16th June 1958: Execution of Imre Nagy, Hungarian communist politician скачать в хорошем качестве

16th June 1958: Execution of Imre Nagy, Hungarian communist politician

Nagy had been sacked from his position as Chairman of the Council of Ministers in April 1955 due to favouring what was referred to as a ‘New Course’ in socialism. Although his moderate reforms were met with hostility from the USSR, they garnered significant support within Hungary where opposition to the hard-line government of Mátyás Rákosi had grown since the death of Stalin in 1953. Nagy’s popular support led to him being appointed Prime Minister on 24 October 1956, the day after the Hungarian Uprising began. After a week of violence, Nagy recognised the crowd’s desire for political change. Despite being an ardent Marxist he began moves towards introducing a multiparty political system and, on 1 November, announced Hungary’s withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and its status as a neutral country. This proved too much for Khrushchev in the USSR, who moved his troops into Budapest and seized control of most of the city by the 8 November. Nagy took refuge in the Yugoslavian embassy, but was arrested after being given false promises of safe passage to leave Hungary on 22 November. He, and other leading members of the deposed government, were imprisoned in Romania until 1958 when they were returned to Hungary for trial. Nagy was found guilty of treason in a secret trial and executed by hanging. News of his trial and execution were only made public after the sentence had been carried out. He was buried, face-down and with barbed wire tied around his hands and feet, in Budapest, but was reburied after the fall of communism in 1989.