The main provincial centres of the 1956 revolution: Győr and Miskolc

Abstract

Drawing on the author's extensive research into the 1956 revolution outside Budapest, this article provides an account of developments in two of the main provincial centres of Hungary. Each in their own way played an important part in the unfolding of the revolution and the article highlights the similarities and differences between the experiences of each city and its county area. It demonstrates the extensive and deep-rooted nature of the revolutionary movement across Hungarian society, involving a wide cross-section of local society in both areas.

Notes

¹Grósz was to be the last leader of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party before the change of system in 1989 – 1990.

²The organisational independence of the ÁVH had ceased formally in 1953, since when it was under the Interior Ministry. Interior Ministry divisions were set up in the counties and Budapest and Interior Ministry departments in towns and Budapest districts, whose commanders oversaw the local police, state security, border guards, prison guards, civil defence and the fire service.

³Several key workers in the ironworks were among the members of the county workers' council deported to Transcarpathia, which dampened the militancy of their associates.