accommodate the Hungarian refugees fleeing Soviet repression.

In November 1956, Soviet military intervention in Hungary ensures that ‘law and order are restored once again’; however, it also reveals the true political objectives of the leaders in Moscow.

On 8 December 1956, the Provisional Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party outlines the background to the events of 23 October and lays down the future tasks incumbent upon the Party.

‘The only survivor speaks out … “Not today, thank you!”’ In December 1956, Opland, Dutch cartoonist, deplores the impotence of the international community in the face of Soviet intervention in Hungary.

From 1 to 4 January 1957, representatives of Communist and Workers’ Parties and of the Governments of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Soviet Union meet in Budapest to discuss international current affairs as well as the implications of the October 1956 Hungarian Uprising.

In his memoirs, Nikita Khrushchev, former First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, reveals his personal view of the 1956 Hungarian uprising and of the Soviet military intervention.

In his memoirs, Bruno Kreisky, Secretary in the Federal Chancellery of Austria from 1953 to 1959, discusses the Hungarian uprising and Austria’s role in the events of autumn 1956.